The Day Before:
It’s been a week of fairly consistent practice, hopefully some of it smart.
Coach’s comments : Bear has gotten a little too much in to out, but I think he understands what he needs to do to fix it. [I certainly hope he understands any of this.] Good putting with Rob. Especially with $ on the line 🙂 He is still too much out to in [I will have to figure out what this means – it seems to feature with my boys] but he is getting there.
Tomorrow’s tournament is the Season Championship, on a Sunday this week, so Max suggests the boys go up to the practice range with him Saturday afternoon. Otherwise engaged they decline. Shouldn’t they be practicing at any opportunity? Or is that just me being one of “those parents”?
Maybe Max is too. He texts the featured photo of this post with the caption: Show the boys how nice it is out here.
Rob replies : It’s always like that.
They go anyway.
The Day Of:
7 am and the sun is rising, unforced and unhurried (like a good golf swing) over the sparkling, tranquil lake. Yards away it is far from tranquil on the practice range. A little girl chunks drive after drive after drive and dad is pacing furiously, his brow drawn into a tight grimace. On the putting green dad to his son : “That’s three bad putts in a row, about as bad as you can do it. You carry on like this and you’ll shoot a 50 today.” It’s way too early on a Sunday morning for all of this !!
Rob is out with one of the first groups of the day. Sweatshirt still on and shoes glistening with thick morning dew they head to the 1st tee. Dad is on the bag – to Rob’s relief I suspect. Dad will turn around at the end of
Rob’s 9 holes and almost immediately have Bear out there in a few hours. Hopefully happily …..
Rob continues his upward trajectory this week with another personal best 39, though just out of the medals. If he had not lipped out two putts it would have been a second place 37.
We had told him he could play a regional in California if he broke 40 – we didn’t think it would be so soon!!
As happy as I am to see personal bests – the happiest thing, as I write and wait for Bear out on the course – is to see Rob and his playing partners out on the putting green having fun competitions together. This is what it truly is all about right now ……. Or should be in our more lucid moments.
Ultimately a good day for the brothers ! Bear shooting a personal best 73 and bringing home the W !
A good day but certainly a long one. I woke at 4:45 am to give the dogs a good walk and get us all ready to be there an hour before Rob’s 7:45 am tee time. 1 1/4 drive – the first Starbucks we stopped at wasn’t even open yet !! Bear’s round took 5+ hours to complete followed by awards. We found ourselves on the road 12 hours after we had originally set off in the morning. Thank goodness for good dog sitters !!
During the morning wait while Rob out on the course early, Bear and I hung out and ate (another) breakfast and read before he started warming up around 9:30 am for his 11 something tee time. Sometimes you watch warm ups on the range with a vaguely uneasy eye but today Bear had a lively mind and his shots were as crisp and sharp as the breeze. Sometimes it is just in the air.