A Long Journey to a Lower Score

Written on 9-8-23.

        It’s a Friday, and I am at home with Kody.  I took our Alto to Durango yesterday, and I was able to play 18 at Hillcrest.  More on that later.

Work has been going well.  I have gotten in three visits already, and we had a super start to the year with our meeting two days ago.  I really enjoy the work that I do and the team that we have, and it suits me.  I looked in my first field notes, and this is the eighth year I am starting with the CORE.  I am one of the few who has worked with them this long.

Mom and Dad are holding steady.  Dad is back at Legend, and Mom is doing well with her rehab. I don’t think I have written about it in here, but Mom fell and broke her hip over a month ago.  I went up to Colorado Springs on the day of her surgery, and I helped her out for a week.  She moved into the same rehab facility, Mount Saint Francis, where Dad was after that.  Dad spent nine days in the hospital after another UTI, because he had...

digestive issues again.  That was the reason he was back in rehab.  They had some overlap, and Mom moved in three doors down.  Then Dad got better, so that is why he is back at Legend.  Mom will spend more time at rehab, but she is improving…sort of.  I just joined the meeting for her evaluation with Erica from Legend, and she didn’t do so well.  Her short term memory is getting worse, and she cried when they had her walk for a bit in the room.  Bev said she din’t have her Tylenol, because it was close to the time she was supposed to get it.    

I am so glad Bev can be there to help them, and I plan on going back in early November when Bev goes to Europe for Carter’s brother’s wedding.  I talked to Emily yesterday, and I congratulated her on being pregnant again.  Bev told me she was nauseous lately, and she is with child!  Hooray!  She told me I could stay at their place while they are gone, and I offered to help watch Rizzo.

On to golf…

I played really well yesterday, scoring my best score of this season.  Finally.  I played from the blue/gold tees, and despite the lower score, I really could have played better.  No birdies this time, but some really super shots and par saves.  I can, however, think of many holes where I could have saved strokes, too.

Here’s a quick synopsis of the missed opportunities.  On #1, I pulled my approach with my pitching wedge (Ugh!) after a beautiful drive, and my ball snuck into the water.  Usually, I worry about hitting one into the water on the tee shot.  I settled with a double bogey.  On hole #2, I had a par putt from less than two feet, but I pushed it and put too much speed on it, and it lipped out.  Bummer.  My tee shots on #4 and #18 ended up in the trees to the left of those fairways, so I had to pitch out on those holes in order to go for the greens.  I could have saved some strokes on all of these.

On many of the par fours, I had super drives, so I was going for the greens from inside 100 yards.  I would sometimes pitch just short of the green, though, and I would end up with a bogey because of that.  Those pitches were very straight with good contact, but my distances were off, so that could have saved some strokes, too.

Okay, enough of the bad stuff.  These are the better shots.  My turf buster saved my life.  That is my favorite club.  It was perfect on #5 and #15.  I used it on #5, because it was into the breeze, and I hit the green.  On #15, I used it to avoid using my 5-iron.  I am not confident with that club, and it’s been a weak push with it in the past that is either lost or on the hill above the green in the longer grass.  My turf buster, however, landed my ball just before the green on the right side, and it rolled up to seven feet away from the pin, which was on the very back.  I missed the birdie by leaving it short, but my par was guaranteed after that tee shot.

On #18, I used it again after pitching out to the taller grass. I had 170ish yards to go, but the “miracle club” put my golf ball on a line straight to the flag, and I think it rolled up and hit the stick!  I couldn’t tell for sure, but it looked like it might have.  That approach guaranteed my bogey on the final hole.

On #9, my approach plugged in the bunker near the lip on the upslope.  I dug that one out, and it landed on the front of the green.  All of the greens were sanded, but I earned my bogey there after some bad ‘rub of the green’ on my tee shot.

I got up and down from bunkers two times for bogeys, too.  Those happened on #4 and #5.  I was proud of myself on those.  Although I didn’t hit the greens in regulation on those, I did score three on the front and three on the back.

I saw Mike Goen, too.  He was working, but he caught up with me on hole #13.  We hope to get together and play one round in Farmington and then one more back in Durango this fall.  I reached out to Greg and Mike to see if we could find a day that would work for all of us at Pinon Hills first.  Greg already replied to say the last week in September looked good, and Mike hasn’t checked his phone yet.

I asked Mike how much he earns working at Hillcrest, because I might want to work there someday.  He said he only has to work 15 hours/week to get the free golf.  He also said he earns $16.00/hour, but he might get demoted back to $12.00/hour, because he didn’t do so well with his management role.  Not sure what he meant by that.  I don’t think it was anything really bad, and he might have just been kidding me.  He also said that he used to be a plan manager or something like that for his career, but he will do anything they ask of him at Hillcrest.  In other words, he is humble enough to do the menial jobs.

I am also organizing a round at Pagosa Springs on the 23rd of this month.  We are going camping with the Banashes.  Eric can’t go camping, but he said he is willing to drive up to play golf with us.  He is helping his mom that weekend, and he thinks she can be fine while he is gone to play golf.  We shall see if it all comes together.  

It’s almost 10:00 PM now, so I am headed to bed.  I am really excited that I shot an 85!

Oh, our Alto did get fixed yesterday.  Durango RV replace the strut on the large front window after I broke it off.  It took until around 4:00 PM (I dropped it off at 10:00 AM) and it cost around $95.00, mostly for the labor, so I had time to not only play golf, but to also pick up an umbrella for B at Walmart.