Bear Creek Golf Club.

I took advantage of a perk offered through that dead weight that I own (called a "timeshare") and played the private Bear Creek Golf Club right here in good ol' Murrieta, California. A Jack Nicklaus design from the 1980s, the course was as tough a track as I've played since restarting my golf habit. I soon discovered that they had punched the greens and the fairways recently so it wasn't in pristine condition. I also discovered it was a bit on the wet side in spots, which surprised me a bit. I've seen quite a bit worse in the area so no real complaints, though the fairways being tight and having holes that were still healing prompted the need to improve my lie a couple of times.

When I got there the place was just packed with people, which somewhat surprised me. There were literally two open parking spots in the lot. When I got to the range most of the stalls were occupied and there were people mulling about on the both the putting green and the chipping area. Strangely enough, there wasn't a ton of traffic heading to the first tee so when my time arrived I was still able to go out as a single.

The day started off alright. I hit a good drive and discovered the condition of the fairways at this point. I managed to hit 7-iron just off the back of the green. Here is where I learned that the greens would be a bit of a challenge. They were fast but with the recent maintenance it was hard to get a great read on them, plus there were slopes both big and small throughout. I thought I hit a decent chip but it slid off in a weird direction that I didn't expect. No biggie. I then lipped out the par putt, one of about three or four that I'd burn the edge on today.

I then went par-bogey and caught the threesome of women college players that were ahead of me on the 4th tee. They had turned into a fivesome by then so I'm glad they let me go. I parred the fourth without too much issue. The day started going downhill from there for a few reasons after that. Before I get into that, here are a few looks at the course on the early holes :

The dual-level second green

The view from the tee of the par-5 third

The fifth hole started with me running into an elderly Asian couple. However, instead of letting me play through they simply ignored me and continued on. No big deal, maybe they'll wait for a par three to do it or something. Anyway, here is the view from the par-four fifth tee :

The somewhat blind tee shot on the par-4 fifth

As you might be able to tell, I have no real idea if that couple is out of my way once they go down the the hill there. I waited for a little while extra and then proceeded to hook into the trees there on the left. When I when down there I discovered that it was actually a hazard and that I pretty much hit through the fairway as well. If I had hit a good shot I'd have been fine so I'm not going to claim ignorance here, though I might have gone through the fairway there as well. After the drop, the ball is now severely above my feet and a clump of trees jut into the fairway, blocking a clear path to the green. I'm forced to just chip out down the hill, pitch on and two-putt for a double bogey. I think I have a picture of the green here somewhere...

The fifth green

Pretty cool hole actually, the green seemed kinda tiny from where I took the picture from. The sixth tee was right there to the left of the green. I then saw that the twosome was now waiting for a foursome that was on the green on this short par three, shown below :

The wide but narrow green of the short par-3 sixth

I still hoped that the couple would at the least invite me to play along with them but neither of them even acknowledged my presence, even with a wave of hello and such. Obviously they are members that don't like mingling with the riff-raff. Anyhow, when I eventually got to play the hole I had just a shade more than 100 yards to the pin so out came the gap wedge. I pushed it a bit but the ball landed safely on the green. As I was about to walk back to the cart I noticed the ball was moving with some speed back toward the fringe. The ball proceeded to roll through the fringe, down the hill and into the rocks in front of the green (a red-lined hazard). I was stunned. When I arrived at the green I expected to find a false front or something but no, it was pretty flat. My ball mark was about three or four yards on the green, just about pin-high. Somehow I had managed to back this thing off the green from there. Just a bad break I guess, score another double bogey as I lipped-out on the bogey effort.

The seventh was just a bad hole for me. I hit it a little left but a bad kick took it off the fairway and under a tree. I was able to punch out up next to the green but I had a pretty tight lie in the rough there. A poor effort failed to get up onto the surface and another double bogey hit the card as I lipped-out yet another putt. The green was kinda interesting, shaped like a horseshoe. If the pin was on the left I could have potentially rolled my second shot on the green, however the right side had a steep hill and the greenside bunker was in my line so I couldn't pull that off.

