Another Update to Break Up the Excerpts

Written on 5-18-23.

        I am sitting in the basement at 1542, and I just did a workout.  Mostly running up and down the stairs for cardio and some other full body stuff in between.  We are going through the rest of the stuff on this trip before the estate sale, and this is our last chance to grab anything personal.  Then we are going to Colorado Springs to celebrate Mother’s Day late and their 60th anniversary early on Monday evening.  I told B that this is more of a celebration this trip, but it feels weird to not  be doing more work.  I am betting it will take a bit more to go through the last bit of stuff, however, when we start in on it tomorrow afternoon.

On to golf…

I have played with Herman (not his real name) three times at Pinon Hills the past couple of months.  We would have played many more, but I have been busy with coming to Lakewood and the end of work.  He has also done some traveling to go watch his daughter play.  He beat me...

all three times, and it wasn’t really close any of the times except one.  On that day, he had a consistent round for nine holes with a bogey on every hole.  Of course, that is atypical of his play, and that was my best opportunity to best him.  I had bogeys on six of the holes, and three double bogeys, and that was the difference.  

The second time, he gave me four strokes for nine holes, and I still lost.  Argh.  I really want to beat him, but he is so good.  In both of those matches, I made some really amazing putts to save a bogey or to earn a par, but my biggest struggles are full swings and short game malfunctions.  I will not give up.  I hope he keeps playing, so I can beat him one of these days.  Despite losing every time, he is always fun to play with, and I really enjoy his company and funny stories.  I think he turned 60 recently.  He gave me a rare compliment that sounded something like this, “You’re playing well, almost well enough to consider challenging you to a match.”

Finer words have never been spoken.  So, he has noticed my improvement after the single plane debacle.

Guy and I played yesterday at Fox Hollow.  It was a bit expensive with the non-resident fee of $81 for 18 holes with a cart.  Worth it!  We played with Mike Rodriquez (not his real name either).  He owns a painting company that does residential painting, so we had three in our group.  Our tee time was 7:48, and despite being early, it was the perfect time due to the rain that came immediately after we ate lunch out on their patio.

I shot a 92, and Guy shot a 112.  It was great!  Not our scores, of course, but just hanging out and having time with my bro.  I will consistently say that playing with Guy is one of my greatest joys.  I just showed him my post from this golf journal from 20 years ago, and it said the same thing.  I compared it to looking forward to Christmas and birthdays as a kid then.  Sadly, when we played at Herndon with AnnMarie, I shot a 91, so not a great deal of improvement after 20 years.  I am not really putting any effort into improving, though, so why should I expect any significant changes?

I finally got a par on hole #14.  Then I followed it up with another par on the par three #15.  It took the front nine to figure out the putting for the back nine.  I was finally lagging well for the last nine holes.  I triple-putted three times, so that would have put me under 90.  Still, I had really consistent play, scoring bogeys on nearly every hole.

Like I said before, we ate lunch out on the patio and watched groups finishing up on a different course.  Right after we finished, it started a steady downpour, so we made the right choice to go play early.  Phew!  

Tonight, we go to Topgolf in Centennial.  Coach Lewis plans on coming, too, so it will be great.  After that, we will head over to Pindustry, a bar that has retro arcade games.  I need to get in the shower, so I will continue this at a later date.

Until next time…