Eye On The Birdie – Post #19 My Second Varsity Tournament

Hello! This post won’t be focusing on any trick or on the mental game. It’s pretty much just a summary of my second Varsity tournament. (For the story of my first one, see Post #6.) It also rehashes elements of Post #5: Crazy Conditions. I apologize if I’m getting a little repetitive, but I kind of used up all my major subjects. But hey, every game is different, right? This tournament got weird before we even got on the bus—which we had been told would arrive between 7:30 and 7:45 AM. I arrived around 7:35—and proceeded to wait for forty-five minutes. Anyway, eventually the bus came and we all got on. Then, as we were leaving the parking lot, there was a small amount of confusion as to whether I was on the bus. (I usually find a relatively isolated row.) Once I had assured the other players I was just sitting a couple of rows ahead of them, we were underway. Once we got to the course, I had a little time to practice. The greens were faster than I expected, as I discovered when my first putt rolled clear over the green. (For reference, I usually leave my putts short.) I spent about fifteen minutes practicing downhill putts, and once I could keep them on the green, I called it good. I played the actual game with two very nice girls, one of whom I was already acquainted  with. We all tied the first couple of holes with bogeys. I managed to maintain my bogey streak for three holes (which I was quite pleased about). Then I got three double bogeys (which I was mostly pleased about). On hole 7 I managed my first par. I believe I may have made a bit of a fool of myself—giggling and grinning like a maniac isn’t exactly standard procedure. I have completely forgotten the next three holes, so they must not have been important. Oh wait, I remember the last of those three because that was when the wind started. I don’t mean a stiff breeze or a couple of strong gusts. I mean hard, sustained, never-at-our-backs wind. I almost wondered if we were getting a little bit of a hurricane! That was silly, but really, that was a lot of wind. I remember holes 11 and 12 because I got two pars! Yay! Something really interesting happened on hole 13, but it didn’t happen to me. One of the other girls hit her ball into a tree, and it stayed there. It took forever to find it, and although repeated attempts to knock it down with a water bottle were made, it is probably still up there. Meanwhile, the wind was still blowing, although a little less violently. On the next hole, it was my turn to shine—similar to how a meteor shines as it plummets through Earth’s atmosphere and smashes into hundreds of pieces on impact. Or how a building shines as it goes up in flames. It was a par 4 with a lateral water hazard on the left side. My tee shot rolled right in. So, I dropped a ball and hit from where my ball crossed into the hazard. It went fifteen feet in front of me and bashed a hole in the water weed on its way in. Whoops! At this point, I was hitting six. My next shot went a reasonable distance and rolled down the bank of the water hazard. After that, I managed to escape the evil clutches of the Hazard of Hole Fourteen. Sadly, I did not hit a miraculous eighth shot. Instead, I got an eleven. At a Varsity tournament. Whoops indeed! After that, my game went slightly downhill. It is demoralizing when one bombs a hole. I did manage to stay mostly positive, though. I only got triple bogeys on the next two holes! I would like to note that one can stay positive while not being overjoyed at an unfortunate event. The rest of the game was all double bogeys and bogeys for me—in other words, uneventful. When the scores were all in, I had placed fifth out of twelve girls with a 101. I really couldn’t care less about where I placed, though. I was just happy that I had gotten one of my all-time lowest scores WITH an eleven and no mulligans! Overall, this was one of my favorite games. It had everything: a challenging course, ridiculous weather, weird shots, nice people, good holes and bad holes. Also, the scenery on the drive was beautiful. This was also one of my favorite posts to write—although it took over an hour to write and kept me up past 10:00 (my preferred bedtime). So, goodnight and goodbye!   -Birdie