Well, it took me almost two years to get my third eagle and my fourth came less than one week later. If you would have asked me any of the holes I was likely to hole out from the fairway on, Hasentree #11 would be one of the lowest on my list, but that is exactly what happened today. Here is how it happened:

For the first 10 holes of the day I hit the ball terribly. I was scoring ok but my ball striking was miserable. I actually hit my best drive of the day on #11 which left me with about 164 yards into the green. Hasentree #11 is a downhill green and it is always difficult for me to hit.

The irons that I had been striking somewhat well were going very long all afternoon. I hit my approach wedge 120 yards on the previous hole and flew the green on #5 with a 52 degree wedge from 105 yards. With the distance being 164 yards there was no way I was going to go long with a 7 iron. I told my friend Brian I was quitting the game of golf if that particular ball went long.

As soon as I hit it I knew it was bad enough to be good. It was my classic miss of a thinned slice that gets about 40 feet off the ground. If I covered the front left bunker I knew the shot would be “ok”. When it hit the green I knew it was going to hit the stick or be off the back of the green.

As I watched from 164 yards away I felt like I was playing a video game. The ball was tracking towards the hole, hit the stick and dropped. It was one of the worst shots to be rewarded with an eagle from the fairway. Hey, we don’t draw them on the scorecard we just write down the score. On this particular day I wrote down a 2 for #11. A few holes later I stuck one right next to the pin on #15 with a 60 degree wedge and tapped in a birdie. I shot 84 on the day with the highlights being the eagle from the fairway and the tap in birdie.