Friday, May 12/17
So it's been a little while since I last posted a blog and there really isn't any earth shattering reason for it other than I've kind of been in one of those "meh" moods we get now and again.
I think I'm shaking it off and thought I'd try my hand again at this little adventure I call "Observations of a Single Man"..........
Golf season opened on April 28th at many local courses and then almost as quickly closed due to the incredible amount of rain we've experienced all across Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec.
We've had so much rain that they've had to call out troops from CFB Petawawa to help construct dikes of sandbags to try and help control the flooding - my hats off to those troops brought down to help out, never an easy job and one they are called upon to do more often than not, often without the appreciation they deserve.
So before the rain hit I did manage to get a couple of rounds in, nothing spectacular but still early in the season so there is some rust to work off the swing and tempo. I didn't play horribly but I did notice a slight push in my swing and managed to get into see Jason last weekend @ Kevin Haime's and he identified the culprit and gave a couple of easy to implement tricks to help me get back to hitting them long and straight, ok more straight than long but that works for me.
My first round was on April 28th at GlenMar and a pretty slow round as the course was way busier than I expected. I was playing as a singe and got stuck behind a very slow twosome in front of me who made it a point to look back at me waiting on every tee box and not wave me through. Now last year that would have so pissed me off but I'm doing a much better job not letting those kinds of things bother me, instead I took the opportunity to actually look at all the sights around me, to listen to the sounds, and enjoy my moments. I did have a playing partner on the long par 5 2nd hole but I've been told large snapping turtles are not quick golfers at the best of times so I left him slowly making his way down the fairway.
I finished the front 9 at 10 over and decided a bit to eat would be nice, allow me to slow things down some, and put some carbs into my system.
I went to the 10th hole hoping the time I spent grabbing lunch would have allowed the slow twosome to get a few holes ahead of me and was happy not to see them anywhere on the 10th but did find another single getting ready to tee off. as I walked up he smiled and asked if I wanted to join him and play as a twosome. He seemed like a nice enough guy and I agreed as I'm always game to meet new people when I'm playing a round, have to say I've met some really interesting people over the years and think that's one of the pros to solo golfing.
We introduced ourselves and got a laugh out of it as his name was Mark and mine is Marcus.
We both hit decent shots off the tee and he made par while I took a bogey after leaving my wedge a little short and had to chip on and one putt.
The 11th is a very short 108 yard par 3 that requires a delicate shot that needs to stay right of the tree on the left hand side and get up and over the bunker that wraps around from the right front to almost the entire right side. Mark hit a soft shot that just came up short but that had taken both the tree and bunker out of play, leaving him with a soft chip and shot at par. Now I've never been overly fond of the 11th for both the tree and bunker tend to come into play whenever I play the hole so I took my time selecting my club. Once my swing mechanics get settled I'm thinking I'll be using my wedge with a nice and easy swing but for now I know my tendency will be to swing too softly and leave most shots a tad bit short so I went with my 9 and really focused on making perfect contact in order to drive the ball up and over that damn tree and let my natural fade work the ball from left to right, hopefully landing pin high and letting me have a shot at an early season birdie.
Now the say that even a broken clock is right two times a day and such was the case with my swing on that particular swing. I can't remember the last time I hit a sweeter short iron that performed exactly as I'd envisioned in my mind. I made solid contact with almost perfect club face alignment and watched it easily clear the tree and begin to slightly begin to fade right towards the pin. I wasn't sure it had enough height to hold the green and was worried it might slide off the back leaving me a very tough chip up the green with a downhill run and began imploring it to "bite" as it landed with barely any sound, rolling to within one foot of the pin. The closest I've ever come to a hole in one and not too damn bad for only the first round of the season.
Now this is where the six degrees of separation comes into play.
For those who've never heard of the six degrees of separation here is a quick reference courtesy of Google.
Six degrees of separation is the idea that all living things and everything else in the world are six or fewer steps away from each other so that a chain of "
a friend of a friend" statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps. It was originally set out by
Frigyes Karinthy in 1929 and popularized in an eponymous
1990 play written by
John Guare.
