My First Birdie of 2024 in Moab!

Written on 3-13-24.

      I am in our Alto sitting at the dining table.  My keyboard is cool from the nighttime temps here, but I will warm it up soon with some clacking.  Amanda, Belinda, and James just pedaled off on their bikes towards the city of Moab.  We are set up at Group Site B at the Goose Island Campground with the Edgertons and Greg and Nan, and it’s been just great.

James surprised us all by appearing two nights ago.  Some college kids have Group Site A next to us.  Nan counted nine tents, and over a dozen twenty-somethings swarmed the site with multiple rented Chrysler Pacifica mini-vans.  When James pulled up, I thought he was one of them.  He was driving his Kia and using his phone to video out of his window, and I thought this young man was silly.  When he pulled into our site behind Eric’s and Amanda’s RV, I thought he was coming to talk to us or apologize for their impending loudness again.  I didn’t even think that he wasn’t driving a mini-van.  A girl had approached us earlier to inform us that they might get a bit loud at night, but it they did, please just come over and tell them.

Oh, wow.  Sleazy Bed Track just came on on my phone, and that’s a song that always makes me think of James.  Not that he is sleazy, of course, but it’s a song we both appreciate.  Hey, I’m not sleazy either.

And, there was much rejoicing when we realized it was him!  It felt so wonderful to see him, and he came with super news.  After passing the two required insurance tests, he now has a potential job (more than likely) with Grant’s company selling insurance premiums for businesses.  He drove here from Albuquerque immediately after his two-hour interview.  He only has to talk to the owner of the company on Thursday.  

Those kids next to our site, by the way, would peter out well before we did the past two nights.  We should have been the ones to go over to their site to let them know that if we got too loud, they should feel free to come ask us to quiet down a bit.

I was able to text Danielle to see if she was alive when we had boys’ night out at the Proper Brewery.  She was.  She said she was a tired girl.  She had survived four weeks and two days.  Keep going, Dani-Girl!

On to golf…

Greg, Eric, and I played at the Moab Golf Club yesterday.  Greg called in advance to set a tee time for 11:30, and we arrived an hour early to warm up.  It was a bit chilly despite the weather reports.  Yesterday was supposed to be the best weather day, but it was breezy and brisk at times.  

I recommended that we should pay the "King of the Beach” type game that we have played before, and they agreed.  It’s perfect for three players.  I was the first to play by myself, and it was a rough start.  I will do a hole by hole retelling, since the rest of the round went well for me.

Hole 1-I pulled my tee shot...

left into the driving range and out of bounds for a terrible start.  I managed to get a par after that for a double bogey, but Eric and Greg both got bogeys.

Hole 2-What an adventure!  I got a nine.  Do not hit it to the right on this hole.  A driver isn’t necessary either.  I blew up, and Greg got a par.  They were up by two points already.

Moab Golf Club-Hole #3-Birdie #1 of 2024

I scored my first birdie of 2024 on the next hole!  We played with a guy from Salt Lake City named Shane.  He was very nice but not very good.  I remember him announcing he got one par on the back nine.  We all used our drivers on this short par four.  Eric went first, and he hit a good one, but his ball ended up under a tree.  Greg was next, and his ball looked like it rolled up onto the green.  I went after that, and mine was definitely on the green.  Shane wasn’t very good, but he could bomb it farther than all of us sometimes.  He did catch his drive in the middle of his club, and it actually went past the green.  The scorecard says it’s 262 yards, and that is uphill, too.  

Greg’s ball did end up rolling up onto the green, and now we had dueling putts.  His was from the left of the hole with a left to right break.  Mine was from the right side and below the hole, and it had a smidge of right to left in it.  Fortunately for me, I got my first putt close enough to earn my birdie.  

Greg’s was closer, so he went second.  His first putt really curved away from the hole, so he had a bit more than he wanted for his second putt.  Unfortunately for him, he missed his birdie chance, so I got my first point.

Despite the bad start, I thought to myself, “If I could just win two of these six holes, I might get the win.”  

Three points would be really good, but I would be satisfied with two.  Then I got my second point on the next hole.

Hole 4-I chose my pitching wedge, and the breeze was in our face for this short par three with a beautiful backdrop.  I had to go first after my birdie, so I hoped I had chosen correctly.  I did!  My ball landed close to the hole on the left side.  Greg over-clubbed and landed past the green giving him a difficult chip.  Eric landed his on the green on the right side.  My putt was a downhill, fast one.  Greg made a super chip shot that stopped past the hole.  Eric missed his second putt, so he got a bogey.  Greg missed his bid for par, too, so I only had to get my par to win the point.  It was the first putt that really counted, and I managed to get it just past the hole with a real chance of making my second putt.  I got my par, so I had two points now.  With two holes left, I had an outside chance to get three.

Hole 5-This par five hole seemed short to me, but we were playing from the whites.  I thought it was too short for a par five (around 450 yards), but it had some teeth.  The green was elevated which made it harder for approaches.  My tee shot was beautiful, but Greg outdrove me again.  We had some fun banter before we played our second shots.  He reminded me of how much older he was, and I mentioned how my ball was in the center of the fairway with a better angle.  From there, though, he used only four more shots, and I used five, so they won that point.  Age and treachery won out on this hole.  Ha!

Hole 6-We were a little disappointed that we weren’t playing from the blues, because our elevated tee box for the whites wasn’t as…elevated.  Greg and Eric both made a blunder when they outdrove the fairway.  Eric did take more aim for the flag after seeing Greg’s ball disappear in the bushes, but he pushed his drive and it ended up in the desert rough, too.  

I really should have used my 3-wood after witnessing what they had just done, but I stubbornly used my driver, too.  Thankfully, I didn’t have the best contact, so my ball faded/sliced to a spot barely on the grass adjacent to the area where Eric and Greg’s golf balls had just gone.  I was able to get my par after that, and that was the end of my solo six holes.  I had managed to get three points after all.

Hole 7-It was Greg and I against Eric now for the middle six holes.  Greg earned a par to win the first hole on this par three.

Hole 8-After Greg teed off first, I wondered if I could go for the green, but it was a long shot.  The scorecard says it’s 286 yards, but the Garmin said it was 262 from where our tee box was.  Greg and Eric laid up to the 100 yard marker (Greg’s ball was right on it), and I decided to go for it.  I aimed to the left, because the water appeared to go farther up on the right side before the green.  It made it, and everyone in our group was impressed.  Even me.  It ended up just past the bunker that guarded the front left side of the green.  With a chip and two putts, I had earned a par.  Greg got his par, too, so we beat Eric’s bogey for the points.

Hole 9-I had a wonderful drive, but I ended up with a bogey after a failed approach shot.  Eric and Greg tied with pars, so this was the first hole where no one received points.  After this hole, Greg and I were tied with five points, and Eric had three.

Until next time…