Chinese Poker, New Golf Shoes & Langley Cup Action
The week before last I taught Matt how to play Chinese over lunch. Chinese is a pretty simple very luck-prone game where you split 13 cards into 3 poker hands, 5 in the back, 5 in the middle and 3 to the front. It's a game played for points and not chips which is nice over lunch naturally. There's also zero bluffing. Anyway, we've played two sessions of Chinese and I can honestly say it's a really fun game. I'm slightly ahead on the overall but we play for peanuts anyway. :) I did have Matt on tilt on Friday though as I cleaned his clock, he was ranting and I was laughing hysterically. The other 19th hole regulars who play a bastardized version of Gin would have thought us crazy, had they been in their usual seats.
Saturday I went to the golf course hoping to play OK and figure out whatever is wrong with my game in time for my Langley Cup match vs. Matt. I shot a 79, it wasn't pretty and I made almost no putts at all. That's not good.
The funniest part about this round happened on the 15th hole (it was just Harry and I and we played the back 9 first). I hit my drive as usual and start walking down the fairway when I hear flapping and something feels odd with my right foot. I look down and lo and behold the sole of my old golf shoes has started to come right off. It didn't take long for that to come all the way off and so there I am walking around in just the leather/plastic boot of the shoes with no sole and only a stub of sole on my heel from a few spikes that decided to stay attached. It was... messed up. See, my 'new' golf shoes are in for replacement by Nike due to them leaking already (1 year old, 2 year warranty). I don't know when I'm getting those back so I was using my old shoes... well, not anymore I guess.
I ended up purchasing a pair of these (above), the new Nike TW 2009's for a nice discount -- love me a discount :)
So Sunday I'm to play Matt for the Langley Cup 2nd round. That's a crap draw for both of us as we're usually pretty competitive in this tournament but whatever, luck is luck.
So off we go (back nine first) and early on I get myself two down -- neither of us are playing especially well though! I got back to even eventually and held it by making a ridiculous pitch shot on #17 from on top of the hill, crappy lie, under some trees and over a bunker -- the shot actually checked, imagine that. Eventually I get to 1 up after 9.
I dropped a shot on 1 after heroically punching a shot thru and under large trees and skipping it over the green 150 yards away then failing to make my putt after a great pitch shot. We basically traded bad holes for the rest of the round -- poo flinging. I birdie #6 to go 2 up and #7 I missed the green to the left left and my chip came up short. My par putt missed as well leaving me 3 feet uphill but Matt's birdie putt came up 3+ feet short as well. He missed his par putt and said "pick it up" in a moment of, well... probably tilt. I picked that coin up fast as fast could be and took a 2 up dormie lead to #8 where I get a stroke -- the match is basically history given #8 is easy.
Well, I seem to have a knack of making easy things hard. My 3rd shot on #8 is just a wedge from 100yds to a front pin. My wedge dug right under that damn ball and I took a lot more turf than ball on that stroke. It came up just into the fairway on the far side of the creek. My pitch came up on the fringe of the green and I miss the par putt. Meanwhile Matt hits his 2nd over near the green and hits a great pitch shot about 12 feet past. Naturally he makes that so the match is STILL going.
I hit my drive long up the middle on #9 and hit a 4i to 15 feet from 195, nice swings both of them. Matt got into some trouble on the left and had 250 in with a tree near his follow thru. He couldn't squeeze out a birdie and I took the match.
All in all, it was some ugly golf. It's too bad neither of us played well, but such is golf. Here's a graphic created to visually describe how our match went:
Saturday I went to the golf course hoping to play OK and figure out whatever is wrong with my game in time for my Langley Cup match vs. Matt. I shot a 79, it wasn't pretty and I made almost no putts at all. That's not good.
The funniest part about this round happened on the 15th hole (it was just Harry and I and we played the back 9 first). I hit my drive as usual and start walking down the fairway when I hear flapping and something feels odd with my right foot. I look down and lo and behold the sole of my old golf shoes has started to come right off. It didn't take long for that to come all the way off and so there I am walking around in just the leather/plastic boot of the shoes with no sole and only a stub of sole on my heel from a few spikes that decided to stay attached. It was... messed up. See, my 'new' golf shoes are in for replacement by Nike due to them leaking already (1 year old, 2 year warranty). I don't know when I'm getting those back so I was using my old shoes... well, not anymore I guess.
I ended up purchasing a pair of these (above), the new Nike TW 2009's for a nice discount -- love me a discount :)
So Sunday I'm to play Matt for the Langley Cup 2nd round. That's a crap draw for both of us as we're usually pretty competitive in this tournament but whatever, luck is luck.
So off we go (back nine first) and early on I get myself two down -- neither of us are playing especially well though! I got back to even eventually and held it by making a ridiculous pitch shot on #17 from on top of the hill, crappy lie, under some trees and over a bunker -- the shot actually checked, imagine that. Eventually I get to 1 up after 9.
I dropped a shot on 1 after heroically punching a shot thru and under large trees and skipping it over the green 150 yards away then failing to make my putt after a great pitch shot. We basically traded bad holes for the rest of the round -- poo flinging. I birdie #6 to go 2 up and #7 I missed the green to the left left and my chip came up short. My par putt missed as well leaving me 3 feet uphill but Matt's birdie putt came up 3+ feet short as well. He missed his par putt and said "pick it up" in a moment of, well... probably tilt. I picked that coin up fast as fast could be and took a 2 up dormie lead to #8 where I get a stroke -- the match is basically history given #8 is easy.
Well, I seem to have a knack of making easy things hard. My 3rd shot on #8 is just a wedge from 100yds to a front pin. My wedge dug right under that damn ball and I took a lot more turf than ball on that stroke. It came up just into the fairway on the far side of the creek. My pitch came up on the fringe of the green and I miss the par putt. Meanwhile Matt hits his 2nd over near the green and hits a great pitch shot about 12 feet past. Naturally he makes that so the match is STILL going.
I hit my drive long up the middle on #9 and hit a 4i to 15 feet from 195, nice swings both of them. Matt got into some trouble on the left and had 250 in with a tree near his follow thru. He couldn't squeeze out a birdie and I took the match.
All in all, it was some ugly golf. It's too bad neither of us played well, but such is golf. Here's a graphic created to visually describe how our match went:
Comments
Well done though.