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| 18th at River Club | ||||||||||||||||
| Usually in the course of a round of golf in Myrtle Beach you are going to come across a hole that provides some lasting memory, perhaps a happy memory, perhaps not!
Play that hole several times and sometimes the memories can become the stuff of nightmares. For me that hole is the eighteenth at River Club. A par five that dog-legs left around a lake. Played sensibly it is not a difficult hole but common sense is not a trait normally associated with your average amateur golfer and I am no exception. I like a challenge and this hole offers one. Hit your tee shot across the water, a carry of around 220 yards off the white tees, and you have only a medium to long iron, again across water, to a shallow green backed by three huge bunkers, a classic risk reward hole. Previously when I have played this hole I have contrived any number of different ways of messing it up, usually ending up wet! However, before I tell you about my most recent attempt let me set the scene... |
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After a modest and in some places scrappy front nine, I sussed out a small fault in my swing that all of a sudden started paying dividends. After bogeying the tenth I then proceeded to reel off a string of five pars in a row, the feature of which was a series of long straight drives. However, golf being golf, it was not likely to continue indefinitely and sure enough a horrible weak hook off the sixteenth tee brought me crashing back to earth. A double bogey six later and my thoughts were already turning to the drive on the eighteenth! |
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The seventeenth is a par three so I did not get a chance to make amends with my driver, thus arriving at the eighteenth with my last effort fresh in my mind and my earlier exploits but a distant memory. At this point any sensible person would settle for playing the hole the conventional way in case the hook persists, but as we have already discussed I am a golfer and the word sensible doesn't often prevail. All I could see was that the tee was forward of it's normal position so the carry was probably not much more than 200 yards. |
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| overhead view of the 18th looking back from the green | ||||||||||||||||
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here we go Still, I endeavour to put all such negative thoughts out of my mind and set up purposefully to the ball. I pick a target, I concentrate on keeping my eye on the ball and start my swing. Amazingly the ball flies straight and true, indeed it is one of the best drives I've ever hit. It clears the water by miles and bounds down the fairway. My ball goes so far I start to worry that apologies are going to be in order as it chases the buggy of the group in front down the fairway. Thankfully they manage to outrun it and I don't think they knew a thing! |
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| view of the 18th green from the 'safe' side of the fairway | ||||||||||||||||
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part two To add to the pressure at this point I find Iris standing behind me with the camera at the ready. Fortunately she asks me to do a practice swing and takes a couple of pictures. Unfortunately, instead of then moving away she stays there holding the camera! I start my swing, waiting for the click any moment, and strike the ball. The second I hit it I start to think about the next shot out of the back bunker back towards the water! |
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part three You guessed, I chicken out making sure I take plenty of sand and getting the ball out onto the putting surface but twenty feet or so from the hole. finally |
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See you next time for another hole to remember. |
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