The Round I Am Already Forgetting

    So, how bad can it get?  If I were to paint the worst scenario for how the Club Championship would pan out for me, what would that look like?  Before I write this, I would like to say that it’s not as bad as I thought it would be now that I am on the other side of it.  Writing about it helps.  Oh, it’s bad, but it’s not a tragedy.  Also, I know my tweaked knee played a part in this.
    It would include a great start, a drive right up the left side of the fairway on #1, a drive that went much farther than all of the competitors’ drives, a drive that used a bunch of adrenaline.  I know that each shot is separate from all of the others, but this drive would inspire hope and create an optimistic attitude that would later, of course, get dashed. 
    It would include some shanks and some high scores.  In all, I think it should have about nine shanks, six that come on two holes back to back (three each to be fair).  For the high scores, I would expect to see around six doubles, a few triples, and to round things out, a couple of quads.
    To be fair, it should include at least one topped shot, and it should also have a few shots that take out too much ground before the ball, the ones where the weight is not shifted properly and the contact is weak and “thuddy.”  When this happens, the ball should fly about halfway to the target.  
    How about a few out of bounds shots?  Sure.  The first will come on hole #5 right off the tee.  It will fly towards the cottonwoods near the fence, giving some hope that it might stay in, but it will never be found.  The second will come on hole #7, also directly off the tee, but this one will be in clear view.  There will be no doubt about it going over the fence, because everyone will watch it go over.  Nothing starts a hole off better than knowing that a double bogey or higher is the most likely outcome.  As is expected, the shots right after the out of bounds shots will be beautiful, or at least stay in play. 
    The third O.B. will rear its ugly head on an approach on hole #8 from the thick grass.  This third one will fly directly over some of the players getting ready to tee off on hole #13, of course, and it will hit the fence (but still go over it) to make that unmistakable “somebody just made a terrible swing” sound.  Thankfully, nobody will get hurt, though.
    Finally, the score should break 100, but not in the “good way.”  It will be over 100 by five strokes.  All of the previous rounds of the season will be below 100.  Most will be below 90, of course.  So, on the day when it counts the most, that will be the day to shoot the score higher than 100, a score that is rarely seen, if ever, anymore.

Who's the New Club Champion?

Written on 10-6-14

    I have about 20 minutes to write before “family chat night” begins.  It’s Sunday night, the Sunday of our Hidden Valley’s Club Championship.  I do not know who the club champ is, but I do know who it is not, and sadly, that is me.
    I didn’t even finish the thing, withdrawing from the tournament this morning with a quick phone call to Tom.  I have tweaked my right knee somehow, so playing another 18 holes could have wrecked it even more.  I have some theories about how it ended up this way, so I will defer to making a list.

Playing volleyball last weekend-I chased down errant passes as the setter, and sometimes I had to get really low to get under the ball.  I also did some jumping and blocking, so that put some strain down there.

Our new car-The new Escape has my knee in a different position for driving than the old Sienna did.  The angle is funny, so my knee feels bunchy when I have to switch from the gas to the brake.  I am sure I can adjust that, though.

My newer swing style-Dana taught me to point my toes out more than I ever have before in order to make a wider turn.  When I load my right leg now, my knee is in a different position, and that is also a strain. 

TRX workouts-With my feet suspended in straps, while lying on my back, with my bottom up in the air, my knees have some pressure on them, especially when I have to bend my knees to move my legs back and forth repeatedly. 

    All of these things contributed, in my opinion.  I hope it heals up as quickly as it came on.  It’s time for chat now.  I will pick this up where I left off after the chat is over.

NMSU Trip and Two New Birdies

Written on 9-28-14.

    Well, what a wonderful visit.  It was fantastic to see all of our children, all four of them. We hung out, we ate together, we played a large amount of volleyball together, and we took in a volleyball match, too, NMSU vs. Bakersfield from California.  The Lady Aggies squeaked one out, barely winning the fourth set to force the fifth where they then won handily 15-8.
    Now, it’s back to the two of us again, driving back home alone.  Sigh.  I am happy, of course, to be with Belinda only again, but I miss our children, too.  I pause as I write to look up through our new moon roof.  Clouds are drifting by and blocking out the sun, so it looks more like a bright yellow circle cut out of the sky.  We’re getting closer.  It’s that part of the road trip where...

Ray Torres Fundraiser-The Conclusion

Written on 9-24-14.

I stopped last time at hole #14, so what follows are the final holes.

#15-We had two drives that ended up on the higher and farther tier of this fairway.  One of them was mine, but that was not my intended target.  I was going for the green, but my tee shot curved from left to right instead, a monster of a slice.  From the fairway, Damon and I had decent shots.  They both ended up on the green, but Damon’s approach left us with the best chance for a birdie.  I am uncertain as to who made the putt.  I think it was me.  It doesn’t matter.  We got another one.  Eight under.

#16-Nothing exciting here.  We were on the green, but nobody made the putt for birdie.  Still eight under.

#17-I was telling everyone how Bruce plays this hole every time.  I was certain Dan could get a tee shot up there, but I wasn’t so sure Ron or Damon could.  Anyway, after telling them about how Bruce gets a par or a birdie consistently on this hole by driving it between the first set of trees and then over the second set, I...

Ray Torres Fundraiser Tournament-Part 2

Written on 9-18-14.

    It’s commercial time for The Biggest Loser, one of my favorite shows.  The farewell season of our family’s favorite show, Parenthood, begins next Thursday.  Speaking of family, we are going to visit our children for the first time this school year next Friday.  We are all so excited to be reunited.  I am betting that next week will crawl along like the caterpillar that was found on one of the coat hooks in my classroom this afternoon.  So excited to see them.  Can’t wait.
    
Back to the golf…

#8-I had the longest drive, a gutsy one considering everyone else had fared poorly.  It was long and up the left side, and it ended up just past the ditch where it curves away towards the pro shop.  Damon had the better pitch onto the green, but mine was a close second choice.  Ron backed up his previous birdie putt with a downhill putt that leveled out at the hole.  Three under.

#9-My drive was fine, but Dan hit a low shot that bore over the teeing area on #12.  I felt certain it wouldn’t make it past the o.b., but it did without a problem.  Ron called the pro shop for a proper ruling on whether we could take it out of that rough area and drop farther back.  He said we...