Written on 10-18-18.
Hello, old friend. I have some fun news! I played Civitan today, and I got two birdies…and I shot even par for the last nine holes I played. Yes, even par! I’ll record those birdies later, and I’ll do a hole by hole breakdown for the even-par round, too. The birdies came on holes #8 and #4.
I’m also writing really briefly here before falling asleep to report that Eric, C.J., Bruce and I are playing at Hillcrest tomorrow. It’s going to be a blast! Okay, off to sleep now.
Until next time…
10-20-18
It’s 3:51 on a Saturday afternoon. Belinda and Amanda are driving home after going to Albuquerque to do some dress shopping for Becca’s wedding. I heard they had success. Hooray!
Written on 10-21-18.
I had to stop writing yesterday, because I remembered I had a BWP meeting in Farmington at 4:30. Now, it’s 8:22 on a Sunday night, and my family and I just wrapped up an early chat on WhatsApp due to Guy getting up early for an MRI on his neck tomorrow. Belinda is taking dinner to Jess. She just got back from visiting her cousin, Beth, out in New York, so I am sure she will be super thankful to have dinner brought to her. Kodak/Kody and I are just hanging out at home together.
On to golf…
So, as I had written above, I earned two birdies at Civitan, and I shot a round of even par for my last nine holes. I went around four times that day, and it was...
wonderful. The young kid in the pro shop was fine with me playing as much as I wanted, and I still have two more free rounds to go on the coupon thing that Ed Strauss gave me.
Written on 10-23-18.
Belinda must have come home, so I stopped writing again in the entry above. Either that, or I am super distractible and can’t keep my bottom in my chair long enough to continue writing. Now, I am at Twin Lakes Elementary, and I am grounding myself to the conference room. The teachers here have been observed by numerous administrators this morning, so I am giving them all a break from one more adult coming into their rooms. Finally, I can get those new birdies in here.
Civitan Golf Course-Hole #8-Birdie #43 of 2018
First of all, this was an incredibly gorgeous fall day. The trees there were halfway green and golden and the weather was just right, so it made for the perfect environment to walk around and around and around to get in my four nine-hole rounds on a Thursday. I was so struck with the beauty, that I even stopped to take some pictures and share them with Belinda.
I don’t normally insert pictures in here, but the one above illustrates what I mean so well. See how beautiful it was that day?
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| Gorgeous Fall Day at Civitan |
I chose my pitching wedge, because the wind wasn’t blowing like it was later in the day. On my final round, I chose my 9-iron to help combat the wind. My ball was pushed out to the right, and it settled under a pine tree, but I had plenty of room to make the pitch shot I played next. I put the ball in the back of my stance, and I made plenty of practice swings. The ball popped up crisply and headed towards the hole. It landed and started rolling, and I was hopeful that it would be close. It could not have gotten any closer. It clicked against the flagstick and dropped in. Birdies can be so rare and random sometimes.
Civitan Golf Course-Hole #4-Birdie #44 of 2018
This birdie came in my final round, the one where I shot even par. It was difficult to choose a club here. For the first few times, I chose poorly. I ended up by the fence twice, but the second time was because I pulled my tee shot, not because I used too much club. The club that did the trick without pulling it this time was my approach wedge. It must have flown right over the flag, and I remember pleading with it to get over the tree, too. It did. My ball was just on the green and near the collar on the backside. The putt was so cool. It was from about four paces away (yes, I checked), and when it caught the hole, it barely fell in, causing it to spin completely around the hole in a clockwise direction before falling in on the front side.
There. I am caught up with all the birdies. Now, I plan on doing a quick hole by hole breakdown of my even round. I will do that later, though; it’s off to lunch for me.
Okay, I am back from lunch. I have about a half hour before I meet with a teacher. Here’s how I shot even par that day.
Hole #1-My tee shot went right over the flag, but it did not stay on the green. I put my first putt too far past the flag, but I made the comeback putt for my first par.
Hole #2-My tee shot landed my ball on the right side of the flag about 30 feet away. I was able to double-putt from there. This was the first of six greens I hit.
Hole #3-My ball flew over the tree branch that blocks this hole this time. I missed it to the left the first time, and I hit it the other two times. That huge branch was stubbornly in the middle of the trajectory of most swings. My first putt was from about 20 feet away on the right side.
Hole #4-This was the birdie hole that I described above, so I was one under after this hole.
Hole #5-This was the only bogey of the round, and it was because I missed the green on the right side. My chip shot put my ball too far past the hole to make the comeback putt for par.
Hole #6-This approach with my 9-iron gave me the best look at a birdie. My putt was around seven feet away, and I barely missed it, so I had to settle for another par.
Hole #7-I had another great opportunity here to earn a birdie from about 15 feet, but my ball stayed above the hole, refusing to break to the left and go in like I had hoped. Still, I was hitting greens and double-putting consistently.
Hole #8-I did it again (hit the green and double-putted). My first putt was even farther away than it was on #7, but I remember putting it just past the hole, so that’s a good thing.
Hole #9-I know I should not pay attention to the score, but sometimes I just do. It was nearly impossible not to know my score, however, because I had all pars, one birdie, and one bogey. To end with even par, I knew I had to earn a par and that all starts with making a great tee shot. I didn’t. It was a lousy pushed tee shot with my 8-iron, and it was well short and near the trees that go between #1 and #9. When I got up to it, though, I saw I could still go for the green. Sadly, even though I kept my wrists bent through impact, my ball still popped up enough to catch a branch and prevent it from getting on the green.
I was left with a pitch from the front of the green and on the fairway, but it was around 30 feet away. I was just hoping to get it close enough to earn my bogey and know that I had beaten Eric’s latest best score there, a 30, something I wasn’t able to do in my first three rounds. Up to that point, I had shot 33, 31, and 33.
When my ball went in, I whooped! Someone was working over in the horseshoe pits, but he either didn’t hear, notice, or care, because he just went about his work. It was thrilling, though, to know that I had played well enough to shoot a round of even par, even for just nine holes on an easy par three course. That’s rare.
What I really would like to do, however, is shoot a round of even par or better on a regulation course. I found out the very next day how much more difficult that is when playing a course like Hillcrest. First of all, at Civitan, I was choosing from clubs that were my 8-iron or lower every time. With those clubs and from those distances, hitting greens and scoring better is obviously much easier. At Hillcrest, I was usually choosing my 7-iron or higher when making approaches. I know it shouldn’t make a difference, but it definitely did that day.
We had a competitive match again with Bruce and C.J., but Eric wasn’t able to help me much at all (he shot a 105), so we ended up losing this time three and two. This round was positive for many reasons, though. First, it was the return of Bruce. He came back to play, probably because we were playing at Hillcrest. It was great to see him, and he started out with a birdie and a very strong front nine score of 39, just four over.
Multiple times, I had putts for pars or bogeys that just lipped out or barely missed, so that was another positive. For example, my bogey putt on #2 was a tad too high and too fast to allow my ball to fall into the hole; it lipped out. During the round, I ended up in three bunkers, and I escaped all three on the first shot. After each escape, I had putts that just barely missed, so I was not only escaping, I was getting my ball close enough to have a great chance of getting in with just one putt after each escape. On #6, as another example, I got out from the bunker on the front left side, and the putt for par also just lipped out.
That’s enough for today. It was wonderful to get in some extra writing time today and feel more caught up. Next time, I will recount a few more things from our round at Hillcrest, probably the last round there this season.
Until next time…
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