an accident happened

--
course played:  peacock gap
balls found:  3
balls lost:  2
score:  109
--

a green at peacock gap

an accident happened at peacock gap the other weekend.  i accidentally accomplished my goal of shooting below 110. 

the last hole was a par 4.  i had to get the ball in the hole in 7 shots in order to come under 110.  while this may not seem like a feat to most, i am known to get scores of snowmen (translation: 8) and above on anything more than a par 3.  surprising myself and the golf gods, i did it - on accident (or is it 'by accident'?).

proving that the 109 was indeed a fluke, i shot a 118 on the next round that i played and put that 110 goal right back on the map.

an announcement

ODDS OF A HOLE IN ONE:

1 in 12,750*

relax.   it wasn't me.  but, since this blog is just as much about celebrating others playing golf (cough-rory-cough-graeme) as it is about my personal golfing endeavors, i wanted to make an announcement:

today, while most of us were at work, elliot became 1 out of 12,750 and got his first hole in one on the fifth hole of the metropolitan golf links.

{clap}  {cheer}  {whistle}  {sing}  {dance}  {fist pump}  {clap}

*golf digest 1999 and national hole in one association

patience rewarded

--
course played:  old course at half moon bay
holes played:  18
balls lost:  5
balls found:  2
--

with a smile and a wink, the starter at the club house informed me that arnold plamer designed the old course that elliot and i were about to play at half moon bay.  being the golf neophyte that i am, i had no clue what that meant.  9 holes in, i still hadn't figured it out.  the course was all kinds of slope-y and ran through the back of quite a number of houses.  around the 10th hole, i got trapped in some trees where it took me no less than 5 swings to get out.  each of the first four swings sent the ball into yet another tree, where it would bounce backwards and almost hit me.  had it been appropriate, i would have called 'fore!' at myself, on my own shot. {meta - gasp!}

as we played the back 9, i couldn't help but notice the wind picking up.  either a storm was brewing or we were getting close to the ocean.  since patience is a virtue, i held in my complaints and kept playing.  hole by hole, swing after swing, i felt colder and became less virtuous.

just when i was about to add some cheese to my whine, we reached the 18th hole.

old course, 18th hole

encouraged by the waves crashing against the rocks and the pacific wind in my face, i hit the ball.

a personal record

--
course played:  presidio
holes played:  all 18
balls lost:  3
balls found:  4
--

walking past my ball for no apparent reason

like any other sport, there is a running tally of stats for how golfers perform during the season.  one important metric used in judging skill is 'driving distance (yards per drive).'  this is how the top 5 ladies of the LPGA tour stack up:

1.  michelle wie, 274.5 yards
2.  vicky hurst, 265.7 yards
3.  brittany lincicome, 264.7 yards
4.  karen stupples, 264.4 yards
5.  christina plays golf, 211.3 yards

'what?!?  christina plays golf?!?!?!?!' you ask.  'yes, christina plays golf,' i calmly reply.

ok, fine.  the ranking part is obviously a joke. 

however, the ~211.3 yards part is no lie.  this saturday, on the 11th hole at presidio, i am very happy to report that i set a personal record for my 'driving distance (yard per drive).'  watch out, michelle, vicky, bittany, and karen - i'm coming for you. 

ok, fine again.  that 'i'm coming for you' part is a joke too.

i am kt

each time the snow gods make it dump on squaw valley, you can find a small sedan parked in the 1st parking spot with this license plate:


recreated license plate*

named 'best chair lift in north america,' by skiing magazine**, kt-22*** is not only one of squaw's most famous lifts, but also offers some of the most difficult terrain the resort has to offer.  hence, all the warning signs:

just some caution signs welcoming skiers to the danger zone

since this has been my very first season on skis, there was no way that i was getting in that line.  the 'advanced only' sign was a good enough warning for me.  after 8th grade, it's no longer cool to have people sign your cast, or, have a cast, for that matter.  having gotten that memo, i was happy to stay classified as an 'intermmediate' or a 'beginner.'  that was until i got dropped off at ski school again this past saturday morning and met monica - mother to anika, who was on the olympic team with picabo street. 

and then, like the owner of the license plate, i became KT too.

but you can call me katie.

or christina.****

--
* sorry for the lack of authenticity! 'KT' wasn't there this weekend.

