On to the back nine...
Hole #10-The hole was set back in its far left side position again, so it was back to the 9-iron vs. the pitching wedge for me. My ball landed on the green. I left my twenty foot birdie putt short about three feet again, but I made that one for my par.
Cameron and I were talking about how his coach had told him that 99.9% of all...
short putts never go in the hole, but I was playing cautiously, especially when it came to putting. As I write this, I realize how many three foot putts I made. All that short game practice really pays off.Cameron and I were talking about how his coach had told him that 99.9% of all...
Hole #11-My driver rolls my ball past the fairway. My pitch from inside 100 yards hits the green, but my ball rolls to the back right side where it stops just off the fringe. The hole is up front, so I am faced with a delicate putt that needs to slow down at the top of the hill, and I do not want it to run off the green. The hole is in the middle on the front. My putt is good enough to stop just past the hole and give me an uphill putt coming back, and it’s three feet again or maybe a bit more. My playing companions are impressed with my first putt, and I get a few compliments. I make my par. I am one over for the round and even on the back after two holes.
Cameron, despite his reminders about rolling putts all the way to the hole leaves his birdie putt on this hole well short and ends up with a bogey. He shot a 41 on the front, but Chris and I both agreed that he should have replayed his third shot on #9 when his club accidentally clipped his ball with a practice swing before his approach. He refuses, though, and ends up with an uncharacteristic eight.
Hole #12-I use my utility club, but it’s long. Probably the hybrid 4-iron would have been a better choice. I pitch on from behind the green and double-putt from there. I manage a bogey on this tough par three. I am now one over after three holes on the back and two over for the round.
Hidden Valley-Hole #13-Birdie #23 of 2012
Feeling confident with my driver, I go for the green and it works. I am on the green in one shot! So is Cameron, but his is closer. Our ball marks hit at about the same distance, but my ball goes forward only about a foot where as his rolls forward about ten. My long putt for eagle is short again, but I make the birdie putt. After the long drives on #1 and #7 and driving this green, I believe strongly that golf balls definitely make a difference in scoring. Thanks, Joe! Wish I had learned this lesson years ago and bought better golf balls all along.
Cameron has only two feet for his birdie putt. He leans over to avoid someone’s line and tap it in, but he misses. We all say he can write down a three, and he says he is counting it as a birdie, too. In a tournament, however, no way. I’ve noticed that he does pick up his ball if it’s a foot away or less most of the time. I always have to finish, though.
I am back to even on the back nine, and I am plus one after thirteen holes.
Hidden Valley-Hole #14-Birdie #24 of 2012
I am not surprised that I got a birdie on this hole for my best round ever (so far), but I do not take it for granted. Thank you, hole #14, for this birdie and all the others you have given up over the years.
My tee shot wanders off course to the right, but it is just behind the 150 yard marker. I have a tree on the line I want to play, so I play my 9-iron out to the left of it. It’s a good swing, but my ball is short of the green, a good thirty yards. My pitch with my sand wedge bounces my ball too many times off of the green, and it stubbornly stays off, missing that green in regulation by less than a foot.
The following putt is the second surprise of the round for me. The first came on hole #5 where my long putt curled in for a bogey. This one hits the flagstick and falls in. For the first time ever, I am even after fourteen holes, but I am doing my best not to think about the score. With only four holes left, I of course want to finish strong, but I am working hard on staying in the present and focus and relish the shot at hand.
Hidden Valley-Hole #15-Birdie #25 of 2012
This is the last of the birdies for this round. It’s a boring, wonderful birdie. 8-iron to the fairway, pitching wedge to the green, straight five footer for a birdie. For the first time since I have picked up golf, I am one under after fifteen holes. Wow!
As Chris is walking to this green, he tells me, “Boy are you going to be bummed when the alarm clock goes off and you realize this is a dream.”
Ironically, that’s the feeling I have. I think of Bob Rotella’s book, The Golf of Your Dreams, and I say to myself as I cross the little bridge that I am currently playing the golf of my dreams. Finally! My “primary school teacher” type of patience has paid off (over a decade of playing, writing, and waiting). I focus on the present. I am in no hurry. I don’t want the round to end. I've just scored three birdies in a row.
