Well after having posted my earlier touchy-feely highlights of 2014 maybe I will be allowed to indulge in an outright Bragging Highlight of 2014...
I played Saturday with a local friend at his club. He's a pretty big hitter so we play different tees. The 18th hole is 531 from his tees and only 441 from mine but hey, it's a Par 5 either way. Dormant Bermuda fairways were running almost like a links course, although the greens and aprons are somewhat softer.
Anyway, he absolutely crushes his tee shot with a big right-handers draw. Ended up somewhere around the 200 marker. I followed up with my best tee shot of the day, week, month and possibly year. Hit my own lefty draw that scampered by his ball in the fairway just like most people's tee shots tend to scamper by mine.
He has 196, slightly downhill to a front pin. Hits a 5-iron that we thought might fly into the hole but it was a half-club too much and finished 25 feet beyond the flag. Putting for eagle though.
I've got 153 which, as it turns out, is also a 5-iron. Mine covered the flag just like his shot, hit maybe 15 feet past the hole and trickled back downhill to within 3-1/2 feet.
He ended up 3-putting for par (could not stop his downhiller anywhere near the hole) but I made my little short one. That's the fourth time in my life I've reached a Par 5 green in two strokes, first time I ever made the putt. So my lifetime eagle count goes to three with one hole-in-one, one holed-out 9-iron and now your basic one-putt eagle. Woo-hoo!
Driver, 5-iron, one-putt. So that's what it feels like to play a Par 5 like a Big Boy!
P.S. Just as a reality check, I feel obliged to add that my score for the round including the eagle was a smooth 97 (Par 71). So that good 18th hole was needed to break 100...