Before I get to the (boring) golf post from my Sunday morning, there are some matters to which I must attend:
TWO NEW DZERETTES!
• That's right, kiddos, not one but TWO new lovely ladies have been added to the DZERette fold!
First, there's the lovely Southern Belle, TequilaGirl. For some reason, she'd never applied for DZERette status until just very recently. For waiting so very long, she gets lots of extra spankings! Heh.
Next, there is Oº°‘¨t®ãg‘°ºO. For those of you who can't read all those freaky characters (LOL), the "normal" spelling would be "tragic." She's the latest Canadian DZERette, so she gets extra spankings too!
In fact, extra spankings all around!! Heh.
If you want to become a DZERette, find out all the nitty-gritty details on the sidebar!
STILL NO WORD
• But, I'll keep you updated once there is some more information. ;)
WHERE THE HELL DID THE YEAR GO?
• It seems to me as if I was just recently bitching about the shitty start to my year, about how the first few months pretty much sucked.
And now it's late August. It's almost September, for fuck's sake. What the hell happened to make the months fly by? Well, at least it seems now that the months and weeks have flown by. But since the start of, and during, that span of time, didn't they seem to drag on and on and on? What is it with time, that it passes by so very slowly until you look back on it, and then it seems to have flown by?
Ah well ... c'est la vie.
AND NOW, SUNDAY GOLF!
• Despite an afternoon full of heavy rain, not to mention steady showers during most of the night, my Sunday dawned bright and clear, and I woke up WAY too early, even given the fact that I was to play golf.
As usual, my godson A was super hyped to play, all smiles as I drove into the course parking lot. S was too, happy to be playing golf two days in a row. As was I, come to think about it. Hard to beat back-to-back days playing golf with people you like and love.
I started off playing fairly well — I did have two double bogetys the first four holes, but it could have been MUCH worse. I actually sank four putts of 5 to 10 feet, or else I would have been 10 over par after 4 holes, instead of just 6 over par. I then had three straight bogeys, just barely missing par putts on two of those holes. On the 8th hole, S and I both hit pretty good drives. Then, we both hit good second shots, both of which rolled up onto the green, giving us our first birdie putts of the day. I was about 30 feet away from the hole; S was about 15 feet away. I stroked a good putt and it rolled perfect, dropping right into the heart of the cup. I was ecstatic, and S was happy for me too, but at the same time, I was just one stroke ahead of him and if he didn't make the putt, he would fall behind at least one more stroke, if not two. But he hit a perfect putt too, getting a birdie as well.
On the 9th hole I lipped out a par putt, and it was pretty much downhill from there. The back nine was filled with double bogeys and one triple bogey. I managed one bogey, again thanks to a 10-foot putt. On the last hole, S was ahead of me by two strokes. I hit a good drive and then a 9-iron to just off the green. S had a bad drive but a good second shot, though he chunked it. So if I could get it close and one-putt, he would need to get on the green and one-putt to win; two putts meant a tie. My chip shot skirted the right edge of the hole, giving me a 2-inch putt for par, which I tapped in. Again, the pressure was on S — he hit a great bump-and-run 7-iron to just 4 inches away, getting a bogey and assuring himself of the low score — a 96 to my 97.
Aidan continues to improve. He's really starting to get solid off the tee; he had several shots that went well beyond 100 yards, and he's paying attention to grip, setup and stance before he takes his shot. He's starting to get a better feel for putting too. I'm definitely going to get him a new putter; he likes a mallet-style putter like S and I have and currently makes do with the simple blade putter that came with the set of clubs I bought him. Anyway, he actually sank a couple of 5-footers and lipped out at least 5 putts that could have went in. He totally had a blast. I can never get enough of playing with him; it's just so great to watch his reactions and to feel his love for being out on the course.
One more thing from the round — on the second hole of the back nine, S left a 2-foot putt short and, angered, slammed the ball with his putter toward the hole. Unfortunately, I was standing just behind the cup, holding the flagstick. Bang!! Smack into my left shin. LOL ... Luckily, I have thick legs with strong muscles and bone. In fact, it only hurt for a little bit and didn't affect my game — though of course I will blame my poor performance on it! LOL
What's funny is this isn't the first time he's hit me with a golf ball on the course. A few years back, we were playing a course in northern Guam. I'd driven up ahead a little bit, as I'd outdriven him by 50 yars or so. I was on the far left of the fairway; he was in the middle of the fairway. The hole was well to the right. I watch him hit and see the ball coming straight for me! I tried to jump out of the way — a bit of a hop, more like it — but it hit me square in the thigh ... which is when S yelled "FORE!" That one hurt a lot longer, and left a bruise that turned several colors of ugly before it finally healed. LOL
Guam is currently in the middle of typhoon season, which typically lasts from early July through December. That doesn't mean we don't get hit by typhooons in other months, just that these are the months in which we most often get hit.
Yep, even after 18 holes in the blazing sun yesterday, I'm going to hit the links again today, in just about an hour.
This time, I'm playing with S and his son A, my godson, in what's become our little weekly tradition.
I woke up super early this morning (especially for a Sunday!), even without an immediately looming tee time. I guess the three-hour power nap I had yesterday evening was enough to allow me just five hours of sleep and not feel dead.
A combination of factors got me out of bed and kept me up — I had to pee, I had a little cramp on the top of my right foot, and I heard an "ut-oh" from my ICQ, which I pretty much keep up and running when my computer is on.
It turned out to be good that I got up and stayed up; I got to spend a couple hours chatting with My Favorite Person, which always is a good thing.
She's napping now (a woman after my heart LOL) and I need to get dressed and ready. Gonna get there a little early so I have time for a breakfast -- I've only had two bananas and a peach since that heavy lunch yesterday -- and a chance to read the paper and maybe do the crossword, if I have enough time.
Hope ya'll are having a good weekend.
And there is a post below this one that almost none of you have read ... LOL ... though, granted, it is about golf, but there also is a link to some new (FINALLY!) Guam pics. Enjoy!
WARNING: The following post is pretty much entirely about golf! LOL
About the only thing I find worth waking up early for is golf, and that was the case Saturday morning. I was up a little after 6 a.m. to give me time to wake up, get dressed and otherwise get ready for S to pick me up at 6:45 a.m. We had a tee time set for 7:45 a.m. with our friends, C and J, at the Country Club of the Pacific, located in Ipan, Talofofo, on of Guam's southern villages. The course is on the eastern side of Guam, built not too far off the coast. It's long been one of my favorite courses, but I haven't played there in quite a while; several years in fact. There are several courses that are either closer, cheaper, or both. LOL
The day started off bright, sunny and hot and pretty much stayed that way. CCP is a pretty tough and long course (at least it plays that way LOL). From the white tees, the front nine is 3,146 yards long, the back nine is 3,079 — for total yardage of 6,225 (Sorry Knight, but I couldn't find the slope rating of the course; it's not on the score card). It didn't help that it was blazing hot out there today ... I mean smoldering. A beat-down from the sun with no real breeze to cool things down. I'm glad I brought plenty to drink, and had to cool down a couple times by dousing my head with water. The course is pretty mean in its setup too, as no matter which nine you start on, you're faced with a par-5 on the first hole.
We decided to play two-man best ball for the day, for which we are all grateful. If we'd played individually, there would have been some VERY high scores. LOL. Using the best-ball format though, it was rare for either team (Me and S vs. C and J) to have bad shots on the same turn, though of course, being golf, it did happen.
S on the left after J hits his approach shot on the first hole.
It ended up playing out pretty evenly. We pretty much played match play, with the winner of any hole taking a skin ($80 total in the uncovered skins pot). We also played team putting Olympics — the team closest to the hole when finally on the green, if they made the put, got $2, while the team furthest away got $4. If a team chipped in from off the green, they got $5.
Me and S won a total of 7 skins, while C and J took 6, with 5 being pushes. So me and S pretty much only won $2 each from C and J. The putting Olympics was a different story — me and S racked up $24 thanks to a variety of putts and other shots made, while C and J won $16 worth — and only because we allowed them to press $8 worth on the last hole. If we'd have won the hole, it would have been our $32 to their $8, but instead it was our $24 to their $16. So, after all was said and done, S and I cleared a total of $10 each from them. Not bad for a fun outing.
Despite us all playing pretty well all around, there were only two birdies registered all day. On the 18th hole, which was our 9th hole as we'd started out on the back nine, I hit a driver down the middle of the fairway and we used that shot. After S topped his shot, I played a nice 5-wood to about 30 yards short of the green. I hit a wedge but caught it too full, overshooting the green — C and J were on in three and looking to make par. S gets up and hits a beautiful pitching wedge that hit into the face of the green, bounced up, then smoothly rolled into the hole for a chip-in birdie, a $5 Olympics and the skin. Neither S nor I saw the shot go in because of the angle, but we knew it went in when Jojo threw his clubs up into the air. LOL
Just two holes later, on Hole 2 (our 11th hole), which is a pretty tough par-4, being uphill most of the first half of it, we used S's drive, which was a good 80 yards past mine and on the right edge of the fairway. Steve hit it a little fat, fanning it out to the right rough. My 5-wood came through again, a nice fade to just 15 feet or so off the green, right at the pin. If I would have hit it perfect, we would have been putting. Good thing I didn't, as my chip from there left us about 5 feet away. But S again saved the day. His chip shot was perfect; as soon as it hit the green, J said "Oh, no!" ... yep, it rolled straight to the hole, hit the pin and dropped in for another birdie, another $5 Olympic and a skin!
On our last hole, C and J were on the green in two, with a long birdie putt to win the hole and the press. S and I were short of the green by about 15 yards, with a gaping sand trap in front of us. I stepped up and hit a pretty little pitch, which just skirted the left edge of the hole. One inch to the right and we would have done the chip-in birdie to them again! Oh well.
All in all, it was a great day on the course with a bunch of good friends.
Afterward, we went to a favorite Vietnamese restaurant. We shared some fried lumpia, which is placed on a piece of Romaine lettuce, then topped with cold noodles and/or bean sprouts and dunked into fish sauce. Mmmm ... I had the fried short ribs, as did C. S had friend rice and these HUGE fresh lumpia. J had combination crispy noodles as well as the friend spare ribs (he IS a chef and a gourmand and a hungry boy LOL). It was a nice capping off to a fun day of golf.
For a couple of nice landscape shots of the golf course, with the Pacific Ocean in the background, check out my photo blog: DZER's Guam Pics.
Golfers from Japan often fly out to Guam for the weekend for a round of golf or two or three. Even with the cost of air travel, hotel, food and golf (which is at least double the local resident rate, if not more), it's still cheaper than playing a round of golf in Japan, not to mention the fact that it's much easier to secure a tee time on Guam than in Japan, where you often have to wait for months to play a round.
One more thing from the round — on the second hole of the back nine, S left a 2-foot putt short and, angered, slammed the ball with his putter toward the hole. Unfortunately, I was standing just behind the cup, holding the flagstick. Bang!! Smack into my left shin. LOL ... Luckily, I have thick legs with strong muscles and bone. In fact, it only hurt for a little bit and didn't affect my game — though of course I will blame my poor performance on it! LOL
