My two biggest fears in golf have always been getting a hole in one while playing alone or even worse...leaving this earthly world without making a hole in one!
Those fears were put to bed yesterday on the Par 3, 12th at my home course at The Birchwood Golf and Country Club in Kent when I sent a smooth 5 iron with a baby draw sailing from the tee box to the center of the cup!
The Islamic holy month of Ramadan started two weeks ago where Muslims all over the world fast from dawn until dusk - meaning no food or water. In the UK, that translates to 18.5 hours with anything to eat and drink! This makes playing golf a tad bit difficult so my regular fourball embargoed golf for the duration of Ramadan.
Ten days into Ramadan and my golf craving became too much to bear and I convinced one of them to join me for a round on the bank holiday Monday. It was a beautiful day for golf and we tee'd off just before 8AM. I knew it was going to be a good day when I started with birdie. I went through a bit of a slump in the last year but signs of my game coming back were becoming more and more frequent and I've started enjoying my golf again!
When we got to the 12th, I had 21 points in the bag and my partner/competitor had 22. We both were playing decent golf so it was competitive but fun as well. Standing on the 12th tee, we had about 180 yards to the pin from the back tees into a sightly elevated green with a breeze coming into us. I lined up about 5 yards right of the flag planning to draw the ball in and land if off the bank at the front right edge of the green hoping it would roll up to the yellow flag in the center. I then proceeded to absolutely flush my 5 iron...in the air I began yelling at my ball to draw and the ball was listening - it was going a little more straighter than I had planned but I knew it was going to be good.
As it banked left towards to the flag, my partner shouted "That's in the hole!!!" - not wanting to get my hopes up, I replied that it's stiff but probably not in!
"Look at the guys on the tee box behind the green waving their arms - that's in!!!" he said. I knew it was in too but didn't believe it...it couldn't be be! Could it?
As I got to the green, one of the guys in the group ahead who waited on their tee box shouted "I'll see you in the clubhouse!!!"
Sure enough, my ball wasn't on the green...I walked up to the cup, snapped a pic of my Pro V nestled in there and then did a very awkward hand raising, fist pumping weird dance - I should have been cooler!!!
The next hole was a complete bust - there was way too much adrenaline and I struggled to focus for the rest of the round - I was buzzing!
I even got a bit of fortune when I got back to the clubhouse - it was virtually empty - just 4 random blokes sitting there who weren't members. I had no idea who they were but bought them a round and then had to rush off.
I plan to go back this week and buy the guys at the Pro Shop a round as I didn't have the time to do that.
Finally, my two biggest fears in golf put to bed!!!