No FEAR, Be Brave

Written on 6-17-22.

        It’s the Friday before Father’s Day, and I am watching the U.S. Open.  The online portion has been following the group with Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth, and Max Homa.  It’s been wonderful to watch, and they should all make the cut for the weekend.  They are finished now, and they all shot +2 the first two days.  

While I watched, I got some stuff done.  I did the usher schedule, and I called Kathy (last name) to see if I could read for her this weekend so she can read for me next weekend when we are in Lakewood.  I got my GHIN going finally, so I can enter my recent scores.  I will do that tonight.  B and I looked at the bills before she went to take a summer afternoon nap.  It’s been a lazy, but productive day so far.  Summer is just great.  We might get some monsoons this evening for the first time.

On to more golf…

I played at Civitan yesterday after we watched Top Gun-Maverick with the Edgertons.  It was 98º, so it was excellent to sit in a cool theater and take in a movie.  The movie was better than it thought it would be, too.  At least better than the original, I felt.  

When it was over, B went home to have dinner with Dawn, and I was not invited, so I decided to play golf instead.  I hoped it might start cooling off by that time, and I knew I could go from shade to shade at Civitan.  I made sure to hydrate and stay cool.  I even stopped after my first nine holes to go grab something to eat and cool off some more.  

Eric and I are playing in our first tournament together tomorrow at Conquistador Golf Course in Cortez.  He is coming to pick me up at (gulp) 5:00 AM.  It’s an 8:00 shotgun start, and the format is two-person scramble.  It’s called the 1st Annual Spring Celebration.  I spoke with Arvin, the coordinator, when I called to give our information, and he said he wanted to start a new tournament.  Maybe we will make it an annual event.

My GHIN had me at 14.8, but I didn’t see any of the scores from last year.  The most recent score they used was from January of 2018.  I was entering all of my scores from Pinon Hills last season, but I didn’t see any of them.  I just don’t understand where they went.  Maybe they were so bad, they weren’t counted.  Ha.

Civitan was fun.  I mostly used it as a practice round for the tournament tomorrow.  I was having success with straightening my arms at impact and taking divots.  Taking a divot has such a tremendous effect on hitting it straighter and getting the proper distances.  I wrote on the scorecard FEAR, because I would sometimes be afraid to hit the ground.  Why?  Hit the ground.  Take a divot.  It will be a better result.  On the second nine, I played two balls, and I earned a birdie on hole #2.  The approach came up short, but I chipped it in with my gap wedge.  I won’t count it, because it was with my second golf ball.  My putting was really on, too.  On three holes, I putted it well past the hole, but I made the ten foot (on average) comeback putts.  I never triple-putted, but that is the way it should be on those easy greens.  I hit nine greens out of 26 holes.  I say 26, because I didn’t start playing two golf balls until the second hole on the second nine.

When I thought of FEAR, my mind wandered to Star Wars.  I heard Grand Moff Tarkin saying, “Fear will keep the local systems in line, fear of this battle station.”

Truly, fear is what keeps me in line when I play golf, but when I am brave, things go much better.

Okay, I am off to go enter my scores.  I am super excited for the tournament tomorrow!

Until next time…