As we walked up to the green Mark leaned over and gave me a high five as he laughed and said I still had to make the putt to earn my birdie. I smiled and reached into my pocket to get out my divot repair tool to fix the nice little hole my ball had made upon landing.
Mark made his chip and was still away so I marked my ball with the marker that came with the divot tool and moved away so as to not be in his line of sight as he lined up his putt. Now his approach was from behind my own ball but about a foot or so to the side so my marker shouldn't have caused him any issues but he seemed to hesitate a moment as he stood over his ball. I wasn't sure what the problem was and asked if he wanted me to move my marker to the side a bit more and he shook his head without saying a word, took a small swing and sank his par putt.
As he walked to the hole he looked down at my marker and than back at me without saying a word before moving off to give me a moment to get composed before attempting my own putt, but this one for a little bit more as birdies early in the season are rare. I didn't even hesitate and drained it right down the middle and can't tell you how good it felt.
He congratulated me again and asked me where I got the divot tool and ball marker as it isn't something one can just go and buy anywhere. At this point I should mention that we hadn't got to the part of the round where we were talking about what we did for as living or such things, that he carried himself in a certain way that made me think he was in a very definite line of work.
I pulled it out of my pocket and looked down at it and smiled as I thought back to the Christmas of 2014 when C gave it to me not knowing at the time she did so that it would become one of my most cherished possessions and a reminder of her that brings a smile to my face every time I hold it in my hand an look upon that simple logo.
I looked at Mark and noticed he was holding the same one in his hand.
We laughed and he asked me how long I'd been out and I smiled and said it was actually a gift from a very special woman who I used to date. He asked me where I knew her from and I mentioned up in the valley and his eyes lit up as he said he'd been there many times as he was working as an engineer with time split between New Brunswick, Ottawa, and the valley.
We talked about the various courses up in the valley and agreed that Pembroke Shores was in both of our top 5 courses.
We played the next few holes in good time with both of us playing pretty well.
As we got ready to tee off on 15 he laughed and said he'd noticed I hadn't mentioned the name of the lady who had given me the divot repair tool and I smiled and said I was respecting her privacy.
He smiled and bet a beer he could name her. Now normally I'm all in when it comes to such a wager, not because I like to drink but for the competition, but I sort of hesitated as I really do like to respect C's privacy and don't need people wondering what the she was ever doing slumming around with the likes of a guy such as myself, just kidding as I'm a damn good catch.
I smiled back and said I wasn't going to confirm or deny her name, making him say "well played" and he both laughed.
As we walked down the 15th fairway he looked over and said he knew exactly who she was. Before I could say anything he went down a list of who it couldn't be by eliminating those too young and those not professional, telling me he saw me as a manager type person in my own career and not likely to date the help so to speak, and that left a very small pool to work from. Two he knew were seeing someone, one was into dating the home team but not open about it, and that left three viable candidates to choose from but that it could only be one of them as he saw her as my type and understood from the gossip mill she'd been seeing someone a while back from Ottawa.
As I finished topping the ball from being mentally rattled, he said C's name, I thought I did a good job of not reacting but guess my acting isn't up to snuff as he smiled and said "nailed it"
I didn't ask him about her, even though I was dying to know, and to his credit he didn't say a work about her the rest of the round.
We finished out our round with Mark shooting a solid 41 and me one stroke back of him, that damn topped ball on 15 costing me two strokes.
As we walked off the 18th green we shook hands while saying we hoped to see one another over the course of the summer and thanked each other for a fun round. He said he hoped he hadn't upset me by figuring out who she was and I smiled and said not at all, I said talking to him had reminded me of some good memories and it was all good.
The truth is that it really is all good, It's taken me a lot longer to get to the point where I do think it's all good, but it is and it will remain good with me.
My name is Marcus and I'm doing my best to be a good father, good friend, co-worker, and maybe bump into the woman who thinks me not perfect but rather perfectly imperfect for her.
Today's musical suggestion is "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado. It has a great beat and some interesting lyrics that are really what I'm trying to embrace in my own life.
