The 58 shots

Last Friday was my first golf tournament, although tournament is an exaggeration. The Women in Golf members were invited to see who got the farthest in 60 shots. My friend Liz made it around nine holes in 58 shots. In 61 shots, I made it to the edge of the 9th green. She’s a third year and I’m a second year, so I’m OK with that performance. I had one of my fellow golfers take a photo of me during the “tournament” because I found it exciting to be “competing” in this sport for the first time.

Competitive juices flowing, I decided to look at the scorecards I’ve kept for the past two months. I’ve been recording my scores on each hole--something I didn’t have the courage to do last year--but never have I added them up after I left the course. I know that’s, like, the POINT, but I’ve never taken it that seriously.

I added up each round today and found I’ve been hitting between 60 and 66 for the past two months. I’m quite sure that total would have been in the 70-85 range last year.

Today I played by myself--I generally do best on my own--and I hit a 58! I was so excited--it was as if I’d won a tournament. Then I studied the scorecard to see what par would be on those nine holes. When I discovered par is 36, I was much less impressed. Like, crushed. However, my goal is to play in the 50s next year, which would be steady progress from 70s to 60s to 50s in three years.
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