I played with C.J. and Norm today. I thought C.J. would want to take a break after playing twice over the weekend in Albuquerque, but he called me and off we went. I won the game we played, and I earned a new birdie. It’s getting late, so I am going to sleep now, but I plan on writing about that round tomorrow.
We plan on playing again on Wednesday, but at Riverview this time, just for a change of pace. I am so looking forward to that. I’ve been itching to play a different course. I was hoping for Hillcrest, but Riverview will be wonderful.
Until next time…
Next time was much closer than it usually is. Good for me. I am taking turns writing and watching America’s Got Talent, and B is on the phone leaving a message for Char. They plan on riding the Alien Bike Trail tomorrow, but it’s raining right now, so they might not.
I am playing golf tomorrow at Riverview. C.J. left a message on our answering machine that he would be picking me up here at my house instead since he was going to pick up Norm first.
Tonight I wanted to catch up on some things I have really enjoyed the last few times I have played golf. I’ll start with my consistency. Although I still feel like I am a 1.4 handicapper stuck in a 16 handicap body, I cannot deny that my scores have been consistently lower. My last four scores have been 85, 88, 86, and 87. Nice! I’ve had some 40s and some 42s, so it’s only a matter of time before I break 80.
The weather has been outstanding and perfect for golf. It’s been hot, but it’s been cloudy, too, with cool breezes every few minutes, and it’s easy to notice those breezes when I’m walking between my shots. I am proud of my walking and carrying my own bag. The golf course looks amazing; it’s really greened up with the late afternoon thunderstorms we’ve been having.
I drove to the top of the hill where Hidden Valley is first revealed, and I had the same experience that guy named Dan from Arizona spoke about, the guy who offered to help get C.J.’s ball out of the tree whose ball retriever kept collapsing. He said his jaw dropped when he saw our course the first time. He had no idea Hidden Valley was such a beautiful course, especially after someone at Pinon Hills badmouthed it, commenting that our course was trash.
It’s not trash. My jaw dropped a little, too. It’s a sea of green, an oasis amid the surrounding brown and sagebrush with a gorgeous variety of trees, fairways, greens, and flagsticks. I hope it stays a secret, “hidden” from other golfers. I like it when we play sometimes and there’s hardly anyone on the course. It’s even better when I walk it. I look around, and I feel blessed and happy to be there, and just a bit guilty. Okay, not really guilty, but a hint of guilt is there, a very small hint.
As I play, I look ahead and all around me, and I see the freshly mowed fairways, the blue sky with the bright white clouds stacked up on top of each other from the horizon up to the top of the sky. I feel my wet green Masters towel licking the back of my calves with each step, and I stop to stuff it back into the top of my bag. As I walk to my ball on hole #5, I see that it is in the first cut of rough just off the fairway, and I remember how when I first started, I would have preferred that to the fairway. Incredulous, but true. The grass below a ball like that, I used to think, gave me more room to make a mistake, to swing my club a little lower or maybe swing it right below the ball, but it seemed safer in deeper grass back then. Now, I prefer the fairway. I know that the first cut or even deeper grass can give me a flyer lie, and I might not be able to get the specific yardage I want out of my pitching wedge. And to make things even better, I put my ball on the green and below the hole despite it starting from that first cut of rough. Yes, I have improved.
On a different day, however, on that same hole, I got a bit cocky. I ended up in one the fairway bunkers after a pulled tee shot. I made my escape ending up in a different fairway bunker farther up the hole, and picturing Davis Love III, or some other pro, I used my 6-iron to knock the sand off the Footjoy on my right foot. I dropped my club, thinking it would be an accurate shot to the side of my shoe, but it was a bit high. I missed the sole and ended up cabonking (a word I just made up) the soft side of my foot instead.
I limped after that. My foot almost cramped from the pain. I had to keep walking to keep it from locking up. It’s fine now, but I will stick with just imitating the swings, pitches, chips and putts of the pros, and forget about the knocking the sand off my shoes like they do, or at least do it better and more gracefully next time. I did get a par on that hole, too, a sandy par that went bunker to bunker to green and two putts.
I need to get that new birdie in here from yesterday.
Hidden Valley-Hole #11-Birdie #17 of 2010
We were playing the points game that Bruce likes so much, but no Bruce since he was in Boise (Lynne, C.J.’s wife got a text from them that had just one word: Boise)? C.J. chose the game, and he wanted points for winning the holes to push if there were any ties. We tied on #9, and he and Norm tied on #10, so this hole was worth six points instead of the normal two.
I used my 5-wood for the tee shot. When I had played with Don and Bill on Saturday, I played one of my best tee shots on this hole, getting about as close as I can to the left side of that first cottonwood to land my ball on the fairway. I pictured that same shot, but I really got a hold of it, and this time my ball actually flew over the cottonwood. I was left with a pitch of about sixty yards. I pictured my approach with my pitching wedge to be higher than it was, but it came out low. The flag was on the front left side, and my ball rolled from the right side to the left side, stopping just between two and three feet from the hole. I aimed my putt above the hole since it was sloped toward the back of my feet. I made the right decision and made the putt. I earned thirteen points, six for winning that hole and the pushed points from the previous two, and seven for the combination of fairway (one point), g.i.r. (two points), and birdie score (four points).
Okay, I need to head to bed again. Big day at Riverview tomorrow.
Until next time…
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