** ok, fine.  skiing magazine gave the lift this rating in 2004.  but, still!

*** the story of KT-22 is the story of sandy poulsen.  in 1948, she was the first person to 'ski' down the north face of this particularly steep peak at squaw.  although an expert skier at the time, she wasn't able to link her turns due to the difficulty of the terrain.  so, what did she do?  Kick Turns.  from the bottom of the mountain, her husband counted a total of 22 Kick Turns that it took for her to come down the slope.  and thus, KT-22 was born.

**** if you are conventional. 

just the two of us

--

course played:  san geronimo

holes played:  1 through 18

balls lost:  4

balls found:  5

 --


oh hey san geronimo, we came to check you out



lookin' good!


in the album 'big willie style,' the poet will smith once sang:

' just the two of us, we can make it if we try. 

just the two of us, building castles in the sky.

just the two of us, you and i. '

poet smith's words have recently come to encompass my feelings about playing golf...  and being matched up with random people.  although the game is meant to be social - and i love 'social' - nothing is worse than being forced to spend 4+ hours on the course with 2 other people whom you would like to punch in the face.  recent examples include:

weird guy:  he told everyone that his name was sandy pepper, after the color of his hair.  and he wore jeans.

hawaiian golfer pro chick:  she was not from hawaii but from the bay area.  however, when asked where she and her boyfriend (who was also playing with us) usually played, she insisted that 'hawaii' was her home course.  she also took it upon herself to give me golfing tips with abandon.  granted, i could use some pointers, but this was with far too much abandon, not enough self-control.

drunk guy:  he used antique wooden clubs and chugged coors light tall boys during the entire round.  the volume of his voice and the frequency of his 'jokes' increased with his level of intoxication.  luckily, he only made it 9 holes.

slow guy:   if snails could golf, they would have played faster than this guy, and they probably wouldn't have yelled at their ball after every shot.  not to mention, i out-drove him on more than one occasion.  so much judgement; too much time.

given the above experiences, it only makes sense that everytime elliot and i play golf by ourselves, my fingers are crossed, hoping that it is just the two of us.  sadly, usually it doesn't happen that way.  today, we tried a new course and got lucky. at san geronimo, i got to play my favorite way - just the two of us.



no weirdos, no strangers - everything is prettier when it's just the two of us

 

the masters: nyc edition

thanks to an invite to neel's birthday bash this past saturday in new york city, i didn't ski and didn't golf.  due to the abundance of festivities the prior evening (read: a 5 hour energy and ample 'raging'), i was left feeling less than stellar when sunday rolled around.  i found my way to augusta nonetheless; i lived vicariously through the pros and enjoyed the final round of the masters from the bed in the hotel room...

hi luke donald - did you call your caddy and did you guys decide to dress like twins?

...  in my new shoes.  that i got.  that are 100% inappropriate for my life in san francisco.  simply celebrating the fact that i felt horrible and that i was back in new york city.

tricked you with the cropping of the photos!  ha!

squawing with the big kids

for the last few months, everytime we go to squaw, i have been getting dropped off at the base of the mounatin promptly at 10am to be babysat by ski school instructors.  meanwhile, everyone else i know 'shreds the gnar' and acts extreme. 

something big happened the last time we went skiing.  remember that time when i accidentally started crying on the mountain?  6 lessons and approximately 1 million ski school line skips later, i finally conquered what was once my biggest fear - siberia.

now, i might be finally ready to do something with 'gnar'* with the big kids. 

and you, mac.  we will still shred gold coast together.

kilo and his lil cousin talbot skiing up a storm

* i still don't get what 'gnar' is.

es-pee-oh-are-tee!

question:  what says s-p-o-r-t and screams

golf! 

skiing! 

outdoors! 

california!

