Written on 4-16-16.
I’m sitting on our couch near the stove, but the stove is off. It’s a breezy, gloomy day outside, but it’s comfortable and warm in here, so I see no need to turn it on. I’m watching the RBC Heritage with my Chromecast. I had a Bisti Writing Project Reunion and Rally earlier this morning. We have many exciting projects going on/coming up, including some Basic Skills workshops, and I’ve been asked to head those up as our project leader.
When it was over, I met with some McCoy teachers, some who have retired/rewired like Belinda and me and some who are still teaching, although maybe not at McCoy anymore. It’s an ongoing thing where they meet every few months or so, but it varies. This was the first one I was able to attend. It was a small group of just five, and they were kind enough to sit and wait for me while I ate since I was an hour late after attending my Bisti meeting. When I arrived, leftovers were boxed in styrofoam containers and empty plates and glasses littered the table along with some tips. I gave them a reason to stick around and visit more, though. We reminisced about some of the funny stories from years ago, and we laughed until our faces hurt.
We also talked about how we had so much more freedom when we...
taught twenty years ago. If we had any pressure, it was simply the kind we put on ourselves to do the best we could. Each school in Aztec felt like more of a community because teacher turnover was low. Each teacher felt like he or she was a part of a community, and the expectations were unspoken, yet somehow known.
Now, contrarily, teachers are straddled with outside pressures and expectations from the likes of the state, the administrators, the stressful evaluations, the never-ending data gathering, the unruly students, and the unreasonable parents. Schools feel more like hotels than homes, or as one teacher friend so aptly put it when talking about the newer transient teacher population, “Thanks for stopping by.”
Most teachers are uncertain of the expectations now, partly because they are burdened with an overabundance of them. Even veterans are unsure of what they are supposed to be doing. It’s understandable in this new environment for even an experienced teacher to lose confidence in his or her abilities. That’s all I have to say about that…for today.
On to golf…
I earned two new birdies recently, and I wanted to recount how C.J. beat me. Well, I don’t really want to recount that, but I said I would. I’ll do my best to keep it brief. The matches were definitely exciting and interesting.
Belinda is reading her iPad now, and she is sitting next to me in our recliner, and she just asked me to turn on the stove. That’s funny because I wrote above that I didn’t need it. So cozy, though; I don’t mind at all.
C.J. and I played the front nine when we played the Reverse Handicap Game for the second time. This, although it was a loss for me, was a fun and exciting match.
I won the first hole to earn the first 14 points. We pushed the points from hole #2 to hole #3, and then I earned those with a bogey to C.J.’s double. I was up 28 points after that. Then I won hole #4 with another bogey and earned 8 more.
This was not a case of my getting comfortable and sitting on my lead. I was doing my best to finish him off, but he played some incredible golf coming in.
He won #5, #6, and #7. It’s true that he got pops on holes #5 and #6, but he still played impressive and consistent golf. His pop on #5 gave him a par to my bogey. Then he won #6 outright with a “true” par to my bogey. On #7, he had a tough, downhill putt for par from twenty feet or so, and I was thinking it would be highly unlikely for him to make it from that distance, but I was wrong. He nailed it.
That was the putt of the day, in my opinion. The NCAA championship had been played recently, and I compared it to Villanova beating North Carolina with a 3-pointer at the last second; it was that amazing. I had already earned my par, but with his second pop, he won the hole. He was now ahead with his 40 points to my 36. I won #8 with another par, so we ended up with 40 points each at that point with only hole #9 left to play.
I struggled. My drive was great, going past the cart path, but I had to use my 5-iron to punch it and keep it below the cottonwood and get it on the green for my approach; it didn’t work. I ended up past the green on the back left side. I missed the green and ended up getting a bogey. C.J., however, got his second shot to land in the first bunker on the front left side. From there, he got up and down for a birdie! He definitely deserved the win. I was impressed, but I knew I would have another chance to beat him in a future match.
That chance came just two days later on Friday, April 6th. I thought we might take a break from this game, but C.J. was ready to get it on. We played the back nine this time. He won the important “sister” holes, the tough first three holes, by tying with me on the first two holes and then winning #12 with his one and only pop for the back nine. I had a blow-up hole on #13, and then we tied with birdies on #14.
Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #14-Birdie #16 of 2016
I had the absolutely longest drive I have ever had on this hole. Previously, when I had won the long drive contest, my ball was near the area of grass that sticks out into the fairway on the left side near the top of the hill. This drive, however, was past that spot and just over the hill. I needed only my pitching wedge for my approach; I was near the 100 yard marker. The hole was down in the toilet, so this was a swell opportunity. My approach couldn’t have been better, unless it had actually gone into the hole. My ball bounced on the green and rolled down into the bowl where we couldn’t see it, but I was confident that it would be close. We saw Jason, our course superintendent, with another worker up on hole #15, and he said he had just moved the flag down there. I told him I would thank him later if I could seal the deal with an eagle, but it wasn’t meant to be.
My ball was just past the hole, a mere three feet away. The putt wasn’t too tricky; it had a slight right to left break. I aimed for the top right side of the hole, and it was a perfect aiming spot, but my stroke was pulled just enough for my ball to simply glance at the hole as it fell underneath, instead of falling into the hole, the way it was supposed to. This hole was less about earning a birdie and more about missing one of the best and easiest eagle opportunities I have ever had, but, hey, that’s golf.
The only point from #14 was pushed to #15. C.J. got those points with a par, and that ended the match. He had won all of the points for the first six holes. The remaining points were not enough to even tie. My new goal at that point was to not be skunked. C.J., and I so admire this about him, told me he was a competitor and he was going to do his very best to make sure I would not earn a single point. He almost did it.
He won hole #16 after I had my second disaster, losing my ball after an atrocious tee shot. He had accumulated 49 points after that hole was done. After that, we tied with bogeys on #17.
*I’d like to add here that I’ve had some unlucky bounces after some terrific tee shots on #17 lately. This was an example of that. My 5-iron flew up to the fairway where I was certain it would be in a great position to go for the green, but that’s not how it turned out. It was under a tree, and I had to pitch out sideways. I felt relieved to get my bogey after that. This has happened three times recently with three different trees, and each time I had what I thought was an superb tee shot.
Then we tied again on #18 with pars, and it was a miracle I survived after this hole to keep fighting. C.J. had a birdie putt from three feet with no break. As much as I had felt it was highly unlikely that he would make the putt in the previous match on hole #7, I felt it was equally unlikely he would miss this one. His ball actually did go into the hole…albeit briefly, but it stubbornly popped out and sat on the edge like a kid that had just jumped into a pool and realized it was frigid in there.
Now, 32 points were up for grabs, so we decided to continue our match on the front. I desperately did not want to get skunked and C.J. desperately (especially after missing that gimme putt) still wanted to skunk me.
Thankfully, I played well enough to earn a par, and C.J., unfortunately, had his first disaster hole after playing some impressive golf. He had a shot that actually gave him negative yardage from the bunker on the right side of the fairway after hitting a tree.
That hole, with the combined points of #17 and #18, gave me 46 points and my pride back. He won #2 and #3 for 14 more points, and after I won hole #4 with a bogey, we called it quits. The final score was C.J., 63, Pat, 54. Phew! I avoided the skunk. C.J. left after that hole, and I wanted to continue, but the weather turned nasty on hole #5, and after I hit one out of bounds on my third shot, I was done. I walked back to the clubhouse and headed home.
Until next time…
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