An unexpected surprise...

Having resigned myself to cleaning the clubs and putting them up for the winter, I was pleasantly surprised to have been able to play a couple of rounds last week while visiting some of my relatives in Georgia.  

Warner Robins Air Force Base has a very nice facility.  The clubhouse looks relatively new and is quite well appointed.  The locker rooms and shower areas are like some of the ones I have played in the past which cost upwards of $100 per round (Longaberger, some of the courses in North Carolina, etc.).  The restaurant is upscale and the clubhouse, itself, is very nicely done.  Surprisingly enough, the round was under $20 (walking with a pull cart), but the price was not indicative of the quality of the course.  Even with the fairway grass being dormant, and the greens being a bit bumpy, one could see that the course has great character.  It is much nicer than the officers' club at Wright Patterson.

Of course, I will still play Wright Patterson any chance I get to go down there.  Old Dave and I have a grand time whackin' away, even with all it's distractions (gun fire at the ranges, planes flying overhead during crucial putting attempts...).

If you have ever seen the movie, "Bagger Vance" and remember the scenes, there is one particular one in which Bagger finds himself shooting a particularly difficult shot between some trees and brush out to the fairway.  Well, I had a shot that almost looked like it was 

taken from the movie.  On hole #9 (a very nice short par 4 shown above, right), you tee off on a hilltop and the fairway drops off very quickly.  It works its way through trees which tightly hug the sides, challenging, no -- daring you to take out your driver and try to fly the fairway and land on the far side of the upslope.  On my first round, that is exactly what I did.  Did I say I liked a challenge?  Anyway, I had a little "left to right" on the ball and missed the right edge of the fairway by about 15 feet.  When I got to the ball, it was lying on some pine straw, just to the right of a rather large tree, but with a perfect opening to the green.  After sizing up my chances, out came the trusty seven iron and I proceeded to have at it.  I took a nice smooth swing, kept it low, and the ball sailed out and through the opening just as if a fellow of greater skill than I have had hit it.  As soon as I hit it, however, I remembered my first rule of playing golf in the winter -- always use one more club.   So even though the shot was pretty darned good, it ended up in the sand trap just in front of the green.

No problem.  After all, a bunker shot from good sand is the easiest shot in golf, right!?  I hit the ball out of the trap and it landed on the green and came to rest about 18 inches from the cup.  One putt.  Routine par!
Having escaped with a "routine par" on that the first round, when I played the course again in a few days, I knew better than to tempt fate again and hit a 4-hybrid from the tee on the next round (right in the middle of the fairway).

Overall, this was a real treat.  First of all, the game is such a excuse for a walk in nature.  But more than that, it is a fair challenge to myself.  A challenge to have fun, enjoy the surroundings, play as well as I can, and never get angry or frustrated with a game I will never master.  After all, how can you get flustered with a place that looks like this...

Oh, and I almost forgot, I shot an 87 on the first round and an 89 on the second.   Those are actually pretty good scores for me any time, but "great" in the last week of November, a week with temps in the 20s back home.

One of the most fascinating things about golf is how it reflects the cycle of life.  No matter what you shoot - the next day you have to go back to the first tee and begin all over again and make yourself into something.  (Peter Jacobsen)

Hooah