Well all these years later and I LOVE the course now and am not intimidated. I can measure my improvements by my confidence on holes such as #6 (a signature hole), with its uphill shot across the creek or the tricky par 5 #11. I can now make it to the green in three shots! At the beginning of the summer my best score on the course is an 82 but I'm pretty proud of that score.
When I first began walking up to play as a single at the course, the guys in the pro shop were a little perplexed, and they had some difficulty placing me with other groups to play as they were mainly men. If there were any women or couples or folks with children, I was always directed to play with them. I also noted a rather sad occurence that has happened to me at other courses as well -- I, as the lone lady golfer, would often be paired with a single minority male golfer, especially African Americans. Now what I mean by this is that if there were a handful of single male golfers and one of them was a minority, the white male golfers would be teamed up to play and then the single lady and the single minority male would be placed together - as if not sure others would want to play with us. As someone who abhors racism/discrimination, I thought this was really sad, but I always had a great time with these folks although I believe sometimes the African American males were a little hesitant at first on how to approach me as the single white lady golfer, but I just made sure I smiled and walked up to introduce myself and break the ice. Once we started playing and could talk about our games, everyone usually relaxed. And it helped if I could hit a nice good 180-200 yard drive off the tee so that they could see I am serious about my game :)
The ownership of the course changed over time and the folks who work at the course all know me now as the lady who calls up to play by herself. They are great and welcome me warmly. The starters take good care of me as well and help place me with great folks or assure them that I will not slow down their play. Or sometimes I just want to play around by myself and work on my shots and they are nice to let me do that as well when it is not busy. TC always gives me a hug when he sees me and asks how my game is going.
There are a few holes where the forward tee box is not in a really good location; this is especially true of #17 where the forward tee sits at the bottom of hill with no view! You just stand looking up the hill and can barely see the tops of trees in the distance making it difficult to line up your tee shot and it is a long par 4 so you need a good tee shot that bends slightly to the right. Number 11 also can be a little tricky; this is the long par 5 on the back. You can reach the main fairway from the forward tees but they planted some trees that are making this more and more difficult; if you take the short short layup off the tee then it is really difficult to be able to reach the green in the 3. I can hit it over the trees and onto the main fairway but it is a 180 yard carry minimum and in the winter with prevailing north winds this is a really challenging shot. On par 5s I want the CHANCE to be able to reach the green in three if I can make a fair shot.
Below are some pics of #12 one of my fav holes as my slight fade on the driver usually puts me within about 90 yards of the green and this is another signature hole. Supposedly, Tiger Woods filmed a commercial for Nike golf balls here a few years past and drove it onto the green! A friend of mine hit from the back tees and just missed making the green but it is an intimidating shot :)
