Golfing in Kauai!

From coast-to-coast this summer!  I had an opportunity to travel to Hawaii for an NEH Landmarks Workshop on Pearl Harbor which was just fantastic and I decided that after the workshop I would spend a few days over on the westernmost island of Kauai.  I had always wanted to visit this island because of its beauty.  Also it had been the location for much of the filming of the John Wayne movie "Donovan's Reef" which I find so entertaining.  Now I would be staying in a dorm for 6 days while in Oahu for the workshop and the schedule did not provide time for golf, so I chose to ship my clubs directly to Kauai and the resort where I would be staying.  What a smart decision as I did not have to lug the clubs around and they were secured and insured in my travel bag and Fedex bag.

I played 3 rounds on Kauai and I believe they were some of the best and most beautiful courses.  I first played Kauai Lagoons which is currently being partially redone but is still beautiful and very friendly.  And yes the views are tremendous.     I played with 2 older single ladies and we had a blast!  One of them had just joined a ladies league back home and so she was very precise as she tried to make sure she followed all the rules and such and she did pretty well. 

 This course has fewer holes along the coast than the others I played but still was fun.  Number 16 is a famous hole designed by Jack Nicholaus and I must say the tee shot is totally blind, downlhill toward the water, with a huge slope toward the water!  My tee shot almost drove the green and ended up thankfully in the rough on the edge toward the water (and cliff) LOL.  

The last hole is a tough par 5 that has an almost island green and plays pretty difficult but I was happy with my outcome of par.

 The wind was howling pretty good, as it would for each of my rounds, but I played okay with an 86.  Funny, this was the easiest course I played and I had the highest score!    Guess that might knock my current handicap of 5.4 back up a little LOL.  I had drinks and dinner with the ladies that afternoon at my resort and it was quite a bit of fun and they both worked in public education in California.

The next day I would play 2 rounds back-to-back at 2 very difficult and famous courses. 

The first course up this day was The Prince at Princeville on the north shore; man what a course!  It is really tough, beautiful and long and tests all your golf skills.  The course stretches over 5200 acres and has 10 miles of cart path and I must say the views are tremendous.  There are some really long carries on some holes even from the forward tees and I just cannot imagine playing this course from the back tees!  What a challenge it would be!

Notice the sand traps here are the famous red dirt and are often heavy.  As is fairly usual on the north shore of the island, it rained off and on the entire round with a good trade wind blowing.  The course provides rain shelters on almost every hole and you just pull up and wait a few minutes and it stops. 

Of course all that water makes the course even more difficult as it collects on the ball and prevents much roll out on drives and such.  The greens are not too difficult but some of them are a little small.

And of course there are all those distractiosns because of the views!  The hole above has a 10 story drop down to the green from the back tees!  and the approach to the green is pretty narrow as well. 

On the hole here there is a small waterfall behind the green!  WEll I only lost a couple of balls and ended up shooting an 85!  Wow!  I was pretty excited on this course and the when I returned to the clubhouse and they asked how I did the starter and folks were pretty amazed too!  I thought I had done much worse around 90 but when added it up I was pretty darn happy and only lost a couple of balls :)

After grabbing some lunch, I drove just down the road to the Makai Course at Princeville which is now operated and owned by the Troon Golf folks with whom I am familiar.  I've played a couple of Troon courses in Phoenix and one of my favorite is La Cantera in San Antonio!  The Makai course is a little more wide open than the Prince and the sand traps are beautiful white sand, and the views well they are great too!

This view is of the very north end of the island and after my round I would drive on around to the end of the island road.  I would drive to the farthest point west you can drive in the United States :)  Great drive and awesome views! 

I also contended with some rain on the Makai course but not as much and it kept the numbers of players down on the course as well.  I really enjoyed my round and the challenging holes and shot another 85!  With these slope ratings on these two courses I am real curious as to how it affects my handicap.

