Oregon Drift

Boy did my pitching wedge pick a bad time to abandon me.

Normally I can’t wait to get inside 120 yards so I can get a pitching wedge in my hands, but that definitely wasn’t the case on this day.

That and John decides to shoot the best round of his life — a 79 — on the same day. I guess it could have been worse, it could have been hot. Oh, wait … it was.

Here’s how our rounds started in Coquille: John walked up to the first tee, a downhill 163-yard par-3 with a 7-iron and hit his typical little fade and the ball plopped down on the green and settled less than two feet from the hole. I followed by hitting a soft 6-iron that floated effortlessly into the creek at the bottom of the hill on the right side, short of the green.

If I could have foreseen the next three hours, I would have just left that ball in the water and got back in my car and headed back to the coast — obviously I melt when it gets over 80 degrees.

John swears he almost never hits that green, but an hour and a half later we were back and he was on that green again, only about 15 feet away this time.

He birdied the hole both times.

But I trudged on. After a tee shot that left me well right of the green on No. 2, I hit a wedge so horrible, that it would only be outdone by the ‘first’ one I hit on No. 3. So instead of being on the green in two I was 10 yards up on the hillside. My next chip hit the green, skidded all the way through and started down the hill. The third chip finally stayed on the green.

After a very nice drive on No. 3, I had to put the wedge back in my hand. The creek 85 yards away wasn’t the problem as I shanked the shot right, through a short shrub and never to be found again. I dropped a second ball still on the wrong side of that hungry creek. My third one made it over the creek and off the green, but I refused to hit another chip so I putted the ball back onto the green.

A few holes later, I hit a tee shot that may still be bouncing down Lee Valley Road. John meanwhile was grinding out par after par and was only 1-over through the first five holes.

I’m so glad I like golf. Otherwise John’s 26-shot drubbing of me that day could have left me with a complex.

I enjoyed the course, it’s a nice little nine-hole layout that has plenty of tricks to make it competitive, but if you hit the fairways and can use a pitching wedge like a human being it plays well.

I’m hoping that after my round that the good folks at the Elks Lodge will let me back on the course again to try to prove I actually know how to play this game.

I might bring a different wedge, though.