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.

To the range!

I decided to stick with my original plan from last week and not play this week. I've been good and taken it easy on the elbow and it does feel much better. I know its still not perfect but it has been holding up to any stress I put on it. The weather is a little better than originally expected and I could play and I admit I'm still tempted to as I type this. However, its a tad cooler out that I'd really like and I really need to practice instead.

So this afternoon I'll head out to the local range and give it a go. The initial couple of shots will be sore, they always are. I'll be more interested in how I feel as I proceed through the bucket and what its like in the morning afterwards. I'm cautiously optimistic that it'll be just fine.

Most likely taking this week to simply practice should be best in the long run for more than just the health of my elbow. I'm not sure playing is all that good of an idea since I'm not too confident I can hit a driver in the fairway at the moment anyway. On all of my shots I feel like I'm hanging too far back or just not getting enough weight to my left side. I can't really explain it here. All I know is that I've suddenly been missing to the right and it tends to get worse the longer the club is.

So, this is what I plan to do in the next couple of weeks, assuming no physical setbacks. I'll practice this afternoon. On Tuesday, either during lunch or in the evening, I'll try it again. We'll follow that up on Thursday as well. Then Saturday I'll find a place to play, this time I'll look to the south toward San Diego or toward the coast around Oceanside or something.

If that goes well, we'll do it again with the Tuesday/Thursday thing before running up to Las Vegas for the weekend. My hope is that I'll discover that my elbow is being managed properly and I'll be able to handle playing on consecutive days. I'm hoping to play 36 holes on that Saturday but I'm wondering if I should play it safe. The more important round is on Sunday and I want to be sure I can handle that without any issues.

The Country Club at Soboba Springs : Regresssion to the mean?

This past Saturday I ventured a little further from home and took on The Country Club at Soboba Springs. On the land of an indian reservation, this course was in pretty nice shape and probably the best I've seen to date. I found out later that one main reason that was the case was the fact that qualifying for the Mackenzie Tour was going to be held in just a few days. As luck would have it I got to play with two aspiring pros out to get in some practice.

Too bad I left my game on the range, pretty much literally. I hit the ball really well as I warmed up and I had some high hopes for the day, though the driver wasn't near as comfortable as the irons had been. Ends up the driver is really what did me in as I just couldn't get the ball in play off the tee most of the day. Even one of the best drives I hit on the day wasn't good enough due to some unfamiliarity of the course. What I though was a nice drive down the right-center of the third fairway ended up finding a extended finger of the water hazard that jutted into said fairway. My ball landed, took a huge hop to the right and vanished into the murky depths. That was discouraging to say the least.

I ended up shooting 87 on the day, with four penalty shots hurting the cause (two in the drink, one hitting a cart path and rocketing out of bounds). Like last week I only hit five fairways and five greens but with the penalty shots and a more demanding course the score suffered quite a bit. I did hit a number of good iron shots along the way, even a couple of fairway metals did decently enough. The driver was poor and I never made a putt of any real length either. However, the scenery was nice :

As far as those two pros, no, I don't remember any names. I suck at names. I'm sure I didn't hear their last names anyway, though I did see one guy was likely on the University of Idaho golf team at one time or another. And yes, they just mashed drives from the tips without much of a thought, though one of them was struggling with a bit of a hook it seemed. Hopefully he'll work that out by Tuesday. They only hung around for the front nine, leaving me and the fourth in our group in order to hit the range and grab dinner.

As for the elbow, it held up pretty well and gave me no problems so I guess whatever I've been doing this last week helped. The weather here is turning cooler and wetter this week so I might be forced to skip out on playing this weekend, which could be a blessing in disguise. Maybe with the extra time I'll give the elbow more of a chance to heal up for good and not be an issue, especially since I plan on playing 54 holes while in Vegas in a couple of weekends. In fact, I *almost* looked into playing more on Saturday (despite how bad I performed) but I decided to be cautious simply vowed to return at a later date.

So, my plan is to resist swinging a club around for a few days. Later in the week I might go hit some balls and see how it does. If it feels good and the weather gives me a window I might give in and find a round somewhere but I almost hope it doesn't happen. In the meantime I'll continue with the ice and the rest and go from there.

The Legends Golf Club at Temeka Hills.

Between waiting for decent weather and trying to allow some time for my elbow to potentially heal a little I was looking forward to finally playing my new "home course", The Legends Golf Club at Temeka Hills. Its about a twenty minute drive from where I live in Temecula and it looks like a pretty nice place overall. The course is in a development of some sort but I never felt the houses were crowding the course much at all.

