Anchorage Golf Course- Anchorage, AK

This course has most of what a person would look for in a very good course. The par 3's range from short iron to hybrid clubs. Par 4's that run from nearly 460 yards (a significant distance given average Alaska temperatures) down to 330 and the par 5's run from easily reached in two shots to a solid three shotter. Given what this writer has seen of courses on the Golfweek Top Municipal course ranking, this course should be on that list, only location is holding it back. The course does seem to be slightly repetitive with the mid-length par 4's, but the holes individually are varied enough to keep them from being boring.

Holes to Note

Hole #2: Par 4, 341 yards
This hole plays straight off the tee and into a sharp dogleg. While the players instincts would tell him to play close down the tree line on the right, no benefit will come from doing that. Indeed the best play is either directly down the center or even favoring the left side of the fairway for a flatter lie.

Into the green, the player is left with a carry only shot to a rather flat green, but one that does slope from back to front. For the player who leaves his shot a little short or a little long of the green, a difficult shot awaits.

From 100 yards out, the depression fronting the green is obvious and the penalty for playing aggressively down the right side can be clearly seen. The green is roughly ten feet above the lowest part of the depression fronting the green.

From the back of the green, in what seems to be an abandoned bunker, the contours in the depression can be seen.

Hole #3: Par 3, 177 yards
This mid length one shot hole features a very interesting green that is shaped rather like a boomerang. In the center of the curve is a deep grass bunker waiting to penalize shots hit to the left of the green. Fortunately for the players who slice the ball (those being the majority of golfers) the penalty for missing right of the green is not nearly as severe.

From up close, the swale is a bold and key feature on the hole.

Hole #6: Par 5, 495 yards
Playing downhill from the tee and seemingly with the prevailing breeze, this is a fine risk-reward par 5. The hole looks tight down to the fairway but once arriving the player realizes that the hole is rather generous. The preferred line off the tee is away from the bunker on the right and down the left side. Playing down the left opens up the hole better for those players choosing to lay-up on the second shot and gives the shorter yardage for those going for the green. The better angle to the green can be had by playing down the right side of the fairway, however; giving the player the ability to run the ball onto the surface in the event that the green is right on the outer reaches of his distance capability.

Of course the scenery in the distance is not terrible either.

From 210 to 250 yards, any player considering going for the green is going to face a tough decision. The green is likely in range for this player but he must consider the water that flanks the green to the left  and the stand of trees that lie not far to the right. The player who played down the right side is not looking at a smaller effective width on the right and also the knowledge that a ball that is hooked more than slightly will end up in the water. But the player who favored the left side has a generous fairway to play to in the range of 75 to 100 yards from the green. Any closer than that and he begins to get a bit greedy. 

The approach to the green is rather open to the player coming in from the right side, inside of 150 yards. The set of bunkers near the water are actually saving bunkers, keeping shots that are slight misses from going into the water. The green is a generous target, especially for short iron approaches, but is large enough that going for the green in two shots can be a sensible play.

Hole #10: Par 4, 419 yards
This hole plays straight off the tee, slight dogleg to the right. There is seemingly nothing going on from the tee that would make the player put much thought into the tee shot.

But after cresting the hill and coming into view of the entire fairway, the entire look changes.

A huge mound guards the center of the fairway. Given the nature of the site and it's location, one would think that this is natural, perhaps a way to cover up some huge boulder that came to rest here many years ago rather than attempting to move it. There is also another boulder sitting right on the rough line down the right side. Any player tempting the right side had better be long enough to carry these features, otherwise he'd better hope for a lucky bounce.

The green on 10 is also one of the best on the course. It funnels into a small neck near the bunker that can be seen in the above image and then into a small back area. The front of the green is quite generous and accepting of most shots. Inside the green lie several interesting features. In the center of the green is a fair sized rise that makes any shots not finding the proper position on the green a very tricky ordeal. Also on the green are two smaller mounds that can effectively segregate a middle pin position as well.

Hole 16: Par 3, 190 yards
This hole is straightforward, as most par 3's are, really just requiring the player to hit a straight shot to a give yardage.

But once on the green, the features that may have seemed small and perhaps insignificant from the tee show themselves to be very bold and any player not taking the proper time to judge his tee shot is going to be in a very difficult situation, with a three-putt, or perhaps even a four-putt, a possibility.

