First Eagle...

Catching Up...

Wow, a seven month hiatus from blog posting. What have I been doing? For starters, I stopped keeping track of my stats at Green Caye for three months of membership.

I played in a couple of tournaments at Green Caye. One was a 2-man scramble where Martin and I won first place. The other was an individual event where I won second place. I missed one tournament where they play in the dark with glow balls from the front tees and hang glow sticks on the pins. They might do that again during the next new moon (end of this month). I hope I can make it because those seem like a lot of fun.

This last month (my 21st month of membership), I did manage to keep my stats and they show continued improving trends. These stats would have been a bunch better had I not shot 38 (+11) twice this month. But as I say, you have to take the bad with the good.

Without throwing up the charts…

My GIRs went down, UNDs went up, birdies went up, putts went down, pars went up, and scoring went down. All good stuff.

Now for some numbers…

I’m getting up and down 37.6% of the time at Green Caye and that improvement shows on regulation courses as well. I think the worst tour players get up and down about 50% of the time.

My par three scoring average is 3.56 and that’s down from 3.59. I’d like to get this number down below 3.5. I think that’s achievable.

My First Eagle...

The big news here is that I scored MY FIRST EAGLE Wednesday July 30. It was at Beacon Lakes on the eighth hole, a par 5 of 490 yards. A tailwind and hard fairway combined to give me a 300 yard drive that settled a few yards right of center in the fairway. The approach was to a front pin on an elevated green that first rises, then slopes away. My shot needed to hit within the first yard or so if I expected to be near the pin. If it landed more than fours yards deep it would likely roll off the back of the green. From 190 yards to the center, I selected an 8 iron expecting to carry the shot about 175 yards. The shot came off perfectly, landed on the front of the green and rolled a yard or two to settle at 2 feet. I have never been so nervous over a two foot putt before. For added pressure, the greens had just been punched and sanded that day. After seeming to have to concentrate just to breathe, I managed to roll the putt in and score my first eagle.

The sense of joy is similar to when I broke 100. Breaking 90 and breaking 80 seemed come and go as a matter of course. I almost expect this to be more joyful than making a hole in one, or an eagle two because it’s something I tried to do. A hole in one and an eagle two are just not expected, they surprise you. Also, I have had several looks at eagle, perhaps the closest was from about 12 feet off the fringe. Hole in ones and eagle twos kind of surprise you. Eagle three lets you look at it real close before you take a shot at it.

Dad’s coming down for a few days next week. He’s not really my Dad, he’s my Father-in-Law. My Dad passed in 96, so my Father-in-Law is now my honorary Dad. I’m going to enjoy every moment while he’s here because you never know at the time that you’re playing your last round.