Wooden Sticks was the big winner

After an early morning rise (4:00 Am), Toast, Matt and I were off to play what turned out to be one of the most enjoyable courses ever. Wooden Sticks in North Toronto. Just standing on the first tee before breakfast looking out at the Church Peu (SP?) Bunkers I knew we were in for a special round. We could hardly wait to get this round under way.

After some breakfast, a few practice shots at the range, and some warm up putting we were on our way to the 5th hole for the shotgun start. There was a tourny in the afternoon, so to provide the most amount of public play there was a full 144 golfer shotgun. No big deal, but it did cause a 6 hour round. But the excitement of playing this course was to much for me and I didn't really care about the wait. Even driving out to the 5th hole I was amazed by the beauty of the hole we drove by, especially te augusta replicas, I recognized these ones instantly.

I'm not going to try and make a huge desctription of this course, see Now On the Tee for that, Matt did a great job, worthy of a Golf Digest.

Heres how my round went. I started off very poorly. Dropping a triple boogie on the first and a double boogie on the second hole. But then I started to turn it around. Made a few pars in a row. There was a 230 yard par 3 where I really started to turn things around. Being the first off the tee, I hit a perfect 3 iron that bounced just on front of the green and rolled almost all the way to the back of this massive green. I hit a nice lag putt to about 3 feet and drained the second for a solid par.

I think i had one more boogie on the next hole and pared out the rest of the front.

Starting on the 10th tee I actually started to play much better. The 10th had a fairway that had to be atleast 150 yards wide, no joke. On the tee we were joking what a loser you would have to be to miss this fairway. Cal, oops I mean Toast and Matt both hit very safe shots, which i commented on. Then I stepped up and managed to hit my ball even further left and long to miss the fairway, yes, I'm a loser. I ended up 3 putting for a boogie.

The 11th was a tough par 3, the Postage Stamp at troon. I hit a beautiful 3/4 PW to about 15 feet left of the pin and procedeed to drain the putt for birdie, first of the day for me. On the next holoe i boogied and followed that up with a birdie on the long 508 yard par 5. I hit a monster drive on this hole leaving myself only 187 yards to the pin.

The next hole I remember was the #17 from St. Andrews, the Road hole. I hit one of my best shots of the day on this hole. I think this hole was 480 down wind par 4. Very tough. I blasted a huge drive to 200 yards, but I was way left in the short fescue. Luckly my ball was sitting up a little so I was able to still attack the pin. From my angle the pin was sitting right behind a trecherous pot bunker, I decided to attack anyways. With a 5 iron in hand i put a perfect swing on it. While in the air I yell "Whatch how freaking good this is gonna be." To the laughter of Toast and Cal, the ball soared just over the bunker landing on the green, but rolling just off. I hit a touch chip to about 2 feet and drained the putt for par. One of the best pars of my life.

Of course I have to mention #17 which was a replica from the TPC Sawgrass. Very intimidating, but actually not that hard. Funny thing is, everyone in our group hit the green and made par. I was the closest to going in the water. I really attacked the pin and went slightly long stopping the ball about a foot away from going over the back. Made a very nice chip to a foot and tapped in for par.

The 18th was a replica of 18 at St. Andrews. Again faced with the largest fairway ever (joined with number 10) I blast a deep long drive, way left. From here I hit a 9 iron from 147 to about 8 feet. Just missed the birdie putt, made par, and I was in with 39. Extremely happy with this.

The next best hightlight was playing #12 and #13 from augusta as our last holes of the. The three of us were all playing matches and just happened to work out that I was 2 up on matt and 2 down to toast going into these holes. The par 185 yard #3 (12 augusta) was a very difficult shot. I was hitting my irons perfectly so I actually thought I could get a nice one in there. Hit a beautiful 6 iron to about 8 feet just right of the pin. Matt had missed his par putt leaving me 2 putts to close him out. Cal missed his birdie putt giving me a chance to extend the match. I read the line perfectly, hit a nice putt, and just missed leaving the ball leaning on the edge of the cup. Oh well, atleast I beat Matt.

The last hole was a beauty. It looked exactly like the #13 at augusta, scoreboard and all. I tried to cream a drive and hit it out of bounds left. After Matt and Cal hit little baby drives, I stepped up to hit my third. I blasted this one for my longest of the day coming to rest only 57 yards infront of both of Matt and Cal, fuck, i mean toast. With a chance of still making par, i hit a safe 5 iron from 200, but found myself at the very back of the large green, neading to chip in for par. It wasn't meant to be, i hit a horrible chip and ended up 2 putting for a double bogey. That leaft me with a disapointing 44 on the front 9 to shoot 83 overall. Although this as a good score for never playing the course before and for the level of difficulty, I'm sure I could have easily been under 80, i was playing that well. Except for those first 2 holes, i was solid all day.

Anyways, the day was pefect, the golf was amazing, and I can't wait to go back again.