The night before, I placed my outfit on the office chair in my bedroom; My hemmed Uniqlo green slacks, and my newly-thrifted, 2014 U.S. Open Polo. My divot fixer, and ball marker magnet sat on the desk right behind my clothes. I woke up early, around 8. I felt like a kid getting ready for school on a field trip day. I had been chipping in my attic the night before, trying to dial in.

When I got to the course, I paid, grabbed a cart key, loaded up my bag onto a car, and headed down to the range to meet up with Brandon. He had been the first to arrive, and already had hit through 3/4s of a large bucket. He was wearing his Sunday Tiger outfit, Black Hat, Red Polo, Tan pants.

I grabbed a handful of balls left over from the night before, just in the range area. Walnut Lane’s driving range is just a short area with a net, so you can grab some balls if everyone stops hitting, and at this time it was just me and Brandon. After warming up with my wedges, I stopped hitting to not tire myself out.

Brandon noticed that Favian and Wes were walking down the 7th fairway, heading towards the range. They made their way down to the range, and hit a couple of balls. After a few minutes of mingling and warming up, we flipped a divot marker to determine the teams. A re-creation of last time, Favian and Me, against Wes and Brandon.

On the first tee, Five Iron in my hand, I grip the club easily, and remember my mantra, “Relax, Reset, Release”. Breathing through my swing, the ball comes off the face straight, and draws about 2 yards to the right from my aim spot, landing me in the fairway, about 160 yards away. The green remains 130 yards away. On my second shot, I fatted the club, taking a large divot about an inch behind the ball. The ball thankfully came out straight, just a little low. It stops running in the second cut, right off the green. After a chip on the green, we have about 7 feet remaining, downhill.

Brandon and Wes are on the green in 3 shots. Wes takes a really nice stab at their uphill 25 footer. It’s tracking 95% of the way, then it cuts away left right before the hole. Brandon, armed with that read, is able to adjust his line and sink the putt to take the hole.

Stupidly, I take this as a loss, and Favian and I pick up without even taking a putt. I was thrown off by the best ball structure and let a point slip away.

On the second tee, Brandon and Wes both hit mid-irons, and end up left of the fairway, about 70-80 yards away.

I take the tee box, Five Iron in hand again. Relax, reset, release, and the ball goes to its usual spot for me on this hole. Just short of the green on the right hand side, in the thick cut grass. No matter what I try, I always end up here. Which I guess I should look at as a good thing, consistency being rare in Golf.

After a short chipping lesson for Favian, I hit a chip up to the green, and he followed me up with a chunk, but it’s all good, he’s hitting the ball pretty well so far, and his putting is great.

Brandon and Wes are on the lower deck of this green, and away. They take their putts, Wes missing by just a hair, nearly lipping. Brandon’s putt misses low, he didn’t take enough break, but it was a tricky putt.

I’ve mellowed out quite a bit by now, and the shots begin to blend. The day is bright, and warm, but not in a temperature kind of way. Thankfully the weather remained a crisp early fall day, the green on the leaves is still taking up about half, with the tips turning slightly orange-ish. On the 6th hole, I pull out my flask with some whiskey in it from a while ago. Favian, Brandon, and I all take nips, and get a little loose for our tee shot on the short par 3.

Brandon hits a great shot, about pin high, 150 yards, just off the fringe in the thicker cut to the left of the green.

I take the box, pretty loose at this point, and the face of my club feels pretty open on my swing through. The ball takes a lower flight, and trails off about 10 yards to the right, while carrying about 130 yards. However, the sixth hole has a rough feature that I like to call the berm.

The berm is a huge grass bunker that is shaped like a semi circle, and that semicircle is about 20 feet deep. My ball landed right in the bottom. I needed to hit a high lofted shot, blind up to the pin which was short sided.

There wasn’t much I could do except trust my ball strike, and swing away. So I did. The ball landed about 4 feet to the left of the pin.

Brandon and Wes each took a chip; Wes’ unfortunately ran off the back of the green, but Brandon’s ended up about 8 feet away from the pin.

