Fore!

Paul and I played nine holes today at Aliso Creek, a golf course tucked in a small canyon just off Pacific Coast Highway in South Laguna Beach.

Our timing was perfect: right after a long weekend. There were very few people there and we were able to play the course as a twosome instead of being paired with other players.

Though I used to hit the driving range near my house on a semi-regular basis, I think this was only the third or fourth time I’ve played on an actual course. Was it fun? Hell yeah. Was it pretty? Hell no. It’s embarrasing to keep chipping balls into the water while some 90 year old guy who can barely stand up straight puts them right on the green. Or drives a ball 200 yards off the first tee. Thankfully, I’m not proud. My driving sucked, but I did manage to sink a challenging 35-40 foot putt on the 4th green. We smoked cigars and just enjoyed the nice weather.

This evening I went back to Punchout Fitness to resume boxing classes after a two year layoff. Things have changed a bit over there, and I’m not just talking about the prices. They’re moving the entire gym to Irvine in August and expanding their facilities to four times the current size. I suppose it’ll be closer to my house, but I’ll miss the tiny sweatshop of a space they have now in Tustin. It’s sort of grungy with nothing in the way of frills, just like a boxing gym should be.

The class was a killer–just about what I expected. But it felt great afterwards to have worked off a thousand calories in an hour. Many gyms have these classes, but I don’t think they’re quite the same as taking it at an actual boxer’s gym.

Speaking of kickboxing, for some reason those classes are always packed while the standard boxing ones are rarely full. I’ve never considered kickboxing because most people that are into it have huge muscular legs. If you’re bodybuilding it’s okay, but for normal people it looks a little… odd.