Rounds with Jeff, John, and a Math Teacher

Written on 6-25-21.

        I have great news!  I played the front nine from the blues at Pinon Hills the other day, and I played closer to my potential.  I shot a 43 with two pars and seven bogeys.  I also played with Jeff Tuell at the Common Ground Golf Course in Aurora and Uncle John at Hillcrest recently, so I will write about those rounds, too.

First, I will write about my round with Uncle John.  I had a wonderful time, and it was surreal to play with Jeff…and then his father a few days later.  We ate with John and Donna at Chavolo’s Restaurant in Bayfield on our way home from Mom and Dad’s.  They got their RV all set up at the Durango Fairgrounds, and then they made the drive to Bayfield to meet us.

John asked it I wanted to play golf while he was in town, so who was I to say no?  I didn’t want to be rude, so I accepted his invitation (wink, wink).  I called the golf course just before we lost the signal between Pagosa Springs and Bayfield, and they had a tee time for two at 1:20.  Perfect!  I snagged it, and then I told John at dinner.

We arrived early, because I had an...

appointment to remove my stitches from where “Sebaystian,” and it took very little time.  They offered us a tee time at 11:30 when we checked in, so we decided to take it.  We had no warm-up, but we figured we could avoid the wind that was forecast that afternoon.  We were matched up with two others, of course, and away we went.

I played better than when I played with Jeff.  During that round, I only got one par at Common Ground, and I shot a 107 there, but I managed to win the game, so Jeff paid me $9.00 in cash after the round.  I tried to say no, since he got me a large discount to play there, but he insisted that he always paid his debts.  I did manage to pay for his lunch, however.  

The game had something to do with putting and a deck of cards.  I had two aces when we checked what our cards were at the teeing ground at #18, so I believe that helped.  I also had less three-putts than Jeff, so that contributed to my victory, also.  Jeff shot a 91, and he was disappointed with his play.  It was fun that I won the game, but it was no fun to score 16 strokes higher than Jeff’s score.

I earned a 97 at Hillcrest, and we didn’t know John's score, but we were certain it was well over 100.  I managed seven bogeys and three pars on that round.  

One of the more memorable aspects of this round was the behavior from the curmudgeon who was one of our playing parters.  His name was Scott (not his real name), and he was sullen, silent most of the time, and an overall bummer to be around.  We didn’t know sometimes if he couldn’t hear us, or if he just refused to answer.  

One example was when John told him to go ahead and putt on #9.  No answer.  Not even a head nod.  I repeated the request, and then he said with a loud, impatient, and slightly sarcastic voice, “OK, guys, I heard you.”

That was an overreaction, I felt.  I thought I saw him roll his eyes once, too, when John mishit one of his shots.  John would often exclaim after a bad shot, “another topper,” or “came out of it again!”

John was fun to play with even with those exclamations, but I had to keep him on task and ready to play.  I told him how golfers at Hillcrest stress the importance of keeping up with play more than most places.  Eventually, we caught up with the group ahead of us, so I relaxed and enjoyed the golf and the company more after that.  

We talked about Mom and Dad.  I asked where he and Donna were going next, and he told me how Donna is afraid to venture out when he goes to play golf by himself.  Donna knitted a purple and orange dish cloth for Belinda while we were gone, and we finished early enough for me to make chat with the family at 5:15.

My pars came on holes #4, #14, and #16.  I made a sweet swing on #4 for my approach.  I was over in the trees and left of the hole, but I got my green in regulation with my 7-iron on that one.  The players on #15 waited for me to take that shot, and then they nodded in approval after my shot.  On #14, I made a cool, low-driving tee shot that started left but ended up on the right side of the fairway.  I had to use every bit of my course management and short game skills on #16.  I played my approach left of a tree that was on my line to a spot next to the green and behind the bunker there.  I got up and down (over the trap) to earn that par.

  This brings me to my round at Pinon Hills two days ago.  Since I made plans to go work at McCoy yesterday, I chose to go play golf the day before, the only day I could play this week due to our camping this weekend.  This round was very satisfying to me.  It felt like all of the work I had done during the pandemic paid off a little bit.  No blow-up holes.  No lost golf balls.  A legitimate score.  Sweet!

I set attainable goals at the beginning of the round, and that helped again.  I need to keep doing that, because it helps me stay focused and in the moment.  For nine holes, I aimed at getting four fairways, three greens in regulation, and two putts on every green this time.  I will call it 4-3-2 from now on to help me remember.  I got the fourth fairway on hole #7.  I got the third green in regulation on hole #5, but I blew the first goal right away on hole #1.  

My ball was on the front, but the flag was on the back.  I made a decent first putt all the way across the green and up the hill, but missed the comeback putt.  Barely.  I did average two putts for all nine due to the two one-putts on holes #2 and #4.  

My pars came on #3 and #5, and I was really proud of the par on #5, the tough short par four over the canyon.  The approach on #3 was from just over 200 yards, and my 5-iron got it to the green for one of my greens in regulation.  

In many ways, some of my bogeys felt more gratifying than my pars.  My putt from off the green on #2 from 15 yards stopped just four feet from of the hole, and I made the putt after that.  I had to punch out with my 5-iron from the trees to get my ball on the fairway on that hole, too.  I was in a difficult position on #4 above and off the green, but I managed to get it into a putting position with my second shot.  My final two bogeys came on the last two holes, and those are rated as the two most difficult holes on the front.  I escaped the desert and the dirt with my third shot on #8, and my only wasted shot on #9 came due to some deep rough off of the fairway.

I shot a 43, and I know that is not a great score, but it is relative to my game right now.  It’s like a student getting a C+ when that’s the best he can do.  I feel that I can do better, of course, but after round after round of not breaking 100 and depressing blow-up holes, it sure felt better than a 43.  If I double that score, that would be an 86, and that is what I am hoping to do consistently.  That’s what I shared with Chandler Rusk when he asked what my goals were when I started my Gold Membership.  One of them was to shoot scores in the 80’s consistently from the blue tees at Pinon Hills, so to score in the 40’s, even just one time, is another step closer to that goal.

I met and played with Brian Heath that day.  He is a math teacher at Aztec High, and he was very pleasant.  Kind of an anti-Scott from my round at Hillcrest.  He was teaching summer school, and they get done by noon, so he decided to get out and play.   He said he was an accountant and a banker for thirty years, and he had switched over to education, because those jobs were boring.  Teaching is never boring, so I think he was happy with his choice.  I felt at ease with him right away, and his golf game was excellent.

He shot a 40, and he had a birdie on hole #4.  His stance with his driver was wider than most, and he had a “whippy" motion through impact.  He was short, and he had a little pot belly, but he sure could play golf well.  After the round, he said he had one of his better ball striking rounds in a while.  He told me he usually plays with a regular group, but nobody wanted to play that day, so we ended up meeting and playing together instead.  I was complimentary of his game, as usual, and he gave his fair share of positive comments as well.

He confided that his wife had had a stroke, and it was the aneurysm kind, not the clot version I had.  She refused to go to the doctor, until she had to, and then when she did, she ended up being flown by helicopter to a hospital immediately.  

My takeaway was not to put off care, because things can go south pretty quickly if you do.  Now, she is in a wheelchair, and she is incapable of working.  They are applying for disability, but it is such a complicated, red-tape process, so they haven’t had success yet.