Chiming in. It took me a while to remember a good highlight. I knew where it happened.
I only played about eleven rounds this year: six at Ballyneal, four at Pumpkin Ridge (one at Witch, three at Ghost) and my final round of the year at The Valley Club in early October. The round coincided with the traditional pilgrimage to California to see Van Morrison. Van is getting old, but he was in strong voice and high spirits this evening at The Santa Barbara Bowl. The Santa Barbara Bowl is a terrific concert venue. It would be a top 100 venue in the medium-large, high-falutin' category, if music fans were crazy enough to engage in such nonsense.
I had played a few rounds at Ballyneal about three weeks before, but hadn't practiced since, so I was a little rusty. But I got off to a nice start, and managed to scrape it around for two over par on the front nine. I then proceeded to botch the very easy 10th hole, and then sort of eased off trying so hard, since we were playing a bit too slowly and needed to keep up. I made a few more pars coming in for about an 80 or 81 for the day.
The hole was located in the front right portion of the 18th green. After a good drive, I decided to try and bound a low 5-iron up the false front onto the green from about 175, but pulled it into the left bunker. There's a significant drop from the back to the front of the green, and so a safe play was to play your sand shot up high and let it drift down to the hole. I missed my spot by a couple yards and it failed to catch the slope, leaving a 15 footer with a pretty significant left-to-right break, maybe 12-18 inches.
A few seconds into analyzing my putt, I abandoned the traditional strategy and started looking at the steep slope above the hole. After seeing the spot I needed for the fall line, I wasted little time in executing the putt. This time I hit my spot, aiming for a sharp parabolic putt about 70 degrees left of the objective. It never once looked like it would miss, slowly working its way down to the hole and dropping in for a par. I received a small applause from the members having breakfast on the balcony, and tipped my cap in response.
Next year will likely be another off year for golf, but after that I may begin to make golf a higher priority. At the time, I thought that might be a good way to finish my golf career, but it's more likely I'll give it another go here pretty soon.