My first real round: 65 at Cooper Colony front 9

Vlad vs Golf officially begins. My first real round on a real golf course: the front 9 at Cooper Colony in Cooper City, South Florida, played from the red tees. I'm not proud. I'll take every advantage I can get.

It did not help.

The goal was simple: at least one par and 45 or better. I shot 65, with no pars. The season score after the first episode: Vlad 3, Golf 37.

The rules

Every episode is a fight between me and Golf, and both of us score points.

• Golf scores for every shank, chunk, top, whiff (sorry, "practice swing"), big slice or hook, lost ball, water ball, double bogey or worse, and every three-putt.
• Vlad scores for bogeys (1), pars (2), birdies (4), drivers in the fairway and long putts made. An eagle is 1000 points. Good luck with that.

My 3 points came from one bogey and two drives in the fairway. Golf's 37 came from everything else.

The course: Cooper Colony

Cooper Colony is one of the closest courses to me, and I had already played it before, so it was the obvious choice for the first episode. I also think it's about as beginner-friendly as a course gets:

• No tee times. You don't book anything. You show up and go play.
• The price. When we played, 9 holes with a cart cost $25 and 18 holes $35.
• Practice area. I spent a lot of time on the range here when I started. A bucket of about 30 to 40 balls is $5. There's also a putting green and a chipping area.
• Short holes. It's an executive course: a course with a total par well under the usual 72. From the regular tees the whole course is par 60. Most holes are par 3s, so there's a lot of short game and not much driver.

Short doesn't mean boring, though. Almost every hole has some kind of trap. There's a lot of water, like everywhere in Florida, and creeks often cut across the middle of a hole, so you have to carry them. There are sand bunkers on almost every hole. So it's a fairly easy course and still a real challenge.

I can't say if the greens are fast or slow, because I haven't played any other course to compare. No complaints about how it was kept.

Would I recommend it to beginners? 100%, especially if you've never played golf before. It's not too hard, but there are enough obstacles to get stuck, so you practice every kind of situation.

The round

We played on October 21, 2026, at 9 AM. The weather was a surprise: not hot, no rain, a light breeze, around 68°F (20°C). Just right. My wife Elena filmed, and the 9 holes took about an hour and a half.

From the red tees, the longer holes play as par 5s, so the front 9 is par 33 (and the whole course par 64):

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Total
Yards	320	110	310	115	100	320	140	130	145	1,690
Par	5	3	5	3	3	5	3	3	3	33
Vlad	10	6	8	8	5	11	8	5	4	65
To par	+5	+3	+3	+5	+2	+6	+5	+2	+1	+32

65 is bad even by my standards. I think the cameras and all the gear added pressure: my head was full of other things besides golf.

Hole 1: the first drive on a real tee

The first tee was nervous for two reasons. It was the first time I hit my new driver on a course: before that, only practice at home and on the range. And it was our first time filming on a course, so we worried about everything going right.

The driver went into a big hook, about 30 yards left. I also lost a ball in the water on this hole. 10 strokes on a par 5, on the hole the scorecard rates as the hardest on the course.

Hole 3: the driver wakes up

After the hook on hole 1, I was scared of the driver. On hole 3 it gave me one of the two best drives of my life, about 150 to 160 yards with roll and in the fairway. The hole still cost me 8 strokes.

Hole 4: straight into the water

The second and last lost ball of the day went into the water right off the tee. Only two lost balls in 9 holes is actually a surprise for me.

Hole 5: Vlad the Plower

My tee shot ended up almost under the fence of a house next to the course, but close to the green. I chipped from there and hit a big, fat chunk.

So, if you ever need your lawn or your backyard plowed, you know who to call. The episode has a fake 80s TV ad for Vlad the Plower Lawn Services: a woman looks out the window and says her backyard looks too flat. Free lawn service with every round. Divots guaranteed.

Hole 6: ping-pong around the green

The worst hole, judging by the score: 11 on a par 5. And it started well, with the other of my two best drives ever. Then something went wrong in front of the green. I chunked the first chip. The second one flew over the green. I walked around, hit the wedge again, a bit too hard, and the ball flew over the green again. I just got stuck there.

It was the funniest and the most painful moment of the day at the same time.

Hole 9: finally a bogey

The best hole was the last one. A good tee shot, then I chunked the second shot (without that chunk, it would probably have been a par). The third one landed on the green, and I made the putt. A bogey, and my one point from the scorecard.

There were a lot of moments when I thought a par, or at least a bogey, was coming. But putting wasn't my best side this time: lots of three-putts, and I think at least one four-putt.

Club by club

• Driver. I hit it on the three long holes: 1, 3 and 6. I was scared of it, and on hole 1 it was bad. But on 3 and 6 it was great: about 150 to 160 yards with roll, both in the fairway. Probably the longest drives of my life.
• 7 iron. I teed off with it on every short hole, from a short tee. It's my very first club and the one I've played the most, so I trust it. This time it often sliced, and only a few shots with it were really good.
• Hybrid. Didn't use it at all.
• Pitching wedge. The surprise of the day. I didn't trust it and hardly played it before, but here it didn't let me down once: straight shots, a nice high flight. I fell in love with this club.
• The misses. Mostly tops, thin shots and chunks.

It matches my first bag mapping: my 7 iron goes farther than my driver on average, but my longest driver shot is still longer than anything else in the bag. That's exactly how it went on the course. All my clubs are on the gear page.

What I learned

• Focus on golf. The main lesson: fewer distractions. In my case that's the filming and everything around it.
• Warm up before the first hole. That first drive was all over the place.
• Same plan next time. On the long holes: driver, then the 7 iron, then wedges and putting. On the short holes: 7 iron off the tee, then wedges and putting.

My advice for your first round

Relax, don't overthink it, focus and enjoy the game. Whatever the score, good or bad, golf is first of all about enjoying the game itself. So enjoy it.

Next: the back 9

Next episode is the back 9 at Cooper Colony: International Bunker Day, 62 strokes. Then my first ever full 18.

Think you can do better? The same front 9 is in my game, Vlad vs Golf: The Game, with real pars and distances and pixel Vlad hitting my real yardages. Beat my 65.