On my final day on the island I started with a much needed massage after all of my golf and then  I would drive on the south and west side of the island where the climate and geography are very different; it is much more dry.  And I went all the way to the end of the Waimea Canyon road which is spectacular; the canyon starts on one side of the island near the water and runs all the way to the other side of the island and drops off to the ocean.  This Grand Canyon of the Pacific was worth seeing!

So I look forward to more golf soon and will keep you posted.

USMA at West Point, NY!

After my foray around the United States Military Academy and a quick peek in the museum, I headed for another spot near and dear to my heart...the golf course. Yes the Military Academy at West Point Golf Course is open to the public! So I drove around to the small and very worn out looking club house and started my round. The course is absolutely lovely and challenging with many elevation changes and greens that undulate quite a bit.  There are just 3 tee boxes and the forward boxes only really have a break on a few holes.  Some of the par 3s really have large elevation drops but they are all spectacular and the views are stunning.

There are many blind tee shots as well and so I would smack a good long drive and then just have to see where it went. Because of the heat and threat of rain there were not too many folks on the course but everyone was really friendly. Most were retired military or officers assigned to the Academy, and I was apparently one of the few civilians who was not from the area who played the course on my own. I caught up with a twosome of retired officers near the end and finished the round with them. I was pretty happy as I shot a 79!

The starter who had been really kind when I started out asked how my round went and when I told him my score, he seemed quite surprised!

The most interesting part of the round, however, came after I watched the trucks transporting cadets down the road adjacent to the course. They were going for artillery practice and training and so most of my round was played while being serenaded by practice artillery fire! I must say it was a unique experience and on the back nine, I know I could hear some of the rounds whistling nearby as they passed by on the way to the target before hearing the thump, thump thump. You can listen on the following video and hear some of this -- it is not wind in the microphone or thunder.

So what a day it had been here in West Point, New York. I had dinner at the little local 50+ year old diner on the main street in town. It was loaded with historical photos that I perused while listening to local folks talking about the new class of cadets and all of their folks who had brought them here. I cannot imagine such a small town being overwhelmed by the 1300 cadets and their families. I also remembered back to an old Hollywood movie called "The Long Gray Line" with Maureen O'Hara about the US Military Academy at West Point and the men who work there and the young men who attend. I think I will go back and re-watch that when I have time to see if I can recognize the locations.

In the morning I would arise early and set out heading south to see the US Naval Academy at Annapolis and other memorials. The comparison between the two academies should be fun!  I hope to get in another round of golf before heading home at the famous, historic Greenbriar Resort in West Virginia.

A Chocolate Round

My next golf stop for the day was HERSHEY! Yes this chocoholic could not resist a night at the historic Hershey hotel with a round of golf on the historic course that abuts the Hershey plant. The area was having a big heatwave and most of the northern golfers feared the heat (it was about 95). This Texan felt right at home and so I played a round of afternoon golf after my morning work.  The East Course which is not as old or historic was hosting a Pennsylvania junior tournament with a lot of really suffering parents LOL.

The course is gorgeous and challenging with many elevation changes. I also have learned that many of these old courses (like the Donald Ross in Indiana) do not have full cart paths; that is the cart paths just go part way and then you are on your own to drive anywhere!  All they ask is that you get no closer than 25-30 yards from green.  Now down my way you must stay much farther back from the greens and there are always cart paths.  LOL clearly we have more worry about the grass!  Now I must also say that this course has really poor signs directing you between holes.  And the flow is just not clear as to which direction you need to head to find the next set of tees so sometimes I had to drive up and around when the path split  with no direction, and I could not alwasy assume you went right.  I didn't feel so bad however, as there were several other golfers that I saw having the same problem.  I did ask about this at the pro shop and they were honest that this is a problem but that the managers want to maintain the historic sense of the course and keep the number of signs on the course to a minimum.  As I would find on a later course I played on the trip, however, they could have at least painted directions on the cart path. 