Overall, this is a very solid golf course. They are apparently making an effort to host a USGA championship and based on the courses this writer has played that have also hosted USGA events, outside of the flagship events, this course compares favorably; the logistics of getting people to the event, however, are a drawback. But this course has what anyone would want in a golf course, variety in the holes, variety in clubs hit both into the green and off the tee, great scenery and good turf conditions. 6 out of 10.

P.S. Just because this is Alaska, during the round, one of the natives decided to come out of the forest and mosey about the fairway.

(Apologies for the poor image quality, iPhones take quality pictures at a distance, not so quality when zoomed in) 

Why I Walk

I almost always walk the course when I play. Some courses are very easy to walk. Others are rather difficult. But in the end, the rounds are always enjoyable. In the end, the reason I walk when I play can be boiled down to three reasons. First, I feel like I play better golf when I walk the course. Second, walking gives me a few hours of much needed exercise. And finally, I am generally too cheap to pay the additional money for a cart.
My first reason for walking is that I feel I play better golf when walking. Who wouldn't want to play better? By walking, rather than riding in a golf car, I feel that I have more time to relax myself and clear my mind between shots. This lets me go into each shot with a clear head and determine what I need to do. I am also able to prepare myself for the shot as I am walking up to the ball. I am able to determine the yardage prior to getting to my ball, something I would not be able to do were I riding in a cart, at least not with any accuracy. I am also able to look at the hole and determine what kind of shot I need to play into the hole, high, low or whatever the case may be. Being able to do these two things allows me to make my club selection within 5-10 seconds after arriving at my ball and from there I am ready to play. When riding in carts, I tend to feel rushed and when I feel rushed, I begin to make poor swings. So I have long felt like I play better when I walk and that playing better on the course tends to be a good reason to do just about anything while out there.
But, of course that is not the only reason I walk. I also walk to get exercise. I, like just about everyone, tend to eat a little too much, drink a few too many sodas, and do not go to the gym enough. But by walking the course, I am afforded anywhere between 1 and 5 hours of rather vigorous exercise. Let's just face it, walking a full golf course, probably 4 1/2 miles with a bag of clubs on your shoulder, is no easy task. Add in the fact that many courses have some substantial hills and walking a golf course can be pretty strenuous. Going out when I play and walking the course allows me the exercise to keep myself in reasonable condition, something that is always a good thing.
Finally, the reason that really should have come first, I am simply too cheap to pay for carts. I feel certain that my home club, with three definite cart tailored courses, somewhere, deep down, dislikes me. In thirteen months as a pass holder at the club, I have taken a golf car once, and then only because I was part of a tournament and the cart was included. In general, I take carts only when they are mandated. Thus far in 2012 I have probably played a total of fifty or more rounds. I have used a golf car in five of those, each time either because my playing partner wanted to or because it was mandated. So that's at least forty-five rounds played without a cart, given the average cart fee is $15, that amounts to $675 saved just in the first two-thirds of this year. All because I choose to walk rather than ride.
Some people I know like to talk about how they choose to walk the course to keep with the traditions of the game or some other noble goal. There is no such nobility in why I walk. I don't look down upon people who choose to ride, not those who are able to walk but choose to ride and certainly not those who are unable to walk. Nor do I put the walkers up on some high pedestal. Walking is nothing more than a choice. A choice that I choose to make the vast majority of the time because I feel like I play better, I get good exercise, and because I'm cheap. Golf owners and operators love me.

The Evolution of the Best Course I've Played

Everyone who plays golf has a "best" course. And of course what makes that is different for everyone. As people play new courses, the "best" likely changes, either due to playing a new, better course, or a person's tastes in golf courses change. I, of course, have seen an evolution in the course I have thought to be the best I have played. The evolution goes something like this:
1997: Star Hill
1997: Silver Creek
1997: Bryan Park (Players)
1999: Bryan Park (Champions)
2005: Tobacco Road
2007: Eagle Point
2010: Old Town
2011: Pacific Dunes
2011:  Pebble Beach

I am fully expecting another large gap before another course comes up that can take Pebble Beach down from the top spot. Without a trip to the UK, Ireland or Australia, the options are limited to some very private facilities. But I'm not losing hope.

