A Birthday 88 at Reserve Run
Every year around my birthday, my buddy Ray and I go play golf. It doesn’t matter much where, only that we go. This year the pick was Reserve Run in Poland, Ohio, a course neither of us had ever played. New course, no local knowledge, just show up and see what it gives you.
What it gave me was one of the stranger 88s I’ve ever signed for.
A Front Nine That Looks Worse Than It Was
Forty-nine on the front. On paper that’s a blow-up. In reality it was three holes.
Through six I was hanging around, nothing pretty but nothing that ran away from me. Then 7, 8, and 9 happened back to back. A drive in the wrong place, a penalty, then another, and a couple of swings I’d like to have over. The card came out to a 7 and two 6s to close the nine, and just like that the front was 49.
What stuck with me walking off 9 wasn’t the number. It was how few actual mistakes built it. Take the worst swing out of each of those three holes and I’m shooting something completely different. All the damage landed on three holes instead of spreading itself across the round.
Same Swing, Better Math
I made the turn telling myself the back was a clean sheet, and it mostly played like one.
Reserve Run — Mens Blue
+17| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Out |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Par | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 35 |
| Score | 6 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 49 |
| Hole | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | In |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Par | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 36 |
| Score | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 39 |
Thirty-nine coming in, with a birdie on 13 and a stretch where I genuinely had a few putts to drop for more. They burned the edge or pulled up a roll short, the kind that lip out on a course you’ve never read. A couple of those fall and the back is in the low-to-mid 30s.
The swing didn’t change between nines. The mistakes just stopped clustering. That’s the honest read on the day: I played close to the same golf for eighteen holes, and the scorecard split into a bad nine and a good one because of where three bad holes happened to land.
The fairway number is ugly and the penalty count was high, both of which track with a first look at a course where I didn’t know where the trouble was. Six greens and 37 putts on an unfamiliar set of greens, with a back nine that could have been lower, is something I’ll take on a birthday.
Why We Keep Doing This
Ray and I have played a lot of golf over the years, and the birthday round is the one that stays on the calendar no matter what else is going on. I couldn’t tell you what either of us shot last year, but I remember the round.
Reserve Run was a good one to add to the list. A back nine I’d play again tomorrow, the right person across the cart, and an 88 that goes in the book at 14.1.
