Golfing!

With spring coming so early this year the golf courses are opening. Yesterday Ben invited me to go golfing with him. He called me this morning at about nine am and said that WSU was open. He expected it to be closed and we would just go hit the ball around. Because it was open he had to get a tee time. I drove to Pullman and met him, Wade, his girlfriend's dad, and a friend of Ben's.

I have not swung a golf club in about three years. I was worried about how I would do. The others had been hitting balls on the driving range but I was only able to get to the golf course a few minutes before the tee-time. I was going third. The others had some nice hits. It was my turn and I had my three-wood out. I was nervous. I was afraid with as long as it has been since I last hit a ball I would be holding back this guys.

I swung at the ball. The club hit several inches behind the ball and it hit with enough force to rip the club out of my hand and it flew about ten feet down the course. It killed my pride to walk down and pick up the club. Then on my next attempt I topped the ball so badly it did not go as far as my club has gone. They let me try again and I gave it a little wack. It took me eight strokes to get the ball in the cup, not including the two other strokes they did not charge me with. Ben pulled me aside and gave me some pointers for swinging the club. I practiced what he said and it seemed to help me out a fair amount. As we went on I was getting better hits and actually boggied a couple of the holes.

WSU has a nine hole course and when you're off the fairway it is rough, hilly, and full of gopher holes. It spent a fair amount of time playing off the fairway. Every once in a while I would get a good swing and it felt great. My putting was going pretty well and I sank some long puts. My pitching went okay and set up some good puts for me. One of the pitches hit the pin, but the ball did not go in.

After the first round we played a second round. We payed eight dollars for all-day-play. The second game we played a variation called Wolf. Each person took turns being the wolf. He would watch the initial drive. When he saw one he liked he would be on that person's team for that hole. The other two people would be the second team. If he did not like any of the drives he could call Wolf and he would be on a team to himself against the other three people. The team who had a member with the lowest score for that hole would each score one point. The person with the most points at the end of the round would win. If you chose to be the Wolf and won the hole you would earn two points.

By the time we reached the third hole my ankle was getting really sore. I could hardly walk. I was really slow. My game was also getting worse. By the end of the Wolf round I was walking about half of my normal speed. I was also not hitting the ball well. I was really sore by the time we finished the last hole I hobbled to my truck. I drove back to Colfax because I had to get the case report from yesterday's suicide.

When I got Colfax I went home and barely could stand. I limped into the house and elevated my ankle. I put some ice on it and took some pain pills. A Dukes of Hazard marathon was on CMT. So I watched several episodes. Then I went to the fire station. Carl and I talked about golfing and gambling for a while. I ordered a pizza and picked it up. Then I went to the Sheriff's Office to get my report completed.

I watched some more of the Dukes of Hazard marathon before finally going to bed.