There were a number of interesting holes and one par 3 appears to aim directly into the front yard of a house!  The forward tees are at the bottom of the hill and you cannot see the landing area or flag at all, so I drove up to the back tees so I could clearly see the hole and know what was ahead of me (and to take a better picture)!    The par threes were also pretty long even from the forward tees so that made it pretty challenging.

The course workers were having some problems with the heat with 2 of the cart girls' carts breaking down and all the ice melting. I must say it was no worse than a good round of golf in 100+ degree heat in Texas -- just drink plenty of water! I did pretty well by shooting and 80 too!

  The Hershey Hotel is a classic old style hotel built in 1933 and is really beautiful.  Everything is geared around chocolate - when you check in they hand you a chocolate bar.  I did do some shopping at the stores and also bought some golf gear although they do not have bag tags!  Apparently cut these out because of economics which I found disappointing.  The spa provides everything with a chocolate flair as well.   

Kings Creek

I'm on the road again and this time mixing in more golf with memorial work.  My first golf stop was at Kings Creek in Tennessee; the course has been rated in the top 50 public courses for women.  Course was very affordable and I had an early tee time so went quickly.  Unfortunately, the course sustained some serious damage in the big flood this spring.  At one point the entire course was 10 feet underwater!  Washed out some areas, and all of the traps were basically destroyed.  They will be replacing the traps starting next week so my timing was good as they will be closed for a few days.  The course is fun and enjoyable to play and I know it must normally be really quite beautiful.   I enjoyed the round even though I had a few loose shots and so my score ballooned up to 83.  I hope they can restore it to its former glory. 

My next stop is Hershey Country Club (yes of chocolate fame) and another great old course from the 1920s!  The famed west course.  Treating myself at the resort for a night so will tell ya about that later.

 

Lowering that Handicap!

Whew!  Returned from a 2 week jaunt across Europe with NO golf!  It was a fantastic trip but no time on the visit for any golf although I did see a few beautiful courses across northern France.  Maybe I will go back someday to play them.

Before I head out on another US road trip, I have played some golf on my home course the Golf Club at Fossil Creek which is in just fantastic condition.  My first round on Saturday was okay at 81 but was mainly just trying to get my swing rythym back.  So today I played 36 holes in the sauna heat and really played great!  I had a 73 and 76!! Woohoo!!  Was in a nice swing tempo and my irons really flew nice and high and it helps when your 200+ yard drives are in the middle of the fairway.  I birdied 2 of the four par 5s and parred the rest.  Surprisingly my chips and putts were pretty good as well after the layoff.

So now my handicap is down to a 6!  I was so surprised and these 2 rounds might lower it further.  However, I will be playing some tough courses around the country in the next few months and that will probably inch it back up...or maybe not if I keep playing this well.

Golfing at Home

Whew!  It has been hot here in Texas but that hasn't kept me off the golf course :)  Actually had a great week of golf on my home course at Fossil Creek.  On Thursday I shot a 73!!  Woohoo!  Had 3 bogeys and 2 birdies.  I had not left the house thinking I was going to play a around just hit some ball, but when I arrived at the course, there was almost no one on the links so out I went!  Whizzed around the course and hit beautiful irons and was soooo relaxed.  Been pretty busy getting ready for my next big trips and fighting some allergies, but today (Sunday), I was ready to play again and pack in some rounds.  Because of the heat, most people had apparently stayed home -- wussies!  I used my Eagle points for a free round and headed out about 12:30 -- there were only 8 of us on the whole course.  So, I played 2 balls for the whole round, kept separate scores and thus played 36 holes in 3 hours.  And....played really, really well again.  I shot a 76 and a 78 and just missed 4-5 putts for birdies that would have put those a little lower.  Hopefully, I will get out again once or twice before heading off on my next memorial scavenger hunt. 

French Lick, Indiana and Donald Ross!