A view of the seventh green from the left side

Settling into the now slow play that the day would present for the rest of the afternoon I managed to right the ship and par the next two holes for a front side 44. I made the turn and was lucky enough to jump in front of the foursome that was ahead of the couple as they hit the grill for some food. Unfortunately that couple did not stop and was already in the fairway and I'd be stuck with them. I managed pars on both 10 and 11, then went bogey-par to get off to a decent start. Here are views of some of the holes :

The par-four 10th

The split fairway of the par-five 11th

The par-3 12th, a double green shared with the 9th

From there is was mostly just a game of waiting. On the 13th I hit a poor 3-wood off the tee and into the fairway bunker but hit a nice shot onto the green to nab par. On the par-5 14th I hit a good drive and laid up to a decent yardage. It was a bit into the wind and uphill but nothing severe, it was mild at best. I had about 115 so I decided a good pitching wedge was the call, which I normally use from about 125. I hit what I thought was a solid shot, in fact I was semi-worried I hit it too long. I saw it bounce but I couldn't see the surface of the green. When I arrived I found I was just off the fringe, about 10-15 yards short of the hole. I have no idea why it was there. I didn't see a ball mark so I don't think I backed it off the green again. Maybe I actually missed the ball slightly but it sure looked good in the air and felt good when I hit it. Perhaps I got a bad yardage with the scope, maybe I didn't hit the flag and caught something short. There just wasn't that much wind so I'm sure it didn't get knocked around in the air, this wasn't Las Vegas. A mystery that will not be solved leads to a indifferent chip and a missed par putt. Kinda how the day felt overall.

The view from the 14th tee

The downhill par-3 16th

A three-putt bogey from about 60 feet on the 15th left me three-over for the nine, leading me to the hole pictured above. Here I hit the best iron of the day, an 8-iron to about 10 feet just below the hole. "Best" isn't really saying too much, I don't think I hit a particularly great shot all day. Sure, I hit eight fairways and eight greens for the round, which isn't awful, but I never had that "wow, that felt really good" kinda contact. Hell, those two wedges that backed off those greens were probably the closest I had to that. Anyway, I missed the birdie putt low, though it was a good stroke it just wan't a great read.

I parred the 17th and came to the final hole, evidently the signature hole of the layout judging by the water around the green :

A view of the 18th from the tee

The last few holes were a little downwind, the only holes to give that sort of help during the entire day. I hit the drive solid but it was a shade right and needed to be either a few yards left or a few yards longer as I found that bunker on the right side. A daunting shot to the green from there, I give it a go but couldn't quite get the ball over the lip and it rolled down the fairway. I then hit a poor shot to the right off of a downhill lie but fortunately I hit it far enough to clear the trap on the right side of the green. I good chip and a putt saved bogey and gave me an 84 for the round.

Was it worth the money to play this private track? Hmm, maybe it would have been if I had caught it on a better day. Considering the conditions and the pace I probably played it a month too early. I never saw a marshal or a beverage cart the entire day, then again at a private course I can understand the beverage cart thing. Still, I had a better experience at Rams Hill and the Vegas courses and it wasn't really that close.

As far as my game, I feel I took a step back. Granted, my mistakes were penalized a bit more severely here that at other places like Borrego Springs, but these poor iron shots really bothered me. The driver was decent, I mostly hit draws or slight hooks, which is better than those flairs to the right that plagued me. I did go to the range today (Sunday) and actually did start to hit the irons better once I convinced myself to make a better turn back and then actually take a good rip at the ball. On the course it just seems like I am either trying too hard to hit it straight or I'm just plain too tentative or cautious. I won't say I'm playing scared as I'm scoring well enough to discount that idea but I can't help but feel I'm not swinging as freely or as confidently as I hoped I would be by now.

I'm flying out of town for work early this week so I won't touch a club for a few days, which might give the elbow some time to rest up for once. Maybe on Thursday night I'll try the range again and see if I can build on what I accomplished today. From there, I think I'll head to Palm Springs and play something out there before its too late. Whether I make a weekend of it or not is unknown as of now, we'll find out next week I guess.

Borrego Springs and Rams Hill, doubled down.

