Written on 12-5-02.
I got to play at Encanto Golf Course in Phoenix this Thanksgiving. We went to go see Jess during Thanksgiving. It was a wonderful trip. Jess very generously gave us our Christmas gifts early, four tickets to go see Cirque Du Soleil-Dralion. It was fantastic! It was just as wonderful a gift as our trip to see the Titanic Exhibit last year at Christmas. This show was incredible. The acrobats/entertainers were amazingly talented. The children enjoyed it as much as we did. I especially liked what I called the hoops. They linked three hoops stacked on top of each other on a square, one stack of hoops on each side of the square. Then they tumbled and dived and went through the hoops. They would never touch the hoops, and they would go through backwards and forwards and jump through the top hoop on one side and slip through the bottom hoop on the other. Sometimes they would go at the same time without hitting each other. One guy went from a bottom hoop through the top hoop on the other side. I still don’t know how he did that! I kept saying the word ‘Wow!’ throughout the entire show. Joe had burned the CD of the show for me about a year ago, so it was neat to hear the music with the performance for the first time. I am actually listening to that CD right now.
I played well at Encanto again. Last Christmas, Eric and I played the front nine two times. I remember that my back was still very fragile after I had damaged a disc. I did not play very well that first day, but the second day we played the front nine again, and I shot my best score ever at that time, a 39! I even made back-to-back birdies on holes #5 and #6, a first for me.
It was similar this time. I didn’t play well on the front nine, but got things going on the second nine. On the front nine, I did par the most difficult hole #9 again! I hit a long drive with my 3-wood, then a 5-iron up close to the green where I could chip it close and putt it in.
On the back, I scored all fours and fives! I shot a 42 with seven bogeys and two pars. It felt great to play so well during the off-season, especially since I have not been practicing or playing much recently.
I played with some interesting characters. Their names were Jaime (hi-mee) Laza, a master goldsmith who gave me his business card. He had moved here from Columbia some thirty years ago. He always lined up way to the right of his target. One time I thought he was going to hit in the water for sure, but he always pulled it back and ended up hitting it straight, just not very far. Henry Gin was the guy I rode and played with. He told me that Jaime had polio when he was younger and that’s why he played that way. After he said that, I did notice that Jaime had one leg shorter than the other and it made a lot more sense. Jaime rode with a guy named Lee, whose wife was a teacher of emotionally handicapped children. He was quite opinionated about how public schools should be run. He even helped his wife get a raise and reduce the number of students she was serving once. His father was a superintendent. Out of the three of them, he talked to me the most. Henry was pretty quiet. He made potato chips. He asked me if I liked chips, and I said they were okay, but not very good for you. Before our round, he took our cart over to his van and rummaged around, finally pulling out three bags of chips, which he gave one to each of us. They were chips from Hawaii, and they were actually pretty good. They tasted sweet. He was not a very good player, but they said they were all playing in a tournament, and with his handicap being so high, I think he won.
I enjoyed the round very much. I especially liked the back nine. I was driving the ball very well. It was also nice to satisfy my curiosity about the back nine. They said it was tougher, but I thought it was easier. On two holes, the tee shots were intimidating. If you sliced it at all, you would be hitting a golf ball into oncoming traffic! I hit two of my best tee shots on those holes. They were holes #12 and #13. It was on hole #12, a par five that I earned par, and hole #15, a 426-yard par four, where I earned the other par. On that hole, I hit a great 5-wood off of the dirt to just off the green.
Well, I am all caught up! I am going to play this weekend with Eric and Chris if the weather is good enough. Hopefully, I will have some birdies to write about. Until next time…
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