Saturday, December 29, 2012

wil mar

last round of the year today...i played so bad i am not going to play again until next year! okay that was lame. wil mar is tucked away in north raleigh...i had heard the name but never played the course, so when the marine made the invite i jumped. of course i did not know that it was going to rain the entire night before our tee time and that it was going to be in the high 30's...well more like 40.

nice little course, not able to comment on condition because it was basically flooded today. i like the layout, you have to think your way around the course, some demanding tee shots, long par 3's and 2 par 5's that are over 500 yards. greens were in very good condition and quite fast for this time of the year and being saturated.

i am looking forward to going back to wil mar when the conditions are a bit better, but even with these conditions it was a good time.

i hope everyone had a great christmas and i wish you a happy new year. 2012 was a great year, but 2013 will be better. would like to get 2013 kicked off the end of the january with a group going to lonnie poole, a couple of foursomes would be great, so watch your inbox for details...until then don't forget to golf your balls.

Monday, December 10, 2012

remedial math needed

once again the stage was tobacco road, and for a good reason - it is awesome. the kind of course that just makes you think all day and gives you lots of great scenery. the weather forecast was for partly cloudy skies and a temp of around 70 degrees...on my way to the course i drove through some rain...ugh! did not even want to play yet another round in the rain, but it was just mother nature saying, "psych". it was foggy most of the way there so i just hoped the sun would come out and burn off the fog...which it did on about the 4th hole. we were drenched in sun the rest of the day.

i finally got my shafts replaced and have not had a lot of time to get used to them, so I did have some off the tee fears, which really diminished after the first drive. but as usual on the tobacco road course, it is all about placement, not distance. if you don't stay in the fairway or land shots in the appropriate places, you are in for a long day and a high score.

since this group had handicaps as low as 3 and as high as 23, decided to play a couple of different games to help level the playing field. front nine was a team event, them against us, counting your two lowest scores.

team 1
lawn mower guy
marine
pirate
air force guy

team 2
concrete guy
insurance guy
me

now i have to give props to the concrete guy, he played from the tips, now that is what i call a stand up move, so it is obvious that he is a regular guy...lowest handicap and plays from the tips. as the air force guy would say in his best john houseman impression..."well played concrete guy, well played" and the best impression is adequate at best.

the foursome teed off first, so we followed and kept them in sight most of the day, but could really not tell how well they were playing. i was keeping score and driving the cart...two things that i am never allowed to do, but on this day i only missed one hole on the card and kept all 4 wheels on the ground...however, there was on instance on #13 when the insurance guy reached over and grabbed my forearm and said too fast, too fast... i assured him that since the cart paths were dry, he was safe.

so as the round progressed through the front nine, i thought we may have a chance, at one time we were 3 under, mostly due to back to back birdies by the insurance guy! when we arrived at the #9 tee ( i hope you are starting to see a pattern on the ninth hole, i am) we were even and thought for sure we would need a birdie to possibly win. the concrete guy crushed a drive into the forest on the right, the insurance guy hit the fairway...as usual and i drilled one down the left side into the grass bunker, leaving myself about 115 in to the  pin. i will not go into the details of what happened after the tee shots as it would certainly lessen your opinion of all three of us, but we did finish 14 over. 

the front nine is done and its a new 9! we lost $10 on the front and would have won if we would have bogeyed the hole...go figure...but we are not thinking about  that...now it is individual play and we are playing for skins and the closest to the hole on the two par 3's. our back nine is not too bad, but we could just not score, it seemed like all 3 us were on the bogey train...which in this format was a train to "pay me some money".

i will say that the negative side of formats with more than 4 is that you miss out on all the stuff going on in the other group, and from what we heard after the round, we missed quite a bit. the first par 3 that was eligible for a closest was number 14, with a front right pin and now card to be seen on the green, we decided we only needed to hit the green to get some $$. concrete guy went left, insurance guy went wet and i went left in the sand. first thing i thought was...carryover! next par 3 will be worth double...until we arrived at the green to find a card placed ever so neatly pin high, tucked up against the fringe, with the marines name boldly printed on the card...

carding only a few pars on the back we all just figured this round was toast. the last par 3 was once again a dismal failure for us, we could see the card this time, which was neatly placed about 10 feet left of the stick, by the lawn mower guy.

after the round we all gathered in the clubhouse and had a cold one to figure up the scores...this is where the remedial math part comes into play. i think that in my spare time (like i have any of that) i will go back to school and take a high school math class...i think it took us an hour to just figure out who got what. and with the team score pretty easy to figure, it only left paying 2 closest and 4 skins.

now i was not going to mention this, but after rolling this over in my head again and again, i know why we had such a difficult time...there was one guy sitting at the table who would quietly give math answers...that were incorrect and they went unchallenged until the lawn mower guy got out a calculator. i think it ended up correct, the marine possibly is short $3, but i will get back to you on that after the math class.

going to be an event at lonnie poole in raleigh, the n c state course in late january, if you want to play let me know. i should have the math class done by then, so no worries there. i will send out an email with dates and tee times to those who express interest, and until then don't forget to golf your balls.