Pressure in Athletics and Life

As we have seen in sports these last few weeks, in the Olympics and Open Championship (Golf), there have been a lot of athletes who failed to perform under the pressure of the big stage. In these situations, to me, there are two types of athletes. The first type is the young athletes competing in the sport more or less for love of the sport. Young athletes like the gymnast Jordyn Wieber or golfer Beau Hossler (US Open Championship) are still young and even though they spend hours and hours training at their respective sports, they are not professionals, the sport is not their job. As such we should view their short comings as, perhaps, moments of learning and growth. The second type of competing athletes are the professionals. Guys like Adam Scott at the Open Championship or Jim Furyk at the US Open are professionals, sport is their job, and as such I feel like we should view their failures as we would any other professional.
What do I mean when I say that? Well consider how you might feel if a surgeon, a professional in his field, were to fail as completely at the end of a major surgery as Scott did at the end of the Open Championship. Consider how you'd feel if an airline pilot failed on landing? No, we as a society tend to wear the white gloves when we talk about athletes and their failure in competition. Yet if a surgeon failed so completely at the end of a surgery and the patient died, a literal failure where he knew the proper way and simply did not do it, he would, at best, be liable for thousands, if not millions, of dollars in compensation to the family, and at worst sitting before a jury of his peers facing significant time in prison.
With athletes we always like to talk about how great a pressure they faced in a given situation. But is that pressure any greater than the pressure faced by the surgeon or the pilot? I think not. But as I said, we treat athletes with ease. Why not simply say it how it is and admit that these people have failed at their jobs? I took some serious heat two years ago when I was quick to say that Hunter Mahan choked and failed to do his job at the Ryder Cup. But is that not the case? His job is to play golf and hit solid shots. He flatly did not do that. Same with Adam Scott at the Open Championship. He failed to do his job. If I were to fail at my job as they did, I would, be standing tall before my commanding officer, wearing my dress uniform, and waiting for him to dispense punishment. But again, we simply brush it aside when athletes fail.
On top of this, we often berate fans who dare try to put the screws to the athlete who failed. We would have no such sympathy for the real world professional. It is a different world, to be sure, but the sympathy that people shot athletes while showing none to professionals in the real world should not be the case. Show your sympathy to the seventeen year old girls who gave their best effort and did not succeed. She deserves it. But the professional who fails to complete his job deserves none of our sympathy, unless, of course, you'd show sympathy to other professionals, real world professionals, when they fail.

Eagleglen Golf Club, Elmendorf AFB, AK

This was a really solid golf course. It was better than I was expecting it to be. Course was #1 in Alaska this year in Golf Digest, #4 in Golf Mag and Golfweek. As of this writing, I have only played Moose Run (River) in Alaska, but I do think this course is better than Moose Run. I hope to play 3 or 4 more courses before I leave Alaska in ten days. This course does have a lot of straight holes and it's routed over some really flat land, but it's rather gently shaped and has a lot of forced perspective. Several times I saw a bunker that looked many yards shorter or longer than it was and at least once it directly affected the club that I played. 

There seems to be some confusion as to who designed the course. Worldgolf says RTJ, Jr. as does the course website. But the Robert Trent Jones Society lists Eagleglen on their master list of courses designed by Mr. Jones. Both list the year built at 1972. So, pretty much the only way I can wrap this around my head within saying the Trent Jones Society got it wrong is to say that Jr. designed this course while he was still working with his father's company. Either that or Jr. supervised a major redesign of his father's original and they have just omitted him from the papers. Either way, it's a solid design with some pretty small scale features and *gasp* ground game features, something not seen on some of Trent's work.


But overall, this course is really solid. It was better than I had expected and, while perhaps not as scenic as Moose Run up the street, it certainly made up for that in strategic features on the ground. 


Holes of Note:
Hole 2: Par 4, 361 yards
This hole plays blind off the tee, a quality strategic feature missing from too many modern designs. The tee is located in a low spot near the creek with a narrow stream fronting the tee. The rise is probably less than 20 feet high but it works perfectly to obscure the fairway from the tee. The hole is a dogleg right with a fairly dense set of trees down the right side (most all the treed areas here are dense, but the corridors are wide enough so that the dense trees are not a real worry). With the fairway obscured from the tee, the player is left to make his best judgement as to where to hit the tee shot. 

