Long hot 36!

My second day in SA started with a round in the morning at the Quarry Golf Club where again I had made tee time reservations online.  Folks were accomodating and we were able to go right out and tee off when we arrived.  Now this is a different kind of golf course.  The front plays like a links course and is nothing spectacular, but the back nine is literally in an old quarry!   You go down into the bowl and you can see all 9 holes from everywhere while above the limestone cliffs houses and businesses peer down on you.  Awesome sight but pretty hot in the summer with little wind! 

The course is sort of a novelty.  Glad to have played it once but no grand desire/need to return to play again.  Would recommend if you can to play this course once just for the interesting views.  The holes near the end with the rock cliffs right along the fairway make for interesting golf and some long ricochets. We finished the round pretty quickly and wanted to play more holes even just the back 9 but they had filled up tee times and there was nothing for several hours.  So we called another course in town that I had wanted to play; they had open tee times and so we zipped across town to get in another round.

We played a second round at beautiful Canyon Springs (an Eagle golf course) on the north side.  This is a fabulous course with a really interesting and challenging layout. It reminds me of Fossil Creek in many ways.  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring out my camera after rushing across town to play more holes, which just means I will have to go back and play it again!!  Again not a lot of water on the course and when we stopped at the watering hole and bought iced tea, it was terrible -- had set and brewed too long so bitter.  The course is lush with natural vegetation, a waterfall, scenic views and elevation changes.  Deer play among the holes and came within just a few feet on the second green -- I just stood in awe with my putter and wished I had my camera. 

The day was pretty hot and very long and unfortunately for me I lost the two bets that day so I owed my partner dinner and drinks.  I did get lucky, however, as he ended up having to run off and so I didn't have to pay up :)  Oh well his loss.  I was pretty exhausted after the long day of golf but very happy at having played two great golf courses.

Winning Margaritas in SA

I returned to San Antonio in July for more golf.  On this day I chose the Westin La Cantera Resort where the Valero Open has been played (although it is moving to a new venue next year).  Wow what a gorgeous resort and golf course.  Played the Resort Course with my golf partner who lived at the resort in the past so I had a great tour guide. 

I made my tee time online and in my name.  At the pro shop they expected my companion to pay and since he knew some of the folks we were treated well.  The range was in pretty bad shape, basically all brown dirt clearly they had not been watering it.  The greens were SUPER fast and that took me a bit to adjust to as well. 

There are some beautiful elevated tee boxes such as #5.  And the elevation changes are really magnificent especially for a flat lander like me :)

I must say not all the forward/ladies tee boxes are in great shape however compared to the rest of them.  And a few of the tee boxes are not placed well.  For example, #2 has the front tee angled AWAY from the green; the idea being that folks cannot hit it very far and so should play out away from the hole and then take another couple shots back towards the dogleg right green.  Silly! 

Also on one of the great elevated greens the forward tees are down below on flat ground.  I took pics from up above and decided next time I play the course I will hit from the tees on the hill.

There are also some great views of the resort throughout the golf course and I am sure the rooms have gorgeous views.  I will return and stay at the resort in the future so I can enjoy the full experience.

Not as much water available on the course as you might imagine but the cart girl was pretty regular around the venue. 

You also have a great view of nearby Six Flags Fiesta Texas and the giant roller coaster :)

At the last hole I was leading over my golf partner in our bet for the round; I only needed to make a triple bogey to win drinks for the evening.  I did play it a little cautious and left myself a few too many putts but I won with a double!  The margaritas that evening sure tasted good!

Playing the Country Club

Well I met a few ladies from a nearby country club at Fossil Creek a few weeks past and they invited me to come out and play their club to try it out.  So today I played at Woodhaven CC.  These ladies are very nice, married and really into playing ladies leagues and such.  The CC is not in a great part of town these days; it is an older club and in its heyday was located in a fashionable neighborhood but I would not want to drive away from there at night!  And not that convenient to my house, but is associated with another CC nearer to me.

The course is a real challenge and was fun to play.  The heat today was pretty miserable because humidity levels were waaaay up.  We all were pretty tuckered out the last few hoelsa nd my score ballooned up to a 91.  We played a little game with dimes concerning number of putts we had to take and that okay.  I asked quite a few questions about their club, members, and leagues.  It was what I have heard previously and so not a real surprise. 

