Just Me

I haven’t played since Wednesday 2 weeks ago. Something happened and it felt like I had a red hot poker in my thigh. Nerve pain is the absolute worst. I have a high tolerance for pain with all my orthopedic issues, but this was beyond the pale. I finally, after a week of suffering, got another epidural that mostly calmed it down.  I still get twinges and had a slight relapse on Saturday, but it went away after a few minutes.

I felt OK the rest of the weekend, so I thought I’d try. I also thought I might be crazy to go out there and tempt the fates…but I had to know. So I went out and was very, very tentative on the first several holes. I tried not to twist too much and just use physics to move my ball. I wasn’t hitting my power drives, but I was getting them out there. I wasn’t worried about the score so much…I just felt so good being out there again.

I didn’t do anything stellar. I parred several holes, had a couple of my usual drives but I was able to play the full 18 and so far (knock wood) I’m OK.

Remember they were aerating the course? Well, the greens have these monster holes on them so trying to putt is more of a challenge that it is under normal circumstances. The balls bounce all over the place and take some seriously sharp turns right at the cup. The one good thing…I did not get into any bunkers today…a bunker-free round. Works for me.

I also didn’t wear my cleats. I wore sneakers….didn’t want to lock my foot into the turf and twist.

So I’m back to being a happy camper….I can still play golf. Next is to find out what the deal is and what’s going on that caused the nerve pain. I thought there might be a bulging disk that was pinching a nerve…but I doubt I could play 18 holes of golf if that was the case. Of course, I’m no doctor and I could be wrong…but the MRI will show whatever is going on (hopefully!).

So…barring any unforeseen disasters, I plan on being right back out there Wednesday. We only have 2 more months to league play…so I don’t want to miss any more days.

Golf is an expensive way of playing marbles.

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We played the back nine twice. First time around, it was low net. Second time around, low gross. I don’t think I have to worry about winning any of these today!

My kiss of death, again…I parred the first hole, today it being hole 16 which is quite parrable. On 17, I hit the ball in the same damn spot almost, as I did on Monday. I got lucky and this time it stayed in the rough instead of going into the hazard. I still screwed the hole up.

I had a few pars that saved me but nothing spectacular. I did manage to sweat off about 5 pounds (at least that’s what it felt like). It wasn’t that hot…low 80s, but the humidity was, IMHO, abysmal. This was the reason I left Miami..I hate the humidity!

I did manage to royally F up the 14th hole on the second go round. I futzed around and futzed around until I finally threw the damn ball in the hole! I think I ended up with an 11 (I can only put in a score for 8 because of my handicap). What a stupid, ignorant play there. Had a great drive that went right into the hazard and was lost. Otherwise I did fine. Hell, I parred it the first time around. It was our second to last hole and I thought I was running out of steam…since I played it so badly, but that wasn’t so because I parred our final hole – the #2 handicap hole, #15. So…I chalk it up to stupidity!

The first time around, on hole #12…a nice long, straight par 5, my second shot was very well hit but severely directionally challenged. It went way right, hit a tree, got slowed by some branches on the other side of the cart path, then it threw the ball back on the right side of the card path in the rough. Talk about trick shots…had those branches not caught that ball, it would have been out of bounds because I really hit it well!

We’ll see what happens next week when we play the (harder) front nine twice after its been deeply aerated.

In primitive society, when native tribes beat the ground with clubs and yelled, it was called witchcraft; today, in civilized society, it is called golf.

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It was absolutely awful. The sun was out and it was lake a sauna…got worse as the sun rose. I was dripping wet…sweaty, water running down my face! ewwwwwww!!

OK…so we played the back 9 twice because they’re aereating the front 9. They are seriously aereating it. Even the green were seriously done. This time they’re doing a deep one…so the plugs will be larger. It always looks like dog poop when they get finished. I can’t imagine how they’re going to get the greens in shape to play in a week…we’ll see.

Got off to a slow start but parred my nemesis hole #11 the first time around. My tee shot was in the rough and I played it out of there almost like a pro. Then I 1 putted. Worked for me. Double bogeyed the 12th hole but parred 13.  It wasn’t awful…but I could have and should have done better.

On the secone go round, I was on fire. Parred 10, double bogeyed 11, and parred12, 13 and 16. I was on a roll. Bogeyed the other holes. By the time we finished 16, I had a 33. I royally screwed up 17 and 18. Ended up with a 97 for the round.

