Dear Journal,
Skins game today. I’ve never played in a skins game. Maybe I should say, “participated”. I’ll preface this by saying I never gamble on golf, ever. Everybody is so HDC dependent, I just can’t deal with it.
Also, the HDC system is a bag of horseshit, a big, steamy pile.....of horseshit.
That’s a different story.
Today I wanted to play to “wake the nerves up”. I have two qualifiers coming up and haven’t seen competition in maybe a year. This game was, no HDC...perfect, I also never played the course but, I’m in. Course played a short 6700 from the golds, one up from the tips.
First hole nerves for sure. Played for (and needed) a draw, striped it straight. Whoops. I get to #6, +2. #6 is a Par 5 554 yards, fairly straight, and a little down slope. Wind was at the back, little wind, and fairways were pretty hard (Texas). I figure, well, what not just swing as fast as you can and hit this thing? I did just that. My second shot (fairway) into the green was 170 yards. I hit 8i to 12ft and make the putt. Quick rewind, we get to the drives and are baffled. I was in absolute shock. Guys I was playing with were big hitters (300+ total yards ) and we kind of just sat there and didn’t understand what happened. They did the calculations and my drive came out to 384 yards. It was one of those “Holy shit, what?” Moments.
Moving on. The next hole, par 3. I stroke one to the back of the green (nice club choice asshole). 30ft snake, drained it. Again, “Holy shit, what?”. So from +2 to -1, I was excited. And in a skins, I have an eagle and a bird, hope I’m in the money. I pared the next two for a front 9 35. Cool, let’s get the back...
Ugly. Just ugly. Through 14 I’m +3 🤦♂️. Birdie the par 3 15th and polish a nice turd double on 16. Close with par/Birdie. Excellent 40 on the back.
One Eagle and three birds, in a skins game, I’m pretty happy. Ended up that one of my birds got covered, bummer. Got paid out for three skins at $55 each. I’ve never played for money like that so I was pretty excited about it. Felt good to get the nerves going and to fight until the end. My short game still sucks ass but, my driver and 1i are just rockets right now. This week I’ll practice short game and hope for the best come next Tuesday.
Also, something pretty big happening tomorrow not golf related...
