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...
Spider Man and Star Wars Episode 2, Attack of the Clones this weekend in Denver. We really went, though, for Grandma Swope’s ninetieth birthday. She reserved the clubhouse at her trailer park just for this occasion. I got to see some relatives I haven’t seen for a long time. My cousin Becky and her husband Gordon, my Aunts Cynthia and Sylvia, and Cynthia’s husband Kermit, and my other cousin Evan and his wife Betty all came. We had great fun visiting, and I know Grandma enjoyed herself. She said if she turned 100, she was going to have a party that raised the roof! Guy and I also sang Grandma a birthday song sung to the tune of the “Marty Moose National Anthem”. It was a song dedicated to her. We were a big hit, I guess. Bev and Curt couldn’t come because Daryl was playing in a soccer tournament in Albuquerque. It was a fantastic weekend. Spider Man was good, but Attack of the Clones was much better in my opinion, but I am a Star Wars fan. I also got to play golf with Adam, Guy and AM. We played at Troy’s South Suburban Golf Course again. I want to write about something else first, though. I played in another scramble at Hidden Valley. I really shouldn’t have, because I had just gotten over being sick. My team and I did not win this time, but I was proud of the way we bounced back after making two bogeys. We ended up with a score of one under. I played with only two other players this time instead of the usual four. This made it a little more difficult as we didn’t have a fourth player if the other three didn’t get off a good shot. My partners were Jeff (last name) and I want to say Galen, but I’m not sure. He looked like Lee Trevino, though. I mentioned that to him on hole #15 when he was walking to the green. He especially looked like Mr. Trevino when he smiled. While we were waiting to tee off at #16, he told us lots of people mistook him for Lee Trevino. He also mentioned that he played against him and had even beaten him once. Lee Trevino had shown him how to set up to the ball, I guess. He was pretty good. He actually earned two of the birdies of the last three holes we played. That got us back to even. On hole #16, I got the birdie!
Hidden Valley-Hole 16
This is the last par three on the course. I used my 9-iron and landed the ball right of the flag just on the green. After Galen and Jeff tried to make the birdie putt, I was up. It was our last chance to get under par for our round and maybe have a chance at winning. The green looked terrible! It was green, then brown and rough, and then green again right around the hole. It was from about fifteen feet. I made that putt and got us to one under! It wasn’t enough, however. The winning team was five under, but I helped our team have a chance. I earned that birdie all by myself, so I am counting it for my birdie count. I am now up to eighteen birdies and one eagle this year. I am counting the birdie I made in the second Tuesday scramble, and the birdie putt I made in the first Tuesday scramble. I didn’t hit the tee shot on the first one, but it was a clutch putt. I also feel that my drive and second shot on hole #7 set up the birdie we got on that hole, so those two holes combined are definitely worth one birdie.
I played better than I ever have at Troy’s golf course this past weekend. I shot an 89! I had 47 strokes on the front nine, and 42 strokes on the back. I had seven pars, but no birdies. I also had nothing higher than a bogey on the back nine. The pars came on holes #4, #5, #6, #8, #11, #13, and #15.
I started off slowly, but steadily got better as the round went on. I only had one hiccup at hole #9 where I scored a 7 on a par four. Before I came to Denver, I used visualization and scored nine under on the front nine, which included an eagle on hole #8. For the life of me, though, I couldn’t remember hole #17 when I was trying to visualize, so I just played the other eight holes in my head for the back nine. It helped tremendously to do this before I played. It came in really handy on the par five fifth. I pictured a huge tee shot, a nice lay-up with my 5-iron, and then a shot on the green that ended with a birdie putt. I almost got the birdie in real life! It played in reality almost identically to the way I played it in my head. I also used good course management on the par five eleventh. I used my 5-wood off the tee, then another 5-iron lay-up to about 100 yards out. I then pulled my third shot to just off the green. From there I pitched on and putted in for par to finish out that hole. I, of course, putted very well. I made all of my putts within six feet except for the one on hole #9. I also had really good bunker play. I got out of every bunker in one shot, and always got on the green. If there’s something I need to work on, it’s getting my bunker shots closer to the hole, but my bunker play was consistent and confident.
One other thing I would like to mention is that I didn’t notice hazards like Guy or Adam would. For example, on my third shot on hole #5, I murmured before my shot that there was a lot of green on the left of the flag. Guy told me there was also a bunker over there on the left, but I hadn’t even noticed that until he said that. On hole #9, Adam mentioned the water, which was way over on the left, but it hadn’t even crossed my mind that I would hit it anywhere near the water. I’m just writing this to say that I think it is good that I am so focused on where I am going that I am not even noticing hazards. Okay, I have to stop. Busy day tomorrow with only two days left of school. I plan on practicing on Friday, the official first day of summer for me! Then Eric and I are planning on playing this Saturday before we head to Lake Powell on Sunday. Before I stop, I want to write again the birdie count for this year as it seems I have a hard time remembering when I go to write again. It’s eighteen birdies and one eagle. Only two more birdies to make my goal of doubling last year’s amount. Good night.
No comments:
Post a Comment