Written on 8-26-19.
Belinda and I are somewhere in Ohio. We’re on I-80, and the sky is drizzly and gray. It’s a lighter gray, though, like the lightest gray on our new kitchen floor with its faux wood pattern.
She’s driving and listening to Harlan Coben’s audio book Hold Tight. It’s 3:22 here, but it feels much more like the 1:22 back in Aztec, the time we’re used to. It feels more like it’s just after lunch, not heading towards dinnertime. Our next stop is Niagara Falls where we’ll be staying at another Hampton Inn. Because Tink and Laura are not inviting us to come to their cabin tomorrow night, we’ll have all day tomorrow to explore Niagara and then possibly drive halfway to Maine in the PM. We shall see what we decide. We’re two crazy lovebirds who are doing whatever we want, so we’ll just decide when the time comes. Born to be wild!
On to golf…
I wanted so desperately to get a win before we left, so I could have this moment here, the moment where I get to recount how it all went down to get a victory. Here’s what happened the last time we played before going on our adventure. Ah, we are 34 miles from Toledo. That’s a bit more specific than somewhere in Ohio.
Bruce is out when it comes to golf for now. He e-mailed me to let me know not to invite him when we have tee times anymore. He’s happy doing other projects at home. I said in my reply that that was fine, but I also asked him about Hillcrest. I haven’t heard back from him yet, though. We hope to play at Hillcrest again when I return. We haven’t done our usual Hillcrest/Cuckoo’s combination yet this season.
Since Bruce wasn’t there, Tim joined us to make up our foursome. Although I learned on the first tee that Shawn had bashed in his left thumb with a hammer while helping a buddy with his flooring, I still recommended that he and I take on Tim and C.J. this time. His thumb was swollen and sore, but he could still play. Everyone agreed, and we were off. C.J. would get his usual three pops per side on the six most difficult holes to make it fair. Hopefully, Shawn and I would prevail this time. We had never won together before, but I had a good feeling.
We had a great start. I won the first hole with a par. My driver put my ball just off the fairway on the left, and my 8-iron landed my ball on the correct tier on the green for an easy two-putt. We were one up.
We stayed one up for the next two holes, but that was all Shawn. I struggled with two double-bogeys in a row. I made a long putt for that first double, though. Then Tim got the only birdie of the round on hole #4 to get his team back to even. C.J. got a par, too, and we talked about how that hole was his hole; he always plays it well. My par and Tim’s par kept us even on hole #5. Shawn’s bogey and C.J.’s bogey kept us even on hole #6. I hit the green on #7, but I triple-putted for a bogey, so we stayed even on #7, too. It was a good match-up.
Tim and C.J. both earned pars on #8, so we were down for the first time. Thankfully, Shawn matched Tim with a par on hole #9, and it was a superb par, too. He had to pitch out sideways after his tee shot, and he made an excellent pitch to less than a foot for his fourth shot. After nine holes, we were one down.
When I started this round, I had six new Bridgestone golf balls. I checked to see how many I had before pulling out of our garage. When I finished the front nine, however, all six golf balls were gone. I won’t tell how each ball was lost, but once again, it was comical. My buddies joked about having to stop and buy a sleeve of new golf balls. Thankfully, I had extra golf balls in the pocket of my golf bag where I keep my sunscreen, too.
Shawn lectured me about going to the range before playing, and he’s right. I should. He joked that I could take those six new golf balls down to the range, whack them, and get rid of them there instead of losing them out on the course. Point taken. At Hidden Valley, we could tee off without warming up and take our one mulligan on the first tee if necessary, but that doesn’t work at Pinon Hills. Too much danger lurks near the fairways over there. Thankfully, I avoided most of the danger on the back nine.
We are past Toledo now, and I’m going to take over driving again. I’ll write about the back nine the next time I write.
Until next time…
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