34th Excerpt From My Golf Diary!

This excerpt recounts my very first eagle!

Written on 3-30-02.

     Hello, it’s been a while.  I just read that I need to figure out my birdie count for this year this time, so I am going to read up on it.  Hold on a second while I do that.  I was way off.  According to what I just read, my birdie count for this year is thirteen.  I don’t know why I was thinking it was so many.  I have fantastic news, though!  I made my first eagle!  It was at Hidden Valley with Eric.  Here it is…

Hidden Valley-Hole 10

     I hit a long drawing/hooking drive over the hill.  It felt very long and it was.  The fairway on this hole is hidden from view.  A blue flag at the top of the hill helps to line up your tee shot.  When I found my ball, it was even with the green, but a little closer to the front.  It was also off to the left about thirty yards and in the dirt.  I was hoping to just pitch the ball and just get it on the green considering my lie.  Well, I did a little better than that.  

     My pitch made it to the green and I remember thinking, “Oh good, at least it will be on the green.”  

Then the ball disappeared down a hill on the green and headed toward the flagstick and I thought, “Oh even better, it will be close enough to maybe putt it in.”

     Then it hit the flagstick dead on and fell in the hole!  I immediately threw my club up into the air, mostly because I was just shocked about what had just happened.  Eric said something like, “You just made an eagle!”  

     He walked over to me and we had an awkward high-five because our fingers got twisted together in a funny way.  I wanted to know how far I had hit it, so I walked back to the spot where I thought it was.  It was thirty paces to the edge of the green and another fifteen paces down to the hole.  So, to make my count as official as it needs to be for this diary, I have thirteen birdies so far this year and one great big, wonderful and first-time ever, but hopefully not last… EAGLE!!!

     I really need to write about Eric this time, too.  He has been playing some really good golf lately.  I got to go play at Hillcrest up by Fort Lewis for the first time with him.  We played on the first Saturday of our spring break.  He made par on the first three holes with some amazing shots.  The first hole, he made a “normal” par.  He was just short of the green with his second shot, but he chipped on and made his putt of about six feet.  The next two holes were a little more spectacular, though, especially considering the conditions.  It was very windy that day.  On hole #2, his second shot put him up next to a bush behind the green.  He punched out barely, and didn’t get the ball on the green.  His fourth shot was a chip shot downhill from about twenty or twenty-five feet away.  It got on the green with some speed and sped all the way into the hole.  On the next hole, it was an uphill par five.  He hit a very high drive that was knocked even farther up into the air by the wind and ended up not going very far at all.  On his second shot, he was short of the green by about seventy yards or so, but he had to hit into the wind.  He hit a nice shot that flew right over the flag.  Now, he faced a downhill putt, and I was pretty sure he had hit it too hard. He made that return putt, though, making it three pars in a row right off the bat.  

     This past summer, I felt I really had an edge on him.  I was beating him consistently.  Now that he has taken lessons from Mike, we are back to taking turns beating each other.  The nice part is that we are both better players now, and I know we will continue to push each other to get even better.

33rd Excerpt From My Golf Diary!

     I am behind with my writing, so I rely on these excerpts when I haven't been keeping up.  In this excerpt, I lose to Eric and Rocky at Civitan in a skins game, but I am proud of the way I followed my routine each time I had putts for par.  Rocky no longer plays golf, and their daughter, Courtney, is now a junior in high school, and she has a sister, Kacy, who is a freshman.  They are both awesome volleyball players, and Courtney already has a scholarship to go play at what used to be called Mesa, the school my brother played college basketball.  Eric still plays at Civitan, more often than I do, and that's because it's a way for him to spend time with his mom, Dorrie, and to give her a break from Craig, who continues to struggle with the beginnings of dementia.  Once again, the more things change, the more some things stay the same.  I am at the very beginning of my birdie count with only sixteen or eighteen birdies.  Now, some 16 years later, I have 460 birdies and 24 eagles.  Still no aces, though. 

Written on 3-5-02.

     I just caught up on some of my earlier writing.  I enjoy reading and keeping this diary.  It lifts my spirits to read it sometimes.  Anyway, I have another birdie to write about. I also still need to share some of my opinion on Tiger’s new book, but it is getting late and I don’t think I will get to it this time.  

