Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Ode to a magical course Pt. 1

Ok, so there is something I've neglected to post about over the last few weeks. Golf! P and I have been doing PLENTY of it...I'm pretty much addicted, P has years of the game under his belt and is overjoyed that I have found a love for the game. We have golfed quite a few courses this year...it seems those easier ones are the most challenging for me. Perhaps that's because the first course I ever golfed on was one full of hills and challenging greens and it set some standards for the kind of game I enjoy.

We've been golfing with a long time friend of ours .. not too often for myself but enough. At first I was terribly nervous about it..being a complete amateur and all but by now I've learned that there is nothing to be nervous about. Him and P have made me feel very comfortable with my duffers, my 10-putt holes, my 10 drives that get me only 50-feet....they have both been very patient and full of tips and advice that I completely soak up! And when I hit a good shot? Wow, I feel like I'm on a mini-PGA tour or something--the praise and compliments are many.

So last Monday, the three of us decided we were going to attempt to play this course that looked absolutely breathtaking in the photos. I found it over a month ago purely by accident while searching for a different course. Oh, the write up of it seemed like one of those courses well beyond my meager experience....but I'm of the mind that I could care less--the bigger the challenge the more I'm up to trying it.

So anyway last week...we checked the weather for days ahead of our tee-time and each time it seemed to look better and better. By Monday it looked like we were going to have a great day with some sun and possible chance of t-storms. Yeehaw!

We went and paid and P and I were determined to walk the course despite the fact that the manager nearly demanded that we get a cart. Hardly anyone walks this course....no matter to us, we were going to walk it. We were off....we were gonna show him.

Well, the first hole was no where in sight--all we could see was a practice green and arrows to hole one and hole ten...both directions are pretty steep inclines...ahh, that's nothing. We finally got to the top and were greeted with this massive downhill view of the first hole and a flag on the green that looked like a toy flag kids get with their little garages. Yeah, it was far away and the veiw of where exactly the ball might end up if it was hit straight was missing--on either side was another fairway, sand traps, and tops of trees....omg it was beautiful. Yeah, I was starting to question the ability to walk this course by this time.

I would never have imagined in my wildest dreams a course like this...and this was just the first hole. I actually think we spent some time up there trying to decide how exactly to tackle this hole--well, the boys were, I was just soaking up all the scenery.

Above us the skies were rumbling, lightening was appearing, and I was trying to pay attention to the weather but this course--the boys were navigating the hole, discussing things as the skies spit out a streak of lightning that hit a tower in the distance...I threw my club to the ground....good grief. Soon after that P teed off and shot left--we had no idea where that ball ended up but shortly after his tee shot the clubhouse blew the horn for lightning and we had to go inside. We sat, and sat, and sat.....+

The three of us sat there for two hours..this storm was going no where fast--it kind of just hovered over this area for hours. After our patience wore thin and it seemed like the worst was over we decided to go out again...only this time P and I got a cart. Yeah, we caved because my pull cart was injured when T accidently backed up and hit it....no big deal, I think that was a blessing in disguise.

We were able to golf two holes before the sky started to rear its ugly groans and flash its angry daggers...but we continued on. Each of us terrified as we stood at the tee box thinking we were the perfect lightning rod. By hole 5 the rain started or should I say the buckets tipped and we were struggling to get our balls in the hole so we could get in our carts and under the umbrellas to wait out this round....ah, yeah, that lasted all of 2 minutes before we decided to go get a rain check.

That was thee longest ride back to the clubhouse....and it was downpouring....the hills are extremely steep with only wood rails to protect you. As we raced as fast as one can go in a golf cart, we all longingly eyed each passing hole. P and I were saying holy shit look at this one, or omg this looks impossible....rolling hills and trees everywhere....even in the heaviest of rain the sheer beauty of this course is hard to hide.

As we neared the clubhouse I began laughing my ass off...I told P that this day was going to go down in history. P, T, and I will be old and crippled sipping our coffee reminiscing about the good old days and this day will be one of those very memorable ones.....I cannot remember the last time I was out in a rainstorm like that and how much fun it was despite the irritation of not being able to golf.

Yeah, we got rainchecks as we all trailed puddles of water into the clubhouse. It was like we all had gotten in the shower fully clothed..wet rats. We recieved our rainchecks and left there very disappointed and frustrated.

It was decided that we would try to go the following Monday--or yesterday. And we did....

No comments: