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.