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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 17th 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 2nd 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 1st 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.

Something a little different for this post. My wife and I walk local golf courses in the off season for exercise and as a change of pace. We tend to go to courses when there is minimal snow (1-3 inches) on the ground. Walking through deeper snow is a real chose. Following a cross country sier's trail makes it a little easier. Some enterprising individuals have made a skating rink on the par-3 17th hole's pond. Some major tree trimming have been recently performed. That was one large cottonwood tree they removed. I am not sure why it was removed. I do not recall a dead tree on the 10th hole but that is the most likely explanation. The beaver dam between the 10th tee and 12th green has created its own "skating pond." I am no naturalist but I think this groove in the snow was caused by a vole moving around in the grass under the snow. I'll close this little photo essay with a short discussion of my latest peeve. Local residents like to use the closed course as their own personal dog park. I have never had any issues with the dogs as some are leashed and the others tend to be very well trained and/or friendly. I have noticed an issue with the 2-legged owners. Some bag their pet's poop, which is a good thing. that is until they leave the #$@!&! bag laying on the course. By the end of the winter, the course is covered with these ripening presents. I am not sure what I may do if I see a dog owner drop the poop bag and walk away. Watch the news headlines about a crazy old guy going postal on some poor dog owner.😉