Players

Saturday 13th

I woke up about 3.30 again and after lying in bed thinking about a report I was going to write, realised I wasn't getting back to sleep so got up and wrote it. I got back to bed about 6-30 and dropped off before the cleaner woke me at 9. I didn't realise the breakfast service lasted till 9-30 on the weekend so after a shower had some toast in my room.


About 10 I headed out to golf at the player course of the Woodlands Country Club. Once I got in the car I realised I didn't know the address to type into the GPS, so had to look it up on Google Earth back in the room. Even then I got the spelling of the name of the street wrong so the GPS couldn't find it. However I knew where to go to get there and the name of the main cross street so headed off. I hadn't realised how far it was and it was quite a bit later than intended by the time I got there. However, there was no panic since I was in the last group that hit off just before 12 so had plenty of time on the driving range and the putting green. I should also have gone to the chipping area as well since the first hole I chipped over the green 3 times. The greens here are a lot harder than at home and there is no bite and spin back like I expect there.


The course is not as lush as last time and the grass off the fairways is brown after the winter, which was harsher than normal. I was told it will green up in a few weeks. It was supposed to be 75F  today and was sunny, so great golf weather.



We played as a 5 ball as did a number of other groups, so it wasn't a fast round. Bad luck for the 2 ball that hit off after us as they had a lot of waiting. Apart from Lee who I played with last year, the other players were Jobie, an optician, Dewey who has a fireworks business and Doug who is a pastor.


I was quite pleased with my round, since I played off the blue tees and had an 89. The blues are the second to longest and have a "slope" of 140 - which means they are nearly 25% harder that a standard course. My 13 handicap would be adjusted to 16 so I was only 1 stroke over. I had 2 birdies and 6 pars and a number of doubles and one triple (because of a lost ball). I putted really well with only 28 putts and one chip in from off the green.

I also manage to break my 4 iron hitting out of the trees on the second hole (which I parred).

I played with a group called "The Rack" and they have several comps amongst themselves. Apart from individual scores, they have a draw for pairs and play skins. Each of us puts in $20 and the winners get $50 or $60 and so on. The skins are awarded to anyone who has a solo best score but unfortunately several others birdied the 2 holes that I did. When they finished I asked Lee what handicap he'd given me and discovered that one of the guys had put my score in as a net 85 rather than 73 or 74. This cost me a bit because that would have been a winning score in the pairs since my partner had 73. Lee apologised and refunded my $20.


I visited Golf Galaxy to see if they could fix my club but realised this would be an issue since it has an uncommon "fat shaft" only used by Wilson Golf.

I finished up eating dinner at a Mexican a few 100m from the hotel and then decide to watch Saturday Night Live on the TV, but kept falling asleep.