Since my time in SoCal is suddenly short I decided that I needed to go out and play as many of the courses that I would have otherwise waited to play during the summer if were to have remained. Rams Hill Golf Club is one of those courses. However, that place is pretty damn expensive so I needed to try to make it worth the time and money I was going to spend. I did that by finding Borrego Springs Resort, a place that not only has a deal with Rams Hill but also has a course within itself.

At the time that I booked the package I was under the impression that I was going to receive a single-player rate with one round at each course over the weekend. When I arrived I discovered that was not the case. The golf package was only available for double occupancy. Naturally I had a bit of a discussion about that fact and in doing so I learned that I would be receiving not one but two vouchers for each course for my stay. Realizing how pricey Rams Hill was the decision was easy. If I'm already paying for it then I'M PLAYING 72 FUCKING HOLES IN TWO DAYS. I didn't care if my elbow fell off. I also didn't care if I ended up with heat exhaustion. Shit, if I can do it in Phoenix during July* then I can certainly do it in the California version of the desert in April.

So off I went! First up is the resort course at Borrego Springs. Being a resort course its not incredibly difficult, however it was in pretty good condition. The course wasn't long either, just under 6100 yards from what I would call the regular men's tees (blue), however some of the hole lengths were pretty funky (or stupid, to be honest). Granted, it is a par-71 course so its going to be a little shorter that a 72, but for a track that barely tips over 6000 yards there probably shouldn't be a 236-yard par 3 and a 289-yard par 4 within three holes of each other. There are other examples also but they just didn't seem to flow quite right for the regular tees.

Before starting the second round I did discover that they have a "Resort" set of tees, which uses a mixture of all three of the non-ladies tees available on the course. This setup is actually slightly longer that the blue tees but it avoided some of the awkward lengths of the holes by either using the back tees of the shorter holes and the front tees of the longer ones (like that monster par-3) to give a better balance. In my opinion they really should just come up with another set of markers for this "tee" and place them in the appropriate spots, in that way you don't have to refer to the scorecard on every hole to figure out where to tee it up.

As far as how I played, well, I got away with murder probably. I started on the back nine (the Desert Willow nine as they call it) and did start with a par. I only had one more on the side. Hitting the fairway with my tee shot felt more akin to hitting the lottery as I kept losing shit to the right again. At least I was competent enough to know how to aim away from the more damaging trouble on the holes. Also, like I said, its not the most difficult course either so I was able to hack my way around without too much serious damage. I ended up shooting 43 with 18 putts. I hit three greens (three-jacking one of those) and hitting one in the water on the last. To be honest, while pushed slightly right, I thought it was going to be fine. I only hit 5-wood off the tee and really thought I had more room and distance to the water there. I still managed to minimize the damage to a bogey.

On the Mesquite nine I started with a bogey, though I hit a solid drive at least. From there I'm not sure what I did but I seemed to find a few band-aids or something for the swing I had today. I birdied the next hole, a par-5, then parred out for a even-par 35 for the nine. I hit seven greens and made a few decent putts for par along the way as I wasn't necessarily knocking the flag out of the holes. Still, things were better as I at least had an idea of where the ball was going now.

After wishing my one-time-widowed husband-and-wife playing partners well (after they gave me life advice I didn't solicit nor care to hear at the time... ok, yeah, maybe I'm being a dick here but I didn't come out here to talk about that, I'm playing golf in order to NOT think about that kind of thing. I have plenty of time to think about shit like that... but I digress), I went right back out for my second round. Starting on the Mesquite side, I decided to play those Resort tees this time. I kept my string of pars going for the first six holes before hitting a absolutely horrid approach shot on the short 7th hole. The damn thing wasn't even close, barely crossing the water before taking a dive into the drink to its death. I couldn't get up and down from there and took a double bogey. I finished bogey-par to shoot 38, which was still pretty good. What feels weird looking back at that stretch was that I had a string of 13 straight pars and didn't really feel like I was hitting the ball as well as the score. I was at least hitting fairways, though it wasn't always with driver in hand. I did need to get up-and-down on the first three holes of the side also as I only hit three greens.

