There’s a saying in sports such as basketball or golf that the hoop/cup looks huge for a certain red-hot player. If you’re lucky, you’ve had those days where you feel like you just can’t miss. There are few better feelings in all of sports.

On this specific day of golf, however, I couldn’t have been further from that feeling.

Nick and I went to Vineyards Golf Course in Fredonia for our first round in almost two full weeks. We were both worried about rust on our drives and iron play. What we should have feared was the green.

We were both striking the ball with precision off the tee. Nick switched drivers and gained an average of 25-40 yards on his drives. It was almost surreal. Apparently there’s a good reason why some clubs cost $50 and others cost $500 (not that either of us have ever spent that much on a club).

It was a great day with the wedges, too. I had a great flop going and wasn’t doing my usual “push it right” thing that absolutely drives me insane. Between drives and approach shots, I was hitting greens in regulation more often than perhaps ever before.

After the first few holes (par, par, bogey, par), I told Nick that I felt supremely confident in sinking a birdie or two in this round. Do you know what you have to do to sink a birdie? Actually make the putt… which I didn’t do. Time after time I would be walking to the green, putter in hand, staring at a very makeable birdie putt. Each time I would miss.

Let me tell you: it wasn’t the fault of the course. These greens were stellar. I’ve been amazed by how far Vineyards has come in the past few seasons. This staff really knows what its doing. Warren, Scott and Co. obviously love the game and it shows in their work. I’ll say it again, if you haven’t checked this course out, you really should.

I wish I had an explanation for all of the missed putts. They were all pretty similar. Right off the club, they looked good. Halfway there, they looked good. One foot from the cup, they looked good. Then they’d go over the right or left edge of the cup and roll two feet passed. Sometimes the cup looks huge. Other times the cup seems to have a force field over it.

That said, I loved the rest of my game and left feeling in mid-season form despite not having played in two weeks. Nick took a few holes to warm up, but was as good as I’ve ever seen him after that. He even birdied No. 7 on one of the craziest sequences you’ll ever see. His drive was fine, into the middle of the fairway.

His second shot was low and headed right for the pond. I yelled “skip!!” and sure enough, the ball skips off the pond and lands on the right fringe. His chip slams into the pin and falls into the cup for the ugliest birdie of all time. Hey, it still counts as a birdie on the scorecard.

It’s hard to compare overall scores at Vineyards because it’s only a par 33 course, but I was pretty happy with shooting a 38-40-78. It’s at least a bar for the rest of the season.

I’d like to take a quick second to thank everyone who has expressed their appreciation for my work. I’m so happy people enjoy reading this and I love hearing from you. Please keep the emails coming to golfersdiary@gmail.com. Or just stop me while I’m walking the dogs, after church or while I’m delivering your mail, etc. like you’ve already been doing. It’s a lot of fun for me.

Until then, golf is great. Go get some.

Stefan Gestwicki is an OBSERVER contributing writer. Comments on this article can be sent to golfersdiary@gmail.com.