Bizarro World

I never thought it would happen, but it did yesterday in norman (maybe that's why!). On the back nine at the Jimmie Austin Golf Club, Travis and I somehow managed to exchange golf games. Personally, I think that when Travis blew out the candles on his very delicious pumpkin cake that his fabulous wife baked the day before, he made a "Freaky Friday" birthday wish; which, consequently, just happened to be on a Friday! But, before I get to the back-nine, you have to know what happened on the front-nine.

For about the past three weeks, I've been pretty inconsistent with my driver. What started as a few hooks or pulls off the tee in a round slowly turned into a consistent duck-hook. To remedy this, I made some modifications to my grip and swing; that's all I did to correct my slice months ago. Suffice it to say that I got to the point where I could (can) hit the ball any direction but straight. I had one good drive on the front, which was on the first hole. After that, it seemed like I was taking a drop on every hole. What started out as problems off the tee turned into problems everywhere. I think I even had a couple 'episodes.' I finished with a 57. A 57! I can't remember the last time I played nine holes that badly, probably well before the Mandate. Travis, as usual, played very consistent and didn't make any big mistakes. He shot a respectable 45. Bogey golf isn't bad, especially when playing a Perry Maxwell-designed course for the first time. The biggest surprise was that Travis used his driver. The big dipper! I haven't seen him use the BD consistently in months. Sure he had a couple drives that could have been better, but I don't remember him having any terrible drives.

After the 57, I knew I had to do something drastic. So, at the turn I did a couple of drastic things. First, Travis was nice enough to buy us both a couple beers. I know CDB-Law is very strict on drinking beer while trying to play a serious round, but as I may have mentioned, this was an extraordinarily desperate situation. Besides, it was CDB2's idea; and he always knows what is best for CDB. The second drastic thing I did was put away the driver. First time ever. But hell, I had been watching Travis beat me (usually) for the past two months using his Little Dipper off the tee. So, I tried using my 3-wood off the tee. First hole on the back-nine? My first par of the day. I would go on to par four MORE holes en route to a 42. That's right, fifteen strokes less than the front-nine for a total of 99. Best 99 of my life. Mr. Consistent shot another 45 for a solid 90, bogey golf.

Courses Played

In the previous post, I mentioned that I wanted to start a list of the courses we have played, how many rounds, and how many holes. This is only a list of courses CDB has played together, so courses we play alone or with others are not included. I think we have done a good job or trying a lot of different courses, not just different styles of courses but also price and location. To date, our cheapest round for a full 18 is probably Broadmoore at $20, while our most expensive round, although we didn't pay this much, is the Cove at $90.

Not surprisingly, we have played the courses we like the most with The Ridge leading the way with 4.5 rounds. The Ridge is the course we got to play as much as we wanted in Missouri on the Mandate. Of the Oklahoma courses, we've played Broadmoore the most, three times, followed by Olde Page at Page Belcher, the West Course at Lincoln Park, and Woodbine at Mohawk Park each with two. There are quite a few courses we've only played once, but that's not indicative of our disliking those courses. Granted there are courses we've only played once that we will most likely not play again; Winter Creek (worst day in CDB history) and Firelake. There are however, a lot of courses that I'm surprised we haven't played again, like Coffee Creek. I know there are a few that I would love to play again; the Cove, which is the Robert Trent Jones-designed course in MO; Coffee Creek, and even the tough, links-style course Rose Creek in Edmond. Also, I don't think it's any surprise that we've played Broadmoore more than any other course in Oklahoma simply because it's a good course with a great vibe and it's close to Trav and April's house. I also found it curious that we played Olde Page at Page Belcher on 6.6.09 AND 7.7.09. Guess we know what we'll be doing on 8.8.09. In the future, I think we will try to provide a little more depth, description, and insight on our favorite (or least favorite) courses.

Earlywine, Fire(swamp)lake, and the Bird

Because we were a little late in starting the blog, we (you) have missed out on blogging about the last five months or so. I don't think we will write as much about every round as I did in the Coffee Creek post; probably only the really memorable ones. Not to say that something memorable doesn't happen every round, but we've got some catching up to do. Additionally, I would like to make/start a list of each course we've played and how many times, so be sure to watch for that!

