My first par

After a disappointing 9-over on the par-5 second at the Newton Commonwealth, it was easy to get down. Even moreso after following that up with a septuple bogey on the 455-yard fifth.

Undaunted, I lit up a Romeo y Julieta, regathered myself with a nice double bogey on 6 and made my way to the par-3 seventh.

It's 177 yards, steep downhill, with a back-to-front sloping green that drops off to the right.

I pulled the six-iron out of the bag, and drove off the tee. Instead of making the usual 90-degree turn to the right, the ball was high and straight and true, and it landed about 10 feet off the green on the left, clear of the sand. My chip passed about two inches from the pin and rolled to about three feet from the hole.

You should've seen the celebration after I sank that putt -- you'd have thought I'd just beat Tiger on a Sunday. Of course, it was just the 16th hole of golf I'd played in my life, so there was something to celebrate.