Gen. Applewhite

Day 1 of the member/member and I had a career round. I have only broken 80 a handful of times, and not once in at least 15 years. But it all came together today and I shot 74. After missing a 6 footer for birdie on the first, I caught fire with the putter and made five 20-30 footers. Course was set up about 200 yards shorter than the tees I normally play, but I'll take it. Maybe I should move up a box full time.

Another 82, this time with two doubles and a goddamn quad on 16 to break my back. At least I can be proud that I cleared my head and gave myself two ~15 foot birdie looks on 17 and 18, but couldn't convert either. And the kicker was with the ESC knocking off the quad it's going to bring me down to a hair under 6, just in time for the member-member. Maybe tomorrow. Won't be as windy but we are getting doused right now to it's gonna play long.

Another 82 today. Seems like I find a new way to not break 80 every time out. I was +8 on the par 3s today (a triple, a double and three bogeys), but +3 on the other 13 holes. Missed two 5' birdie putts on the front, but hit an 8 iron to a foot on 18 to finally get one for the day.

I was striping it today. Took driver on every hole and hit 11/13 fairways, with the two misses just barely running through doglegs and easy shots to the green. Hit several beautiful iron shots. But had two very costly water balls, one skanky sand shot, and I could not buy a putt. Missed 10-15 foot birdie putts on 8 holes, including the 3 toughest ones on the course, which I rarely even par. But I stroked them all good and didn't leave a single one short, so I'll take that as a victory even though the card showed 85. That's on the high end but within my usual range, and about the absolute worst I could have scored the way I was hitting it today. Fucking beautiful out though. Twilight round, got around in a hair over 2 hours, wife riding in the cart, and we picked up some fry chicken from the clubhouse on our way out. Damn fine way to spend an afternoon.

Hmm. Must be the cooking temp.

Going to do a second batch of red beans on Sunday. Last one was perfect, so I will recreate exactly, instead of riffing as usual.

For the money you'd spend on a set, you can cover more ground piecemeal. For high quality and budget friendly I'd recommend: Lodge cast iron skillet (10-12" depending on the number of folks you regularly cook for.) Lodge enameled cast iron dutch oven as big as you can handle (this item is a workhorse, and anything you may get from a set is shit by comparison to even the most budget friendly standalone option) Cheap non-stick skillet(s) (go for an OG non-stick coating and not some new fangled gimmick. I say two because I like a big one for family meals, and a 10" one for frying eggs and making omelets. I've got some fancy cookware, but these are the beauties I leave sitting out on the stove.) 3 quart sauce pan with lid (Heavy bottom is important, copper is good, clad with stainless is great. Of all the pieces, this is where you want to splurge on quality.) Carbon steel wok (don't bother if you have an electric range, just use the big non-stick instead.) Big ass stock pot with a lid You can cook just about anything with the above items. I don't think a stainless steel skillet is essential if you can handle the cast iron, but it's probably the next piece.

Veal osso buco with orzo and sprouts:

Just gonna leave this here. Probably my fault for letting it slip to the tenth page. I made the red beans from the first post yesterday, and added a couple splashes of Worcestershire near the end and the outcome was divine. I like to stop before they all turn to mush and mash a few beans on their own to get the sauce creamy, while still leaving most of the beans whole. I've got a pound of navy beans soaking tonight for a batch of baked beans tomorrow, which will be turned into an uptown beanie weenie for myself and the 2 yo.

This is me with breaking 80. Got out there with my pops this morning after the tornado warning in Horseshoe Bay cleared. Had my 2yo with us, so we hustled through warm up on the range, and I started slow as a result. Shot 43/39 for an 82. Left a few strokes out there as I generally hit it well but fucked up a few easy chips. Wind was hard out of the west, which made it a completely different course than I’m used to.

Lived across the street from there in law school. Put down 5 LITs one night and painted the bathroom pink in the morning. Must've been the sugar.

I cooked some 1 year old beans last week and could never get them to soften up. Ended up mashing them and making refried. I figure 20 year old beans would be like eating gravel.