After playing Coffee Creek in late January, we played at Earlywine in either late February or early March. For this round, our good friends Matt and Cody joined us. I don't really remember a whole lot from this round, outside of it being really, really, really windy. One of the only things I specifically remember was standing on the tee box of a really long par 3, probably 175 or something, with the wind blowing directly into our faces and our pants flapping in the wind behind us, Matt reaches down, picks up a handful of grass, and throws it into the air to check the wind. I can't remember if anyone else saw this, but it was pretty funny. I don't remember what anyone shot, but we were all probably right around 100. We also had a great time playing washers back at the house after. I think we played at Lakeside the next day too. I remember when we were talking Sunday morning about possibly playing that afternoon thinking that would be a lot of golf. Little did I know that in about two months we would be playing 45 holes in one day only because we wouldn't have enough daylight for 54.

The next round of CDB golf was actually scheduled to be played at Cherokee Hills in Tulsa/Catoosa. But because the east part of the state was engulfed in a freak snow storm. It was late March and we had about four or five inches in Tulsa when I left Saturday, but by the time I got to about Bristow there was hardly any snow. Trav kept telling me that there wasn't any snow in Moore, but I just didn't see how that was possible. I was wrong. Anyway, April was out of town until later that night so we went and ate sushi. On Sunday, for some reason we decided to drive to Firelake in Shawnee. It was the wettest, soupiest, most swamp-like course ever. They had three or four of the greens tarped because it was so wet, and they just cut the hole at the end of the fairway. There was even one hole (if you want to call it that) that had standing water on the "green." Again, I'm not really sure what we shot, but I think it was probably somewhere around 93-95. Because the course was in such bad shape, and probably because he just knew what CDB needed, Travis suggested that we could play the then unnamed, 9-hole, par 3 on our way home. The conversation went something like this: Travis: "Hey D, I don't know what your plan is, but..." D: "Trav, I have no Idea what you're about to say, but the answer is yes." Travis was, of course, going to suggest playing the Furry Bird. Needless to say, we were very impressed with the "Bird," especially after playing in soup at Firelake.

"Get Back In The Race"

This post is going to skip a lot of golf that we have not blogged about yet....but I felt it needed to be displayed now....maybe as a type of therapy, if nothing else. Derek has been experiencing "episodes" lately on the course. These episodes have been a rather new phenomenon, and seem to be affecting his game. There is a definite pattern to them. They always come after a few bad holes in a row that seem to be a result of the same type of mistakes. Whether it be fat approach shots or pulling shots with a cocked club face, if too many of these events happen in a row, then a frustrated Derek tends to breakdown.

The episode usually begins with asking me if I see what is wrong. As a faithful member to CDB I try and give an honest yet critical, informed (sorta) opinion of why this poor shot is happening. The second symptom of this episode is when my answer to his question is followed by a long sigh and somber head shake. This is when I start to get nervous.

The episode continues with D addressing the ball, with a long hesitation. Then, yet another sigh and head shake that turns into a stiff right turn to walk away and re-evaluate. From here it can get hairy.....Sometimes:

There is another question that has a 'can you believe this shit' type tone to it.

There could be up to 4 more failed attempts to address the ball.

There could be the occasional cluster of cuss words that seem to only raise the frustration level.

And, of course, there could be the ever so satisfying cliché, "I fucking hate golf..."

There really is no telling. Sometimes all of the above at the same time. All I know is, this is not conducive to a good round of golf.

The last time this happened was on the front 9 at Page Belcher in Tulsa. After a few discussions and reflections on the game, D was able to regain his composure, and round out with a 90. This tied his best score yet. Which leads me to believe that he is not playing as bad as he thinks he is.

We had a long discussion over our BlackBerry Messenger as I drove back to OKC. And as I was listening to "That's Life" by Mr. Sinatra, I realized the one line that I need to say to D when he is falling apart. Hence, "Get Back In The Race"! Inspiring words from the leader of the Rat Pack. I have yet to be able to use the line.....but I'm sure that time will come soon.

Coffee Creek

Alright, like Travis said, we've been "living golf" since January. Before then, I played about once a month if I was lucky. I think Trav may have played a little more often, but not too much more. Either way, neither of us had played all that much. Things started getting serious after we played together in late January, at which time we decided we should be a lot better, that we had the potential to be better, and that we really just loved golf. I will do my best to write about what has happened since January (don't worry, not all in this post), but I know I will leave things out. Should have started the blog then I guess...

