Slingers together Part 3 6

Radar and Cal at Blakedale

Radar

Long overdue but finally got to play with Cal this afternoon at Blacklake. Not an easy course for me and as always the goal was to break 100. I have never beaten CAL and the last time we played the Challenge course it was embarrassing how badly  I played.

On top of that I’ve been reading all about his scores so I was mentally prepared to lose by 10 or 15 but the weather was great, Cal is great company and we’re playing golf so who cares if I get the snot beaten out of me, right?

I striped my first drive and something was amiss, Cal had three drives going out of bounds. My next hole sucked ( my only Snowman of the day ) and we kinda exchanged good and bad shots on the front nine. Highlight for me  was a 72 ft birdie on the first par 3 , I drop one of those every 5 years or so but other than a par on hole 9 I had a lot of doubles and after 9 holes it was CAL at a very uncharacteristic 48 and me at a 49, halfway there to meet my goal.

And then came the back nine. We exchanged a bogey and a triple on the first two holes  but I was really striping the driver and  I would have scored better if I converted a bunch of 5 ft par putts but I kept missing them. After sinking another 45 ft putt to save bogey when my best Iron shot of the day clipped a tree the deciding hole of the day came up,  a long par five. I hit a great drive, a sweet

2nd shot . I had maybe 190 yrs left for my third shot and with water on the right I was aiming left . It still headed towards the water but rolled past the drink just in front of the green so there was our proof that the golfing Gods were with me today!! I left my putt shorter than I wanted but I finally sank a 5 footer for my par. That was just a great hole for me. For Cal not so much. He shot a  9 after butchering a bunch of shots and all of a sudden I was 6 up with 3 to play.

Unfortunately I butchered the last 3 holes myself ( double,triple.double) and I shot an even 100 but CAL only managed to get 2 back so he finished at 104. Alert the media, Radar has finally beaten Cal !!

Of course we had our beers and friendly banter and Cal’s back was acting up so that was the reason he wasn’t playing well. I’m still jealous of his Iron shots and chipping, I wish I had those in my bag. My chipping was actually half decent today but my Irons are either really good ( 50 % ) or really BAD ( the other 50 % ), there is just no in between.

There are two Cal quotes that a worthy of Hall of fame status this afternoon . We were talking about how much we enjoy the camaraderie of the treehouse but I mentioned that sometimes I think our beloved members of the opposite gender  ( Metro and Wendy) take the politics a bit too seriously. Cal’s retort………..well…they’re women ! ( I wonder if that’s why he’s still single ?? ).

Next after my par on the par 5 vs his 9…….ok, I’m conceding. Oh wait, I’ll pull a Tiger and withdraw with a bad back !

It was great fun as usual and now that this one’s in the books I hope the back gets better soon, been there done that and an ailing back sucks.

Cal

 The 3/4 Amigos ride again

Radar

What’s better than playing around of Golf on a Monday morning in Phoenix Arizona? The weather was perfect to go low…….which of course we didn’t.

The 4 amigo’s, Billy, Mikey, Matt and myself had intended to play the 500 club for old times sake but they had a tournament so we settled on Villa de Paz.  The fairways were pretty rough but the greens were in excellent shape. Unfortunately the greens keeper must have had a fight with his wife the night before because most of the pin positions were in pretty punishable spots.

Mikey started off with his usual trash talking how he and Matt were going to clean Billy’s and my clock. Billy started off with two pars and I started off with par/bogey . Mike snuck in a 10 on the 4th or 5 th hole and by that time we were like 9 up or something and ready to wipe them off the map. Unfortunately Billy snuck in a high score on I think the 5th hole  and I had a snowman on both the eight and the ninth hole. But after nine it was Mikey/Matt 54/52 and Billy/Fons were 49/54….the good guys were up by 3 !!!

I don’t know what the hell happened on the back 9 but Mikey started striping every freaking drive in the middle of the fairway and Matt was going low. I scored better on the back nine with a 49 but Billy found water on 18…….3 times !!!

Mikey and Matt went lowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww…..46 and 47.  Final score for the M & M team was 99 for Matt and 100 for Mikey. Billy and me both ended up with a 103. The trash talkers backed up their bravado……..big time.

Despite mixing a few good holes with a whole lot of pretty bad ones as usual it was a lot of fun, and that’s because we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Thanks amigos for riding again, lets make California happen later this year. I’ll team up with Cal any day to take on team Arizona !!! Fruits and nuts against Smokey and the bandit…….bring it on !!

Billy

….

Radar and Cal’s March Madness

Radar

Yesterday Cal and myself  went out to play the Challenge course. It’s a 12 hole executive par 3 at Monarch Dunes golf course and it carries the best damn name for a golf course ever.

