Poston Butte (Florence, AZ) - 4/21/13

I was very excited heading into this round, however it didn’t end that way at all! When my father-in-law called me asking if I wanted to play Poston Butte I quickly said YES! I had heard many good things about this course from a handful of different people. It’s a Troon course so right there you know it’s going to be in great shape and play pretty tough! I have only played one other Troon course, Ocotillo, and that’s no easy task. So I assumed this would be about the same.

It’s a desert style course that requires a lot of target type shots. The conditions were great! The fairways were like hitting off a green while the rough was like hitting off a normal fairway at a not so nice course. If you happen to land outside the rough you would find yourself hitting from dirt that was very soft and easy to hit from. Yes I know this because it happened to me often! If you were outside of that then you were screwed and either in some deep desert or someone’s backyard! There were lots of sand traps that were like hitting off a beach. It’s so nice to hit from a well groomed sand trap! As for the greens, well they were like putting on glass! They were very fast and very rarely did you have a straight putt! No two holes were even close to being the same making the overall layout great!

As for my round, well it was not pretty! It was one of the worst rounds I have played in a very long time. I was hitting decent off the tee and making some good second shots. However it was my short game that killed me. This is normally the strongest part of my game so the fact that I couldn’t chip or read a put was very frustrating! Normally if I’m hitting my driver or irons bad I will know what needs to be adjusted, however I had no answers to my short game. It was just missing! I played the first 12 holes 19 over (yes that’s not a typo!) however ended strong by going only 2 over in my last 6 (par, par, bogey, bogey, par, par). It was the 5 double bogies and 2 triples that killed me! I will save you the time of having to do the math because it might take a while. I shot a 93! But hey at least I finished strong!

Without question my favorite hole on the course was the Par 3 17^th (picture below). This hole plays anywhere from 117 to 169 depending on the tee box. Its 100% surrounded by water and has a 2 tier green. It was also probably the best hole I played all day. It was playing about 135 yards from the white tees. I used my PW and stuck it about 10 feet out. The putt for birdie had some serious break to it and I ended up missing it left by only an inch or two. Based on how I was playing all day I was very happy with my Par!

So would I play this course again? YES! I want my revenge!

It was a long drive so the "kids" needed to be seated safely!

#4, 170 yard Par 3 (I shot Par)



#17, 135 yard Par 3 (I shot Par)

Scorecard confirming my 93, but more important showing my father-in-law's 85!!

As much as I wanted to burn the evidence from this round and never speak about it again, I just couldn’t. Bad rounds are going to happen and probably happen more so then good rounds (I hope not). I normally don’t keep the final group scorecard, however I want to this time because of the round my father-in-law had. This was the best I have ever seen him play! He worked all of us! I told him to enjoy the moment because it won’t happen again!

So up next will be a tournament this Saturday (May 11^th) at McCormick Ranch in Scottsdale. We play in this every year as it’s for the Coronado High School Athletic program. It should be a good time!