What a great experience!  During my Memorial Day weekend trek across the Midwest, I was also able to get in a little golf of course.  I had put on my list that I wanted to play one of the great older golf courses in America and one on the GolfDigest Top100 list.  For this trek I was going to be right by the venerable Donald Ross Course at the French Lick Resort in southern Indiana.  The course was designed and built by Ross in 1917 in a beautiful small valley near the French Lick mineral springs and resort.  Today you can stay at one of the 2 original resort hotels and play  36 holes of golf on the Ross or new Pete Dye designed courses.  The Ross course was the site of the 1924 PGA Championship won by Walter Hagen and this year in less than a month the new Dye course will hold the 2010 PGA Championship!  [I'm hoping I can also play Pebble Beach this year and thus be able to have played 2 of the courses (resorts) where two of the year's Majors will be held.]

I had chosen a very early tee time so that I could then continue my travels.  I actually stayed in the nearby town of Jasper and so had to drive back to the course on a gorgeous scenic winding small road which would take about 30 minutes.  I did not get into my hotel the night before until about 10:00pm and was pretty tired.  Needless to say, I set my alarm wrong (not thinking correctly after having lost an hour that day because of crossing into another time zone), and so woke up and had to rush to get out the door.   No one was on the road and it was a tranquil drive with the morning mist/fog just beginning to lift (and I had not had any coffee!).  I arrived at 7:00am -- actually a little early.  There were a few golfers already at the clubhouse, as well as the cart attendants but no pro or cashier.  So the starter sent us out and said we could pay when we made the turn which is pretty nice considering this was not going to be cheap.  I thus actually went out early right behind a local couple who have a standing first tee time on the weekends. 

The course was immaculate and so tranquil with the mist lifting.  It was also tough!  Everything was very, very wet because of the fog/mist and that did not help but I just carried my towel with me everywhere.  The holes appear to not be all that difficult with really only one dogleg, HOWEVER there are many elevation changes, few flat fairways, and many bunkers especially in the middle of fairways, not to mention the challenging and undulating greens.  This is to say nothing of the rough!  It is pretty long and gnarly as well as wet and then many fairways are lined with very tall, natural grass.    There was also no map of the holes on either the scorecard or the markers at the tee boxes, so I had quite a few blind shots especially from the forward tees.  On one par 3 from the forward tees it was 164 yards!  I had to hit driver and managed to put it just to the left of the green and was able to chip on and make my putt.   From the tips, this course would be daunting at over 7000 yards and some tough carries.  Must say the sand traps were immaculate and since I did hit into 2 of them, I had the chance to finally play out of real sand; my sand shots all ended up really well too and I made my up and downs!

Although I started a little rough, my short game and putting really helped me and I finished with an 87!  Great course and great folks at the clubhouse. I then cleaned up and had an early lunch at Hagens the restaurant at the course.  They are known for their baby-back ribs as well they should be!  The meat just fell of the bone and was slathered with wonderful sweet bbq sauce.  I was golf satiated for the day (as well as having  purchased some shirts, a visor and bag tags - I mean couldn't pass up anything with the name on it), and fortified to head back out on the road for my memorial project. 
[If you are also reading my memorial blog I will probably have the new post for this trip up tomorrow sometime.]  I have played a Donald Ross course previously but not one as prestigious or challenging as this one and it was so fun to play in such an out-of-the-way place.  As I headed out of the resort, I had a smile on my face and looked forward to the scenic drive before me...and more golf courses to come.

The Colonial!

Wow this week I have had the privilege to volunteer with The First Tee of Fort Worth at their Caddy Days at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.  The students sign up and are chosen to serve as honorary caddies for the PGA Tour Pros who play in the Pro-Am.  The kids caddy at the famous par 3 13th Hole.  They meet their assigned pro at the tee box and have their official photograph taken as well as receive an autographed flagstick flag of the tournament.  They will also have a First Tee hat and most of the pros autograph the hat as well as a ball.  The pros are really super nice and chat with the kids, one or two even let them tee off (none made it over the water).  Some of the older students then carry the golf bag around to the green while younger ones carry a club.  

