9-5-6-7-8-6-7-4-7 is not a phone number

My friend Will tells a really good story about realizing that there is such a thing as a "good" double bogey in golf. He made this realization while playing Bethpage Black, which is rated the 6th most difficult golf course in the country.

None of my four doubles yesterday could be considered "good" double bogies.

I am really hoping that the damage from yesterday's round ended when I climbed into the dry cocoon of my car, because I haven't broken 100 (in the bad way) since May 8, 2005. The last time I shot higher than 102 was May 23, 2004. Was yesterday my Mickelson at Winged Foot moment?

There are pretty good signs that it won't be. The first mitigating circumstance was the weather. It was awful. If I had brought my camera it would have produced a picture approximately like this:

The rain in Seattle is generally supposed to be intermittent... there are rare days when it rains constantly, and yesterday happened to be one of those days. I was as well equipped for the weather as I could be... rain jacket, umbrella, quick drying action pants, rain gloves, etc. But at the end of the day you can't escape the fact that standing outside in the rain for five hours just sucks. The next time you are in the shower imagine playing golf in identical conditions. As being in the shower. Miserable. And as many of you know, I am not an all-weather type guy. I can deal with wind on the golf course, but not rain.

The other factor that makes me believe this was a temporary hiccup in my quest for the 70s is that I came back relatively strong on the back 9. My tee shot on 3 was my 15th shot of the round. My chip onto 13 green was my 15th shot of the back 9. I joked with Tyler H. that I was going to improve by 20 shots on the back... I didn't quite get that far, but I did improve by 13 (59-46).

The funny thing is that while I was busy losing balls (7 for the round, which is a personal worst in the last 4 years) Hobbs was going low. He hit a joke of a chip on #1 that went in the hole, and birdied #3. He went out in 38, but my quality golf seemed to rub off on him and he regressed to a 46 on the back. Still, his 84 beat my 105 by, um, a lot. More than the 6 strokes he gave me in skins.

(Our playing partners actually had to ask the marshal to bring them more golf balls on the 13th hole... I've never seen this actually happen before, but it did. They moved up and started playing the white tees. The marshal then told me (thinking I was requesting the extra balls) to take less club off the tee and keep the ball in the fairway. I nearly brained him with my putter. The last thing I need is some old man telling me that it's better to keep the ball in play. Really Sherlock? I must have missed that during my Obvious Golf Lessons class. That guy ruined my last four holes. Wiseman would be talking about this guy for a month.)

And with that, there shall be no more discussion of any golf that may or may not have happened on June 10, 2007.