Double Bogeys

Monday: worked through lunch and until 6 pm. Not fun driving home in the dark.

Tuesday: up early to golf. Made it to Candler Park at 6:45 and there was plenty of light, despite the clouds. Should’ve arrived earlier. I teed off, then saw that the professor had pulled up, so I waited on him. For the most part I only played one ball.

1. Good tee shot, but also a worm burner. Decent 6 iron left of the green. Decent chip to the fringe. Okay lag putt. Bogey.

2. Popped up my tee shot. Pulled my chip left of the green. Okay chip. Two putt for a double.

3. Pulled my tee shot way left. Decent chip up to the fringe. Poor chip but better mulligan. Two putt for another double.

4. Okay 7 iron to the fringe. Two poor lag putts. Two more putts for another double.

5. Poor 6 iron off the tee, that rolled into the leaves. Couldn’t find it, but found another. Poor chip went right of the green. Flubbed one chip but mulligan was better. Two putts for another “double”. The guy playing behind us was waiting on the tee box, so we vowed to let him play through – though he had trouble on the 5th hole.

6. We went ahead and teed off while we were waiting on the guy to finish on five. I hit one worm burner but then a good straight hybrid. The professor hit two right, and two left into the brush. After the guy teed off on 6 and went off ahead of us, GT and I had time to look for his yellow golf balls. I found a couple of white balls, then realized the brush wasn’t quite as thick as it had been during the summer. I spotted a ball a few feet into the brush, and once I got it, I saw another just a little deeper. I kept finding balls deeper and deeper, and filled my pockets. Then I looked down – the pants I’d planned on wearing to work were covered in briars! Plus I wasn’t sure that I could find my way back out of the brush.

Hit a 6 iron right, then poked a 5 iron from under a tree back on the fairway. Made a good chip onto the green and 2 putted. Double.

7. Worm burner off the tee, then hit a great mulligan. Pulled a 6 iron left. Then a great 9 iron onto the green. Two putt for bogey.

8. Hit my tee shot into the trees, but a dent mulligan. Hit a nice approach with a 9 iron, and a good chip. Two putt for a bogey.

9. Great tee shot up the hill. Chipped low, past the green. Managed a decent chip back. Two putt for – you guessed it, another double.

Emailed that picture I’d taken of my pants to Angie and Rachel at work. Might not have been the smartest thing. At least they didn’t report me to Human Resources. The round took much longer than I’d expected, then the commute routed me through traffic as well. Didn’t clock in until after 930.

NAP LAJOIE [SABR Bio] owns the highest single season batting average in the Modern Era, hitting .426 in 1901 for PHA. He both played and managed Cleveland from 1905-09. He was the first player in the 20th century to receive an intentional walk with the bases loaded, on 23-May-1901 in the 9th inning. Hall of Fame manager Clark Griffith, player-manager of the White Sox, intentionally walked Lajoie with the bases loaded as a strategic move to minimize the damage Lajoie could do. Griffith’s strategy worked. The White Sox won the game 11-9.

DENISON: cultural commentator Andrew Sullivan writes that the “oldest and greatest bulwark” of a culture that promotes a peaceful and collegial society has been Christianity. However, with its stark decline in our secularized society, “The deep belief that we are all equal in the eyes of God and all equally flawed and forgivable gave way to a fundamentalist hubris on the right that saw liberals as enemies who had to be destroyed. And on the left, Trump supporters became viewed as alien, anathema, unfathomable, deplorable—bigots for whom forgiveness was unthinkable”.