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...
pack my EAS bars in my golf bag, and we were walking. I was a little physically and mentally fatigued. It didn’t help that I also ate some of the fudge-striped cookies that Eric brought, but I was looking for any kind of energy there towards the end. Second, I called Guy on hole #17. I shouldn’t have done that. I wasn’t concentrating on what I was doing. I should have waited and called him after the round was over. Third, I should have played even safer than I did on those last two holes. I could have aimed more toward the fat of the green on #17 (I ended up pulling that shot into the water), and on hole #18, I could have made a safer tee shot. Oh well! It’s over now and I learned some valuable lessons. Here are the pars…
Dalton Ranch-Hole 2
This was a par three with one of the strangest and slightly intimidating tee shots I’ve had to hit yet. Four workers were working on the bunkers next to and below the green. Bunkers surrounded this green in front and to the left, and the flag was in a sucker location on the front. The yardage was 141, so I picked my 8-iron. Eric’s shot landed short in the huge bunker in front of the green. My shot went, sub-consciously I think, away from the workers to the right and very low. It rolled down to spot just off the green. I pretty much skulled it. I had a very long putt for my second shot, but I knocked it within five feet and made the third putt for par. One of the workers seemed impressed. He nodded his approval after my putt.
Dalton Ranch-Hole 7
I hit a good drive right from the start. I used my 3-wood. I remember it rolling down right into the middle of the fairway. From there, I hit a 6-iron as a lay-up shot, but it went a little farther than I wanted it to and missed the fairway on the left side. I had a shot that was a little below my feet. It was about 70 or 80 yards from there to the green. A little creek ran between where I was and the green. It had stepping stones to allow you to walk to the green I remember. I hit a high shot that landed about six or seven paces from the flag. I missed the birdie putt to the right about four inches, but the distance was good. I finished out for my par. Eric played terribly on this hole. I felt bad for him. He hit it into the water three times! He was not very happy.
“Put me down for a nine,” he said.
Dalton Ranch-Hole 12
This hole was the longest of the par threes on the course. It was 187 yards. I chose my 4-iron. This (to me) was the best tee shot of the day for me. The wind was going left to right. I aimed toward a United States flag across the highway a little to the left of the flag on the green. I remember it (the U.S. flag) was whipping really hard in the wind. The wind would come and go a lot that day. My shot curved right toward the flag with a high fade that cut through the wind, and I had a feeling that I just knew it was right. It looked farther away from the hole than it was from the tee box after it landed. When we got up the to the hole, it was just about five feet away. I followed my routine for the birdie putt, but it ended up short and right. I tapped in for par.
Dalton Ranch-Hole 13
Lucky hole #13! This is one of three holes that go along the highway, and that includes going right next to the D&SNG railroad tracks, too. This hole was also the only hole we came across anyone else playing that day. A man came along in a cart behind us. We let him play through with us on this hole. I hit my drive into a bunker on the right side, and so had the guy who was playing through. After he hit out, I hit my second shot out of the sand and advanced it onto the fairway. That was the best sand shot of the day for me. I was left with just a pitching wedge and a little help from the wind behind me to get it on the green. I hit a good approach that ended up closer to the flag than I had intended. I was trying to play it closer to the middle of the green to avoid a big sand trap below the hole on the left, but ended up missing nicely. From there I had a pretty easy double-putt for my par. I also got to see the train! It came by as I was walking up to my third shot. Some of the tourists kindly waved at me.
Dalton Ranch-Hole 4
I ended up making bogey on this hole. I also realized that I have been spelling bogey wrong this whole time. I will now spell it correctly, bogey. (I am finding and correcting them all today with the find option in the edit menu 1-24-04) Anyway, this hole is more about the fifth shot than the score. I ended up pulling out another miracle-type shot here. I was playing this hole pretty well until the third and fourth shots. I hit a nice drive and made a nice 5-iron to get ready for a good approach shot, but my third ended up in the bunker some thirty odd yards short. I chunked the bunker shot and it went into the rough next to a big tree to the right of the green and well below the hole. I didn’t even have a back swing that would allow me to go straight back and through. I had to bring my clubhead back to the right and whip it through severely to the left. The ball was sitting in some pretty thick grass, too. I hacked it out, but it really took off! I thought for sure the ball was going to go over the flag and maybe down into the river, but suddenly it hit the flag and the flagstick! It dropped no less than four feet from the hole! I made that putt for a lucky bogey, but I remember reading Tom Kite or someone saying, “You’ve got to give luck a chance.” I was laughing a lot after that. My mood was already calm and happy, but I was even more cheerful after this hole!
I came away from Dalton with such a good feeling. I think I enjoyed knowing that I got a day off to go play golf. All day long, it felt like summer had already started. Wednesday it was back to work as usual, but Tuesday I felt like I was in a different world. I want to mention two other shots that were huge, but not necessarily good for my score. On hole #9, I hit a long drive with my 3-wood thinking I was too far away to hit it into the water that cut across the fairway from where I was. I was wrong. When we got up there, my ball was nowhere in sight. It was a big drive that really didn’t deserve to end up in the water. Also, on hole #11, I hit a huge 5-wood from the fairway. I was well past 200 yards away even though I had hit a nice drive. My drive just got knocked down by the wind. I hit my 5-wood a little to the left, but I pured it! It ended up on the cart path behind the hole on the left side. It put me in a bad spot where I had to pitch onto the green, but it felt fantastic!
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