Golfing - Dec 21, 2007 |
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| Saturday, 22 December 2007 | |||||
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The snow finally melted enough for me to get out a play 18 holes. It was two weeks ago today that I last made it out for 9 holes and even then it was 34° F and no one else was on the course or at the clubhouse. Freezing rain followed the day after and the temperature stayed below freezing for a day or two before dropping about six inches of snow on the ground. It took more than five consecutive days of sun and temperatures in the 40s to melt the majority of the snow on the most open course in the area, Sand Creek Station Golf Club. I really do not like winter weather and would prefer to live in a more tropical climate, but being able to play winter golf almost makes up for it. I called my friend and fellow golfer Don Harder around 9AM to see if he was up for a round of golf later in the morning; he told me that he was waiting for a call back from José to find out if he could get a tee time at the aforementioned golf course. About half an hour later, Don called me back to say that we had a tee time at 10:45.
With the exception of the 3-4 used balls I pounded out into the field over the railroad tracks from my side yard, I had not hit a golf ball in two weeks. So, I headed out to Sand Creek Station to warm up on their excellent driving range while I waited for my playing partners to arrive. With 40 minutes till our tee time I had adequate time to warm up and test my new hybrids. Once I got used to the weight and balance of them I was striping them out there as far or further than the irons they were replacing. But the distance wasn't the real benefit I was seeing; I hit a couple shots on the toe and while the ball did not fly as far as when hitting them square, I did not lose nearly the distance I would have with an iron. My goal for this round was to play without fear: without fear of banana slices, without fear of duck hooks, without fear of losing balls, without fear of what other players think of my golf game, without fear that I'll mis-hit the ball AGAIN. I want to be able to swing freely and with confidence every time, no matter how I hit the ball on the previous shot. There was once or twice that I let a thought slip in such as "hmmm, last time I sliced into those trees where it is impossible to find your ball", or "they'll think I'm foolish for just going for it on this hole", but largely I was successful in keeping fearful thoughts from affecting my game. Here are two holes where I exhibited fearless playing and the rewards were exhilarating:
Overall, I think I accomplished what I set out to do and that was to play golf free of fear. Now, not every fearless shot ended up so spectacularly well as those two, but for the most part, I was playing out of the fairway today, which is a new experience, and I immensely enjoyed the outing even when I did mis-hit the ball.   
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I don't buy new golf balls or clubs very often, but this time I had two of each and wanted to try them out. I wrote a 
#15 is nicknamed "Buried Elephants and has a huge mound splitting the fairway with sandtraps on the front face of it. The recommendation for players that are unable to clear the top of the mound or fear to clear the mound is to lay up in front of it where a mid iron will easily reach the green. But I was playing fearless golf today and the new TaylorMade TP Reds were flying like no other ball I'd ever used. I teed it up high and swung free and confidently, knowing that on the off chance I failed to clear the mound, that I was playing golf on a beautiful winter day with friends and that getting stuck in the bunker would just make this hole more challenging (and I love a challenge). 
#13 is the longest par 3 on the course and with the pin location on the back left, the bunkers shown in the accompanying image were definitely in play and designed to strike fear in the golfer. Two of my playing partners, Don and José, were first to tee off and both landed near the front right of the green safely away from the bunkers but a long ways from the hole. Well, I certainly wasn't going to let those bunkers intimidate me and told my playing partners as much (playing fearlessly was starting to add a little bravado to my game as well.) With a strong left to right wind, I grabbed my five iron and lined up confidently about 15° left of the pin. As I had been most of the day, I struck the ball well and true and it flew like a bird right on the intended line. The wind brought it back in just as expected and it disappeared past the bunkers right on line with the pin. No, I didn't make a hole-in-one, I ended up about 15 feet off the fringe behind the green (winter greens don't hold a ball very well).
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