Round 20 for the Year......was a hot one

Well....it was hot out there today.  How hot was it?  It was so hot I saw some wino's passing around a Dilly Bar.  I saw a dog chasing a cat and they were both walking.  The farmers were feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying hard boiled eggs.

I walked 18 at Shawnee GC today.  I shot a 40 - 45 = 85.  Not as good as I've played the last couple of times.  I let a few tee shots get away from me to the right and that caused me some trouble.  I was having a pretty good front nine when my tee shot on #8 went to the right, hit the cart path, and jumped into the weeds.  Double Bogey.  Then I doubled #9.  Finishing the front nine with 2 double bogeys and still shooting a 40.  I don't know if it was the heat causing me to be a little tired and hitting my drives to the right.  I'm sure the heat didn't help, but sometimes you just don't hit some shots good.  I didn't play bad overall, but hit enough bad shots to pump my score up 5-7 strokes.

We'll be playing Iroquois GC Thursday, but I plan on riding then.  It's still supposed to be in the mid-90's and with the hills at Iroquois I'll have to ride a cart or ride home in a hearse.

Love those Willow park Concerts!

Tonight was another great night at Willow Park!  The "Lost Boys" played for 2 hours and were really good.  They're one of my favorites of the season.  There was a large crowd.  Good dancing and great fun!

Judy even got in the act dancing with Erin.  They had a big finish to their dance number!

Uncle George and June made an appearance.  They love these concerts and also love getting the ice cream during the band break.

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, aka Mark and Kim, took the floor several times.













It was a hot night, but mostly cloudy helped keep it bearable.  We have a lot of fun dancing, watching other dancers, and watching Erin and Jill have fun on the dance floor.  Both of them have some good moves.

Decorating Gingerbread man Cookies in June

Erin and Kim went camping with the Girl Scouts....sooooo.....Jillian got to have a sleepover with Mimi and Grampy!  We had a lot of fun, but one of the most fun things was decorating Gingerbread Men.  We had 8 of them to decorate, so, Jill and I would each decorate one and Mimi would judge which one was the best.  I lost all four contests!  I thought for sure I'd win them.

Of course, the first thing was to thoroughly clean the mixer beaters after making the icing.

Then to the competition.  I worked hard and I thought I did pretty good.  But, Jillian was up to the task.  Of course, she kept eating the decorations!

Mimi was a tough judge.  I lost the contest with the 2nd from left on top row because it had a frown!
Overall, we did pretty good, don't you think?






I beat Jillian two games of Candyland though and got my revenge!  But, later she beat me in a game of Battleship. 

Hot day, low humidity, low score.

I played Shawnee GC today in my usual Thursday golf.  Normally we play Iroquois on Thursday, but this week it was reversed.  I shot another good round....that's two in a row.  I shot a 38 - 40 = 78.  I thought I might be low man today, but Rowland came in with an 88....and he carries a 27 handicap, which nets him a 61!  My 14 handicap netted me a 64.  I also found out my score on Tuesday didn't win me any money either.  Disappointment!
It wasn't bad walking the 18 today with the low humidity.  The only problem was that the water fountain on the 16th tee was flowing water that was as brown as the river.  Didn't think I wanted to drink that.  And, because I didn't know it until I looked at it, and was filling my bottle with it, what little water I had left in my bottle was contaminated.  So I had to throw that out.  Finishing the last 3 holes with no water when I was already thirsty.
I took a couple of pictures on the course today.  I wanted to show how it's recovering from the flood.  The grass has a lot of growing to do in certain areas to recover from all the mud.  The hot weather we've had lately has really hardened the ground, and the thin fairways and hard ground helped you get some roll on your drives.

This is hole #3.  It's an elevated tee box and you can see the fairway.  The flood waters left behind a coating of mud a couple of inches thick in the areas of the deepest water.  It will take a while and some rain to get the grass to grow through that mud coating. They've gone over those areas with a machine to break up the dirt and put down some grass seed.
In this picture are my usual Thursday team playing partners.  Buddy Brown hitting the ball, Norman McNally in red shirt and J. R. Harris.

