golfwi52

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19th Hole Wrap-up

My 52 Wisconsin courses in 52 weeks journey has finally come to an end and it is time to quickly wrap up a summary and then move on to another journey.  First of all, special thanks to my lovely partner Lauren who sacrificed a lot of our regular golfing rounds to allow me to literally stay on course.  Lauren is incredible.  While not a sports fan, she does respect my love for sports and gives me the space to participate and enjoy them on a regular basis.   I’m really looking forward to getting back to regular golf outings with Lauren in 2018 and challenging myself to NOT give her any advice on her game.

Also a big thanks to my golfing buddies who joined me on many of my rounds.  Special thanks go out to my old neighbor Don, my brother-in-law Adrian, and my work buddies Dave, Scott, and Mark, all who joined me on multiple rounds.  It was great to share my little journey with you guys who are great friends and really appreciate the game of golf.  Also special thanks to my very good friend Paul from Minneapolis who drove over 3 hours to meet me at Northern Bay for a very special nostalgic round.  Paul is a gamer.

I am a stats hound so I compiled the following stats regarding my 52 rounds this year.  My goal of breaking 80 failed miserably and I was disappointed that I didn’t improve my play more as the year went by.   My 59 year old body is really showing the wear and tear of so many years of sports activities and work stress.   So it’s not surprising that my game is not improving much at my ripe old age.  But all-in-all it was a very successful and rewarding year.   Hell, I got to experience 34 courses that I had never played before.   That’s a huge exposure to great golf courses that I was too lazy or busy to explore over my 30 years in Wisconsin.

It’s hard to believe I spent over 400 hours on this journey, but they were very, very enjoyable hours.  I was really surprised how much I got into the blogging end of it – and how much time I spent on that part.   It was fun to try to mix even parts of the golf course, my personal game, and my playing partners into each post.   I’m sure I bored folks on my personal game portion but it was very interesting to me.    Haha.

One of my goals in this journey was to explore the possibilities surrounding winter golf.  I really enjoyed refining and playing my winter rules golf during my snow rounds.  Cross country skiing and snowshoeing are rather boring so playing winter golf is a great outdoors outlet for me.   I think the no-brainer aspects of just carrying 1 or 2 clubs and using rubber tees are solid.  The tough nut to crack is around the green.  While I played to land on the green and then take an auto 2-putt, a real winter rules outing should avoid the green all together to help preserve them during the winter.  Nothing will kill winter golf quicker than a bunch of dudes stomping over greens all winter with heavy boots.  Hmm, maybe one can play the course backwards and tee off next to a green and shoot for landing on a tee box.   Could also shoot for sand traps near a green or special flagged areas in front of greens.  Hmmm, I need to think about this a bit more.  And take some buds out in February to test new rules.   

So it’s time to move on.  Again, it feels great to set a challenging year long goal and mostly nail it.  I hope you enjoyed following my goofy little golf journey and maybe it will inspire you to do something similar in the “X things in X days/weeks/months” vein.  Lauren and I are thinking of doing a “12 <blank> in 12 months” journey in 2018 with the <blank> being something foodie related, which is way up her alley.   It will be great to have her as a partner in crime and to only have to do something once a month.    Hey, I’m not getting any younger.  Happy New Year kiddos!

Final round at Oakwood Park Golf Course.  52 Baby!

Map of my 52 courses.  So much left of WI to explore...

[golfwi52]

Round 52 – Clay Mathews Round End

Oakwood Park Golf Course, Franklin, WI 53132 Par 36 Front, Blue Tees, 3,373 yards, 71.9 rating / 122 slope, $0 Friday, December 29th, 2017, 12:45pm, 15 degrees, 7-10 mph winds, light snow

I ducked back into Milwaukee from Portland late last night after spending a great Xmas week with all 3 of my kids and their families.  After enduring flight delays in Portland and the connecting Minneapolis, I didn’t get back to my cozy Port Washington condo until around 1:30am.   Ok so that’s early THIS morning.  My car was in the outside long term airport parking lot for the bitterly cold week and it barely started on my return.  On my 45 minute ride home from the airport, my radio suddenly stopped.  My battery warning light, which I have never seen before on my 2008 Lexus, popped up along with a few other bright red lights.  I quickly turned off my radio and heat and anything else outside of my lights that could be draining the battery.   I made it home ok but was worried that my drive to my final golf round later this day would be in jeopardy.  

Define “Closed”

The weather forecast for today (Friday) was mid teens and light winds compared to a -25 wind chill and high winds forecasted for tomorrow.  So I was all in on getting my final round of the year done on this day without chancing it tomorrow, the final day of my official golf week.  I had chosen the premium Oakwood Park county course, back south of the airport, as my final course in my 52 WI course in 52 weeks quest.   I headed back that way around noon and played it very safe with leaving the car radio off during my long ride.  I really didn’t want a stalled car stopping this final round.  I had scouted the course on Google Maps earlier in the day and figured I’d park right outside the locked gates at the park entrance.  From there I’d jump to the 2nd tee box and then play number 1 after finishing the 9th around the clubhouse.  The course also looked fairly remote, nestled up against farmland, commercial warehouses, and a major medical complex.   Scouting course layouts is certainly a unique aspect of winter golf.

Snowy Par 5 second.  No driving over the creek on this day.

