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Hi, everyone. Happy Caturday!

I’ve been traveling today. I’m doing an unusual drop-in on the weekend just to share what Z reminded me is the last hole of the round. I wanted to make sure I got on the score card. Also, I’ll be off Monday so I won’t see you until Tuesday.

I got another high scoring 5. (Woo Hoo!)

Wordle 840 5/6*

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This 18th hole is a 584yd par 5 monster, heavily cratered all down both flanks. My strategy was simply to shoot straight, hit for distance, and hope to get on in 3 to set up for a possible Birde.

https://www.royalcountydown.org/championship_18

Incessant breezes and bouts of light rain have been factors all along, but no rain today, and the breeze had swung ‘round to come in more from the north, which put it directly across the line to the hole.

Off the tee with a strong drive, the breeze shaded me off to the left short of the trio of bunkers halfway along, and it came to rest at the left edge of the fairway. Guessing that there remained some 300yd to the pin, I picked a 3 iron to combat the breeze having too much influence on my aim. Keeping low also meant cutting distance, but I got enough of it to give me hope that I might make the green on my 3rd stroke. Shooting from the middle of the fairway, now, with a good 150yd to the hole, I risked getting too much with a 5 iron, but felt it was the right choice to guarantee the distance. Taking a shade off the stroke, it still carried as well as I’d hoped, and dropped onto the rear of the green coming to rest beyond the flag, and to the left.

This set up a slightly downhill putt with a tendency to break left that decreased approaching the hole. Not a long putt, shy of 20ft, but a miss would mean continuing to roll a long way downhill, well past the cup. I had to sink this for a Birdie, or face an even more difficult second putt from well downhill, with that ascent making the break more of a factor.

I sent the ball to the high side of the cup with a crisp stroke and its initially straight path bent increasingly leftward as the gap closed to the pin. Within the last few feet of the cup, the speed of the ball still sustained by the slope, the arc of its course seeming too sharp to escape crossing in front of the hole, the decreasing break straightened its approach, and the ball only just dropped over the rim into the cup as it tried to scoot past on the left.

With 4 strokes on 18, then, I pick up one to close out the round with a 5 under par 66. A Championship performance well-earned here at this very challenging Royal County Down course.

I proceeded to join the rest of our party in the Murlough Room for a closing round of fine dining, and a glass of the local finest.

Wordle 841 4/6

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