Random Thoughts and the Weekend Report...

License in a Crackerjack Box

I've been walking a lot lately, ever since I got a pushcart. My motivation was to save money on cart fees. I've really come to enjoy walking the course when I play. Now the downside of this is that I don't ride much and when I do please don't put me behind the wheel. Yes, that was a bit of foreshadowing...

I played on Sunday and we rented a cart. Care to guess who drove?

It's certainly not hard to drive a golf cart (see my first post) but I'm just either too focused on my game or too involved in talking about my game that I don't think about driving the cart. I pull up too close to the ball, I drive on par 3 fairways, I drive up to the tee box when someone's about to hit, I log my score before pulling away from the hole, I try to write my score while pulling away, I forget to apply the brake... I'm a hazard out there. I have enough to focus on with the actual play of the game worrying about driving the cart. I may be exaggerating a bit, but I was repremanded at least twice but my partner. Does the Pro Shop offer driving lessons?

Wimbledon

I work in a cube farm environment and there are two people a few rows down from me who often sneeze in such a way that you would think you were at Wimbledon watching the final match. My coworker and I often keep score based on who sneezes. So I started thinking about how hard tennis players hit the ball and the benefit of expelling such a guttural howl with each swing. If you think about it, many people hit their driver with everything they've got. Why not a big Haaarrrgggghhh on the tee box next time you swing the big stick? I mean think about it. You really wouldn't be bothering anyone, you may get a few extra yards, and you may intimidate your opponents. Of course you might want to try it on the range first. And you should probably be a pretty long hitter. Tiger must be pretty intimidating just being Tiger but imagine Tiger with a big Haaarrrgggghhh on the tee box!!! I've read that the PGA is struggling with the TV networks with dwindling viewer ship. I tell you this could be the answer.

The Battle at The Battleground

I played my 13th round at a regulation course on Sunday. The last time I played a complete round at The Battleground (70.8/125) I shot a 131. Of course that was just my 5th time on a regulation course. This time I shot 119. Pretty good improvement over the last time, but pretty dismal compared to the 94 I shot at bayou (69.4/111). But in my defense, The Battleground is a pretty tough course with tight fairways that slope toward the water and that water is found on 14 of 18 holes. As always, my game plan was to keep the ball in play and again I failed miserably. Seven balls decided it was warm enough to take a dip, and two more were so embarrassed by my skills that they flew off into the woods. My putting was fair (37 putts; four 3-putts and three 1-putts) and my driving was pretty solid averaging just over 240 yards on the six fairways that I hit. I made two pars, four bogeys, five doubles, two triples and a few worse than that. Two terrible holes were the first, where I hit two into the water after shagging my tee shot and carding a 13, and the fourteenth where I hit a monster drive into the woods that I never thought I could reach (and into the wind too), followed by one into the water which culminated in an 11 on the score card. Sure I'm dissappointed with a score like that, but I had a great day anyway. I know I'll be hitting in the 90s real soon and with a little luck (keeping the ball in play) I'll be breaking 90.

Thinking about taking up SCUBA,
-Greg (clmax)