The Golf Thread

[OhioBlue]

I'm cursed, I swear.

Some of you may remember the tournament we had at Thanksgiving Point in 2004 with the '84 team. If you were there, then you most certainly will also remember the weather that morning.

Since then, I kid you not, everytime I plan long in advance to play 18, the kind of planning that makes it an occasion and something to look forward to, I can be assured on that day for those few hours the weather will be horrible. If it's a casual 9 somewhere, or a spur of the moment thing where we grab a tee time a couple days earlier, I'm fine. But if I'm actually planning and looking forward to it, fugeddaboutit.

So tomorrow morning was an outing with friends of mine that was a month in planning. Supposed to be 45 degrees at 8 am, coin-flip chance of rain. With my luck, that will mean gale force winds and hail.

The golf gods aren't just mean while you're on the course. Maybe they're trying to tell me something.

[il Padrino Ute]

I'm cursed, I swear.

Some of you may remember the tournament we had at Thanksgiving Point in 2004 with the '84 team. If you were there, then you most certainly will also remember the weather that morning.

I remember that day. PAC had his unfortunate accident with spandex and you allowed me to take his place. Playing with Napper, Senioritis and ColoUte was great fun, despite the early lousy weather and the fact that I had left my golf shoes home, so I was playing in some Nike cross trainers that day.

[byu71]

I remember my son was smart enough to bring his cart cover. Bosco came up and asked if he and Lavelle could have our cart with the cover. I told him, you only won one national championship. It would take more than one to get the cart with the cover.

[il Padrino Ute]

I remember my son was smart enough to bring his cart cover. Bosco came up and asked if he and Lavelle could have our cart with the cover. I told him, you only won one national championship. It would take more than one to get the cart with the cover.

Good for you. I hate when celebrities expect that their demands be fulfilled.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

I refute any implication as to an elite mentality. I've been known to build my own clubs, (very uncool). I don't belong to a country club, but I admit to driving my Mercedes to the public course instead of my Infiniti. I'm barely a middle class golfer as far as status goes, and even though I live in Oregon, I've yet to play Bandon Dunes, because it would cost $300 per round with a caddy.

Golfing Bandon is like seeing Crater Lake, the headwaters of the Metolius, Rooster Rock and eating clam chowder at Mo's. If you haven't done it then you might not be a real Oregonian.

Old MacDonald just opened, and it looks awesome.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

I remember my son was smart enough to bring his cart cover. Bosco came up and asked if he and Lavelle could have our cart with the cover. I told him, you only won one national championship. It would take more than one to get the cart with the cover.

Had LaVell asked would you have given it up? I can see turning Bosco away, but I think you would have given it to the big guy.

[Katy Lied]

Golfing Bandon is like seeing Crater Lake, the headwaters of the Metolius, Rooster Rock and eating clam chowder at Mo's. If you haven't done it then you might not be a real Oregonian.

Old MacDonald just opened, and it looks awesome.

My husband loves Bandon Dunes. He takes his mancations in Oregon just for that. He got to play Old MacDonald before it opened and sorry, he didn't like it very much. He just didn't like the layout or the shape of the holes.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

My husband loves Bandon Dunes. He takes his mancations in Oregon just for that. He got to play Old MacDonald before it opened and sorry, he didn't like it very much. He just didn't like the layout or the shape of the holes.

How long ago? I know that for a while before it opened they would reset your ball on a mat so that nobody would hurt the course as it was growing in. That was why we didn't play the 10 hole offering last year.

Which course does he like best there? A lot of people seem to love Bandon Trails, but that is my least favorite.

[Katy Lied]

My husband golfed there in October 2009--I think he combined it with the Ute-Oregon game. He said you still have to hit off mats when they overseed, but when he didn't have to when he was there. He was golfing with the Director of HR for the course, so I guess that's why he got on.

He said he likes Bandon Trails the best, as you have noted. He likes the beauty.

[Katy Lied]

Here is my golf complaint for the season:

I'm in this golf league at work. It's every other Friday, 16 dates, which is super long. There are 19 people in the league, pay attention to this number, which I will come back to. 3 of us are women and 16 men.

The first three games are for handicap, and I stunk up the course the first outing, placing 16 out of 19. I beat the other two women and one of the men. I didn't mind my poor score because I knew it was for handicap, plus it was my first outing this year and I'm always really bad at the start of the season.

The second game, the rest of my foursome got called to a project meeting in Idaho, so they went on Saturday, and I went by myself on Friday. I brought my husband with me and improved my score a lot. I play much better with my husband, not because he lets me cheat, but because he offers advice on club selection, strategy, and he has a really nice rangefinder (gifted by me, thank you) which helps my shot. He draws the line at reading the greens for me, which he thinks is cheating. But I digress.

