For the past two weeks I was completely frustrated at my golf game. My driver was continuing to slice and only go about 150 yards off the tee. That forced me to play par 4 holes like par 5 holes, reaching the green in 3 shots (at least). On top of that, I have been struggling with the putter. However, my irons and short game have been my saving grace keeping me right above bogey golf. But today, everything clicked. I made some putts, including a 15 footer off the fringe for my birdie. The driver still sliced a bit but I controlled it, and I was finally getting 230-250 yards off the tee. And I went birdie, par, par, bogey, bogey on the par 3's which is where I seem to add extra strokes which kill my score.
Thus my love/hate relationship. I have been posting scores around 90 for almost a year now, and today I posted my lowest score yet with an 88. Yet I feel I shot way better today than I ever have before. I am trying to come up with an explanation. I believe I have reached a point in my golf game where unless I make a few more incredible shots, I will score the same whether I hit the green in two and three putt from 55 feet or use four crappy shots and save a bogey with a 10 foot putt. My friend Jason came to golf with me today and at least twice today we tied on holes where I smashed a drive 230 yards and then reached next to the green on my second shot. He might have shanked his drive and second shot, but recovered with a decent wedge and made a nice putt while I made a bad chip or missed a putt, we tied the hole with 5s or 6s. He even said to me once, "Did we really just tie that hole?!" Now I have golfed with Jason for about 5 years now, including on Team Boley for the belt (Drew and Zach, we still carry the belt, FYI!) and we have been pretty even for the most part, with myself usually taking honors home by a few strokes. His rusty 115 today proved that I am doing something right but still, I just cannot get over the hump for that really awesome round.
Of course, I have progressively been playing on better and better courses. I have finally graduated from the sandy greens of White Lick in Brownsburg and flooded fairways of Pittsburo and into the championship courses at Purdue, Twin Bridges of Danville, and other local public country clubs around West Lafayette. Even my "practice course" (the course I pay $10 dollars to play 18 holes on with the student discount), Lafayette Municipal Course, hosts many events throughout the summer and is home to high school competitions almost every week.
To wrap up, there is almost no better feeling than standing on a tee box overlooking a lake and beautiful par 5 fairway in early morning when the air is crisp and the cart is full of chewy granola bars and ice cold Gatorade.
And there is almost no worse feeling than hitting your divot farther than your shot while your "friends" drink the last of your beer and you are getting burnt to a crisp in 95 degree heat, while the players behind your laugh and curse at you for being so bad and so slow. And thus golf is the epitome of love/hate relationships, for me! I will continue to play as I love the preparation and the anticipation of playing, and I will continue to be dumbfounded after rounds when I play poorly and still score well, and vise versa. But I will continue to stand by my statement I made 5 years ago, "The moment I buy golf shoes, is the moment I have to take golf seriously!" So until then, I love you golf!(Note: when I mention best feeling or worst feeling or epitome of love/hate relationships, of course I mean in perspective. This post is only regarding hobbies and interests which have little to no actual life changing aspects.)
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