Made in the Shade

After watching Louis Oosthuizen tear up the Old Course at St. Andrews I thought I was ready to "go low" at Orange Tree Golf Resort. The Gardener and I decided to play at Orange Tree because it has some mature shade trees and is more of a Midwestern-type course than an Arizona desert course. We played in the middle of the day and the temperature was about 108 degrees, but there was a little breeze that helped (you know, it is a "dry heat").

Orange Tree Golf Course is a 6,775 yards par-72 course from the back tees with a course rating of 70.7 and a slope rating of 121. We were paired with a couple from Topeka, Kansas on vacation. I have no idea what they were doing on vacation in Arizona in mid-July. The wife, Sheri, was about 15-20 years younger than her husband and she was about 6 feet tall and very athletically built. Starting with the first hole, she bombed the ball off of the tees and outdrove the men from the women's tees by 20+ yards or more. It was very embarrassing, but I blamed it on my surgically repaired elbow. I do not know what excuse the Gardener used. I was not hitting the ball very long, but I was hitting it about as straight as I have ever hit the ball. I hit 7 of the first 8 fairways. I was 3 under bogey when I got to the par-4 9th hole. My drive was in the fairway and I proceeded to make a 6 from the middle of the fairway! I shot a 44 on the front 9 and felt like I played better than my score. The Gardener shot a 42 on the front 9 and was hitting the ball pretty well. Both of us were having trouble on the putting surface because the greens had been aerated and sanded and were very slow.

On the back 9 I continued to drive the ball well for a while. I was 2 under bogey after 3 holes and then I double-bogeyed the par-5 13th hole. I hit a poor tee shot on the 16th hole but made a really good recovery and one putt for a par. The 18th hole at Orange Tree is the signature hole and plays to the no. 1 handicap on the course. I played the hole well and just needed a two-putt for par, but I three-putted the hole for another bogey. I shot a bookend 44 for an 88 total, which I thought was okay. However, because of the course rating and slope rating my differential was 16.2, which will not help my handicap index. The Gardener shot a 44 on the back 9 and beat me by 2 strokes.