Civitan-Hole 2

     I played with Rocky and Eric at Civitan the day of Courtney’s birthday (Kelly and Rocky’s daughter).  Eric joined us at Civitan after the party.  We played skins and this was the only skin I won that day.  Bummer!  The wind was very strong.  I would normally take an 8-iron or a 9-iron depending on the hole location, but I used my 7-iron.  I hit one of my best punch shots right into the wind.  It floated and rode the air and settled right into the middle of the green.  The hole location was near the front on the right side.  I had about a fifteen or twenty foot putt.  I remember aiming at the shadow on the side of the cup.  I wasn’t particularly sure which way it would break when I went to putt it, but I must have intuitively guessed correctly.  It went right on in.  Eric and I were the only two to make birdies that day.  
     My full swing was terrible on the front nine.  It was mostly the Rocky and Eric show on the front.  On the back, though, I felt much more confident.  Eric won most of the skins that day.  We pretended that starting from hole #1, each hole was worth $10,000.00 more, starting with $10,000.00 on the first hole.  Hole #9 was worth $100,000.00!  On the last four holes I went par, par, par, bogey.  We played three extra playoff holes, and nobody could win the last skin.  We ended up splitting the last $250,000.00.  Eric won over $600,000.00.  Rocky came in second and I came in last.  Bummer again!  
     This was one of those days when I felt good even after losing, though.  I could have given away any one of those last holes, but I played well enough to keep pushing the skin to the next hole.  I only regret not making three putts for par that would have put me past Rocky in earnings.  I don’t regret my routine, though.  Line it up, take your best shot and accept the results. I did that on every putt for par that would have won the skin for me.  I did that on hole #9, #1, #2, and the final hole #3.  All of those had putts for par that would have won the skin for me.  I can live with knowing I followed my routine, and that I did the best that I can do.  Okay, I am going to bed.  I have to administer the CTB Test in my class tomorrow.  Until next time! Speaking of next time, I need to figure out my birdie count for this year.  I am up to either sixteen or eighteen. I will find out next time.

The First Birdie of 2018!

Written on 1-21-18.

     Belinda and I just got back from Sonic, a fast adventure with our new GMC Canyon into a wintry, windy, and icy Sunday afternoon.  Ironically, we got a bag of ice and an iced coffee for me.  I was hoping to get a hot coffee from Durango Joe’s, but they were closed.  

     Mostly, though, it was an excuse to get out of the house on a pretty nasty weather day.  Yesterday, it snowed for the first time here in a very long time.  We got a half-inch, and it has already melted off of our driveway, but hey, that’s better than nothing.  Up at the “cabin home,” they got six to eight inches, according to Amanda.  She and Eric went up there after a fun birthday dinner at Durango’s Mahogany Grille at the Strater.  Dale treated the twins to a fabulous dinner, and Anna, Eric, and I joined in on the food and the fun.  It was a fantastic, expensive, conversation-filled event. 

On to golf…

     I have one new birdie to report, and it is due to a fair weather day that we had on Friday, where the high was 55 degrees, but it felt more like it was in the 60's.  I texted my buddies, but they chose not to join me.  When I pulled into the parking lot, however, Randy pulled up right next to me.  He was trying to catch up to...

Another Year, Another Prezi, Another Journal, Another New Beginning

Written on 1-11-18.

     Hello and Happy New Year!  Welcome to another golf/life journal.  James and Danielle are back in New Zealand and Las Cruces, respectively.  It’s just Belinda and me here at home again, but it was a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas season with everyone.  After reading at church this past Sunday, I could let out a breath of relief.  Up until that point, it had been a blur of projects, work, traveling, activities, get-togethers, and various events.  Typical stuff, mostly, and all fantastic, too, but…non-stop…until Sunday after church.                     
     Belinda and I agreed that it started early on in November when we decided to sand and then paint every baseboard and window sill in our house before the new flooring from Lowe’s came in.  It ended with two Time to Teach trainings and one NES Math Workshop last week on the 2nd, the 4th, and the 6th.  Belinda, too, started back to work last Thursday, and she did a “full” week of work this week that ended today.

     Our New Year’s Prezi is complete, and it has been shared with all of our close family and friends.  Each Prezi is a fantastic summary of the prior year, and I’ve done them for years now.  This past month, we (B, James, Danielle, Jess, and I) sat down for the first time to watch every single one (using the HDMI dongle with our smart TV), including a couple I made for B’s and my anniversaries tossed in.  What a treasure!  It’s a digital history of our lives, broken up into bite-size records of what happened each year, including some writing, multiple pictures, and a few videos sprinkled in.  I enjoy making them, sharing them, and viewing them.  I just watched the most recent one for the umpteenth time.

     This journal is different.  This journal gives glimpses that the Prezis do not.  Through my writing, a more personal and private view of my thoughts is unwrapped.  Sure, it still is mostly about golf, my birdies, and an occasional eagle, but it’s always been more than that.  

     If there’s one thing I would like to try and do differently this year, it’s to give more personal perspectives in this journal.  Sometimes I have thoughts, and I think they would be wonderful to write about, but they just don’t get in here.  This year, I want to get more of those in here, my personal playground for writing about golf…and life.  Here’s to another year of writing and reflection!  Hooray!  So thankful that I’m still able to do it.