I could not resist returning to San Antonio to play more golf before my semester starts back. Played three days in a row on different courses. Wanted to play Tapatio Springs but the head pro admitted they are in really bad shape due to the drought so I passed for now and will return when they have had some rain.
First day drove down to play
Silverhorn Golf Course about which I have heard many good things. Made my tee time online with a special so was able to play for almost nothing. Did have a little trouble with traffic on I-35 because of an accident so I was boogeying to make my tee time. When I arrived and was waiting to pay I was a little disturbed when after the person in front of me had paid, the pro told the starter that the threesome at 2:24 was now a foursome! Well I had made a tee time as a single golfer for 2:24 so that was my tee time. Hmm this did not make me happy. The gentlemen then was startled when I stated I was there for the 2:24 tee time; he made an excuse but said that I would be able to play shortly. I did hit a few balls on the range and then met the starter. He too looked perplexed as he tried to figure where to place me and asked if I preferred to play alone. He finally figured it out and he put 3 singles together to play pretty quickly so I only started about 15 minutes after my original tee time. We did have a little fun when one of the original guys backed out stating he needed to hit more warmup shots first, then another single showed up. The first guy ended up in the group behind us -- so he didn't hit too many more shots :) I think he was just scared!
I think he felt a little bad that I had to wait and since I was the only female anywhere in site (well besides the cart girl) he started to talk me up by asking questions. Well small world but he was a retired college prof and now he and his wife spent their time golfing and travelling. My two playing partners were two really nice younger men; one was a steel maker who was very curious about my playing. We conversed quite a bit and he was very complimentary (flirting) which helped make what turned out to be a very long hot round enjoyable.
After rushing to make the tee time, I was still pretty pumped up and it took me almost 9 holes to get into my playing rhythm. Plus the course is pretty tight with many trees on the edges of the fairways. I hit some pretty good drives on some holes only to end up on the edge of the fairway behind a tree with the only shot a punch out to the middle of the fairway. Frustrating! The course also played a little long for me so that even with good drives of 200 yards I was still often playing longer irons into the greens. The par 3 number 5 played 137 yards into the wind so that was a challenge but I hit a low 4 iron onto the green and made par.
The course also had a number of holes (besides par 3s) that were cart path only -- again the effects of the prolonged drought, but it is a beautiful course in the middle of the city. And deer were everywhere! They ran across fairways and lurked around greens. I only caught them with my camera few times but saw them all over and heard them rustling in the undergrowth. Funny to step into a bunker and see little hoof prints -- guess they don't know how to rake behind themselves.
The first 9 holes we played in 2 1/2 hours but the back nine slowed to an absolute crawl so that the entire round lasted a little over 5 hours. After my drive and the heat I was pretty tired and headed to my hotel to grab some food and rest.
