Man Trip '19 ...

As I sit here in January 2020 putting together my thoughts for this year's golf trip, I thought I had better go back and tell you about last year's trip to the Winston-Salem area of North Carolina.  We had a wonderful time and it was great to get together, play golf, tell stories and just relax.  So here are some of the highlights...

One of the courses we played, Bermuda Run West, was pretty nice, but a bit wet on the back nine.  Three of the guys in the group I was in hit tee shots that looked like they landed within a foot of each other, right in the center of the fairway.  When we waded out to find the shots, we couldn't find any of them -- just lots of standing water.  But, as you can see, it was sunny and warm and we had a good time playing here and reading texts from the guys back in Ohio. 

In all, we played 4 days, three of them in the Winston-Salem area and one at Pilot Mountain on the way home.  Here are some of the pictures from the various courses and some thoughts.  Looking back at this has put me in the mood to get out the info to our group regarding this year's trip.  This one will be just a bit different because I now live in NC so I will be doing this planning and communicating over the internet.  We'll see how this goes.

 Since the trip was in March, a lot of the guys were a bit rusty on some of their "money" skills.  But these 4 were pretty much dialed in and seemed to win all the holes and the big bucks. 

The biggest problem for many of us was the aeration of the greens, which had been done a week or so prior to us getting there.  I can't tell you how many times a putt would be rolling right toward the hole and then hit an aeration hole and take a hard turn.  I

    guess that's what is known as "rub
    of the green."  Wonder who made
    up that term and if he made
    his putt...probably not.

    I'm not trying to single out these four guys, but they really did putt well.  Al and Scott were good touch putters, while Les and John did well with the "aim and hit" method.  Whatever the condition of the greens, these guys did well.



Given the time of the year and the lack of a lot of playing time back in Ohio, a couple of guys seemed to have some really outstanding tee shots.  Trouble was, it was so "hit or miss" (pardon the pun) that it was hard to develop a consistent swing.  However, these guys happened to be hitting 'em well when I had the camera out.  That's one of the rules on this trip -- if you hit some good ones and I get pictures of them, then all the rest of the bad ones didn't happen.  That's our story and we stick to it.

 Steve was probably the most consistent in his drives, but that has been his trademark ever since I have known him.  He just steps up there and hits it -- generally straight and long.

Dave has really stepped up his game with the driver.  He hits it down the fairway with a nice little right to left movement on it -- not so far -- but almost always ending up in the center of the fairway.  Not too bad for a leftie.

Al is a power hitter.  He gets pretty good turn on his swing and generally makes solid contact. His shot has lots of power to it, but he kinda looks like some of the good old boys I play with here in that it is contained and not wild.  He can hit a few off to the right once in a while, but generally fixes that and gets back to his normal game.

Jerry is another lefty in hitting the ball, although he does everything else as a righty.  On this particular trip, he lit into a few that really sailed. I think he probably had more in the fairway than out over the week.  Regardless, he really whacked 'em when I had the camera out.  He must like the bright lights.  I'll get the camera out more on this trip, Jerry.

But when all was said and done, it came down to a couple of things --
1.  The ball ended up in the bottom of the cup more often than it slid on by...

2.  Everyone had a good time and enjoyed the sunshine ...

Yep, writing this article about last year's trip has certainly fired me up.  Dave and I have been doing this for quite a while.  Chuck is no longer with us, Dave B . says he is getting too old to do this, and others have come and gone.  Many of us take along extra tubes of "Blue Emu" or Aspercream or extra Advil, but we manage to fight through for four days.  It's great being together.  Jim even went last year and wasn't able to play as he was recovering from surgery and was only able to drive a cart and putt.  Looking forward to going again this year. And, oh yeah, playing golf too.

Old friends are like old golf clubs, they're still the best.

Hooah

P.S. If you really want the inside skinny on how these trips play out, check out this quote ...

" I had a wonderful experience on the golf course today. I had a hole in nothing. Missed the ball and sank the divot."  (Don Adams)