The students are so funny because you can really see their personalities!  Some of them chat the whole time as they walk to the green while others are more shy.  You can also see which pro golfers enjoy and are relaxed in these events.  When they arrive at the green, the pros give some tips about reading the greens (or how to hit out of the sand traps) or chip onto the green.  They are also often giving advice to the amateurs who have paid for the privilege of playing with them.  The students are encouraged to help out and sometimes the pros let them putt out! 

You can see how much this means to these young golfers as they walk off the green with huge smiles.

Now I served as the official blogger for The First Tee of Fort Worth for this event and I run their regular blog as well which I created for them!  I began my session at a table right behind the ropes along the edge of the fringe of the green.  On Monday the tournament is free and open to anyone and mostly the folks were volunteers, parents, and just avid golfers (Wednesdays are a bit more crowded).  They were all really intrigued by what I was doing and kept watching me post on my little netbook computer.  I would take several pictures of each of the students with their pros around the green, trying to especially snap them when they were discussing the putt or the student was putting.  After every two groups came through, I then pulled out my memory card from my camera, plugged it in, downloaded the one or two pictures I wanted from those groups, resized them and posted them along with a brief narrative that included each child's name and the PGA professional player.  So I posted about every 15-20 minutes.  We had sent the link out to all of the parents, volunteers, donors and The First Tee Board members so they could follow along, especially parents or family members who could not be present at the event.  After about 40 minutes, the guys who were working to prepare the fancy corporate boxes around the 13th green told me I could move up to one of those as they also had a plug-in for my computer.  So I ended up with what are usually super prized weekend seats with the best view of the hole!  

I blogged away for the day and really enjoyed the opportunity.  As a volunteer, I have access to the tournament days for free along with free parking and a shuttle ride :)  Nice deal.  Unfortunately however, it does not provide me a slot in the Colonial Volunteers Day at the course held every November; for that you have to work the tournament as an official tournament volunteer.  So maybe I can do that next year as well as blog at the pro-am, hopefully however they will have different shirts -- so far they have been this AWFUL bright yellowy-orange!!  LOL

So I have been enjoying the warm weather (although a bit humid) and playing and watching some great golf.  My handicap is down to 7.6 and I have been playing in the high 70s or very low 80s.  Love my new hybrid club that I discussed in previous post and need to trade in my old Cleveland hybrid that I just never really like much.  Thinking I may get one of the new SkyCaddie SGX golf gps units -- it is really pretty cool.

I'm Back & Blogging!

LOL Okay after a long break from the blog, but not from golf, I'm back blogging this summer.  I'm going to have one of those fantasy summers of travel and golf -- on someone else's money $$!  I have a fellowship to research war memorials and military cemeteries around the world and especially the US and so while I'm driving around the country, I plan to play some great golf courses.  So if you want, follow this blog to see where I go.

I have been playing golf and actually have my new official GHIN handicap down to an 8 (well a 7.6)!  Woohoo!!  Just been playing relaxed and well and having fun.  Played in tourney at my local course, Fossil Creek, with 143 male players and I won 2 raffle prizes...including the coveted Titliest (men's) driver.  After a number of guys made me some offers....for the club...that were subpar -- they were hoping I was a pushover and did not know the value, I was able to trade the driver in for stuff I wanted.  The club director obtained the new Cobra Baffler Rail 4 Hybrid and a great Nike rain/wind jacket. 

My swing czar MAY be coming for a visit soon and some golf and we may play together in a tournament as well.  Hopefully before I head out on my travels!  I'm heading for a long trip to Europe and then several trips around the US with golf included.  Follow me on my golf blog or on my travel blog (my official travel site LOL) if you want. I'll post the link for that blog on here soon.