Written on 7-23-19.
It’s Tuesday, and I will play at Pinon Hills again tomorrow. I set a tee time for 8:40 AM, hoping to avoid the heat and the monsoon storms that will likely come in the afternoon. I might be playing by myself, though. Bruce and C.J. are working on a trellis at the Spence house, and I haven’t received a reply from Shawn yet.
The last time we played, Shawn suggested the three of us (Shawn, C.J., and I) take on this new Davis guy that C.J. and I had just met. He took Eric’s place in our foursome, and that worked well, because he had just gotten the day off from working for UPS. C.J. thought he was going to be really tough to beat, because he saw what he was doing down on the range.
Shawn obviously knew how well this guy could play, and that’s why he said all three of us should take him on. Davis started out with a bang! After his approach ended up in the bunker behind the green, he splashed his ball out, and although it had too much speed on it, it clanked dead center on the flagstick and...
fell in. The three of us could not even manage one par, so he was one up immediately and easily. Then he got a second birdie on the very next hole, but at least C.J. and I earned pars on that one, but those didn’t matter; we were two down right away.
On the next hole, Shawn and I got the pars, and Davis showed us he was human. I said I saw a chink in his armor. He laughed. He got a bogey, so we gained one back. Before we teed off on this hole, Shawn said, “He won’t birdie all of the holes.”
I got one more par on the par three #6, and that got us back to even. I learned he played basketball in high school at Kirtland Central, but he didn’t pick up golf until after he graduated. He worked at Riverview, and he mostly taught himself. After that hole, that was the last time we would be even. The pattern of Davis either trouncing or tying us continued for the rest of the round. This Davis could flat out play golf. He was like a tour pro, in my opinion. He got another birdie on #7, and his front nine score was a +1, 37. This was even more impressive, because he was playing from the gold teeing grounds, and he rarely used his driver. I played from the blues, and Shawn and C.J. played the whites. Shawn was preparing for the Pinon Hills Classic, so that’s why he played with C.J. this time.
The match ended on hole #15 when he got the only par, so he won handily four up with three to play. My newer swing did nothing to help us, and my little private dream of playing at Pinon Hills with a lower score never materialized. Hmmmm. Golf is hard. Who knew? Even Davis got a double bogey on #13 when his foot slipped on the soaked teeing ground up there. He ended up shooting a 75, +3. I managed only two more pars on the back, and my score ballooned to a 98, a score that tied C.J.’s. My goal tomorrow is to beat a 98. I truly hope to blow it wide open, though.
A few more things about Davis. First, he works for UPS, like Shawn did, but he had the day off, and that’s why he was able to join us. Second, he was a pleasure to play with (despite the beating he gave us), and he would joke about how it should take two pars for our team to beat his score. Finally, he took 2nd place at the Pinon Hills Classic, and not in one of the lower flights obviously; he took 2nd overall. He shot a 74, 75, for a total 149, and the winner shot a 77, 71, for a total 148. I’m surprised he didn’t win, actually.
I haven’t been a slacker when it comes to practicing. I went to the driving range on Sunday after watching Shane Lowry win The Open. I worked my way through my irons, and I practiced with my driver and my 3-wood. A lady gave me half of a large bucket when she told me her daughters were done, so I got some extra practice in, too. I learned that my driver and my 3-wood both work best when I aim up the left side and smash them as hard as I can. They will go straight and long that way, and they even fade slightly sometimes when I do that. Why do I have to relearn this lesson with my driver halfway through this summer? It worked so well when I did that at the end of last summer.
Yesterday, I played with Kyle, one of my former students and First Tee participants. He looked so crestfallen when I said I wasn’t going to do The First Tee this summer, so I told him and his parents that I would take him to go play when the weather was better. I think I spoke to them back in March or April, but I finally got to cross that off my list, and it was super fun to see him and play golf with him again.
I shot a 34 the first time around, and I was fully expecting to play the full 18, but he said he was hot and ready to head home after we finished on #9, so I took him back home again. I asked the guy in the pro shop, Robert, if I could return later that afternoon to finish my round, and he said it would be fine with him as long as I got there before 2:00. So, I did. I played nine more, but during that round I felt like a real “company/business man” due to some texts I was getting. I was being offered three trainings for CCSD, so I chose to wrap it up after hole #9 and head home to get some pricing options ready.
Thankfully, I ended with a par after getting up and down from behind the green, and I improved my score by three strokes. That made it much easier to leave. To earn that score, I had five pars, two bogeys, and one double bogey. That’s more like it.
Until next time…
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