Favorite Shots: Ridgemark GC. Gabilan 10th

The 10th hole at Ridgemark's Gabilan course is easily the most difficult hole on the course. It scares the crap out of me. In the tiny picture below you can see that the hole has an out of bounds fence on the left and and yellow hazard stakes to the right. A wayward tee shot can put you in either so you have to play it safe. Unfortately it's not a short hole so playing it safe can leave you an uncomfortable distance from the green. A green that is even more protected than the fairway.

The same out of bounds and hardard areas narrow just before the green leaving no more than a few yards to the right or left of the green. If you don't thread the needle on your approach it's going to cost you a couple strokes. Scoring an eight on this hole is very easy.

Earlier this year when playing the hole I pushed a very conservative tee shot into the right rough which was much deeper than I expected. I was left with a 185 yard blind approach shot out of very thick rough. From there I should hav taken my medicine and punched out with a wedge or a 7 iron and hope to get up and down. But that day I had a little Phil in me so I decided to go for it.

I hit it flush. I didn't see it come down because I couldn't see the green, but I was sure it was close. Turns out the ball landed just a few feet from the cup and rolled another seven or eight feet. I sunk the birdie put coming back.

Favorite Shots: Spyglass Hill 4th

I've played Spyglass Hill once and it was an experience I'll be telling my grandchildren about when I'm old and gray. It was the second half of a two day regional NCGA tournament that my dad and I were playing in. Unlike the first day of the tournament at Poppy Hills where we had beatiful weather with almost no wind, the second round at Spyglass was played during gail-force winds coming off the Pacific Ocean.

Nowhere on the course was the wind more treacherous than on the already difficult par-4 fourth hole where the fairway runs along the coastline perpendicular to the 40 mph gusts coming off the ocean.
I hit a low tee shot to try and keep the ball out of the wind. It leaked a little right with the wind and just barely stayed in playable terrain. I found my ball in the right hand rough on a severe downslope. I had a clear line to the narrowest green I had ever seen. But from playing this course on my computer (the only affordable way I could prepare for playing) I knew the green was sloped away from me. So even if I got the ball there I knew that coming out of the rough, from a downhill slope, through the wind there was almost no way I could stop the ball on the green.

I had only about 150 yards to the pin, but decided to play my 5 iron and punch it low into the wind. I took a 3/4 swing and struck the ball cleanly. Watching it roll to the green I was sure the ball would either stop short of the green leaving me a horrible down hill chip or would roll through the green off the back side. However, it appeared to stop somewhere on the green.

The ball ended up about 10 feet below the cup, a perfect spot for putting. A tournament volunteer assigned to that hole said it was easily the best shot he had seen all day. I agreed.

Of course I three putted from 10 feet which took a bit of glory out of the shot, but that 5 iron is still one of my favorite shots to date.

Note: I hit 11 of 14 fairways that day (not including the 4rth hole) and most of the greens in regulation, but had one of the ugliest putting days ever. We didn't win the tournament.

Favorite Shots: Poppy Hills 18th

A couple years ago my dad and I were lucky enough to win a local two man best-ball tournament and qualify for a regional NCGA event at Poppy Hills and Spyglass Hill. The first day of the tournament was played at Poppy Hills where we were wrapping up a decent, but not spectacular, round of golf.

I had been pushing the ball right all day long so I set up left for my tee shot on the 18th. Unfortunately I hit it dead left too. The ball sailed deep into what looked like Mirkwood Forest.

(Looking back from the 18th green: If you click to enlarge the photo you can actually see a tiny opening in the trees on the right side of this picture where I had to hit from.)

When I found the ball it was sitting on a perfectly clean lie on an even cover of pine needles in the throat of a narrow, but beautifully straight corridor of evergreens that opened to the left side of the fairway. Unfortunately the opening at the end of the corridor was only a few yards across and nearly 50 yards away. I had to hit the ball perfectly straight and relatively low due to have any chance of getting the ball back in the fairway. But since I had no other alternatives I pulled out my 3-wood and said, "Why not?"

I couldn't believe it when I hit a crisp, low-driving 3 wood that split the row of trees perfectly. The shot was nothing short of a miracle, leaving me with a simple 40 yard pitch to the flag on the far side of the 18th green. I hit a decent wedge to the green and followed it up by sinking a curling 12-foot putt to birdie the hole and finish the round on an unexpectedly high note.

Favorite Shots: San Juan Oaks 16th

I have a bad memory. No, a horrible memory. I can't remember names, facts or dates to save my life. Yet I can usually recall every single stroke played during a round of golf for months, sometimes years, afterward. Ashley suggests that I don't have a bad memory, just a selective one for things I really care about. She may be right. For some reason whacking a little golf ball down the fairway leaves a lasting impression. So I've decided to write some of them down.

San Juan Oaks is one of my favorite courses. It's located in San Juan Bautista, just outside Hollister, which is just south of Gilroy, which is about 30 minutes south of San Jose, CA. I've played the course a few dozen times since it was built back in the mid-90s, so most of my memories from this course blend together. But there is one particular pitching wedge that I'll never forget.

(San Juan Oaks 16th - the flag was just behind the right edge of the sand trap when I played it)

One of the easiest holes is the par three 16th. Like most of the holes on the back nine, it was carved into the natural landscape of San Juan's rolling foothills. Most of the holes look like they've just always been there. This particular par three is just over 100 yards from elevated tees that look down to a small green across a narrow canyon. By the time we got to the 16th we (me, my dad, my friend Brian and his dad) were playing in the shadows since the sun was already setting below the hills to our backs.

