Written on 11-16-16.
Our regular threesome played again today, but everything felt so different from just two days ago. The fairways were tan and crispy. The skies were overcast and gloomy. A biting breeze kept the day from ever feeling like the predicted 60+ degrees. The golf felt different, too. Tee shots went farther than expected and lies were tighter due to the harder ground. It’s amazing what two days can do, but it is just past mid-November. We’ve been spoiled with this warm stretch of weather lately. Bruce said it’s only beginning to feel like what mid-October typically feels like, and that was an astute observation. It’s like the months are off this fall.
My golf game was back to being “off” again, too, and I was decimated in the “Reverse Handicap” game today. Bruce beat C.J. and me so badly on the front nine by earning 70 points, so we started over on the back. Then he trounced us again.
C.J. and I battled it out for second place, but his birdie on #16 helped him to earn two holes worth of points and knock me into third and last place. I didn’t even earn one birdie today to help my mood.
On Monday, though, I played...
much better, giving Bruce a run for his money and a better challenge. I started with a birdie to match his on the first hole.
Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #1-Birdie #58 of 2016
My drive went past the cottonwood on the right side. From there, I chose my 9-iron, and I pulled that approach slightly. My ball landed on the top of the hill on the left side, and it looked like it might have bounced down to the green, but when I got up there I saw it was just past the tree. I used my sand wedge to chip it close, and my ball bounced a few times before rolling out onto the green and stopping less than three feet from the hole on the right side. Bruce commented on how I had come to play today, and then he got up and in from the back right side of the green for his birdie, proving that he had come to play, too. Then I made my putt to tie his score. We were playing a different version of the G.I.R. game for this round.
C.J. left after the front nine, because he and Bruce had already played 18 holes, but Bruce wanted to continue on with me. I was only losing by three points when we made the turn, 14 to 17. I narrowed the gap after hole #17 to just one point, 28 to 29. I made what I thought was an amazing par from out of the bunker on that hole to make things interesting. I needed to get a par or a birdie on the last hole, and Bruce had to have a bad hole to help me win, but the opposite happened. He got the birdie, and I had a disaster. My drive felt incredible. I intentionally aimed for #3 with my tees shot, and I made a great swing, but my ball ended up behind the evergreen tree that’s on the hill on the lower right side of that fairway. I made an abbreviated punch shot type of swing with my 5-iron to go left and under that tree, but my ball smacked the cart path right in the middle, bounced up, and headed toward the parking lot fence where I could not tell if it had gone out of bounds or not. I dropped and gave it another go, but that ball ended up directly under the tree that is short and left of the green. We couldn’t find my first ball, so it was highly likely that it had gone through the fence. I struggled to a snowman.
As Bruce drove away in his jeep, he decided to check out the parking lot once more to see if he could find my ball. He found it, and when he drove back to hand it to me, he said, “It was out of bounds.”
Thanks, Bruce.
Written on 11-21-16.
The weather has still been pleasant enough for play (even though it’s past mid-November now), so our regular threesome played two days in a row, Saturday and yesterday. Wow, that’s a lot of golf, and my right knee is feeling it. It’s been a little freaky “tweaky” yesterday evening and all day today. Part of it comes from driving a car, too. If my knee gets in just the wrong position between the gas and the brakes, it catches and sends some pain my way. I was able to run on the treadmill this morning, however, so it must not be too bad.
Written on 11-22-16.
Belinda, Danielle, and I left for dinner soon after I started writing that, so I am continuing up here at the cabin home. It’s quiet here in the living room as the twins read on the couch, Kyle reads on our old hunter green rocker, and I write on the faded flowery one. The only sounds are the humming of the fridge, the clicking metal from the blazing fireplace, and my fingers tapping away on my keyboard.
I just got a fantastic phone call from Aaron (last name). He said that someone from Prescott called to find out more about Time to Teach. It turns out that the two principals I spoke with were impressed, especially the middle school principal, so they are interested in getting a quote from me. He gave me the number of the instructional coach there, a woman named Robin, and she will be the one I send the quote. She is also interested in becoming a Time to Teach trainer herself, so that is encouraging. She would likely push to have me come do a training in order to find out what it’s all about. We shall see what happens, but I am so excited about this unexpected turn of events!
Back to golf…
I earned two birdies in the last two rounds I played, one each round. In Saturday’s round, we played the escalating skins game. This first birdie came on the last hole, and it was this hole that ended up pushing the money and the match to an extra play-off hole.
Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #18-Birdie #59 of 2016
When we came to this hole, I was losing. I had earned $340,000.00, but C.J. had won $600,000.00, and Bruce was leading with $700,000.00. It was anybody’s game still at this point. C.J. got his biggest win on hole #14 where he was the only one to earn a birdie. Bruce and I had two unforced errors when we were unable to get our pitches to get down into the bowl. C.J. was just off the back of the green and nearly in the ditch after his second shot, but he got up and down from back there for his birdie. I managed to get a par after my mistake, but it didn’t matter. Then Bruce got a big win on hole #16 when he was the only one to earn a birdie. He exclaimed after his putt went in, “The only way to win a hole against you two is to get a birdie!”
