Fleetwood Wins and The Progressive Best Ball Beginning

Written on 8-24-25.

       It’s a Sunday afternoon, and I am watching the FedEx Cup.  Tommy Fleetwood is leading now, but it’s early.  I went to a luncheon after church at the parish hall, so it’s a bit later in the day to be watching and writing about golf.  Father Raja’s parents are heading back to India after three months here in America, and that was the reason for the get-together.  They were incredibly kind, quiet, grateful, and humble.  I saw lots of pride sparkling from their faces for their son, too.

I just had a FaceTime call with Guy.  He called/used me on his way home after watching an Italian soccer team on TV.  One of ShyShay’s club volleyball friend’s fathers paid $15,000.00 for a small part of that team.  His friend joked...

that it was “his” team that was playing, so he invited Guy to come watch.  It’s a different world out East.  Don’t know of anybody here in the Southwest who owns part of an Italian soccer team.  

Guy is busy with work and going to see ShyShay play every weekend now.  He is overseeing 100 employees, since somebody else has left the company.  He said it was now 95% management compared to 40% before.  He told me he is flying to Tucson this week to continue this new management role.

*Tommy Fleetwood has just come to hole 15, the par three over the water.  It’s a 218 yard shot, and he got a double bogey after hitting into the water yesterday.  He has a three shot cushion, but this tee shot is crucial. 

Tomorrow is Danielle’s 30th birthday.  We decided not to go celebrate with her after all of the kerfuffle with the Academy.  The final decision is that she will go through Academy again, and I am glad that it’s been decided.  Now, we can focus again on supporting her as best as we can, and she knows what she needs to do.  It’s just sad that she has to go through it all over again after this controversy.  

One test!  She only needed to pass one silly hose test.  Ugh.  She can do it, though!  I have every confidence in her.  What an ordeal this has been.  It’s been tough on us as parents, but I can only imagine what it has been like for her.  We will celebrate her birthday later when things are better.

*Tommy’s tee shot is on dry land.  Phew for him.  He earned a bogey, however, and his lead is still two shots.

On to golf…

Yesterday was the progressive best ball tournament, and we placed!  I played a decent round, earned a birdie, and had a wonderful time…mostly.  I say mostly, because one of our teammates was a bit grumpy, but all was good by the end of the tournament.  Here’s what happened…

I brought two Crater Lake purchases, a gray pullover and a bright green polo with stripes made from tiny evergreen trees.  I am so sick of my polos, so it was refreshing to have something new to wear.  Basically, I looked good (wink, wink).  I was glad for the pullover on the first tee, because the 8:30 tee time brought some cold temperatures along with it.  By hole #4, I had taken it off, though, because the sun had warmed the course quickly.

I started with a par, so that was an improvement from the ‘yellow ball’ tournament.  I haven’t parred that hole in a long time.  I played from the gold tees, but I am not certain that is the best spot to play from for me.  According to my handicap, it is (17.8 according to the Hillcrest list).  Russell, our best player, was put down as a 12.6, and I saw he was playing from the golds, too, so that was why I chose to do it.  On the morning of the tournament, however, he switched and played from the silvers, which are farther.  Many of the holes, the silver tees were only 10 yards apart, but for a few, they were over 50 yards apart.

*Tommy just won!  Well-deserved.

I chose my driver, and I hit it out to the  right.  Not so far right that I was in danger of going out of bounds, but definitely right of the fairway.  It bounced off of a tree, and I lucked into a full stance and a free swing for my approach.  I hit many 9-irons on the range successfully and the water wasn’t really in play this time, so I got the G.I.R.  I left my first putt short, but I made the next one for a super start.  That calmed my nerves for a moment.

Then I got a triple bogey on hole #2 after a long drive.  That was a short game malfunction but I didn’t lose the calm feeling.  Thankfully, we were only counting one player’s score for the first six holes.  I ended up with three pars in those first six holes, and those all tied with one of my partners to two, so I didn’t really have any effect yet.