12th Excerpt From My Original Golf Diary-Part 2

    Today, our mother gets moved into Legend in Colorado.  What a momentous day!  Our parents have been at 1542 for over 50 years!

Written on 2-23-03.

We just had the Edgertons over for dinner, and Dale and Anna came as well.  Eric and I played Tiger Woods on the GameCube.  He beat me again, but I beat him finally the last time we played over at his house.  I beat him in a skins game pretty badly, and then we tried the par three scenario where you play four different par threes.  I got a 7, which earned me a gold medal.  I got three birdies and a hole-in-one at St. Andrews with a nineteen mile per hour wind!  It felt good to play well enough to beat him even though it was just on the GameCube.  We also played stroke play, and I managed to tie him with a 64.                Tonight, he beat me in match play, though.  I started out three up, and even had back-to-back eagles, one on a par five, and the next on a par four, but he steadily caught up and beat me.

        In the real game of golf, though, I have some good things to write about.  Here is the birdie I earned at Pinon Hills on Presidents’ Day.

Pinon Hills-Hole #13

I hit one of the best draws of my life right off the tee.  A good tee shot goes over the hill on this par five.  I used my 3-wood, and I didn’t take a long time to think about it.  My swing thoughts were to relax my grip and to swing my hands as far away from my head on the forward swing.  It worked!  I was a little over two hundred yards away and the pin was on the front, so I used my 4-iron.  I hit a terrible shot here.  I scuffed it, and it turned out to be a lay-up shot instead of a “going for the green” shot.  From there, I hit a nice 9-iron that went over the flag.  I had a long putt from there that went up over a hill, and then down to the left.  Craig said that it really turned into the hole, but it looked like it got on line and just stayed there rolling into the hole.  It was at least fifty feet away, and we wondered if they keep track of those kinds of stats on the PGA Tour.  That makes birdie #6 this year!  I want forty!

I did have a good plan before I played, and it did really help me focus and play better.  The plan was...

simple.  I wanted to hit every green in regulation or just one over regulation.  I also wanted to double-putt every green.  If I follow that plan, I will never get anything higher than a bogey.  Body for Life has helped me, too.  I have just finished four weeks of not missing a single workout.  I was not tired at all coming to the eighteenth hole.  We did ride in carts, but I still felt like I was full of energy.

I have earned some good pars and some really well earned bogeys, too.  On hole #2 at Pinon Hills, I hit a great toe-up, toe-up shot with my sand wedge to just four feet to earn par there.  At Hidden Valley, I earned par on the short par four 8th two days in a row.  I also bogeyed #9!  I hit a huge drive with my driver.  It was long and it faded to the right just like you need it to on that hole.  #9 is a tough hole, so bogey is a good score for me right now.  I got a bogey on #1, too, and that’s not an easy hole either.  I was playing from the blue tees when I got that one.  I also got par on hole #14 at Pinon Hills right after my birdie.  I hit 5-iron down to the fairway, and just barely rolled it past the fairway.  Eric’s ball was right in front of mine, so I went first.  I hit a great gap wedge right onto the green, just right of the hole.  From there, I double-putted.  It was fun to go birdie, par!  I also got bogey on hole #1 at Pinon Hills.  I hit my second shot low and it ended up underneath a bush where I couldn’t hit it.  After taking an unplayable, I hit it on the green and made about a twenty-footer for bogey!  

I have had some good practice shots, too.  I chipped in on the practice green before I played at Hidden Valley.  I also made a great up and down while waiting for Eric to show up.  I was up on the hill next to hole #11, and I was just goofing around, so I hit a pitch shot with my sand wedge onto hole #11.  Nobody was playing, so I knew it would be okay.  I had about an eight-foot putt, which I made!

Until next time…