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Golfer’s Diary: A little redemption

It’s been an extremely enjoyable week of golf. I played three rounds over the course of eight days. That used to be the norm, but golf has been a little harder to come by since I became a father.

While the sheer quantity of golf would have been good enough, it was the quality of the golf (a combination of golfing partners, courses played and how I actually hit the ball) that has put a virtually permanent smile on my face.

Last week, I wrote about my round at Tri-County Country Club with my brother-in-law, Matt. We had an awesome time. Look that one up in the OBSERVER online archives if you missed it.

Yet it actually got better.

While the entire family was in town for my youngest sister’s wedding, I was able to take full advantage. Matt and I got out again, this time joined by my brother Mark and our cousin Nick. Loyal readers will recognize Nick as my trusty golfing partner for a couple years before he moved to Washington, D.C. last summer.

The four of us headed out to Pinehurst Golf Club, where Matt had never played but had heard me rave about for years. Neither Mark nor Nick remembered to bring shoes with them (not golf shoes, just shoes in general), so both of them played in sandals. But honestly it didn’t seem to bother either of them. I can’t even imagine playing in sneakers anymore.

It absolutely poured a few hours before we teed off, but Pinehurst has invested a lot into drainage over the past five years or so and you could barely tell that it had rained at all. In fact, the grass seemed happy to have gotten that little drink.

My round was fairly typical of how I play at Pinehurst. I’d have some of the best shots of my life followed by a hole that made it look like I had never held a golf club before. I was able to par both of the par 3s, though I definitely should have had birdie on the first one — my tee shot stuck within five feet of the pin.

Matt, meanwhile, shot lights out. He had six pars and a birdie. If he had taken my advice on No. 4 he would have flirted with an even-par round. I told him not to go over the green, but that’s exactly what he did. That’s a tough enough green, but it becomes nigh impossible once you’re off the back. Still, he shot a 39, which is better than I’ve ever played at Pinehurst.

It was the first time I’ve ever played with Matt, Nick and Mark all together, but if I could hand pick a foursome, that would be it. Hopefully this is the first of many for us.

Just when I thought that round would be my only one to write about, I got a text from my good friend — also named Matt. He was coming into town from Orchard Park and wanted to play a round. Mark was still home and had nothing planned, so he joined us, too. I got out of work, picked up Mark and we met Matt up at Cassadaga Country Club.

I finally felt like I played well, at least for the first five holes. Pars on Nos. 2, 3 and 5 surrounded a birdie on No. 4, which was a long time coming. A few weeks ago I drove the green on No. 4 before three-putting for par. Sinking that birdie putt gave me a little sense of redemption.

Unfortunately, the wheels fell off a bit after that. My tee shot on No. 6 found the hellacious bunker in front of the green. Not only that, but I was right up against the steep edge, unable to even stand in a position to hit my ball. Unsurprisingly, this led to a triple-bogey. That was followed up by bogey, double-bogey, bogey to turn a potentially great round into a simply good one — carding a 42.

Matt was money off the tee, but struggled badly around the green. Mark was almost the exact opposite, showing great touch around the tee, but rarely playing from the right fairway after teeing off. Neither one of them care much about score, though, so we all had a wonderful time hanging out and playing some golf.

To cap off a great round, we went inside and enjoyed the famous CCC fish fry (with hush puppies and coleslaw, thank you very much). If you’re a fish fry fan and haven’t tried the one at CCC, you definitely need to.

I’ll be returning to CCC to sub in the league on Monday, so be sure to come back next week and find out how that goes.

As always, golf is great. Go get some.

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