King of ACG-Antler Creek Golf Course with Guy and Carter

Written on 6-3-23.

Back to golf one more time…

    Carter took Guy and me out to Antler Creek Golf Course to play nine holes on our last full day together.  He said it was a “dog track,” but it wouldn’t be crowded.  He was right.  We hoped to go play with Em’s volleyball team afterwards, but the golf took a bit longer than Carter expected.

Because we were only playing nine holes, I recommended the game where each player plays with one of the other players for three holes vs. the odd man out.  It’s similar to the “King of the Beach” competition the AVP used to do.

I had Guy for the first three holes, and because this was Carter’s first outing, we ended up getting three points each right away.  Carter hit a bomb on #1, and I hit a...

stinker, but you never know until the hole is finished.  This was a par four, and I ended up just off the green in five shots.  If I could get up and down, I thought we would have a chance to win the first points, and I did.  Carter struggled after his drive with poor short game shots, so he got a snowman.

Carter had us playing from the golds, and we thought that was the farthest distance, but we discovered on hole #8 that it wasn’t.  Regardless, it was difficult to play from the longer tees!

I earned a par on the third hole with a super up and down out of the bunker.  The entire course was rough.  It reminded me of Hidden Valley when it first converted to 18 holes.  Fairways were covered with weeds and were bare in spots.  Greens were splotchy and uneven, too, so it was putt and hope.  Bunkers had mud and clay settled into the bottoms, so that’s why I took a free drop.

On the middle three holes, Guy was by himself.  Carter helped us win one hole with a bogey, and I struggled in the rock hard bunkers on that hole, so I was glad he stepped up.  Carter and I won our three points together, too, so I had six points, and they each had three.

The last three holes, I was by myself, and Carter made an amazing par on one of the longer par fives.  Then Guy stepped up on hole #8, a par three.  Both he and Carter hit their tee shots into the water, so they had to take a drop.  I had the advantage of watching them go first, so I took one more club and aimed left.  My golf ball made it onto the green, but it was far from the hole.  I missed my par putt by millimeters, and I ended up with a bogey.  Guy made an amazing up and down after he dropped in the “drop zone.”  We split that hole, and it was over.  Or, was it?

Guy thought that points should push, but I said that they didn’t.  Then I changed my mind, and we played the last hole for two points.  I was feeling confident.  I played for a bogey, because there was no way I could reach the green in two shots.  This was the beginning of “The Gauntlet,” the stretch of the longest three holes in Colorado.  They struggled, so the bogey was good enough for the win.  The final scores were Pat: 8, Guy: 4, Carter: 4.

Now, that I have been back home, I played with Herman (not his real name) and C.J. on Wednesday and Shawn Thursday. 

      I am happy to report that I improved my score from the first round to the second.  On Wednesday, I shot an average 46, 46 for a 92, and I had no birdies.  On that round, I finished par, par on the final two holes.  Herman said he liked playing with me, because I was easily impressed.  I told him about E.E., which B and I say means Easily Entertained.  He was playing really well, and it was hard not to be impressed with some of his shots.  I know they seem routine to him, but not to me.  He had two incredible up and downs from bunkers, one on #13 for a birdie, and another one on the very next hole from a plugged lie for a par.  I think most people would be impressed with those.  On my final two pars, I made a long, downhill putt for the one on #17, and an impressive up and down for the one on #18.  I don’t know if he was impressed, but he said he was on the long putt at least.