Days until Goodboys Invitational weekend: 3
Location: Green Meadow Golf Club
Score: 52 + 49 = 101
Handicap: 24.2 / Trend: 23.8 (no change)

Great to be back in New England and playing golf on the same kind of courses I can expect to play this weekend at the Goodboys Invitational. While golf in Arizona is the same game and useful in crafting one’s swing, it is primarily around the greens where the difference lies: in the Valley of the Sun the greens are typically flatter and rocket-fast, and there’s not the kind of swales and rough around the greens that you see around these parts. As a result, and I guess it is to be expected, that my first prep round this week would feature a few struggles around the green. While I knew I’d probably make a few more putts than the 32 I’d been averaging to date, 41 putts is still completely unacceptable. Seven holes with three putts and one hole with – gasp! – four putts.

To be truthful, it wasn’t just the putter to blame here: my game from 110 yards in was pretty abysmal. I can think of three 9-irons that either never hit the green or left me putts from a gazillion feet away. I can think of several chips from just off the green that went completely awry. Taken together, when you can’t put it relatively close to the pin you’re putting way too much pressure on your putting game.

The good thing is that these are relatively easy fixes, and I could feel myself starting to get more comfortable around the greens as the round went on. So all is OK: had I made, say, six fewer putts, that’s a mid-90s score. One or two shots that didn’t get away from me and I’m looking at, say, a 92 or 93 that would be perfectly acceptable. And even though I only marked three ‘X’s indicating fairways hits all day, there were more than a few holes where I was just off the fairway, so I drove the ball pretty well. As a final tune-up, I’m still in a good spot heading into Goodboys Invitational weekend.

The next time I tee it up for a full round, the scores will really count.