17th Excerpt From My Original Golf Diary

     In this excerpt from January of 2001, I recall how I played two holes at Pinon Hills, #5 and #8.  They were not birdie holes, but I was writing about anything that was helping me gain confidence in this difficult game back then.  I notice that I was still using more exclamation marks than I do now.  Everything was so exciting back then!
     I remember that trial club 7-iron vividly.  How sad.  I just sold it in our recent summer garage sale with the rest of the set. I remember how that was the club that flew...

Birdie with Family (Just Guy) #2: Part 2

    I used my driver, and my ball faded/sliced all the way down to the fairway.  I was in the perfect position to go for it with two shots with my 6-iron.  I topped that shot, though, and the ball flew low and left like a wounded bird stopping between the ditch and the cart path. 
    I had the big cottonwood on the left side to contend with now.  Guy suggested I go for it by going over the tree, but I was looking at going low.  He convinced me, though, so I pulled my sand wedge that we had just found again.  This was a sweet shot.  It went right over the tree like it was tracing its outline, and it landed right on the green.  It looked like it was on line with the flag, and the distance felt right, too.  It ended up being between fifteen to twenty feet away, though.  The putt looked straight to me, so I played it that way, and it literally rolled over the center of the cup going in.  Guy was as thrilled as I was.  I had started and ended with a birdie for this “family” round on my home course.  Fun!

Birdie with Family (Just Guy) #2: Part 1

Hidden Valley Golf Course-Hole #18-Birdie #31 of 2012

    I earned my 31st birdie of this year in this “family” round, but I have to be honest that Guy and I played this hole over when I got it.  Mom and Dad left after nine holes to go rest.
    Before we played this hole the first time, we had a twosome behind us that had hit into us three times in a row: once on #14, again on #15, and yet one more time on hole #17.  I bravely and maybe even foolishly turned our cart around to...

Birdie with the Family #1

Hidden Valley Golf Course-Hole #1-Birdie #30 of 2012

    This was the first tee shot of the day with my family watching.  Guy had hit a topped stinker at first, but I lied and told him one of our local rules was to allow one mulligan off the first tee only, so he hit a better one after that.  *Okay, it's not a local rule, but it's what our our usual threesome does when we haven't warmed up at the range... which is every time.  For the rest of the day, Guy drove it really well with Eric’s Taylor Made driver.  It was his putting that didn’t work so well with Eric’s putter; he could not figure out the speed and many of his putts were left well short. 
    My tee shot was long, but it went right.  It ended up in the taller grass, and it was short of the big cottonwood.  I had to go low to get it under some limbs, so I chose my utility club/4-iron.  I topped it.  It did, however, end up on the grass again, and I did hit the green in regulation with my next shot using my 9-iron.  The hole was cut on the top tier on the right side.  My ball was behind it, probably 40 feet away.  I made that putt, and I used Guy’s marker that was short and right of the hole to guide me.  Wow, I had just made a birdie on the first hole with my family watching.  We asked the pro shop for a flag to be placed on Mom and Dad’s cart for them to be able to drive up close to the greens, so they were just off on the right side, and they were close enough to watch my ball roll right into the hole.

A Cold is a Bummer

9-1-12
   
    I’m sick.  I have a cold, a bad one.  I feel so tired that I don’t even feel like writing.  That’s bad. 
    When the family was here, Guy and I got to play eighteen together with Mom and Dad following along in their own cart.  It turned out that Shylah and Annmarie chose not come along.  Shylah changed her mind, so Annmarie stayed with her at home.  That was a bummer, because I was looking forward to showing Shylah some things about golf.  I had also procured a sweet set of lefty clubs for Annmarie from Chris.  Despite their not being able to go, it was still dreamlike.  I have video proof that it happened on my iPod, though.  It made me realize how infrequently Guy has been here, but that makes sense since most of the times they come this way, they go to Lakewood.

9-9-12

    I am feeling better now.  The cold is mostly gone.  I still cough, but it happens infrequently, and I am not coughing anything loose anymore.  Phew!  Having a cold makes things so difficult.  Mostly, it’s the lack of energy that makes it so awful, especially when things must get done.  Nyquil helps me sleep, so that’s not an issue.
    Well, I wasn’t sick when my family was here, and it was a glorious day on the golf course.  I shot an 85 and earned two birdies, but the best part was the time spent with Mom, Dad, and Guy on my home course.  It was surreal at times, but like I said above I made sure to take some video on my iPod to check later and see if it really happened.
    During that round, I scored two birdies, both on par fives, and this is how they played out.