Archive for category Golf
Whew! A Week of Golf
One of my goals for this summer is to dedicate significant time to my golf game, to see if I can improve my scores and get more consistent. The week of June 13-19, I played three times and practiced on two other days. This past week, I played every day, twice on Friday. So six rounds in five days. By Friday night, I was a zombie. Those six rounds equate to 520 strokes, over 25 hours on my feet, and 20-plus miles walked. With one exception, the quality of play was ok, certainly better than I’ve been doing over the prior year or so. I shot 88, 96, 82, 88, 85, and 90 with pars on 31% of the holes. Putting was generally poor, however. I’ll work on that later. Right now, I’m focused on developing a consistent pre-shot routine and sequence of thoughts prior to and during the swing.
Golf: 24 Putts
I’m planning on using the rest of June and July to try to improve my golf game. That means practicing and playing more regularly. I played Mt. Si yesterday and shot an 87 (43-44). Ball-striking with my irons was perhaps my best ever. Today, irons were just so-so but I did hit 11 fairways–extraordinarily good for me–and shot 88. But I ended up with just 24 putts for the round including 12 one-putt greens. The bad part was that most of those putts were to save bogey. Still it was satisfying to sink putts of 16, 16, 12, 10, 9 and 8 feet in addition to several 1-2 footers after a good chip.
Desert Canyon Golf
My regular golf partner, Michel Cote, and I took an overnight trip to eastern Washington to play the wonderful Desert Canyon course near Wenatchee. The setting is spectacular and the course pristine with a superb variety of holes. This is a photo of the 632-yard 15th hole overlooking the Columbia River. I managed a satisfactory 93 and had a great day.
Hint of Spring
After several days of typical cool, drizzly Seattle spring weather we got a peek at the sun for a while today. I dropped by Mt. Si and got in nine holes. What a great setting: 55 degrees, mixed sun and clouds and still a hint of snow on the mountain. It didn’t hurt that I shot an easy 40. What could have been: I missed birdie putts from six and nine feet!
Mariners Home Opener
Posted by nbdog in Entertainment, Golf on 13-Apr-2010
I’ve never been to an opening day baseball game so it became one of the things on my retirement To Do list. In spite of the Mariners’ inept offense and the 4-0 loss it was great fun. I got to Safeco Field early to see all the pre-game festivities highlighted by Randy Johnson‘s first pitch. Ivar’s fish and chips weren’t bad either. I began the day with a pleasant eighteen holes at Mt. Si. The weather was almost more fall like than springy. But the cool air and chirping birds provided a relaxing few hours and a reasonable 89 put me in good spirits for the rest of the day.
One Month into Retirement
I celebrated my first month into retirement with a round of golf at the very challenging China Creek course at Newcastle. I got through the first seven holes at just five over par; a solid start on a course where I’ve never broken 100 before. I managed a 95 when the day was done but the golf was the least of it. Hearing the miserable winter weather in most of the rest of the country I so very much appreciated the lovely setting we had for the last Friday of March. That’s Seattle and Lake Washington in the background
Brrrr!!!
As I headed out for my 7:37 tee time the dashboard showed 36 degrees. As I strode down the second fairway there was even a bit of frost on the ground. I love fall in Washington. I had a so-so round of golf –shooting 88 at Mt. Si— but what a spectacular late September morning.
Favorite Day of the Summer
Posted by nbdog in Entertainment, Golf on 28-Aug-2009
This has turned out to be one of my favorite days of the Summer: taking the day off from work and watching the senior PGA golfers during the opening round of the Boeing Golf Classic. I get up early enough to play eighteen holes myself then spruce up and head to the TPC Snoqualmie Ridge course. Once there, I watch the pros warm up, have a hot dog for lunch and then follow some of my favorite players around the course for the afternoon. Finally, I’m always impressed that many of these guys go right from the final hole back to the practice range. They are just so remarkably good. And what a glorious setting: is this a fantastic finishing hole or what?
Record Heat
With a 103 degree reading Seattle hit a record high today; the highest temperature ever and nearly 30 degrees above the historical average high temp for the date. Locally, things were even toastier: Redmond hit 107 and North Bend 113. The Microsoft Golf League play went on as scheduled however so I got to enjoy two hours in the late afternoon sunshine chasing golf balls. At least I finally had a good league outing, shooting my best score ever: 41 on the Eagle’s Talon front nine. It also turns out that July was the hottest month ever with an average temp of 69.5 degrees.
Handicap at new Low
My golf handicap index got to my personal low: 14.2. It’s a bit mysterious to me just how. I’ve had my least consistent year ever. One day I’ll have a shot a breaking 80 and the next day I’m floundering at 100. So while the low handicap is nice (while it lasts) I’d prefer to be more consistent each time out.
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