It was a beautiful fall afternoon at the Philadelphia Cricket Club's final Men's Stag Day for the 2022 season. We started on the 15th hole, so by the time we got to the 175 yd par three 5th hole, we were actually just about to make our turn for the outing. I hadn't been hitting my 7 iron well to that point in the day, and as the caddie shot the yardage, telling us it was 175 playing about 180, my heart sunk a bit since I had already pushed a few 7 irons right earlier in the round. I was first to the box and took a couple extra deliberate take backs to make sure I had my club face in the right spot for my practice swings. I moved from the "think box" to the "play box" and put a full swing on the ball.

The ball jumped off the face with the kind of contact you try for every time you step up to the ball, but maybe only get 10 percent of the time. It was like I didn't even feel the point of contact, just the pure sound of a high ball starting just left of the already tucked left pin of the very well bunkered green. The ball had no problem clearing the dead rough, cart path, stream, and front bunkers as the slightest bit of cut brought the ball to a hard landing spot about 1 foot left of the pin, bouncing forward and right, before tugging back a couple feet into the cup. My buddy was the first to react and I was in complete shock. After everyone hit, we made our way up to the hole and celebrated after confirming that the leaf just right of the pin, was not the ball. The best part of this was that my two closest friends, who make up our core golf group were the ones in my foursome that day, an absolute dream scenario.

The way the ball grabbed and tugged back just soft enough stay in the cup was certainly testament to the quality of ball.