39th Excerpt From My Original Golf Diary! Hello, Alto F2114!

     This whole month has been filled with excerpts, because there's just not a lot going on with golf right now, especially during a banner year of snowstorms.  I ended up working only one day out of three last week due to school cancellations/snow days.  It's interesting that the excerpt I am posting here mentions that we had no snow days that year.  

     Belinda and I did order our new camper, a Safari Condo Alto F2114, today.  We even have a pick-up date and time.  We will go to pick it up on August 30th at 9:00 AM.  Remember this date...and that one.  This is huge for us!  We are very excited about this!

     In a tiny bit of golf news, I passed the certification for The First Tee, but I am still stepping down (or aside) as the coach for Aztec this summer.  I will help with the transition, though, of course.

     I am going back and forth with posting this and talking to James on Messenger.  He's in Jakarta now, outside of it in a city called Bandung.  He is there to share the success of Creative HQ with government people in Indonesia.  Wow!

Until next time...      

Written on 5-27-02.

     Summer’s almost here!  We heard on Friday that we won’t have school for children on this coming Thursday.  Usually, that last day is a half-day, but Mr. Magee and the principals decided that since we had enough contact hours and no snow days this year to cancel school this coming Thursday.  I am thrilled.  That means that we get to use that day as a workday instead.  

     I am very excited about this summer.  I am eager to start practicing golf and have fun doing it!  Without Spike Doctor, I can devote more time to golf this summer than ever before.  I can’t wait.  

     I have some golf to write about, but first I also want to mention that I got to see...

38th Excerpt From My Original Golf Diary!

Written on 5-6-02.

     Buddy Day was this past Friday.  Belinda and I now always get each other.  Buddy Day is a day for third graders to get a whirlwind tour of Park Avenue.  May always goes by so quickly.  This year, May will be different, though.  No more Spike Doctor.  I have a lot more time on my hands this spring and it is a very nice change.  On Sunday after church, Eric and I got to go play at Civitan.  What a deal Civitan is!  It only costs $5.00, and you get to play eighteen holes.  Granted it’s a par three course, but what a great deal.  It’s very helpful for your short game also.  On every hole, you are pitching, chipping, or putting.  I played extremely consistently this time.  Usually we can only play nine or sometimes twelve holes, but this time we got in a full eighteen.  Belinda and Amanda took the kids to Durango.  B wanted to buy some pants, and all of the kids got to go play at a park.  I shot 32, 32!  I had all pars and bogeys (Notice the correct spelling this time.)  on the front nine.  On the back nine, I was all pars and bogeys and one double-bogey, which means I got one more par than on the first nine holes.  Here are the most memorable shots and holes.

Civitan-Hole 5

     Twice this day, I had pulled my drive on this hole.  The first time, I was left and long, but the second time, I was left and longer.  I had an awkward pitch between the trees to an elevated green.  I thought that my 7-iron, toe-up, toe-up swing would bounce the ball off the hill and hopefully keep it on the green.  I hit it lower than what I had pictured, but it was a good thing I did.  The ball rolled...

37th Excerpt From My Original Golf Diary! Personal Day at Dalton and a Crazy, Lucky Shot

Written on 5-2-02.

     Hello, I got to play this past Tuesday.  It was my personal day, so I went to play golf with Eric at the Dalton Ranch and Golf Club.  This is sort of becoming a tradition for me to take a personal day and play golf.  Last year, I got a birdie playing at Hidden Valley on my personal day.  No birdies this time, but some excellent steady play for a very difficult course, and four pars which I will write about here.  Also, another one of the craziest, luckiest shots I have ever hit.  Before I start, I would like to say that this was one of my best rounds ever despite scoring a 99.  That was a 47 on the front and a 52 on the back.  This course was tough with lots of water and narrow fairways.  I know if I were to play it again, I would score even lower, however.  We also played from the gold tees, which were a total of 6,394 yards compared to what we usually play, the whites, which measured 5,982.  I would say my strength that day was driving.  I drove the ball very well and very confidently except for three holes, hole #1, # 8, and #15.  I can remember three-putting four holes too.  My poor putting did not help my score either.  I also blew up on the last two holes, but looking back it is easy to see why.  First, I didn’t...

36th Excerpt From My Original Golf Diary!

Written on 4-23-02.

     I have some time to write tonight.  I am downloading the music video that goes with Star Wars Episode 2, Attack of the Clones.  It came out today on MTV, but I don’t have MTV, so I am downloading it instead.  I have so much to write about, but it seems so little time to write.  I will just get started.  I have three birdies to recall.

Civitan-Hole 1

     Eric and I played at Civitan a couple of Saturdays ago.  We played nine holes, and I played rather well.  I shot a 34 on the front nine.  I was doing pretty well on hitting greens.  Anyway, we had time to play four more holes before I left to meet B, the kids, Kelly, Rocky, and Courtney at the Outback Restaurant.  On hole #1, I used my gap wedge this time.  I had used my sand wedge the first time and ended up short.  This time I was above the flag about fifteen feet.  I had a downhill putt that would break from left to right.  I putted it true, and once again I had to get Eric’s attention when it was about two feet from the hole.  I knew it was going in, so I called his name like we so often do to each other on putts we know are going to go in.

Civitan-Hole 3

     This hole was shorter than hole #1, and the flag was on the front this time, but we were hitting into a pretty stiff breeze.  I used my pitching wedge, but it didn’t feel like I used a full swing.  It was more like a little past three-quarters.  I hit it pretty high, but not too high.  It landed right next to the flag on the left side.  I got up to the hole, and as I walked, I tried to...