A Glimmer of Hope

I played golf with my friend Digger on Sunday at Moon Valley Country Club. The weather was in the mid-60s and a little overcast. I was dressed in long pants and a long-sleeve rugby shirt and I was still cold. I have become an Arizona weather wimp! We played from the gold tees, which are 6,584 yards with a course rating of 71.1 and a slope rating of 120. This course is a bear from the tips, playing over 7,200 yards. At some point, Digger and I need to play from the tips just for laughs.

I may have to change Digger's pseudonym because he is no longer taking the large tiger pelt divots on each swing. He mentioned something about the course superintendent threatening him with club expulsion if he did not adjust his swing plane. Digger is hitting the ball much better, but taking too many strokes around the greens to score well. Moon Valley has a short par-3 course called the "Moonwalk" and Digger needs to get his young son out to play that course and work on his short game.

I am really starting to see improvement in my game. I am hitting the ball generally where I aim and I am making good, solid contact on virtually every swing. That hubris will probably be the kiss of death for my game! On the first hole I hit the ball into the greenside bunker and took two shots to get out of the bunker for a double bogey 6. I then parred 4 of the next 8 holes and finished the front 9 holes with a 42! I had two pars and one double-bogey on the back 9 holes for a 44 and an 86 total! I was one over par on the four par-3 holes. I hit 6 out of 14 fairways and my misses were still playable (no out-of-bounds penalties), but I only hit 4 greens in regulation. Oftentimes, I was just off of the green and using my Texas wedge, but I had too many chips and two putts from the fringe of the green! I need to keep working on my short game to lower my score.

I have been using my GolfLogix GPS application on my Blackberry the last few times I played golf. Previously, at about the 15th hole the battery dies and I cannot get information or input information for the remainder of the round. For Festivus for the Rest of Us my SO bought me the Energizer XP2000 Power Pack that attaches to a Blackberry and provides additional battery capacity. It worked like a dream. I had no problem with battery power or back-lighting and it seemed to take less time to get satellite distances once you were stationary. The power pack costs $40.