Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #18-Birdie #48 of 2016
This hole was super strange. I saw the one group of ladies playing in the tournament many holes ago. I was on #8 when they were on #13, so I thought they would be done by this time, but I slowly gained on them and then I caught them on this last hole. I saw Shelby looking for her ball in one of the bigger bushes, so I waited to tee off. I waited and watched. I played my own solitary version of the poison game. I waited and watched some more. I could not see if their carts had gone up the hill to the green yet, so I played some more poison, waited, and watched even more.
Thinking I had waited more than enough, I went ahead and teed off. My ball headed to the left of the trees, so I thought it would be near the cart path and safe from hitting them. I headed down the hill, and as I walked I spied a yellow and black soccer ball golf ball near a tree just off of the cart path. For some reason, I didn’t pick it up, and then I promptly forgot about it. I found my ball another fifty yards ahead of that one, but the ladies were on the green, so once again I had nowhere to go for a while.
They were so incredibly slow, I decided to kneel down to rest until they finished, fascinated that it was taking them this long. One girl had to use three putts just to get her ball to go from the left side of the green to the right without having it roll back again.
Written on 10-22-16.
When they finished, they got in their carts and drove back up the cart path to where I was waiting instead of heading to the clubhouse. I thought for a moment that...
they might want to play the hole over again for some strange reason, but instead two of the girls asked if I had seen the black and yellow soccer ball golf ball. When I told them I had and showed them where it was, they gave one of the other girls in the other cart an “I told you so!” look. Then the argument started. It was a passionate cat fight that I nearly became embroiled in. After I realized I didn’t need to stay and become a mediator, I slunk away saying, “I’m going to finish my hole now.”
They let me go, thankfully. From there I took my 7-iron and hit a high fade that flew over the trees and headed for the right side of the green. It took a bit to find it, but it was an AW chip shot away, and I hurriedly chipped it to within two feet on the right side of the hole, and I quickly putted to finish my birdie, too. I wanted to finish up as fast as possible in order to avoid having to deal with the angry ladies once more.
That birdie helped me to finish +2 on the back, and with my 46 from the front, I shot a respectable 83. I headed over to the “leaderboard” for the championship and took a picture to analyze for later, but I saw that I was tied for the lead with my net score of 69. Sadly, it didn’t matter at all due to the fact that the tournament was played from the Blues. Oh, and I didn’t have any tournament pressure on me either.
On Sunday, I went back to record another score for an inaccurate tournament comparison. I shot another 46 on the front, but it didn’t come with any amazing putts for double bogeys this time. I did make an amazing putt for par on #3, though. I was on the collar, and I rolled one in from 30 feet to a top left pin position. Terry, the “sandbagger Terry,” watched it go in and gave me a positive comment. He had just finished up on #18 with Bob Pollock. I asked him how his tournament went by asking if he had the low gross score for the tournament, but he just shook his head, so I asked if his score was just gross. He didn’t hear me, but Bob said that was more the case for both of them.
On hole #5, I played over to hole #1’s fairway, and I saw four guys in two carts come down hole #1’s cart path, heading straight for me. When they got close enough, I recognized them immediately. It was Jules, Dave, Lance, and some other guy. They were looking for hole #2, so I gave them directions. I certainly did not expect to see them there, but it was a great surprise. I saw them again on hole #6. Dave was looking for his ball way behind hole #2, and he said he had gotten a hold of his 6-iron, and despite my help, he never found it. Then we parted ways, and I never saw them again after that.
Belinda is watching Piedra Vista’s volleyball team right now. They are playing for the district title. (*It turned out not to be the district championship; it’s next weekend.) I chose not to go, because I just came back from Farmington for a Bisti Writing Project workshop. When I spoke to Dave, he suggested Haley might quit due to her concussion and other reasons. I just texted B to see if she is playing. She said she is not playing, but not because she quit. She’s just on the bench right now.
When I got to the back, I played well again. I was only +1 through the “sisters,” and then I got an eagle on hole #13!
Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #13-Eagle #4 of 2016!
Thankfully, I had witnesses. I had to wait a while before teeing off, because a threesome was a ahead of me, and I caught them easily on this hole, especially because I planned on driving the green. Then I drove the green with a bomb, a satisfying crack of a drive that sailed high and long, heading right for the green. I could just feel that it was long enough.
When I arrived, the three guys were waiting in their carts taking a smoke break and waiting for me to play through. I saw my ball mark on the green (on the front third) and my ball just off the back on the collar. I repaired my mark, and one of the guys asked if that was my drive. I said it was, and he said he was impressed. I left the flagstick in for my putt, and I knew it would be fast due to the downhill and the greens have been much faster than usual, so I felt like I barely tapped it to get it going. It took its time getting to the hole, but when it got there, it tapped the stick as it fell in. I chuckled. Then one of the guys asked if that was an eagle, and I said it was. He said I should have played in the tournament, and I told them my sad story of not being able to due to my new job and my best friend coming into town for a visit. Oh well. I was not too bummed about it, and making this eagle sure made me a happy golfer!
I finished with a 38 on the back this time for an 84. I hit three greens in regulation on the back, but I also earned six pars and my eagle to help me to score so low. It felt fantastic to shoot in the low 80’s again after my recent higher scores.
Knowing that I had no tournament pressure and shot from the whites vs. the blues, I shot an 83, 84 for a gross 167. Only two other scores were lower than that, a 163 and a 164. I wish I could have played to see how I might have really done, but it’s fun to see how I might have ended up compared to the rest of the field. Sadly, that might have been the last Club Championship ever.
I earned one more birdie when C.J. and I played on Wednesday. Bruce came out to play nine holes, but he left to go work on Rei’s car again. Rei is back at home again after being in the hospital for a spell. His fever went away, and he was released from the hospital. I hope Bruce finishes the car soon, so he can stay and play a full 18 holes again. When C.J. and I continued, I earned a birdie on hole #15.
Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #15-Birdie #49 of 2016
We chose match play with points. Bruce won the front nine before he left. He had nine points, I had seven, and C.J. had six. C.J. and I continued the game on the back nine, and this birdie was the deciding hole for the match. I teed off with my 8-iron, but I thinned it. It came out low, but it didn’t matter, because I was in the fairway less than 100 yards from the pin which was on the front left corner, a very tough position to get any ball close. My sand wedge did a decent job, though, popping my ball up high and getting it close enough to the hole to have a legitimate chance for a birdie. C.J. made a phenomenal pitch to a little over a foot away. He was off the green and a good 40 feet away, but he got it so close, I chose to knock it back to him and concede his par putt. I had to get my birdie now to end the match. The putt had to go uphill to the hole, and I remembered it not breaking as much as I thought it would when I played to this location on Sunday, so I aimed more for the hole, just slightly to the left. This was a smooth-feeling putt. It rolled so cleanly off my putterhead, it felt dreamy.
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