The Perfect Sports Day

Sunday was a sports day. Hiking in the early morning with SO, golf in the afternoon with the Gardener and floor seats at the Suns basketball game in the evening. It does not get much better than that! The weather was cold in the morning when we went hiking, but it warmed up to about 70 degrees with clear skies by mid-afternoon. Perfect golf weather!

I have got the Gardener into a physical fitness routine. His wife bought him a pull cart for his golf clubs and we have been walking the golf courses. He has become a bit of a pull cart snob. A few weeks ago we played at ASU Karsten Golf Course and the course would not allow him to use his pull carts so the Gardener decided to spite the course and ride in a cart rather than walk and carry his bag. I have absolutely no idea why a golf course would not permit pull carts other than golfers may pull them through the sand bunkers or across the green. I guess you need to make rules for the lowest common denominator. This week we played at Aguila Golf Course in South Phoenix. In the areas within 25 yards or so of the greens there were signs prohibiting golf carts from getting any closer to the greens, which is normal. But there were also signs prohibiting pull carts around the greens. As a pull cart snob, the Gardener was a little miffed about this rule. Of course, he understood not to pull his cart over the green or even the apron around the green, but 25 yards from the green, come on!

Aguila is the newest of the Phoenix municipal courses. It is a really nice track (see photo gallery)that plays to more than 7,000 yards from the black tees. There were three or four holes where the course was adding additional tee boxes to lengthen the course that were not yet open. Thank goodness! The course was designed by Gary Panks, who is one of the most prolific golf course designers in Arizona, with credits for The Golf Club at Chaparral Pines, Firerock Country Club, Whirlwind Golf Club (Cattail Course) and Whirlwind Golf Club (Devils Claw Course), among many others. Aguila is an interesting layout because there are two drivable (not for me) 300 yard par-4 holes and one short par-3 hole, which means that the par-4 holes are monsters. There are 5 par-4 holes that range from 433 yards to 471 yards. The course rating is 72.4 and the slope rating is 129.

The course was closed for a few months recently to redesign the bunkers because the golfers complained about the number and size of the fairway bunkers, the depth of the greenside bunkers and the lack of sand in the greenside bunkers. I never played the course with all of the bunkers but Matt, our playing partner on Sunday, pointed out a number of the bunker locations that are now grass. The only disappointing part of the golf course are the newly-renovated greenside bunkers. Matt said they used to be deep and difficult to escape. Now they are flat and serve no purpose. I actually putted out of three of the greenside bunkers with no difficulty. I would have liked to play the course as originally designed.

I played very consistently. I was generally hitting my driver straight down the middle of the fairway and hitting my hybrids and long irons okay. I only had two double-bogeys, one where I hit the ball into the water and another on a par-3 where I just mishit my tee shot and took a penalty stroke. I made a birdie on a par-5 hole and had 4 pars for an 86. On Saturday, I worked on my flop shot at the practice facility. After hitting about 30 flop shots without mishitting one, I was really comfortable hitting that shot. I hit three flop shots on Sunday from difficult positions out of the desert or over greenside bunkers. One was close enough that I did not need my putter and the other two were in the makeable putt range. The Gardener played really well in long stretches, but had a few erratic holes that killed his round. He shot a 90.

After golf, we washed up and headed to U.S. Airways Arena to see the Suns play the New Orleans Hornets and Chris Paul. Our seats were in the third row on the floor behind one of the baskets. The Suns played really well for 47 minutes and 30 seconds and then almost blew an 8 point lead in the last 30 seconds, but held on to win the game. The floor seats under the basket are really cool because you can see all of the action up close and you can see how big, athletic and physical the players are. If I had a choice of any seat in the house for a full season I would not want to sit in these seats because a small portion of the court is obstructed by the basket stanchion and you are peaking from one side to the other, but for one game it was a lot of fun (and the price was right).

The Tiniest Violin

Chad Feldheimer and I played the Legacy Golf Resort course today. The course was rated as one of the top 10 public golf courses to play in Phoenix by Golf Digest and ESPN.com/travel. The golf course was designed by Gary Panks, who designed a lot of the top public and private golf courses in Arizona, including Chaparral Pines, Firerock Country Club and the Talon Course at Grayhawk. It is a very "playable" course with wide fairways and very large greens, but it also has some well-placed and deep fairway and greenside bunkers and elevated greens that require you to carry the ball all of the way to the hole or risk the ball rolling back into the fairway off of the false fronts on the green. The course has great views of Camelback Mountain, Squaw Peak and the downtown Phoenix skyline.

Chad Feldheimer made me play from the "big boy" tees, which are over 6,900 yards. From the back tees, the golf course is a par-71 and has a course rating of 72.1 and a slope rating of 128. Our tee time was 8:44 a.m. and it was still brisk. I was dressed with long pants, a long sleeve rugby shirt and a jacket. The other locals were dressed similarly. The "snowbirds" and vacationers were dressed in shorts and short-sleeve shirts! By the turn, the weather warmed up to about 70 degrees, but there was still a breeze and it was a little overcast.

I was striking the ball really well. From tee to green I played very consistently and hit a lot of good shots. I hit 5 of 7 fairways and 4 of 9 greens in regulation on the front 9, but I had 21 putts (four 3-putts!) and shot a 48. Other than my putting, the hole that killed me was the par-3, 150 yard 7th hole. I hit what looked to be a nice tee shot but the ball rolled off of the false front of the green and into a monstrous greenside bunker with very little sand! I blasted out of the bunker and skulled the ball over the green into the desert brush, banged my club on the metal fence on my next shot and picked up for a triple bogey maximum 6 on the hole! If I have 18 putts and make par on the 7th hole I would have shot a 42 (Chad is playing the tiniest violin in the world for me)!

I continued to hit the ball well on the back 9, but still had problems scoring. I played bogey golf on the par-3s and par-4s, but was 4 over on the par-5s. The par-5s were long, but easily reachable in 3 strokes for me. That is where I should be making up strokes to bogey, not losing them! On the par-5, 580 yard 14th hole, I hit my third shot into the greenside bunker and took 2 shots to get out of the bunker for a 7 on the hole. On the par-5, 545 yard finishing hole, I hit my drive out of bounds and made a 7 on the hole. I did improve my putting and had 18 putts on the back nine for a 47 and a 95 for the round.

Chad was whining after shooting a 40 on the front 9 and going bogey-bogey-bogey to start the back 9, but then he caught fire and had back-to-back birdies on the par-5 14th hole and the par-3 15th hole and finished the back 9 with a 37 for a 6 over par 77.

Realistically, as well as I hit the ball tee to green, I could easily have shot an 85. After the round, Chad Feldheimer worked with me on my sand game at the practice facilities, but my confidence out of the sand is pretty low. If I can improve my play around the greens, I should be able to shave 5 or more strokes off of my score. I need to find a convenient short game practice facility to work on my game.