The par five 13th hole at Legends

My elbow seemed fine after hitting a few balls on the range while wearing this brace thingy I bought a while ago, however by the end of the round it was fairly sore. I suspect that might be to the fact that once I ran into all the foursomes in front of me my body cooled down between shots. I had to wait 10-15 minutes at times, even while the people were letting me play through. Today it doesn't feel bad at all but I'm going to try to leave it alone until I hit the range on Tuesday.

As far as the round itself, well, it was kinda strange to me, especially the back nine. I started off well with a good par on the 1st and a nice birdie on the 2nd, but I doubled the par-3 third after hitting over the green and leaving myself pretty much dead above the hole. I should have salvaged a bogey but a 3-putt killed that idea. In fact, outside the short birdie putt on the 2nd I was pretty horrid with the putter. I couldn't find the right speed all day.

This is where some of the good luck/bad luck started. The fourth hole was an uphill par five that had a strange cement access structure right in the middle of the fairway. I wish I took a picture of it, though it was "guarded" by a big mound designed to deflect shots around it I guess. Anyway, I was close to the green in two and hit what I though was a nice pitch to a front hole location but I landed the ball right on the edge of the fringe and it stopped dead in its tracks instead of bouncing and releasing to the hole. No real loss as it was a simple up and down from there. The fifth was another par five, my tee shot was left and in the trees. Fortunately I had a shot out and laid up for a wedge to the green, which was over water. That next shot didn't look like it was going to make it but it just caught the green and I was lucky I didn't back it off the green. Two shaky putts for par there and a par on the par-3 sixth led me the the first of many foursomes I'd have to get through the rest of the day.

The eighth was another bad break/good break hole. Its a short par-4 with the green protected by water short and right. I hit 3-wood, but a little left, certainly in play. However, the ball was hanging on a check of grass to the point that I thought if I put my club near it it was roll away. It was sitting below my feet as well so the stance was awkward also. I only had sand wedge in so I had that going for me. However, I didn't play enough to the left to account for the lie and the ball hit the very right side of the green, then spun to the right and down a hill toward the water. Luckily, I found another little chunk of grass that was strong enough to keep the ball from going any further. I took par and ran.

A bogey on nine finished off a front side 39, not too bad with all things considered since I had to work through another foursome on that hole. I roll up on the tenth where yet another group was teeing off. However, they didn't offer to let me play on so I had to wait about fifteen minutes for them to clear out. Right about there it seemed that I first really felt my elbow getting sore. I hit two really nice shots there though, the second was right over the flag but a bit long. I missed the par putt by about 600 yards though and got took bogey there.

I got through that group on the eleventh (bogey) and headed to the par-4 12th. My drive was decent enough but I hit the next into the greenside bunker. I found the hard pan portion of the trap though and worried that I wouldn't be able to get through it enough without bouncing off and skulling it to parts unknown. Instead I holed out for birdie! I hadn't done that in, shit I don't know, fifteen years maybe? I've holed out a bunch of chips and pitches from grass but I never seem to get any luck from the sand, until now.

On 13, I caught a shitty lie again but was lucky on the second shot that it didn't roll into the water. The shot I hit was just fine, I thought, but it took a hard kick right and kept rolling. I had thought the water was near the green, not the layup shot on this par-5. The ball managed to stop about a foot short of the hazard and was actually in a good spot. I still took a bogey as the putter failed again.

After a par on 14, I had to play through another group on the par-3 15th. Like on the 3rd, I was in between clubs and had to hit a choke-down 5-wood since I do not have a 3-iron in the bag. I probably backed off the swing a bit also and hooked it left, pin-high but on a hill short-sided to the hole. Nothing that a lob wedge can't fix! I hit what I thought was a perfect shot, just landing on the fringe and taking a soft hop, however when that first hop landed it just stopped dead, finding a little bare spot between the fringe and the green and rolling halfway out of it. I thought there would be almost no way to keep that ball short and yet I found a way to do it. The good news? I only had about a 12-foot chip so I simply knocked that in for par. Easy game.

