A Second Rare Birdie on #3

Written on 3-10-17.

     Belinda is driving our GMC truck back home, and we just had lunch at Griego’s with Nan, Greg, Amanda, and Eric.  It was wonderful to catch up with Nan and Greg.  She’s in her first year of retirement, and he continues to work up at Fort Lewis.  They are doing extremely well. 

     I played golf yesterday with two of my First Tee kiddos and C.J.  We shortened every hole on the back nine to make it less frustrating, and this is all a part of my remaining certified as a Birdie coach.  I have four more rounds to go, and I play again with Kyle and Quentin this afternoon and Whitney and Cutler tomorrow afternoon.  I will also need to contact my four Birdie players to see if they can participate in a practice certification soon.  

     After the kids left, C.J. and I continued on and played the front nine alone.  C.J. wanted to try a different version of the G.I.R. game we usually play.  He wanted a G.I.R. to be worth three points this time, and he wanted those to be the only points a player could earn.  As we went along, however, he tweaked it to add two points per hole if one of us earned a par, and three points for a birdie, and four points for an eagle.  We talked once more about taking a point away if a player triple-putted, too, but we didn’t make that change.   

     I earned another rare birdie on hole #3.

Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #3-Birdie #4 of 2017

     C.J. was beating me already after the first two holes.  He had hit both greens, but he triple-putted both, so he had six points.  I nearly missed the green on hole #2, so I had no points yet.  With visions of my last drive and birdie on this hole, I pulled the driver out again to go for the green.  The vision, however, did not match the reality.  This drive, although fairly long, ended up heading left over the trees.  We did not see it or hear it hit the tops of those trees, so I was worried that it might have ended up in the ditch.  

     It almost did.  My ball came to rest in the dirt just out of the ditch right next to hole #1’s cart path.  Although it was in the dirt, it was close to the green.  I used my approach wedge, and my ball shot out low heading toward the green. It smacked the hill, popped up higher than the flag, and stopped on the green left of the flag.  I was past double the distance of my last birdie putt.  The hole was in the same spot on the front right side.  Half of the putt was fuzzy and slow, but the other half had been trampled and was slick.  My target was a spot right on the edge between the two different surfaces.  I cannot lie.  I did not expect to make this putt at all.  I was really hoping it would stop fairly close to the hole and not end up 12 to 16 feet past it.  Instead, however, my ball rolled directly in.