Alex (14 years old) has never beaten me, and I don't want that to change anytime soon. I know it will, but it feels good to keep delaying the inevitable. He drives it further than I do, hits his irons better, and putts better. All I have on him is chipping, and experience.
So at a course we had never played before - Fendrich Golf Course, a municipal track in Evansville - I took the quick advantage by saving par on the 1st, when he bogeyed from trees behind the green. When I parred the 4th hole and he tripled, I extended my lead to six strokes, and I was thankful in knowing that today probably wouldn't be the inevitable day.
I battled through a tough mid-round stretch - including a lost ball and ensuing triple bogey on the dogleg-right 12th - to finish strong and shoot 81, beating Alex by five strokes. Although I still haven't broken 80 on the year, I feel that it's coming, even though I have to admit that we're getting into the meat of the golf season. But since I don't play competitively anymore or practice nearly as much as I used to, I can't complain.
Alex finished strong as well, birdieing the par-3 15th after sticking his tee shot to inside 5 feet, and closing in 41 after a front-nine 45. His game looks to be coming around nicely for golf team tryouts in mid-to-late August, but he still needs to get the sporadic temper tantrums after his golf mindset - he threw his driver to the ground and kicked his tee after a poor drive on the par-5 14th. But to be fair, he had just tripled the 13th.
As four the course, I must say I was pleasantly surprised. It was incredibly easy to get on - I called at 8:30 a.m. for a tee time, and we were on the course before 9:30. The guy behind the counter was great to talk to - he told me about how happy Evansville was to have an event this week, and he warned me to be ready for the approaching heat this weekend. I told him that Wichita prepared me well, and that I should be fine (I hope).
The course only cost $19 each, and it was a bargain for the price. It was kept up nicely - especially for a municipal course - and the layout was fairly demanding, with tree-lined fairways, and some sharp doglegs that required cuts and draws.
The 2nd hole called for a moderate left-to-right ball flight if I wanted to put myself in position for a short iron into the green, and I surprised myself when I hit the ball just how I planned it. The shot left me with a sand wedge into the 365-yard par 4, and I was amped up after I hit it to 10 feet and knocked in the birdie putt. I stayed 1-under through but fell back to Earth shortly thereafter - by making four bogeys and a double in my next five holes. Gotta love golf.
But in any case, it was good to play golf again. After writing so much about golf and talking to so many pros in Wichita, it was nice to get back on the course. I'm sure I'll have plenty more golf to write about in the next few days, and I'll happily take the role of observer again, after today's quick sojourn onto the links.
_________________________________________________
Continuation of reflections on trip from Wichita to Evansville:
-After the experience posting my Bisons story at McDonald's, we hit I-70 headed toward St. Louis. We had dinner at Pizza Hut, where I probably consumed about six glasses of Dr. Pepper, and then we hit the road into the night.
We made a stop in St. Louis, at the Gateway Arch of course. We got out of the car, took pictures, and enjoyed the Mighty Mississippi for a bit.
But getting to the Arch wasn't easy. We got off I-70 an exit too early, and I found myself in a panic when I realized I got off at an exit where I couldn't get back on the highway. So we had to drive through the projects for a few minutes, and I was getting way too nervous for my own good. My brother and his friend weren't scared at all, but I just had a scene from National Lampoon's Vacation stuck in my head, where Chevy Chase stops for directions (in inner-city St. Louis) and the guy demands some money for the 'service.' Chevy made it out of St. Louis fine, so the scene couldn't have ended that badly...but I was still scared nonetheless.
Needless to say, I was happy when we made it to the Arch.
-After leaving St. Louis, we slowly worked our way toward Holiday World in Santa Claus, IN, an amusement park that I had wanted to go to for years. We got there a bit early, and I got a 'frozen hot chocolate' drink that tasted like the best possible Frosty from Wendy's.
Spent the whole day at the park - from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. - and I wasn't let down. It is a nice-sized park that doesn't pretend to be a huge mega-park, and the trio of wooden roller coasters doesn't disappoint. The Voyage was the best, a coaster that takes you over 150 feet in the air, and then on some near 90-degree turns at the end. We couldn't go on enough.
The water park was great too, with some incredibly long water coasters. This was no secret, as both water coasters had waits over an hour long. We cut down on the waiting by going in the singles line, which gave us the time to go on both rides - since we probably stayed in the amusement park too long. Oh, well...can't complain too much about a great amusement park, especially in an Indiana town called Santa Claus.
We then finally made it to our hotel for this week, where we checked in a night early. The guy at the counter tried to explain something about canceling my Expedia reservation and re-booking through the hotel itself to save money, but I was too tired to think much more, and I just paid the extra $7 for the first night.
Oh, well. I'll figure out a way to save that $7 soon enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment