Category — Golf

October is the month for “The Hope Challenge”. Basically it is the same group of guys from the May “Better  Husbands Tour”, plus a few extras from Hope to round out the teams. This year we had 60 golfers, so it was a great turnout.

The format is a team play, Ryder Cup type challenge. The Hope/Clearwater Boys take on the 100 Mile House/Kamloops team for a 2 day, winner take all points challenge. It is Match Play, plus stroke play so everything is putted out and nothing is conceded….. well almost nothing. In addition there are 3 flights and individual prizes for 1st to 4th and K.P., Long Drives and Deuces. This year Hope/Clearwater got 99 points to 100 Mile House/Kamloops’ 88 points! Ouch! Better luck next year.

My game for the weekend was both a low point and a high point. On Saturday we played Rivershore and I shot an even 100 for a net 89. On Sunday I shot a 79 at Eagle Point which was made up of a 35 on the from nine and a 44 on the back nine, for a net 68 and I won 1st place in the 1st flight. My index factor went down to a 9.6 so that is the good news.

All in all it was a great weekend of friends and golf.

Last night was our second game of curling this season. We ended up losing by 1 point as the other team stole 2 points in the 8th end, so that kind of sucked as we had “the hammer”, but none of us threw any good shots in the final frame. We had a lot of fun, a few laughs and we feel we certainly did a lot better.

As far as golf my last two games have been very interesting. Thursday I shot an 87 which is pretty good, however it does not help to get my handicap index any lower. Still had a few laughs and a lot of fun with my regular golfing buddies. Today ( Friday) I shot a 78 which is outstanding. The most interesting part was I started with a double bogie and ended with a double bogie and still shot a 78! After entering this score my index is down to a 9.8, so I have achieved a goal I set at the start of the season and that was to get into a single index factor by year end. The fun part and challenge will be retaining this low index factor.

Congratulations to my golfing buddy Dave H. He was crowned as the “King Fossil” at the Eagle Point Seniors Club Championship. Dave shot a smooth 76 and that was with an errant ball mix-up that cost him a 2 stroke penalty. Way to go “Buddy”!

It was a great day, weather was perfect, food was alright, golfing was okay and our foursome was a lot of fun. I shot an 84 which is 1 above my handicap, so that was not too bad. However the real story is what I shot the day before. A very exciting – “High and Low” –  real “Up and Down” 79…….. WOW! That includes 2 doubles, 3 birdies and a bunch of other stuff. Today I shot another 84 so I am settling into a pretty comfortable playing pattern and around an 11 – 12 handicap. I still need to go an entire round without a double bogie somewhere……. perhaps tomorrow as we are off to Rivershore Golf Course.

The following is from the first paragraph of an article in October 2008 Golf Magazine.

“Ken Ziegler, a lanky 6’3” single digit handicap, was playing Griffith Park Colf Course in Los Angelos a few years back when he saw a Chubby Cigar Man in a nearby fairway. “I hated him instantly”, Ziegler 47, said of the fellow with the neon yellow cap. “He did this little dance after every swing – a Rich Beem shimmy”. He must have shot 140, but he was having a blast. I was miserable , putting pressure on every swing, I went home, looked in the mirror and said, “Why don’t you just flush 90 bucks down the toilet, call yourself a f—ing idiot 35 times and save 5 hours”?

Funny Funny Stuff EH! Anyway, the article goes on to talk about positive swing thoughts, why you swing so pure on the practise range and then tense up on the course, playing to your own personal par, etc, etc…… it’s a great article.

So using this new found positive approach I went out Friday and shot a smooth 80 and even took a double bogie that was no big deal, I followed this with an 82 on Saturday with another double bogie in the round. Both rounds were a lot of fun. My handicap factor in down to a 10.5.

Thanks to my golfing buddy Dave H. for lending me the article and his positive support.

We went fishing on Sunday at Pinantan and basically got blown off the lake. Actually we got on the lake and drifted to the east end of the lake and as we were turning to head up wind I caught a fish; which we released. But at least I got a chance to use my new fishing rod and it’s going to be great. Then we paddled hard and worked our butts off to get back down the lake to the west end. After that we paddled back and forth across the lake which made it a lot more pleasant, plus the wind died down so it wasn’t too bad. We had a few bites but none of them were that hungry. So, we had a lunch on the water and then headed home.

