golferrhea

For the 5th summer in a row, Ammon competed in the Idaho Golf Association's Junior tournaments in Eastern Idaho. As a 13 year old, he's advanced to the older competition level, and now golfs 18 holes instead of 9. He signed up for 3 regular tournaments and the 2-day district tournament this summer. The tournaments were all in July, and most of them were scheduled on Mondays. We looked forward to the new circuit of golf courses, as most of them were different from the 9-hole courses that he previously had played on.

 

His first tournament was on July 8 on the Blackfoot course. Unfortunately, I had my appendix taken out the day before, and was still in the hospital, so neither Josh nor I were able to go to that tournament. Thankfully, Pup (the Salmon Golf Pro) said his son was going to that tournament, so he took Ammon to and from Blackfoot for us. He was a real life saver! Ammon scored 102 at that tournament. He wasn't really pleased with that score, and was hoping to improve at the next tournament.

 

The next tournament was on July 15 at the Pinecrest Course in Idaho Falls. Unfortunately, in the middle of the night before it, Ammon got the flu. He slept the whole drive there (2 1/2 hours), and we had some errands to do before his teetime. He kept using the bathroom repeatedly, and he tried keeping down some 7-Up. I didn't know how he was going to be able to golf for 4 hours after being weak and so sick. We told him he didn't have to golf, and that we would drive him back home if he would rather, but he insisted on trying. Josh and I watched him golf several holes to make sure he was okay before we left to do some more shopping. We came back to watch him finish his final two holes. He surprised both Josh & I by golfing all 18 holes while being sick! He was a real trooper and scored 100.    

 

 

 

The following week, on July 22, his tournament was at the Teton Lakes Course in Rexburg. He'd never golfed this course before, and he didn't like it. He struggled with his game and got a score of 103. Josh took him for me that day because the very next day (July 23), I took him to the Sage Lakes Course in Idaho Falls for Day 1 of the District Tournament. I watched him tee off the first hole, then I drove back home to Salmon.

 

 

It was his first time playing on this golf course, too, and he didn't do very well--he got his worst score of the season: a 104. We made plans for him to picked up by Pup's son after the tournament (who was also competing in it), and he stayed the night at Pup's family home in Rigby. He had a fun time hanging out with Kolton that night--and it was a real highlight of his golf season! They took him back to the tournament at Sage Lakes on Day 2 the next morning for us, for which we were SO grateful!

 

I drove back to Idaho Falls again the next day (July 24) and picked him up. I made it there about 15 minutes after he was finished (he had an early tee time), so I didn't get to see him golf at all on the 2nd day. He'd had a great tournament that day and had made a huge turnaround from his worst score the day before; he had 10 less strokes for a total score of 94!! He was so happy with his score, and I was so glad that he got to end the season feeling good about his game!

 

Overall, this year's golf season was pretty rough on Ammon with new courses and sicknesses, but he continued to play on and try his hardest despite the challenges. This was Kolton's last year competing in golf tournaments (the youth competitions end at age 18), which means that next year Ammon will be the only kid from Salmon competing in the IGA Jr. League. He doesn't mind being the only one--I think he's used to the lonely sport now because most of his friends play baseball in the summer.  But since Josh works at the golf course, Ammon gets to freely spend a lot of time there and he likes it, even if he plays alone.