When it was my turn to hit I felt like I was going to hit a good shot. And I did. I hit the ball clean, high and straight at the flag. On its way up, just before the ball crested, it broke through the shade cover and was lighted by the suns setting rays. It was beautiful. The ball clipped the flagstick on its way down landing just four inches behind the cup, and checked up leaving the easiest birdie putt I have ever had. It's still the closest I've come to a hole-in-one. I could play that hole a hundred more times and not have a prettier ball flight and result.

Things I Will Miss About Ashley

Sometimes when I'm giving Ashley a hard time for squeezing the toothpaste from the middle of the tube or for closing the shampoo cap before letting the air back in she turns to me and says, "Those are the little things that you'll miss about me when I get hit by a bus."

It's true. I think I really would miss most of those things. At least I'd miss her when I saw things like a shampoo bottle with all the air sucked out. Here are a few other things that will remind me of Ashley when she kicks the bucket.

• Dresser drawers - Ashley is always in a hurry...and that's why her dresser drawers are always open. At least that's what she says. Seriously, they are NEVER closed. Her reason (and the shampoo and toothpaste) is that it takes too long to close them all the way. So the drawers remain open, each one between 2 and 8 inches depending on how hard a shove she gave each before she rushed out the door. Each time I stop to think about it, it makes me chuckle.

• Diet Coke cans - Ashley is very good about ridding the house of her Diet Coke cans at night during her clean-up routine. But those shiny silver cans will forever remind me of Ashley.


• Car seats - We've all got things we hate doing. For me its paying the bills. There are very few things I hate doing more than checking the mail and pay the bills. For Ashley, the thing she has nightmares about is having to remove or install a car seat. Never mind that it only takes 2-3 minutes to do either. I think she'd rather rent a car if we needed a vehicle sans car seats.


• Seasonal decorations (the day the season begins) - Ashley has boxes of decorations for each season and holiday. She's got spring stuff, summer stuff, fall stuff, stuff for Valentines Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm sure we have stuff for the 4rth of July, St. Patrick's Day and Columbus Day too and I just haven't seen them yet. But the fun thing about Ashley is that she can't wait to get the old stuff out and the new season in. I know for a fact that while everyone else is out shopping on Black Friday, Ashley will be putting the final touches on our Christmas decor. And you can better believe that we'll have our Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving (if not before). It's a tradition that's fun (until she asks me to help).

• The HIGH setting - There are two HIGH settings that Ashley punishes me with. The first is the HIGH heater setting in the car. If the temperature is anywhere around or below 70 degrees Ashley cranks the temperature up to HIGH (90 degrees) and then sets the fan at full force too. It usually gets hot enough that I have to hang my head out the window in order to breath. The other HIGH setting is on the stove. It is my lifelong mission to convince Ashley that when it comes to the range, the HIGH setting is only for boiling water. It's not a setting you use when you want things to cook faster. I know she gets it. She's a smart woman. But I don't know that her impatience will ever let her cook things on medium. Ashley's abuse of the HIGH settings used to make me mad. Now it kinda makes me chuckle. Kinda.


• This box - Last night Ashley spent 45 minutes getting ready for a seminary pancake breakfast. When she explained what she was doing I thought, "Pancakes only take 5 minutes to prepare, so why are you spending 45 minutes getting ready?" It was to avoid having to prep and clean at the church. I gave her a hard time about it because I would have done no preparation whatsoever and would have just lugged the ingredients down to the church and hoped that the right pans and utensils were available. But that's not Ashley. She's a planner. Not only did she mix the batter last night so she wouldn't have to carry the ingredients to the church, she also built a custom pancake batter container holder out of a Cherrios box. That way nothing would spill in the car and she wouldn't have to do any clean-up in the church. I was impressed with the box design. The rest of the plan?
  

She's Kinda Neat

This afternoon while Ashley and I were driving to the mall to get her birthday present she did something that reminded me why I love her so much (Note to self: When she makes a list of things she wants for her birthday, don't surprise her with something that's not on the list).


Ashley was telling me about the incentive/rewards system she has with her seminary students. Her students can earn points (tickets) that will go towards Operation Smile, a program that helps pay for cleft palette surgeries for children in a 3rd world countries. The fact that she gets involved in just about every charity that comes her way says so much about who she is.

But what got to me today was when she broke down crying while reading a letter from the Operation Smile asking her to donate more to the cause. Of course when she read the letter about those kids whose lives were changed with a simple surgery, she was so choked up with emotion that she had trouble finishing it. It reminded me of one of our first dates when she bawled uncontrollably during a movie about whales. Movies aren't the only thing she cries over. She's always imagining horrible scenarios where one of us gets hit by a bus or ends up in some similar tragedy and often ends up in tears because of it.

Ashley certainly isn't the first girl to get emotional during a chick-flick, but she is so caring and loving that I am constantly amazed. I'm so glad that she spends her days, nights and weekends caring for and teaching our two boys how to be thoughtful, decent little boys. I can't imagine anyone else raising Max and Charlie. I'm glad that she is so strong and firm about what she believes in, yet so tender deep down. I'm also grateful that she chose me for a husband. I can't imagine my life without her and would be devastated if she were ever hit by a bus.