My golf group headed back to Gold Mountain again for two rounds and a yummy lunch. The day started out in cool showers, quite a contrast from the summery weather of Friday through Sunday. The rain cleared out midway through the morning round and by afternoon we had sun with blustery winds. I had OK rounds with a 90 on the Olympic course and 94 on Cascade.

After work I stopped at Mt. Si to practice on the driving range but it was such a nice, mild day and there weren’t many folks on the course so I headed out for a quick nine holes. After an uneventful bogey on the first hole I went par-birdie-par over the next three. I got lucky on a few errant shots like the mishit 7-iron on number six that bounced off a tree back into the fairway instead of heading into the woods. From there, I hit a superb sand wedge from forty yards to within eighteen inches of the hole and a tap-in par. Then there was an impressive 290 yard drive on number 9 leading to an easy par there. So I finished with a 38, my second lowest nine-hole score ever.

Finally some good golf news. I finished third in this weekend’s two-day Ron Lee Invitational Golf Tournament at Mt. Si GC. This is the competition I finished last in last year and won in 2007. I played steady golf both days–good enough to not have any big numbers on any holes and ended with par-bogey-par-birdie on the last four holes; an important stretch since we got into third place by a single stroke. That final birdie came on a 43-foot putt: a very satisfying end to the competition.

Gee! Maybe spring really is here. I took advantage of the beautiful 60-degree temperature to get in 18 holes at Mt. Si. I recorded my best score in nearly six months with an 87. I hit eight fairways but the short game was great today. One chip in and made putts of 15 and 27 feet kept total putts to just 27. I was just eight over par through thirteen holes but I didn’t manage any pars over the final six holes.

I took half a day off with some of my Microsoft golf partners and we tackled the TPC Course at Snoqualmie Ridge. There was still snow in shady areas of the front nine so we played the back nine twice. I managed a satisfying 49-48, a huge improvement over the 60 I shot in October. Tees shots were very solid but putting on those professional greens is another realm of difficulty and I struggled with 42 putts.