My First Birdie of 2025!

Written on 2-15-25.

     It’s the day after Valentine’s Day, and it’s a Saturday.  James and Casey recently arrived home after spending the first part of the weekend here.  They spent one night at our home and the other two up at Vallecito.  Very soon, their lives will change…for the better, of course.  I am glad they could have a getaway before it all begins.

Belinda and I are excited for the long weekend due to Presidents’ Day.  We have already done some light cleaning and started gathering tax documents from last year.  Danielle is going to Phoenix for a Spartan Race.  Benny had RSV yesterday, and she recently shared the air with him, but she still decided to go.  Hopefully, it will all be okay.  Benny is already feeling better, I have heard, and his temperature is down after being as high as 106º, though!  Matt is racing, too, and they brought Benny with them.

On to golf…

I just cleaned my clubs after my last two rounds, the one at Pinon Hills and the other at Sandia, like I wrote about above.  I have removed the Arccos sensors and cancelled my subscription.  I know I need more distance on my drives, and I know I can always improve my approaches from 125-150 yards.  It was a super experiment, but I feel I know my game well.  It was super to see the improvement I made at the end of the last season when I did score better.  It was gratifying to see the data.  You have improved by 1.3 strokes in blank, etc.  I didn’t want to pay $155.00 for an entire year again, though.  It was all or nothing.  I couldn't pay monthly, so I let it go.

My membership at Pinon Hills ends on Wednesday, the 19th, too.  I don’t plan on renewing that either.  I didn’t get enough rounds in this past year to justify doing it again.  Eric plans to pay each time, so that's what I will do, too.

I wanted to finish writing about my new baseball glove I bought at Dick’s (I switched to baseball gloves quite a while ago because I feel they are more durable, but maybe they aren't).  I used the gift certificate that Asurion sent me after the last one failed, so I was able to take advantage of that protection plan.  The one for my new glove, however, cost between $7.00 and $8.00, up from between $4.00 and $5.00.  I decided to do it anyway, but that is quite the price jump.  Hopefully, I won’t need to take advantage of it.  It’s a bit of a pain to file a claim.

I also didn’t finish the story about the round with that couple at Pinon Hills, and I have a birdie to write about from those nine holes.

Like I said, the husband was not very good, and his name is Joe.  We did have similar markings on our golf balls like I wrote before, too, and he hit my ball by accident from the #1 fairway.  He apologized, and I told him it was not a big deal.  I dropped close to where it just was and finished with a par, the first par of my round.  Actually, the first par of the year, too.

Then he hit my ball again on the next hole.  He shanked it, but it was my ball.  Once again, he was very remorseful, but I told him not to worry.  Then he did it a third time!  That was impressive.  If I had played the hole better, that wouldn't have happened, but I scored a double.

Without his help, I scored my first birdie of the year on the next hole.

Pinon Hills-Hole #3-Birdie #1 of 2025

My drive was not good.  It went left (so did Joe’s), but it did go far enough to get over the first large hill over there.  It ended up in the rough near the bottom of the next hill.  I was sure to remind Joe that our golf balls look very similar, so I was able to stop him from hitting my ball for a fourth time.

I had a blind approach due to the hill.  I walked up to see which line would be best.  I saw the flagstick on the front right side, so I picked a line just right of that.  I used my 5-iron/wood and swung a beauty from 159 yards.  The ball launched toward the hole, and I knew it would be satisfactory.  It was more than that, though.  It ended up right of the hole, only three feet away.

Joe’s wife putted for her par first, but she missed.  She doesn’t like putting on winter greens due to the inconsistency, she said.  They were crusty and mottled.  Thankfully, I was able to roll mine on a true path for my first birdie of the year!  Yay!