Weekday Golf

Arrived at the golf course extra early today, to get off ahead of two of the regulars. Two other guys were behind me as well, that I didn’t know. It was 65 degrees when I teed off at 6:54 am, so I was able to play in a short-sleeved golf shirt. Very nice. Even broke a sweat. I wanted to play quickly to get to work, though I still hit 2 or 3 balls on most of the holes.

1. Hit two great drives – perhaps my longest drives ever on that hole. Then I put away my driver. I wanted to work on my irons for the rest of the round. Hit a good 7 iron that didn’t quite clear the hill to the green. Bad chips, good chips.

2. Bad 7 iron, slightly better 7 iron. Chip sailed left. Two decent chips. Two putt.

3. Skidded one 7 iron to the right, then cut two to the left. Made a couple of decent chips, then practiced three more shorter chips.

4. Sailed a 7 iron left, then flubbed my mulligan. Made a couple of passable chips, and a couple of okay putts.

5. Another 7 iron sailed left. Clunked a tree and bounced out onto the fairway. Skidded a mulligan that got a good roll. Made a couple of okay chips, though neither stayed on the green. Decent shorter chip.

6. Hit a 6 iron off the tee that sailed left, but the mulligan took off, rolling to a stop to the left of the big tree, in the middle of the fairway. Longer than any driver off the tee. Then one bad 6 iron, then two passable 6 irons, though neither were pretty. Hit two chips onto the green, one close. Two putt for a good “bogey”.

7. Hit two 6 irons off the tee. Both decent. Bad 5 iron, then two better 5 irons. Chipped my third shot onto the green. Two putt for another good “bogey”.

8. Hit one 6 iron slightly right that kicked off a tree. Mulligan went straight but low. Got a great roll – as far as one of my drivers. Flubbed an 8 iron left, but it rolled down the hill into good position. Okay chip. Two putt for another good “bogey”.

9. Flubbed a 7 iron left. Hit my first mulligan low. It didn’t roll far. Third try was better. Hit two approach shots left. One bad chip, then two better chips. Made a good lag putt. Finished at 8:16, over 45 minutes earlier than last week.

Playing alone made it harder to track where my ball went. Lost one ball on the first hole, and another on three. On nine I lost three balls. Not too bad, for playing alone. Arrived at work just after 9 am. Man when the time changes the sun will come up an hour later, so it will be near impossible to play golf before work for a few months. Guess I better keep playing the next few weeks. A&C hit the range tonight.

RALPH KINER  [SABR Bio] is the only Hall of Famer to twice hit 50 home runs in a season, yet have fewer than 400 for his career. He hit 51 in 1947 and 54 HR in 1949. His career HR total after playing for exactly 10 season is 369. He led the majors in strikeouts as a rookie, but never had triple-digit strikeouts in any subsequent season. Kiner had 109 K in 1946 then averaged fewer 72 over the next nine seasons. He is the second cousin twice removed of Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who has a contract with the Yankees through 2023.

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