Once over the hill, the fairway opens up to the player. The best line is to play close to the tree line but hitting it far enough to clear past the trees. A ball down the left side might run off the side of the fairway into a small depression and playing towards the center will just leave a longer shot to the green. In the picture above, the best line would be towards the tallest trees in the center of the image, though they are on the right-center of the fairway. Anything left of those will roll into the depression. From the fairway, the green is quite open, but there is a single bunker guarding the left side of the green. A low running draw could be played into the hole if the player was comfortable with that shot.

Looking back down the fairway, the depression can be seen to start at the white tree in the center of the picture and work to the right of the image. As with all greens here, they are of limited interest due to growing and weather conditions.

Hole 5: Par 5, 520 yards
This hole plays straight off the tee but has a large knob in the fairway on the right side that certainly adds to the interest. A ball clearing the knob and hitting on the downslope will take a major bounce forward while a ball hitting short on the face of the knob will be stopped. The knob also keeps the player from simply bailing to the right side of the fairway away from the bunker on the left. And though it does not show well in the image below, there also seems to be a bunker in the distance, just a few yards beyond the knob on the centerline of the fairway.

However, once getting farther down the fairway, the bunker that looked mere yards beyond the knob is seen to be a greenside bunker. By designing the hole to look like this, Mr. Jones (whichever one of them) let the player's eyes trick him into possibly playing a shot off the tee that might not have been most ideal. From the fairway, the player is left to decide whether to lay-up or go to the green in two shots.

If the player hit his tee shot far enough such that he might be able to fly his ball all the way to the green, then ground features do not mean very much. However, given the typically cool temperatures up here (your writer lost 1 1/2 clubs in yardage having traveled from Alabama where the temps are 90 degrees opposed to 55 degrees) a 520 yard hole is rather substantial. So, the player is given the option to run the ball onto the green if he so chooses. However, this will require that he start his ball up the right side of the fairway, a hit a draw that lands short of the green, but beyond a bunker that covers from 45 to 60 yards short of the green.

For the player who can pull off that shot, an open green awaits. As can be seen from this image, the player choosing to lay-up should favor the right hand side, short of the bunker, in order to open the green up as best possible given the bunker short left and long right.

Hole 9: Par 4, 366 yards
Top quality short par 4. This hole has a significant dogleg off the tee and tempts the player to hit down the right hand side near the trees. Given the view of the hole, the player can tell that the fairway stops at a distance off the tee and may be forced to decide if the driver is the proper play from the tee.

But for the player who may have hit less than driver off the tee and played down the right side, the designer put a little surprise in for them, blind from the tee. A set of three bunkers guard the inside of the dogleg, standing ready to catch any balls that were hit short of the required yardage, but, given the yardage of the hole, probably the precise yardage a player not familiar with the course would have thought to be perfect.

From the fairway short of the green, but over the bunkers, the heavily defended green can be seen. There is the option to run a ball onto this green, but the opening is rather narrow. Given the length of approach shot for a person playing the correct tees, this writer has no problem with a hole requiring the player to fly the ball onto the putting surface. (Note: even though there is water standing in the fairway, this is a well draining course. It had been raining for 8-10 hours prior to my teeing off)

Hole 12: Par 4, 341 yards

This hole, the shortest par 4 on the course, also makes use of forced perspective, making the player think a bunker is much closer than it really is. From the tee, the player is given a generous fairway to look upon. But he is also given a bunker, that while obviously not on the preferred line of approach to the green, that being on the left side of the fairway, certainly does appear to be in play off the tee for any shot played right of center.

But, as before, once the player gets a ways off the tee, the bunker clearly shows itself to be a greenside bunker. Very good use of bunkering and deception to make the hole appear to be something that it is not and making it better because of that.

Hole 18: Par 5, 521 yards

This solid par 5 has likely not suffered from technology advances as some have. The hole plays as a hard dogleg right. The creek must be carried from the back tees (about a 40 yard carry), but not from the forward tees, which is always a plus. The creek also runs the entire length of the hole down the right side. The hole was built so to reward the player who takes a risky play off the tee and flirts with the creek. From the right side, the player will be left with a flat lie from which to play his second shot.

