As I approached the age of 70, my thoughts turned toward shooting my age. It sort of becomes a race against time and the erosion of one’s golf skills. At age 70, I managed a 1-under par 71. Close but no cigar. Early this year I was standing on the 17^th tee when it dawned on me that I was 1-under on a par 72 layout. “Hey, I can shoot my age!!!” Two bogies later I had a 73 and another failed attempt at shooting my age.

Today did not seem like the moment I might achieve one of my goals. I had not been playing particularly well of late. Our weather has been great for growing grass, wet and cool. Which also means soft fairways that play longer and healthy rough.

I signed up online yesterday evening with an unknown single for the 2^nd tee time of the day. I arrived at the course early and putted & chipped while I waited for the other single to arrive. Fortunately, the other half of my twosome was walking also. The twosome in front of us were in a cart and played quickly. Juan was a decent player, and we had a great time talking about golf during our 2 hours and 45 minutes together.

Great pace of play? Check! Perfect golf partner? Check! Wonderful weather? Check!

Things started going my way immediately. I birdied the 1^st hole and eventually made the turn at +1. I butchered #10 with a double bogey but then reeled off 3 straight birdies. On the 403-yard closing hole I got up and down for par and knew I had shot a pretty darn good score for me. It was only after we started to walk to the parking lot that it popped into my head that I might have been close to shooting my age. A quick look at the score card confirmed what I had just thought, 36-35-71 (Par 71 / 6,039 yards / 69.2/115). Woo hoo!

Shoot my age? Check!

Has achieving this goal transformed me into a great golfer? Nope. I will likely go out tomorrow and shoot my IQ (88). But I can say I have shot my age and no longer need to worry about always coming up a shot or two short of the goal.