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So many guys were bailing out right on #11,
away from the water on the left of the green
that my wife and i started calling it "the sissy side".
Then came Sergio, so natch, he went right at the flag,
(I mean, HE HAS TO, don't he?)
and came up short into the water,
proving something-je-ne-sais-quoi . . .
If you make a hole-in-one, but have no witnesses, does it count?
The short answer is “no”, according to the USGA.
The longer answer is “yes”, if you keep it to yourself . . .
Scorecard from Harbor Lights GC, 23-08-21
Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Par 4 4 4 5 3 3 4 4 5
Score 3 5 4 6 1 4 6 4 5
#5 is 127 yards, with a smallish green protected by bunkers
both left and right.
In between the right bunkers and the green
that curls around the bunker
which is where the sucker pin was this day.
mainly due to the trough
between those bunkers on the right
and the green,
like an additional hazard,
a grass bunker, itself, almost, since it is so deep,
that catches any almost-errant shot
and buries the ball in deep rough, or
throws it into a bunker.
So I hoped just to plonk the ball
into the center of the green
and two-putt.
I hit what I would call a half-8 iron
because either I’ve lost a club-length
due to my age, or else the ball just doesn’t carry
as far at sea-level.
The trajectory was medium,
with a fade that made me pessimistic
about being in the rough trough, again,
but the ball bounced straightish,
a little rightish, off the frog hair
toward the pin,
but I didn’t see it go in –
I thought it had run off the back of the green,
to where I was trudging,
with only a perfunctory look into the hole,
but there it was.
I looked around,
but on Monday early afternoon,
the course was almost deserted.
So, that’s my 3rd hole-in-one,
depending on how you count
Next in this parade of calamities: the scourge of inflation, a problem so serious that it touched him and his colleagues personally.
“One of our contacts, for instance, mentioned whopping membership fee increases at his golf club,” Harker said, “suggesting this summer may be a good time to play at your local muni instead.”
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/meanwhile-the-feds-golf-gaffe?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=email&s=r
The council in October rezoned the course, 18 holes just west of Loop 101 and south of Camelback Road in west Phoenix, to only allow it to be used for a golf course or open space. Before that, zoning would've allowed homes to be built on the land.
Residents living in the neighborhood around the course, who have been trying to preserve it for years, celebrated the decision. But the rezoning was against the will of the property owner, Virtua Partners, who had plans to build homes on the land. A legal battle now brews that will take time to resolve.
This doesn’t bode well for the neighborhood, since the crime there has been skyrocketing since the course closed in April 2018.
Violent crime has more than doubled in the one-mile radius around the course, increasing from 20 homicides, rapes, assaults and robberies in the first six months of 2018 to 45 in the first six months of 2020, according to The Arizona Republic's review of city crime data. Comparatively, citywide violent crime has increased by about 7% since then.
Councilwoman Betty Guardado says the course's closure has contributed to the increase in crime and the deterioration of the neighborhood since the vacant space is not monitored.
Therefore i propose, golf courses be built, simply as crime-prevention measures until there is no crime . . . funds should be diverted from other areas, in fact to further this ambition.
I mean, Villa del Paz may be an uninspiring track, but even i had underestimated its power.
On Tuesday, the leader of Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, was asked if Trump was headed her way, and what might be her message to him?
At her daily news briefing, Sturgeon said, “I have no idea what Donald Trump’s travel plans are, you’ll be glad to know.” Then she added, “I hope and expect that his immediate travel plan is to exit the White House, but beyond that I don’t know.”
Finally, Sturgeon warned Trump he might be breaking the law if he came: “We are not allowing people to come into Scotland now without an essential purpose, which would apply to him, just as it applies to everybody else. Coming to play golf is not what I would consider an essential purpose.”
on one hand, like so many other knee-jerks, i want to shout HUZZA! to the doubty Scots giving the finger to the Asshole-in-Chief,
but otoh, like how many others, i do not know, i didn't like the golf-bashing when Obama was president, and not now, either.
You have to remember even King James of Scotland made golf illegal.
but there was another time when it was more clearly banned. By decree of a Scottish King. Several Scottish Kings, in fact.
That’s right, way back in 1457(!), King James II was concerned his subjects weren’t practicing their archery enough during Scotland’s ongoing wars with England. Instead, ol “No-fun” James felt people were wasting too much time playing golf and football—AKA soccer to us ugly Americans. So he put a stop to those games by putting it in writing.
so, like, Intemperate Irrationality is kinduva core trait of the Scots Ethos - I don't think that's controvertible, just is - so i am not surprised that some Scottish Virago has used circumstances in order to deliver a low-blow,
and goodness knows, the Scots have been edging back onto the world stage during the whole Brexit brouhaha, asserting their sovereignty, and good on 'em, is what i say, and well done for the snub to the First Cheater.
But as to the golf-bashing denigration as an in-essential activity, i will only submit this example for consideration:
from Wodehouse, an anecdote between The Oldest Living Member of the Club and a young man fallen into the ill-company of lawn bowlers:
When chastised, the young man replied "that bowls is a super game . . . why even when Drake heard the Spanish Armada had been spotted, he said 'We have time for one more game!'"
"If he had played Golf," the Oldest Living Member rejoins, "he never would have gone at all!"
If you see what I mean.
Friday, March 23, 2007
https://thekokopelligolfstance.blogspot.com/
