5-30-12
I am sitting in Eric’s Aztec Car Care and Tire. Belinda and I have made a new To Do List, and it’s a long one. I am taking one off the list by having the truck’s oil changed and its brakes checked out; they’ve been squeaking. Yesterday, James and I washed and waxed the truck. It looks beautiful again. Danielle and I will do the same for the van tomorrow.
Last year, one of my wishes before the surgery was to clean both vehicles as a family. It wasn’t so much that I wanted them clean (that was part of it), but I really just wanted to spend time with my family before I might have died or been lobotomized. Now that I have survived and my brain still works (better than before the tumor), I still want to spend time with my family cleaning the vehicles.
Chris and I played well on Memorial Day. We took...
sixth place, one half of a stroke out of the money at fifth place. Yes, one half of a stroke. That’s the way golf goes sometimes, but we are still proud of our performance. We took sixth out of 24 teams, so that is good. We also did better than the first time we played this format, especially in the alternate shot part.
In the tournament, I scored an eagle and two birdies. Before I write about those, though, let me write about one birdie I had when I played with Bruce in the Thursday night Best Ball thing.
Hidden Valley-Hole #4-Birdie #8 of 2012
I am sitting in Eric’s Aztec Car Care and Tire. Belinda and I have made a new To Do List, and it’s a long one. I am taking one off the list by having the truck’s oil changed and its brakes checked out; they’ve been squeaking. Yesterday, James and I washed and waxed the truck. It looks beautiful again. Danielle and I will do the same for the van tomorrow.
Last year, one of my wishes before the surgery was to clean both vehicles as a family. It wasn’t so much that I wanted them clean (that was part of it), but I really just wanted to spend time with my family before I might have died or been lobotomized. Now that I have survived and my brain still works (better than before the tumor), I still want to spend time with my family cleaning the vehicles.
Chris and I played well on Memorial Day. We took...
sixth place, one half of a stroke out of the money at fifth place. Yes, one half of a stroke. That’s the way golf goes sometimes, but we are still proud of our performance. We took sixth out of 24 teams, so that is good. We also did better than the first time we played this format, especially in the alternate shot part.
In the tournament, I scored an eagle and two birdies. Before I write about those, though, let me write about one birdie I had when I played with Bruce in the Thursday night Best Ball thing.
Hidden Valley-Hole #4-Birdie #8 of 2012
We did earn some money during this round. I played with Bruce twice in these Thursday night Best Ball tournaments, and they cost $15.00 to enter each. When I played the second time, Tom handed me my prize money of $17.50, and I handed him $15.00 of that right back to pay for the second time. I got none of that back, except for a good time playing with Bruce.
The flag was down at the bottom. The big cottonwood on the left of the green is now chopped down, so it’s less shady there now, less crowded, but also not as picturesque. I used my 9-iron. We were playing with Jerry and George (not their real names). Jerry is known for saying funny, off-handed things, and by the end of the round on hole #2, he was either so drunk or so near having a heart attack, it took him an extra three or four minutes before he could tee off. All the blood would rush to his head when he bent over to stick a tee in the ground, and then the standing up motion caused him to stagger twice. Eventually, he did tee off.
What I remember him telling Bruce before I teed off was something about how either strong Bruce must be to carry me around, or how tired he would be at the end of the round for carrying me. I did have a bad start on hole #3, but that was only one hole.
Then I pured my 9-iron with a high tee shot that landed my ball right over the hole. I had about a 20 foot putt from just on the green going back towards the teeing ground. I made that putt, and for the rest of the round I did not hear another comment from Jerry about Bruce carrying me. The comments changed to more of a “these boys are serious” type of tone.
My best contribution to our play that day was my play on the three par three holes, #2, #4, and #6. Bruce was his usual awesome self, but I went birdie, par, par on the par threes that night.
Okay, so like I mentioned above Chris and I played well two days ago. Before I got an eagle on #1, Chris scored a birdie on #18. His best shot was his approach from #3’s fairway with a 6-iron. It landed his ball just off the back of the green and slightly above the hole where he was able to get in with only two more shots. This is how I earned my eagle.
