Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Bruce's Eagle Has Landed

    It’s been a while since I've written.  Earlier this month, Bruce, Reilly, C.J., and I played in a Shamble at Hidden Valley.  This was a new format for all of us, and we played really well, ending up just four strokes out of the money this time. 
    I was cold and hot.  I was cold with my driver, but I did very well playing from other’s tee shots; Bruce, with his consistent swing, put us in great positions on most of the holes.  In this format, we all teed off and then we chose the best tee shot.  From there, we all played individual stroke play.  I learned that...

I could play really well when I have a good tee shot.  My stroke play score, a 76, was the lowest of the group, one stroke better than even Bruce.  It was a team effort all the way around, though, with great shots and scores coming from all four of us.
    We started on #14, the best hole for any team to start, and I was the first one to tee off, but even with visions of my longest drive in my head, I started the day with a stinker.  We didn’t use any of my drives until hole #1 where I was actually on #5’s fairway instead.  I got up and down for a birdie on hole #18, so that was good.  Reilly had the best drive on that hole to put us in a good position.  C.J. earned pars on holes #2, #6, #10, and #16, all par threes to get a net 2 on each one. 
    The true highlight of this round, however, came on #13, the short par four finishing hole for us.  Bruce was the one to have the best drive, which was fitting since he had the best drives on most of the holes.  His ball was across the wash, of course, and we were all looking at a thirty to forty yard pitch to get on the green.  The pin was on the front right side.  I watched him take his few practice swings, and they looked way too fast for me, but Bruce always accelerates through the ball no matter how short the shot is.  Then he took his real swing.  The ball popped up and headed towards the green where it bounced a couple of times, smoothed out, rolled a bit, and then clanked against the flagstick and fell in the hole!
    I’ve played golf with Bruce for years.  His demeanor is consistent.  He is mellow, quiet.  He’s cheerful, but never overly excited or even excitable.  Not this time.  Bruce did a dance.  Bruce ran around.  Bruce whooped and hollered.  We were excited, too.  We were high-fiving each other, having a grand old time.  His eagle would certainly help our score, but he was also excited because he had won our little bet.  When this season got started, we all agreed that the person who made the first eagle of the year would get $10.00.  Each of us put in $5.00 to have handy when it happened, and Bruce was the happy recipient.  It was so much fun we have decided to do it again.  I almost won the second bet when we played this past weekend.  More on that in the next post...

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