I thought it might be fun to look back and see what was the worst round I’ve played since I began keeping APBA Golf statistics. Amazingly, it was with someone who currently has among the best short games in all of golf!
It happened during the fourth round of my 2019 U.S. Open replay at Seaside (Pebble Beach). Cameron Smith shot 13 over par for an 84. (Seaside is normally a par 72, but for the US Open that year hole #2 was changed from a par 5 to a par 4.) Here’s his scorecard along with those in his group:
Note that he had four 3-putts (highlighted in yellow) and three double-bogeys (highlighted in light red). He also suffered two penalty strokes.
The conditions were awful that day with blustery winds and a wet course. But it didn’t seem to affect Charles Howell III, who managed to eke out a par.
Smith’s 2019 card is not bad when it comes to putting, but he hit a lot of drives wildly that season. In the “W” column, he has seven PRN’s in the twenties and six in the teens. Somewhat surprisingly, he had 50% Fairways and 56% Greens in Regulation in that forgettable round.
But it was the 37 putts that did him in. I played far too aggressively with him on the green. In retrospect, I should have played it safe for anything over 19 feet. As you can see from his card, he didn’t make many putts beyond that distance that year.
Lesson learned. Both Cameron Smith and I have come a long way since 2019. Unfortunately, playing APBA Golf isn’t nearly so remunerative.