Stuart’s second shot on number 1 came to rest fourteen feet above the hole but on the downward slope of a knob in the green. Bert Mallox’s ball was almost right behind his, but slightly off the green, with the back of the ball in longer grass, such that Bert would have to use a wedge instead of a putter for his third shot. Given the lie, there wasn’t much Bert could do to put backspin on the ball and his chip caught the downslope from the knob and ran twenty five feet past the hole.
As nervous as Stuart was, it was not a good situation, putting to win the hole from the opposite side of the knob. Not a long putt, but not one you’d expect to make, and one you could easily make a mess of just by hitting it a fraction too hard, because it could easily go ten feet by the hole, and you could miss it coming back. If you left it short and above the hole, then you could have a nerve-wracking four footer, with three inches of break.
He tried to calm himself with a deep breath, and then released the putter, but with too much nervous energy behind it. He’d wanted to hit it softer and play more break from the right side, but the ball shot off the knob and was an inch off the line he wanted to hit it on. But golf’s a funny game, and sometimes if you make more than one mistake on the same swing, serendipity happens and instead of a triple bogey you actually defeat par. Stuart’s ball hit square in the back of the hole, bounced in the air like a startled little frog, and landed in the cup.
It was a strange moment to be sure. Bert and Duke, notwithstanding their respect for the game and its etiquette, barely responded, and then only to exchange dead pan looks at one another.
“Sweet Saint Alice in the fields!” said Father Lynch, retrieving Stuart’s Maxfli from the hole.
Duke’s twenty footer to tie the hole caught an edge and spun away.
The reverends were up one to none.
Number 2 was a Par 5, pretty straight and uphill, but barely over 500 yards. After another scorching drive, Stuart reached the green with a four iron on his second shot and two-putted for another birdie.
Reverends two. Unamused pagans zero.
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