Good sports day today, went golfing and we had our volleyball league playoffs.

Got out on the golf course Sunday morning at Summitpointe a course that had thoroughly kicked my tail the first time I played it. I played much better this time and was hitting the ball as well as I have since I changed jobs and am further away from the driving range. Our 3-some played skins (w/ handicaps) for $.25 a hole – we’re really big gamblers. I was happy (and lucky) to win 12 skins and would have won the long drive on 18 but my drive ran through the fairway so it didn’t count.

The guys I was playing with were very good playing partners. Things were loose and we joked around a lot but they were also very supportive and congratulatory to each other and there was a lot of good natured talk about our big skins wagers.

The back 9 doesn’t have a foot of flat ground in the fairway on several holes. You have to put your tee shot up on the hill above the fairway and let it release down, leaving yourself with an approach shot well below or above your feet. On a par 3, having just experienced a VERY fast green on the previous hole, I hit my tee shot to a foot from the hole. I barely nudged the ball (literally, touched it – on a normal flat green it would have gone maybe 3-5 inches, max!). The ball lipped out on the high side, got some speed and ran 35 FEET down to the bottom of the green. Yeah, I 4-putted that one. That green is one of the reasons many locals call this course "unfair". I was a bit miffed and struggled a bit on the next few holes.

Got home, grabbed a bite and then headed out to our volleyball playoffs. We’ve been in this league for about 2 years now and tonight we won our 4th championship. The finals went all 3 game against the team we’ve met in the finals every season we’ve played in this league. I think we’re 4-1 against them in the finals, but we might have lost another in there somewhere.

They have a big guy from Germany who just crushes the ball. We really can’t stop him, but we can slow him down a little bit and we have to make sure we score while he’s in the back row. I think our main advantage is that most of the players on our team play or have played a bit of doubles and we are pretty comfortable with all phases of the game. We manage to scramble pretty well at times.

Good sports + good people = very fun day – I’ll be sore and tired when I wake up tomorrow.