Snow in October

In this high desert country, we are having (even for us) a dry year. And so, we should be grateful for three inches of snow on October 28, a month when we are still normally high and dry.

And yet we must observe that this has caused serious interference with WNMLF league practice time.

We might be willing to get out there and give it our best shots, but the golf courses are CLOSED.

Serious interruption of the important business of WNMLF golf.

Autumn Golf

BEWARE the dead leaves hazard on the fall golf course.


Collections of bright yellow leaves on the ground all over the fairways, roughs, and greens can make just about any golf ball disappear—yellow, white, even pink.

During Sunday’s round at Civitan we lost a few golf balls, eaten by collections of the bright yellow dead leaves that otherwise look so festive.

Early Halloween hobgoblins at play? Perhaps.

Tuesdays and Thursdays with the Coach

This round of Golf I (4th time for most of us) has, alas, come to an end. Last Thursday we closed out our season with 6 beautiful holes on the front 9 at Pinon Hills Golf Course.

From the golf cart path high above town, we could see the yellow cottonwoods lining the riverbank, and the sunlight on the bluffs south of town. We were almost too dazzled to remember to hit the golf ball.

The miracle of the game of Scramble once again gave us a good round. It also didn’t hurt that Coach K played two holes with us. Vicki was excited to contribute one good putt on green #5 to the team cause and did a happy dance (allowable in the rules of golf, we discovered during this run-through of Golf I.)

Our round was finally called due to darkness. We found our way back to the clubhouse on the shadowy cart paths, and parked the golf carts for one last time this semester.

Coach K is our WNMLF nominee to the Coaching Hall of Fame.

A Boutique Golf Course

WNMLF league players Joan, Katie, and Vicki went on a road trip to Hunter’s Run Golf Course in Oxford, Colorado. In case you don’t know, that is in-between Ignacio and Durango on Highway 172.

If you take a trip to Hunter's Run, you'll have to watch carefully for golfers in order to find the course, because the sign has either been taken down or blown down.

The 9 holes are wrapped into high farm country with views of higher snow-covered peaks, the local volunteer fire station, and a neighboring sheep farm.

The owner spent 15 years building this course. It is clearly his passion project. We wound through trees, up and down hills, hit over (well almost got over) water hazards, and in general had a great time.

By the time we made the turn at the back of the property to tee off at hole #6, we decided it was time to play Scramble. Our scores made big improvements at this point, as did the pace of play.

Over enchiladas and burritos in Ignacio, the executive committee of WNMLF made an important decision—we like these unusual and out-of-the-way courses, so WNMLF will specialize in boutique golf courses.

If you have built a golf course in your backyard, please let us know about it. We’ll add you to our list.

Cramming for the Final Exam

Put on the coffee pot and get ready to burn the midnight oil—it’s time to study for next week’s final exam in Golf I.

You might assume we know all the answers by now, but this is a new teacher, so it is safer to assume that we are nervous and will study for this one.

Coach K. gave us the following hints in a pre-exam pep talk this past week:

Q: What counts as a stroke?
A: Any attempt to hit the ball. (We find this a bit harsh, but it is the correct answer.)

Q: What happens if the ball lands in mud or water?
A: Find the nearest relief (not the port-a-potty in this definition) and hit from there.

Q: What is the embedded ball rule?
A: Pick it up, clean it off, put it down at the nearest relief (golfing definition).

Q: Can you take mulligans (aka “do-overs”) in competition play?
A: No, with the exception of 4-person Scramble.
(Yet another reason to recommend Scramble, our so-far favorite form of competition.)

Q: What is golf etiquette?
A: (Multiple facets) Play nice. Follow the rules.
Don’t step into your competitor’s line of fire on the green,
don’t chat when someone is shooting, always mark your ball on the green,
remove your shadow from your competitor’s line of putting.
No cursing or club throwing. (We had a few things right.)

Q: Is a hybrid an iron or a wood? (Trick question).
A: It’s both!

Q: How many more times will you enroll in Golf I?
A: As many times as it takes.

Even Tiger is a Student of the Game

Our new favorite book is Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles.

In a very short chapter entitled, “Even a Professional Does Not Hesitate to Ask for Help,” Pressfield writes,

“Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer in the world. Yet he has a teacher; he works with Butch Harmon. And Tiger doesn’t endure this instruction or suffer through it—he revels in it. It’s his keenest professional joy to get out there on the practice tee with Butch, to learn more about the game he loves.

Tiger Woods is the consummate professional. It would never occur to him, as it would to an amateur, that he knows everything, or can figure everything out on his own. On the contrary, he seeks out the most knowledgeable teacher and listens with both ears. The student of the game knows that the levels of revelation that can unfold in golf, as in any art, are inexhaustible.”

So no more jokes about our enrollment in Golf I for the 4th time, ok?

Wrist Action Breakthrough

Just in case you didn’t know, there is not supposed to be ANY wrist action in putting.

This sounds great in theory and I fully support this, but I have struggled with it through all four versions of Golf I that I have taken.

“Don’t break your wrists on a putt,” said my first golf teacher.

Ok. Good idea. I’ll stop that now.

“Your wrists are still bending,” he said while watching me miss the putt once again.

Here is the problem—my parents spent money on violin lessons. In these lessons, dedicated teachers spent a lot of time training me to move my wrists in particular ways. Especially that right wrist that controls the bow—it has to be loose and fluid or the whole enterprise sounds pretty scary.

For evidence of these scary sounds, we have family stories of my dog Flicka, who stood outside the door of the room where they stowed me for my practice sessions and howled her head off every time I touched the bow to a violin string.

Eventually, I learned to move that right wrist and somewhat soothe the agony of our long-suffering family pet. Now it seems that those lessons paid off to improve my violin playing, but didn’t do much for my golf game.

Coach K to the rescue once again. Watching me struggle on the putting green, he stopped me, took the putter away, and showed me how to reverse my hands on a putting grip. In other words, my left wrist is closer to the ground and controls the swing of the club.

“Try this,” he said.

I tried it. It felt weird. But after a few attempts, VIOLA (sic)(intended)! The ball started going into the hole more consistently. My wrists held tight on the putter.

Sometimes doing things backwards is best.