Stuck in Traffic Just Past Bailey, Colorado

Written on 12-21-18.

     We are stuck in traffic just past Bailey, Colorado, and we are on our way to Mom and Dad’s for Christmas.  Tomorrow is my wife’s 51st birthday, and we are going to the White Fence Farm for the last time…ever…on Sunday for the Christmas celebration with Bev’s family and Barry.  Guy and his girls won’t be here this Christmas, but he just had his neck surgery and his in-laws are flying up from Florida.  

     The line of traffic ahead of us is long, and it reminds me (especially during this time of year) of a curling strand of Christmas tree lights, red ones of course.  We are tired and struggling to think of something to say to each other.  We just want to be there.  Traffic is beginning to move now, but it’s the traffic going in the other direction; we are crawling along in little spurts.  At least the full moon is bright and makes for an incredible view.

On to golf…

     My goal when I set out to play the other day was to...

get two more birdies for an even 50 this for this year and this journal, but I got two bonus ones.  The other bonus, and it’s a huge one, was that I shot my best and lowest round of the season.  I did break 80 with two 79’s twice before this round, but this time I cracked it wide open with a 75.  Since it’s my best score of the season on a regulation golf course, and because I like to do it this way, it’s time for another hole by hole breakdown.

Hole #1-I won’t lie.  I was mostly thinking about not getting a seven on this hole this time.  The last time I played this hole, I played it three times, each time doing my best to get better than a seven, because that’s what I got when I started.  Amazingly and frustratingly, I managed to get a seven two more times.  Ugh.  Not this time.

     My drive was long and left, and it ended up near the trees on the left side of the cart path.  I used my 8-iron from there, and I pushed my shot to the hill that’s on the right side of the entrance to this green.  I saw it hit the hill and roll down towards the green.  I used my approach wedge for the chip, and I skulled it a bit, so it didn’t get up in the air much at all, but it did stop just below the hole about six feet away.  I missed that putt for par, but it was just a tap-in for my bogey.  I was one over to start.  No seven this time!

Hole #2-My tee shot ended up in the bunker in a tiny crater (not many people have been raking during this colder season).  I blasted it out with my sand wedge, but it didn’t go far.  I had a long, downhill putt of about 30 feet, and I put my ball right next to the hole, about a foot away and just behind it.  Two over.

Hole #3-My drive spurted out to the right.  With this new driver, and for the rest of this round, my thought was to aim to the left and hit it hard.  It worked really well, consistently pushing my drives 20 to 30 yards out to the right.  As long as I aimed the correct distance to the left, it worked out really well.  

     This one went a bit too far to the right, though, and my ball was stuck behind the three smaller trees that are on the hill on the right side.  The taller tree on the other side of the ditch was also blocking my shot to the flag, but that’s because the flagstick was on the top of the green.  It didn’t matter.  My attempt to go for the flag didn’t work, and I subconsciously pulled my approach to the left.  My ball fell short of the green and on the front right side.      I faced a long pitch to the top tier of the green, and I used my sand wedge to get it up there.  It worked well, and my ball went past the hole on the right side.  This 15-foot putt nearly missed, and I was three over after three near misses on par putts.

Hole #4-My 9-iron was the best choice, and my ball settled just off the green on the right side, just 20 feet away from the hole that was on the bottom tier.  I used my putter and rolled the ball above the hole and past it.  It curved to the right and settled below the hole around five feet away.  Because it was uphill, I could put it on the right line easier, and my ball rolled in for my first par of the round.  Still three over.

Hole #5-Like I wrote above, I aimed to the left and hit it hard.  My ball flew up the right side of the fairway, landed, bounced to the left, and stopped just a few feet onto the fairway.  My 6-iron attempt at a fade didn’t work at all, and I either hit it perfectly straight (depending on how I was lined up), or I pushed it toward the right side of the green.  Either way, it was two shots in a row that went farther right than I felt comfortable, especially on this hole.  

     I skulled my pitch from the front of the green again, but this one popped up a bit higher than my third shot on #1.  I was below the hole and ten feet away from a legitimate birdie attempt.  It had a foot of right-to-left break, and it curled back downhill a bit, stopping a foot below the hole, so I got a par.  Still three over.

     We are free of that traffic now, and it looked like a terrible accident involving possibly four vehicles.  I am going to stop, so I don’t get carsick.  

Until next time…