Some of the Most Embarrassing Moments of My Golf Career by Vincent Apostolico

Being an athlete over the years I have realized all athletes will have their ups and downs over the course of their careers. We will have our moments where we will achieve greatness that comes from the hard work we put in. But we will also have our down moments where we completely embarrass ourselves in front of others and feel like a laughing stock ready to get hit with joking insults. Rather than talk about my accomplishments in my career so far, I thought it would be more fun to describe my most embarrassing moments on the golf course to bring joy and laughter into all my readers.

#1. The Galloping Hill of Doom 
                At the age of 10, I was competing in my fourth golf tournament in my career at Galloping Hill Golf Club. I headed into the tournament with high aspirations as I was starting to see my scoring potential go up. I was on the Par 3 5th hole where the green has two tiers with a big hill separating them. The pin was on the top tier and, of course, I was on the bottom tier with one of the steepest uphill putts I could have imagined. I felt like I had to putt up a whole mountain just to get onto the top tier. While reading the break of this marvelous hole, I kept saying to myself "This is all about having enough speed. You need to hit this golf ball hard with your strong golfing arms and get the ball within close range of the hole." I knew that if I hit the putt with little speed, I was doomed to make a terrible score on the hole. I got up to the putt with the thought of hitting the ball with all the speed I could produce and constantly screaming to myself in my head "DO NOT LEAVE THIS PUTT SHORT!!!!!!!!!" There was a nervous feeling that was building up in my stomach from the fear of leaving the putt short and having it roll all the way down the hill back to where I just made my putt. I made my stroke with all of the nervous sweat sliding along the palm of my hands and I hit the ball hard with a good deal of power. I shifted my eyes forward to see if I would conquer the Mount Everest of the green and anticipation was slowly building within me as my ball was approaching to take the ride up the dangerous hill. The ball started to run up the hill with the speed similar to Usain Bolt and excitement was starting to spread throughout my body as the ball was near a foot away from climbing my enemy at the moment. My excitement was very high to the point where I was like a child on Christmas morning. But suddenly, all that growing excitement would be evaporated in a split second. My ball was about a foot from the top of the hill and started to slow down as the gas in its tank had run out from me not hitting the putt with enough speed. It slowly started to go backwards and ran back all the way down the hill right back into the same position from where I had just hit the putt.
            My worst fear with my challenging putt had become a reality right before my eyes and I was fuming because I was unable to get my ball over the hill. Heading into the next putt, I told myself to just hit the ball with a little more ounce of power as my ball was just a foot short of climbing the steep hill. I made another putting stroke again and once I hit it  I thought that this was the correct speed as I felt how hard I smacked the ball with my putter. It rolled up the hill with rocket speed wanting to make up for the horrendous putt I had hit before. The ball got up to the top of the hill but came roaring right back to me as the gas tank had run out again even with a little extra fuel stored. I just stared right at the golf ball in disbelief as my mind couldn't comprehend how I couldn't make it up the steep hill while hitting the putt with lighting speed. I got right back up to my ball and putted it even harder with the amount of anger that had built up into y body. The ball went up the hill and came right back down like the first two putts did. My blood within my body was starting to boil up as I was turning into a complete hot head over the constant failure I had with this putt. I was so angry at that moment that I honestly wanted to break a club over somebody's head. I came right back up to the ball and just made a random stroke as I was so furious from my conflict on this hole. Of course the ball came rolling back like usually. On the next stroke I finally got it up the hill as I basically made a full swing with my putter to get it up over Mount Everest and ended up making an 8 on the hole. I felt like a complete laughing joke as I was leaving the hole and I was just in complete amazement of how it took me 5 PUTTS from the same spot to make it up a one single hill. The golf gods had slapped me in the face with that hole and I have never forgotten about it in one single day after.


