Every time I start to think I know what I'm doing on a golf course, I get my comeuppance.

I played golf today for the seventh time in eight days, which is really enjoyable. And until today, I had been playing very well. I broke 80 for the first time in my life, and I had played the equivalent of 4 1/2 rounds -- 81 holes -- without a single double bogey. That's about as well as I can play, and since I've been parring between a third and half of the holes I play, my scores gave generally been down around 80.

I'm really happy to be playing that well, and it has especially been wonderful to have developed enough muscle memory that when I step on the first tee, I can hit the ball 220 yards right down the middle on my very first swing.

That's what happened today, and even though I didn't put my second shot on the green, I still managed to par the hole by rolling in a 20-foot putt.

[caption id="attachment_1037" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="A beautiful day"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110416_4.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1037" title="20110416_4" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110416_4-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

At that point, I took the wrong lesson from that hole. Instead of realizing I had hit two fairly crummy approach shots, I figured the putt was a good thing.

I parred the fourth hole as well, but I had to make a 15-foot putt there as well. So after six holes, I had just two pars and four bogeys.

Then things got really bad.

A bad approach shot on 7 -- a hole I usually par -- left me with a double bogey, and another bad approach shot on 8 gave me another double bogey. I recovered on the ninth hole and got a par, but that was the last good hole of the day and left me with a 44 on the front nine.

Things went all to hell on the back nine. I double-bogeyed 10 and bogeyed 11. I started out really strong on the par 5 12th hole, with two good shots that left me 50 feet from the green. But a crummy chip left me on the green 60 feet away, and then I <em>four-putted</em> for the first time in more than 10 years. Another double bogey.

At that point, I quit.

Thirteen over par for 12 holes.

But hey, the weather was beautiful.

I'll do better tomorrow.