Now I move to the back-nine again in hopes of improving on the morning performance. While I still couldn't hit the fairways I did keep the ball in play off the tee. This time around I was able to get the approach shots onto the green, hitting seven of them, though nothing terribly close. I parred all of those seven and took bogeys on the other two, giving me a 38 and a round of 76 for the afternoon. My elbow didn't feel awful after I was done, in fact I'd say that it held up pretty well. I played the second 18 wearing one of those Copper Fit compression sleeves and I think it helped at least a little bit, somehow. My fear at this point was how it was going to feel in the morning when I was planning only playing a more challenging track in Rams Hill.

Before we talk about Rams Hill I'll share a few pictures of the course at Borrego Springs, if I can remember what they are I'll caption them. I'm not sure how well you can see any of the pin placements but let me tell you that they certainly had no issue with cutting those holes either on the edge of the green or hanging over a slope. Overall the course was fairly flat and not incredibly exciting but they did have a few pretty looking holes :

The par-3 6th on Desert Willow

The par-4 7th on Desert Willow

The par-3 6th on Mesquite

The approach shot for the par-4 7th on Desert Willow

After icing the elbow and trying to get some sleep (which I failed at mostly) I headed out to Rams Hill on Sunday morning. I called ahead to see if I could get out earlier than my scheduled 11:10 tee time and they were happy to help, telling me that the course was pretty open and they'd get me out whenever I was ready. I put on that compression sleeve and headed for their range, which was nicely stocked with Pro V1 range balls. I had two objectives in mind. One, make sure I could even swing the club. To my relief the elbow was giving me no trouble. I could feel a tiny bit of soreness but it almost felt better than when I started yesterday. The second goal was to see if I could stop hitting these weak cut shots that get lost to the right. One shot yesterday in particular had me pretty convinced that I was casting or at least going outside-in on the fucker. If I was going to do anything today it was to make a better effort to swing back to the inside and not use my hands so much coming back down.

For the most part, mission accomplished. While I didn't hit the irons all that great overall I did start to hit my driver and fairway woods off the tee with a draw again. I still lost a few to the right but at least it wasn't a cut, it was more of a block. When I did miss it was generally a hook or a pull to the left, something I'm more able to deal with while playing. While not incredibly confident that any of this would hold up I still felt like I had an idea of what I was trying to do again.

To give you an idea of how the day went overall, I got to play the entire day by myself, which was unexpected. On my first trip around I would catch other groups and they would let me through pretty quickly for the most part. One group wasn't so quick though. For whatever reason they waited a few holes before letting me go ahead of them. Maybe they thought I'd go away or something. The second round was entirely to myself, I don't think I saw another soul for the entire afternoon. I played the two round in about six hours, maybe even a little less.

For a little more background let me tell you that Rams Hill was designed by Tom Fazio, which is one of my favorite course designers. He did both courses at World Woods, Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, Ocean Hammock (or whatever its called now) in Palm Coast, a couple of tracks at Pinehurst and a bunch more. I've been able to play a few of them and they always seem to appeal to me. He usually has some nice par-3 holes and a good short par-4 or two in the mix along the way. However, his courses usually start a bit tough. For instance, Jack Nicklaus generally likes to start courses off with a mid-length par-4 in order to "slowly get you started" on your day. Later in the round is when Jack will take the gloves off. Not Mr. Fazio. He doesn't even put the gloves on to begin with, instead he elects to simply punch you in the teeth with an uphill 400-yard par-4 playing with a crosswind. Yeah, that'll be Tom for ya.

Anyway, I parred that bitch with a great up-and-down from the left side of the green. I then proceeded to butcher the next hole, taking a double-bogey on the split-fairway par-5 second. I was 90 yards from the green in two on the lower side of that split fairway, but I hit the ball two feet too far into some iffy rough by a cross bunker. It didn't go well from there. I sprayed it around for the rest of the front nine, though mostly my misses were to the left, which I can better manage. Still, a few of the holes on the front side were pretty tough. The 3rd was a 419-yard par 4 to a huge green. The 8th was another monster par-4, 411 yards of uphill goodness. The demon on that hole was the falloff from the fairway to the left. Naturally, I hit what I thought was a pretty damn good drive, drawing to the left side of the fairway, but it bounced and rolled off that fairway to a spot about halfway down this slope. I was lucky to advance the ball halfway to the green from that lie, I took what felt more like a baseball swing with a Louisville Slugger than a golf swing with a Ping 5-wood. I felt lucky to make a 5 there, woof.