Hole #16-I grab my 9-iron since the flag is towards the back. My tee shot goes to what has been my bailout area recently, the right side of the green. For a moment, my ball looks like it might bounce into the ditch, but it stops in the deep grass on the right side of the green. My chip is fine, just fine. It could be closer, but I have left myself another three foot putt for par. Not a problem, been making those all day. It misses, though. Not enough speed. It wanders off to the left at the last, and I have given up a stroke. I am back to even after sixteen holes now.
I remember thinking that this was a good thing (as strange as that sounds). It felt like a little bubble of pressure had popped, and I felt even more calm from that moment on. As I reminisce now, I wonder if that affected my play on the next hole. Although I felt calm and never freaked out, I did get a bad score on hole #17. Would it have been worse if I had just made my putt for par on this hole?
Hole #17-The last time I played this hole, I tried something different. I used my 6-iron to get it past the last cottonwood, and it didn’t work.
This time, I choose my approach wedge again, the old standby. It’s an okay tee shot. It leaks right, so I have a longer approach than I want, and it’s not on the fairway or really on grass either, it’s half grass, half dirt over there. I am forced to use my 6-iron after all, but it’s to try and get my ball to a back right pin location instead of the tee shot. My ball shoots out low and right solidly striking the cottonwood on the right. Amazingly, my ball ends up back on the fairway, but the cottonwood that was just attacked is still in the way. Maybe it’s upset because I just hit it. I think my pitching wedge will be perfect from there, and although my ball does get past the tree this time, it’s long. I am behind the big hill at the back of the green. The lie is miserable, mostly dirt. No watering going on back there.
I am in familiar territory because I was here during the miserable round before this one, the one where I shot a 94, not a 74. I chose to putt that time, but my ball stopped at the top of the hill. This time, it goes over the hill and manages to stop on the green. Phew! I have a long putt to save another bogey, and my speed is just right, stopping my ball even with the hole, but it’s a tad to the right. I tap in for my second double bogey. Boo!
Hole #18-I use my driver. I aim for #3’s fairway, but I miss left. It ends up in the rough on the left side of the fairway over there. I have no good shot to go for it, so I choose to lay-up to #3’s fairway. I make a really good pitch to get a clear shot at the green for my third shot. I push my approach, so my ball ends up on the right side of the green and the flag is way over on the left side.
I use my putter, and this putt was as good as the one I made on #11. It goes up to the top of the slope in the middle of the green and rolls down past the hole. I had about seven feet for this putt, and I really want to make it, but I am doing my best to have no expectations or to be ready to accept whatever result comes about. I follow my routine, pick a small spot and let it go. It goes in, and I do my own little fist pump because I know that making that putt has helped my score, I honestly do not know my score, and I am pleasantly surprised at how low my score is.
I was thinking high 70s, but it was a 74! That’s the way it should be. I really did not want to know where I stood before teeing off on the last hole. I just wanted to finish strong one shot at a time. Writing about this round makes me want to get off my bed and go play again right now, but I must finish writing about this.
I am thrilled at what I’ve accomplished; it’s something I have always known I could do. Today, at open gym, I worked with a girl who has been struggling with her serve. The ball hits the net, or sometimes worse, falls below it. I know she has the physical ability, so I forced her to stay until she could serve it past a gray line on the gym floor deep on the other side of the net. It took many serves (thankfully, her mom was in no hurry), but she finally did it. That’s a mental thing. I can hear Yoda saying, “No different. Only different in your mind.”
Bruce, for many reasons, has been a part of this success, too. He has shown us what is possible. A guy we play with often shot a 66. A 66! Then he followed that up with a 69. A 69! I know he is Bruce Almighty, and I am bummed I missed seeing those rounds, but my body, my mind, and my soul said if he can do it, why can’t I? Why can’t we all? I can hear Ben Kenobi say, “You see? You can do it.”
I can also say irrefutably that the new irons and the different golf balls made a huge difference, too. I know they have helped Bruce, and although my Wishon irons are a bit more forgiving than his, the new equipment played a big role. Thanks, Belinda, for allowing me to complete the set this summer.
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