Coincidence... or not?
Today, I experienced one of those little coincidences -- well, the events happened a week apart, so technically, it's not a coincidence, and I'm not sure what I should call it -- that make people of faith say, "HA! This proves conclusively that there is a God, because there's no possible, conceivable way this could happen just by chance."
Let's rewind back to last Saturday, when I played an early-morning round of golf down at Beaver Creek GC in the Verde Valley. The 16th hole at Beaver Creek is a par-3 of some 157 yards from the white tees; not a particularly difficult hole, and in fact, one that I've parred numerous times, but no pushover, either. I took out my hybrid 5-iron, teed the ball up, and hit a fantastic shot, which scooted up onto the green and ended up some 10 inches southwest of the cup -- that is, just barely left and short. It was so close to an ace that I marked off the distance from edge-of-ball to edge-of-cup on my scorecard, before tapping in for birdie.
OK, fine. So today, again I drove down to Beaver Creek and teed off at around 7:30. Didn't have a great round, but on the 16th hole, once again, I used the 5-hybrid, again the pin was in an accessible location near the front-left of the green, and again, I hit a good shot (although as it left the tee, I thought, "Not as good as last week!"). I saw the ball start left, then fade back toward the pin, but I lost sight of it as it got close to the green.
When I got there, I found that it was, once again, within tap-in range. I measured it and marked the distance on my scorecard, and as far as I could tell -- within the accuracy of measuring with a piece of cardboard -- the ball was exactly the same distance from the cup as last week! This time, though, it was even closer to being an ace, because it was headed for home. My pitch mark was some 3-1/2 feet short of the pin, and the ball came to rest on a line aimed dead-center from the pitch mark to the center of the cup. Had the green not been quite so soft from last night's rain, I'd have put a 1 on my scorecard.
I'm not sure what this means. Possibly nothing much -- I do not now believe and never really have believed that there is a "higher power" up there, looking down on us -- certainly not one that takes a great deal of interest in the fortunes of a bogey golfer. A couple of virtually-identical brushes-with-ace are probably not going to convince me there is such a being. Still, it's one of those "things that make you go 'hmmmmmmm,'" ¿no?
Urb's Blog
Let's rewind back to last Saturday, when I played an early-morning round of golf down at Beaver Creek GC in the Verde Valley. The 16th hole at Beaver Creek is a par-3 of some 157 yards from the white tees; not a particularly difficult hole, and in fact, one that I've parred numerous times, but no pushover, either. I took out my hybrid 5-iron, teed the ball up, and hit a fantastic shot, which scooted up onto the green and ended up some 10 inches southwest of the cup -- that is, just barely left and short. It was so close to an ace that I marked off the distance from edge-of-ball to edge-of-cup on my scorecard, before tapping in for birdie.
OK, fine. So today, again I drove down to Beaver Creek and teed off at around 7:30. Didn't have a great round, but on the 16th hole, once again, I used the 5-hybrid, again the pin was in an accessible location near the front-left of the green, and again, I hit a good shot (although as it left the tee, I thought, "Not as good as last week!"). I saw the ball start left, then fade back toward the pin, but I lost sight of it as it got close to the green.
When I got there, I found that it was, once again, within tap-in range. I measured it and marked the distance on my scorecard, and as far as I could tell -- within the accuracy of measuring with a piece of cardboard -- the ball was exactly the same distance from the cup as last week! This time, though, it was even closer to being an ace, because it was headed for home. My pitch mark was some 3-1/2 feet short of the pin, and the ball came to rest on a line aimed dead-center from the pitch mark to the center of the cup. Had the green not been quite so soft from last night's rain, I'd have put a 1 on my scorecard.
I'm not sure what this means. Possibly nothing much -- I do not now believe and never really have believed that there is a "higher power" up there, looking down on us -- certainly not one that takes a great deal of interest in the fortunes of a bogey golfer. A couple of virtually-identical brushes-with-ace are probably not going to convince me there is such a being. Still, it's one of those "things that make you go 'hmmmmmmm,'" ¿no?
Urb's Blog
posted by Urbie at 4:22 PM
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