Phoenix - good, bad, and ugly

By design, I was up at 6am and eager to play golf. However, before the first swing, I had to make coffee, walk Ykraps, exercise and run. After making coffee I decided to nix the exercise routine which I figured would save my shoulders and arms for golf. I walked Ykraps then afterwards, dressed and left for my run. It was clear and warm – a good sign after a drippy Saturday. I ran along Trabue & Hague. At 6:45am in the morning it was very quiet with little to no traffic. Turned out being a very nice run. I was back home by 7:15am and moved quickly to the shower. We planned to leave at 7:50am. I was showered and ready by 7:30am. I used the next 20 minutes to make a breakfast sandwich & prepare my gear. Kenny pulled up in my drive right at 7:50am. I was just walking out the door. We were on the road minutes later, just as we planned. We arrived at the course by 8:10am. We had our fees paid and our clubs loaded in our cart prior to Tom’s arrival. We let Tom know that we’d be up at the practice tee and putting green. He joined us there while I putted and Kenny hit a small bucket of balls. Tom and Kenny each gave me a few balls to hit. I typically don’t like to hit any prior, but do like to putt. I don’t wan’t to waste all my good drives.:) The starter indicated that they were running about one tee time behind (8 minutes). We were next on the tee. We tee’d off at approximately 8:40am. I hit a lovely tee shot straight down the middle. The 1st hole is a blind par 5 (can’t see the greens form the tee box, and often from the second). I pared the hole. In fact, through 7 holes I was sitting pretty at 4 over par (three pars and four bogeys). I was playing well. Unfortunately, I shot a an ugly nine on hole #8. I simply couldn’t hit my mid-irons – typically one of most reliable shots. I’ve been experiencing this for a few weeks now. It comes out of seemingly nowhere to haunt my game and no matter what I do I can not correct it. It’s very frustrating. I completed the front nine with a double bogey. Crap – a 46. No excuses, but I wasn’t feeling well all morning long. Onto the back nine. My back nine went to hell in a hurry. Long story short, I shot a 57. No matter what I tried, my second shots were a disaster almost every time. My confidence was shot. Sadly, I was driving consistently into the fairway all day too. I wasted great drives a decent putting. Kenny shot a 92. We headed for home around 1pm. It was nice to finish seemingly early. Initially, I thought that I might nap immediately after golf but instead set the wet tents out back to dry in the sunshine. With the recent weather, hard to tell how long the sunshine will last. I took a nap afterwards. The kids arrived home around 3:30pm. I finally upped around 4pm to freshen up for Sunday dinner. We left shortly after 4pm. Mindy took it on word from her older sister that Sunday dinner was indeed on. Never did she confirm with her mother. Upon arrival, we were the only ones. Yikes! Turns out, dinner was on! We were simply first to arrive. Rare these days. Others didn’t arrive for sometime. We didn’t sit to eat until 5:30pm or so. On the menu was lasagna & salad. It was good. After dinner we spent some time socializing with the family. Dessert – chocolate brownies and strawberry flan cake was served at 7pm. I had three medium sized brownies. We left for home around 7:25pm. The realization that my vacation was just about over left me feeling a little blue. After arriving home the kids insisted on bike ride. That was just what the doctor ordered. All four of us did the bike ride. We took the long back way to the park. After hanging out for 20 minutes we rode home, only this time the short way. Fun fun! I spent the next hour or so readying for the work week ahead and then looking for any updates on the Favre thing. Nothing. I headed to bed at 9:30pm eager to get a good night’s sleep before a grueling work week.