12-31-14
With less than two hours left in this year, I am writing this last bit in this 12th golf diary. What a year it’s been. So many changes. Today, I had my golf clubs re-gripped, my big Christmas gift of the season. Don let me swing some in his workshop when I came to pick them up, and I still had some shanks sneak in there, but my best swings came when he put a 2x4 next to my ball. He and I believe I am coming so far inside sometimes that my club is screaming to get to the outside, and because of that I’m getting some lousy contacts. Thank you, Don. He said, very generously, that I could go in there and swing away for free anytime because I am his friend. I’ll take him up on that in 2015.
After picking up my clubs, I tried to call C.J. again. Today was the last possible day to go play at Hidden Valley before it’s officially closed. We had talked about playing 18 holes one last time, but we’ve had snow. We’ve had freezing weather and wind chills. We’ve been busy, too.
He didn’t answer, but I saw that he called me back. I tried again, but he still didn’t answer. So, I drove right to his house. I convinced him (it wasn’t hard) to come with me to go to the course one final time this year, and possibly one final time…forever. It’s still unknown what will happen with the golf course.
We decided to play #10 out and #11 back in. C.J. won the first hole with one less stroke than me. We teed off on #11 from the red tees. I brought three clubs, but C.J. chose only one. Never take on C.J. when he has just one club. The golf was not great, but the companionship was, of course.
I realized as we walked along that golf is not the important part. Maybe it was the bad golf I was playing or maybe it was because I wasn’t taking the golf too seriously either. We’ve spent thousands of hours just hanging out when we’ve played all these years at Hidden Valley. C.J. and I did things that we’ve done every round we've ever played there. We both wished Bruce was there, but he was playing a game and hanging out with Reilly. We took our swings and made comments about each one. We looked for golf balls together, the gentlemanly thing to do. We complimented our good shots. We had small talk. We talked about the golf course, but the conversation about the golf course was much different this time.
He said there were three owners, but they owned different shares. It was nine shares, so one owned six, one owned two, and the last one only one. One owner, last name Barker (not his real last name), was a local who also played at the course. He confirmed that one of them was tired of investing in the course without the other two helping to pick up the slack. Not sure which one, though. He also said the water was not the issue. The biggest issue was the loss of memberships, most likely due to the poor playing conditions. What a bummer. He also mentioned that the entire course might be turned into a housing development. It’s speculation, so it will be interesting to see what truly happens.
When we were done, we shook hands. We said goodbye and thank you. It was fun! But, it was different, too. We had taken pictures before, but this time we both took pictures thinking these might be the last. This time when we played, we were both thinking this really could be the last time, and we might be the last two to ever play there. And as much as we have played there, that’s very fitting.
Until next time…
Happy New Year!
With less than two hours left in this year, I am writing this last bit in this 12th golf diary. What a year it’s been. So many changes. Today, I had my golf clubs re-gripped, my big Christmas gift of the season. Don let me swing some in his workshop when I came to pick them up, and I still had some shanks sneak in there, but my best swings came when he put a 2x4 next to my ball. He and I believe I am coming so far inside sometimes that my club is screaming to get to the outside, and because of that I’m getting some lousy contacts. Thank you, Don. He said, very generously, that I could go in there and swing away for free anytime because I am his friend. I’ll take him up on that in 2015.
After picking up my clubs, I tried to call C.J. again. Today was the last possible day to go play at Hidden Valley before it’s officially closed. We had talked about playing 18 holes one last time, but we’ve had snow. We’ve had freezing weather and wind chills. We’ve been busy, too.
He didn’t answer, but I saw that he called me back. I tried again, but he still didn’t answer. So, I drove right to his house. I convinced him (it wasn’t hard) to come with me to go to the course one final time this year, and possibly one final time…forever. It’s still unknown what will happen with the golf course.
We decided to play #10 out and #11 back in. C.J. won the first hole with one less stroke than me. We teed off on #11 from the red tees. I brought three clubs, but C.J. chose only one. Never take on C.J. when he has just one club. The golf was not great, but the companionship was, of course.
I realized as we walked along that golf is not the important part. Maybe it was the bad golf I was playing or maybe it was because I wasn’t taking the golf too seriously either. We’ve spent thousands of hours just hanging out when we’ve played all these years at Hidden Valley. C.J. and I did things that we’ve done every round we've ever played there. We both wished Bruce was there, but he was playing a game and hanging out with Reilly. We took our swings and made comments about each one. We looked for golf balls together, the gentlemanly thing to do. We complimented our good shots. We had small talk. We talked about the golf course, but the conversation about the golf course was much different this time.
He said there were three owners, but they owned different shares. It was nine shares, so one owned six, one owned two, and the last one only one. One owner, last name Barker (not his real last name), was a local who also played at the course. He confirmed that one of them was tired of investing in the course without the other two helping to pick up the slack. Not sure which one, though. He also said the water was not the issue. The biggest issue was the loss of memberships, most likely due to the poor playing conditions. What a bummer. He also mentioned that the entire course might be turned into a housing development. It’s speculation, so it will be interesting to see what truly happens.
When we were done, we shook hands. We said goodbye and thank you. It was fun! But, it was different, too. We had taken pictures before, but this time we both took pictures thinking these might be the last. This time when we played, we were both thinking this really could be the last time, and we might be the last two to ever play there. And as much as we have played there, that’s very fitting.
Until next time…
Happy New Year!