On to 16, a shortish dogleg left par four. I hit driver since it was playing uphill and into a breeze, however the dogleg was a bit shorter than I thought it was and my ball went through the fairway into the bunker. The trap looked like it was recently worked on as the edges were about a foot or so lower than it would normally be if it actually had some sand in it. My ball decided to roll up against said lip so I had no choice but to blast out to the fairway, where I hit an awful wedge into a greenside version of the same thing. So what might have been my most solid drive of the day lead me to laying three in this dirt hole. No worries, I nearly holed that one out too! It hit the pin and instead of going in the ball decided to hang on the lip. Simple bogey, really.

However, all of these shots in the sand wasn't good for the elbow, I could feel it aching now. All the start/stop play while waiting for people and eventually playing through didn't help either. On the 17th I hit another dirt hole with my tee shot and promptly chunked that out, that one really hurt. But, even with a pretty severe downhill/ball above my feet lie I was able to coax a wedge onto the green and actually had a decent look at par, which I raked horribly toward some unknown destination.

Right then is when I got a call. Seems that while my phone was in my pocket it decided to call 911 for me. It took me a bit to explain that I was using an app on the phone as a GPS while playing golf and it most likely left the phone open to bounce around other stuff and call by mistake, but that merely killed a little time while yet another foursome managed to tee off on 18. I still had to wait what seemed like an hour for these guys to finally clear out of the way. Despite that delay, I managed to make one last solid swing with the driver. I couldn't see it land but the line looked perfect so I jumped into the cart and chased it. Instead of the middle of the fairway, my ball somehow decided to bounce/roll/skip left and found another dirt hole. I was fairly stunned, I had to double check to make sure it was my ball. I didn't think I was even close to the trap when I hit it. Anyway, after another lengthy wait I tried to hit 5-iron out so I could wedge up to the green since this was a par-5. Instead, I caught the lip and left it in the trap/dirt hole. The second time got out though, where I managed to hit on and somehow 2-putted for bogey to shoot 80 on the day.

So, if I could have figured out the greens a little I could have shot something like 76. Without some of the hole-outs and stuff, I could have shot 85. After thinking about it all, 80 does seem about right. I only hit five fairways and five greens but it sure seemed like I hit more than that. I did catch the fringe on a few approach shots, from which I then did a horrible job trying to get down in two. Technically I had 29 putts but it felt like I had 40, I just couldn't do anything on the greens at all. I actually spent about 30 minutes on their practice green trying to figure out what the hell was going on, which I think I have. Maybe.

So, the swing still doesn't feel right. I still feel like I have to do it with mirrors or something. There is too much "effort" to get the ball going where I want it to go. Even when I hit a solid shot, it feels forced. My gut feeling is telling me to try to get the ball back further in my stance, or at least feel like it is. I still have this scooping feeling at the bottom of the swing, like I'm coming up at the ball. So, assuming I have no trouble with the elbow this week I'll give it another go on the range and then end up playing somewhere else on Saturday. I'm not sure where I'll go but I have plenty of options to choose from around here. Maybe by then I'll have a better idea of what I'm doing. We'll see.

Rancho California

I finally found some time to post a bit about my latest round of golf. I decided to stay in town and play a local track called The Golf Club at Rancho California. I had practiced a few times here as they do have a rather nice short game area along with a pretty decent range. I noticed that the place looked like it was in pretty good condition, especially compared to the other courses I've played so far.

I didn't play particularly well, shooting 85, though the course wasn't the easiest I've ever played. Part of that was my right elbow giving me some trouble. I originally had issues with it around July and while it will bother me when I first start to warm up it usually goes away and I don't even think about it the rest of the day, however this time was different. I wonder if it may have been due to what I was trying to accomplish with my swing (obviously wrong) and thus the extended trouble. I was definitely doing something different as I was missing to the right instead of left like I usually do.

Despite that, I really liked the course. The first hole is a par five that goes significantly downhill, giving you a nice view of the valley.

The first hole at Rancho California

The third hole was even more pronounced, again giving another terrific view from the tee down to the fairway of this pretty cool par four.

The third hole at Rancho California

While these were the most pronounced elevation changes on the course, the track did have a good bit of change in elevation throughout. One thing that I wasn't ready for was the speed of the greens. I ended up above the hole quite a bit during the round but two time in particular was just absolute death. I had an 8-footer for par that nearly holed out but ended up as a 20-something-footer for bogey. I haven't seen a putt like that in a long time. I found something similar on the last, where I tried to putt from the fringe from about 40 feet and it ended up traveling about 65 instead.

