Yesterday I didn’t play well. Luckily though I pressed the competition and ended up all square on our skins by the 18th hole. Getting back to the clubhouse, not having made any money, I spotted a guy putting quite well on the green.
Greg, a former greens keeper and now lifeguard for the city of San Clemente, informed me the guy’s name was “JJ” and was one of the best putters in their mens club. “Yea right” I though to my self. I quickly grabbed my putter and asked JJ if he and his friend wanted to play first-to-7.
So off we went, and they took a quick lead, 0-1-3. Then I sunk a putt, putting me on the board in 2nd place with two points. Next JJ’s friend sunk a put, there after, I got closest to the cup, making the score 3-2-3. JJ sunk another one, putting him up two points, but, I then hit one there after. Next hole I got closest to the cup for 1 point. Going first, I chose a hole 15 feet a away and left the ball 2 inches shy of the cup…JJs buddy went way left, then JJ sunk it to take the game. Now I was down 5 bucks for the day.
Feeling defeated, I quickly asked for a rematch and they both agreed. But, before we knew it, word spread around the clubhouse and we now had 7 players for a $35 pot. To accommodate the large field, we changed to game to 1-in-all-in, were everyone putts at the same cup, same ball, same putter, and if 2 people make the putt, you start over, but, if only 1 person makes it, they win the pot.
The first cup, not one guy hit. It was a 20 footer that rolled off the back no matter how you hit it. The second cup, one guy hit, but the last guy to putt (who shot a 68 that day) ended up saving the day by draining it bringing us to the 3rd cup.
The placement wasn’t very hard, a slightly down hill 16 foot putt, but for some reason no one could read it. Even though the whole green is built on the down hill slope, some balls were breaking slight left to right, some didn’t break; it was just one of those odd lines.
Going 3rd to last this time, I was taking a lot of heckling from the gallery. Getting on one knee to read the green, I said to myself, “This is a strait putt, don’t let the slope fool you”. From there I lined up, waggled, hovered over the ball, said a quick prayer to Ben Hogan, and let it rip.
I heard the ball, but waited a full 2 count before turning my head to watch it. It was moving at perfect speed toward the cup, but, as it got closer it started bumping around just a bit from the poor surface of the green. “Crap, here we go,” I thought, “it’s going to break right”.
Hogan must have been guiding that ball, with the gallery heckling, “not a chance, no way, etc…” it ended up dropping right in and I won that match. So, off I went with my $35 of winnings and on the way home filled up the car with some gas and had a juicy Carl’s JR 6 Star Burger for dinner.
