Water and Sand Traps and Rough, Oh My

There are a number of things to talk about, like CAFTA, the John Bolton recess appointment, my I-told-you-so about Rafael Palmeiro or environmental peril. But I'm on vacation this week, and I need a break from these things. I think I'll talk about my golf outing today.

I got to play Kleinburg Golf Club today for the first time. It's a beautiful course, with a well-earned reputation. And great value at $40 after 3:00pm. RM and I decided to play this course both today and tomorrow, and hopefully improve our games the second time around. At least for my part, improvement tomorrow won't be so hard.

Tee to green, this was my worst round of the year. Every so often I totally lose my swing and can't hit anything solidly, and today was one of those days. Shanks, pulls, tops, chunks, pop-ups - I had them all, which is a lot scarier than making the same mistake every time. I could easily have shot over 120 if not for my short game. But golf is the kind of game that even if you do nothing else right the whole day, there will always be one shot you hit that you will remember and will keep you coming back. In my case, it was two shots. I holed not one, but TWO pitch shots, and both from a pretty good distance away. The first one was from a drop area on a par 3 after shanking my first shot badly into the trees. It was probably a 40 yard shot, and might have rolled off the green, but it hit the pin squarely and dropped right in. That was the strangest par I ever had. The other one came on a par 5. After really butchering the hole, my fifth shot was a lob wedge that I pulled badly right of the green, about 25 yards away from the hole but in the short grass. Then came a really sweet chip, and it didn't require help from the flagstick. I also had a couple of good up-and-downs and made a few good two-putts from long distance. But don't ask about my long game. The result was five lost balls and an ugly 111. Did I mention how much I hate this game?

RM, on the other hand, went along beautifully. She recently purchased the Perfect Driver (as advertised on The Golf Channel) to go along with her Perfect Club, and she was really swinging well. She ended up shooting 98, which was really good considering the difficulty of the course and that she had a 9 on one hole. Even with her old driver, she always managed to hit drives that seemed to roll out there forever, and the same thing was happening with her Perfect Driver. She has a very consistent game, and it's always a pleasure to watch her play. She also provided the ride up to Kleinburg and the Gatorade, both of which were greatly appreciated.

So it's off to Kleinburg again tomorrow, and then to Montreal Wednesday and New Jersey on Thursday. I likely won't be writing my next entry until next week. I'm sure there will be lots to say at that time.