1st Excerpt From My Golf Diary Part 2

     In this first excerpt from my second golf journal, the birdie count becomes more and more official.  I am up to 20 at this point.  I take a mulligan and count the birdie for the last time.  Also, I see that I'm playing at Country Club, because Dori and Craig had a membership there, so I was allowed to go play with Eric.  Lastly, I lament about how expensive golf can be.

Written on 6-8-02.

     I completely printed the diary up to the point above this entry.  I can’t believe I have written 128 pages all about golf.  Let’s get on with even more writing.

Written on 7-23-02.

     I wrote this at Ziems Ford Corners while waiting for the truck to have its transmission checked out.  It’s been squeaking between second and third gears.  They couldn’t find anything, though.  Figures.  They were nice enough to shuttle me up to Pinon Hills to practice when I found out it was going to take several hours.  It was nice to write in the old journal for a change.  Here’s what I wrote…

     I have three birdies to write about.  I have now met my goal of doubling the number of birdies I had last year!  Here they are…

Country Club-Hole 11

     This hole is usually Eric’s lucky hole.  He has birdied this hole twice.  One time he birdied it from one hundred yards away!  I hit my 3-wood off the tee aiming over the tree on the left side of the fairway.  It looked like I had hit the top of it.  Craig didn’t think it had made it through.  I was playing with Craig, Dori, and Eric.  Luckily, it had made it through to the open area behind the tree.  From there I hit 8-iron onto the green, but only barely.  It was...

below the hole, to the left, and about twenty feet away.  This entire green is mostly flat, but it slopes dramatically toward the fairway.  Eric once hit a downhill putt here that continued to roll so slowly that he actually walked along beside it and coaxed it eventually into the hole!  This was his other birdie there.  I aimed well above the hole and the ball arched up like a rainbow, across the green, and then down into the hole.  That was the biggest breaking long putt I’ve ever made.  

Written on 7-25-02.

Civitan-Hole #1

     When Adam came to visit this summer, I played a lot of golf with him.  It was an expensive few days.  We played Pagosa, nine holes, with a cart so James and Danielle could ride along.  That cost $33.00, but I was expecting to pay $51.00 just so the kids could ride along for $9.00 each!  They either gave me a deal or forgot to charge for the kids.  Then Eric was nice enough to invite us to play at the Country Club with Dori one day.  I paid for Adam, so that cost $47.00 for eighteen holes with a cart for the two of us.  Civitan was a nice break from spending big bucks on golf.  Golf is expensive!  It doesn’t help the guilt that I have when I go play sometimes.  Luckily, my clubs are at least paid for now, and I get a great deal when I play with Eric at the Country Club, or for free every time I go play at Troy’s golf course.  Thank you Eric and Troy.

     Anyway, I digress.  When Adam and I played at Civitan, I hit my Thomas sand wedge, not my Cleveland, to about two feet from the hole.  Then I made the putt.  That was birdie #20!

Country Club-Hole #1

     I took a mulligan on my drive.  What a nasty habit!  I have tried to stop doing it.  Eric and I have done it just about every round we play.  It is always only one mulligan per round, but it just doesn’t seem right.  On the first tee, when we’ve had no warm-up, we’ve hit a second tee shot.  It’s okay considering we both do it so that it’s fair.  It’s okay considering we tee off immediately sometimes and don’t get a chance to warm up at all.  It’s even okay considering we’re amateurs just learning to play better and have fun.  

     It’s not okay if I expect to get a mulligan if I make a bad shot off the first tee every time.  It’s not okay considering we are turning in scores for a handicap.  I wonder how many other players turning in scores take liberties like that.  It’s not okay in the middle of a round when you’re warmed up and everything is flowing.  Eric and I have done that too if we’ve both hit two consecutive terrible shots.  First him, then me, or vice-versa.  Once again, it’s only always one per round, and we both take only one, but… 

     So, I took a mulligan to start this round and this hole.  I hit my first shot off the toe of my driver.  It went toward the practice area.  Thankfully, it didn’t hit anyone.  Eric pulled his tee shot out of bounds.  My mulligan was a long drive with my 3-wood.  It was low and the fairway is downhill, so it ran quite a ways.  I was only forty or so yards from the 150 marker, so I went for the green in two with my Bob Toski Utility Club.  I hit another smooth shot that ran through the bunker in the front and all the way to the fringe on the back.  I made an aggressive stroke with my putter to about four feet.  From there, I sunk the putt for birdie #21.  I’m counting it even though I took a mulligan.  I won’t do that for counting birdies anymore, though.