Saturday, May 24, 2014

27th Excerpt From My Original Golf Diary

In this excerpt, I write about how I won my first prize ever by playing golf.

Written on 7-17-01.

    I have so much to write and so little time.  I will hit the highlights now and fill in details later.  I made three pars in a row at holes 7, 8, and 9 with Troy at his new golf course, South Suburban.  Guy was playing with us also.  I also got two more birdies bringing this year’s total to four so far!  I might possibly have five birdies actually.  I need to check with Hidden Valley about the fifth one. (I am sure it really wasn’t a birdie.  I hit into the big pond that really isn’t a pond yet, and then got up and down from 100 yards out, so I am not counting that one as a birdie.  6-5-02)  Beating Eric two out of three 18 hole rounds in Montana was fun.  Not that it is good to beat Eric, but it helps measure my improvement.  I scored two of my lowest scores ever for nine holes, 41, once in Montana and once again here at Hidden Valley.  I will fill in details later, but I am doing very well and I am very happy.  My handicap is starting to go down, down, down.  I might be under twenty by the end of this summer.  I am working very hard to be able to do that.  More details later.

Written on 9-12-01.


    I have even more good news.  I won my...

first prize ever!  It was in a scramble, but I know I helped to earn the great score that we got that day.  I was so jazzed!  I actually earned something playing in a golf tournament. 
    I actually played in two scrambles, one at my cousin Jeff’s 3rd Annual, and one here in Aztec at Hidden Valley.  The one here was a fundraiser for, of all things, the Aztec football team.  In both scrambles, I was heavily relied on for good putting.  I also, especially in Jeff’s scramble, was pretty good at hitting greens.  Let me hit some more highlights and try to fill in the details later. 
    In Jeff’s scramble, I had every best ball on the first hole earning a par before Curt had shown up.  I also hit the green with my four-iron on a long par five after everyone else had muffed up their shots.  That set up a long eagle attempt with a putt, which I almost holed.  Our team went to one under for the day, which I thought would be good enough to earn a prize, but no such luck.  I also almost (I know almost doesn’t count) earned a “closest to the pin” prize, but darn it if Curt didn’t hit it a foot inside mine on the very next shot.  He won a very nice shirt.  He earned it and deserved it, though!  One foot!  Aaarrgghh! 
    In the other scramble here at Hidden Valley, I lipped out two birdie putts on the first hole, using my one and only mulligan.  You could buy mulligans for the day.  I really thought I had made it on the second try.  I also had the best ball/tee shot on two of the par threes. I sank a birdie putt from off the fringe on the eighteenth hole!  I also hit one of my longest drives ever. Unfortunately I was out-driven ten yards by Ed’s brother “T”.  Our team shot a 60!  That was good enough to earn fifth place out of twenty-four teams.  We each got a gift certificate for $18.75 to spend at Golf USA, my very first prize in golf ever.  I bought some stuff just the other day.  I am obsessed with keeping my clubs clean, so I got a water bottle with a scrubber on it to carry with my clubs.  I bought some club cleaner stuff, and I used the rest on a Putting Accelerator, a roll-out matt with lines and ball positions at three, five, and seven feet (I do use this frequently 5-27-02).  I also used a $5 coupon for spending over thirty dollars that was in our golf cart for the tournament.  I truly enjoyed spending it. 
   The next time I played, I played with Eric and Chris and shot a 44 at Hidden Valley.  Chris and Eric did not play well, but I was very happy.  I had seven bogeys, one par, and one triple bogey, but I was very pleased with my consistent play considering Eric and Chris were not playing so well. 

Hidden Valley-Hole #8


    This par was on a short par four.  From the white tees, it’s 360 yards.  With my 3-wood, I hit it to 60 yards out.  This green has three tiers.  The flag was on the front tier this time.    Eric is taking lessons from Mike and I can tell he is concentrating so hard on all the new things he has learned that he can’t shoot really low scores right now.  I know how he feels.  I better stay sharp, though, because I know he will get better.  I pitched to the top tier.  I had to putt down to the bottom tier, about forty feet or so, I really don’t know how long, but it was the length of most of the green.  I had to putt down and over two hills in the green.  I missed the right edge of the hole by an inch, leaving myself only one foot or so to finish.  It was one of the best putts where I had used “feel”. 
    Next time, I will talk about how Body for Life has really improved, and will continue to improve, my golf game.  Bye for now.

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