1. Early on the back nine, it looked like Phil Mickelson might blast out to an insurmountable lead in the third round of the PGA Championship. But, golf courses seem to have personalities and on the 12th and 13th holes, the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, S.C. seemed to say, "No more!" and enticed Phil into a couple of errant drives off the tee. One ended up lodged against the tire of of golf cart and the other splashed in the alligator habitat along the 13th hole. Mickelson lost three strokes to par on these holes and the four-time major champion and PGA strongman, Brooks Koepka, charged into a tie with Mickelson. Koepka, however, bogeyed 18, and fell into second place, a stroke behind Mickelson by the end of the third round.
I'm not alone, I'm sure, in wondering whether Mickelson, who is one month shy of his 51st birthday, will have the mental and physical stamina needed to hold off Koepka and the other contenders. If he does, he will be the oldest player ever to win one of men's golf's four major tournaments. The oldest was Julius Boros back in 1968. He was just over 48 when he won the PGA Championship. I vividly remember watching Boros on the final day of that tournament and spent years as a golfer wishing I could play the game with his relaxed demeanor and fluid tempo. But, readers, I saw Julius Boros play golf and I was no Julius Boros. No, I was a nervous golfer, highly insecure, and my lack of confidence affected my tempo which was, at best, erratic. I had some good moments on the golf course, but, all in all, I was a wreck, especially mentally and emotionally. Therefore, as I watched Phil Mickelson today as he moved deliberately from hole to hole, as he mindfully envisioned each shot before he hit it, and as he thought his way around the course with intelligence and a sense of calm, I enjoyed his inward strength and tried to imagine what it must feel like to be at ease on a golf course. I rarely was.
2. Linda Lavigne called me early this afternoon. Over the months, we've talked about how fun it would be, especially now that we've been vaccinated, to meet at the Inland Lounge for a drink or two and talk to Cas. Linda said today would work for her. I arrived at the Lounge first and, a fun surprise awaited me. Ed was there. He'd ordered dinner to go from Wah Hing next door and was at a table by himself and I joined him. We yakked for a while. Linda arrived. The three of us yakked, Ed's food came, we yakked some more, and then Ed left to take his and Nancy's food home.
Linda and I eventually made our way to the bar and talked about a bunch of things and Cas joined in when he could. It was a lot of fun to talk freely about friends and life in North Idaho and when it came time for us to go our separate ways, we agreed that we should do this about once a month.
3. While I watched the golf tournament, I also worked on getting ready to spearhead our ZOOM group's once every two week exploration of the literary genre of comedy. I knew that I wanted us to focus on goodness -- literary comedies, by and large, explore the nature of goodness -- and I wanted to find some poems that would help review things we talked about in our first two sessions and move us forward in our discussion tomorrow. I also did some work with the Internet Etymological Dictionary reviewing some word histories that I used to be very familiar with, but that I needed to brush up on. By the time the PGA's third round ended, I not only had enjoyed watching some scintillating golf, I had also discovered a handful of splendid poems and was feeling up to speed again in my knowledge and understanding of the word histories of compassion, comfort, commiserate, communion, community, common, and other similar words related to human goodness.
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