We teed off at 7:39 at Twin Oaks under a low sun and a flat grey sky, with Ian, Dav, and Russ. You stepped up on 1 and pushed the driver into the fairway bunker — not the start we drew up — but from 98 in the sand you spun a 50 to three feet and tapped in for birdie. That's a save you usually don't make; closer to a stroke and a half pulled out of a bad lie. A good way to begin.

The front nine is the round you'll want to keep. You laid up sensibly on 2 for an easy par, and then on 3, the par 3, you leaked the 6-iron a touch right of the green, took the 54 from five yards, and holed it. The chip-in. You flipped your phone out for that one, and I don't blame you. We made the turn through 4 with a routine par, and then on 5 you striped the driver, ran the 3-wood up near the green, and got up-and-down with the 54 again — that wedge was the club of the morning. Standing on the 6th tee at three under, I figured we were settling into something real.

Then 6 happened. The 4-iron off the tee came up short of where we wanted, the 6-iron from the rough drew left into more rough, and we couldn't quite save it from there. Bogey. On 7 the 7-iron caught the green from 166 — a good swing — but we three-putted from 34 feet, and the lead trimmed again. You held the ship steady through 8 and 9 — the drizzle had started by then, and you tagged a moment about it — and we walked off the front in 35, one under, slightly damp.

The turn is where the round shifted. On 10 the 4-iron found the green from 202, which is no small thing, but the long lag rolled out to eight feet and the comebacker slid by. Three-putt, bogey. On 11 you pushed the driver into a fairway bunker and stuck the pitching wedge to thirteen feet — another approach that gained us a real stroke — but the putt didn't fall. On 12 the 54 from 104 leaked into the rough, the chip didn't quite hold, and we missed the fifteen-footer for par. That was the one that stung most; a putt you make more often than not, and we left close to a full stroke out there.

Thirteen settled us briefly — a flushed driver 291 down the middle, a nervy wedge into the rough, and another up-and-down with the 54. Then 14 took it back: GIR from the rough, but 70 feet across the green, and the six-footer for bogey didn't fall either. Three-putt. Fifteen and 16 were honest pars, 17 a nice up-and-down from the rough with the 54 saving us again, and on 18 we found trouble. The drive leaked, the 5-iron from the bunker didn't catch enough, the hybrid from 211 wandered into the native area, and you pitched it on and two-putted for six. Bogey to close.

We walked off 18 at 12:19, three over, the sky still flat, the front nine memory still bright. Three birdies before the sixth tee — the wedge game carried that stretch, and on the day the 54 was worth its weight. The back wasn't the same round, but most of them aren't.