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.