The Day Before:
A very wet week, but good practicing nonetheless, I think. Coach worked with both boys on Routine : visualize, stand back, practice swing, trust the shot………. Of course excellent advice and fundamental to success – just needs to be actually implemented ! Bear can talk the talk till the cows come home. When and if he begins to actually walk the talk the child could be brilliant.
Rob, a long way from brilliant, asks who is caddying for him. I say, me. He says, “OK but I am making all the decisions, you can just push the cart.”
The Day Of:
It has rained every day this week and the ground is soft, lush and downright muddy – a lift, clean and place kind of day. The clouds are ominously dark and Rob and I have a 3 1/2 hour wait time before our tee off. We lunch and chip and putt endlessly and from all directions around the sloshy chipping green and in the small area of the bottom of the practice bunker that is not a pond.
Well we are off – except that I am with Bear – took over from Max at the turn and Max will make Rob’s day and caddy for him.
All Bear said was : “You don’t have to do anything. Just push the cart, rake the bunkers and keep me happy and entertained.” Hmmmm.
Playing second stroke down fairway of par 5 Hole 10, 2 geese are lying in the middle of the fairway. Sitting ducks !! All 3 boys chunk or miss-hit the shot and land their balls around the geese.
Every now and then you get a flash of hope. Bear pulls off after 2 practice swings, breathes and starts the routine again before putting a precision pitching wedge on to the green in regulation. I hadn’t realized what a mess he had made of the first 9 and the times, like this, when he did settle down and go through the motions calmly and routinely during my time with him on the 2nd 9 were just too little too late to make too much of a difference to his overall score, but he was only 3 over on the back 9 ultimately.
Hole 13, beautiful putt set up, he thought about it, sent it with good tempo down a sound line – the ball hits a divot in the green and veers crazily off course. Of course this is now the worst thing in the world, these are the worst greens, blah, blah, blah ………… He slams his putter into the green causing another divot and so contributing to karma and the worst greens in the world ……… I was grateful to one of the dads on the bag for calling him out and making him repair his mark.
Hole 14, par 4 but a ditch around the 140 yard mark. Lay up or drive it? The 3 boys in the group drive the ball about the same distance consistently. One of them drove it over, the other laid up. In that moment Bear went with his instincts and did a great 5 iron lay up. Rushed the approach on his own admission and left it short of the green and a birdie putt.
Difficult to recover from wayward drives (and he only had one on the back on hole 15), so always a good strategy to try and keep them straight and steady – that will usually win the race. And with Bear wayward tends to bring more of the same (probably ’cause he can’t shake it off mentally quickly enough) which sometimes finds him chipping off stones around the cart path.
Lands in deer tracks in the sand on 16. Not much you can do about that, just Oh Deer !!!
I have a question: If a ball lands in a little river is this a water hazard? There was no yellow or red marker close by but a yellow some ways up the river on another hole so it was not necessarily a declared water hazard right there. Experienced caddy dad said it could be declared unplayable (not something you can do with a water hazard). The player dropped the ball and continued. Same result either way but is the terminology ok? Or am I just being pedantic?
Day done. Bear had a good back 9, just not enough to eclipse the mess of the front.
The day belongs to Rob, however, with a personal best 42 and a 3rd place medal !!