Happy Birthday, Dad! and the End of the Great Game

    Today is my dad's birthday!  Happy 76th, Dad!  We will have our usual fun celebration at Mom and Dad's tonight, complete with yummy White Fence Farm take-out, our annual "Joe Christmas," and the opening of some birthday gifts with Belinda, Theresa, and of course, Dad.

12-20-11
    Got the best Christmas gift I could get this year after visiting Dr. Maurin’s office today for a follow-up MRI visit.  I admit thoughts of possible doom entered my head before going, but all was fine when we saw him and heard the news, and the news is... great!  No problems and not another MRI for a year.  Belinda and I figured out that it was six months less one day that we got the other MRI, the first one that sent us catapulting into craniotomy chaos.  Merry Christmas to us!

12-24-11
    On the back nine of our competition (which really was the front), the United States was still one up, and I was...

the International player for the last time for the first three holes.  I did well for my team by winning all three.  I went par, par, par, and those poor Yanks just couldn’t keep up.  It’s been so long since I wrote about this I don’t remember how I used my mulligans, or if they were even necessary.  I see that C.J. just picked up his ball on holes #1 and #3, and Bruce picked up on #2.  When all was done, the Internationals were now two up.
    For the next set of three holes, it was C.J.’s turn to be the International again.  He won hole #4 right off the bat with a bogey.  Then he faltered for the next two, conceding the fifth hole since Bruce and I had earned pars, and he ended with some significant problems.  After C.J.’s turn as the International player, they were one up.
    Now it was up to C.J. and I as the Americans to turn the tide and catch Bruce, not an easy task at all.  We did the best we could.  C.J. tied Bruce on #7 with par. 
    On #8, I had one of the best up and downs I have ever achieved, and with a small gallery watching to boot.  Here’s what happened.  I chose to lay-up for my tee shot; I used my 7-iron, and it worked well.  My ball landed right near the 150 yard marker in the fairway.  I had a good lie in the short grass, but the ball was slightly above my feet, and my left foot was a smidgen above my right, too, but it was still decent. 
    Anyway, I pulled my approach badly.  My ball was heading about twenty yards left, but it smacked the cart path and bounced higher than the horizon.  It ended up just off the green, but not #8’s; it was near #10’s!  A couple was just getting out of their cart as I walked over there, and two younger guys were walking off that green.  Those people, along with Bruce and C.J., became my small gallery.
    The challenge was immense.  I had to go over a Christmas type of tree, and it was maybe seven or eight feet away from my ball or so. It was about fifteen feet tall, too.  I also had about forty or fifty yards to get to the green.  Thankfully, the hole was cut in the middle tier, so I didn’t have to hit the narrow top or bottom part of the green.  I remember asking the couple, as they were putting their clubs away, to be aware of my ball shooting off the toe of my club, so they stopped, backed up, and were subsequently forced to watch.  I took a big swing, a nearly full one with my club wide open, but I had to get the ball up in the air quickly to clear that tree, and I had to get my ball to fly a long distance for a flop shot. 
    It was amazing!  It’s one of the many reasons I play golf.  What are the odds of anybody getting up and in when in a situation like this, even for a pro?  I pretend I’m Han Solo entering the asteroid field telling off an annoying protocol droid, “Never tell me the odds!”
    My ball shot, what it looked like to me, straight up, clearing the tree with ease.  It landed on the green with a nice “thup” sound where Bruce and C.J. were watching, in the middle on the left side, but it then rolled over to the right side, a good thirty feet away from the hole.  My onlookers were impressed, and they gave me some compliments.  I was impressed, too, but could I finish what I started?  In my opinion, what good does it do to make an incredible shot to get on the green if I am not able to make the putt? But, I did.
    The putt was downhill, and it was difficult.  The hole was not on an even surface, and the speed seemed impossible to read.  Too short and it had no chance.  Too long and it might go off the green.  It broke from left to right, mostly breaking near the end, and it fell in.  I had done it!  I would think after a great par save like that, I would have won the hole for the Americans, but Bruce equaled my score.  The Americans were still down by one with only one hole to play. 
    Hole #9 was no contest at all.  I scored a bogey, and so did C.J.  Bruce, however, in great Bruce fashion, got near the green in two shots and then got up and in with an amazing short game prowess himself earning another birdie.  The Great Game was over, and the Internationals had won.  Good thing the Americans won in “real” life.