I finished the front in 41, parring the short par-3 9th. The 10th hole was also a par-3, though this one was much longer and over water. I think this is the first time I've ever played a course that ended one nine and started the next with a par-3. Both were cool holes in their own way, lets see if I have pictures of them here...

The short downhill par-3 9th

The longer downhill par 3 10th

 There we go. The 9th was playing about 125 yards to that front pin, the 10th was playing 170ish or so. I parred them both on this round, though that 9th green was evasive as its pretty narrow where that pin is. From this point I started to hit the driver much better, in fact I hit all seven fairways on the back nine (though I did hit 3-wood on 17, but I hit it well). Of course, Mr. Fazio still had a couple of brutes on the back (415 and 432 yard brutes) but he also had a couple of his shorter ones here as well (298 and 280). The par-5 holes were probably the best of the bunch though. The 11th is a downhill trek complete with a waterfall-laced stream running down the left side that dumped into a pond to the left of the green. Here are a few pictures of the hole from a couple different spots :

The view from the 11th tee

The 11th green from about 80 yards out

A view from the back of the 11th green back up the fairway

A shot of the stream, looking back from the fairway toward the tee

I managed to par this hole and the next before a bogey at the par-4 13th put me at 6-over for the day. I wasn't hitting many greens but I had some close misses that gave me a few easy chips to save par, which I managed to do on 14 and 15. I had a good two-putt par on the par-3 16th but then had a three-putt bogey on the short 17th, bringing me to 7-over before hitting the closing par-5 18th, as shown below :

The view from the 18th tee

If you go for the 18th green in two, this is the shot you face

The tee shot was downhill, then the approach was back uphill to the elevated green you see there in the picture. Those traps were a good bit below the level of the green, which would make for an awkward shot at best. I hit a pretty solid drive and had about 220 to the front edge of the green. I had a slightly sidehill/downhill lie though, which normally would discourage a go at the green for me. However, I was hitting the woods well. When I did miss I was missing left and as you can see I have a ton of grass left and short of the green. Seemed to me like a good spot for some risk/reward to me!

Did I mention the lie? Yeah. Off it went to the right, coming off low and fading. The ball bounced in front of that gaping bunker and rolled off into the waterfall. So much for that idea. I did managed to salvage a bogey to shoot 80 for the morning round, which to be honest I'd have taken if you had offered it to me before I started. I have no problem with that at all.

However, a second round is yet to be played! By now, as you might imagine, I was starting to feel a bit sore and tired. Perhaps it was due to the fact that I've now played 54 holes in the 90 degree heat. Maybe its because I didn't even think about eating anything before I started. I honestly didn't care at the time, I was just happy my elbow wasn't giving me any problems and I was actually hitting the ball fairly well off the tee at the time. So, after they changed out my golf cart I proceeded to the tee once more.

I started out well with a good solid drive on that tough first hole, even managing to get a 4-iron onto the green for a solid par. I would par the next three holes before semi-chunking a 6-iron on the par-3 5th, shown below :

I wasn't in danger of the water as it wasn't quite that bad but I did short-side myself to that front pin placement. I ended up taking a bogey on the 8th and 9th to shoot 39 for the front, hitting five fairways and five greens along the way. However, I could tell I was starting to wear down when I hit a huge block to the right off the tee on the 8th. Quite honestly I was lucky to find the bastard.

Naturally I wasn't going to quit now, even with the blister that was now starting to form on the top of the second knuckle of my left index finger (which is strange as I don't recall ever having one there before). I parred the first three holes on the back but then another tired swing got me on the 13th, this one was a low duck hook on that monster hole. I basically laid-up for my second and had 105 yards to the hole, which should be a perfect gap wedge for me. I was in the rough with yet another sidehill ball-below-my-feet lie (which every lie seemed to be like on this weekend, it was weird). This time I blasted the damn thing over the green. I was stunned. I must have caught a flyer but I've never had one take off like that before. I thought it was going to be a great shot when I hit it too. I had to check to make sure I had the right club in my hand. I checked the yardage again. Whatever the case, that lead to a double bogey.

