baldguy
Part-Time Sasquatch
I'm not talking about tournament play or anything too serious, but today I played a round that started out fun but ended up being a miserable experience. For starters, know that one of the main reasons I started playing golf again was to spend time with my old man. He's not as active as he used to be and any time we can get together out on the course should be the highlight of my weekend. That's almost always the case, just not today. He doesn't play nearly as much as I do and he's a much higher handicapper than I am. Still, we manage to have fun every time out. Just not today.
We picked a nice public course near his house for our outing. Being a holiday-ish weekend and nice weather, the place was packed to the gills. This facility has three (and a half) courses and there were at least 250 golfers on it during all of daylight. We arrived early to warm up on the range, but it was closed (crazy on such a busy day). At our first tee, he and I were supposed to be paired with another twosome. Well, that twosome ended up being a foursome (clubhouse error) so we let them play in front of us. Another twosome behind us had the same issue (their paired twosome also became a foursome) so they joined us. Tee times were already crowded but we had to introduce a whole new grouping... c'est la vie. We teed off about 30 minutes late, mainly due to a foursome of ladies two groups in front of us taking more than 20 minutes on the easy par 4 first. No big deal. I stepped up cold and pounded a great drive, straight and actually through the dogleg and off the fairway by a few feet. I GPS'd it at 275 yards... haven't had to worry about hitting through that turn before, but oh well. felt great to do that without warming up . I pitched up for an easy par. This should be a good round
three or four holes later, we're still playing slowly as expected. We're waiting on every hole. As soon as the group in front of us clears the green we're all ready to hit in... and the marshal comes up to us and asks us to pick up pace of play. I counter that we've been waiting all morning and are playing as quickly as the group in front of us allows. He looks back and says "well they're off the green now". We would have already been hitting if he had not ridden up our fairway to complain... *sigh*. Yes sir, we'll pick it up. I hit, and two of the others in the group do, too. My dad is last to hit, and the group behind us decides they've waited long enough and drives into us. one of their balls comes rolling past us. The marshal, of course, is already long gone.
We get through nine and sit on the 10th tee for at least 10 minutes, waiting on the group in front. The one and only beverage cart girl (for all 62 holes, according to her) arrives. We grab some snacks and a couple beers and continue to wait. We will not see her again for the rest of the round. Finally we're able to hit. No sign of the group behind us even with all the waiting, so our pace of play is obviously not the issue. Two holes later another shot into us from the group behind. This time it nearly hit me. It missed me by maybe 3 feet left, in the air. It missed my cart by even less. I haven't even reached my drive yet to hit my second shot and they were driving into us *again*? I was starting to get mad so I walked up, picked up the cheap ball and put it in my pocket. Let him ask me about it if he wants to. Was that the right thing to do? Probably not... but I was not going to put up with this crap. I guess he was used to it because he never said anything to me about it. I'm getting frustrated with my own game, and the group is starting to hit a lot more bad shots... this course doesn't allow for many bad shots. We're all losing balls in the woods and the water. You can feel the frustration level of the foursome rising as a whole. We're trying to keep spirits up and enjoy this outing we all paid good money for and dedicated most of our saturdays to... but we're losing that battle. On the 16th we're standing in the fairway waiting on the group in front to clear the green and *another* ball flies in, this time behind us by a few yards and into a bunker. I look at one of the guys playing with us and he just says "I dunno, man". I leave it there this time but if I see that marshal again...
After 18 we all shook hands and got the hell off that course. I was 45 on the front which for me is outstanding... 57 on the back. I am mostly to blame of course but I can't help feeling like the circumstances just killed any chance I had at shooting one of my lowest scores ever. I definitely won't be visiting there again on a weekend any time soon.
We picked a nice public course near his house for our outing. Being a holiday-ish weekend and nice weather, the place was packed to the gills. This facility has three (and a half) courses and there were at least 250 golfers on it during all of daylight. We arrived early to warm up on the range, but it was closed (crazy on such a busy day). At our first tee, he and I were supposed to be paired with another twosome. Well, that twosome ended up being a foursome (clubhouse error) so we let them play in front of us. Another twosome behind us had the same issue (their paired twosome also became a foursome) so they joined us. Tee times were already crowded but we had to introduce a whole new grouping... c'est la vie. We teed off about 30 minutes late, mainly due to a foursome of ladies two groups in front of us taking more than 20 minutes on the easy par 4 first. No big deal. I stepped up cold and pounded a great drive, straight and actually through the dogleg and off the fairway by a few feet. I GPS'd it at 275 yards... haven't had to worry about hitting through that turn before, but oh well. felt great to do that without warming up . I pitched up for an easy par. This should be a good round
three or four holes later, we're still playing slowly as expected. We're waiting on every hole. As soon as the group in front of us clears the green we're all ready to hit in... and the marshal comes up to us and asks us to pick up pace of play. I counter that we've been waiting all morning and are playing as quickly as the group in front of us allows. He looks back and says "well they're off the green now". We would have already been hitting if he had not ridden up our fairway to complain... *sigh*. Yes sir, we'll pick it up. I hit, and two of the others in the group do, too. My dad is last to hit, and the group behind us decides they've waited long enough and drives into us. one of their balls comes rolling past us. The marshal, of course, is already long gone.
We get through nine and sit on the 10th tee for at least 10 minutes, waiting on the group in front. The one and only beverage cart girl (for all 62 holes, according to her) arrives. We grab some snacks and a couple beers and continue to wait. We will not see her again for the rest of the round. Finally we're able to hit. No sign of the group behind us even with all the waiting, so our pace of play is obviously not the issue. Two holes later another shot into us from the group behind. This time it nearly hit me. It missed me by maybe 3 feet left, in the air. It missed my cart by even less. I haven't even reached my drive yet to hit my second shot and they were driving into us *again*? I was starting to get mad so I walked up, picked up the cheap ball and put it in my pocket. Let him ask me about it if he wants to. Was that the right thing to do? Probably not... but I was not going to put up with this crap. I guess he was used to it because he never said anything to me about it. I'm getting frustrated with my own game, and the group is starting to hit a lot more bad shots... this course doesn't allow for many bad shots. We're all losing balls in the woods and the water. You can feel the frustration level of the foursome rising as a whole. We're trying to keep spirits up and enjoy this outing we all paid good money for and dedicated most of our saturdays to... but we're losing that battle. On the 16th we're standing in the fairway waiting on the group in front to clear the green and *another* ball flies in, this time behind us by a few yards and into a bunker. I look at one of the guys playing with us and he just says "I dunno, man". I leave it there this time but if I see that marshal again...
After 18 we all shook hands and got the hell off that course. I was 45 on the front which for me is outstanding... 57 on the back. I am mostly to blame of course but I can't help feeling like the circumstances just killed any chance I had at shooting one of my lowest scores ever. I definitely won't be visiting there again on a weekend any time soon.