Early traditions

Saturday 16th

I hadn't arranged a tee time so when I got up a bit before 7am I went on the web site for Cypresswood. This club has 3 full courses and a golfer I talked to at Gleanloch a few weeks ago had recommended the Tradition course. The fact that this was more expensive than the other 2 seemed to confirm this was the best course. I was able to book an 8:20 time slot which I felt I could get to. The next slot was after 1pm. I was a bit worried about the weather being hotter later in the day.

I only had time for a few putts before heading to the tee. This involve quite a long drive down a road. When I got there I found anotehr car park, clubhouse and practice green there. There was also a huge group of people gettiing ready for a tournament. Our group was the last off the tee before the tournament started. I was the first to arrive and was told a 2 ball hit hit off before us, but they were already out of sight. My partners turned up shortly after that, 3 guys in their 30s or 40s. We seemed to spend more time looking for balls than in some of my other games, sometimes being for my ball but not always.

This course generally has tall pine trees along the edges of the holes with brambles under them. There are a lot of sand traps and I seemed to find quite a few of them. There were a number of lakes, some quite making spectacular holes.

I started with 2 pars and then another 4 on the par-3 3rd then had 3 7s in a row to go out in 47. I had similar start to the back 9 - 1 out after 3 but 46 in total. I left 4 or 5 balls on the course, some in the bushes and some in water. However, one advantage of not staying on the fairway all the time is the opportunity to find balls lost by others. On on hole we looked for 2 balls in the left rough, finding one of them and 4 others. Then I put my second into a steep banked, but fortunately dry, creek short of the hole. (This wa hidden from where my drive finished on the fairway) There we found another 4 and mine. I managed to hit out and still parred that hole. I probably found another 3 or 4 on other holes as well.

The 17th,(above right) is a short par 4 - 291yards over water. My drive finished inva bunker , safely on the left of the fairway but 2 of the guys drove the green. The 3rd had duffed his drive and put his second attempt on or over, so I decided to have a second shot as well. My ball was straight at the pin but didn't have the carry, so big splash. We had a very good run, finishing in just over 4 hours. . We were not held up at all, until the very last hole, when we caught the end of the torunament field that had hit off the 10th. We also got free (soft) drinks from the drinks cart, I think becuase they were free for the tournament players and nearly had our picture taken by some photographers until I told them we weren't in it.

There have been lots of squirrels on most of the courses we've played, and finally one was close enough and still enough to capture in a photo.

The guys headed straight off after the game but I went to the main clubhouse and had a hamburger for lunch. I did briefly think about whether I could crash the barbeque for the tournament players but decided it probably wasn't the right thing to do. As I was driving home there was a brief spot of heavy rain. By later in the day this had become a real storm so I ws glad I'd played early in the day. If I'd waited for the twilight fees to kick in I would have got soaked.

Ebi had called while I was playing, after I'd left him a voice message saying I'd organised my opwn game. I tried to call him back on and off all afternoon but since he was himself playing hadn't got through. He has organised a game for us at the Palmer course for Sunday.

I had a long bath in the afternnon, falling aslep in it. I got up in time to get to the library where I borrowed some DVDs. It was bucketing down at this time at the apratment but somewhere between there and the library I drove out of the storm into a dry warm day. I headed to some shops after that and was in a sports store (where I foudn a cheap bikini bottom) when the storm caught up. It was very heavy and we were all trapped there for 15 minutes or so. I also bought some ballet flats at a nearby shoe store.

I had dinner at the Red Lobster on the way home - a mixed dish with lobster tail, snow crab and cumbed and garlic prawns. I saw most of the"Princess Bride" on TV and managed to watch some of Saturday NIght Live before falling asleep on the couch.