                                                       
answer:  the trunk of this car


inside our trunk this weekend  - sun AND snow


after playing some golf on friday, we packed the car and hit the road.  3.5 hours later, we were in lake tahoe ready to do some spring skiing.  only in california... 

for those that are on the fence, just move here already - yes, i am referring to you (cough. liz. emily.  neel.  cass. cough.)

this really happened:

--
course played:  presidio
holes played:  front 9
balls lost:  1
balls found:  7
--

nothing to see here - just a regular green at presidio - 4th hole, par 3


recently, san francisco has been getting some beautiful weather - sunny and mid-70s.  every san francis-can has warned me that this 'phenomemon' is only an 'anomoly' and has recommended that i take full advantage because apparently, 'this never happens.'  when in rome, do as the san francis-can do (makes sense to me) - on friday, i snuck out of work early and headed up to the golf course.

although, my game has been getting better, i am decades away from coming even close to elliot - literally, two decades away.  some of us only started playing a few months ago, while others (ehem! elliot), pretty much learned to walk (and ski) with clubs in their hands.  however, as the saying goes: 'even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.'

on the 4th hole par 3, i was that blind squirrel, and my tee shot was the nut people talk about.

 actually, not regular at all - please notice who is closer to the pin
{click on picture to enlarge} 

boom boom pow

--

mountain:  squaw valley, lake tahoe
normal time it takes to get there from sf:  3.5 hours
time it us took to get there:  8 hours

--

snow-mageddon has arrived

rain in san francisco means snow in lake tahoe.  after a few dry and sunny weekends in sf, around president’s day, it finally started to pour.  eleven feet of snow later, it was time to pack up and head back to the mountain.

the weather became increasingly worse as it got closer to departure time.  maps showed the main roads to tahoe as being shut down due to the severe conditions.  did that stop us?  nope.  a friend had driven up the weekend before in his new 4runner and somehow got  into three separate accidents along the way and, to top it off,  concussed himself walking down a snowy hill.  did that deter us?  nope.  we even got this ominous email from {gasp} stanford university {gasp} warning us of the conditions:

“On Feb 25, 2011, at 8:56, "xxxxxx, xxxxxxxxxxxx"

<xxxxxxxx@GSB.Stanford.Edu> wrote:

> Roads are terrible. Visibility is terrible (at some points you can't

> see 20 feet in front of you) and it is still snowing hard. When

> Charlotte and I went through there were no exits plowed from just past

> colfax to sugar bowl. There was a tree sitting across the road that

> people waited 30 minutes and then dragged open one lane themselves.

> There is no way I would ski today because of visibility and how hard

> it is snowing and the wind. I don't think tomorrow is going to be much

> better for skiing. I would recommend not trying to drive up unless it

> lightens up.”

did that stop us? no.  also, would you trust someone who implied that skiing wouldn't be good after a big storm?  muy suspicious, if you ask me.  we put our faith in the snow gods and drove towards lake tahoe.

*having been in scottsdale when the first big flakes started to fall, elliot was – in.one.word – DYING to ‘shred’ some fresh west coast powder.  nothing was going to stand between the man and the mountain.  i, on the other hand, was just trying to continue LIVING, which would have been very difficult if i had fallen off the edge of siberia (click here for full story) or been involved in a pile-up on the way.

it was all smooth sailing for the first 3 hours…  and then we got close to colfax…  where we hit bumper to bumper to bumper to bumper to bumper  traffic.  per the trusty gps, we were 63 miles away from our destination.



