The one that got away and your best bogey

[David Davis]

Recovery shots, ah yes...if it weren't for recovery shots I'd have no game at all. The most fun can be in the brilliant recovery or even the brilliant recovery that almost made it. Two personal examples:

The one that got away:

Double crossing my tee shot deep into the trees and knee deep rough. Seeing a slot directly to the flag requiring a low line drive with a 100 yard carry then run out of about 60 yds. But hitting from a down hill lie in the rough. Choosing between a choke down 5 or 6 iron, going for the 6 and almost pulling it off threading the needle between all the trees including those right in front of me that made trusting my swing imperative and the bloody ball catches the sole branch, the last one just before escaping the forest and falls stymied behind a tree in the deep grass. Fun, yes, it was so exciting to almost pull of this miracle shot, painful to miss, yes, walked away with a 9 in the end. Stupid, maybe, but we also saw Kevin Na make 15. I could of walked back to the tee to hit 3 I guess, I should of, but I was not and still am not that smart as deep down I always believe I can pull it off. Course management would say otherwise in this case. Great fun way to learn a lesson however the only shot of the day that people are still talking about.

My best bogey:

Yes I've had many, far to many great bogeys BUT my best bogey ever was on our par 5 11th hole. Pulled my drive, gone, not even worth going to search. Pulled the provisional to the left side of the fairway but long and the ball ended in a bush unplayable. I took a drop and hit my hybrid from 200 meters (about 220 yds) to an uphill blind pin position where the green is literally 10 paces wide, no idea how I managed to get the ball so close (it was blind) but it had to hit the upslope right above the deep pot bunker, in front of the pin and raised green just right to stop the ball on the green. Sunk a downhill breaking put from 15 ft for bogey. Amen! The holes is about 500 yds with an elevated tee that plays down into a bit of a valley then goes back up hill to a sliver of a green.

Anyone else?

[Jason Topp]

David - Ran has asked that threads such as this one be marked "OT" so that he can delete non architecture threads when he has a chance to do so. 

My favorite bogeys have been after hitting a ball out of bounds.

[Matthew Petersen]

My favorite bogeys have been after hitting a ball out of bounds.

That's how I made my favorite par.

Playing a par 4 with about 140 in I missed my approach/second shot a little right of the green and it kicked hard off a side slope and down under a fence out of bounds. I tried the shot again, landed it a few steps behind the hole and the ball came back off the slope, into the hole, par 4.

[David Davis]

Jason, thanks I had no idea what OT stood for.

What does it mean? Off Topic or something like that?

[Matthew Rose]

Twice in tournaments. Holed out a bunker shot for a bogey once, and also made about a 70 foot putt for one. Neither involved penalty shots, just poor play all around prior to said miracles.

[Garland Bayley]

Our club championship is played from the blue tees. Most play on the course is from the white tees. It is always a struggle to remember to tee it up from the blue. The problem is compounded by the fact that the back nine added 40 years after the front nine is across the road, so you have kind of a mental breather between nines. Two years I have had the honor going into the back nine, and teed it up by mistake from the whites. There is a hill crest that when crossed on the drive makes the green eminently reachable in two. I have crossed that crest three times in ten years. Two of those have been adreneline assisted after having already hit from the whites, and now hitting three from the tee in the tournament. The other was more mundane having been hit from the whites in casual play. The best bogey as you may suspect by now is after having hit three from the blue tees last summer at the club championship.

EDIT: I suppose the one that got away would be the double bogey I made the first time I played the wrong tee. Somehow the approach from the downhill lie hooked instead of fading like expected.

[Kenny Baer]

Are you playing alone? How do your playing partners, who I assume are playing the same tee (club championship), do not say anything to you?

[Jason Topp]

Jason, thanks I had no idea what OT stood for.

What does it mean? Off Topic or something like that?

OT is off topic.  I think they go through and delete those threads periodically to save server space.  The label makes the task easier. It is also nice for people that only want to read architecture threads (not me) because it allows them to skip the thread.

[Michael Tamburrini]

I have made a par at a par 3 having lost my first ball...

Playing at the Westerwood in Cumbernauld I was on the 15th - a nice little par 3 with pond, waterfall, cliffs etc.  My first shot went left - way left.  Into trees and forrestry which has seldom been explored.  My provisional pitched at the side of the green, kicked in and rolled neatly into the hole.

I've still never had a hole in one though. 

[Dan Kelly]

It is also nice for people that only want to read architecture threads (not me) because it allows them to skip the thread.