My wife and I have both been working from home all week, taking shifts looking after our boys (4 and 2) since day care has been closed. Cabin fever is real, and the abrupt end to my daily golf regimen (range sessions during lunch breaks at the office), had me seriously jonesing. But my wife has definitely carried the load at home, so it's not like I could just say I was heading to the course for some personal time. So last night I loaded my clubs into the car after she went to sleep, knowing that this morning I would volunteer to make an HEB run. I laid the groundwork over breakfast by saying that I'd heard that stores had insanely long lines, and that it was too bad I couldn't take one or both kids, cause of the virus. At 9a I finished the shopping list, remarking loudly how much stuff we needed. If she wondered why I had changed into a collared shirt just for a grocery store run, she didn't say anything. As I grabbed my keys, I was certain the coast was clear, and that I would have time to hit the range, or perhaps a short game session, without raising suspicions. I headed to the store first, and was in and out with uncommon speed. 20 distinct items, but I went express lane anyways, cause fuck it. My plan was all falling into place and I was already visualizing the crisp 7 irons I would soon be lofting into the sky, each with a tight little right to left draw. And right as I pulled up to the club the skies opened up the deluge was on. I waited there in the car for a solid 15 minutes but it never let up, so I finally gave in and went home. Maybe tomorrow.

Hah. No wonder. I'm not sure what drew more odd looks from others on the range, the abbreviated Happy Gilmore cold tops, or the grunts I was letting out during the ten hard swings that rolled out to past the 275 sign.

I did these drills at the range today, but without a swing speed monitor, just gauging how the balls flew and how far they rolled out. The 10 "swing your hardest" were actually my best set of drives. I just have to remember to keep my grip pressure light all the way through the swing, otherwise the tendency is to yank it left. The exaggerated hip turn was also helpful. The left foot step was whack as hell and I felt like I was lucky to make contact. In the end, the biggest takeaway for me was to grip it light but swing out and hard. If I do that I have a much better chance of shifting my weight and ending up in a good finish position. That is going to be my thought next time I head to the course: knock the cover off the ball.

Modern drivers with massive heads are way more forgiving. I am the same way. I am not comfortable with my 3 wood off the tee, and on shorter holes I'd rather lay off the driver and just poke it out there. When I played at Lost Creek last summer, I thought I was playing smart by hitting irons and woods around the front 9 because that course has lots of tight doglegs, but I was hitting them like shit. On the back I finally decided to just hit driver on aggressive lines and had much more success.

Saturday was the annual wacky competition where they tip it out (7100), get the greens fast (13.5), stick the pins in ludicrous places, and everything must be holed out. I played out of my mind and shot 94 with 3 birdies and 36 putts. Seven of those putts came on a single hole after hitting a 4 iron to 15 feet below the hole, and then watching a nearly perfect read/stroke putt curl just around the cup and then across the green 3X farther away than where I started from. I could have been on that green all day had I not bombed my 7th putt from 40 feet. I finally got to see the new handicap system's daily adjustment function in action, but it only dropped my differential on the day by 3 strokes, which tells me that most of the geezers out there must not have bothered to enter their scores. My old man, a 3.5 handicap, shot a 101 and was pretty solid from tee to green all day. I was most excited about the 3 birdies, as I average about 1 every 3-4 rounds. I almost jarred a 7 iron on the last par 3, which is the closest I've ever come to an ace. I am ready to say that my grip change and daily range sessions are paying off.

I'm not gonna quibble with that. Onion rings are decent. And their mixed chopped meat sandwich is suitable. Baseline is Bill Miller's not CM.

That's by my office. I like Jerusalem Grill and my kids will shit a brick when they plop down one of those massive saddle blanket lavash 30 seconds after we sit down. There is nothing else particularly kid-friendly about it aside from the massive carb hit they get. Blanco BBQ has average food but a playground outside. Longhorn Cafe for a solid burger, CFS sandwich, tots and rings.

You don't have to post it on the same day, but that is the only way to get the benefit of any daily course rating adjustment the system will make based on all scores reported for a given course on that day.

I like their Youtube channel. You should hit into them to earn yourself a cameo.

I'm a 300 lb connoisseur of breakfast pastries, so I feel my opinion should count for more. While the tequila-almond croissant at Panaderia is excellent, the raspberry kouign-amann at Bakery Lorraine blows it out of the water. One of my coworkers has a daughter that is a student at CIA and currently works at BL. On several occasions over the last month she has brought massive boxes of day old pastries and cookies to the office and I have gorged appropriately.

You tried putting them?

My recent grip change all came together on Friday afternoon as I hit 12 of 13 fairways and 12 greens in regulation, missing another 3 pin high but just on the fringe. Unfortunately I couldn’t putt for shit, and missed 7 putts inside 5 feet to shoot 80. That’s my best score in 15+ years and I left a lot of strokes out there. I wasn’t just hitting fairways, but splitting them down the middle. The only miss was actually one of my best drives, right on line but it ran through the fairway, and I hit a nice 8i from the rough to 15 feet (three jacked it, naturally). I clearly need to mix in some time on the putting green with all these weekday lunch time range sessions. Altogether a very reassuring day after all the work I’ve been putting in with the new grip.

When you finally do get home in two, I don't think you're going to want to have to deal with an erection while lining it up.