It was a brutal, windy and cold day that Saturday morning in Valencia, CA. Since I live in southern CA, I usually only play in nice weather but this day was different. My friends had been on my case for not showing up recently for our usual Saturday golf game so I had to promise the night before that I wouldn't bail on them this time. If I did then I was told I would be replaced. It was an idle threat, but I didn't want to let them down so I showed up. We all hit some balls on the range, practiced putting, etc. I actually thought and hoped that they would just want to go to the bar instead of playing, but I was wrong. We threw balls up and divided into two foursomes. My foursome teed it up at 7:20 am. It was around 55-60 degrees with sustained 15 mph winds. In other words, not very nice conditions relative to what we were accustomed to. I'm a decent golfer (2-4 handicap) so I was a bit frustrated after shooting a dismal 42 on the front nine with double bogeys on 8 and 9. Maybe they had enough too! WRONG...We continued.. We finished number 10 and then we have a relatively easy par three that is between 112 -150 yards depending on where the tees and pin are located and its a two tiered green. That day the pin was in the front of the green on the top tier. It's only about 10 yards deep on this tier so you really need to hit a good shot in order to have a chance at a birdie. The wind was directly in our face but it was only 117yds. to the pin today. After watching my first two buddies hit their shots, I believed that it would play approximately 135 yards so I pulled out my pitching wedge and hit it pure! At first it looked as though it was going long but the wind held it up nicely. As it was coming down, I told my buddies that this shot just might go in. (I say that on almost every par 3 so they basically ignored me.) But today was different, It landed about 8 feet in front of the pin and just rolled slowly and directly towards the hole and disappeared. ACE! Of course we all went crazy primarily because they knew that I had to buy them some cocktails! Well, now I was now motivated to shoot a decent score so I buckled down the rest of the way in and shot -1 on the back side for a 35 ending up with a 77 in that wind so I wouldn't be embarrassed. What's strange is, I had just knocked in a shot just two weeks prior on hole #10 from approximately 160 yards for an eagle. Not a bad two weeks for a "Chopper!" Golf is strange.