Breaking 100

In golf, one of the first signs of improvement is when you “break 100” — score lower than 100. Most recreational golfers don’t usually break 100, even though a score in the 90’s isn’t a “good” score by any objective measure, but I would consider it “good” for me. This has been one of my goals since I started playing golf a couple of years ago. So today I inched a little closer — I shot a 98 — but that score included two really bad holes where I took a double par. My “real” score was probably just under 105, which for me actually isn’t awful. One of those bad holes was the 9th, a par 3. I got my tee shot into the air but it faded right and landed in a greenside bunker. Shouldn’t have been a disaster, but then I got uptight and played bunker ball — skulling three bunker shots over the green and into the bunkers on the opposite side. Ugh! That rattled me, and on the next two holes I hit some really ugly shots, including a succession of embarrassing dribbled fairway woods and another bunker burner on the par 5 11th hole. But, to my credit, I calmed down and had three pars and three bogeys after that, including a very nice up and down out of the greenside bunker on 18. Slowly, slowly, I’m starting to hit some better shots and to put together decent holes. Now I have to avoid those mental meltdowns and put it all together.