I managed to follow that up with a solid par on the 14th, bringing me to the 432-yard 15th hole. Thankfully it was playing downwind and I had actually hit 4-iron over the green the first time around, but not because I flew it there, it landed short and rolled through the green. While the course was in terrific shape, the greens were pretty damn firm. They weren't fast, just firm. Anyway, I hit a lowish draw of a drive this time around, leaving me about 205 to the pin. I hit a good 5-wood, or at least it felt like it, however it must have drew a bit too much and flew into the greenside bunker or bounced into it. And here came my demise.

Of all the shots I try to hit during a round of golf right now, the bunker shots that require a good thump to get elevation give my elbow the most trouble. If the sand is dry and fluffy I have a better chance to pull it off. That was not the case here as the sand was a bit wet where I was. On my second round I have been chasing a maintenance guy that was watering the greens, apparently he was doing the same to the traps to keep the sand from blowing around in the event of wind? I don't know. Anyway, I didn't have a great lie in that wet sand either and it was a little downhill. My first try hit the lip of the bunker and come back to me. The second one did pretty much the same thing. While the bunker was fairly deep it wasn't an impossible shot. My third try ended up two feet from the hole, though by now I had a better lie. I just couldn't get myself to really zip the clubface through the sand like I needed to in order to get it to come out higher. Maybe I got too cute as the pin was a little close to the edge of the green. I probably should have just made sure I got it up and out, even if it ended up 20 or 30 feet past the hole. Bah, hindsight and all that shit.

So a double bogey there was followed by pars at the 16th and 17th. By now the blister had busted and I felt like I had been cooked to a fine medium rare. My drive off of the 18th tee was pretty weak and found a fairway bunker to the right. I managed to hit it out fairly cleanly but into the rough near another bunker that was down the right side and I now had 165 yards to that elevated green. Of course, the ball was below my feet again, this time it felt like it was about a foot down the hill. I made a good swing but it came out further right that I figured and found the little pot bunker by the green. And now it all gets interesting again.

I walk up to my ball and it seems to be defying gravity. Its sitting about three-quarters up the right-side face of the bunker on this steep slope, but somehow it didn't roll back down. The damn thing wasn't plugged and this sand wasn't wet, but it managed to find a spot to sit in and taunt me. I didn't have my phone on me but I should have gone back to the cart, grabbed the phone and taken a picture of this scene. Anyway, my ball is at least thigh-high as I stand in the bunker. In order to even be able to get to it I have to aim toward the back off the green, otherwise I'll hit the lip of the trap with my club. The fact that the ball is above my feet actually helps me a bit since the pin is toward the front of the green, which is behind my left shoulder as I face the ball. However, I honestly thought I'd do well just to dump it into the front of the trap as I didn't think I could get it high enough to get out. So I decided that the best idea was to play it as if it were plugged, keeping the face square instead of open like a normal bunker shot, and just wail at it.

And it worked! I didn't see how high it flew out since I had to step off of the hill of sand I was on after swinging the club but it ended up about 20 feet above the hole and on the green. Just as I was stunned over that rocket gap wedge earlier I was surprised that the ball ended up where it was now. Two putts later I had bogey and another 80 for the round. By this time I was more than happy to have finished playing, it was time to get inside and find some food in the clubhouse.

Here are a few more pictures of Rams Hill from various spots around the course. I can see why this place is regarded so highly in a number of different publications and on various best-of lists :

The par-5 2nd hole

The 348-yard par-4 4th

The par-5 6th hole

The 328-yard 7th (playing from a longer tee today)

The view for the 14th tee

The downhill approach to the par-4 14th

The short par-4 17th

So now all I have to do is drive home from seemingly the middle of nowhere. The place seemed pretty desolate to be quite honest, which isn't without its good points I suppose. I didn't see a chain restaurant for miles. Gas was about fifty cents higher though, even for California that's saying something. And even some of the roads to get there was pretty scary. Here's a view from the edge of one of these said roads :

No, I don't want to end up down there, they might not find me for a few days, or weeks... or ever.