#2. Ohio Water Mischief
             Last summer, I took a week long trip to Ohio to play in a golf tournament for 3 days and the first day will never be forgotten as I continue to play golf. The 15th hole at this course in Ohio was a par-3 with a big water hazard completely hugging the right side of the hole and the tee was elevated above so you had to hit downhill. The hole was very intimidating as you could see it from the tee box along with a huge water hazard screaming "MEET YOUR DOOM!" in your head. You almost felt like there was just a secret vortex that would blow your ball right towards the water as you were standing on the tee. I decided to hit my 5-iron with all the power I could because my main goal was to not hit my ball right into the water and this club would have enough distance to avoid all of it. I got up to my ball with my target as the flag stick and confidence was building up in me that I was going to hit this green. But there was still that little doubtful thought in the back of my mind that I was going to push it right and end up in the water. I hit my shot with the greatest amount of effort to try and avoid the water and when seeing my ball at first when it took flight I thought it was successful. But then my ball gradually started heading toward the right direction and kept going that way like there was a magnet somewhere attracting it to that side. Once I saw the turning of my golf ball in mid-air, I was desperately asking the golf ball to gain distance and get over the water into a bunker that was the ball's only safe place on the right side of the hole. My eyes started to move roll down in sequence with my ball and a gigantic splash of water had diminished every last ounce of hope in my body of hitting the ball over the water. Now some of you may be wondering why this is classified under one of my most embarrassing moments of my golf career as I only hit the ball in a water hazard but the real action hasn't even begun yet.
             I took my penalty drop right before where my ball had entered the hazard and I had just wanted to use every ounce of effort I could to still save a bogey on the hole. I was about 60 yards out to the hole and had decided to hit a chip shot with my sand wedge to attempt putting my ball within a few feet of the pin. I took about five practice swings as I was trying my absolute best to save a bogey and my heart was throbbing in nervousness while imagining hitting over a water hazard that was right in between me and the hole. I finally felt prepared to stick my shot close to the pin and make a confident strike with my chip. I looked up in the air as soon as I hit my golf ball and the ball was directional in line with the flag looking like it was going to stick within a few feet to give myself a chance at saving bogey. Seeing the flight of the ball made me express feelings of joy within myself as it looked like I had just hit a perfect shot. The ball was coming down from the air looking like it was dead online and a big splash had occurred once my ball landed. There wasn't enough distance put into my shot and I failed again in hitting the ball over the water. I was just completely shocked about what had occurred right before my eyes. Anger hadn't built up in me this time as I was more nervous about how my Dad was going to react because he was already angry with how horrible I was playing earlier in the round. I took another penalty drop right at the same spot and just thought to take a bigger swing as I had the right direction in mind just not the right distance. I felt more confident with this next shot that I was going to put my ball right next to the pin but there was an even bigger presence of nervousness within me as I hit two straight balls into the water. There was a flipping mental battle within my mind as I believed I was just about to hit a great shot but then I was going to hit it into the water again as that's what was happening over and over again.
           I went right back up to my ball with my mindset flipping back and forth between confidence and then doubt. I hit my next shot as the arrow was pointed towards doubt in my mind and I couldn't tell at first whether or not my shot was actually going to make it on the green this time. My eyes studied the ball like a hawk and once they saw a single drop of water jump up into air, I could already tell the result of my shot. My ball had ended up in the drain once again. Chaos was going on within my brain as I couldn't believe how terrible I was doing on the hole and how I couldn't seem to comprehend in my mind that I actually had to hit the ball a farther distance than the water to carry it. I felt like I was getting slapped in the face over and over again for every ball that went right into the water. One of the most embarrassing feelings that I felt at the moment was that my Dad was even walking away in disgust from how terrible I was playing on the hole. I wanted to get right out of that place once I saw him walking away. I literally went right up to my ball without thinking and hit it as I couldn't deal with the fact of how terrible I was playing. The funny thing was that I actually stuck the shot to five feet within the hole and made the putt to end up with an 8 on the hole. There was probably no other moment where I had felt more embarrassed in my life. But sometimes you have to get hit hard to come back stronger and now I am proud to say it takes me less than 3 shots to hit it over the water now.