Take the hard swing
It was recently reported that Dave Sroaf achieved a first on the Little River Golf Course. Dave was teeing off to the eighth hole from up on the hill. Dave aimed down the fairway, carefully addressed the ball, and took a hard swing. The ball took a mighty soaring northwest path towards Cape Mendocino and came to rest just before the creek ditch on the second fairway. Those playing with Dave said they had never seen a ball hit so far north and so far away from the hole. Years ago, a gentleman golfed the Little River Course and intentionally faded his drive to the first fairway. He would often successfully land his ball on the first so he could chip through the tree gap to the eighth green. One in two from the first fairway. Dave’s giant fade was not intentional and was on the second fairway. Dave’s challenge was the distance, the trees, his mind, and countless other things. Dave stood behind his ball, calculated what club to use, chose his medium wedge iron, and took a swing. This time his ball soared straight and true, clearing the trees, bouncing, bouncing, then coming to rest on the green fifteen feet from the hole. On in two from number two fairway. Dave missed his birdie putt but sunk the par. Wow. Got to be a first, parring from that spot.
Nice hole, Dave.
On the other side of the fence, Dan Barrett arrived on hole number three in three strokes last Sunday. The wind was coming briskly out of the south, not from a low-pressure southerly, which often brings rain, but from a kickback southerly. During my many years as a commercial fisherman, today’s southerly was called a kick-back because of a phenomenon that causes the wind to blow southerly on a narrow strip of the ocean close to shore. If you traveled offshore ten miles, the southerly would cease. Also, though there are many white caps, there is little ocean swell. Large swells usually accompany a true low-pressure southerly. Dan’s on-in-three ball required him to make a downhill cross-green putt for birdie. Dan was putting into the kick-back wind, and it didn’t kick his ball back, but it did impede its flow, stopping it short of the hole. Dan recalculated putting again, and this time his ball experienced a lip out that flung his ball seven feet downwind from the hole. Dan said to himself, “OK, I’m going to save a bogey at least.” The golf angles had a different plan. Dan four-putted for a double bogey. A stream of unprintable words exited Dan’s mouth as he stumbled off the green.
A sign-up sheet for the Annual Fall River Mills Golf Tournament is on the Pro-Shop bulletin board. The event is on May 27th and 28th, with a practice round on the 26th.