Despite the initial mix-up with the rate and the details of the package I think I came out of this weekend well ahead of expectation. I played pretty decently overall, certainly scored well enough to be happy about it, and I've also seemed to have come out of it relatively unscathed thanks to some lip balm and sunscreen. I really want to go and practice on Tuesday but I think waiting until Wednesday might be best as I still kinda worn out from the weekend festivities. I want to see if I can build on what I started on the range at Rams Hill and get that better incorporated into my irons. I'd love to be able to count on that draw again. I guess time will tell.

*Yes, in 2002 I actually played six rounds within 72 hours over the July 4th weekend in Phoenix and its 115 degree dry heat. Probably not the best thing I've ever done to my health. I did lose a lot of weight though.

The Vegas Trip Report : The courses nearly blew me away... literally.

I drove up to Las Vegas this past weekend mainly because a friend of mine, Bill Zimmerman, was going to be there for a wedding or some such nonsense. All I saw in that fact was an excuse to play golf, so that's what I did. Mission accomplished.

I drove up on Saturday to play in the afternoon at Chimera Golf Club in Henderson, which is southeast of Vegas proper somewhere. If you didn't already know the Las Vegas area is generally a bit breezy, moreso in the summer. On this day "breezy" would not be the correct word. When I arrived at the course the wind was literally howling, I heard noises from somewhere as it blew around the parking lot. The fellas in the pro shop assured me that even for Vegas this wind was on the extreme side. Not to be deterred (and considering I drove four hours to play) I was paired up with two locals and ventured out.

Now I don't know how to gauge wind speed and such but I'm guessing it was 25-30 MPH on a consistent basis with gusts up around 40+. The flagsticks were being bent into strange shapes on every hole. Leaves and even branches were being thrown around. I'm shocked I didn't see any animals or small children go tumbling across any of the fairways. My ball shook while sitting on the tee at times and more than once I saw it shake while on the green. If the greens were faster I'm sure I would have seen a few roll away.

Fortunately the course was forgiving since it was designed with the wind in mind. The fairways were wide and there really wasn't a whole bunch of trouble spots to be found compared to other courses. I ended up shooting 78 in that wind, often aiming to one side of the huge fairways and hope that it stayed in on the right side. I hit drives anywhere from 210 yards to 340 yards and had to adjust iron shots by as much as three full clubs.

So what did the place look like, you ask? I did take pictures though I'm not sure how stable I was able to keep the phone. If you take a closer look at some of the palm trees in these pictures you might get a little idea of what the wind was doing :

On Sunday I met up with Bill and ventured out to Boulder Creek Golf Club in Boulder City, which is also southeast of the Strip. While the wind had died down somewhat from Saturday it was still a factor and it was a bit cooler than the day before. This course has 27 holes but we were lucky enough to play the original 18 on this day. I had read that they were probably the best combination to play so I was happy about that.

Boulder Creek was definitely the tougher track of the two. The course had wide fairways on most holes, however the crossing arroyos and big, hilly greens certainly made you pay attention to what was going on. I shot 82 despite not having the best day with the driver, though there were a number of holes where either 3-wood or even 5-wood had to be used off of the tee... well, at least for me, Bill just mainly bombed driver all day... probably the more exciting choice.

I can't help but feel that my 82 could have been so much better. I hit a bunch of good putts that just refused to go in. I also had three double bogeys, at least one of which could have been prevented if I had a better idea of the layout of the hole. I will admit that I had a few fun little chip and pitch shots over the course of the day even if it sometimes seemed a bit overwhelming with the big breaks and the speed of the greens. The wind also seemed a bit more consistent than it was the day before, though it was at least a club of adjustment, occasionally up to two on certain shots. Overall I think we both handled it all pretty well.

Here are a few pictures from the course. Its generally in the same area as Chimera was so the surrounding terrain was fairly similar :

All in all the trip was as good as I could have hoped for. Overall I hit the ball pretty decently and, which could be weird to say, the wind was probably the reason why. I'd also say that it was especially true on Saturday. I was a little more concerned about just making solid contact and having the ball start in a general direction since I had no real idea what such a strong wind was going to do to my ball. Florida can get downright windy at times but it is rarely, if ever, like that... outside of a passing hurricane or something.