We can't just report our scores, we have to turn them in on the original card. When I turned in my score on the second game, I looked at the scores report from the week before. I noticed several spouses were signed up, which I thought was open to only employees. So the next day I emailed the director of the league, a coworker, and asked if my husband could join. If I'm going to spend 2-3 hours on the links every other Friday, I'd like to spend it with my husband. Plus, I play way better with him (see above).

I couldn't believe it when my coworker said no. I pointed out that other spouses were members, and 20 people is a much better number for a league than 19. But I was told no, he had signed up too late. I checked the scores later that day and saw that 3 other people had newly signed up, so there were now 22 people participating. When I asked about the new people, he said "well, employees can sign up late, just not spouses."

I was mystified, until I remembered that when I turned my score card in, it had my husband's score as well. The league director even asked who I had played with for that round. Since he is a pretty good player and super competitive, he doesn't want to let my husband join because Mr. Lied might challenge him for the title. Rat bastard.

[cougjunkie]

Can you play to much golf?

I have played 45 holes in the past 3 days.

Day 1 I shot an 89 at Riverbend.

Day 2 I played 9 holes in 40 mph winds out at the Ranches and I was pretty happy with my 43 on 9 holes.

Day 3 I played 18 at Sleepy Ridge. Front nine I played decent and shot a 43. Back 9 the wheels completely came off, It was unbelievable I threw up a 58!!!!!! on the back. I am not sure I will ever bounce back from that.

[il Padrino Ute]

Can you play to much golf?

No.

[OhioBlue]

I'm cursed, I swear.

Some of you may remember the tournament we had at Thanksgiving Point in 2004 with the '84 team. If you were there, then you most certainly will also remember the weather that morning.

Since then, I kid you not, everytime I plan long in advance to play 18, the kind of planning that makes it an occasion and something to look forward to, I can be assured on that day for those few hours the weather will be horrible. If it's a casual 9 somewhere, or a spur of the moment thing where we grab a tee time a couple days earlier, I'm fine. But if I'm actually planning and looking forward to it, fugeddaboutit.

So tomorrow morning was an outing with friends of mine that was a month in planning. Supposed to be 45 degrees at 8 am, coin-flip chance of rain. With my luck, that will mean gale force winds and hail.

The golf gods aren't just mean while you're on the course. Maybe they're trying to tell me something.

Finally my complaints were heard. Beautiful morning this morning, just a little chilly and some breeze at times, but overall I feel sheepish now for my tirade.

The golf was fun, if mostly just for hanging out with good company and enjoying a few good shots. I just don't play enough to have expectations anymore.

Highlight of the day for me was a par 5 with water on the right (on the back 9 at Fox Hollow for those who know the course). Hit my drive exactly 350 yards measured (40-50 of those probably wind aided but I crushed it either way). 7-iron over the water onto the green in 2, within 20, Perfect draw to a back pin.

Missed the eagle putt, but it was a great hole. I'll probably never do that again on that hole.

[Drunk Tank]

I played 36 with the Tick yesterday and I shot dismal 100 (had an 11 on a par 5 ) and and a 91. I went to bed at 230 am and got up at 6, and @ 10am played another 18 and shot a 99. I was shocked I did that well. I was pulling everything left and lost 2 sleeves of golf balls. I was dehydrated and really fatigued. Not a great day for golf.

If I can glean anything positive, it is that I am consistently hitting better golf shots and scoring well. My poor scores usually consist of 2-3 bad holes that kill the entire round for me.

[chrisrenrut]

Someone mentioned that a good part of the enjoyment playing golf is playing with good friends. I agree, but I also love the opportunity to meet other people when playing by myself.

I got the chance yesterday to play Bountiful Ridge with a truckdriver from Chicago named Amos. He is a black man with a wife and 3 kids, and he brings his clubs with him where ever he goes. Whenever he as a layover (or whatever truckers call them when they have to wait in a town for some reason) he finds a course to play.

He and I played as a twosome on what turned out to be a great afternoon weather-wise. He was impressed with the course, and commented on the scenery on nearly every hole.

On the back nine, we ran into quite a few deer, as is common at BR. This really amazed him. As you cross the road from 12 to 13, there were 4 deer just of the cart path, and one of them seemed to be following us. When we got to the other side, the deer was acting funny, and started coming towards us. It turns out he was just trying to "get to the other side", but in doing so he had to run within feet of us. I was able to pull out the blackberry and grab a picture, then email it to him. Hopefully he'll have a positive memory and story to tell his kids about the time he had to spend in Utah one Memorial day weekend, while he was missing his oldest boy's baseball game.

The great thing was that despite him and I having nothing much in common except for loving golf, we became pretty good acquaintances, and even exchanged numbers so that if he passes through again we can hopefully play another round. Despite our differences and how miserable we played (high 90's), it was one of the more enjoyable rounds I've had in a while. Here is a link to the picture of the deer.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink