Another round into 2008 and again no big breakthroughs in my ongoing chase to go below 80 on the links.

This this time out we played Cypress Head in Port Orange, Florida, the site of my personal best 85 in September '07. My strategy for thhis round involved using a starter set of Ram 3,5,7 and 9 XS-1000 irons, thereby leaving me more room in my bag to carry some extra fairway woods and wedges. for the task at hand I brought along a Prosimmon 2-wood, my Top-Flite 3 and 5 woods and a Golfsmith 7 wood to supplement my Callaway FT3 driver. With so much water adjoining the fairways at Cypress Head, and accuracy off the tee at a premium, I felt like it would be smart to hit some 2 and 3 wood tee shots. I also carried my current favorite "Line-up 305R" putter.

Actually, the plan was working quite well, although I don't think that I was en route to a below-80 round, I was playing fairly good, for me, even bogey golf. A pair of snowmen, however, did me. Ironically, one was on the difficult, long, over-the-water, par 4 14th. After staring down the lake and putting my drive in decent position in the fairway, I proceeded to pull the Persimmon 2 wood from my bag, determined to hit the long approach shot to the green and make a run at a decent round. What I actually did, of course, was badly top my second shot, hopping it about 75 yards back toward the water. Thankfully it stopped just short.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I pulled my 7 iron out, resigning myself to the fact that I could still save a bogey if I made a decent shot here. Rushing the shot, as I often do after a dissapointing effort, I yanked the 7 iron hard left into the lake. After a double bogey on 15 (following a perfect tee shot with my 2 wood) I birdied the short par 3 #16, puting myself back on target for a sub 90 round heading to the final two holes, both par 5's. On 17 I hit a long drive down the left side of the fairway, which parallels water. One big, slightly left bounce, and I was wet again. A harrowing, train wreck of an approach to the green left me scrambling for another 8. On 18 my drive went right . . . . Right into the woods!

I dropped a ball, hit a good second shot and a short approach to about 10 feet in front of the green. Then I rolled in the chip shot with my 9 iron to finish with a 92.

All in all I guess it's hard to be too disappointed with that score considering that I tallied 7 penalty strokes on the day! Also, using my ugly little Line-up putter , a putted only 24 times for the round, a new personal low, so I also had that to hang my hopes on. But it's hard to be really satisfied after a round in which half the time it came easily , and the other half I felt like I'd never seen a golf club in my life.