A New Course Record

So I finally shot an 88 and broke my course record at Pine Ridge. I've never been able to shoot lower than an 89 there, and yesterday I finally did it.

I was playing with Sergeant Pixie, one of the women from the league I joined. It was supposed to rain, and we went out around 10:30 am, hoping the weather would hold up. The round started out slow. We were stuck behind a foursome of dudes who liked to play fairways other than their own off the tee. After 3 holes, I shot 2 double-bogeys and a par. The waiting was taking the wind out of my sails. On the 4th hole, we were joined by the twosome behind us, and they slowed us down, so the pace seemed more reasonable. From there, I made 2 bogeys, 3 pars and a birdie, for a total of 5 over on the front 9. That's the lowest I'd ever shot on the front at that course, so I wanted to play on.

Sergeant Pixie had to leave, so I continued on with the other two, a pair of retired guys who were betting each other for pride and spare change. The clouds were gathering in the distant sky, but overhead it was blue and sunny. I wondered if it was gonna turn out to be my day. I deserved a good day.

It has been a tough year overall. I recovered from my left forearm tendonitis, thanks to the strengthening and stretching techniques I learned in physical therapy. Until about a month ago, I was still wearing a brace on my elbow when I golfed, but one day I totally forgot to put it on. My forearm didn't hurt after that round, so that's when I discovered I'd recovered and didn't need the brace anymore.

Unfortunately, I'm still suffering with right leg and glute pain, which the docs and physical therapists now think is due to trigger points and/or ischial bursitis. I've had a couple of dry needling sessions, and I don't mean sitting around while someone criticized me sarcastically. Dry needling is when the physical therapist sticks an acupuncture needle into a knot in your muscle, or trigger point, and wiggles it around to cause a twitch response, thereby resolving the trigger point. (And yes, it's as painful as its sounds.) It has helped tremendously but I still have pain if I sit too long or stand still too long, so I may be getting a corticosteroid shot for more pain relief.

Golfing keeps me from sitting and standing too long, and keeping track of a ball over the course of a 6-mile walk is a good distraction from pain. Since I can't sit, Sergeant Pixie was driving the cart with my bag on it, while I walked on the front 9, and afterward, one of the old gents was nice enough to drive me around instead.

My drives were longer than ever, thanks to all the glute exercises, scapular strengthening and pectoral stretches I've been doing from physical therapy. In some ways, physical therapy is just as good as personal training, especially when it's done from the sports medicine angle.

I also went back to using my U wedge for bunker shots. I choke down to the bottom of the grip and just whack at the sand, and the ball pops out every time. One of the old gents said that on these public courses, the sand is usually hard so the bounce on a normal sand wedge sometimes just gets in the way. Anyway, the U helped me a lot since I landed in more than a couple bunkers that day.

My back 9 was not as stellar the front. Although I made a birdie on a par 5 (only the second time I ever did that), I only made one par, and the rest were bogeys, doubles and even a triple. The 18th hole par 5 really did me in. I'd hit an amazing drive and second shot to within 100 yards from the hole. From there, it would be 6 shots (6!) to hole out -- a brain-fart slice to the right, then an overshot wedge over the green, then a chunked wedge onto the green, followed by a miserable 3-putt.

But still, I shot an 88. So it was a good day for me. Ten minutes after I drove away from the golf course, the skies clouded over with grey and the rain poured down. But I was safe and dry in my car, relishing the sub-90 on my scorecard. The golf season ends in a few weeks, and I'm only golfing once a week these days, so I might not be able to do better than 88 till next year. Of course, an 88 would be considered a terrible day for any professional golfer. But for me, it was a very good day. The best in awhile.