musings

A Very "Eh" set of rounds

Played on Saturday and Monday this weekend with Dan and Paul. First round was at the Plat, second was at China Creek.

Both rounds were, for me, a 95. Sucky playing, topping the ball off the tee. It's quite remarkable. You essentially can't be 3 off the tee and expect to shoot under 90. so I need to work on that some more. The problem is it doesn't happen at the range that often, so it's difficult to "work" on. It's a mental issue. I lost a lot of balls that way today -- an entire sleeve lf HX tours. UGHGHGHGHGHG.

But, at least on 16, I hit the green this time and didn't skank it off the false green. I had one birdie, one par. Birdie was fairly nice. Hole #3 on China, I hit my 2i into the bunker. From the bunker I hit a nice smooth pitching wedge that landed and sat next 3 feet from the pin. Made the putt, birdie.

The par was also on a par 3. Outside of that, I played very icky. Nothing to write home about. But a LOT of 3 off the tee -- frustrating.

I'll write more later. Right now, Patton is on, so everything must stop. :D

Election Issues

I am going to have real issues this November. I think the administration has really fucked up this entire Iraq thing. The fact that Rumsfeld still has a job amazes me. He should be gone -- and he will need to be gone in order for me to cast a vote for Mr. Bush.

Don't mistake me, I won't vote for Kerry -- no way could I ever do that; I simply will not vote for Bush. I will do a non-vote as a point of protest.

Having said all of that, I have one comment for the media: you spend way more of your time showing what Americans do to others and not enough time showing what others do to Americans. Some lady smiles and points at the naked crotch of an Iraqi? On TV 24/7. Some terrorist cuts off an American's head? Nope, can't show that. Etc. Yes, what happened in that prison sucks -- but it's not even NEARLY as sucky as what is happening around the world to people who stand in the way of Islamists. We all need to keep our focus on that. Doesn't excuse the behavior of bad Americans in any way.

It will be very sad for me to have to live under a Kerry nation, mainly because I really believe he has no center, no real core value system. I am also bothered by his insistance that "the rich" (as defined by him as anyone over $200K a year) pay more while at the time his mega-rich wife won't show her tax returns. I imagine we are going to find she pays less than I do in federal taxes every year.

Dammit.

Kids

Suddenly, my children have been up until TEN PM every single night for the past two weeks. It's a horrid cycle that we can't seem to break. TEN. A three year old should not be up at TEN. TEN.

God help me.

OUCH

So I am a Celt. I am a fair skinned, slightly red-headed CELT. Which means: Rick doesn't belong in the frickin' sun.

However, I have had a skin condition my whole life that got a lot worse this year when I had strep. So I was told by a doctor to go to a tanning bed and get my skin some good ol' UVA. I spent 7 mins this afternoon in a tanning bed and, lo and behold, I am burned. WTF?

An "eh" round

So Paul and got an early round in today at the TPC of Twin Rivers. A nice fast 3.5 hour round. I played like ass, and ended with an 89. I actually felt like I was striking the ball well, even hitting Paul's 2i about 225-230 from the tee. Hit my driver fairly well as well.

So some lowlights:

I broke my 58* wedge when I tossed it at my cart. Really stupid. I then had nothing to chip with, which was a liability the rest of the day.

My putting was so-so. My iron game 'eh.' So all in all, just a kinda blah round. I find I don't like Twin Rivers that much as a course. In my opinion they trick it up, putting trees in the way and such to mess with you. If I knew the course better, I'd know what to do, but I found myself hosing myself a few times today because I just picked the wrong shot. I'd line up, hit what I wanted to, and it was wrong. Silly.

Also the fairways are pretty long. More of what we would have as a first cut at the Plat.

Paul was a chipping God today. He holed out two for birdie. And he had a lot more that were so damned close.

And another good day

So yesterday I hit the links again. Again, I played very well, though in the middle of the round I had a burble that I had to recover from.

I started off with a long tee shot that went a bit right. I had to knock it out into the fairway and found myself a solid 4i from the green. I stiffed it to the back fringe and a chip and two putts later, I was bogey and headed to the second tee.

Hit three wood (and if you know me, that's a brave call) and nailed it to the fairway. Pitching wedge went a wee bit left, hit a knob and rolled to within 10" of the pin. Birdie!

My good luck continued through hole 5. I found myself at even par after 5 holes and super excited. This is the point in the round where life changed. At hole 4 I had been invited by the ladies ahead to play through. I very STUPIDLY said no. MISTAKE. I instead ended up on six pairing up with a nice retired guy who played from different tees and was generally a little bit slower than me. I wasn't really mentally prepped to be playing with another person, so I spent the next three holes topping balls and not making good shots at all. Ended with a 42 on the front, saved by my 5 holes at the beginning. At the turn, I started to get back into the groove.

I played fairly even through the back. Had a few doubles, but would always couple it with a nice par to even it out. I ended with a "lovely" birdie on 18. 40' putt up the hill straight into the cup. Happiness!

So, 42/43 with an 85 to cap off my second round of the week. I wish I could play today. But it's time to focus on the house and hanging with the kids. Might take them to the zoo today if we can get some work done. :)

It's frickin hot out there, Mr. Bigglesworth.