I did look over the costs again and some of this just doesn't add up for me.  My PDP membership allows me to play in afternoons for $20 (cart, green fee and GPS) and unlimited range balls whenever I want.  The CC would charge me $10 a month to add unlimited range balls, and I would have to pay $15 cart fee each time I played on top of my monthly fee which is 4 times my PDP monthly fee.  Does not seem like the best deal just to have opportunity to attend a few social events (for which I would also have to pay).  For the same money I could play more golf and take more trips :)

Slow play and cheap balls!

Another free Eagle course today at Castle Hills in Lewisville.  The course was not too busy it seemed when I arrived and they were pretty friendly but said I would be playing alone and that I could go on out to the first tee as soon as I wanted.  So I decided not to hit on the range and just went to the first tee where the starter gave me all kinds of advice about playing golf and then sent me on my way.  Again it was a pretty hot day; I put on my Ipod and figured I would just chill out and play.  Well on the 3rd hole a young male golfer caught up with me although I was having to wait on a threesome ahead of me.  He hit into me twice and then approached me on the next tee box.  I told him if he was in a hurry he could just play through but there were folks ahead of me.  Oh well lucky me he decided to play with me.  He ended up being okay but clearly impatient and hit into group ahead of us once!  What an idiot I kept thinking - by that time it was a group of ladies who were VERY VERY slow and they just picked up his golf ball and kept it LOL.

I must say these ladies just slowed down more and more as we went along.  They would be killing time on the tee box and the group ahead of them was no where to be seen.  They looked back often and could see 2 groups waiting behind them but didn't seem to care.  They were taking 4-5 shots just to reach the green and had a need for the whole group to go te each other's balls and offer advice on hitting.  These are the kinds of ladies groups that give women golfers a bad name and make men cuss at us for playing slow.  When the marshall came around, I pointed out that they were not keeping up with the group ahead of them.  He tried to say they were waiting on the group ahead, but I nicely but forcefully clarified that they were not waiting but the rest of us were; that there was no one on the green even when they came to the next tee box.  So off he went to watch them for a hole and sure enough he finally caught on and gave them a nudge to pick up the pace.  He came back and apologized.  We just laughed and I said it was not because they were women golfers they were just SLOW as turtles!  Funny they played much better when they played quicker. 

I've seen men do this more often than not.  They just do not play ready golf -- instead they all go to look for lost balls (and look for way too long) -- if you can't afford to lose the golf ball you are playing with when you cannot find it after just a few minutes then you need to buy cheaper balls!

Lake Park another Eagle Course

Played another course for free with my Eagle Card today -- Lake Park Golf Course in Lewisville.  Again I was put by myself as apparently I was the last person with a tee time that morning -- 10:30am -- because of heat.  What a bunch of woosies!  The heat is not that bad.  There were two guys ahead of me and so I played two balls and practiced by chipping and putting quite a bit.

The course is really wide open with few hazards and trees.  Much like the old cow pasture course I first played on.  Only real worry is if you hit an errant tee shot as holes are pretty tightly packed together and so you can end up on another fairway.  I only did that one time!  Still shot a 79.  For the first time I played a round with my Ipod on and listening to some great classic rock hits that kept me pumped up.  Also started daydreaming about a Sonic Route 44 Iced Tea with 8 Sweet-n-lows!

Country Club or Not?

I have been asked and have considered joining a country club. The idea is that I would then have a "social group" with whom to play regularly and social events to attend.  However, what I discovered in many cases when you talk to members especially the ladies, is that it often is a separation by gender. The ladies talk of all the opportunities to play with other ladies and to become very competitive in ladies leagues; you can participate in ladies tournaments at other private clubs. The assumption is that if you play fairly well that you must want to play then competitively in tournaments around the state. I have been that uber-competitive athlete in my youth (and have the scars to prove it), but I want to enjoy the game. Now I am competitive, but I know my personality and I do not want to make my golf stressful -- it is one of my stress relievers actually!!! So I want to play and maybe bet a little and constantly improve but I do not need to play a competitive tournament each week to enjoy the game.  And I'm not really interested in playing tournaments with women each weekend or just the ladies league each weekend -- kind of hard to meet a great guy if you are not around them :)

At the clubs, the men play in mens leagues and usually on Saturday and Sunday mornings (then they are home in time to watch football in the fall LOL) and the ladies play in the afternoons. And, most all of the members are already married and play together as couples on their private time.  When I asked about "couples events", the folks would admit that well it was mainly the couples who are part of the club!  Hmm not sure how that works for a single gal LOL. For me this just does not seem to fit my interests/needs, but I am still considering it....also has to be affordable with a membership that has folks in my age group (40s).