19th Excerpt From My Original Golf Diary-Part 2-Lots of Birdies!

Written on 6-18-03 in the PM.

This was originally written on June 1st.

 

It’s a Sunday, and I didn’t go to church today.  Father forgive me, but we are on our annual and traditional Lake Powell trip.  We launched at Hite again, but the water is much lower.  Things here just aren’t the same due to the drought.  We had to launch from a different place than usual, the driftwood and garbage were tremendous, and you could see the current where we usually take off out across the water.  We’ve had a lot of water fun today pulling the kids in the “Monster” tube, taking a hike where we camped last year, and pulling Eric right off a rock, slalom-style.  

I wanted to try to ski, but can’t because of my knee.  I’ll get to that later.  James and Kyle are playing on the rocks behind me.  Kyle actually skied for the first time.  I was driving the boat when he first did it, but Eric got him to stay up much longer when he tried a little later in the day.  B’s over in the “kitchen” area, but the boys just called her over to look at something.  A is with Eric and they are pulling the girls in the “Monster” tube (Becca included, of course!).  It’s cloudy, but not cool.  Warm breezes are softly blowing the pages of my journal.

Life is good, and I am thankful I can say that...

every time I write it.  I’m in a great mood right now.  It might be because I have just put on dry underwear and shorts.  After swimming, there is no more comfortable feeling than dry underwear and shorts.

It feels great to have time to write.  I’ve been extremely busy these past two weeks getting ready for the end of my first year as a first grade teacher.  I will easily be able to remember my first first grade class, because Danielle was a first grader the same year.

 

On to golf…

 

I now have four more birdies to record, all at Hidden Valley, and two of them are back to back.  These birdies are numbers seven through eleven for this year.  

Hidden Valley-Hole #5-birdie #7

Guy and Curt came down for Easter.  We got to play eighteen holes on Saturday.

For fun and for a change, we decided to play our own version of the Stableford scoring system.  Birdies were +3, pars were +1, and bogeys were –1.  Anything higher than that was –2.

*It just got really nasty here at Lake Powell.  The wind picked up and a strong rain came, and I just rescued Danielle off of a high rock.  Dust blew into her eyes and she felt like she was going to be blown off!  We are all safe now in our rain-blasted and wind-whipped tent.  It’s both scary and fun at the same time.  Now it has ended as fast as it began.  I am back outside, and it is hot again! 

So, I had played #1 with a bogey, but blew it on #2, #3, and #4.  I was playing terribly when a cooler and rainier storm came in at Hidden Valley.  We stopped and went into the pro shop for about twenty minutes.  Good timing.  When we came back out, I had a fresh start, and hit an okay drive.  I chose to lay up on my second, and I remember hitting a smooth 6-iron that went right on the green for my third.  That shot felt and looked great.  It was still raining when I lined up my putt.  I remember it going up to the right, and then down to the left where it straightened out and fell right in the hole.  That birdie put me in the lead, but it was only temporarily.  Eric eventually won, and Guy played well enough to tie me.  I had another great chance at another birdie on the par three #16, but came up short.  Guy and I came out at –5, and Curt played terribly for him, coming in last place.  

–5!  Wish it were normal scoring.  Some day I’ll get there!  That is birdie #7 for the year.

Hidden Valley-Hole #6-birdie #8

It’s funny that this is the next hole, but on a different day.  I played with Chris, and Maggie, a junior on the Aztec golf team, joined us.  She took third in state this year, and was also the District Champ.  She shot a 38, beating me by five strokes, and Chris by 9 or 10.  That’s one thing I picked up from her.  She is never satisfied.  A good round could always be better in here eyes.

I found the green with my tee shot, but was short and well below the hole, facing a long, uphill putt.  Maggie, or “Maggs” as Chris calls her, had a long chip from off the green, but on the same side.  I got to see her entire shot.  She chipped in from a long way out!  After giving her a high-five, I took my shot.  I didn’t think it had enough on it, but it kept going and going.  I was talking to it, saying, “Come on, get there, come on!”  And it did.  So, Maggs and I had back-to-back birdies, and then we went on to hole #7.  This was birdie #8 for the year.

Hidden Valley-Hole #7-birdie #9

 

Using my driver, I hit a good drive, but it was on the left side of the fairway.  I don’t know why but I took my 3-iron instead of my 4-iron, so I used that to try and go for the green in two.  Maybe it was because it looked so shiny and new.  I hit it kind of fat, though, and ended up with a funny yardage for my third shot.  I’ve not hit a good shot with that 3-iron yet.  It’s not in my bag anymore, though.  I’m back with my ugly, crazy-glued-emblem, but good-shot-hitting 4-iron.  I played my “go-to” shot with my 9-iron.  It was a good shot to “go-to”.  I was only five feet or so past the hole, and I made that for my second ever back-to-back birdies, the first pair coming at Encanto when I had a sore back.  With Maggie’s birdie, it was back-to-back to back-to-back birdies.  If I could count the birdie from the day before Easter, it would be back-to-back to back-to-back to back-to-back birdies.  That sounds confusing, but I know that this is birdie #9 for this year.

Hidden Valley-Hole #14 (Toilet Bowl)-birdie #10

Eric and I had a chance to go out and play nine holes one evening.  I had been starved from playing for about two weeks because of Mother’s Day.  We took the twins and our families camping at Lemon Dam in the new pop-up, where I had written in my journal earlier (read above).  B had such a good time, she gave me permission to play on Sunday, but Eric and I both knew it was better not to play on Mother’s Day, so we played later that week on Thursday.  I played very well and made a strong finish.  I bogeyed #15 after hitting my tee shot in the ditch.  Then I earned par on the par three #16 and the dogleg left #17 with a very long double-putt where Eric’s putt helped me get a good read for my second putt.  That’s the first time I really used somebody else’s putt to help me make mine when I wasn’t in a scramble.  On #18, I played the wrong ball, so Eric should have really won, but I took a one-stroke penalty for it.  I shot a 44 to his 46.  If we were playing by official rules, I don’t know what would have really happened, but I think it would have been more than one stroke.  Eric didn’t really care, though, and said that I had beaten him.  On #14, they moved the tees way back.  I didn’t even realize they could do that, but I can see why they did.  It was more like a long par four where the tees were before.  Now it played more like a long par five.  I pulled my tee shot badly, causing it to go across even the #7 fairway!  My ball was sitting a little sand divot, but I hit a really good shot out of there.  I hit a 7-iron with the ball back in my stance.  I picked out a small tree to hit over to get straightened out and back on the fairway.  I hit that shot right over that tree, and into a perfect position for my third.  It was a little lower than I pictured it, but I was happy with it.  The next shot was even better.  It was 100 yards to the green, and the flag was down in the bowl, so I knew if I hit my sand wedge 90 yards, it would bounce and roll right down into the “toilet”.  I hit my sand wedge just like I did when I was hitting off the mats when Guy and I went to the driving range together, with good tempo… 1, 2!  I hit right down on the ball.  The ball hit the green up on the top and rolled right down to the flag, just like I knew it would.  I really thought I might have eagled it, but it ended up four feet away.  From there, I made my putt for birdie #10 this year.