This is the #5 green.  It's pretty high so the water didn't get on this green.  Notice how plush the grass is around the green and on the green.

This is the same shot but I backed down the hill a little ways.  Notice how bare the ground is that was under water?  All the places that were under water either had a layer of mud, which is now dried, or the grass is very thin and needs to thicken up.




I almost had a double bogey free round.  I only had one double and it was on hole #14.  A very bad fairway shot after a nice drive cost me that.  And I only had one birdie.  That was on hole #6.

It took a long time, but round 18 for the year is in the books!

It's been several weeks since I've played a full 18 holes playing my own ball.  I've played a scramble since then. 
Today was very hot, so I decided to ride the 18 holes at Iroquois GC.  We started on the back nine, so I'll list that first.  I shot a 37 - 43 = 80.  I feel like I played very good today.  Yep, I messed up several shots, but overall, I was pleased with my play.  Especially after not playing much in the past several weeks.  I birdied #10 and #13, and a par on #14 had me 1 under after 5 holes!  But, a bogey, par, bogey, bogey finish  had me 2 over for the 9.  But, the bogey on #17 was with a lost ball in the weeds.  So, I was very pleased with a bogey on that hole.
  I think the hot weather and riding helped me play  better today, even though I haven't played much lately.  I know I was getting a lot more distance on my shots, with the heat and the fairways drying out   letting the ball roll a little.
I play Shawnee GC Thursday.  I'm sure it hasn't grown in much yet, but at least the mud should be dried up!  I think we'll be able to find grass to sit the ball on and the thin grass will allow a lot of roll.  Should be OK.  I plan on walking Thursday.  Shawnee is nice and flat and even though it will be hot it should be very walkable. 
When I finished the front nine with my 37 I was thinking it might get me some money.  But I heard a lot of low scores on the first nine so I think it unlikely that will win anything.  I'll let you know.

2011 Willow Park Concert Series begins!

Mary Lynn and I love going to the Willow Park Concerts.  We like meeting Mark and Kim and the girls there.  Erin and Jill love the concerts and was really looking forward to the start this season.  In my opinion, Erin loves the concerts because she likes to dance.  Jillian loves the concerts because she likes Ice Cream and Watermelon.  Not that both girls don't like everything, but I think those are their main interests!
As in the Zoo photos, I picked a few of my favorites from last night to post.

My favorite photo.  The girls really enjoy thier snow cone, sun, and watching the dancers.

Pam gets in the action with Jill and Erin.  It's hard to sit and watch without getting up to dance a few times.

I love this picture! Kim and Erin and having a great time twirling to the music!

Had to post this one because it's such a complete opposite of the photo above!  Caught them in a pose that seems to say "How much longer is this going to go on?" We had a lot of fun!  Next Sunday night at 7:00 pm "The Lost Boys".  Good ol' Rock and Roll!

A little golf on Thursday.....very little.

When you haven't played for more than a week, sometimes you try to get a little golf in even under adverse conditions.
This morning the big red and green blob on the radar seemed to be blowing through Louisville quickly and a window of 5 or 6 hours of sunshine looked possible.  So, off to the golf course.  It was a little windy, cloudy, and the course very wet. 
We were putting out on the 5th hole, actually #14 because we started on the back 9 at Iroquois GC, when it started to sprinkle.  It was raining pretty steady when we teed off on #15.  I hit a nice ball to the middle of the green.  We broke out the umbrella's and walked down the hill to the green.  Then it really started raining hard.  I stood on the cart path holding my umbrella over me and my clubs hoping it was just a brief shower.  It wasn't.  It poured buckets.  While standing there thinking maybe we can continue if it would just quit, I turned around and looked at the green.  It was covered with water running from back to front.  If it stopped raining at that moment we wouldn't have been able to putt for at least an hour.  Just then I heard some thunder.  Time to head in!
So, I got in 5 holes today.  Wasn't playing to bad, either.  Well, at least I got a little golf in.....it's gonna have to hold me till Tuesday.