From the fairway, the contouring can be seen. The fairway is rather flat for the player who took no risk and played far left, however, from there the green is likely not within reach; at least it shouldn't be, any player who either hit a shot that poorly or that safe off the tee has no business trying to reach the green from 260+ yards with a carry over a creek.

If a player hits up the right side without enough distance, he will be looking at this.

But with proper distance and angle, this shot from a nice flat lie awaits. Note the large tree on the right side of the fairway. The player will be forced to decide if he wants to risk going directly over the tree or if he wants to work the ball one way or the other around the tree.

The player who chooses to lay-up must contend with the tree and steer clear of it, otherwise his approach might be blocked out.

The par 3's on the course, while rather varied are much better as a set than they are individually, only lacking a very short hole. While they may not be as scenic as some, the set is certainly solid. As with any course in Alaska, the turf conditions suffer when compared to courses in the Continental US due to the extremely short growing season up here. But architecturally, this course is solid. Not much boredom to be found here as players are expected to think on every shot. On more normal days, dryer days, the course should play much firmer, allowing for ground play, if desired (according to local weather, the first half of July was the coldest on record and had 20% above average rainfall, not the best combination for firm and fast golf courses). But overall, this course is very good, perhaps the best in the state, perhaps not, that remains to be seen. 6 out of 10.

Pebble Beach Golf Links, Pebble Beach, CA

This is not as much a course review as it is an essay discussing the experience that is Pebble Beach. Reviews of the holes and strategy and so forth can be found a dozen times over on websites like Golf Club Atlas and any number of other places with a quick search on Google. These reviews have been written by golfers and golf architects with far more experience than I. There is simply little of real benefit that I could add to the architecture discussion that has not been said before. But I can add to the overall picture by describing my experience here.
As I began to play golf, as most do, I began to think of what courses I most wanted to play. Three courses have really stuck out in my mind over the years. Pinehurst #2, Augusta National, and Pebble Beach. As I started learning more about golf courses, the list grew to include any number of other courses, ones on Long Island, ones in the British Isles and so forth. But, still today, I would choose any of the three listed above over virtually any course in the world. Those three are still the top of the list for me. But other than Pinehurst #2, I wasn't sure if I would ever see any of them. I'm still not certain that I will ever play Augusta National. On April 2, 2011 though, I got to play Pebble Beach.
I found myself in California due to a school for the Coast Guard. I decided that I would try to play Pebble Beach after my mom agreed to pay the fare; many thanks are in order for that. I called on a Thursday with rather low expectations but to my surprise I was able to secure a teetime at about 11:00 am on that Saturday. I left out Saturday morning with my friend Nik who, having nothing better to do that day, decided to ride down with me.
As we pulled into the lot, the whole place really started to unfold. Walking down from the car park through a gap between the shops and the pro shop was unique. Once we got through the walk, the putting green sprawled out in front of us. It was, in no exaggeration, the largest putting green I have ever seen. I took some obligatory pictures on the putting green, by the Rolex clock, and by the wall of champions behind the first tee.
Finally it was my turn to tee off. To me, the first tee was just awesome. It really was electric from my point of view. The entire round was much the same. Any person who can stand around and say that Pebble Beach is anything short of fantastic needs his head examined. The Third hole offers you the first real chance to see the Pacific and it works really well as a teaser for things to come. It would be difficult for anyone to deny that the two highest points of the round, from a scenic point of view, are the 7th and 18th tees. The 7th hole at Pebble Beach really is a magical setting.
It's difficult to put into words how special a place Pebble Beach is. From the first tee to the eighteenth green, the whole place is magical. The setting is incredible. The history and tradition are incredible. There really is nothing else like it in the world. I really wonder if any golf experience that I might have in the future will ever compare to the experience at Pebble Beach. I'll get chance to find out this November when I play Pinehurst #2, see how that compares.
Pebble is a truly special place for golfers. I wait patiently for the day when I can return there to play again. Even though the cost is high, there is no doubt I would pay it. As I said before, it really is difficult to explain the feeling that I felt at Pebble Beach. I've played a fair number of high quality golf courses, I played Pacific Dunes only two weeks earlier, but at no time have I ever felt something like Pebble. It was, perhaps, something akin to Michael Murphy's round with Shivas Irons in "Golf in the Kingdom." At some point I think the round became something more than just a round of golf and went into something else, more fantasy. The day I played Pebble Beach is certainly a day I will never forget.