Monday, December 3, 2012

# 9 @ #5

okay, a little confusing title but it will make sense as you read on.

as you know there are a few of us who play cga events and as you also may know a few of us won tournaments this year.
i won a 4ball event with the cow farmer at prestonwood
i won a 4ball event with the marine at 12 oaks
the marine won a singles event at greensboro national

so as a "treat" we were all invited to play in the year end cga champions event at pinehurst #5; which quite frankly put me in a rather tedious position. i won with two different partners and they would not let a single play in the 4ball event. decisions, decisions. i made my decision the only fair way i could think of...play with the first person i won with - the cow farmer. i was extremely glad when the marine won at gbo national, so he would be able to play in the big event as well!

it worked out well, the marine played in the singles event on saturday and the cow farmer and i played on sunday. i also feel like it was an honor and a priveledge to just be able to play in this event, so up at 0500 to drive to the cow farmers ranch and then off to the meca of golf, the holy grail if you will, the pinnacle of...well you know what i mean. team golf is fun and at the same time a royal pita if you don't play well, and i had not been doing so. i was a bit nervous because you certainly don't want your partner to carry you around the course. the cow farmer and i get along great and i always enjoy playing golf with him, a good friend and a person that just gets along with everyone...so that all sounds great but in reality it adds pressure to the game, because i did not want to let him down. and if you have not figured it out yet, i know how to pick a partner!

we obviously had the inside scoop since the marine had played the day before, so i felt a little more prepared...the whole pinehurst thing can be a bit on the intimidating side. the weather was great, the other team that we were paired with was awesome, a couple of old geezers that had high handicaps, but super regular guys. i would say the course was very nice, not a big "wow" factor, but a challenging course that was in pretty good condition. we played from the white tees, which brought a lot of trouble into play, so if we ever go back, would probably move back to the blue tees. as the round progressed we both seemed to be playing about average, with moments of brilliance. the cow farmer hit a 3 hybrid from around 215 to about 2 feet, out of the rough, which carded him a birdie net eagle. i had 2 birdies that netted eagles...and as far as the rest of the round went, i will not bore you...except for #9; our next to last hole. we both kind of thought that we may be in the hunt and possibly could scare place. only two holes left, just need to stay even or take net birdie...no pressure, none whatsoever. i stand up on the tee box and proceed to pull a driver out of bounds, the cow farmer pipes one right down the middle! i play my provisional ball and put it about 20 feet from the first one...now i don't like to brag about my superior driving abilities, but i very seriously doubt anyone reading this could put two balls within 20 feet of each other...not just out of bounds, but across the road and in some dudes driveway! so knowing that was covered with such a great drive from my partner, i just shook my head in frustration and moved on. we get to the cow farmers ball and determine that he is 147 from the pin and about 130 to the front edge. he decides to play it safe and go to the middle of the green versus shooting at the pin that was neatly tucked behind a bunker that was previously a rock quarry i think...deep! i agree that is the smart play...go get it! so the cow farmer proceeds to fan it out to the right and short...into the cavernous bunker. from the bunker he skanks it across the green and down the hill, he then pitches it up to the top of the hill, he then pitches it on the green and two putts and ends up with a 7 net 6. we have determined that our stellar play on this hole was our demise. but one could argue that it may have been the par 3, the one that i landed my tee shot on the front edge with a back pin, leaving myself a 45 foot uphill putt, that i hit so hard it ran off the back of the green and up a hill, but i did manage to two putt from there.

so although there were as mentioned before moments of brilliance there were also moments of wtf? we ended the round 78 net 65...thinking we should slam the trunk and make the pilgrimage back to reality. but we opted to stick around and see the cards come in...and in they came oh so slowly...i wanted a cheeseburger so bad, i almost bought one there for $17.50. i did notice one thing as the cards came in...we were the lowest net? could it be? could we have pulled off a miracle? could we have actually earned the coveted silver plate? the cow farmer was not optimistic, i secretly was hoping everyone else had the worst round of the year...oh to bring home the hardware would have been such a grand thing to do! my wife would be proud, my kids would jump for joy, the small town i live in would have a parade, i would be on the front page of the local newspaper, on tv...there could even be a possible endorsement from one of the major club manufacturers...okay, that's not happening, but at least i would be happy.

and of course to bring me down to reality once more, the last score card the last two cards that come in are 64 and 65...damn! i am not going to disneyland! but we did t2 and get to have a ton of fun...but we were beat by one freakin stroke...so yes #9 would have been the hole to have played well on, we would have won.

it was a great weekend! not only did we place, but the marine came in second as well! so over the winter there will certainly be golf played, but secretly we will all be preparing for next year, we all want the silver plate.

here are a few quick snapshots of the resort, course and the tournament:

clubhouse and putting green

learning center

clubhouse up close

payne stewart

plaque for payne stewart

donald ross (l) and other dude (r)

#2 18th fairway

#2 18th green

croquet (wtf)

seriously, this is a sport?

main pro shop

2014 us open shop (where i spent my gift card)

maniac hill

we won! (not so fast young man)


Have fun, life is short, play golf with good friends and don't forget to golf your balls!