Once in a lifetime you have the greatest round of golf you could have ever imagined. That is exactly what happened to me today. Believe it or not, I managed to shoot an even par round of golf, and I feel great.

With a string of four back-to-back birdies on the front nine, I made the turn at two under par with a thirty-four. Keeping up this tempo was at the back of my mind, and as the last couple of holes approached, I started to get pretty nervous. I was even par with only three more holes to go.

In the last couple of years, I've made it a few times to these very same last three holes with the possibility of scoring great rounds, and each and every time in the end I choked magnificently with a triple or quadruple bogie. I was jinxed, feeling like I was destined to failure no matter how hard I tried. Concentrate, think of nothing, just hit the ball.

There I was again with only three holes standing in my way of a perfect day. However, this time around I knew that today would be different. I was in "the zone" and it felt like no matter what, I could hit that little white ball effortlessly, my drives went right down the middle of the fairways, and my approach shots were flush and ended up close to the flag.

Two pars and only one hole to go. Great five wood down the middle with a hundred yard approach to the flag, and I miss hit the shot slightly, pushing my wedge to the right side just below the green. A short uphill blind chip rolled just past the hole. Then a one putt for par straight into the cup, what a sweet sound the ball makes as it falls into the hole.

I closed my eyes before I bent down to pick up the ball out of the hole. I felt like crying I was so emotional. With a thirty-seven on the back nine, I had bagged an astounding seventy-one. Who ever could have expected this to happen?

I figure that it took me a little more than thirty-five years to shoot even par again, the last time being in my golfing heyday as a seventeen year old golfing dreamer. The enormous hiatus of years had been overcome, and then finally having picked up golf seriously again, the last few years of practice and mental training had proven that I could still do it.

The young buck golfing hero inside of me has finally been liberated.