Golf Strokes Are Possible After a Scary Stroke

Written on 9-9-21.

        It’s the day after the two-year anniversary of my stroke.  I am so happy to still be here, and, of course, I played golf yesterday.  

Belinda is up at Mancos camping with her sisters, so I am “bach-ing” here at home with Kody.  I managed to get a tee time for tomorrow at Hillcrest at 9:13, so Eric and I are going to play.  The Bishop’s Classic was completely full, so we won’t be playing, but I am hopeful for next year.  We just didn’t get our team together fast enough.

Yesterday, I ended up playing with Dave (not his real name) from church, and we played the front nine at Pinon Hills.  I think he was nervous to play with me, but I honestly didn’t pay much attention to how he was playing.  I shot a...

44 from the whites, and I nearly had a birdie on hole #3.  I had four pars, three bogeys, and two other scores.  I met the goal of only one or two putts per green, but I missed the other two goals by one each.  Not bad.

The play on the last two holes was amazing and different.  On #8, I badly straight-pulled my drive towards the trees.  My ball ended up under a low hanging branch of an evergreen type of tree, but I could slide my 6-iron under the branch, so I did…and then it just disappeared.  I didn’t hear or see anything right after the strike.  It felt like great contact, though.  I saw a ball on the fairway a few moments later, but I thought that was Dave’s.  

It turned out to be mine, however, and I had 209 yards left to the middle of the green, so I used my turf-buster.  I got it closer, but I still had to pitch on, which I did, and I used up two putts for my bogey.  Not bad after the tee shot and the resulting rough lie.

On #9, I shouldn’t have used my driver from the whites, so my drive ended up past the fairway in the desert rough, but I had a stance, and the ball was on some dirt.  I used my 6-iron once more, and I blasted one through a large opening to a spot on the fairway just over 100 yards away.  I used my pitching wedge from there, and I got my ball on the front of the green.  The flag was in the bowl, and I expected to put my ball farther out to the right and then drift left towards the hole, but it went straight, so I had a longer putt for par than I wanted.  I made the correct read and a smooth stroke to drain the putt for par, though.

I am joyful to be writing about a golf stroke two years later versus a "blood clot sent up to my brain" stroke!  Happy anniversary to me!

Until next time…