Sully , a corollary to your disaster follows.
There was a nice fellow , local member named Nelson Dane , who I believe has passed , RIP. I'm sure he wouldn't mind me sharing , as he loved Pine Valley. Nellie, as his friends called him, was an avid golfer , who carried a five handicap . His five was due to hard work and persistence, rather than an abundance of natural talent . He didn't hit it real long, or putt great , but he was a dogged competitor.
He would always get so excited to play Pine Valley, and even though he was there a lot, often lamented to the caddies of his inability to bring his "a" game with him from his home club of Burlington, NJ. One day I was in a loop with an old PVGC caddy , Cappy, who always had something funny to say at just the right time in the round. I enjoyed being out with him for this reason, even though he took all the shortcuts and invariably left me to read most of the greens.
So we have Mr Dane and three good golfers one day, and Nellie was striping it early in the round. When he stuffed it on three for birdie he was one under. He hit an unusually long drive for him on four and it got to the bottom of the hill. He knocked it on made par and off he went to five. He needed driver here and as is often the case hit a good one and still made bogey . He played six and seven without incident and hit a good drive on eight. The players went to the tee house to get something to drink and it gave Cappy and I a minute to chat in the fairway.
I mentioned that "Nellie" was really hitting it good and that it just might be his day. Cappy responded with a great line, "he can linger but he can't last" . It cracked me up. Mr Dane came walking over the hill, with drinks for both of us and proceeded to hit a marvelous little wedge up next to the hole. I gave a knowing wink to my loop mate , and we cut across to the ninth fairway.
Sure enough , mr Dane nuked one on nine, and had just about 170 to a green that he normally needed furniture to reach in two. He asked me what to hit and I gave my patented response to this kind of question, its 170 and a little uphill. We were playing the tougher green on the left. Ok he said chuckling, knowing I would never suggest a club , and played a marvelous five iron smack dab in the middle of the green. Now that was quite a shot I thought to myself , he swung free and easy with no fear of the ominous bunker to the right , it was his day !
To this day I vividly remember reading that putt for him. He had hit it safely to the middle , but the pin was slightly forward, leaving a tricky downhiller. No worries , I'm thinking , I'll just remind him its a lag, as he putts pretty good. What I didn't realize till we got to the green was sometime during the walk from fairway to green he had done the math. The magic was gone, and the confident golfer who just hit a marvelous shot had left the building.
He looked at the putt for way too long , and sensing trouble,I tried to reassure him that it was just like the lag on two he had played so well an hour ago. But , as stated , the magic was gone. He knew this was for 33 , and two putts would give him his first sub par nine holes ever at PVGC. He hit it way too hard and it rolled past the hole, continuing on and on down the slope. He de-greened it ! Trying to help , quietly suggested a Texas Wedge for shot number four. He grabbed his wedge , shanked the chip and it kicked dead right into the bunker. Five shot later he finished the hole.
As we walked to the tenth tee, Cappy knowingly winked at me. As you might imagine , the back nine wasn't magical !