New Year, New Journal, and I'm 50!

1-31-17

     Welcome to yet another golf journal/golf diary!  The saga continues…and continues.

     B and I are lounging in our living room/refuge.  We are sharing the larger couch, she at the end near our gas fireplace and I near the end table with the larger lamp.  Ah, life is good.  No, life is great!  

     It’s fair and honest to say we are better adapted to our new lifestyle as a “rewired” couple (less Bi-polar Express), this being our second school year out of teaching for the public schools.  B is subbing now, and she actually just finished a stint yesterday subbing for Amanda for a month as the enrichment teacher for both McCoy and Lydia Rippey.  I’ve continued with my...

32nd Excerpt From My Golf Diary

     I wrote this next excerpt when I was 35.  Yesterday, I turned 50!  Wow!  Time really does fly...like a golf ball heading toward a ditch.  Or, like my young daughter flying out of a golf cart.

Written on 1-27-02.

     I played golf with James and Danielle yesterday.  The weather was extremely nice for this time of year, fifty degrees and very warm.  I played worse than when I played against Eric two times ago.  When I played with Eric, I played a great front nine, shooting a 44, but on the back nine, to quote from the movie Galaxy Quest, I “exploded”.  I ended up losing to Eric by two strokes, my 96 to his 94.  Next time I played him, though, I won.  We only played nine holes, but I got him that time.  He called me tonight to ask if I had gotten the Pinon Hills newsletter yet.  I hadn’t, but he said starting on Feb. 23rd, they are starting two-man monthly scramble tournaments.  To say the least, I am excited!  We were just looking for something like that, and it’s close, and they are once a month.  Now that we officially have handicaps, we can start to play and compete.  

     Playing with James and Danielle yesterday was bittersweet.  I enjoyed the nice weather and the chance to spend four hours with my two children.  I think my expectations were too high as far as the golf was concerned, however.  I played terribly.  Some of the “lowlights” were hitting into the ditch twice, topping the ball, and losing three balls.  Very frustrating.  The biggest catastrophe that day was when Danielle fell out of the cart when we were leaving the sixteenth tee box!  James kind of moved/pushed her over, but he moved her right out of the cart!  Luckily, I had not yet reached full speed.  I remember seeing her head bouncing off of the grass.  Somehow she had turned around while falling and had landed on her back.  I stopped the cart and got out to pick her up just about as quickly as she had just fallen out.  She was crying, but okay...

31st Excerpt From My Golf Diary

     I have not done an excerpt from my old Golf Diary in a long time, so here goes...     

     In this excerpt, I see once again that history repeats itself. First, I describe a 6-iron swing that makes me want to keep coming back to play golf.  I wrote that same type of description for one of my most recent eagles with a 9-iron approach.  Second, I write about ending the year with a bang!  In this excerpt, I shoot one of my best 9 hole scores ever, if not the best one yet, a +4 at Encanto in Phoenix.  I just wrote that same thing with my two eagles and Bruce's round of 2 under.  

Written on 1-3-02.

On to golf…

     I just want to write about birdies now.  I earned two more while in Phoenix, and I haven’t written about the three before that happened when we went to Phoenix to interview with the DOD.  

Mountain Shadows-Hole 5 on 12-8-01

     This is an Executive Golf Course, and it’s a really nice one.  I actually just drove around until I found a golf course, and this was the first one I found.  I was pretty wound up before the interview, so to go play golf after it was over was very refreshing.  I played from the executive tees and not the championship ones, so this hole was a par three playing at 150 yards.  I hit my shot to the right of the hole, but just a little above it and on the green.  I had a breaking putt from right to left slightly downhill.  It was about 15 to 20 feet maybe. It curved right in.  That was one!

Mountain Shadows-Hole 7

     That’s right.  This was a second birdie in the same round.  I had just gotten a double bogey on one of the only two par fours on the course, so I was a little bummed going to the next tee box, but I usually don’t let a bad score affect my play, and it didn’t on this hole.  This hole was about 120 yards, so I used my pitching wedge.  The flag was on the very front of the green.  I hit it to about four feet away.  It was a little uphill putt this time.  I knocked it in, but didn’t really realize that I had just made two birdies in one round until I was putting my putter cover back on while walking off the green.  I gave a little whoop once it hit me.  Wow, my first two birdies in one round, but it gets better…

Mountain Shadows-Hole 12

     You got it.  Three birdies in one round!  I was so happy when I got this one.  Once again, it took me a second to catch on.  I don’t know why, but I guess I was pretty focused on my playing and not on the birdie count.  This hole was really cool!  It was another par three, and it was 140 yards, but it was playing...

Ending 2016 With a Bang!

Written on 1-1-17.

     I’m over at the Edgerton’s house watching the Broncos in their final game.  They are killing the Raiders right now, but the game is already over.  I know they’ve already won, but the game was recorded over here, so I am watching how they won, getting one last Bronco fix before the end of their season.  Amanda and Eric are up at the cabin, and Becca and Matt left about an hour ago to meet them.  Kyle will be coming over here soon to celebrate Phillip’s 21st birthday.  

     Happy new year!  I’m keeping this entry in this diary, though, because I have more birdies and eagles to report, and they all happened before 2017.  Bruce, also, had his best round of the season for his last round, so I have to get that in here.  It was an incredible way to end 2016.

Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #18-Eagle #5 of 2016!

     The game was stroke play with handicaps.  I knew I wasn’t doing too well, and as it turned out, this eagle made the difference for the game, but not in the way I expected.  

     I don’t know why I chose to go for the fairway on...