A New Umbrella to Beat the Heat

Written on 7-3–21.

        It is a few days after I posted what I wrote above.  I put it on Caring Bridge, My Golf Journal, and Facebook.  I have had a tremendous and overwhelming response from friends and family, especially on Facebook, and I spent over an hour responding to the kind and gracious comments.  Truly, people are mostly caring and good, and they want to see other people doing well.

On to golf…

I played 18 holes at Pinon Hills with C.J., and I did my best to continue with the success of the nine holes I played before.  I didn’t do too badly, but I really didn’t have the same feeling I had after playing the previous nine holes.  I shot an adjusted 96, and that was partly because of two blow-up holes, one on #9, and the other on #16.  That was the bummer part.  I was hoping for zero blow-up holes, but I did do many good things, too.

I ended with...

ten bogeys and two pars.  On the front, I had four bogeys and the two pars, and on the back, I had a string of six bogeys that started on #10.  Chalk up the miserable  ending to mental fatigue from the heat.  We chose to walk, and I used an umbrella for the first time for sun protection, not for rain.  Brian, the math teacher I played with recently, used one when I played with him, so I credit him with the idea.  I used one when I would go on duty at McCoy, so I figured I might as well when I am playing, and it’s really hot, also.  It really helped, and I am now looking to buy one that attaches to my golf cart.

I am liking the consistency of my play, even though I am consistently scoring bogeys.  My thought is that those will become consistent pars.  My putting has been very steady on these recent rounds.  I have only had three triple-putts in the last 27 holes, and I managed five one-putts to help balance those out.  

In the last round, I nearly met my three very realistic goals.  I only had two three-putts, and I found four fairways and four greens in regulation, so that remains a realistic goal.  I set out to hit eight fairways and six greens.  I missed three fairways by a combined five feet, so that would have been seven fairways, but I didn’t count them, of course.  I am either on the fairway or I am not, but being close on those three tee shots helps my encouragement.