musings

Great Day of Golf

Yesterday was an ass day of golf, so we shall just skip that and move on, but today -- today was a great day.

I'll start by saying the weather was awful -- it's just too hot. Way too hot. The front 9 was painful because of that.

So without recounting the entire round, I'll pust do some highlights:

• 3 FW from the right rough on 1 to 30 yards from the pin. Was amazing.
• 7i to middle of the green on 4. Awesome shot.
• 4FW that flew the green on 5. Yeah, on the whole it wasn't great, but it means I had great contact.
• Pulled a 3W on 6 that went so far I couldn't believe it.
• All in all, my 3 wood kicked ass today.
• Finding myself in the sand at 9 in the back of the green, and concerned because the pin is up front. I hit an awesome shot that left me a chance for par. I hit it exactly as I wanted to, and it trickled down to the lower tier. Wonderful.
• Got par on 5 after a skanky drive. Hit a good 3FW and then a really nice 5i to the green.
• Great 7i on 15 to the green.
• After an "eh" 3 wood on 16, I hit an amazing 3FW to the green with a great fade around the trees.
• After a penalty on 17, I hit a fantastic 7i with a fade to the other fairway. Was great.

So all in all, fanstatic. I am still in a hate relationship with my driver. I can't stand the thing, can't hit it, and am angry with it. I should tie it to the back of my car and drive around.

British Open

Watching the final round of the British Open -- it's interesting to watch. All year, I have tracked the play of Mr. Woods. I'm not a big a fan of Tiger as my friend, Paul, but I find it interesting to watch the "best" do their thing in whatever it is. This year, he has not been "the best" at all.

It's pretty much been the same story almost all year: first two rounds, he plays very blah golf, letting others rack up the points, then he has a really good third round, then has too much ground to cover on the forth day, so he finds himself a few shots off the lead. In contention, but not seriously challenging. I'd almost call it coasting through the tournaments. He's also had to rely way too much on putting to really be serious. You can't expect to make them all from 40' out, and that's where he has been lately.

I'd also say his par 5 performance this week has been VERY blah. He gives the field strokes by going for it in 2 too often when he doesn't have to. IMO.

You can't always be the best. You are going to have down years, blah times, times when nothing goes your way. Watching Phil last year suck so bad, and watching Phil this year be so damned good...that is what normal people do. But I will say this: even when he's bad, Tiger is still always in there. Maybe that's a testament to how good he really is. Like the 49ers of the early 80's, when even if they were down by 4 TD's in the 4th Quarter, it was still POSSIBLE for them to win. Not always likely, but they would make a good run at it, because their B game was better than most other's A games. Tiger is like that.

Paul remains ever optimistic -- I'm different about Tiger this year. I seriously think this may be the year when Tiger wins no stroke play event, but is in the top 10 of most of them. Because this is his "hang in there" year, and they are all playing sooooooo much better. So his B game can't beat the A game of Phil or Ernie. But it can the rest of the field.

Okay, so that was interesting

So after starting off a round today of utter shite, I get to the 4th tee and hit an 8i that will go down in history as the best 8i I have ever, or am ever going to, hit. Straight at the pin, hits about 5" in front of it, and into the cup for an ace.

Fantastic.

The rest of the round was blah, but that moment was pretty glorious. Last year, in the same month, I hit a 7i to a different pin position on the same hole and got my first hole in one.

So I guess I am doomed to shitty scores, and cool random events like birdies from the fairway and holes in one. But low scores? Not happening. :)

Golf becoming "not fun"

So I have been saving this post for a while because it is a fairly "painful" one for me to post.

Since January, when we played Pebble, I really feel I have gradually stopped enjoying the game of golf more and more. I like who I play with, but I don't like how I am playing. What irks me more is that out of our group, I probably practice more than anyone -- but it has no effect. I'm not playing any better. I'll have mometns -- rounds that come out of nowhere and are great -- wonderful ball striking days. But on average now, my scores are creeping up.

And it's really getting to me.

Today, for example...we head out and my VERY first shot is a repeat of the past few weeks. I hit my driver, pull it a bit and get unlucky and hit a branch which sends the ball out of bounds. First lost ball. Hole 2: same deal, hit a pull out of bounds. Second lost ball. I drop a ball and take my 9i and try to hit a draw around the trees between myself and the hole. Hit it perfect, it sails over the green, hits the hill, and goes OB across the street. Third lost ball. We're now at 5 over, and one sleeve of balls is gone.

