A Rock-Skipping Par at Riverview

Written on 11-20-25.

        I am on my shift at Jim’s, and he is eating breakfast.  It’s wonderful to have some time to write while I am here.  It helps pass the time, although time goes by super fast already when I am on these shifts.  It’s 10:16, and I started at 9:00.

Back to golf…

I messed up my beautiful drive on #1 with a poor approach, so that was one of my bogeys.  On hole #2, though, I had an out of the ordinary par.  It’s the par three over the water, and I hit my tee shot...

thin causing it to go low and a bit left.  It hit the water only once, and then it skipped up onto the land.  When it had settled, I had a grassy lie 30 yards away.  I had to pitch my golf ball over the bunker, so I chose my 58º wedge.  It popped up and stopped just past the hole.  I had a 10-foot putt left for my par, and I read it going left.  I put my putt out to the right, and it dropped in for a splashy par!

I ended the round with another successful par.  I had another very decent drive/fade that hit the fairway.  My approach came up well short when I hit behind my ball.  It was an uneven lie, though.  My pitch got my ball barely off the green on the fringe right behind the hole.  It was only eight feet away, and my putt barely dripped into the hole to get that one last par to help rebuild my confidence.

I have started using my Rypstick again.  I have not done it as often as I did the first time around, and it shows.  My average speed is around 92 mph.  It was higher the last time I used it.  I know that using it before helped my game tremendously.  Anyone would think that I would be able to swing it faster after working out with Matthew, but I am rusty.  Re-gripping it was necessary; it was getting slick.  I would really like to focus on regaining speed this winter.  It gets harder as the temperatures begin to drop, however.  I just checked, and I had my speed as high as 102 mph in February of 2022.  I would love to get back to that and possibly more.

*Jess is doing well and will be discharged this afternoon.  They have chosen to stay another night, though, as I predicted.  I am so looking forward to this weekend!  We will celebrate our 35th anniversary in Santa Fe at the Buffalo Thunder Resort, and we will have dinner at the range with all the kids on Saturday night at The Range Cafe in Bernalillo.