I must admit, I was exhausted when I got to 18 the second time. The heat really got to me today and I had no energy by the time we got to the last hole. Maybe a little heat exhaustion. I really think it’s the hat….but I’ll keep wearing it…maybe!

I did have a tremendous drive on 12. Longest I’ve hit it in a long time. From the ladies tees it’s just under 400 yards to the center of the green. My drive was almost halfway there. I always worry about my second shot when I have a fantastic drive like that because that’s when I usually chunk it and send it 20 feet. Not today. I almost drove the green on my second shot. It was long and straight with my 3 wood! It was about 10 feet off. Unfortunately, I missed the birdie putt…ball just went by the edge of the cup, but I did get the par. It felt so good…I’d love to repeat sometime soon.

So maybe Wednesday I’ll wear the baseball cap. I do fine with it, but the Tilley, to me, is really, really hot. Even though the top is fully vented, I think it’s hot and what made me puny for the last hole!

You can put a draw on the ball, you can put a fade on the ball, but no golfer can put a straight on the ball.

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We started on hole #9 today. Starting on a par 3 is not normally a good thing for me…but I parred it! You know what I said about parring the first hole. My thought…you can’t par them all if you don’t par the first one….however, the other prevailing thought is if you par the first hole, the remainder of your game is screwed!

Last time I parred the first hole I was able to ignore the premonition and do OK. Today, it truly was awful. I shot the same score I shot yesterday….but this course is a lot easier than yesterday’s…my excuse is I’m exhausted…three days in a row in the August heat and humidity. I’m an old, broken down ex-jock….so I’m tired. It’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

I am starting to hit my new club better. It feels so different from my other clubs…heavier and more substantial. I know it’s in my hand when I’m hitting with it…the weight is that much different…and it feels different….but I’m hitting better with it. Of course, I’m still (and probably always will be) directionally challenged, so one never know where the ball will actually end up…even though I’m aiming at a specific target…my chanced of hitting the ball in that general direction are about 1 in 10. BUT, I am hitting that club better. It’s starting to go the distance I bought it for…so it was the right choice.

Had a fun day. It wasn’t as humid as it was Monday and Tuesday. Played in a threesome, so I was with two other lovely ladies. Today’s event was even holes…so of course all my pars and better holes were on the odd holes. Murphy wreaked havoc with me again!

I’m finished until Monday. It’s going to take me that long to recuperate, I think :)

Since bad shots come in groups of three, a fourth bad shot is actually the beginning of the next group of three.

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Actually, we played with two lovely women, who had the same attitude about the league as we did…so we had a lovely day. Even though we beat them 11 1/2 to 6 1/2, they were still pleasant.

I did absolutely nothing spectacular. I did manage to get myself into some nasty lies…one buried so deep I could barely see it…the other in a hole behind a huge clod of dirt. I managed to pop both out…one to the fairway and the other to the rough in the second cut where it was playable. I used my 60 degree lob wedge on both and it popped right out of the nasty stuff very nicely.

My partner, who I’ve played with before and we seeem to play very well together, kept trying to make me play using course management. I kept telling her as an athlete, I played aggressively. On one shot, I only had about 119 yards to get to the other side of a little creek. I was in the first cut of the rough and the ball was sitting up nicely. I took out my 7 iron and knew I could get it over and be safe to pop it onto the green. I had a good shot, but it hit the ground on the close side of the hazard, must have hit a rock because it bounced up and landed on the other side with an easy chip up to the green, which I did and put it up not too far from the pin.

On another hole..a par four that went over some water, I laid the ball up about 10 yards from the water on my second shot. I got over (albiet in a bunker) safely on the first try. One of my opponent’s did make it over and put it in a little land jut out between two parts of an adjacent bunker. Both of our shots were similar to Padrig Harrington’s last weekend. A pond with no mercy…hit too far and the ball was in the water. She went first. She had a tough shot…and it flew out of the grass and sailed into the water. My shot out of the bunker landed a few feet from the hole. They conceded the hole to us

Even though they had better handicaps, we still managed to beat them. Our other two teams weren’t as lucky. They lost by a couple of strokes each…however, we did manage to win the trophy again…two years in a row. We won by 2 1/2 points…174 1/2 to 172. I will get a picture of the trophy and add it to a post. It’s really pretty and heavy as all get out!

BTW, it was humid and awful out there. It just saps your strength relentlessly…it’s supposed to be better tomorrow. I hope so!

A golf match is a test of your skill against your opponents’ luck.

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It wasn’t as bad as they predicted, but we lucked out and had some cloud cover by mid round. The temps weren’t as bad as they predicted (99) either. It’s 89 now, an hour and a half after we finished.

