Another month of Indolence and Procrastination. Just Commonplace entries added. (November 1, 2010)
The first half of September was spent, very pleasantly, staying with our son, James and his wife, Lien, in Santa Clara, California. This visit was marked by the second ace in my golfing career, on the 16th hole at the Santa Teresa Golf Club, outside San Jose, on September 11th. The hole measures 170 yards, is slightly downhill, although a dip lies in front of the green. The pin was placed just right of a bunker on the left, between the front and centre of the green. The extraordinary aspect of the shot was that it came towards the end of an excruciatingly slow five-and-a-quarter hour round. I am not known for my patience when dealing with slow play, and we had to wait on the tee for ten minutes. I thus had plenty of time to make adjustments for altitude (about 120 feet above sea-level), wind-speed (5-10 miles per hour), and pin placement, and accordingly put the tee down a bit further back in my stance, and took a little off my 5-wood (!). Immediately the ball was in the air, my son observed that it was going straight at the pin, and then said that the ball must be very close to the hole. I can no longer see 170 yards away, so I just hoped I didn’t have one of those dreadful three-foot knee-knockers for birdie. But when we got up to the green, there was no sign of the ball. Had it gone over the green? No, it was in the cup, and the pleasure was magnified by the fact that my wife, my son, and one of his closest friends were there to witness it. And when my son (after leaving a putt short) pointed out how spongy that particular green was, I was able to remark that I really could not comment. (October 31, 2010)