A Bit South of Respectable

Written on 5-11-24.

      We ended with a par on that one.  I didn’t get it very close with my pitch, but Greg made an excellent lag putt, barely missing on the left side.  

For the alternate shot, we putted very well.  It added more pressure to make sure you got your first putt close enough to make it easier on the your partner.

We ended the alternate shot nine holes in a wonderful way with a par on the difficult #18.  I had the drive, Greg had the approach, and then I had a better chip (than the one on the previous hole) with my gap wedge.  Greg was tested with a short downhill breaking putt, and he finished it off with ease.  

Our more experienced competitors really struggled on this hole.  Michael left his putt from just off the green short.  Then Dave left his short, too.  Michael missed the uphill four-footer causing it to lip out an inch away.  We all gasped.  Dave was funny.  He said, “I can make that one.”

For the last nine holes, it was back to...

best ball.  I drove it well again, but I could never capitalize.  On hole #1, my drive was safe after Greg put his in the water.  There’s another one to help my confidence.  

Then I pulled my approach into the water!  Ugh.  I only scored better than Greg on the last hole, and that was with a bogey.  Greg and I tied on four holes, but he did better on the rest.  It wasn’t pretty, and I am certain these were the worst nine holes for the tournament for us.  We scored a gross 41.  To make a comparison, our competitors scored a gross 37.  Well played, sirs.

I was hoping for Greg to turn his game around on this final stretch, but he really didn’t.  My golf went south, too.  That’s the way golf goes.  I told James how we had done after the first day of the tournament, and I characterized it as, “We were a bit south of being respectable.”

He laughed.  On Sunday, we went a couple of miles farther south.

Kevin and Ryan won the tournament in our flight, I heard.  Good for them.  Before our round at Hillcrest, I visited with Kevin again and he confided they had won the tournament twice before.  They won the inaugural one, lost the second year, and then they won again last year.  In my opinion, they should have been moved up to the next flight.  That’s how it was for volleyball for Guy and me when we played doubles, and that’s a fair way to do it.  Oh, well.

When they lost in their second attempt, he said they scored a   on hole #1 (multiple golf balls in the water).  Greg and I can proudly say we did’t do that.

The worst hole (for me) came on the 2nd hole at Pinon after I had a great start with a par on #1.  As I think back on it, I made a long putt for that par.  Nice.  

On #2, my 3-wood went left and short due to bad contact.  I hit a provisional with my driver, and it was a beauty up the left side of the fairway.  In hindsight, I should have told Kevin to not look for it, because I really didn’t want to find it when I realized where it ended up.  Long story short, I got stuck in a miniature rock canyon.  Thankfully, Greg earned at least a double, which was a much better score than what I would have received.  I laughed about it later.  It was a joke to me, and it helped that it came during the best ball section.

I made the longest putt of the tournament on hole #5 at Hillcrest.  My approach landed in the little bunker on the front right side.  I struggled to get out again, and then when I did, it sailed to the backside of the green.  My putt was from the back to the front, and I read it as breaking right.  It curled around someone’s ball marker, and Michael kept saying, “You got it.  You got it!”

I did.  That was an adventurous bogey.  Greg had a shorter putt for par, but it broke just below the hole, so this was one of the holes we ended up tying.  

Okay, enough about the tournament, but here’s a summary.  I found out that I can withstand the pressure when I need to, and it was fun to play with Greg despite his off and on negativity.

I have been looking at Erika Larkin videos lately, and she has the True Swing philosophy.  She even wrote a book about it.  I looked at one of her videos before (within the past year), and she wanted me to join the True Swing Club for $47.00, which isn’t very much, but I chose to not to do it.

When I play this Tuesday, I am going to work on my “true swing” by myself and see how it goes.  I am going to take my arms and hands out of my swing, and just let them hang and relax.  She used a little monkey with long arms, and she twisted its torso, and the arms just swung around unfettered.  Incredible visual.  It’s like a gravity-fed swing, but it also gains acceleration from the swinging motion.  Yesterday, I tried some of what she and Greg Cogorno were demonstrating in a few of their joint videos.

Speaking of joints, the joint on my right pinkie is messed up.  I got some x-rays for it after meeting Dr. Rabazzi for the first time.  I switched to a baseball swing, and I think it has made it worse.  I would tuck my pinkie inside my grip, and I bet the twisting motion of my swing made things worse.  It’s difficult to bend, and it is often sore.  I have seen the x-ray, and it is grotesque.  I have a referral in place, and I will call them soon.  It’s an old volleyball injury.

Back to the “hands free” Erika Larkin type swing, if I free my pinkie (let it out from the crammed baseball grip to swing more freely), it might receive less damage.

Until next time…