September 02/17
So last weekend was sort of a warm up for my long Labour Day weekend and it went mostly as I expected with one small blip.
I've been booking off almost every Friday this past month in order to use my accumulated vacation as well as to get in as much golf as possible before the season comes to an end. I'm hearing that we can expect some warmer than usual weather through the middle of November but I'm not counting on it, not given the summer we've had.
My son was at cottage and due home early Friday evening as his soccer tournament kicked off on Saturday so I played a round at Pakenham to see how the recent decision to move solely to my Nike Vapor 3 Wood off the tee was going to play out given I've suddenly lost the ability to hit my Vapor driver with any kind of consistency, well that it's not quite true as I'm consistently hitting everything low and to the left.
I totally shanked my first shot off the tee on the Canyon Course and then managed to settle down and play some serious golf going 9 over through the first 8 holes before managing to double the long par 5 that runs as a severe dog leg left. I played the Lake Course for my back 9 and doubled both of the first two holes before once again settling down to play the final seven holes at 7 over for another 11 over par on that stretch. All told I was 22 over, which puts me 4 over my goal of playing bogey golf and feeling not too bad until I looked back at my stats per hole and realized I had 9 holes where I 3 putted and that cost me breaking 90!! 3 putting is like knowing how to read and suddenly not recognizing every 3 word in a book, you can still understand the story but it is a struggle and leaves you feeling sort of unfilled.
Saturday morning was all about soccer and watching my son play in what was his last teen recreational tournament. His team has not played to it's capabilities all season but the hope was that they could rise above it all and make a run to the playoffs on Sunday. They were drawn 1-1 in a piss poorly called game that actually saw me issued a red card for questioning the calls or lack of from the referee. I thought for sure it was going to upset my son and/or my ex but he gave me a thumbs up as I was walking towards the parking lot and his mother smiled at me and said I just beat her to it, with my daughter holding my grandson and telling him "Jack, that's your grandpa and he rocks!"
I was talking with the coach after the game when the convener came up and asked about the parent who got tossed from the game and he sort of stood in front of me and said he didn't know who it was as he was focused on the game, making me laugh and confess it was me, she asked me what happened and I explained the whole thing, I've coached when she has convened so she knows I'm not one to lightly question a ref, and she asked me to talk to the clubs head referee and outline my concerns as she was in complete agreement with my questioning him. To shorten this part down a part lets just say he was removed from doing any more games involving our age division as he had clearly shown bias in his calls.
The boys than met the 1st place team in the second game and were soundly thrashed 6-0!! Nothing more to say than the score tells the complete story.
We went into the 3rd game needing a win if we hoped to advance and after conceding a goal less than 2 minutes in on a play the goalie just quit on made things look bleak. That is until my son decided enough was enough and made two fantastic runs to net 2 goals just before the half ended. The only blemish in the half was the linesman on our side of the pitch made some horrendous offside calls that were based on where the player was when he received the pass and not where he was when it was initiated. As the second half started my son picked up where he left off and scored his third goal only to have it waved off by the linesman on another bad call as he'd been onside by a good two yards.
The referee, to his credit, pointed to the centre of the pitch signaling a goal and walked over to the linesman to talk to him when he saw me sitting there, smiled at me, pointed to the linesman and told me to explain to him to the correct application of the rule, instructing the linesman to pay attention and follow my words carefully. As I walked over to talk to him some of the parents from the other team voiced some concern to the referee and he explained he'd seen me coaching for 10+ years and I probably knew the rules better than about 95% of the referees in Ottawa. I looked at one mom and smiled as I told her I'd actually been arguing against two call that went against her sons team and she laughed and told me to carry on lol We ended up winning 4-1 and secured a rematch on Sunday with the team that beat us down 6-0
My son went to spend the afternoon with his girlfriend after her shift ended so back to golf I went and managed to get in 18 at Sttitsville, shooting a nice 92 until I realized I had another 3 3 putts and another blown sub 90 round.
Sunday's game was at 9 and everyone came out to watch. There were 4 generations watching as my former mother-in-law was there along with my ex, our daughter, and grandson. A very cool sight to behold in my opinion.
The game was nothing like Saturdays blood bath as the lads were feeling it and managed to control the ball for the most of the game but just couldn't manage to get one past Green's goalie, though my son had a chance in the dying moments and just glanced it off the cross bar. The game ended in a 0-0 draw so off to penalty kicks we went, the ending every coach hates as it's so random.
My son was first up for us and slotted home a perfect shot to put us up 1-0 but that was all there was to be as the next three shooters for Green scored and none of his teammates could find the back of the net so down we went on penalty kicks 3-1. They boys were happy to end on a good note and thought they did pretty well all things considered. My son was glad to be done as had they won they'd have faced the Orange team that was literally a class above everyone else in the league, they'd go on to dominate Green that afternoon in a 5-0 championship game.
My Sunday was now free and my son was off to see the girlfriend so off to golf I went once more.
I managed a time at Sttitsville once again, helps to be a member, and as I played the first two holes was really struggling to hit any decent shots and not really feeling totally in sync.
As I walked down the long par 5 second I remembered being told there was a tournament just finishing up on the back nine and glanced over to watch some carts drive down the 15th and noticed it was a couples tournament as every foursome was a pair of couples.
That made me feel incredibly sad and kind of jealous as I think it would be so cool to have a partner who golfs, one thing we could do together, not something I've ever experienced before though I will say I came close with C, no not a ramble about my lost love so relax, as she used to like to come drive the cart sometimes when I played and I loved those moments on the course with my partner.
I think these thoughts sort of derailed my game as I played no better than double bogey on every hole and called it quits after finishing my front 9, something I've only done in the past when my back stiffened up on me back in late 2015.
I can honestly say it was a great weekend, Sunday's round notwithstanding, and good preparation for the Labour Day weekend which was made into a 5 day weekend with some last minute changes.
But that is a post for another day :)
My name is Marcus and these now infrequent posts are my attempt to share my thoughts about being single in my 50's, trying to be more open to dating, being the best father and grandfather I can, and possibly meeting the one who is imperfectly perfect for me.
Today's musical suggestion is "Figures" by Jesse Reyez
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