They each putted, Wes went a little long and missed on the left, while Brandon’s putt was short on the right. Afterwards, Favian putted for us, and he nearly made it, great distance, but just to the right. I stepped in and thankfully putted for Par, and the point.

The game was a 2-man Best Ball Scramble, Match play. Played with no doubles or carried over points, straight through to the end. Five bucks per point you win by.

At the turn, Favian and I were up by 2 points, ten bucks. A couple pars on the front nine set us up nicely, while Brandon and Wes were playing mostly bogey golf, with some big par saves, which is not bad at all.

As we settle into the game, I feel more confident that not thinking about it is the best way to win. I begin focusing on my swing, and just trying to see my club head go through the ball. Golf is a game where there are so many variables, and the more conscious you are of them, the more likely they are to break down.

I needed to remain still, and not break down.

Hole 15. I’m in the flow state. Last tee box, on hole 14, I took the easiest swing of my life and put the ball 5 feet from the pin. It fucking rolled past the pin. I’m locked in. Time to hit my driver.

For the uninitiated, the driver is probably one of the tougher clubs to hit. I , like many golfers, have trouble where I tend to slice the ball, or hit it poorly so it doesn’t fly that well, making it basically useless to me. The driver requires a certain type of swing that is different from the Irons that I tend to hit well, so transitioning from one to the other is an area for improvement I’m looking at in my game.

Despite my normal reservations, I grab my driver, a thrifted 2 Wood, made of actual Wood. It’s got some cursive name on it that I haven’t even bothered trying to decipher. It’s black with a red accent, and it’s got a metal plate on the bottom of the club. The face is black, with a red stripe up the middle of the face indicating where the sweet spot is. The grip is something I’ve never seen before, it’s almost foam-ish, red with large rectangular grooves. It’s not uncomfortable but I don’t think I would choose this grip if it needed to be replaced. It’s in pretty good condition so for now, it stays.

The 15th hole at Walnut Lane is a slight dogleg right, about 330 yards in total. From the elevated tee box, the fairway starts at the bottom of a valley, about 30 feet down, and continues out and back up. The play is to hit straight out, about 200 yards to the top of the hill, right on the apex of the dogleg turn.

As I had my 2 wood in hand, Brandon and Wes were chatting near the carts. I could barely hear them, as I was so focused on making sure not to shank or heel the club when I hit my drive.

I take the club back, feel my left shoulder hit my chin on the backswing, and release the club forward. It’s a nice strike, a little inside the sweet spot of the club. I make out the mark I made when I hit the ball, it’s light impression in the wood hides unless you move it around in the sunlight to get a glimpse.

The ball carried past the hill, right to the bend of the dogleg. I had about 120 yards remaining for my second shot.

Favian takes the tee. He’s been hitting the ball great today, but this shot, he hits a little inside the clubface, and the ball heads left. As it goes off to the left, Favian yells out, “It’s in the fucking trees again”, with an exasperated chuckle.

The trees that line the course at Walnut Lane are truly beautiful. There are so many different types of trees, but I’ve been really bad about learning the names of them. Some look like pine (?) trees, like Christmas-tree style. Others are long and skinny and almost look like Birch? I am just fascinated with all the species that line a very small part of a park in the city. I of course assume some of them are Walnut trees, but I can’t be sure.

But what I love about the trees is what they provide. They provide long shadows, and stretches of green that when viewed at sundown, or at sun-rise, can inspire pause. I love being out in the woods with friends, or even by myself, just hitting the ball and walking to it, and hitting it again. Breathing in the air, and hitting a bad shot, then lining up the club, and hitting another.

As Brandon putted out on 18 for an incredible bogey save from about 25 feet, I shook Wes and Favian’s hands. Final score, 8 points - Favian & Buzz, 5 points - Wes & Brandon. We took home a purse of $15 dollars each, Brandon paying me out in cash.

As I got into Brandon’s car for a ride home, I thought about all the great shots hit today, and how I couldn’t wait until the next time I could hit the course.