What follows is how the rest of the holes played out for the tournament...
Hole #11-My drive ended up past the bunker and just a pitch away, but it was off the fairway. Amazingly, I was the only one to get my ball on the green. After four attempts, we left with another par. I went last, and my ball tracked toward the hole, but it stopped short. Still three under.
Hole #12-My 7-iron (not the 6-iron this time because the hole was closer and the tee markers were up) got us on the back left side of the green. Unfortunately, the hole was on the opposite corner. It was tricky to get a putt even close, so we were happy to get a par here. Three under.
Hole #13-Despite a drive to the left side of the green, we were unable to get a birdie. Each putt from off the green, except Mike’s, just kept rolling past the hole. Mike’s was short, but it was so short that it ended up farther than the others and left us with a downhill putt. We felt...
cheated on this hole; we should have birdied here. This hole and hole #11 left a bad taste in our mouths. Three under.
Hole #14-My drive put us in a great position on the fairway. Despite four attempts to get our approaches to go down into the bowl, though, we all ended up short. And, despite four attempts to get our golf balls close enough to get an easy tap-in birdie, we still had a long birdie putt. Thankfully, Bruce made that putt on the first try. Four under.
Hole #15-My attempt to drive the green yielded a result like no other. I really cranked it, and my ball sailed on a line directly above the cart path. I joked that my ball could end up on the green on hole #16 instead. Well, that’s what happened!
While Mike and I waited to play a ball that was on the fairway, Bruce and C.J. searched for mine. I saw Bruce get out of the cart and jog onto the green on #16. Later, when we played #16, he showed me where it had ended up. It was fairly close to the flag on #16, about 15 feet past it on its right side.
My approach ended up closer than anyone else’s, but not by much. Mike chose to putt first, and he made his best stroke of the day draining it from around 30 feet. We felt like we got one back on this hole. Five under.
Hole #16-Mike had the best approach, and we had only ten feet to maneuver to make another birdie, but we could not get that putt to go in the hole, each one of us missing on the left side. We felt like we lost another one here.
I’ll also remember this hole because of the snake. Mike and I were riding in our cart ahead of Bruce and C.J. As we drove back to the green, I looked up to see a snake stretched out and warming itself on the sandy cart path. The path looked almost white with the bright sun shining on it. Mike chose to straddle the snake with the cart’s wheels, and he had the room to do it, too. The snake would have been fine if it had not moved, but it attempted to slither away between the front and the back tires. I should not have turned around to look, but I did. It was curled up and wriggling around and obviously suffering. Ugh. Writing about it now, it might have been Bruce’s and C.J.’s cart that ran it over, but we’ll never know.
Another thing that I will remember about this hole is that I was able to get closer to the flag with my driver after teeing off on #15 than I did with my pitching wedge teeing off on this hole. My approach landed on the green, but it was short and left, so my drive from #15 ended up much closer. Wow!
Hole #17-Mike’s tee shot ended up just past the gray cinder block building. Bruce navigated an approach through the branches on the left side of the cottonwood to get us on the green. I made the putt, a slippery downhiller with a tricky break from right to left. Six under.
Hole #18-Mike drove us up to the teeing ground by the way of hole #15 because I stopped to go to the porta-potty; we had time because of the slow group ahead of us, a record-setting slow group, too.
They were amazing. On hole #17, according to Mike, they went and looked for a ball near the green, but when they didn’t find it, drove back down to play a ball in the fairway. When they got back up to the green, however, they found the ball they were originally looking for, so they changed their minds and chose to play that one instead (not allowed). Playing that one also took longer than is expected or necessary. We discussed how they were not only bad at golf, but they didn’t make up for it by moving as fast as they could between shots. Oh well. It wasn’t like any of us had to be anywhere. Mike had an appointment at 3:00, but he still made it with time to spare.
We saw the Pollocks on #15 with Terry, so we ranted about the slow group, and then I teed off with them watching. I aimed for and hit #3’s fairway, and Terry teased me that it was illegal to play a different fairway than the one we were playing (allowed). Bruce got us to a spot just below the green, and then he finished it off by nearly chipping in for an eagle. His ball spun and stopped an inch behind the hole. We let him clean up, and we had another birdie. Seven under.
Hole #1-I was grateful that I started driving the ball better the more we played. I did not have a great start on holes #7 and #8, but we used the majority of my drives after those holes, and this hole was no exception. My ball stopped on the fairway on the left side even with the 150-yard marker. C.J. chose not to tee off after that, and I said I would trade my drive for a putt later, and then he made the trade right away by making his putt for eagle on this hole! Bruce’s approach put us in a position past the hole on the left side of the green. C.J.’s putt back to the hole was about 20 feet away. Nine under!
Hole #2-I made a long putt from below the hole. This was another hole where we felt we got one back. Ten under.
Hole #3-We earned another par, so we had no bogeys all day long. We used my drive again, although it was in the rough just off the fairway on the right side. C.J. and Bruce nearly missed their putts for birdie from off the front of the green. Ten under.
Hole #4-Bruce took over. His approach and his putt earned us another birdie. Eleven under.
Hole #5-I was secretly looking forward to this drive all day. It was the hole for the longest drive. I didn’t see the sign with the stake for writing names, so I didn’t have something to aim for, but I made one last smooth long drive up the right side. It turned out to be nowhere close to the longest drive, though. We found the sign a yard from the rough on the right side easily 40 yards or more ahead of my drive. Geesh! Not even close. We ended with one last birdie, though, after getting close to the green with an approach, and then finishing up with a pitch and a short putt. Twelve under for the day, a 60! It was good enough for the second best score of the day.
I was more proud of my putting than my drives. I made some of the putts that helped us gain some strokes on the rest of the field. Although we knew we had given a few strokes away (holes #11, #13, and #16), we gained some back on #15, #17, #2, and #4. All in all, it was a fantastic day! If that was the last tournament I play in at Hidden Valley, it would be a fabulous one to end it.
Oh, I also won the biggest prize for the raffle drawing, a Michelob Ultra golf bag. I don’t know what I will do with it, but it’s in the garage. J.P. was giving out the prizes while Josh announced the winning numbers. He smiled and laughed when he found out it was me, and we even talked about donating it to The First Tee, although promoting beer would not be considered good example.
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