Eighty-seven.....

 7:57 am - Tuesday - June 27th -LPG&RVR - 54° F, humidity 76%, wind 1 mph out of the west by northwest......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 76° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I visited Mt. Rushmore in Keystone, SD for the first time.....↴

I had ambitious plans for Monday, and somehow I managed to do everything I planned on doing, plus something I hadn't planned on doing.  First up I needed to finish cleaning about 100+ golf balls I had retrieved from the driving range that were NOT driving range balls.  Apparently someone had emptied their golf bag of unwanted balls, and used them on the range....not a problem....we love free golf balls....lol!  As we find golf balls customers have lost around the course, or donated to our driving range, we clean them, and sell them in the Pro-shop for about $1 each.  At any rate, I finished that task around 9 am, drove them over to the 'Caddie Shack' and dumped them in the resale barrel.

Next up was to take a bike ride around the perimeter of the golf course, which I haven't done in a couple of weeks.  I had no expectations as far as speed, but within a couple of minutes I realized I was feeling pretty strong, and pushing tall gears at a pretty good pace, so I doubled down and pushed myself to see if I could break my prior record of 23 minutes, 23 seconds, and what do you know?  I did.....my new personal best for the 4.2 mile circuit is now 22 minutes 51 seconds.....32 seconds faster.

Once I had cooled down from the ride I took a shower, then got dressed to play at least 9 holes of golf....maybe 18 if I was playing well, and my back felt good.  TLE and I putted for awhile on the practice green, then I hit about 20 chips.  Once I felt I had my chipping stroke down we headed out to the first hole.  I haven't played the front 9 since the Likely Fire Department tournament.  My goal every time I play is to play bogey golf....that's no more than 1 over par per hole.  If I manage that I can shoot a 90, which I haven't done in over 30 years.  Statistics show that 80% of recreational golfers never break 100 so to shoot a 90, for me anyway, is a nice aspiration.

After three holes I was only 2 over par....I managed to par the 2nd hole.  On the fourth hole, which is a longish par 5 I managed a double bogey, so I was exactly 4 over par after 4 holes.  I bogeyed the par 3 fifth hole, and had a triple bogey on the 625 yard par 5 sixth hole....I hit two bad fairway woods in a row.  Anyway, now I needed to par at least two of the remaining 3 holes to get my 45 for the front 9.  I managed to par the par 4 seventh hole, and bogeyed the 8th hole, so I needed a par on the 9th hole to get back to bogey golf.  I hit a great drive on the 9th hole to within 70 yards of the hole, then hit a very good pitching wedge to within 14 feet of the hole, then two putted to get my par, and the much sought after 45!

I still wasn't sure if I was going to play the back 9 as we drove back to the Clubhouse to have lunch, but as we ate our food I decided my back felt good, and I was kind of on a 'high' after shooting bogey golf for the front 9.  TLE was finished with riding in the golf cart....her allergies were beginning to kick in, so I dropped her off at the Newell, and headed for the 10th tee.  I hit a good drive on #10, but muffed my first fairway wood, and 2nd, but hit a good third to within a foot of the green on the left side, so I was lying 4.  I hit a great chip, and just missed my first putt, so I posted triple bogey on the 10th....not an auspicious beginning.   I managed to bogey the 11th, then parred the 12th, parred the 13th, and bogeyed the 14th, parred the 15th, bogeyed the 16th.  So, two holes left and I've got a chance to break 45 on the back 9 and post my first under 90 score since I was 36 years old if I can par them. 

I hit a great drive on the par five 17th hole, and two subsequent fairway woods to find myself on the green in 3.....I two putted for my par 5, then drove over to the 18th and final hole.  I hit my drive to within 60 yards of the hole, and then hit a great pitching wedge to within 8 feet of the hole, two putted, and got my par.....3 pars in the final 4 holes....WOW!  My score for the back 9 was 42, and that combined with my 45 on the front 9 got me in at 87....my best 18 hole score ever in my life!  That was the thing I had not planned on doing Monday....lol!

After finishing my round I cooled down on the practice green before heading for home to give TLE the great news.  Monday was the first time I've kept score in decades, and I am so glad I did.  

TLE and I sat out on the 'viewing deck' until almost 7 pm when dark clouds on the northwestern horizon began to move toward us.  We could feel the air temperature begin to plummet, so we took that as a sign to head inside.  Within minutes we began to see lightning flashes, followed quickly by extremely loud thunder, and then rain.  I continued raining for about two hours, never hard, but always steady....that was not expected.  We ended our day by watching a couple more episodes of 'Touch of Frost' on BritBox, and then headed off to dreamland.

Thanks for stopping by!