Final Round at Hillcrest During the Pinon Hills Renovation

Written on 12-4-22.

        I am lying next to Belinda on a Sunday night.  We are in bed, and we have a new comforter to help with the colder nights.  It worked so well last night that we turned down the thermostat for tonight.  I woke up once, and I was a little sweaty.  Hopefully, tonight will be better.  

It’s deceptive.  It feels light, but it keeps the heat in well.  Another reason for buying it was that we were putting on quilts and extra blankets, and I just wondered aloud that if we had a comforter that was warm enough, we wouldn’t have to keep doing that.  It worked.  I can see the light green of the fabric reflecting the light of my MacBook screen.

On to golf…

I played with Herman (not his real name) and Eric at Hillcrest recently.  The weather was fantastic for this time of year, so I arranged it all.  Eric had an appointment with Dr. Lavengood in the morning, so we moved it from Riverview to Hillcrest.  I got a tee time for four, because Herman said his daughter would play, but she changed her mind.  Somebody named Arthur (not his real name either) was added to our group instead.  He was from Bayfield, but he worked for an oil field company in Ignacio.

I will continue this later, but I am glad to have gotten it started.  I am getting sleepy myself, and it is an uncomfortable position for my neck.  Until tomorrow then…

Written on 12-5-22.

I go to work on Tuesday and Thursday this week and next week.  I got a lot of stuff done for this week’s visits today.  I have a little bit of time to write before B and I go over to the Edgertons’ for dinner.  We are having pork chops tonight, and they are making everything.  They are working on eating better, and Eric has lost 11 pounds.  This will be the last time we see them before they go to Moab for some camping.

Back to golf…

Eric only played the front nine, and he rode in a cart.  He got some good news from Dr. Lavengood about his sciatica at his appointment, so we were happy to hear that.  He had a lot of double bogeys, though.  

Herman beat me by four strokes on the front nine with a 41 to my 45.  I didn’t keep score for him on the back nine, but he struggled, and I really wish I did keep his score, because I think I might have beaten him this time.  

On hole #13, he topped his tee shot, so it did’t go far at all.  I didn’t see it (I was taking a bathroom break), but I saw where it ended up.  For his second or third shot, he shanked one over by the fence.  I know he moved it or replaced it from off the fence line, and then he struggled a bit more after that.  I know it wasn’t a legal score, but I am pretty sure it would have been a high one.

On hole #17, he hit one OB.  He decided to just play it from OB, though, so it wasn’t a legal score either.  The thing is I don’t know if I will ever beat him, because he doesn’t hole out sometimes, too.  I know he is an excellent putter, but on those greens, he might miss one or two.  It was a putt I would have liked to have seen, but he informed me he gives himself putts sometimes.  I had a four-incher on hole #14, and I teased him that I was giving myself that one just like he did.  He didn’t laugh.

When we came to hole #18, he wanted to bet Arthur and me, and I should have taken him up on it.  I scored a bogey into the wind from the blues, and he didn’t fare well at all.  I ended up shooting a respectable 44 on the back for an 89 overall.  What helped were the par three holes.  Due to the freezing conditions (it was a struggle to get a tee in the ground on many holes), they had moved all the tees up to a spot in the sun on the par three holes, so they were all within 150 yards.

Eric and I played at Pinon Hills for the first time since it had all the improvements done.  I think it was the very first of the soft opening, and we got a tee time close to 1:00.  Melton said he got into a group with an earlier tee time.

I will write about that round soon, and I still have one more story to relay about Arthur’s tee shots on hole #12.