ants marching towards lake tahoe

to quote tim mcgraw,  the whole thing was little “six lanes, tail lights, red ants marching into the night,”  but even little more like “two lanes, tail lights, red ants putting chains on in the night.”  cars were pulling over left and right to put on their snow chains.  people were on the side of the road walking their dogs.  every once in a while, there would be a sad car with a sign that read something like:  help!  need gas.  ß but really, what idiot doesn’t fill up a full tank before heading into snow-mageddon?

luckily, it is 2011 and we have ipods.  accompanied by a mix of top 40 hits, we slowly moved forward with the bass bumping.  hour by slow hour.  mile after slow mile. song after awesome song.  fist-pumping – for 4 hours – all the way through the chain patrol, around the lake, up john cain drive, to our destination.

view from the front seat, where dancing was happening

in the end, the drive was worth it, because the next day, i got a lesson, a goggle tan, a chapped chin and skied in powder for the very first time.

boom boom boom, now

boom boom boom, now

boom boom pow{der}

boom boom pow{der}

rain{bow} on my parade

--

golf trip:  day 1, afternoon

course played:  pheonician resort,  oasis

holes played:  oasis, 1 through 7

balls lost:  some

balls found:  a few

--

last august, elliot and i visited san francisco in order to find a place to live.  during this trip, we were invited to the apartment of one of my dearest friends from college – ya boy wild nash.  in true sf fashion, he and his roommates were each employed by tech companies – nash worked for google, while each of his other roommates worked at twitter, apple, xenga, and an internet start-up.  thanks to them, we learned/found out about cloud computing and were introduced to the latest internet sensations…  like this one, which i particularly liked:

*right now you might be asking yourself “why is she talking about this?  this doesn’t seem like it has anything to do with golf!” 

au contraire.  let me assure you that it does.

--

after stuffing our faces and taking a little snooze, the rain finally passed.  determined to get the most out of our golf package, we put on warmer clothes and headed back out to play the third 9 of the day – oasis course.

3 holes in, defeated, and on my way to yet another wet bunker, i had my very own whoa-what-does-it-mean moment when i turned around and saw this:

and this:

and this:

it’s too bad i never found the pot of gold.

chirp!

--

golf trip:  day 1, morning

course played:  pheonician resort, desert & canyon

holes played:  desert 9, canyon 9

balls lost:  too many

balls found:  not enough

--

this past weekend, i took my golf game out of san francisco and into the phoenician resort in scottsdale, az.  thinking that going to the desert would be a surefire way to ensure no rain delays, we packed up our bags and headed south.

the forecast was ominous leading up to the departure – 70% chance of thunderstorms on saturday  and 50% on sunday.  good thing we had booked the “unlimited golf package!”  determined to make it work, we shrugged off the more-than-likely chance of drizzle and headed out to the course for our first round of the weekend. 



canyon course, some foreboding rain clouds

 my first drive off of the tee went far to the right, bounced on the car path, straight into someone’s pool.  my second shot was no better.   i topped the ball and it rolled about 15 feet.  third time’s a charm, though, i finally made good contact and gave the little white guy some distance and some air, a good 160 yards on to the middle of the fairway…  on a different hole.  but hey, at least i made contact.

as the sun lingered high above the heavy clouds, trying to hold off the impending storm, my game started to get better. there was a lot less shanking and whiffing, and a little more air and distance. 




about to get some air



 on the 17^th hole, just as bigger drops started falling from the sky, i made my very first birdie.

< - C H I R P ! - > 

* as a sidenote, apparently i am not the only one who takes artistic liberties when marking balls...  i found this ugly little gem:



christmas tree > creepy smiley face



jackpot

--

course:  presidio

holes:  1 through 13

balls lost:  1

balls found:  6 (yes, 6)

--



an enviable collection of found balls



some people judge their game by the score they shoot, the holes they play, or the courses they visit.  but not me.  i judge myself based entirely on non-game related criteria.  i measure my performance based on the number of balls i find.

this past saturday, i won the masters.

* i was thinking about applying for a job here:  http://www.lostgolfballs.com/