The quick greens didn't bother me, next time I'll be ready for it and just try to remember to stay below the hole. One thing I didn't like were the bunkers, which I had occasion to find a few too many times. They were lacking in the actual sand that a bunker generally requires, leaving me to bounce into a few of those shot no matter how much I tried to adjust for it. I imagine all of the rain we've had was a big reason why they were like that so again I can't be too upset. I'll just see if I can't avoid them when I play it again.

My elbow is doing better now so I think I probably just pushed it a bit too much. I had been going out to hit the range for lunch during the week and then try some more on the weekends whenever the weather allows. If a string of good days comes along I want to take advantage before the next storm front comes through and I probably shouldn't be doing that quite so much. I need to learn to mix in the short game a bit more often. Once the spring and summer comes and the rain becomes a nonfactor I'll be better able to pace myself when it comes to that. I broke down and bought one of these elbow strap thingys, just in case I end up needing it. Will it help? Maybe for healing and recovery, I don't know if it'll really help while I play. Maybe we'll try wearing it the next time I practice and see what happens.

Diamond Valley

Last weekend I ventured back out to the Hemet area to play Diamond Valley Golf Club. Since I had read that this place wasn't located within a housing development I figured it was worth a try. Its a little desolate, there isn't a whole hell of a lot out where the course is, in fact I have no idea where Hemet even was in relation to the course. Still, the views were nice and the course seemed to be in decent shape compared to what I've seen recently.

I played pretty well overall, shooting 80 from the regular tees. The course is a little quirky, which I generally like even when it might cost me a shot or two from the eventual surprises. The greens are huge, like what Rock Springs Ridge was like in Apopka. Perhaps even bigger. They certainly had some undulations, the greens that close out each nine were triple-tiered. They also had several holes where there was a cliff-like effect to the fairways, if you missed to one side or drove through certain areas your ball would be ten, fifteen or even more below the level of the short grass.

One hole on the back, I think it was the 14th, was a short par four that could be considered reachable. The guys that were playing with me said to be careful of going to the right. No problem, my miss is left at the moment so I felt I'd give it a go. I hit it what looked like about ten feet left of my target line but a little high, so I figured I'd be a little short-left of the green. Nope. Seems the left side also had a cliff falloff and it seemed quite severe. My ball ended up pin high but it rolled waaaay left down the hill onto the fairway of the next hole. My lie was horrid though and I pitched over the green, ended up with a bogey. Could have been worse. If I play there again I think I'll just punch a five-iron down the fairway and take my chances that way.

As far as my overall play, I started well. I was 1-over after six holes but ended up with a 41 on the back, going bogey-double-bogey to close the nine. I then started the back bogey-par-double as things just weren't going my way. I had two three-putts, a chunked wedge, and a couple of poor drives that did me no favors. The last six holes I managed to get back on track, going even par the rest of the way to finish 41-39=80 for the day. I birdied the 15th (a bounce back after the aforementioned 14th) and had good chances on 16 and 18 that went begging.

It wasn't the most difficult course despite what some people would consider the tricked-up greens and fall-away fairways, but for the most part you could see what you were getting into. There was a few holes with some water in play that gave the place a little different look from the rest of it but overall I thought it was a fun track. The pace of play, on the other hand, was kinda horrid. We teed off just after noon and finished just as it was starting to get a little dark, nearly five hours. Since some of the holes had more of a desert/waste type rough it could be difficult to find a ball after having it bounce around in there. That seemed to be the issue with the group ahead of us anyway.

So, I don't know if I really made improvements on what I've started. I hit ten greens and a number of those iron shots were pretty good but overall I felt pretty average. Putting was fine, I made the short ones and the two three putts were from quite a distance on these big, undulating greens. Off the tee I had a little more trouble that the last time. I have a feeling I'm releasing the right arm early, trying to cover the ball and get my hands in front as I come into contact. Since I pull it left pretty much every time I miss I'm thinking that needs to be something to address in the next week (as I write this I don't think I'll play tomorrow, possible rain and it could be a bit cooler than I like).

I think next time I play I'll actually try to play somewhere around here if I can get a good enough deal. I'm technically a member of the golf club at The Legends Club Club at Temeku Hills since that is where I was assigned by the SCGA when I got my GHIN number, I'm thinking I oughta play there a couple times. Murrieta itself has two courses, California Oaks Golf Club and The Golf Club at Rancho California. The first one is a short par 70 track within a senior living development of some sort. I've walked up there, from what I've seen its in decent shape. The latter I've seen from the road, its a bit more run down but its a Robert Trent Jones Sr. design so it might have potential.

We'll see what happens next.