We were joined by one of Cal’s friends Daren and his son Owen, a sophomore in high school and one that wins golf tournaments left right and center while shooting under par ! . Between these two there must have been at least a dozen birdies on a tough tough golf course , I mean they could play. And very matter of factly about it too. The dad is a first tee coach and on the last hole ,a very  very tough and long uphill hole ,with the greens protected by big ass bunkers he was giving his son some advice . What ever he was telling him was above my paygrade but Owen just totally striped his 3 wood I believe and put the ball on the green. An absolutely terrific golf shot and dad was proud that the son followed his advice to a tee. It was fun to watch them.

And then there was Cal and me.

We also counted our birdies and between the two of us we had a grand total of Zero. As a matter a fact the only hole where I actually had a birdie putt I had to settle for my one and only par. I started off really poor. On the 3rd and 4th hole you have to go over water on relatively short holes. First time I played it I lost 4 balls in the drink on those two holes and it was exactly the same yesterday, I just couldn’t  hit any iron properly. I believe the 5th hole was the long one where I had to play my driver and I hit that one really good. After that my irons started behaving a bit better and I started to hit a few good ones here and there. Scores still sucked because that’s how difficult this course is for us hackers. Despite my struggles with a couple of holes to go I was only one stroke back of Cal who wasn’t having the best round of his life either while trying to play with his new clubs for the first time.  We both parred the 11th hole ( my best hole of the day by far) but on both the 10th and 12th hole my tee shots that clearly deserved better ended up with horrible lies and I ended up butchering them the rest of the way so I ended up losing by 3 of 4 shots. Don’t know what we shot but we must have been well over 60, we both had a 9 in there with 2 balls in the water each.

 Bottom line is it was fun again to go out with a Slinger brother and get to watch some real golfers show us how it’s done. A couple of beers on the 19th hole made this outing another success. It was good to go out and have some fun. We’ll have to do it again soon. Lord knows I need the practice !

  CAL

Well Owen is fresh off winning a two day tournament hours away, hosting some of California’s elite golfers. He shot 1 under for a two day tournament in Temecula. He also just won his high school match at San Luis Obispo Country Club (really great course, and super fast greens), even beating Jack.

Owen and Darren were off to a good start, Owen was two under after 4 holes, Darren even par. Owen missed two putts from within 2 feet, way out of context for him. He also told me he had a 4 putt on the final hole the other day. Just like he did the day he gave up the medal when I followed him and Jack a week ago. See even Phenoms go through stretches of the putter letting you down. Still the young man is still solid, as Fons can attest. I wanted Fons to see the effort less type of swing, cause Fons struggles cause he is wayyyyyy tooooooo fast with his take back and follow through. He struggled quite a bit doffing everything for the first 6 holes. Maybe pressing cause Darren and Owen were so solid.

I struggled heavily all day, way out of context for me also. One hole 135 yards over water, I was hitting it 130 and hit two balls in, just shaking my head. Just had NOOOOO length what so ever. Most of my hits headed right at the target, or where I was aimed, but just for some reason could not muster the strength. When I meet with Dave we will figure that out Thurs.

So Fons and I (I was limiting our fecked up holes to a triple bogey, I had one of these–the hole I hit two balls in the water, Fons had multiple– don’t tell the TH that) Any who this way Fons felt competitive with me. I was playing as POOORLY as I could, but was having a blast. Owen had he made those two short putts would of been even par, he finished two over. Darren tanked one hole and I think he finished 4, maybe 5 over. Pretty good for a guy who hasn’t played in 3 months. Love playing with the Avrits their swings a thing of beauty.

So we get to the 11th hole, I have a 2 shot lead, and Fons finally stripes one to about 8 feet of the pin. I get on the green but like all day, Darren was laughing at me saying, there ya go Rick another 80 footer for birdie. Literally had 4 maybe 5 of them that day. Trust me on the greens that’s almost automatic 3 putt from that distance.

Any who, I put the ball within 4 feet and make the par putt also. I go into the last hole, and hit an ugly tee shot, only to stick it within 3 feet and telling Darren I’ve only parred this hole once before. Yup….. I missed the putt.
In essence, Radar had a bad break on the last hole, cost him a few shots so I walked away victorious.

Fun day, and fun round.

____

Phoenix March 2017 and The Three Phoenix Pharts

Cal

Treehouse is a game of respect and sportsmanship; we have to respect its traditions and its rules…. CalSurferOooooooh Piss Orf with the respect and sportsmanship in here, we CREATE our OWN TRADITIONS AND RULES….. haha

The Wiley Coyote lives and breathes as we speak. I told him for ya Max, and I hugged him for ya Met and Wendy. Sad thing, right after I gave him a hug for you two, and I go into the club house to buy some beers, and what comes the Coyote’s mouth??? He tells the gal I’m his hook up….. needless to say Cal goes into a good spiel on that note and the girl is in stitches haha.

