3 in 1

Sunday 26th part 2

I headed out after lunch, going to a second hand book shop and a golf shop before arriving at the golf course. I didn't buy anything at either of them. I did find a putter that I was sort of interested in, but I'm not really convinced that I putt any better with it than with my current one that I've had for over 20 years.

This course provides free balls on the putting green, chipping green and driving range, so I deliberately arrived early to get some practice in. I had booked for after 3, because the price drops from $85 to $45 at that time. When I got to the tee, I was told I was on my own. I decided to play off the Gold tees today. This course has 5 different tee placements with gold being the second longest after black. I think I played off the blues, which are the middle distance, last time. This was the 3rd country in fact the 3rd continent that I have played golf on this month.

I started driving well enough but didn't putt or chip as well. By the 3rd hole I had caught up to the two young guys in front of me and a few hole later when I was waiting with them to tee off on a par 3 and they didn't ask me to join up, I waited for the pair behind me and joined with them, Eddie is a consultant drilling engineer and he was playing with his 12 year old son Scottie.

After a slow start, I had a run of pars to finish the front 9 with 46. I then had a birdie and another par to start the back 9. However, the last few holes had a lot of water and I seemed to find most of it including one hole where I putt 3 shots into 2 different lakes and a stream. The signature 18th with its island green took about the 4th ball that I put in water and couldn't recover. I did see a beaver sitting just by this green. I played most of the round with one of my fingers rubbing and although I put a band aid on it, that didn't last very long. It wasn't till I finished I saw how badly blistered it was. At least I had an excuse for my bad shots!!! I manage to break 100 but not by a whole lot.

Despite seeming to wait almost every shot, we actually finished in just on 4 hours. I guess with everyone using carts, you move between shots and between green and tee very quickly. They have daylight saving here so it was still still light after 7pm. The course was in fairly good condition but the sand traps all seemed to be or have been flooded and the ones that didn't still have water in them had a hard muddy circle in the middle. The greens weren't too bad for putting but were quite hard so you couldn't throw your chips at them and have them stick but had to allow for a bit of roll after landing.

The restaurant and bar at the course were closed by this time, so I headed back towards the flat. I decide to have Mexican for dinner and stopped at a restaurant on the way. While you wait for your meal, they bring you complimentary chips and dips as well as iced water. I had a fluata with refried beans, salad and rice, which was tasty and quite filling and a Daiquari. At home, I started watching TV but fell asleep within 30 minutes.