One More Mulligan

I am fresh off my trip to Las Vegas I am hooked on seeing courses in different zip codes. I have been searching for my next destination and keep coming back to news on the British Open and the beautiful links courses. I have always wanted to visit Scotland so this might be a good opportunity to play the Old Course at St. Andrews.

The similarities of St. Andrews and my local group of courses at Bethpage are intriguing.  Each has a premier course, the Old Course and the Black respectively, as well as other courses that you can play while staying there. St. Andrews other courses include Balgove, Eden, Jubilee, Castle, and the New. This makes the trip for me since I prefer to play a variety of courses and not just a couple of rounds on the same one. Another interesting fact is that both the Black course and the Old Course set aside a number of early tee times for walk ups in the morning. This gives everyone a shot at getting on the course even if you weren’t able to make a scheduled tee time.

I’m not sure exactly when I will be getting time to go so I have been checking out some of the other course options in case St. Andrews is booked for the dates I am available. The good news is that Scottish golf offers many other worthy courses. Aberdeenshire, Dundee & Angus and Highlands have come up in my research and all appear to be top notch choices that are affordable as well.

I can’t wait to watch this year’s British Open and day dream about taking 17 shots to get out of one of those pot bunkers or 5 putting on one of the gigantic greens. Truth is when you are on a course that beautiful I don’t think it will really matter how I play.

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Sorry for the delay in posting this round review but Vegas and the holiday got in the way. Needless to say my early morning attempt at golfing was much more enjoyable than the previous day at one in the afternoon. I play Silverstone Golf Club in Henderson, Nevada and had a blast. I was greeted and driven down to the covered real grass practice range where I was able to hit balls and practice putting until my group was at the first tee. When I got in my cart I was pleased to see a built in GPS that acted like a “you are here” map. I played with three locals, an older couple and a guy just older than me.

Things started off shaky on the first hole with a triple bogey. I was very nervous for some reason but I settled in and started hitting fairways. In fact I noticed that not only was I hitting the ball pretty straight but man was it flying! I hit my drive on the third hole 285 yards.  I had about 120 yards to the green on one of the early holes and ended up flying the green by a pretty decent amount with my nine iron. The course was in amazing shape with lush fairways and well groomed greens.

The front nine was a dream, fairways and greens the whole way. I wish I could have putted better but I still shot 45. The back nine was just as fun but not as low scoring. The heat started to affect me a little and while I still hit some really good shots I blew up on the 12th hole. A long par 5 with a dogleg around a water hazard to the green. I hit it to the right of the green on my third shot in between the bunkers in some deep grass. I took a hack at it and bladed it into the hazard. I ended up taking a 9 on the hole with the penalty. I carded a 51 as the sun was really getting up into the sky. My 96 total is a new personal best and really made me happy since I was playing on a course with a 128 slope rating.  I only wish I had started the round a little earlier so that I could have concentrated better in the final holes.

I highly recommend this course to anyone travel to Sin City. For any out of towner they offer a rental car reimbursement for up to $30 off your round. I played the entire 18 for $55 including the cart. Just stay hydrated and tee off nice and early! You can see more photos in the photo gallery.

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I just got finished playing the 9 hole Founders course at the Black Mountain Country Club in Henderson, NV. The round was really cheap, $30 for 18 holes, but I was only able to play nine. The heat was bearable but I was just not used to being out in it for as long as I was. A bank sign read 109 degrees Farenheight when I passed on the highway and that was at 1 o’clock.

It was a links course surrounded by houses that made acurate tee shots very important. I could not stay in form from my previous round and hit the fairways. I only had 3 acceptable shots with my driver with 1 hitting the fairway. Overall since I was playing by myself I rushed as usual and couldn’t take my time and play multiple balls or take pictures due to the oppressive sun.

I am playing Silverstone Golf Club at 7:30am tomorrow so I should be able to play without a problem. I am going to get there early to take advantage of the unlimited range balls that come with the green fees. I’ll update you again tomorrow.

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Well, first off, I appologize for the delay in posts. I have been trying to get all my lose ends with work and other stuff tied up before I leave this Saturday. As far as golf goes I have followed up my sub 100 round with some rounds of 100 to 106 and I attended the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black. I have played both Blue and Red at bethpage but have yet to try and tackle the Black course with it’s famous sign letting the high handicappers like myself know they have a little to learn before teeing off.

I attended practice rounds 2 and 3 as well as the Saturday part of the championship. I took some great photos from the U.S. Open practice rounds that can be seen in the 2009 Photo Gallery. I can say the if anyone out there is thinking of going to any PGA events, the practice rounds are they way to go. They are really cheap, I got two tickets for $40 on StubHub.com, and you are not able to take photos on any of the other days. I had a blast watching the practice range and greens and loved how the players interact with the gallery while they are practicing. Another piece of advice, don’t worry about where Tiger is! They will never tell you what his scheduled practice time is and when possible they almost always send him out on the tenth tee to keep the crowds to a minimum. He always has a crowd that is 10 deep following him making it impossible to get a glimpse. If you must see him pick a hole way in front of where he is and just plant yourself there until he comes through and make the most of the one or maybe two shots you get to see. I chose to follow some other really good groups and was able to see all of their shots very comfortably. My favorite was Ogilvy, Furyk and Casey on Saturday. I watched them from the first tee to the eighteenth green and loved every minute of it. Wish I could have taken photos then.

As for my upcoming trip that I wrote about in my first travel post I have finalized the two places that I will be playing while in Vegas, Silverstone Golf Club and Black Mountain Country Club. Silverstone has an amazing deal where they will repay you up to $30 towards your travel expenses to the course. That means your cab or even your daily rental car fee! This brings the green fee, which includes unlimited range balls and cart with GPS, down from $85 to $55. The course looks great and should be a challenge. Black Mountain will be played in the afternoon so it is very cheap at $35. I don’t think that includes the cart but it doesn’t matter since it will be over 100 degrees outside when I tee off. The cart could cost another $150 and I think that I would go for it.

I’ll keep you posted and try my best to take pictures. Check back during the week and I’ll be posting some updates!

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