Our first round of golf as CDB (although we had no idea we were both CDB!) was at Coffee Creek in Edmond. We were going to play at one of the OKC courses, but because it has snowed during the week, most of the OKC courses were closed because they still had snow on the greens. I think CC was the fourth or fifth course we called. I know what you're thinking; snow on the greens and you want to play golf? You must be crazy!? Well, maybe. But we're also CDB (even though we didn't technically know, we knew). Plus, I think the temperature got into the 60s even. There was some snow on the ground and the pond was still mostly iced over, so that was kind of strange. On to the golf...

At this point, we weren't sure how serious we were going to be, so we didn't really keep score. We hit two or three balls, didn't give ourselves a penalty for drops, and often played the 'best' ball. This is pretty much the way we had played all through college and since. I don't remember what either of us shot (not that it would have been accurate at all), but I'm going to guess if we had really been keeping score it would have been well over 100. Probably close to 120 even. It was not pretty. At all. I had no short game whatsoever. Trav's short game, or as April said later, his "short hand," was pretty good actually. I do remember Travis having some trouble off the tee though. Now, when I say "some trouble off the tee," I'm sure you're thinking he was slicing the ball really badly, hitting moon-shots, or worm-burners. He may have done all those things, but what I really remember was that he had a horrible case of the sh*nks. (I don't even want to type it for fear of infecting him again and the possibility that I might acquire the "lateral shot" for some sort of twisted golf-retribution.) I had never seen anything like, and thankfully haven't since. I still don't know how he did it; hitting the ball directly to the left or right, but only five or ten feet in front of him. Again, I know what you're thinking. He probably just barely grazed the ball with the toe of his driver and knocked the ball off the tee a few feet. Not quite. I don't remember how far he was hitting this "lateral shot," but if there hadn't been tall grass on this particular hole, I'm guessing it would have made it 25 yards. Now, this didn't happen on every hole, I only remember it being this bad a couple times.

I really didn't mean for this post to be all about Travis's troubles off the tee, but that is the most vivid memory I have of that round, aside from the normal bad shots (which there were plenty of). I feel bad I didn't write anything too specific about my poor play, but I honestly don't remember. Maybe Travis does. Plus, I'm pretty sure I tried to forget everything once we finished. So, unless Trav remembers something you'll have to take my word for it that I sucked.

After the round, we picked up a bottle of Blanton's, Special Reserve, and Riesling before eating some sushi with April. After sushi, we went back to the house to have a few (or in this case, more than a few) drinks and listen to Frank. I brought my Minolta camera with me, and some of the pics turned out pretty good. April was kind enough to post them on Facebook for us if you're interested. Additionally, if I remember right, there was very little golf discussion that night. Or at least compared to later weekends.

All in all, it was a great weekend and a good starting point for CDB.

CDB history and info

CDB has been living golf since January of this year. We have played in all kinds of elements, from cold, windy, perfect, hot, and just recently a downpour (up until then, cdb had been rain proof). But we did always have rain gear (see glossary). We have played over 20 different courses this year, that would probably come close to 500 holes of golf...and it's just now July. We have gone from shooting in the 110 range to squeaking into the 80's. It's been a lot of fun and there is a lot of golf yet to be played.

CDB knows exactly what the other person should hit and can pretty much tell you exactly what is about to transpire. There is a definite pregame process that always takes place, we are a well oiled, efficient team. There is hardly a beer to be had on the course. Beer drinking and lolly gagging is now not desired and almost frowned upon. We are there for one reason.....improvement.

I look forward to posting more updates about our triumphs, our meltdowns, and everything in between.

Hit'em straight...

CDB blog = detailed scorecards

Yesterday, Travis and I were eating lunch at the Dilly Deli (if you go, try the Travesty or the Bo Derek) when I mentioned how much I enjoyed reading April's post on her blog from earlier that morning (really, if you haven't read it, it's fantastic). We continuted talking about how easy and convenient blogs are for keeping family and friends up to date; not to mention the fact that a blog might encourage one to write more. And, the blog will even store said writing! Needless to say, we both agreed that it might be a good idea to write some of our golf experiences down. It's like saving all of our scorecards, except in 10 years we will be able to read what happened during a particular round or weekend instead of having only our scores and a bunch of mismatched memories. So, that's what we hope to do, chronicle our countless games of golf and anything else we want to remember along the way.