Given the feedback I received from you in Volume 7, I decided to go ahead and play 18 holes in order to establish a handicap ahead of my very first tourney.

I am in a situation at work where I have excess vacation time and if I don’t use it, I lose it. So, on a random weekday when I didn’t have any meetings I couldn’t miss, I took the day off and headed to Alhambra Golf Course.

I got there ahead of time so I could do a proper warmup. I went to the range and got a small bucket just to get the kinks out of the clubs I’d be hitting off the tee. My focus for the day was to swing easy and controlled. I did not need my hands bleeding in front of random strangers.

The range work went well. I was hitting the clubs pretty straight albeit a little to the right. I reminded myself to adjust my aim while on the course to account for that. I then went to check in and get my cart.

Initially, I was going to walk but I knew I was going to play with others and figured it would be faster this way. My cart number was my high school football number, so I took that as a good omen for the round.

There was still a little time before the tee time, so I went to the green for a little practice drill. The same one I’ve previously told you about where it starts at one foot away and then goes around the four directions expanding one foot at a time.

This went surprisingly well as I didn’t miss until I was about six feet out with a tough left to right. I was feeling good.

Too good.

As I got the tee box, the familiar game of trying to figure out who you are playing with started. There was a group of three older ladies milling about and I really thought I’d end up in the same foursome as them.

Right as my name was announced on the speaker, a young Latino dude drove up in his cart.

I asked him if the ladies were going to be joining us and he said that they were actually going to play together behind us and he and I were going out as just a twosome. That was actually fine by me. I didn’t need to be embarrassed by a group of elderly ladies that played better than me.

As were waiting for the group ahead of us to clear, we started chatting and I was further relieved when he said he was using this as practice as he wasn’t that good and needed to improve. That also helped to take pressure off. I warned him I wasn’t good by any stretch and he was cool with that. He turned out to be a great playing partner.

I managed to hit a solid tee shot with a 3 Wood (as I was nervous about hitting Driver) right down the middle. I hit more solid shots and ended up with a bogey. The second hole was another bogey and the third was a double bogey but I came back with two more bogeys on the 4th and 5th.

If you remember, I’ve reset my expectations so I can shoot 100, allowing myself 9 bogeys and 9 double bogeys. I was ahead of the pace I’d set it for myself!

And then came the 6th hole.

Granted, it was rated the toughest hole on the course but it was only a 483 yard Par 5. It seemed doable. I got a 10.

One thing I should mention is that my playing partner and I were extremely fast. There was no dilly dallying. As a result, we ended up playing through not one but two foursomes.

I got back on track with bogeys on the 7th and 8th and finished the Front Nine with an extremely decent score of 51. However, I did not know that as I was on purpose not adding up the numbers. It was another strategy I was trying out to keep my head in the game and not get too far ahead of myself.

The old “One Hole At A Time”, if you will.

My playing partner and I were getting along pretty good and we were cheering each other on when we hit good shots. It was a very supportive environment. Even on my disaster hole, he made a joke about how those are the holes that make people quit the game. Yet we played on.

The Front Nine has some water hazards and other dangers but it is relatively flat. The Back Nine has pronounced elevation changes and narrower fairways. I knew it would be a challenge.

I started with a double bogey, followed up with a triple bogey, and then a quadruple bogey Snowman on the Par 4 12th. Not the best start.

However, I decided this wasn’t going to ruin the good round I had going. I had already banked plenty of bogeys, so a few more would get me right back in it. Maybe a Par would be nice too?

After a double on 13 and a triple on 14, I finally got another bogey on 15. I’ve mentioned this before but somehow I tend to finish well. After a triple on 16, I bogeyed both 17 and 18.

My score on the Back Nine was a 54 for a total of 105. My best score in literally decades!

PROS

If I hadn’t had the disaster hole on the 6th, I would have touched 100.

Had a very supportive and positive playing partner.

Only two lost balls and they were both on that same Disaster Hole!

Stayed out of trouble for the most part and kept the ball in the fairways.

CONS

I need to work on my chipping. I did alright but I was able to see where I could cut down on the number of strokes with better chips.

No sexy golf cart girls. I’m beginning to think they only bring them out for tournaments or weekends.

No pars.

OVERALL RATING:

What can I say? Best Round in ages!

I now have an established handicap. It is 37.6.

The USGA has officially certified that I suck.

See you next time.