Phoenix, Ajo, and Abiquiu

Written on 4-26-21.

        We had a grand trip to Phoenix and Ajo.  Kyle and I went to Western Skies Golf Club on Friday morning.  It was ten minutes from his new home.  We stopped at Dutch Bros. for iced coffees along the way.  It was fun, and I think Kyle enjoyed it.  I was happy to have some time alone with him and to practice my new swing a little bit.

His house is splendid, and I was so glad I got the chance to see it.  With the new solar panels and new windows coming soon, it is really shaping up.  We were there when he got the best estimate for replacing all of the windows from Lowe’s.  We enjoyed a treat from Creamistry, a liquid nitrogen ice cream shop in downtown Gilbert to celebrate.

We also had a swell time in Ajo with Char and Ed.  It was complete with an arroyo hike, a tour of their construction progress, excellent food, stimulating and hilarious conversations, and another final tour of Ajo just before we left.  Pawz and Kody got along swimmingly and had all cholla spines removed successfully, but not without some tremendous pain, before we left.  We had to use pliers.  

Seeing Belinda and the two dogs in the back of our truck was...

quite the sight to behold.  Not a lot of room, but both dogs could lie down eventually.  B even took a nap on the way to Ajo.  She must have been pretty tired, because she was breathing in a lot of doggy hair (mostly from Pawz) and doggy carbon dioxide.

I play golf tomorrow, and I am excited to see if I can score better than last time.  The best score so far this spring has been a 97, and that was only four strokes worse than what Shawn shot that day.  My front nine was the best with a 46.  Everything was working better with the full swing, and I was only scoring poorly due to some short game misfires.  It will be a weird group tomorrow, too.  Debbie (Eric’s sister), Eric, and Greg Braum will be joining me at Pinon Hills.

I went to the range after buying a bunch of different and various stuff (dog food, outdoor garage light bulbs, epsom salt, AAA batteries, flea and tick medicine for Kody) in Farmington today.  It was cold and sprinkling, so there was nobody else on the range.  It was just me for at least a half-hour.  I almost left too, because it was sprinkling a bit too much, but it stopped, so I went ahead and hit a small bucket’s worth that someone had left scattered on one of the spots.  I didn’t even have to use the range key.

Here’s what I was working on today.  I am mostly focusing on bringing my lead knee towards my trail knee during the back swing.  That’s about it.  I want to do that automatically, and I know my lower body has been all wrong when I haven’t been doing that.  My lead knee has actually been moving away during the back swing, and that has looked wrong and awful.  It certainly doesn’t match the model, and remember Chandler trying to teach me this in his first analysis of my swing.  I took a few videos to see if it looked better, and it did. 

The other thing I’m working on is rotating through the shot and throwing my hands at the ball.  Some of my swings today resulted in a CRACK! sound that actually surprised me.  Those range balls flew straighter than ever when I did that.  I wish every shot made that sound.  The one guy who showed up to practice heard and watched one of those shots, and he complimented my swing.  It was addictive to make that sound, and I did my best to repeat it, having some success on a few more swings.  I am betting Moe made that sound all the time.  

Okay, I am getting sleepy.  Until next time…

Written on 4-30-21.

I am looking at Abiquiu Lake, and it’s a lovely afternoon with our Baker Street on this, the first full day of Belinda’s summer vacation.  Belinda wanted to go here from the time I had worked that first year for the CORE, and it’s a great choice.  Just beautiful here!

We have met Dolores (sp?) at spot #11 (we are at #10), and toured her Sky Cloud Airstream.  Then we gave our own tour of our Alto to her and took a short hike on a trail with view of the lake.  Now, Kody is resting on the small rocks below our camper, and I am writing with my laptop on the second table that I chose as an option.  That was a good choice, too.  The MacBook is plugged in, because we have a sight with water and electric hookups.  What a dream!  I’ve even put our awning out just a little bit to have some shade.

On to golf…

We played at Pinon Hills on Wednesday.  Eric, Greg, and I played a game for just the front nine, since Eric had some stuff to do before they left for Albuquerque (for some warranty work on their RV) and then on to Phoenix to visit Kyle.

I felt confident enough to choose a game to play, or maybe it was because I wanted to really focus.  They didn’t seem too interested in a game, but I persisted.  It was simple.  Fairways were one point, greens in regulation were two, and winning the hole outright was worth three.  If anybody tied, the points were pushed.

Eric had a great start, but then fizzled.  He won the first two holes with a bogey and a par.  They tied hole #3 with bogeys, and then Greg and I tied hole #4 with two more.  Hole #5 was worth a lot of points, so I was so glad my swing worked well on that hole.

I teed off with my 7-iron, because the wind was into us.  My ball went high, and it landed on the left side of the fairway, but it rolled across and stopped at point on the dry, brown grass.  Greg limped off the tee with his tee shot, and Eric’s went into a bush that he attempted to play out of, but it didn’t go so well.  His ball just dropped down after that swing attempt, so he chose an unplayable lie after that.

We let two guys play through, so I had a lot of time before I made my approach.  I chose my 8-iron, and it was so cool.  The pin was on the far right side, and my golf ball headed toward the middle, but the wind blew it right, and it landed on the slope that funneled it down to the where the hole was.  The green was as dry and smooth as the fairway, so my first putt went farther than I wanted, but I made the comeback putt for a par.  I won twelve points, three for the fairway and the green, and nine for winning three hole’s worth of points.

That ended up being the hole I needed to win, and I ended up earning 16 points on the front to their 11 points each.

I had five bogeys and two pars on the front nine for a final score of 46.  I only earned four more bogeys on the back, and no more pars, and a total of 98.  Greg shot a 103, but he won the game on the back after Eric left.  After 18 holes, he earned 39 points, and I couldn’t win a hole past #13, so I ended with 28 points.  I was frustrated that I couldn’t continue my play from the front nine, but it’s still a work in progress.  

What I plan on working on this next week is getting my right arm to fold in the follow-through.  It remains stubbornly straight, so I am not “matching the model” in that way.  I haven’t begun to work on that yet, though.  I have been working on bringing my lead knee in a tad more on my back swing.  That has looked better.  

I put in it my notes, but the sequence in my mind now is lock (lead knee braced), rotate, throw (trust my flying arms going through the impact area), and now fold (allow the right arm to fold like Chandler’s does).  That will be the focus for next week.