Golf is a Mind Game

I slept later than usual, not getting up and out of bed until almost 7am. David and Anita were already up. Anita was just heading out the door for her morning power walk. I skipped calisthenics and instead got right down to business along with my first cup of coffee.

Got an email from Tom K., the concrete guy sharing that they weren’t going to be onsite Friday after all. Said his crew needed to finish work they started on Thursday, and then would likely be back onsite again Monday, weather permitting. It was sometime after 830am before I finally headed out for a run. It was very nice – 70 degrees and sunshine. Ran the usual 3 miles.

Back from my run near 9am and promptly back to work. David, meanwhile, had tentative plans to golf with old pal Monte’ N. somewhere in Delaware. He was waiting for a text with the course name along with the official tee-time. I think it was near 10am when Monte’ finally reached out, sharing that he was working in Hilliard installing a pool. Wasn’t sure what time he might be free to play. He needed a crescent wrench to tighten a loose hydraulic line on his heavy equipment. David asked if I had one he might run over his way. I handed off my biggest crescent, which opens to approximately 1.25 inches. David ran the wrench to Monte’ in Hilliard somewhere near Thornapple.

I stayed plugged in and busy with work all morning long – in a zone so to speak. Not sure what Mindy and Anita were up to. Guessing David was gone for 30-40 minutes, certainly not any more than that. The plan now was to wait to hear from Monte’ once he was done with the pool project and ready to golf. Sort of like being on stand-by. 

Near noon I started a lengthy online training class (officially 2.5 hours long). It was near 3p when I wrapped up the class and successfully completed the test. Ugh!

David never did hear back from Monte’, so he and I made tentative plans to golf Thornapple sometime after 3pm, my work load permitting. After my class I wrapped up a few administrative tasks then headed upstairs for a much needed shower. In the meantime, David called Thornapple to inquire about a tee-time. The gentleman said our best bet was to get there before 4pm thereby getting out in front of their Friday evening league. With work extremely quiet, we left for Thornapple near 320pm arriving 10 minutes later. Before we headed inside and paid, I checked in with work via my iPhone. Still quiet, Golf was a go!

Aside from a group just ahead of us, the pro told us that the course was pretty much open and started us off hole #1. He was right in that there wasn’t a lot of traffic on the course out in front of us, but that foursome just ahead of us was a group of apparent newbies that also included a female. I only mention the female because that inherently adds delay since she was teeing of the ladies tees, which essentially requires a double set-up. They were slow, slow.

Lucky for us, after the 1st hole, the starter or course patrol talked to them about allowing us to play through. Good thing, they were 20+ minutes per hole. David started with a par, double, me back to back doubles. But from that point on, I was spot on, putting together a long string of pars and bogeys, which for me is good golf. While I was in a groove, David was not. And when David’s not golfing well he’s not shy about sharing his frustrations one bit. He called my etiquette into question a time or two.

I finished the front nine with a 43, which after opening with two double bogeys that was a great score in my book. However, that said, holes #10 and 11 loomed large, and many times past a decent round was thwarted, ruined after those two holes. But on this occasion the golf gods were smiling brightly on me. I pared #10 and bogeyed #11. Sweet! Not only was I driving fairly well, but I was hitting some decent 2nd shots too, which is key for anybody’s game and often my undoing. On top of that, I had a couple really nice chips and was putting well, too.

I had one bad hole on the back after pushing a drive into an adjoining fairway and under a tree. That whole ordeal cost me two strokes resulting in another double bogey. I regrouped though and finished strong. And by then David had found his groove too. For the first time in a few years I shot in the 80s – 87 to be exact. And in my world that’s good golf.

We finished 18 holes in something less than 3.5 hours. Mindy sent a text just as we were loading for home, or near 7pm, asking our ETA. We were back at home by 730pm and more than ready for dinner. Mindy invited dad to join us for dinner. He was already there upon our return from golf. Dinner consisted of the pork butt David and Anita brought along. We left it in a crock pot all day on warm since it was precooked/smoked. In addition to the pork butt we had corn on the cob, cole slaw, and macaroni salad. All of it delicious.

I was careful not to over eat. Wanted to save room for beer (dessert)! Speaking of dessert, Mindy took her first swing at a lemon meringue pie. To her own admission, it didn’t turn out quite as good as expected. In fact, she joked that it was more like lemon meringue soup. Hey, live, experiment and learn. Earlier I asked Mindy to place a few good beers in the deck cooler. It was 830pm by the time the kitchen was cleaned up and I was finally able to relax and crack open one.

At first it was just David and me sitting out on the deck but we were soon joined by the girls. As darkness set in, we beckoned the crate of music makers. Soon the four of us had our beat on playing along at first to guitar chords compliments of David, and later Pandora and to the likes of Bob Marley, Billy Joel ,etc. By then Josh, Rachel and one of their friends stopped by to play along. Needless to say, a good time was had by all. As the night went on I might’ve gotten a bit carried away, playing more than one instrument at a time. At one point I had the triangle dangling from my teeth, which got away a time or two heading straight for Anita. Sorry, Anita! That lead to my declaration that we be called the Flying Triangles.

We partied late into the night, though not quite as late as the weekend before. Mindy and Anita headed in much sooner than David and I. In fact, both of them had been fighting the sleepies for more than an hour. Before heading to bed, I cleaned up the kitchen and deck.