So the course was fun, tight and narrow, not long by any stretch of the notions, this I KNOW 8 would H8. Perfect for this Punch and Judy hitters. Well…. old faithful off the tee box (cal and his trusted 4 wood) was not faithful today. I think I hit 4 fairways all day, maybe 5. Gnarly slice. Got some unfortunate breaks, one ball sitting down in a divot in HARD DIRT, and water right in front me 100 yards to the green, can’t get under the ball to hit and kerplunk. Back to back hazards giving Cal double bogeys on both holes…. Aaaargh, the gnarly slice instead of a slight fade that I hit. Ohhhh well.

Now if Cal could only SINK some putts he’d have it going. Had 4 stop right in front of the cup from dropping, one literally half an inch from dropping…………more aaaaargh. I even hit a tee shot OB on 17, and I NEVER GO OB, I don’t hit far enough to go OB haha. So I finished with a Triple Bogey on that hole……dang, dang dang…… haha. Finished 16-18 bogey, triple, bogey, not the vision I had in my mind when we played. Had two pars, one birdie the rest mediocrity. The good news if it’s good news, I went 44, 44 on each 9 for an 88. Felt like Phil Mickelson out there yesterday, scrambling for greens haha.

What a blast to chew the fat with Billy and Mikey. Billy’s wife cooked us some Italian Sausage with chili peppers and onions after the round. I pissed and moaned about the PGE fiasco…. haha. Mikey started striping his tee shots dead center on the second 9, and Billy made a 54 foot par putt, and a 27 foot birdie putt. That is why I took the pic of Billy showing Mikey where he needs to putt it since he SUCKS with his putting. haha. Of course little Hollis beat all of us and shot a 54.
Welp gotta run for now, didn’t take a lot of pics, sorry folks, we were having too much fun golfing…….

Billy

Love the golfer smashing his club into his head in the video above. There are probably some out there that can succeed playing in anger. I’m not one of them. Then again my living doesn’t depend on golf. Used to get angry a long time ago if I wasn’t playing well. But for me..when I get pissed on the golf course..I might as well drive to the club house..because I know from experience that it will only get worse. These days..I never get upset on a golf course. Played with Cal and EMC on Sunday and shot 98. Which is a little higher than normal for me…but we had a blast. I don’t play enough to get angry at how badly I play. My memory hones in on my highlights. Made a 60 something foot putt to save par. Also made a 25 to 30 foot putt for birdie. Hit a couple of really nice wedges on approach. Then there was a Par 4 where I hit two consecutive tee shots OB…..took a drop from where the last one went out…hitting the 5th shot from 200 yards to the green (on a Par 4….NICE)….managed to salvage a 7. On #10 (a par 5) my tee shot hit a tree on the left and landed on hard dirt about 50 yards in front of the tree box. Very attractive!!!! Hit a really good 3 wood right down the middle of the fairway and then hit a 6 iron over water onto the green to within 15 feet of the flag. So much for great putting..I three putted. Don’t you just hate putting for birdie (from a makable distance) and making Bogie.. You have to laugh. Golf is a social event for me these days. And the company on Sunday was spectacular. Just met Cal in person for the first time this weekend. He is a character..and one of my new best friends. EMC..what could I say. They broke the mold.

One of my most favorite people on the planet to play golf with. And Mikey and I have played a lot of golf together. Always a treat to hang with Mikey. Me, Mikey and Fons are known as the 3 Amigo’s. Cal has christened the three of us (Cal, Mikey and Billy) as the 3 Stooges. What could I say..if the Stooge fits……… Mikey and I have been talking about a road trip to Cali to play with Fons and Cal for a couple of years…maybe we’ll made it sometime this year or next. Going on the road with Mikey would be an absolute blast. But then we’d need a new name for the 4 of us…I’ll let you guys figure that one out.

EMC

Cal has all the pics. It could be awhile as he’s off to Phoenix baseball game tomorrow, and then off to Albuequerque, NM followed by Las Vegas.

Good time and then a quick sausage dinner compliments of Laura Celcer.
Golf was same – same.     Billy can putt, 2 long 35-55 ft bombs.    Cal is straight and very predictable, and Mikey was alright off the tee……and not right altogether. I did have a par 5 birdie and one par. Tons of bogeys and doubles. Cal was low gross by maybe 10 shots.
Good day and plenty of beer.
Cal hugged me……………………….………..said it was from you ? Hey, he’s fruits and nuts from Cali.
Mikey