Destination Golf

What is Destination Golf? Recently it has come to be defined as golf where one has to travel significant distances in order to play a given course. Of the modern courses, one of the more obvious choices is Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. In order to get here a person must either take a small aircraft into a small airport in North Bend, OR or fly into Portland, OR and drive about 4 hours to get to the resort. This is obviously a significant outlay of time and money. Courses in the Nebraska and Colorado Sandhills, Ballyneal, Dismal River, Sand Hills, must be similiar in terms of distance traveled.
It is generally assumed that these courses and clubs requiring significant travel to play are a modern thing. I, however, disagree with this. Consider how long it must have taken golfers in the early 20th Century to get to courses like Pebble Beach and Cypress Point in California or Shinnecock Hills and National Golf Links of America in New York. The same can also be said for resorts such as The Greenbrier in West Virginia and The Homestead in Virginia. The time needed to reach these places when traveling in cars that had top speeds of 20 to 25 miles per hour must have been great, after all, it takes close to three hours to reach Pebble Beach from San Francisco even today.
No, Destination Golf requiring long distance travel has always been around. What seems new about it is the fact that most people who play golf today would have grown up with all of the previously mentioned resorts being only 2-3 hours away from major cities and, in most cases, with a large network of "things" to do around the sites. Bandon Dunes does not yet have that network in place around the Resort. Perhaps in 30 years I will go to Bandon with my son and speak in reverent tones about how the place used to be so small and quiet as opposed to the new, bustling town that might be there. No, these destinations will grow, just as the ones before them did. And eventually Bandon Dunes might not be as much of a "Destination," stuck out somewhere in isolated bliss. But it will be more of a cornerstone of some resort type town such as what one sees in Monterey.

No, Destination Golf is not new. It has always existed. Shinnecock Hills was always several hours travel from New York City. Cypress Point was always several hours from San Francisco. And Augusta National was always several hours from Atlanta. These were the Destination Golf courses of the early 20th Century. Places like Sand Hills, Bandon Dunes and Cabot Links are our Destination Golf courses of the early 21st Century.

Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Oxmoor Valley (Valley)

The Valley course at Oxmoor Valley starts off with a hole that plays greatly downhill, moves on to a stretch of holes that are dead flat, goes to a set of gently rolling holes, and ends with two significantly uphill holes. The course is more easily walked than it's Ridge neighbor due to being flatter, but some places still have significant distances from one hole to the next. Overall, this is a rather nice course and most certainly one to be enjoyed.

Holes to Note

Hole #1: Par 4, 440 yards

This hole plays significantly downhill off the tee and is certainly not a gentle handshake to begin the round. The safe play would be to take a fairway wood or perhaps a long iron and play towards the bunker on the right. The more aggressive player might attempt to take the tee shot over the bunkers on the left and give himself the shorter shot into the green.

The player who hits towards the right bunker will be left with a longer shot, obviously, but will be rewarded with a flat lie. The player who takes his shot over the left bunkers may get a flat lie, but may get quite a bad lie because the fairway beyond the bunkers is quite narrow with significant fall-offs on either side.

The green, like most at the facility, is rather nondescript, sadly.

Hole 11: Par 4, 361 yards
This hole gives the player a couple of options as well. The fairway is flanked with two bunkers (a feature this writer dislikes, for what it's worth). Playing towards the one on the left will leave the player with a flat lie, playing towards the one on the right might leave the player with an odd stance, and or course the player might try to hit driver over all the trouble and be left with a short shot to the green.

From the fairway, the green is significantly elevated, preventing the player from seeing the entire flagstick.

It occurs to this writer just now as he's writing that the terrain for this hole reminds him quite a bit of what he saw for the 2nd hole at Pine Valley. Which actually makes the quality of this hole seem rather poor...One has to wonder if Rulewich saw the similarity and somehow thought this hole was a nice homage to the 2nd at Pine Valley? In this writer's opinion, it's not. But that notwithstanding, the hole is not bad.

