My First Birdie!

This past weekend I got my first birdie ever at Bill Frederick Park.  In the past two months, I've been practicing pretty regularly, and especially in the last two or three weeks, there have been times when I thought, "I could make this putt, and it would be my first birdie!"

Since Danny has been the one coaching me, I thought it would be great if I'd make my first birdie while he was playing with me.  Several times, I'd be close enough for a birdie to be a possibility.  Try as I would to not let that get in my head, it did.  But, more to the point, I never made one until Saturday.

Saturday was a rainy dreary day.  As disappointed as I was that we couldn't play disc golf, there was the reality that we hadn't had a good rain in a couple of months.  Our grass, and trees really needed the nourishing rain.  Late in the afternoon, the rain let up and I decided to head over to the park to get in some practice.

Danny suggested that I try working on just a few holes, playing them over and over again, to hone my approach to getting a par.  I decided to play holes 10, 11, and 18 on the original course.  All three of those holes have elevation changes, plus quite a bit of random vegetation that can get in the way of an optimal throw for me.

After my first round of those three holes, I started over, and at that point I was warmed up and focused even more on every aspect of my throw.  Hole ten has this dip in the terrain between the tee and the basket.  If you have a strong arm, it is easy to throw over all of that and have your first throw land right near (or maybe even in!) the basket.

I've never even thrown close to the rise of the second hill.  But Saturday was my day.  My drive landed half way up the rise, giving me a good look at the basket.  Danny's words were in my head, "Throw a nice hyzer just to the right of that pine tree."  (It stand like a guard right in the way of the basket!)  I had four Rocs in my bag, and prepared to send them on their way to the basket.  I picked up my first one, a pink Rock, and threw it.

Almost the moment it left my hand, I could see that it was going to be VERY close to the basket.  When it hit those chains, I wanted to laugh, scream, and jump up and down all at the same time.  I kept looking at the basket and could barely contain myself.

I had to call Danny!  He answered his cell and told me he knew that was why I was calling.  He said he knew I was very close to achieving that goal of my first birdie, and all along he's said it would be on hole 10.

I didn't get any other birdies that day, but the one was enough.  I gave me just enough push to keep training and working hard toward Worlds, 2014!