“Maybe, just maybe today will be THE DAY – or maybe not…”
Well after the Heavens opened comprehensively & completely last night, it was delightful to rise to cloud cover but no overspill. It was a wee bit parky though so my double t-shirt & windbreaker combo had to be temporarily reinforced by another windbreaker to stop my blood from slowing down and affecting my swing. Quadruple layers of clothes will obviously not limit my swing in any way shape or form. Onion Girl returns for Open Week 2013.
‘Twas a Champagne Scramble format which certainly motivates one to improve the drive part of the game. Some of my second shots (on the drives of another) were taken from what felt like different time zones – thank ye Big Fella & Hearty Scotch. The only downside being that the terribly long walk between shots can make you a little tired and that fatigue may just cause a wee duff which may just completely undo the benefits of drive distance. Sigh.
Anyway, away we went with the early holes giving us stonkingly good average scores of 6. I mean imagine – 6 points over 18 holes, just do the sums. And I’d had a nice rest day yesterday and was still nicely buzzed after my 2 ACTUAL PARS on Monday so maybe, just maybe we could pull it all together and, you know, be in with a wee chance.
There was a minor hiccupette on the 6th when the seriously-short-on-shots Hearty Scotch & Big Fella had to make their marks to get us a 4. But there could be no despondency – not on uber positive Wednesday. The drive of the Big Fella was used on the 7th and all our 2nd shots were there or thereabouts. The Hearty Scotch’s would have been over the green, but there is a somewhat inconveniently placed enormously large beech tree in the fairway which took the sting out of the tail of his shot. I, for the first time ever ever, was on the 7th green in 3 shots. Pin high, just a little (15 – 20 feet) to the left.
Now, before I carry on with the tale, there are two things I need to bring to the front of your mind, Honourable Reader. One – the 7th is a Par 5 for Ladies. Two – is the number of shots I have on every hole (still for shame).
So there I stood over my ball on the green putting for AN ACTUAL BIRDIE. And the totally unexpected happened – I GOT IT. ME. AN ACTUAL BIRDIE. There was an outbreak of jazz hands and, had I not been on a green and wearing golfing shoes I would have Michael Jackson Moonwalked my way back to my bag. I settled for inane grinning and unrestrained verbal celebrations with The Honourable Mr J. who ably followed up my 5 POINTER with an excellent 3 POINTER giving us a total of 8 lovely jubbly points on the 7th. Yippee-de-doo-dah-day…
But golf is a game of concentration and forgetting the past shots (even the good ‘uns) to concentrate on the next. I stood up on the Ladies’ 8th Tee with nary a drive to my name. I controlled the lunatic celebrating in my head and focused on my shot. And you know, it worked. A nice, long, straight drive that was smack bang in the middle of the fairway and my first drive of the day was in the bag. I was about to re-enter the Golfing Zone and nothing could stop me now.
The minor setbacks of not being able to contribute to the card on the 9th or indeed the 10th were not a problem. I was surrounded by better golfers and that high-performing atmosphere could only benefit me and add to my education. And we were approaching the 11th – with only 1 score counting on Par 3’s I knew one of my Teamies would stitch it to the pin and give me an opportunity for another BIRDIE & 5 POINTER. Hearty Scotch did just that – a mighty shot that hit the green about 5 foot to the right of the pin, rolled the whole way up the green and rolled the whole way back down. He lipped his, but finished for a Par. I placed my ball down, lined up my putt, committed to my stroke and told myself to relax.
So dang garn relaxed was I that I committed the jaw-droppingly atrocious putting duff – I not only hit the ball badly and in entirely the wrong direction, I actually managed to double-hit it at the same time. Aaaargh. It is going to take me so long to straighten my putter back out after smacking it off my head that hard.
The 12th was a write off for me too – although the focusing of anger and frustration can from time to time benefit your stroke that was not the way of the day.
But my drives were counted on 13, 14 & 15, so at least that day’s work was done. With my required contribution made I ate my Snickers, inhaled half a semi masticated peanut and got some caffeine into my system just to calm me down.
Today was a day that could have been THE DAY. But it wasn’t.
Week ain’t over yet….