New Start, New Yearly Membership

Written on 5-29-18.

     Yesterday, I paid for my yearly membership at Aztec Municipal Golf Course and played eighteen holes.  Bruce called me when I was on my way (I had texted Bruce and C.J. just before I left not expecting to hear from either one), and he asked if I would wait for him.  I needed to pay for the membership and do a few things related to The First Tee, so that was not a problem.

     The front nine was in awful condition, but Bruce reassured me more than a couple of times that it was much better than when he and C.J. had played before.  It must have been really bad before, because this was discouraging and depressing.  I considered getting my money back.  Bare spots took up large pieces of fairway where grass normally grows.  Multiple, large areas were made up of just dirt and weeds, too.  The greens are nearly back to the disastrous form from a few seasons ago when they had to have emergency procedures to regain their smooth rolling status.  They were patchy, clumpy in spots, and loaded with brown dead areas.  Bruce reminded me, however, that if it weren’t for...
Randy giving this a go we would have no golf in Aztec whatsoever.  Great point.  We also agreed that if it was awful for us, it was lousy for everyone.  In other words, no advantage for competitors. 

     We had a fabulous, fun match to start off this season.  It took us until about the fourth hole to choose a game, and we decided a match play type of game would be best for this first outing, so we chose Escalating Skins with the bonuses.  I won’t recount the entire round hole by hole again, but here’s how it ended.

     Bruce shot an 80, and I earned an 81.  He got a birdie and this year’s first eagle, so C.J. and I owe him the $5.00 each for 2018’s first eagle.  He earned it on hole #7 when he pitched in with his third shot from the left side of the green from 15-20 yards.

We did a pitch-off for the money for the final two holes, and he won that with another amazing pitch to a couple of feet on our second play-off hole to #13’s green.  The final totals were Bruce: $1,130,00.00, and Pat: $730,000.00.

     We tried something new, because we had talked about it so much last year.  It was a trial round for a game I called “The Battle for the Box.”  Whoever wins the toss on the first hole gets a free point.  After that, any player who has the box and keeps it gets two points, but if someone takes over the box, he gets four points. I ended up winning that game due to a strong showing on the back nine.  The final score for that new game was 24 to 21.  Bruce took over the box right away on #10, but he only got it back one more time on hole #15.  I managed to get two birdies in a row on the back nine to help me shoot a 37, just three over par.

Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #11-Birdie #6 of 2018             

     I went for it, and it paid off.  My golf ball cleared the wash and ended up in the one bunker on the front left side of the green.  I chose to putt it out of there, because it had a launching pad/ramp that lined up with the hole that was on the middle right side.  My ball took a jump out of the bunker like Evil Knievel, landed on the green, bounced a bit, and then stopped on the other side of the hole two feet away.  The putt was mostly straight, and it rolled in for my first birdie of this round with Bruce.

Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #12-Birdie #7 of 2018             

     I went for it on this hole, too, and it also paid off.  My ball flew up the left side of the fairway and stopped on the left side of the green, nearly pin high.  With a small pitch with my sand wedge, my ball ended up above the hole that was cut on the middle tier this time.  Bruce’s ball was above mine, so I was able to get a read from his putt.  His ball stopped short and broke to the right, so I put more speed on it than I thought it needed and aimed a bit more to the left.  It worked.  My ball rolled in for a second birdie in a row.

     The scores for the separate nines were 41, 39 for Bruce and 44, 37 for me.  What a fantastic start to this year’s new membership, except for the sad and rough condition of the golf course.