Driving the green and rash in my pants

The best way to present the highlight (and the lowlight) of my day yesterday.

My golf buddy from India (the 2nd leg of the golf triad I was part of in India....aaah, those beautiful days....oh, back to reality!) was flying from the US back to India and he wisely took a flight via Singapore so that he could stopover and, guess...guess....guess, play a round with me! Oh yes, he's as crazy a golfer as I am!

So he landed midnight on Saturday and Sunday morning we left for Batam to have a round at Palm Springs.

I went to the course thinking that I had fixed one key fault in my swing (something I noticed when I was watching Retief Goosen play...which is almost always a pleasure. As I watched him swing, I realized that I almost never finish the way he does and that I change swing planes when I finish, so I had to correct that), but my problem with the ball position still continues to dog me with these new irons (nothing against you, my Mizuno MP-32s....it's all my fault).

So I had a fairly disasterous front nine. Forty five. On the back nine, somehow, for the first few holes, the game looked like it was going like the front nine. But then the last 5 holes, I went Par, Par, Bogey, Par and then BIRDIE!!!

The last hole was absolutely sweet. It's a 313yard par 3 (downhill) and I actually drove the green! My ball stopped around 15 feet on top of the cup which makes my drive close to 320 yards (so what if it's downhill)! From there, I two putted to pick up my sole birdie of the day and a round of 86.

Considering the pathetic way I played, I think I got away with murder. 86 is not a bad score to post when your playing as if you are trying to emulate disaster. What I loved the most, almost consistently through the round, was my chipping. I was for the most time chipping very close to the hole, either for a tap in or for an relatively easy putt. I saved a few shots that way.

So after realxing once I had finished the round, I realized that the humid climate and the heat had caused another problem for me. I had a severe rash in my pants and after coming home, despite applying a lot of Aloe Vera cream, I was walking like a penguin for the rest of the day.

Come to think of it, I still am walking like a penguin. Luckily people in office either have not noticed or are too decent to say so to my face.

I need to hit the range to fix my swing. I need to find a way to beat the rashes. These are my personal challanges for the week.