Hidden Valley-Hole #1-Eagle #1 and “Birdie” #9 of 2012
I teed off with my driver. It went left over the trees. Typical. This was the scramble portion of the round. We chose my drive since it was farther than Chris’s, but it still had a clear shot up to the green. Chris’s drive was fine and also to the left, just not quite as far. I chose my 8-iron for my approach. We were about even with the 150 yard marker. I remember using a tree that was close to us for an aiming point. The tree had a small "v" in its branches. When I lined it up with Chris, I said the left side of the "v," but when I was over the ball looking at it, I chose the right side. This was a smooth swing, and my ball took off straight and high, and I knew it would be good, but it was better than I thought it would be. The putt we had left was about 20 feet, and it broke a little to the left. We both saw a small white dot before the hole and a little to the right. We thought it had to go above or right over that dot to have a chance. Chris let me putt first, and it fell right in. Just like that, we had gone birdie, eagle. Our opponent, Eric (last name), could not believe it. It was fantastic! Chris’s birdie came with two pops, so it was a net two! We were “five under” after two holes, with a two on a par five and a three on another one!
Hidden Valley-Hole #14-Birdie #10 of 2012
The flag was down at the bottom. The big cottonwood on the left of the green is now chopped down, so it’s less shady there now, less crowded, but also not as picturesque. I used my 9-iron. We were playing with Jerry and George (not their real names). Jerry is known for saying funny, off-handed things, and by the end of the round on hole #2, he was either so drunk or so near having a heart attack, it took him an extra three or four minutes before he could tee off. All the blood would rush to his head when he bent over to stick a tee in the ground, and then the standing up motion caused him to stagger twice. Eventually, he did tee off.
What I remember him telling Bruce before I teed off was something about how either strong Bruce must be to carry me around, or how tired he would be at the end of the round for carrying me. I did have a bad start on hole #3, but that was only one hole.
Then I pured my 9-iron with a high tee shot that landed my ball right over the hole. I had about a 20 foot putt from just on the green going back towards the teeing ground. I made that putt, and for the rest of the round I did not hear another comment from Jerry about Bruce carrying me. The comments changed to more of a “these boys are serious” type of tone.
My best contribution to our play that day was my play on the three par three holes, #2, #4, and #6. Bruce was his usual awesome self, but I went birdie, par, par on the par threes that night.
Okay, so like I mentioned above Chris and I played well two days ago. Before I got an eagle on #1, Chris scored a birdie on #18. His best shot was his approach from #3’s fairway with a 6-iron. It landed his ball just off the back of the green and slightly above the hole where he was able to get in with only two more shots. This is how I earned my eagle.
Hidden Valley-Hole #1-Eagle #1 and “Birdie” #9 of 2012
I teed off with my driver. It went left over the trees. Typical. This was the scramble portion of the round. We chose my drive since it was farther than Chris’s, but it still had a clear shot up to the green. Chris’s drive was fine and also to the left, just not quite as far. I chose my 8-iron for my approach. We were about even with the 150 yard marker. I remember using a tree that was close to us for an aiming point. The tree had a small "v" in its branches. When I lined it up with Chris, I said the left side of the "v," but when I was over the ball looking at it, I chose the right side. This was a smooth swing, and my ball took off straight and high, and I knew it would be good, but it was better than I thought it would be. The putt we had left was about 20 feet, and it broke a little to the left. We both saw a small white dot before the hole and a little to the right. We thought it had to go above or right over that dot to have a chance. Chris let me putt first, and it fell right in. Just like that, we had gone birdie, eagle. Our opponent, Eric (last name), could not believe it. It was fantastic! Chris’s birdie came with two pops, so it was a net two! We were “five under” after two holes, with a two on a par five and a three on another one!
Hidden Valley-Hole #14-Birdie #10 of 2012
If a person plays 36 holes in one day, one is bound to have some good ones. I had three, and this was the second one. Making a birdie on this hole is so common now. We sometimes say that making a par on #12 is like making a birdie, but making a birdie on #14 is like making a par. I used my driver. I used my 8-iron with the ball slightly below my feet. I used my sand wedge to pitch on. I used my putter from about 8 feet. Ho-hum.
Hidden Valley-Hole #16-Birdie #11 of 2012
Hidden Valley-Hole #16-Birdie #11 of 2012
I kept telling Chris we needed to finish strong. On #16, though, I got a double. Chris hit into the water, but he managed a bogey. My tee shot on #16 did not look like what a strong finish should look like. I pulled it, and my ball hit the cart path. I thought it might be long, behind the green, but it ended up just off the green on the left side. I chose to putt from off the green. My ball would have to go through a bit of rough and down the hill on the green to get close to the hole, but it did better than that. It went in the hole! I finished strong. We finished strong.
No comments:
Post a Comment