C.J. and I pushed the money on hole #17 when I uncharacteristically chose to attempt to drive the green. My ball ended up way past the green, but I made a decent pitch to get my ball just off the green but near the bunkers. After that, I used the hill on the back right side to get my putt to roll up and then down to get close enough for my par. C.J. got a bogey, but he gets pops on holes #17 and #18 now to make things fair, so we pushed the money to #18.
Bruce and I both birdied this hole. Because someone was playing hole #3, and also because I wanted the bonus, I went for #18’s fairway. My tee shot was long, and it headed toward the right side. I saw it bounce to the left, so it looked like it had a chance. C.J. missed the fairway, but Bruce’s tee shot bounced high (about 20 feet) off of the hill on the right side and it looked like it might have made it down to the fairway after that. When we walked down there, though, I could see that my ball was in the only bunker on the right side and Bruce’s was just a few feet from the fairway at the bottom of the hill. The final bonus went to nobody.
For my approach, I went back and forth between my 6-iron or my 7-iron, finally settling on the 7-iron. I had to hit a fade in order for my ball to get around the multitude of cottonwoods on the right side of the fairway past the ditch. It faded slightly, but it ended up just below the green and the hole that was in the middle of the right side this time, and I was quite happy with that; hitting fades and slices is a rare thing for me. I used my putter, and I really smacked it. It rolled through the “rough” and stopped less than two feet from the hole on the left side. The final putt had a bit of a break from left to right, and I barely gave it the speed it needed to fall in on the bottom, but it went in. I was so happy to earn a birdie and push the money once more. It was the first birdie of this entire round for me, and I had done what I needed to keep the match going.
Bruce, however, was done. He wanted to go watch the C.U. football game and possibly check up on Diane who was heading to Denver to visit Rei in the hospital. I wanted to continue, for sure. I had just earned my one and only birdie of the round to keep the match going, and C.J. was game to continue, too, so he and I played a makeshift hole using hole #10. I earned a par, and C.J. got a bogey, so I did it! I won the skins and the rest of the money. Phew!
When we played again on Sunday, I earned one more birdie, but it was after an awful, terrible, yucky front nine score. C.J. wanted to play the G.I.R. game this time, but Bruce killed us. By the end of front nine he had 21 points, earning points on every hole except the last one. I had three. C.J. had seven.
Bruce had an amazing round going until a weird blow-up on #9 where he got an unexpected snowman. He shot a 41. This was the second time we decided to start over completely because Bruce ran away with whatever game we had chosen on the first nine holes. We played the reverse handicap game recently, and he earned 70 points on the front nine winning most of the holes that time around. So, we started over with match play, and I decided to have C.J. and I take on Bruce to make things more competitive. It was.
Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #16-Birdie #60 of 2016
Wow! Sixty birdies in one year. That’s got to be a record. When we came to this hole, we were even. I chose my 9-iron because the hole was farther back than it had been recently. It was on the right side and even with the base of the hill, but in a flat spot. I got a great bounce off of the hill, and we could all see my ball roll out onto the green toward the flag, but it ended up short.
C.J. chose to pick up after his tee shot caught the top of one of the trees and landed well short of the green. We were trying to beat the dark, so he had picked up on a few of the other holes to expedite play when he felt that his score wouldn’t matter. Bruce, who had teed off before I did, got his ball pin high and just six feet left of the hole. Bruce said just before I putted, “Pat, let’s see a birdie here.”
My putt was three times longer than Bruce’s, but it was incredibly straight. A shallow valley runs across this green, and that’s where my ball was. I felt like I only needed to make sure my ball made it to the hole. After I plucked my ball out of the hole, I said, “Okay, Bruce, let’s see another birdie here. Your turn.”
With C.J. watching from up above, Bruce rolled his putt in, also. We laughed and high-fived each other, both elated that we had made birdies on the same hole, and both impressed with each other. C.J. gave me the thumbs-up as we walked up to our carts, knowing that my birdie had kept us even on this third to last hole.
I chose to attempt to drive the green again on #17. This time my ball ended up in the dirt past the porta-potty on #15. While Bruce and C.J. looked for C.J.’s ball, I went ahead and played my shot with my scuffed-up pitching wedge. My ball was skulled, but it turned out okay. It hit the dirt and the rough several times before getting to the green, and then it slowed down enough to stop just off the front on the right side, so I was able to putt it close to the hole for my par.
Bruce had ended up in the farthest bunker after his second shot, but he ended up shanking his shot out of the “concrete” there. He gave his fourth shot a go from off the green on the other side, and he almost holed it for an amazing par, but that miss gave C.J. and I a one-up advantage going to the last hole. C.J. ended the match with his bogey and his one pop to Bruce’s bogey, and it was over.
C.J. said it was more of a match between Bruce and me, but he definitely helped with his birdie on #14 and his bogey and his pop on #18. I was just glad that this match was closer, and the two birdies that Bruce and I made on hole #16 made it really fun.
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