Written on 3-29-24.
B and I are at the Montezuma Canyon Ranch and Vineyards Cabin on Good Friday. A and Jess stayed here first, and then A and E, and now us. It’s beautiful and cozy here. I’m feeling content and contemplative. B is on the bed talking to Amanda on her phone. We are staying tonight, too, so we will have one full day. I am sitting at the dining table where there is plenty of light. It’s a windy day, darn it, but it has the makings of an excellent environment for writing.
I will start by writing that I have gained four more days of work after some finagling. Cathy called to let me know they were extending my contract, and I am thrilled about that. Now, Belinda might be able to help me with some of that spring cleaning I wrote about above (wink, wink), and we will have some extra spending money for summer.
Danielle has survived another...
week, but we weren’t able to talk to her last night. She has eleven more weeks to go, and next week is “ladder week.” Belinda might go visit her after work next Friday, because I am going on my golf trip to Page. I hope she does. Ladder week looks and sounds brutal. They carry ladders while running or walking around a track, and I am sure they have devised all kind of other ladder torture. Go, Danielle; you’re our hero.
On to golf…
Eric, Greg, and Greg’s friend, Marc, and I played at Hillcrest on Wednesday. It was cool and a bit windy, but the course looked decent after opening up earlier than they normally do. Eric wanted to do best ball match play, so that’s what we did. It turned out to be an exciting match!
I started badly again. I got a double after hitting my ball into the water on #1, and I got another double on #2 when we couldn’t find my drive. I didn’t have much time to warm up, but I did use some of Eric’s range balls and putt around a bit before we began.
Eric matched their bogeys on #2, so we were only one down after that. I started playing better, too. We won the next three holes to get to two up. We tied the next two, and then Greg earned a birdie on hole #8 to get their team back to only one down. I made a spectacular putt on #9 for an excellent up and down to keep us at one up before starting the back nine. It was a 10’ putt with three feet of right to left break. I curved it around Eric’s ball marker, and I was glad it was there to help me envision the line. Marc earned his par there to match me.
Despite the slow start, I had the best front nine score in our group, a 41. We all played well again, though. Greg got a 42, and Eric and Marc had matching 43’s.
My par on hole #10 got us back to two up. I made a nifty pitch with my new 56º to get that one. We all bogeyed #5, and then Greg got the only par on hole #12, the par three over the water. We were one up again after that, but I quickly got us back to two up with a par on #13. We remained two up for the next three holes, and we only needed to win or tie one of the last two holes to finish them, but Greg earned his par on hole #17 with an amazing putt from eight feet, and Marc got the only par on the last hole, so it ended in a tie. Amazing!
The final scores were Greg: 85, Pat: 86, and Eric and Marc both got 90’s.
One takeaway for me was how well I putted. I had two wonderful breaking putts on #7 and the aforementioned one on #9, and one downhill short putt on #10. If I had made putts on either #11 or #15, it would have made the difference in our match.
Another takeaway was that I have broken 90 three times already this season. That seemed so difficult to do last season, but I finally did it towards the end. I still want to break 85, and I am betting that when I do, I will do it by a large margin.
Greg invited Eric and me to play again this Tuesday at Hillcrest, but I said no. Eric agreed. We want to save up our energy for the Page trip.
Until next time…
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