Hole 3, not so bad.

Hole 4, shank the first ball off the tee. 4th lost ball. Hit my third shot off the tee, pull it, gone. 5th lost ball.

Go to hole 5. Wind is pretty big, so I hit my 2i, and now I'm about 168 to the back of the green, uphill with a little wind in the face. So I take a 7i. Sail over the green. No lost ball, but what the hell?

Hole 6. Hit a really shitty tee shot, but I'm okay. Hit my 7i to land "short" of the green. Nope. Pull draw it and I'm wet. (and in golf, "wet" is bad). 6th lost balls. Two sleeves. Averaging one per hole now. Doing well.

Hole 7. 8i that goes about 10 yards too far. Again, what the hell.

Hole 8. Hit driver because at this point I don't care. I hit into the bunker to the left. I then took a 9i from 150 and sailed to the green, rolling off.

Hole 9. Did okay on this hole. Scored par, but didn't play like it.

Hole 10. Par.

So all in all, I went through two sleeves of balls. But let's get back to the topic -- I am not having fun. I work really hard, and I'm not having fun because the work doesn't result in anything. The sad part in all of this is while I have really started playing really poorly, my friend Paul has started playing really well. What this means is that he can't revel in his great play because I'm doing so crappy, and I can't enjoy what he's doing by the same token. I'd talk about Chris, but he doesn't play golf with us anymore. He's on the World Tour of Better Courses.

So I'm at a crossroads. I'm not going to keep playing a game that I'm not having fun at anymore. So here is the deal: I have until the end of July. If I'm not playing better and watching my handicap go down instead of up, I am going to put the sticks up for a while and find something more interesting to do with my time. Not because I'm a big quitter, but because I should be having FUN on my weekends, not making myself feel bad. And when I'm not improving, I feel bad.

So there it is -- Rick's challenge to himself. Let's see how Rick does.

Lawrence of Arabia

I'm about two hours into this movie and I want to cut my head off. This is a long long long movie. Panoramic views of the desert, long shots showing the emptiness, etc. I'm sure back in The Day this was the shit. It was in color, it showed big things on a big screen. People must have been amazed like we are today when we see spiderman walk up a building. But this is soooooooo boring. Even with the actors, who are fantastic, this movie sucks.

And yet, I keep watching. Color me: stupid.

Who sucks? This guy

What a long weekend this was. Friday, drove the family down to California. 14 hours of pure bliss. Once again, for those of you keeping track, Oregon still blows ass. Need gas? Can't pump it yourself. Need gas? Good luck finding the gas station. You have to exit and drive to find it, then work hard to figure out how to get back on the freeway. Need coffee? No Starbucks.

All in all, I just try to fill up in Vancouver and keep going until Weed. :)

So anyway, I drive them all down and then shag my ass back on a plane Saturday morning. Went out with Paul to play 9. God did I suck. And not in the good way.

Then Sunday, got up, played a round and shot a mind numbing 105. Was quite tragic. Yesterday was a mix of topping the ball (my enemy), and getting HORRID breaks. I mean HORRID. You know it's not your day when you hit a really lovely (yes, I said lovely) 8i on approach to a green and then watch in horror as it bounces away from the green and into a bunker because you were lucky enough to find the one sprinkler head in the fringe. Good stuff.

So after that pain, I went to a BBQ sans family and hung out with the neighbors. Beer and Scotch and Fireworks. And what isn't better than a bunch of men sitting around drinking, smoking cigars and blowing shit up? I mean, really, what is better than that???

So today -- another round of golf. Again with the inability to make contact with the ball. But then Paul, GOD BLESS HIM, noticed something out of pity for me -- I was cocking (heh heh, he said...never mind) my wrist too early. As soon as he said that, I ended my round PAR-PAR-BOGEY-PAR-PAR. So, MUCH better. So my thanks go out to Paul for not only putting up with my whines, moans, bitching and caber tossing to care enough to help me out. Hats off to Paul. Oh, and by the way, Paul played some fantastic golf. :)

So I ended up with a 95. If I can continue the better ballstriking in a round this week, maybe I won't have to sell all my equipment and take up fencing.