"I'd rip the mike out of Bob Costas' hands and say into the camera, very sincerely, 'I'd just very much like to thank (pause) my sweet butt for being so good! Nobody's hittin' these shots but me, you fools! You see anybody blockin' for me? Catching balls at the wall? Throwin' me a pass? It's just me out here, by myself, home slice, and I am flat-out a witch with these here Pings. I can do stuff with these things that would've gotten me buried up to my eyes in the desert during the Middle Ages!' "
I have a few favorite numbers – each of them corresponding to something worth remembering in my life. Why else have a favorite number, right? Pick a number 1 through 10? I will always choose the number 2. This was the number I wore during my senior year soccer season which culminated in my fourth state championship in a row. Pick a number 1 through 50? I will always choose 25, as it was the number I wore during my senior basketball season. 1 through 100? Chances are that from here on out I will tell you 74… a recent change from 79. The entry below aside, you should be well aware of how much I enjoy playing golf. And as I mentioned last time, I went out with plenty of things on my mind and subsequently shot the best round of my entire life – a 74.
When the time came to play my first round of the year, I was pretty pumped. Check that – I was UBER pumped. It’s the little things in life, right? I booked the tee time the afternoon before, got a great deal, and left work in the best mood I had been in for weeks. After waking up the morning of, I cleared my bag of last year’s scorecards and put it in my car. No worries… I left in plenty of time to drive north of town to the course which is ranked #2 among public courses in Missouri, wanting to have an opportunity to hit a bucket of balls. This was my first tee time since my golf vacation to Hilton Head right before I moved out of Georgia after all. Well, that didn’t happen. While checking in, they told me there was an open spot in the twosome about to tee off. Decision time. Have enough time to practice so I wouldn’t embarrass myself after a four month absence?... or take the opportunity to tee off earlier – ensuring I would get my full round in before the sun set. I chose the latter…thus beginning the best afternoon I’ve had since moving.
I’ve been playing most of my rounds over the past year while attempting to not take any mulligans. The three of us in my group agreed we would probably need two balls off of the first tee, though. The two guys in my group did just that. I had my second ball in my pocket and ready to go when I teed up the first. Driver in hand, I took an easy swing that sent the ball several hundred yards… not in the creek to the right… or the woods to the left… it landed and rolled several more yards down the left side of the fairway. Off we went. That second ball? I never took it out of my pocket. Now, I started out last year wanting to break 100 every time we went out. It got to the point that I was breaking 90 every round out, regardless of the course we played. However, it didn’t matter what kind of day I was having… my score almost always ended up between 84 and 89. On one most glorious day out with a client in Atlanta, I shot the first sub 80 round of my life – a 79. I mention this to make sure you know how much of a minor.. eh… major miracle it is to shoot the score I did with the skill level (sometimes lack of) I have. Did I mention this was my first round in over four months? I duffed my second shot, leaving me a lob wedge to the green. Wedge in hand, I put that bad boy about ten feet from the pin. I was pretty pleased with the shot, buuuuut I subsequently left my par putt short (you have to hit it, Alice). Bogey. I also bogeyed the second hole. I got settled in, and then I started swinging those bad boys like it was my job.
