Golf Season Officially Begins

Today was the first of Cam's summer golf tournaments.  He won't have as many this year because of the pandemic, so getting to play at Zollner today was important to Cameron.  We changed our normal routine having Doug drop him off this morning with me meeting him after the first nine.  We thought it was the easiest way to reduce exposure for Doug and I but still allow Cam to play.  Indiana Juniors changed several of its policies this year as well to maintain a safe environment for the players.  I was extremely impressed with how well the tournament was run.  Social Distancing was enforced and the facility was extremely clean.  As an added bonus, shot gun starts were eliminated this summer with groups paired in threes and tee times starting at 8 a.m.  This not only stopped large gatherings in the morning, but also increased speed of play.  It was the first time that I could remember finishing a tournament in four hours.

Cameron drew a 9:50 a.m. tee time.  I arrived shortly before noon, just in time to see him walk off of nine green.  He had been pleased with his play except for the last hole.  He had hit a ball in the pond.  As he didn't want to lose one of his new Bridgestones he decided to try and find it in the water.  The algae around the pond was dry and Cam was able to walk out pretty far.  He saw an island in the middle and thought he'd jump to it.  Unfortunately, it wasn't as dry as he thought it would be and he sunk into the water up to his thighs.  He could laugh about it when he saw me, but was pretty frustrated about the eight that he had on the hole.  The bad news was that he didn't even find his ball.
I was impressed by how much mud he was covered in and the 44 he shot on the front even with the quadruple bogey.

It was great to walk the back nine even with all of the hills and watch Cam play.  He hit the ball well and only had one bad hole - a triple on number eleven.  His goal this summer was to shoot 85 or better in each of his tournaments and was able to accomplish that goal with a 41 on the back.  We weren't allowed to hang around and see how everyone else finished, but by the time we were halfway home Cam was happy to announce that he had finished 8th out of 15 players.  We stopped at the golf course to see Grandpa and at Grandma's home to see her as well.  That way Cam could not only tell them the good news about his round, but also show them his shorts.  They were glad to hear all about it.  I was a little stressed going today as I have been home almost exclusively since March 19th.  Overall, it went pretty well and I really enjoyed seeing Cam compete.