My Personal Best

Yesterday, late afternoon, on my home golf course of San Diego Country Club, at the age of 54, I beat my son Max. I had to shoot my personal best 72.

I tweeted this by the end of the evening:

I still went to bed happy. I want to play again with Max and friends again tomorrow. I am up extra early today writing and getting my work done.

As I teed off yesterday at 2:45, I was not expecting anything special. The range is closed at the course which just opened to members after being closed a few months for COVID. I was standing on the tee with no warm up finishing a Zoom call…naturally.

I ended the Zoom took a few swings and made par. I finished the front 9 at 1 over. Because I playing with Max and his pals the Moss brothers (both college golfers), I was playing the regular men’s tees and they were playing the tips. They still stripe their drives past me and were all even or 1 under at the turn.

I was walking and carrying my bag and when I do that I generally finish weak. Not today. On 12, I hit one of my patented weak left drives and scraped a terrible second shot to 20 yards short of the green. From 20 yards is where I tend to shoot high numbers. I won’t go into the horrifying state of my short game. Somehow I clipped my 60 degree wedge perfectly for a tap in par.

On 13, I filmed Max hitting a pure 5 iron to 10 feet. I hit my 7 iron from the men’s tees inside his and as he walked by me he shook his head and said:’that loopie swing of yours was terrible’. He was not even being mean…it was a reminder that I was being quick and not talking the club all the way back. I missed the putt, but from 14 on I only hit one awful shot, a weak, low 8 iron into 17 that rolled to 5 feet. I made the putt and was even par.

On 18, I hit my best two shots of the day to 15 feet and made a two putt for par. A personal best 72.

Max and I drove together to Coronado this past Sunday to hang at the house because the beach and golf course were opening up again. Max had pretty much hung up his clubs the last year with school and now two jobs in Phoenix. We are not members at a club and his friends in Phoenix do not play golf, nor does he have the money. When COVID hit and he was laid off from the jobs, I said to him that we would pay for some rounds and he should get outside, social distance and play some golf. You never will regret playing more golf and with his game it would just be a shame. He took my advice and has made the best of the last two months before he heads back to work on Monday as Phoenix is scheduled to reopen.

Since my surgery in November I had not played any golf until late March. Phoenix golf courses remained open and I decided to play a few rounds with Max and friends and am glad I did.

Tomorrow I will probably shoot my typical high 70’s low 80’s score, but it felt really good today.