The best news just might be that my elbow held up pretty well, in fact I'd even say that it felt better on Sunday afternoon than it did on Saturday night. I'll likely try to hit the range on Tuesday night and see how it feels there. Assuming we are a go I'll be playing twice more this coming weekend. Hopefully I can build on these last three rounds and gain a little more confidence in what I'm doing. The process continues.

Encinitas Ranch.

This week I decided to head west and played Encinitas Ranch Golf Course, which is located among some coastal bluffs just a couple of miles off of the Pacific Ocean. The course was in nice shape and the location was pretty cool. The course itself wasn't overly difficult either though there are a few spots where water or canyons come into play.

I took advantage and shot 77, my best score yet. I still don't quite have it yet, though. I hit quite a number of irons thin, in fact I would call a couple of them bladed since they ended up going through the green. I still seem to be hitting the ball with more a glancing blow than a true squared-up strike, but obviously it was better than it has been. I'm trying to use my body more instead of relying on my hands so much and it has been more consistent. I still need to work on the path, I hit the club on the toe sometimes.

The course itself was really nice. Its not going to win awards or anything but I can see where it would make a few lists of courses to play in the area. It wasn't cheap ($98) but I came away feeling it was worth it. Most everything was in good shape and the huge greens rolled well. There were a couple of quirky short par fours on the front, but since I like quirky holes it didn't bother me.

Above this paragraph is the first quirky hole, the 5th. The hole was only about 300 yards from the tee I played. As you can (hopefully) see, the fairway was quite a bit lower than both the tee and the green. I hit 4-iron off the tee, leaving me a wedge back up the hill to a back hole location. From my position I was able to see the flag and most of the green. One of the guys I was paired up with hit driver and ended up about a quarter of the way up the hill to the green. However, he had NO view of anything, no flag, no green, not even the bunker. He had no idea where to even aim.

And here is the view to the 7th green. This was another short par four, but had a blind tee shot up a hill to the landing area. There was a target pole about 165 yards from the tee, so I hit 4-iron again since we were told you just needed to get past that pole as the fairway sloped down from there. Left was a canyon. Too far was another canyon. The approach shot, as you can see, was quite a bit downhill to the green. The same playing partner that drove too far on the 5th hole was short on this tee shot and again he had absolutely no view of anything. He hit his second shot in the canyon to the right, which is just right of the trees you see in the picture.

Here is the 10th hole, a downhill par four with a view of the Pacific. I'm not sure if it can be seen too well in the photo but it was pretty cool to look at while I was there. This was one of the tougher holes on the course as it was over 400 yards into a coastal breeze.

This is the best of the par 3s on the course, #17. All of them were playing in the 160-170 range as this one had a back right pin location. It also played back into the breeze a bit. The green was massive, the guy I was playing with hit it more than a little fat and he still managed to hit the front left of the green.

And one last attempt to get a shot of the ocean, this one was from the 18th green looking back down the fairway. The closing hole was an uphill par five and I'm sad to say I had to only 6 on my scorecard here. I hit another wedge thin and went over the green and couldn't get it up and down for par. In my defense, our cart was running out of juice and we were having to semi-push it up the hill in order to get back to the clubhouse. I'll use that as my excuse.

Despite that little problem, the pace was good. We rarely had to wait, though some of that was due to the fact that out of our foursome wasn't doing too well and it slowed us down enough. The weather was perfect, I'm not sure it ever reached 70 degrees but it felt warmer than that to me once I got warmed up. I had one birdie (on the par-3 2nd) and just the six bogeys, no big blow up holes. I only had one really poor shot, I pull-hooked my approach on #10 but nearly got it up and down from way over there, that would have been a nice par save had I made the 10-footer. Even those bladed shots didn't end up too bad, they were mostly on line, just over the green. I hit ten fairway and eight greens, plus a couple on the fringe. Not too shabby overall.

Next week is the little trip to Las Vegas. I'm going to play twice at the least, maybe more if the elbow holds up. After that I'm not quite sure. My employer has asked me to come back to Houston so I only have until about mid-May to play here in SoCal, then its off to Hawaii for Memorial Day and then we immediately pack up and head out. I didn't play any golf in Houston while I was there (well, I went out once but I didn't keep score) so it'll all be new to me there as well. We'll have to explore those options in the future.