The Appropriate End of 2019

     The last time we played was also probably the last time we would be able to play this year.  With 2019 coming to an end in a few days, and with no decent weather days, this journal is winding up.  This was the round that had our regular threesome and ended up being warmer than I expected.

     We chose stroke play, and I took two pops on each nine vs. Bruce.  I started well.  I went par, par, double, par, bogey, and that’s when it unraveled.  C.J. and I got so far behind with stroke play that we chose to start over with a new game, and since Bruce was playing so well (he shot a 41 on the front), C.J. wanted the two of us to take on Bruce in match play on the back nine.  This really is going to end up being the last round of this year, unless some miracle happens in the last days of December and we have a warming trend.  Not likely.

     Here’s how it happened.  Bruce started off with a par on hole #10, and C.J. and I were all...
over the place, and couldn’t answer, so he was one up.  Then C.J. and I both earned a bogey, and Bruce missed a short putt for his bogey, so we got it back to even.  C.J. and Bruce got double bogeys on the par three #12, so we stayed even.  I should have had a par on the next hole to keep us one down, but I pulled it, so we went two down.  I was soooo frustrated.  I don’t have that happen too often, and I really didn’t need to miss at that point, but that’s golf.

     C.J. and Bruce got bogeys on the par three #15, so we remained two down, but we were quickly running out of holes.  

     I boomed the longest drive on the next hole, and I was set up nicely to hit the green and get a birdie or a par, but my pitching wedge approach fell short, and I was stuck with a pitch from behind the hill on the left side of the green.  Bruce also fell short and missed the green, but he had a putt for birdie from just off the green, and was probably going to get his par.  I scuffed the the little pitch and my ball barely went over the hill and stopped on the green, but I was way short of the hole.  I still had probably twenty-five feet left.  I had to made that putt to extend the match.  If Bruce gets his par, it’s all over three up and two to play.  It’s spectacular when you have to make a long putt to extend the match…and you actually make it.  It rolled over the lip of the hole, and we kept playing.

     I got the only par on the next hole, and this was the first time I remember getting a par on this hole since we switched memberships.  C.J. got a bogey, so he earned his par with a pop, so we really won that hole.  We were one down with one to play.  Could we possibly tie Bruce?

     We could.  C.J. had the last putt of the day (and probably of the year) to win the hole.  It was around six feet, and it wasn’t easy.  I looked at it before he took his shot, and I thought it had a 33% probability to make it.  He nailed it.  With his pop on this hole, his bogey became a par, and that par beat Bruce’s bogey.  We had pulled it off, and it really was a grand way to end the year.  It was topped off with one of the most brilliant sunsets, too.  How fun to end the year with my two favorite playing partners in a tie?  Most appropriate.

Until next year…