First complete round of the year -

Monday I decided to head out to the course for a quick round of 9 holes but what I found when I got there was a different story.

It was a great afternoon - Mid 60's temp, slight wind and I figured that the course would be pretty open as it was Mid afternoon on Monday and most people would be at work.

As I pulled into the course I was surprised to see the lot FULL! I knew at that point it was going to be a long 9 holes. I went in and got my player card punched and headed towards the first tee. My push cart was nice and clean and I spent the evening on Sunday cleaning up my gear and lubing up the bearings. I also attached a make-shift bracket to the handle to that I can display my Sky Caddie. With anticipation of a good round in my mind I hit a few putts on the practice green, there was a two-some playing the tips in front of me and I was hitting putts on the green I watched one guy shank his first drive. I immediately knew that the day just got longer but the weather was great and I was still in high spirits. By the time I finally tee'd off I launched a dart straight down the middle of the 1st fairway. I ended up making par on the first hole and was ready to wait on 2nd tee for the knuckleheads to hurry up. 2nd drive again was a dart down the middle of the fairway. Again, made par.... This time the knuckleheads in front of me have not even tee'd off yet as they were waiting on a group to clear off the par 3, 3rd hole. They did the polite gesture and asked me to play with but I was not interested in playing with 2 guys who were playing the tips but had no business playing anything longer than the whites, so I politely declined and waited. Just as they were finishing up on the green the group behind me that had not even started playing 2 when I started waiting on 3 caught up. I invited them to join me as I recognized them from leagues last year. Mike and Spike were their names - Playing with those guys was nice, we were all of equal ability and we all didn't waste anytime zig zagging the course. I ended up shooting a 39 on the first 9 and as we were walking up the 9th fairway Spike asked if I was going to make the turn. I thought about it for a second and accepted. *Btw - after hole 3, the knuckleheads in front of us kept pace and our 3 some rarely waited longer than a few minutes on each shot.*
Fast forward to hole 12, sank the first birdie of the year, pushed tee shot to the right rough, 123 yards out and hit my gap wedge to what would have been perfect with no wind, the wind did hold up my shot and I thought for sure I had landed in the green side bunker protecting the pin however I just cleared the bunker and landed on the down slope and that pushed my shot onto the green where it rolled to within 5 feet of the cup. Yay!

After that birdie, I went on a run of 5 bogies and finished up with a par on 18 to land a 40 on the back. 39 on the front, 40 on the back = 79 on my first 18 holes. Great warm up for leagues that start on Thursday. Looking forward to another great year on the links.......