Month: April 2023

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Golf Diary

The Round: Played Beaver Valley Golf Course Score: 78 Green In Reg. 8 Putts 31

The Good: Drove the ball very well and the putter was ok even though I had two three putt greens. Did a lot of visualization this round that worked really well. Hit some good chips early then went into problem. Ball striking was particularly good after the 8th hole. Made 2 birdies on the 10th and the 12th hole which led to an even par round on the back nine.

The Bad: After getting off to a good start went into a bad stretch of holes 4 through 8 where I 3 putted for a double bogey and hit some very poor chips that resulted in 2 more bogeys. For the 5 hole stretch I was 5 over par. Picked the wrong club a few times that did not help the cause.

Luck Of The Round: Had a lot of putts that came really close today but just would not find the hole. Had some lip outs and burnt edges or the round could have been even better. Did not really get any real good breaks or bad breaks through the green.

Next Round: Tomorrow at South Park.

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Pirates Morning Report: Giving Up The Gopher Ball.

Final Score: Pirates 2 Reds 6

Why The Pirates Lost: Rich Hill and Chase De Jong could not keep the ball in the park, which accounted for all 6 of the Reds runs. For whatever reason Hill and De Jong could not keep the ball down. They threw some pitches that were unbelievably high. Hill settled down after the first to pitch pretty well, but he gave up 3 runs in the first with 2 of them scoring on a Kevin Newman home run no less. It will probably be his only home run of the season. The Pirate bats seemed to be clicking during the first 4 innings when they got their 2 runs and 7 hits. Then they never got a hit in the last 5 innings and went down quietly to their first defeat.

Key Moment Of The Game: When Chase De Jong came into the game with the score 3-2 Reds in the bottom of the 6th, he just seemed out of sorts. It was like he had not warmed up enough on this cold day. He walked Wil Myers on four pitches, none of which were over 92 MPH and were not even close to the strike zone. He then gives up a single to Tyler Stephenson to put runners on 1st and 3rd. The Pirates almost got a break when Wil Myers tried to go from first to third, but Ji Hwan Bae’s throw was just enough offline that Myers barely beat it on a bang-bang play. Again, De Jong fell behind Jake Fraley 3-0, got one strike, then grooved a slider that was put out of the park and the game was essentially over. I wrote before that De Jong’s performance would be a key to the Pirates success, and this one was an F.

Next Game: Today, the Reds in Cincinnati. The puzzling pick up, Vince Velasquez will take the hill today and we will see if the Pirates found something that no one else had seen. Austen Hedges did not get a hit on April 1 and I’m not fooling. Probably won’t get a chance tomorrow as Delay is likely to start. The suspense continues, will Austen Hedges get a hit in April?

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Golf Diary

Just a brief post that will introduce Golf Diary. Beginning tomorrow I am going to blog every round I play during the handicap season which in Western Pa. runs until around November 15. It will follow the format of the Pirate Morning Report being brief, concise, and certainly will not be a blow-by-blow account of any of my rounds. It will say where the round took place, my score, greens in regulation, and putts. The next segment will be about what was good about the round and then what was bad about the round. This will be followed by the luck of the round. Then I will finish up with where I think the next round will be. Along the way I will throw in what this warped mind is working on concerning his game and odd things that happen during the round. I have already played 15 rounds this year and have come up with 3 swing ideas that have already been abandoned. I have been playing more 9 hole rounds of late and will not discuss those until I string two of them together. This week is looking pretty good weather wise and I should be able to play between 3 to 5 rounds. The summer games begin tomorrow.