Weekend Wrap-Up

While laid up with my funny bone injury, this gives me a chance to catch up on last week's golf. On Saturday, Chad Feldheimer and I went back to Vistal Golf Club, which is located in south Phoenix in the South Mountain foothills (the bottom of the home page has an animated fly-over of each hole). It is a beautiful location with wonderful views of South Mountain, Camelback Mountain, Squaw Peak and downtown Phoenix. The golf course was renovated and extended so that it plays 7,013 yards from the blue tip tees. I shot a fairly uneventful 89 with a birdie 2 on the 200+ yard par-3 13th hole. The excitement of the day was Chad's tee shot on the par-3 191 yard 15th hole. His tee shot rimmed and circled the cup and ended up less than a foot from the flagstick for a kick-in birdie. But the real excitement was on the elevated par 4 6th hole. Chad was checking my ball position and alignment and he almost jumped out of his skin. Not more than 10 feet from him, there was a huge snake in the desert that looked like a diamondback rattlesnake, but Chad did not stay around long enough to check it out.

On Sunday, I decided to go out to the Indian Bend Golf Course at Camelback Country Club by myself. The temperature was about 108 degrees and I figured the course would be empty and I would hit 2 or 3 balls and just practice. I was wrong! When the price of golf drops there are a lot of people like me that will play notwithstanding the weather. I played with 2 other singles and the course was packed. We played from the red "baby tees" that measure 6,486 yards. I had tap-in birdies on the two par-5s on the front 9 and shot a 41 with book-end double-bogeys. I felt like Phil Mickelson or Tiger Woods making easy birdies on the par-5 holes. I was a little unlucky on the 1st and 9th holes because I drove the ball through the fairways and ended up behind the trees and I had to chip out on No. 1 and I tried a heroic shot on No. 9 and failed. On the back 9 I was on the par-5 greens in regulation with reasonable opportunities for birdie but did not make either birdie putt. I shot a 42 on the back 9 for an 83 total. I had a lot more 7, 8 and 9-iron shots into the greens than when I play from the "big boy tees".

In recognition of my impending surgery, Chad Feldheimer and I played a late afternoon round of golf at Stonecreek Golf Club on Tuesday. We teed off at about 4:45 and sunset is about 7:45 so we thought we would not have any problems finishing before it was dark. We got stuck behind a threesome on the 4th hole and we waited on each shot until the turn. The threesome must have quit after 9 holes and we moved along well until about the 14th hole when we caught up with another group and waited on each shot coming home. We finished just as the sun set. I shot a pedestrian 90 with 45s on each side. A coyote mother and father with 5 cubs followed us in the dry wash for part of the back 9 holes. On the par-5 13th hole I was 30 yards from the green hitting my third shot and skulled the ball over the green and into the dry wash area. I thought about leaving the ball since I was not sure where the coyotes were lurking, but my frugality took over and I risked life and limb to retrieve the ball and make bogey.