BEST -
When Mony Is On The Line...I'm Unbeatable!
This is actually an account of the shot that earned me a nice cash "bonus" from the boss. My boss, a coworker, and I were all playing at a local course and had a few different bets in play. Now I'm not much of a gambler...but I've found that on the golf course I can't seem to lose a bet and my game seems to rachet up a notch or two. We get to the 13th hole and I've won The front nine bet and the 18 hole bet (playing a modified match play format) so they both decide to press the bet. I set up to play a fade on the dogleg left par four. The tee shot must carry water for the first 200 yards and a grove of trees comes into play on both sides of the fairway. I don't execute the fade and pull my tees shot straight left. My ball looks like it lands in the big grove of oak trees on the left, leaving me not shot at the green and possibly a difficult shot back into the fairway. They both put their tee shots in the fairway wiith one at the 150 mark and one around 135. We go in search of my ball and find it nestled down in the deep rough behind the grove of tall Oaks. Looking at the line I have maybe 145 to the center of the green...Going straight at it is out of the question because the trees are only about 10 yards in front of me. Going under the trees back into the fairway is dicey but probably the smartest play. I could try to play an huge high slice around the trees and get it close to the green. Unfortunately there is one lone oak tree that comes into play with the slice in mind. They start yapping about how I've got no play and I am foolish to try going for it. I pull out an 8I open the face, open my stance slightly and start my swing. The contact was so clean that I though I have have gone completely under the ball and just popped it up. The ball takes off for the small gap between the loan oak tree and the bigger group of trees. It gets really high and starts to turn severely to the right. I lose sight of it as it gets above the trees. I kneel down and watch the green to see where it ends up...the ball hit the front edge of the cup...tore through it and ends up in the hole for an EAGLE!!!
In complete disbelief they walk back out to the fairways and pick up their golf balls. I've had eagles before on Par 5's...but this was something entirely different and a shot that I'll never forget.
THE WORST SHOT -
Never Take Dad To A Nice Course
My dad had been away from the game of golf for more than 20 years and I took it up after moving out of the house (while in college). My passion for the game was always something I wanted to share with my father but he never showed any interest. A year ago he watched the Open Championship at St. Andrews and called me on Sunday to say that he'd been think about getting his clubs out and playing again.
Labor Day of last year I flew back and invited my younger brother to drive over and join us for a round of golf at a course he (my Dad) and my mother often eat at. The course is one of the nicest ones in the area and I was not only excited by the opportunity of playing with Dad but also treating him to a round at course he'd talked about for nearly two months.
We get there early (so early in fact that the Pro Shop wasn't open and the only sign of life on the course was the busy grounds crews. We started on the practice putting green and a half hour later the starter and head pro show up. I play the $300.00 for the three of us and the Head Pro says the starter will call us once they've finished mowing the first fairway. A few minutes later, after some stretching and loading clubs onto carts, we get the call. I tee off first and hit my drive down the middle. My brother steps up and hits a low worm burner 100 yards and 40 yards right. My dad, with his 1975-ish Arnold Palmer Persimmon driver steps up to the tee. He takes a nice practice swing and addresses his ball.
He proceeds to chop down at the ball, notice that I didn't say ON the ball because his club didn't come within a foot of it, only to have the club get
STUCK in the ground. The entire head of the driver was buried in the tee box. The starter, who up to that point had largely ignored us, grimaced in a mix of equal horror and disbelief. Very casually my Dad removes the club from the ground wipes it off with a towel. He steps, this time with a three inch deep hole in the tee box roughly a foot and a half behind his ball. He follows the same routine only this time it gets through the turf but takes a foot long divot and just knocks the ball off the tee to a few inches in front of where it started. He picks up his divot and replaces it. He proceeds to re-tee his ball a few inches to the left of his divot and goes again...at this point the starter doesn't know whether to laugh or to cry. The third tee shot has a very similar result to the second one and we repreat the process for a fourth time.
On the fourth attempt as my dad is on his downswing...his right foot slips into the hole from his original tee shot and he loses his balance. As he's falling over he manages to hit the ball "cleanly" and it takes off in big banana slice roughly 180 yards. Not missing a beat he reaches over, while laying on his side, and picks up his glasses. As he stands up and brushes the grass clippings off of his clothes...he turns to the starter and says "You guys should put more holes in the tee boxes."
I've never been so embarrassed for myself, my brother and my dad at the same time. By the second hole we decided that he and my brother would play best ball the rest of the round from my tee shot.
Moral to the story -
Never take dad golfing at a nice course if he hasn't touched his clubs in 20 years.
August 18th, 2006, 08:59 PM
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