Hole 12: Par 5, 506 yards
This may be the most strategic hole on the course. The tee shot is a Cape style allowing the player to be as aggressive as his heart, mind and ego will allow.

While it would seem that the bunker on the left might be overkill, it's nothing to get worked up over. From the fairway, the player will have to navigate a minefield of bunkers to get to the green. If the player doesn't believe he can reach the green in two shots, he must decide whether to play short, long, or even with the set of fairway bunkers.

For the player who attempts to go for the green in two or is hitting his third shot from the lay-up area, he will be forced to contend with a large bunker fronting the green.

This is likely the best hole on the property and makes as good a use of natural features as this writer has seen in a Rulewich designed course.

Overall, this course is solid. While there aren't a great many special holes, they are all rather solid. The only real issues one might take with the routing come on the stretch of 12 through 17. Each of these holes have rather significant green to tee distances and while being decent holes, the routing takes away any flow the course may have had. Add in a few crossings of public streets and that goes away even more. Sad, really. Could have been much better. 4 of 10.

Hundred Hole Hike Recap

The long awaited, for me anyway, start of my Hundred Hole Hike came at 5:53am on Monday. This after two months of asking pretty much anyone I saw if they would be willing to donate to my cause, walking 36, sometimes 54, holes in a day to see how fast I could play, and generally working outside to get used to the high temps and humidity again after our cool season.

The Hike was done at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail site in Mobile, Magnolia Grove. Trying to walk a Trail course once, even one of the Short Courses, is tough enough, it's tough to imagine the difficulty in trying to walk the courses six times. Overall, I ended up walking about 23 miles in order to complete the Hike. My feet and legs were hurting in multiple places, as I suspect was the case for all Hikers. Magnolia Grove has three courses on site, the Short course, a handy little par 3 course, the Falls course, a nice out and back loop design, and the Crossings course, a very open course that hosts the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic. My route took me to the Short course first, then to the Crossings, Falls, and then back to short for the remainder of the day.

The day started off much like all the other rounds I have played on the Short course, rather steady, making some pars and such, it took until the 8th hole to make my first birdie of the day. It was a strange birdie to make. I had told myself prior to the day that I was not going to take too much time lining up putts over 10-12 feet and only then lining up the birdie putts. Anything inside that, I felt like I had a decent chance of making, and I had promised to donate an additional $2 for each birdie I made. So in reality, the only putts that mattered all day were the birdie putts. The putt on 8 was about 30 feet and had a significant break, probably 4 feet. I took a quick look and hit away; I was almost startled to see it go in the hole. Really poor 9th hole, but onto the back nine...I shot 28 on the back nine, one over par, no birdies, for a total score of 60 on the first eighteen holes.

57:26 for the first 18 on the Short Course, 

then 1:33 to get to the next tee on the Crossings.

Second eighteen was on the Crossings course. Very steady start, even par through 5 holes, went for the green in 2 on the par 5 6th hole, up and down from the greenside bunker for birdie. Now 2 birdies on the day, $4 extra. Bogey on 7, then two pars....even par on the front, pretty good scoring considering it took me about 52 minutes to play the front nine. As I was finishing up on the 9th hole, the lightning alarm sounded. I walked up to the clubhouse and was told it was a false alert...back to golf. Uneven start on the back, but I made a birdie on #12, 3 total, $6. The next hole is a short par 5, easily reachable in two shots with an iron in hand...I made par and was quite disappointed. But I made it up with birdie on #16, then a bogey and par coming in. Shot two over on the back. But two more birdies, so now $8 total in the birdie pool. Played the round in under two hours, which is quite quick on this course.

Third round started on the Falls course, after a wardrobe change. Played through a group after my 5th hole on this round, asked them if they'd be willing to give a couple bucks to the Ronald McDonald House, all 3 broke out their billfolds, boom, extra $20 raised that I wasn't anticipating. Made two birdies on the front nine en route to shooting even on the front. Six Birdies: $12 in the pool. The back nine was rather troublesome, my back started hurting quite a bit and the worse it hurt, the less I cared about making solid swings, sadly. But I still ended up tooling it around the back nine at 5 over par. I played the same golf ball for the first 52 holes...hit a shot slightly too far right on the 53rd and couldn't find it. I was quite sad. Spent 2-3 minutes looking for the ball and this kept me from playing my third round in under 2 hours. 

