Last week I played twice and am catching up to get the scorecards online. Ray, Rodney and I went out one Friday after work to play River Run (Lagoon had a tournament). As we paid for the round Ken joined us to complete the foursome. We all played pretty well and I shot a nice 102 on the Kolomi (East) Course. An even 51 on front and back. A personal best round with 2 pars. Click the image below to expand the scorecard.

Then that Monday, Rodney and I went to Cottonwood Golf Club. A personal favorite course, mainly for the GPS devices in the carts. Well, they took those out. So the course loses a few points in my book for that move. Otherwise, it is a nice course that is pretty challenging. I like the layout and it is kept up well. The 14th hole is awesome. A par five that goes up hill dog-legging right. Then you go to the left over water to landon the green. My personal favorite hole… all time (so far). I shot a horrible 117. Click the image to view that scorcard.

We played the new (opened April 06) 9 hole Gateway Park Golf course in Montgomery. It is a nice city owned course that is right off I-65. The location is convenient and they did a good job on the design. It is not the best part of town, but you wouldn’t know it once you’re on the course.

Although the course has nine holes, they recommend playing it twice, once from the white tees and then for a change they say to play the second time from the blues. We played from the Blue tees and that made the seemingly easy course play very difficult. The course is composed of five par 4s and four par 3s. The absence of par 5s was the biggest disappointment. I ended up shooting a 56, which was not totally telling of the course; but rather my bad driving accuracy. No pars and no bogeys will kill any chance of a good score.

The price was decent for a Saturday. $16 to walk 9. The driving range is $2 a bucket and they also have a nice practice green with a bunker. The scenery around the course was decent. Other than the interstate being right next to the course, you wouldn’t know where you were. Of course, the greens and fairways were immaculate. As you would expect from a 6 month old $1.5 million course. The bunkers and trees made the course more challenging; however, the course was pretty wide open. They did have some decent water hazards, but they were easily navigated.

Click the below image to see my scorecard from the round.

Overall, I give the course a 5 on my scale of 1 to 10.

Price: 6
Difficulty: 5
Scenery: 5
Club House: 7
Practice Facilities: 3

…but then again you knew that. Didn’t you???

Check out his swing in action. CLICK HERE

This swing vision thing is cool. I never knew a ball worped that much on impact. That is cool.

Rodney and I played Lagoon Park for the second Friday in a row. The new greens were all usable this time and the course was going to play 45-75 yards longer on the back nine.  Well it didn’t matter.  I sucked it up on the front and the back.  The darkness only allowed us to play 17, but on the front I shot a 59.  The worst part is I had two pars in a row.  That makes my score look even worse.  I had multiple quadruple boogeys… is that even a term.

I was using my new Warrior Wedges, which definately cost me some strokes as I learned how hard to hit them to get the right distance and spin.  I also could not hit the greens with any back spin, which caused the ball to roll off a lot.  My drives were also horrible.  I had 1 decent drive the whole round. So I expect to improve my play at the driving range before I go back out there.

Rodney did pretty decent shooting a 53 and a 5x on the back.  Not bad.  We hope to make this a every Friday occurance.

Here is an updated map of the Montgomery, Al courses that we have played, recently.

Well Rodney and I played golf for the first time in about a month.  Boy was I rusty.  We didn’t warm up at all before the match.  Lagoon Park is redoing the greens and they were finished on the front 9 and had temporary on the back nine.  We started playing on no. 10.

The back nine went well with 53 by Rodney and a 54 me.  He had the only par of the day on a par 3 14th hole that was only 109 yd long. The temporary greens were better than I expected since they were just short cut fairways.  The ball rolled relatively well on the surface, but they were slower than normal greens.

The front nine was not as good for either of us.  3 holes ruined Rodney’s score and I consistantly sucked.  We both shot a 59.  With 3 bogeys by Rodney and none by myself.  Overall we shot a 112 and a 113 which is pretty good on our first round on the course, the temporary greens, and it has a Slope rating of 117.  I think if we can continue to play under the slope we are doing well and have a realistic goal.

The price was great.  $17 after 4pm with a cart.  The driving range is a bit expensive but it is well maintained and they also have a nice pratice green.  The scenery around the course is really cool.  Lots of pine trees, green grass, green lakes and plenty of wild life.  The new greens were awesome and were championship level.  The couse even had soft powdery sand in the bunkers.  Unfortunately, I made three shots from those.
Overall, I give the course a 8 on my scale of 1 to 10.

Price: 10
Difficulty: 7
Scenery: 7
Club House: 6
Practice Facilities: 9

On a golf tour in Ireland, Tiger Woods drives his BMW into a petrol station in a remote part of the Irish countryside. The pump attendant, who knows nothing about golf, greets him in a typical Irish manner completely unaware of who the golfing pro is.

“Top of the mornin’ to yer, sir” says the attendant.

Tiger nods a quick “hello” and bends forward to pick up the nozzle. As he does so two tees fall out of his shirt pocket onto the ground.

“What are dose?, asks the attendant.

“They’re called tees” replies Tiger.

“Well, what on god’s earth are dey for?” inquires the Irishman.

“They’re for resting my balls on when I’m driving”, says Tiger.

“Jaysus”, says the Irishman, “BMW tinks of everyting!”

As we played River Run West side Friday evening, a nasty storm blew in. Well that is exactly what I needed. When the gale force wind decided to stop, the temperature was much milder and my drives got long and straight. The second shot was even long and on target. My main issue became my chipping from 50 yards out and less. I can get them close, but it still too far to putt 100% of the time.

I did score 3 pars in a row on 8, 9, and 10 plus one more on the back. Even with 4 pars my score was over 100, mainly because my early holes were horrible. I couldn’t get off the tee box and my second and third shots were just as horrible. I lost 9 balls on the first 9 holes.

So, the problem with my game has been attributed to the heat. Not the balls or clubs this time. Rodney did shoot a 101 to my 104, but I plan on shooting in the 90s next outing. REMATCH!

Visit the USGA website for more information on course rating and slope.  It is pretty informative.  Ofcourse the website has the official rules of golf and even some quizes to see how well you know the game.  I scored a 4 out of 10 on my first quiz.

Rating and Slope Primer 

Last Saturday morning we played a 5-some at Maxwell.  It was a nice hot, sunny day.  The course was great with everything looking really nice, green, and groomed.  The biggest complaint was my play.  Wow, I stunk.  The first two holes we fine.  I hit the fairway with my drives and got on the green.  The problem all day was the two-putts.  The first three holes were all two-putts.  After that point I stopped keeping track.  The other problem was my chipping.  I was on the fringe all day effectively making my two-putts really three putts.  Awful.

The course is a very long course for me.  6620 yards to be exact, with a 535 yard par 5 and a 203 yard par 3.  A 200+ yd par 3 is PGA style.  Excluding the distance, course is not particularly hard with bunkers and greens relatively uncomplicated.  It is the distance that seemed to take its toll on my score.  Forcing me to often play my 3 wood and 3 iron, even after the occasional good drive. According to the USGA rating a bogey golfer would shoot a 97 with a slope of 117, which is what the average golfer would score on the course.  The average course receives a 113. 

So looking at that bit of data, my 114 isn’t as bad as I thought.  Rodney also shot a 114 and Randy recorded 122.  We all need to work on our short games, putting and driving.  Other than that we were really good.  The cart driving was crisp and the ball teeing was exceptional. 

Overall, I give the course a 7 on my scale of 1 to 10.

Price: 7
Difficulty: 7
Scenery: 5
Club House: 8
Practice Facilities: 9