Back at Buenaventura, I felt that I was ready to better my score from Monday. Here I am, playing about twice a week, trying to go to the driving range at least once a week, taking lessons, and getting ready for a wonderful weekend in La Quinta where we'll play gorgeous and tough courses. I love watching The Golf Channel, in fact Stan and I are somewhat obsessed with it. We'd rather watch golf than football. That's a switch, believe me. So, to say that golf is a big part of our life right now would be something of an understatement. Our friend Michael Lauber told me that he thinks Stan is taking the game a little too far. Well, if he is, then so am I. But we're loving it . . . at least until we get on the course.
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| My sweetheart - on the first fairway. |
I started out fine. I double-bogeyed the first three holes and felt pretty darn good. Stan started keeping track of whether our drives hit the fairways, and out of 18 holes, we both made the fairway 11 times. I also drove to the green on a par 3. Not too bad. And, you'd think that you'd probably play better on a golf course that you're pretty familiar with. That was the case for Mike today, and Bill played pretty well too, but it wasn't to be for Stan and me.
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| Teeing off for a good drive. Really! |
Although I hit a downhill slide, shooting two 9s and a 7 on the front nine, I bogeyed one hole and made par on two for a 55 on the front. Stan was pretty consistent with my play - we shot the same; he had five 7s and two bogeys. Mike shot two 8s, bogeyed five holes and made par on one. Bill made par on one hole and bogeyed one, but had a bunch of sixes which kept his front nine at 51.
I couldn't stay out of the sand today. On one hole I had four sand shots - two to get out of one trap only to get stuck in another. I shot a 9 on that hole, whichever one it was. I choose to forget. I can say one thing with certainty: my sand wedge saw a lot of action and got very dirty.
I'm wondering how much of my trouble is that I'm trying to change things. The very thing that helped me on Monday seemed to hurt me today. I am trying to keep my legs bent. I tend to straighten them on my downswing which makes me top the ball. I topped the ball today more than a few times, and tried to correct my leg position, but that may have created other problems. Who really knows?
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| The boys - Mike, Bill and Stan. |
The back nine is where I came undone. The crazy part is that I bogeyed three holes, but still couldn't turn my game around and shot a 61, with two 9s and two 8s. Stan shot very well except for two 8s and a 7, and he bogeyed four holes for a 54. Bill bogeyed two holes but, for the most part, kept his scores in the 5s and 6s for a 53 on the back. I saw a club "drop" after a chunk shot, but Little Billy didn't come out to play today. He had no reason to! Mike shot 6s on six of the back nine holes and bogeyed two holes for an outstanding 44. He had a personal best of 93 today. Congratulations Mike! You are steady and solid; we are watching your game improve right before our eyes! It's a wonderful thing!
On to La Quinta where we have no business playing this caliber of course, but we're locked in. Unfortunately, we won't have Susan and Jerry to play best ball with us this time. We'll keep our fingers crossed!
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