1:52:04 for 18 on the Crossings course, 12:07 freshening up,

2:02:48 for 18 on the Falls, I REALLY wanted to get this in under 2 hours,

27:25 for a bite to eat, then 31:19 for 7 holes on the short, plus the ride back to the clubhouse because of lightning

After I finished on the Falls, my wife was kind enough to be at the club with a Subway sandwich for lunch and I took a short break prior to going back out. It was getting very hot, so it was a good time to take a break off my feet and just generally rest a moment. Once I was done, it was back out onto the Short course. I was playing decent through 7 holes, but had made no birdies, when the lightning alarm went off again. Had my wife not been out there with me, riding in a cart with my son, I probably wouldn't have walked back in as 7 is a substantial distance from the clubhouse, especially walking. So, 61 holes down and back to the clubhouse in 6:04:45 as you can see above.

I figured this rain delay wouldn't be long and I had some family members and a co-worker coming out to help me in my afternoon rounds. Well, the delay kept going and going. I stuck it out in the clubhouse for the entire time and it ended up being around 4pm before we were able to get back out. My co-worker, TJ, had hung around and he came out with me and caddied for the final rounds. The difference in actually having someone out there walking the course with me, just someone to talk to, was pretty huge. The fifth round was completed very quickly, I did not time it, but I can't see it taking more than 50 minutes...but perhaps the time just passed faster with someone else out there. Nothing special, two birdies, though the birdie on 17 was interesting. My shot from the tee didn't look very close at all from the tee, looked to probably be over 25 feet away. TJ just took off for the 18th tee and I just said I'd take a rap at my putt with my wedge. I get up to the green, ball is about 10 feet away. I was rather irritated I didn't have my putter, but TJ was all ready near the 18th tee, probably 75 yards away, so I didn't call him back. Just bellied a wedge...right in the hole. Birdie, no big deal, we don't need any putters around here. Now 8 birdies, $16 extra. Shot 63 this round.

Played the final 18 of the day on the short course very quickly as well. Knocked in a long putt on the second hole for another birdie, played on quickly. Played very quickly on this side as well, probably finished in under an hour again, to be sure, and birdied 18 for #10 on the day. $20 in the birdie pool. 

After this, we were to 97 holes. I saw no need to try and play the last three on the Short course when the real courses were available, so we went off on the Falls course since there is a very easy three hole loop playing holes 1, 2, and 18. Made par on the first two, the I tried to go for to go for the green on 18 in two. I wanted to make one of those $20 bonus eagles to close out the round. Didn't work...ended up making bogey to close out the round. Wanted to finish on a high note, but it just didn't happen. So after about 9 total hours on the course, plus a 4+ hour rain delay, I'd finished 100 holes. 

There probably was time enough to play a few more holes, but the combination of having been at the course since 5:30 am and being pretty much the last person at the course holding up the staffers (having been in both the outside and inside staff positions, I know I'd have been irritated at someone staying all night playing like I was) I decided to call it a day once I got to 100. 

But this has been quite a rewarding experience. I've learned that in many things, I need to stop finding excuses not to do something, and find reasons TO do something. I've learned that some of the people you wouldn't figure to contribute anything, for any number of reasons, often become the ones who find reasons, and that the people you might think would "beat down the doors," so to speak, in order to contribute, wind up being the ones who find excuses. And I've learned that the feeling you get from knowing you've helped people is better than the awards that may come from it. 

This was very rewarding and I will certainly do it again next year.

Hundred Hole Hike

Tomorrow is the big day for my Hundred Hole Hike. I will be starting at about 5:30 in the morning and going until darkness, hopefully. Should be a great, rewarding day. I haven't quite raised the amount I wanted to, but maybe I will be able to get some last minute donations tomorrow as I am doing the rounds. Anyone who is near Mobile, AL, feel free to come out to Magnolia Grove and follow me around. I'll write a good recap hopefully sometime this week after I am done.