Monday, April 30, 2018

Finally, a full round of golf!

Sure, it took a while but I finally managed to complete an 18-hole round on Sunday. The place was Wildcat Golf Club in Houston, where I played one of the two courses on the property, The Lakes. The wind was up but otherwise the day was just about perfect.

I played the Blue tees, which was a little shorter than I liked at about 6050 yards. The next set back was near 6600 yards so I thought I'd keep it simple on a unknown course in all this wind. This is just another example where one of those "mixed" tees would be perfect, filling the 600-yard gap between the tees. A combo of the Gold and Blue tees would have been perfect.

As promised, I'll keep the play-by-play to a minimum but I shot 36-40=76 and I'm pretty happy (and surprised) about it. I birdied the first and tenth holes and was one-under par as late as the eleventh hole, however the wind started throwing off my judgment of distance with the irons late in the day. Overall, I drove the ball fairly well off the tee and did a good job with lag putting, making things pretty simple on the greens for the most part.

Here are some pictures from the day. The Lakes isn't the greatest track I've ever played but I'd play it again at the right price.

Not even Dustin or Rory could hit either NRG Stadium or The Astrodome from the range, even if it was downwind.

The second green, as seen from the fairway of this downhill par-5.

The second green again, on the approach.

The fifth hole (I think). Yes, that would be an oil derrick.

The view from the tee of the par-5 seventh.

The par-3 eighth hole, the most interesting of an otherwise bland set of one-shotters.

A look from the tee of the par-4 eleventh.

Another look at downtown Houston and its old and new stadiums.

The downhill approach of the par-5 closing hole.
I did miss a couple of holes with the camera but they weren't anything to cry about. This course is a good one and things were kept in pretty decent condition overall, though the rough is more handpan than it is long grass. The greens rolled pretty well and seemed to be consistent. A few of these holes were a little puzzling at first, I'm sure it would take a few times around to really know the best way to play them. Playing in a 15-20 MPH wind didn't help with that either.

I'm hoping to come back this coming weekend to play the other course, The Highlands. With luck, the wind will subside a bit and I'll have a better idea of what I'm actually doing with my ball contact. This place seemed to be fairly exposed to the elements though so I doubt I'll be that lucky. Stranger things have happened.

No comments:

Post a Comment