Lots of leaves keep getting in the way.

So how am I going to manage this interesting putt? Not only is it way uphill, but I've also got to putt the ball through all of these leaves. I have a good look above the hole, walk down to the ball, and then I kneel down to get a better angle from behind the ball.

I could spend time sweeping away all of the leaves in my path, but that has turned out to be an impossible task. You see, the wind is blowing strongly enough.

Each time I brush my path clean, the wind kicks up and brings more leaves to replace those I've removed. In fact, just my simple act of trying to clean my path of leaves makes nature mock me in the face. She's challenging me purposely by filling it up with more and more leaves.

Alright. I've got the distance down right. I feel confident that the ball is going to break about seven inches to the left. Uphill so I've got to hit it harder, but not too hard.

I give the ball a good whack. The putter hits clean, and I barely feel the ball making impact. There it is, off and rolling on its sweet journey to the hole.

A direct hit on the first leave and there's only a slight diversion. A second larger leaf gets blasted and the velocity of the ball is halved. As if that is not bad enough, as the ball curls to the left, another smaller more pointed leaf gets nicked, causing the ball to ricochet at right angles to the right.

I've got another five feet to the hole. The wind picks up in my face, making sure that I do not forget who is the boss.

I ended up three putting that hole. For a bogie. I could have gotten more angry than I did, but that would not have accomplished anything. As Ben Hogan always said, treat the next hole like it's the very first hole of your day.

Man versus nature, and more often than not it is nature who wins.