My Birdie From the Progressive Best Ball Tournament!

Written on 8-27-26.

   Belinda and I are in Durango, and we are parked right across the street from Hillcrest’s hole #6.  We have a bit of time before dinner with Darrell (last name), of all people, who is here for work at the Durango Airport.  We are meeting at Serious Texas BBQ at 5:00, and it’s 4:20 now.  

It has been a productive day.  We weeded and fertilized our lawn, cleaned the Jeep, and picked up our Alto.  It was in Bayfield for nearly a month at Durango RV Repair with Brett to get a new lithium battery mostly, but we got some other things taken care of as well.  I can see it in the rear view mirror, and it’s fitting and wonderful to have it back where it belongs again.  Brett did an amazing job, and we will love having...

more power for the times we are not hooked up.  The battery and the lack of heat because the battery is low has been an issue more often than it should have been.

This weekend, we are going to Ft. Collins to attend Michael Zoccoli’s wedding.  That will be fun!  James, Casey, and Rowan are going, too, and we plan to see my cousin, Kim, in Loveland on Sunday.  They have a new home, so we are going to check it out.  I am sure it will be beautiful, because her husband, Mark, built million dollar homes in Steamboat Springs.  On Sunday night, we plan on having dinner with the Lambert crew in Colorado Springs and then we will spend the night there before heading back home again.  

Let’s see.  What else is going on?  Ekko will be watched by Kyle starting Thursday night, so we will be done with our stint.  He will then bring him back to Albuquerque when he goes back to Danielle’s.  Ekko has been a great guest.  He and Kody are getting along better and better.  Ekko is more calm, and Kody is more patient.  

On to golf…

The reason for coming to Hillcrest today was so I could spend my winnings from the tournament.  We each won $95.00 for getting 2nd place, and this was the best day to come find something.  I will write about the rest of the tournament first, and then I will tell about what I chose for my prize.

For the holes 7 thru 12, two players’ scores were used, and I finally helped the team officially.  On hole #11, Mike and I both earned pars, and that was the first hole where I didn’t tie with someone else for one of the better scores, a good problem to have for sure.  My par putt on hole #13 lipped out, so I nearly helped on that hole, too.  It wasn’t until hole #14 where I got a birdie that I proved my worth to the team for sure.

Hillcrest-Hole #14-Birdie #8 of 2025

I used my driver, because it was working well.  I reviewed my swing on the SwingCatalyst App when I came up to practice on the range the day before the tournament, and I could see an over the top path.  My club would come down a couple of inches (basically, the width my driver club head) above the path that was traced on my backswing, so that was not good.  As an attempt to correct that, I did my best to feel the club swing more in to out, and that was the swing I used for this tournament.

It faded, and then it bounded over to the rough on the right side.  The grass was pretty thick, so I chose my 9-iron vs. my PW, even though it was just over 100 yards to the pin.  The flag was just on the other side of the bunker that guards the green, and I didn’t want to end up there either, so I clubbed up for that reason, too.

My approach came out very low, and it headed for the bunker.  Amazingly, the ball bounced once before the bunker, jumped it, and then bounced one more time on the other side and disappeared.  I thought it might be close, but it could have also been off the green and 30 yards away.  Marc said he thought it was going to be ten feet away, but it turned out to be 30 feet away but still on the green.

I asked Mike and Marc for a read, and Mike joked that I had seen him putt, so why would I ask for help from him.  Then he told me to aim a bit more towards the hole than what I was thinking.  It was a downhill putt, and I saw it moving left to right, but Mike said it wouldn’t move as much as I thought it would.  I moved my aim point after his suggest and let it go.  It worked!  This birdie helped the team, and Russell thought we might get a skin, but we didn’t.  Always great to get a birdie in a tournament!