Every year I play in a golf tournament organized by my father in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This year there were 16 participants staying in 4 condos playing golf in a 3-day tournament. I played excellent golf and ended up tied with the leader after all 54 holes, but I lost in a scorecard playoff.
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I enjoyed my walk so much on Saturday, I took Marga up there on Sunday. I also took my binoculars and had a look around. We had a good time, saw some goats and a kitten.
But before that, on Sunday morning, I took a different kind of mountain walk. I went and played golf again on the same nine holes with the same people as the previous week. Man, that’s a tough course! Miss the green or fairway by just a little bit and you’re in for several extra strokes. I had three bunkers that it took me more than one shot to get out of. With several double and triple bogeys, I felt like I played much worse than the previous week. And I did…until the last hole.
Last week, I shot a 49, 13 over par. This week, I was lying 45 on the 9th tee. What lay before me was a 500 meter, par five. A half kilometer! Perfect drive down the middle of the fairway. Perfect 3-wood down the middle of the fairway. 100 meters to go. Metric golf is strange. Perfect pitching wedge to within one meter of the flag. Tap in bird! 49 again. (more…)
My friend Manolo invited me out to nine holes this morning at a course near the Bilbao airport called Artxanda. The long, hilly course was a completely different game than I played the other day in Santander. Artxanda is very difficult both to play and walk. I hit several shots while I was out of breath from a steep 15 meter climb up to my ball. I don’t know how they did it, but I swear that every approach shot was uphill. I had two pars, three bogeys, two double bogeys, and two triple bogeys, for a grand total of +13, 49. Oh, did I mention that the wind was blowing such that we could barely stand up? When you took your putter back along the line of the putt, it blew to the side. The conditions were crazy hard, so I felt pretty good about my score.
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When some coincidence makes the world seems small, instead of saying, “It’s a small world!”, the Spanish say “El mundo es un pañuelo!“. I’ve heard the more cynical Spaniard tack on “…lleno de mocos!“. Anyway, last night, two things happened that made the world seem pretty small.
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Yesterday I played golf in a little town called Pedreña that is near Santander. Pedro, the guy that runs the Laredo Golf Club, called me up and asked if I wanted to play 18 holes in the morning. I jumped at the chance, since I have the 10th Annual Myrtle Beach Classic coming up in February, and every little bit of practice helps, and I hadn’t swung a club since the Beach Golf tournament last year.
As usual, I surprised myself at my ability to come back from hardly playing at all and shoot pretty well, considering the circumstances. I shot a 77…. (more…)
I’m going to attempt a bilingual blog post on this one, because many of the people you see in these photos have expressed interest in seeing my post about the event. The event was an awards ceremony for the Beach Golf thing I participated in a few months ago.
Voy a intentar hacer un post de blog bilingue, porque mucha de la gente que ves en las fotos ha expresado un interés en ver este post sobre el evento. El evento fue una ceremonia de premios para el Open de Golf Playa en que participé hace unos meses.
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Nothing new to post today, so I’m going with a themed Flickr post. Today’s theme: Friendship.
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On Saturday, I participated in the 2007 Open Golf Playa in Laredo. Yes, we really played golf in the sand.
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I’ve just acquired the latest version of Adobe Photoshop. I’ve been wanting to try some frame breaking lately. So here are a few attempts…
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I was at the gym the other day when they were having a children’s taekwondo class. As I was listening to the shouts from the little sparring five-year-olds, my mind started to wander.
Disclaimer: Everything I know about martial arts, I learned from watching television. I apologize if I mix Chinese and Japanese terms.
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Convinced my daughter to watch Star Wars with me by promising that it had a princess.
George Catlin, Prairie Meadows Burning, 1832
From the Smithsonian American Art Museum:
George Catlin painted ominous, swirling clouds of black smoke that loom out of the distance and drive the Indians before them. The artist was an eyewitness to such terrifying events, and described the fire’s “thunder rumbling as it goes.” But he also wrote that prairie fires made for “some of the most beautiful scenes that are to be witnessed in this country, and also some of the most sublime.”
Mmm… Coffee.
This morning I did the usual, Nora, get up, go to the bathroom and put on your slippers and call me when you’re ready to come downstairs.” It’s a way to practice some autonomy and let Daddy check his email and Facebook notifications. A few minutes went by and I heard nothing. Usually this means she’s just slumped over onto her pillow again. I went up to investigate and found her fully dressed, in weather inappropriate shorts and a summer shirt over her winter undershirt, just putting on the final touches of her ensemble with a sparkly jacket. A+ for initiative!!
I see you!