The sun did come back out after we finished (thankfully) and then it really became steamy. I’m glad I went out when I did.

That all prefaced my ugly round today. I hope I got all the crap shots and crap putts out of the way because tomorrow is the final league tournament to decide the overall league winner and we’re only in the lead by 2 1/2 points. Hopefully, it won’t be as bad tomorrow because I just had no energy out there today. I didn’t get a good night’s sleep and that compounded it.

I did get a little more opportunity to use my new club. I really like it, but I keep chunking the ground when I use it. I have to get used to it..it’s a tad heavier than all my other clubs.

I did use it on hole #7 and it was about 80 yards, which is what I got the club for…for between 70 and 80 ish. I hit the ball beautifully…and it was pin high…but not on the green. It went off to the left because I pulled it again (going for the left field fence). Not sure I’m ever going to be able to break that habit of pulling left.

All that said, I had a lovely day. Being on the course, playing golf with friends….there’s nothing better.

No matter how bad you are playing, it is always possible to play worse.

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What a glorious day. We got a one day break from the humidity, which is supposed to be back tomorrow. AND, what a fun day.

This year, the course superintendent ran a contest to design a hole for this event. I did make a submission, but didn’t win   I did get an honorable mention and he did use my hole. In fact, there were 4 “honorable mentions” and those designs were used. Now…there may have only been the 5 entries…that I don’t know. This year, different than in years past, we got a rules sheet giving us an idea of what to expect and where to hit from. It was a most entertaining day.

I played with two guys and amother woman. We ended up 3 over and lost by one stroke. We really needed a couple of birdies, but they were hard to come by. The rules sheet, my original hole design and some pictures from today’s event are posted here.

Hope you enjoy seeing the fun we had. I’ve captioned each photo, so there’s not much more to say except…looking forward to next year’s event to seee what deviously, diabolocal holes are created!

If you want to see last year’s event, you can find it here

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It started out fairly comfortable…but then the humidity started to build and whew! It really got icky!

I played with 3 ladies I’d not played with this year yet, so we had a very nice round. It’s always nice to play with folks you know and to meet new friends. This was a great group and we had a nice time on the course. I managed several pars and a birdie on #9. Mostly, though, my putting left me today. I think I was not keeping my head down. I had several GIR so I should have converted all of them, but , alas, I didn’t

I didn’t get into one bunker today. It’s been a long time since I had a round that was bunker free!

All in all, it was a lovely day to be out on the golf course, enjoying the day with good friends and good comraderie.

I only mooned the ball once( the famous 300 yard drive – 100 up; 100 out; 100 down)…on the last hole. How dumb!

I’d been having problems with the 70-80 yard distance. I really didn’t have a club for that distance. My sand wedge didn’t work…not enough club. My pitching wedge was too much club. So, I bought a gap wedge…54 degrees. It’s a Ping and a bit heavier than my other clubs, but it feels substantial. They also had a Cleveland, which is what my lob wedge is, but it was really heavy. I think I’m going to like this Ping. It feels good in my hand. Maybe I’ll sneak out tomorrow and take it to the range, just to see how to hit with it, before I have to use it Friday, in the Superintendent’s Revenge.

Notice, I’ve been painfully silent about baseball. My heart is broken…what else can I say

This was my problem today, I think:

Never try to keep more than 300 separate thoughts in your mind during your swing.

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I parred the first hole! I say you can’t par them all if you dont par the first, however it is the kiss of death! If you par the first hole, your round is screwed.

I got double par on the second hole. See what I mean…however, I parred the third hole. Hmmmmm! I hit my limit on the fourth hole. What a screwy start.

I ended up parring 6 holes…missed two birdies on lip-outs. Pissed me off, but I saved par. I even parred my nemisis #11. Hit the tee shot right up there, almost pin high.  I was close…but that was one of the lip-outs.

Only got in 1 bunker on #4 but got right out and out it close to the pin for a 1 putt.

Until the end of the round, my putting wasn’t half bad, I think I started either losing focus or getting lazy. I started turning my putter after I hit it. The kiss of death!

I had another golden opportunity to break 90 and because of those two starting hole and 2 other holes on the back 9, I didn’t do as well as I would have liked, I ended up in the very low 90s. Don’t get me wrong…I’m not complaining. Overall, my play was good. I made some very good shots…followed by some very bad ones.  But, as they say, s**t happens

Don’t buy a putter until you’ve had a chance to throw it.

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