Man Trip 3, Part 2...

It's kinda funny -- sitting here typing up this entry, watching my short-lived tan fade away.  Those three days of golfing in the warm sun gave me a touch of color, but it's fading away about as quickly as the memory of that 40-foot putt I made for a lucky first birdie of the year.

But enough of that.  Let's get back to the matter at hand...GOLF and beautiful courses.

You know, when you have played this game as long as I have (I started in high school in 1963), you know your game is what it is so you take everything in stride.  I haven't thrown a club in years, and I don't even swear any more when I hit a bad shot. I shoot within a couple of strokes of bogey golf (+/-)  and that's OK with me.  If I hit a shot badly but it comes out OK, I simply say, "That worked out well."  Most of the time, I'm just glad to be out there.  These days, I spend a good bit more time on the course just noticing "things."

Some of the things I noticed when playing these courses are the following:

1) I like a course layout that has each hole being its own self.  You don't see or hear other players when you are on a hole.  The sides are lined with tall pine trees and there are shorter hardwood trees under them.  Sometimes, if it is a really nice course, there will be flowers and flowering bushes in under the trees.  It really is hard to get angry at a game when there is such beauty around.  Of course, sometimes, it's also hard to concentrate too.

2)  I don't think I could afford to belong to a course that has actual concrete cart paths all along the course.  I've played lots of them with bark chip paths for the carts, and lots of them with gravel.  I've even played lots with asphalt paths.  But I can't really imagine how much it cost to put real concrete drives in.  I know how much it costs to do a driveway.

3)  It seems that lots of courses now have golf carts that have GPS systems built in.  That's really nice, especially when you are not familiar with the course.  There are lots of hidden dangers out there on courses these days, and it's good to know distances too.  However, one thing I don't like is that thing busting my chops about taking a cart off the path, or playing too slowly (partly because the locals up ahead of us were playing very slowly).  The carts should be helpful, not beeping and flashing out messages to me.It should not be another version of "big brother."  Remember, I know how to turn you off!! Also, they should actually work and should be accurate.

One of my shots landed about a foot from the green -- in the pond.

4)  Each hole should be a surprise, different from the one before it and from the one following it.  A golf hole should be like the little old lady who gave me my first flight test and said  "Let's have at it.  It's OK to surprise me, just don't scare me to death."  Each hole should present a different visual bouquet for the golfer -- whether it is a long hole with elevation changes and a challenging approach, or a hole with a beautiful lake by the green and maybe an accompanying waterfall.  I even like it when there are visits by wildlife (deer, rabbits, birds), just checking on my game.  I used to tell students in my English classes that their papers should make me think about what they said, and I should be able to remember something of their paper after having graded all of them.  That's how they would get a good grade. The same is true for golf holes and golf courses.
 

Click on this twice to see whole thing.

5)  While I also think a course should present lots of surprises, it should also come as advertised.  The Traditions was advertised as having "very tight fairways."  So I had to take this picture of a maintenance path off to the left of the 18th hole.  I was going to try to tell you that that was the fairway, but I know you wouldn't believe it.  I did, however, tee one up and try to hit it through there.  I choked down on the 3-wood and whacked away.  It was actually one of the straightest shots I hit all day and got clear down to that last tree near the end when it hit a limb. Somewhere in there is a Callaway War Bird with 3 dots on it. 

6)  One last thing I have noticed over the years -- if a course is really that interesting, it should be played again, and soon.  Having said that, we decided to forego the Ohio State first round game that was coming up that afternoon and play 9 more holes.  The guy in the pro shop said we could go again for $10 so we decided to have at it.  Besides, the Buckeyes would, in all likelihood, be playing again in a couple of days.  And in a couple of more days, we might be back in snow in Ohio.

Golf gives you an insight into human nature, your own as well as your opponent's.  (Grantland Rice)

Hooah