On Saturday I golfed with Dave and Ley and shot a 83………. not too bad but those stupid doubles take the fun out of the round. Today (Monday) I golfed with Dave and Bart and had a career round going until the 17th and 18th hole. The foursome in front of us was “PAINFULLY SSSSLLLOOOWWW” and I got myself worked up. Anyway, I lost focus and ended us taking double bogies on both holes. I still finsihed with an 81; but it could have been a 77. My index factor is at an 11.7 which I am pretty happy with.

Today was my first official day of retirement. I am finished after 35 years with Weyerhaeuser. It’s been an exciting 35 years, lots of diffferent assignments and Weyerhaeuser has been very good to myself and my family. For that we are thankful.

So to celebrate my 1st day of retirement…….. You guessed it. I went golfing. After all why not, it was Seniors Day. I started off really bad with back to back double bogies and then got it back on track with a string of pars, 3 birdies a couple more bogies and I ended up with a 79. It was a great day.

Well after adding in my games from Storey Creek (92) and Crown Isle (87) from our trip to Campbell River and Seniors Day on Wednesday where I shot an 83, my Index Factor is at a 11.4 or a 12 Handicap. I am pretty happy with that considering I was as high as a 17.1 earlier in the year or a 17 handicap. My golfing buddy Dave H. is really playing well and he is down to an Index Factor of 6.2 or a 7 handicap. I am headed off to a dental appointment and then I have a game at 10:12 with Ley M. and his son-in-law, so I’ll provide an update to this post later today. 

So today I golfed with Let McM. and his son-in-law Coby. Trust me it’s a small world, Coby is married to Ley’s daughter and he is the oldest son of a couple who lived near us in North Kamloops. Our son Jeff played on the same soccer team (in about 1982) as Coby’s younger brother Robbie. As far as golf I played pretty well today and shot an 82. One stupid double on #5 which is the par 5 hole, the good news is that I forgot about it and made a par 4 on hole #6 which is the #2 handicap hole. On the back nine I just missed a few putts or it could have easily been a 79. When I entered the game my Index Factor went down to an 11.2

Today was Senior’s Wednesday at the course. The format was a 2 Man Best Ball. Each player played their ball and then you recorded the best lowest score for a gross score. The net socre was calculated by taking an average of both players handicaps. Sounds pretty easy……. correct? Well, it obviously was too dificult for some people and we ended up correcting a few cards to get everything straightened out. My partner was Dave H., we shot even par on the front and -1 under on the back nine…… thanks to the great game Dave had. Our combined handicap average was 9.5 so we finished at Gross 71 and Net 61.5…….. which wasn’t good enough for overall low net one team shot a Net 58! I played quite well on the front and shot a 40 (one stupid double on the #7 hole which is a par 3) and I shot 42 on the back for an overall score of 82. My index went down to an 11.0.

So my golf game has been pretty stagnant, with that I mean that I have been having trouble getting a lower score than the mid to high 80’s. Well that all changed on Saturday August 2/08, I shot a 92……… Yikes! I couldn’t hit the ball out of my shadow and when I finally did get the ball off the tee I then screwed up my approach and when I finally got to the green in regulation I three putted. Oh Well! It’s only a game and I could be working. The beauty of the handicap indexing system is that my handicap has only gone up a little and I currently sit at an 11.2, which I know a lot of golfers would love to have. On Tuesday Dave H., Al J. and I went to Talking Rock out a Quaaout Lodge on Little Shuswap Lake. It’s a very new resort style golf course and for only being opened since late last year it’s in pretty good shape. Of course the greens are as hard as hitting a paved parking lot, so that took a few holes to get used to that. It was quite warm, in the mid 30’s, but we walked it and we all agreed it is an easier walk than Eagle Point. Even though the group in front of us had carts and one guy walking we kept on their tail all day, in fact we waited 2-5 minutes on all the tee boxes. So, it ended up being just under a 5 hour round of golf……… like I said it is a resort style golf course and I guess that is to be expected. As far as my game I ended up shooting an 89, which was not too bad considering I had never played the course before…………. of course I just had to take a couple of double bogies that I can’t seem to escape somewhere in the round. Oh Well! Perhaps today at Seniors Day?

Today was a so – so round. I started out well and then took a stupid double bogie early on the second hole and had to scramble for a 43 on the front nine. I started off well on the back nine and ended with a par – par finish for a 42 for an overall score of 85. After I entered the score of 85 my index went back down to a 10.9. The highlight of the day was Al J. who took an 18 on the 8th hole……… I think he miscounted and it was only 17! Ha!