And, of course, the other way around.

[Tim Gavrich]

The One That Got Away happend about a month and a half ago in a US Public Links qualifier. Eleventh hole at the Founders Course (P.B. Dye) at St. James Plantation. Short par 5 with a pond right of the green. I maul a drive and have about 215 in. I push a 7 wood what I think is just left of the green. I note a few houses in that general direction but my partners, who played a practice round, assure me I'm in bounds. Well, turns out I'm out of bounds by a foot. I'm furious, go back to my previous spot and hit another 7 wood--this one just about perfect--that ends up 10 feet short of the hole. I four-putt.

Best Bogey was in the first round of the Doral Publix Junior Championship about seven years ago. I'm playing the Blue Monster and I arrive on the tee of the par five 10th, where the wind is howling into my face. I tee up a 3 wood to play for the fat of the fairway and yank it dead right, OB. I tee up another one and hit it down the fairway. I then hit another 3 wood that just carries a corner of the big lake the hole plays around. I'm left with about 145, wind howling straight toward the water. I decide to chip a 6 iron and hit it to three inches.

Goodness knows I've made a lot of saves for bogey. I had a few rounds in college where I must have had four or five one-putt bogeys in 18 holes.

[Paul Jones]

Ironic part is that the shot you hit into trouble is usually the shot needed to get out of trouble.

[Matthew Petersen]

Maybe the most frustrating experience on the golf course is when you try to do the "right" thing and then screw it up.

Recent examples from my ever-expanding oevre:

#2 at WeKoPa Saguaro. Playing into a bit of a breeze, I didn't like the option of hitting driver. Thought I could bunt a little 3 wood into the fairwat and have a nice wedge in. Instead popped up the 3 wood short and right and in the desert. Certainly could have hit driver into a cactus just as easily.

#18 at TPC Scottsdale Champions course. Had a made a couple messes by hitting into trouble and not just taking my medicine on #11 and #17. So I drove into a fairway bunker down the right side and thought ... maybe I could get 5 iron over the lip but with water left and trouble right, the prudent play would just be to get the ball out and try to get up and down. And I got the ball out all right ... pulled hard into the lake. 

[Bill_McBride]

Best recent bogey was on our par-4 15th, 420 into the prevailing wind with a burn right in front of the green, pond then creek right and red staked woods left.   Pull hook the tee shot into hazard left, drop behind trees with long waste bunker in front.  Hook a hybrid under and around trees and over bunker to 100 yards.  Gap wedge to 20', can the putt.  Ho hum bogey.  

[Garland Bayley]

The one that got away. A year ago in the club championship I hit into the tree left of the 6th fairway. Chose to hit a pitching wedge as high as possible to clear tree tops on an aggressive line. Apparently the ball never came down from the trees and was lost so I went back and hit a safe shot back to the fairway, hit it close and made the putt for double bogey. A par that got away, because I made a bad choice for my second. My best birdie (instead of best bogey) was hit into the same trees this year. Chip out. Hole a 5 iron from about 170 yards.

I also continued my tradition of hitting from the wrong tees. This year I did it from #3 tee, and made double bogey, missing the putt for bogey.

[David Davis]

Gayland, to me it's so strange that none of your playing partners stop you from hitting from the wrong tees or did they actually tee off first...or perhaps you guys have some kind of mandatory drink ruling for those types of mistakes, like not driving it past the ladies tees, therefore everyone remains silent.

[Garland Bayley]

Gayland, to me it's so strange that none of your playing partners stop you from hitting from the wrong tees or did they actually tee off first...or perhaps you guys have some kind of mandatory drink ruling for those types of mistakes, like not driving it past the ladies tees, therefore everyone remains silent.

I am almost always the fastest player. In the threesome I played with, I walked, the other two rode. I arrive at the tee before they do, and tee off before they arrive.

My clubs are right in front of me in my push cart. Theirs are behind them at the back of the cart. When leaving the green, they have to walk to the back of the cart to put any clubs they brought to the green away. When arriving at the tee, they have to walk to the back of the cart to get their next club. Walking often gives a more direct route to the next tee than riding.

So what it amounts to is that they arrive just in time to see me walk off the wrong tee.


EDIT. No worries though. Next year I will make sure and play the senior division, and not have the problem. I qualified as a senior this year, but didn't play that division in hopes of being flighted into a group in the open division that would give me more of a chance. No flights in seniors.

[Gene Greco]

Best Bogey?

Mike Hendren


One that got away?

A porcelain crown about 30 years ago.