We Have a Name!

Written on 5-9-24.

      I have learned the name of Becca and Matt’s baby today.  His name is Benjamin Eric Frings, and they waited to tell us, because they wanted to tell Eric and Amanda in person when they drove there yesterday.  Now, I know why they wouldn’t tell us yet.  Great name.

Back to golf…

It was a best ball format for the first nine holes.  I had solid pars on holes 1, 4, and 8.  Greg helped our team the most with a super birdie on the “sometimes” intimidating hole #5.  He got some bogeys to help our cause on a couple of holes when I didn’t score well.  Those came on holes 7 and 9.  Our opponents did really well, especially with Kevin’s par streak, and they were beating us by 4 strokes with our net scores of 33 and 29 after that portion.

The back nine was a scramble, and we did better.  We...

tied them with our gross 40 score.  

My tee shot found the middle of the green on #12, but we triple-putted from there.  Kevin had an amazing shot from short and left of the green.  It went over the bunker with a high arc, and then Ryan made the putt.  Golf can be weird.  We thought we had the advantage there, but they gained a stroke on that hole.

We used all of my shots on the next hole, and that got us a par.  We had a good look at a birdie, but we couldn’t/didn’t capitalize.  

Greg had an awesome approach out of the second bunker on the next hole, and we managed a par there, too.  Kevin and Ryan blew up on that one.  They chose to go for the green on this short downhill par four, but they never found Ryan’s ball that went way right and long.  Kevin’s ball ended up in the water, so they lost three strokes to us on that hole alone.

I had a swell chip shot with my 9-iron to a back hole position on #16.  I missed the par putt, but Greg nailed it, so we gained one more stroke there.  That was a very confident putt from Greg.

We gave a stroke back to them on the next hole, but I managed a par on the very last hole.  It’s true that Greg didn’t play the way he usually does.  He was being very negative and getting down on himself more than he usually does.  Normally, it’s just light self-deprecation, but the negative comments were amped up due to the tournament and the added “pressure?”

With my new 5-iron hybrid, I found the top right side of the green with my approach out of the fairway bunker.  Unfortunately, the hole was moved from that side of the green when we practiced with Mike and Marc.  This time, the hole was on the front left side.  With the help of the read of Greg’s putt, I managed to get my ball within 15 feet for our par putt.  This putt was the best one of the entire tournament for me.  They had already made a par with another unlikely up and down (similar to the one on #12), and a par would tie them for this hole and the back nine.  I saw the line and the speed, and it rolled right into the hole.  At least for the scramble portion, we had tied the team that would eventually win the tournament.

Until next time…