I am doing another excerpt for my last post in March. It's been a busy month with work, and that is the reason. In this post, it's right after James's 9th birthday. We take both families to Navajo Dam for some fun in the sun, too.
Written on 8-18-02.
Today is the day after James’ birthday. We ate dinner at McDonald’s for him. We also got him the strategy guide for his Nintendo Gamecube game Pikmin. I got to play golf as well. Eric and I finally played at Hidden Valley. It was expensive, of course. Sorry, no deals. It cost $23 to play nine holes with a cart. We would have walked, but it has been so hot and dry lately. I played well considering a very slow start. I ended birdie, par, par for a score of forty-three. The last par was very nice considering it is the number one handicap hole on the course. Eric and I have never gotten better than a bogey there. Here are the descriptions of the birdie and the last par.
Hidden Valley-Hole #7
Eric had just hit one out of bounds on this short par five, but I offered him one mulligan, which he used and then returned the favor for me on the very next hole. I know I said I wasn’t going to do that, but right now I feel it’s fair if we both do it and this ended up being a par, not a birdie.
I kind of scuffed the tee shot a little with my 3-wood, but I think the ground being so hard helped it to roll...
out of sight over the hill, but just barely. I had a great lie and a mulligan to spare, so I went for the green in two from a little farther than two hundred yards. I hit it left and it took a big jump off a hill finally settling past a bunker to the left of the green and below the hole. It was here that I hit the best shot on this hole. I used my gap wedge for a little toe-up, toe-up pitch shot. It actually hit right on the spot I had picked out to be able to roll it onto the green. It ended up about five feet from the hole and a little above it. I made that downhill putt before I could really start thinking about it too much. I even asked Eric if it was okay to finish when he was still off the green. He didn’t mind, and I recorded my 22nd birdie of the year!Hidden Valley-Hole #8
I hit my tee shot way out of bounds on the right side, sailing it even over the #13 fairway and then the fence. It was one of the worse shots I have hit in a long time. Then I hit my second shot the same direction as my last shot, but luckily this one stayed inbounds. Eric let me have the mulligan, because I had just let him use one on the hole before. From there, it was a nice gap wedge up on the green and a double-putt for par. I would not have counted this if it were a birdie because of the mulligan thing I mentioned earlier.
Hidden Valley-Hole #9
A good drive is necessary to get it past the trees on the right, and I hit a good one. I have hit it out of bounds over there before. The tee box to #12 is right there. I hit my second shot to the left side of the green, but hit a nice pitch on the green to about eight feet. From there, I made a great stroke that landed the ball right in the hole. I was proud to par that hole. It was very nice to finally par this one, and later I also earned par the difficult #12, which is a par three, another first for me.
Written on 9-24-02.
This was originally written in my journal on 9-7-02. Lots to write. I’m sitting on a beach at Navajo. The kids are covered with mud. We thought it would be a nice diversion to go to the lake now that school’s started. Eric’s swimming and the twins are right next to me sunbathing. The water is lapping up against the mud making the coolest sound. There’s a cool breeze. Life is good!
Okay, I got a birdie on Hole #10 at Hidden Valley. I got par on #9 for the second time. I also hit the green and earned par on #12 for the first time as well! That’s a tough hole for me. I’ll tell more about it later.
I scored my lowest nine hole score ever, a 37 on Hidden Valley’s back nine! Just two over on a real golf course! During that round, I earned two birdies, one on #5 and one on #14, both par fives.
Eric wants me to write about our most recent round at Pinon Hills this past Thursday. He kicked my tail. He shot a 43 to my score. I won’t tell what it was, but it wasn’t a good score. He birdied #4, the downhill par three from the blue tees. He hit a sweet 9-iron to about three feet from the flag where his ball actually stuck in the wet green right where it landed. After fixing the green, he made his well-deserved birdie putt.
On the par three 6th, he hit one of the picturesque rocks right behind the green. I had just hit my 5-wood to the right, past the hole, and into some junk. He chose 5-wood after watching my shot. What a nut! I guess he didn’t think it would go as far, and he was hitting into a breeze that unfortunately died right before he swung. The pin was back, and he was lucky I saw where his ball went after it clicked off the rock. It shot across the green and ended up just off the green on the front left side.
My round came with a high score, but it had some good points. I got par on #1 after missing a six-foot birdie putt. I hit a great 6-iron from about 160 yards. I also got par on the par three that Eric got birdie. Lastly, I got a bogey hole #9 in the dark. When we teed off, we could barely see the ball against the sky at dusk. I hit a big drive just onto the first cut of rough past the fairway. Then I hit a poor 5-iron to the left that took a lucky bounce off a tree knocking my ball into the second wash. After that, it was a well struck 5-iron picked right off the sand. I couldn’t see where that one went at all. I just knew it was good. It had a great feeling. I walked in the general direction, and found it about sixty yards short of the green. My fifth went on the green. My sixth went in the hole. No! Wait! I got a seven. I just barely got it out of the trap, on my sixth shot, but the putt was really nifty. I could only see the ball, the silver sides on my putter head, the white alignment line, and the hole. I thought/guessed it was mostly straight and played it that way, but it turned right just before it went into the hole. It was an eight-foot putt or more, in the dark!
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