Grant, Eric, and I Play Monticello-Part 1

Written on 5-26-25.

     I am sitting in our Alto at the Wooden Shoe Group Site, and it’s cooling off at 7:40 in the evening.  Grant, Eric, and I played at the Hideout Golf Course in Monticello today, and it was so fun!  They had never played there before, so it was a kick to watch how they reacted to it with its mountain beauty, elevated tee boxes, and challenging layout.  Grant played better than I have ever seen him play before.  Usually, it comes down to Eric and me, but he mixed it up well this time.  

On to golf…

It’s fun to be able to type that, because I have not played since Troy and I played at UNM North.  How long ago was that?  Let me check.  It was on April 11th, so nearly two months ago.  Too long.

I didn’t get any birdies, but they each got one.   Eric got his on hole #10 with a close approach.  Grant got his on the par five #14 with a close approach, also.

Written on 5-27-25.

We all played well.  It was close, like I wrote yesterday.  After much deliberation, we went with the usual points game: 1 for a fairway, 2 for a G.I.R., 3 for winning a hole, and 2 for the bonuses of long drives on par fives and closer to the pins on par threes.  

I started off well by winning...

eleven points on hole #4.  We had pushed six points for tying the previous two holes, and I hit the green, too.  Grant won ten points on the next three holes by getting pars and winning holes.  Then Eric cleaned up the back nine by winning 12 points on the last hole the same way I won my 11 points on hole #4.  The front nine ended with these scores: Eric-26, Grant-19, and Pat-15.  Eric chose to take the win and start over again on the back nine, but it ended up not mattering.  We had one clear winner for day, and that was Eric.  He played so well, especially after such a long lay-off.  He was winning close the pins, hitting greens, and winning collections of points.  He played superbly.  

Of course, we had some controversy.  I was the one who added it, but I didn’t mean to.  I didn’t want to either.  Here’s what happened.

  On hole #8, I missed the fairway out to the right and lost my ball.  I didn’t want to go back and hit, because it was crowded. By the end of the round, we had let three groups with fewer players play through.  I dropped, hit my approach and nailed the putt!  My ball even bounced up and hit the flag, or it hit it directly.  We weren’t sure.  That ended up being four strokes, but that wouldn’t be fair, because I would have beaten Grant’s score with an illegal score.  I chose to say I had dropped three after losing that ball, and that ended up giving me a bogey.  We discussed this at the turn to make sure we were being consistent and fair.  That pushed those points to hole #9 where Eric cleaned up.

I did it again on hole #9 also.  My tee shot disappeared out to the right of the fairway, so I dropped three and ended up with a double bogey.  On both of those tee shots, I had made good swings with simply unfortunate results; I just didn’t know the course well enough to avoid the danger.

After we had our little talk at the turn, we were all set to play the back nine.  I made a mess of my scorecard when I accidentally flipped Eric’s and Grant’s scores from the front nine to the back.  I had to figure it all out after the round, and I think I have it now.  The final scores were Eric-93 and 44 for the game we played, Pat-92 and 36, and Grant-93 and 35.  See, a very clear winner for the game despite his dwindling near the end.  Grant said we had all shot 93, but I counted, and I think I have it right.  It really doesn’t matter.  We had so much fun, and it was super close and competitive.

Here are some key takeaways where I felt really confident about my game.

More next time...