While the snow blanketed the course, it wasn’t quite as deep as what I ran into with Riverdale.    More like an inch of snow and a bit harder to lose balls.  But I soon found out on the long par 5 second that the gray sky made it very difficult to follow my shots in the air.   I sent a soft opening drive in front of the daunting creek and then I lofted a decent second shot over the creek but into the trees to the right.  After my third shot brought me back up another 100 yards to the fairway, I proceeded to hit my fourth and fifth shots for a combination of about 10 inches.   After taking a big swing on my fourth shot, I saw my stringed tees fly a few feet in front of me and I struggled to find my ball in the gray sky.  I figured that my rubber tee distance meant that I got way under my ball and popped it up 10-20 yards in front of me.  As I started walking forward I noticed that my ball was still at my feet.  Too funny.  I teed my ball up again with my tall tee and swung hard again.  I hit it farther this time, but only about 10 inches.    I decided to bench my tall tee and use my short tee to make it much easier to cleanly hit a long shot.  A very smart decision that I should have made back during my snowy Riverdale round.  I ended up settling for a monster 10 on my first hole.  Exhausting start.   And at this pace I’d be spending 3 hours to “play” just nine.

On the par 4 third, I lost my bright yellow ball near the green on my third shot.  I scrambled for a 7, finishing up with a new orange ball in honor of my Fighting Illini alma mater.   But so much for not losing a ball this round.  I was still having issues picking up my ball in the air but at least the short tee strategy was proving very effective.  And I was using the tall tee for little pitch shots with my driver, again the only club I’d be carrying today.  On the par 3 fourth, I hit a nice 150 yard drive just right of the green and into the bunker.  So close to a par.  On the way to the green I checked for my lost yellow ball from the previous, adjoining fairway and was able to find it after just a few minutes.   The “no ball left behind” mission for this round was back on.

Huge snowy sand trap on the second fairway.

On the long par 5 sixth, I hit a solid drive which I quickly tracked in the gray sky.   But it turned out to be a bird that suddenly turned 90 degrees and I was left wondering where my drive had actually gone.   First time all year that I had tracked a bird off the tee.   I was very lucky to find my drive actually went a nice 200 yards down the center of the fairway and was propped up nicely on top of the snow.    Better to be lucky than good my friend.  I musty have swung a bit too hard on my third shot as my winter hat flew off my head and covered my eyes on the way down.  I had no idea where my shot went around to the green some 180 yards away.    After looking for my orange ball for 10 minutes, I brought back my yellow ball to finish up a double bogey.  Not too bad of a score considering the lost ball penalty shot, but I was down a ball again.  Dang.

Not one to give up on a winter golf ball, I peaked around for my orange ball at the start of the seventh and low and behold I found it after just a few minutes.  Back to my Illini orange.   I double bogeyed the seventh with a poor “chip”  but my drives and long fairway shots were doing much better with the short tee strategy.  Interesting.  The 175 yard par 3 eight was fronted by a huge pond and I hit a low flying drive just over the pond, landing it before the green and possibly resting on the green for a par.  When I reached the green I saw that the ball had skipped on the green 9 times before dumping off the back edge.  Another inch of snow on the green would have caused it to stop on the dance floor for a cool par.   Much of the unique winter golf challenge is gauging how much the ball will roll/bounce on a snow covered green.

Just in the green side bunker on the fourth

I doubled the ninth and then headed to the clubhouse area for a picture with my Clay Matthews Packer jersey sporting the “52” number which would magnificently commemorate my golfing journey.  I quickly stripped off a couple of layers of sweatshirts to expose my jersey, lit up a nice Cohiba cigar, and then struggled to get a few more seconds of power from either my work or personal iPhone.   Both phones went dead around the 5th hole, but there’s always a chance to get them to repower up for a few seconds to get one more picture.  I was looking to get the ultimate money shot with my “52” jersey and the clubhouse in the background.   I had just upgraded my personal iPhone to IOS 11.2 a week ago to support Apple Cash for a work project and it looked like I was suffering from faster battery drain now and the infamous Apple slowdown on the older iPhones that Apple was just now being sued for.   I was just giving up on freakin’ Apple when a county park ranger drove up in his truck and rolled down his window.  I’m sure he was wondering what the hell I was doing out on the snowy practice green trying to take a picture with my cigar and Packer jersey.  I’d certainly be wondering.  Anyways he simply said that he’s fine with me being out on the course but to just stay off the greens to avoid packing down the snow on them.   Nice. Off with just a warning.  I acknowledged his request and threw my sweatshirts back on and headed to play the first hole on my way back to my parked car at the park entrance.  

Not your familiar golf course sign

I doubled the final hole with my usual weak play of taking four shots to get to the green and I ended up with a reasonable 55 for the round.   I did walk lightly on the final green to retrieve my last shot of the year.  Back at the car I warmed up my iPhone 6’s and I was finally able to get a money shot of my jersey, cigar, golf club, tees, etc.   I can imagine the folks driving by me on the remote country road wondering what the heck I was doing.   The only thing I forgot to do for the pic was to put my U of Wisconsin baseball cap on to further emphasize the Wisconsin angle.  Dang memory chip malfunction.  Must be the cold.  I’d try for a personal upgrade but it would probably just slow me down further – like my phone.

Final Score:  55, 0 pars, 0 lost balls.  Wow, 52 WI golf courses in 5 weeks.  I made it.   And no lost balls for the second winter round in a row.  Whee!  Oakwood looks like a very nice course to play, maybe just a tiny notch below the premium Brown Deer county course.   I loved the woodsy remote setting, the friendly clubhouse and beer garden buildings, and the challenging hole layouts.   Definitely a place to return to next year for a regular round with the golfing buds.    I still have a final year summary post where I’ll thank my friends and golfing buddies for supporting me and I’ll offer more suggestions about winter rules golf and the possibilities for expanding play while not trampling on the greens.  Ok, maybe I’ll just close out the final post with the tank you stuff.   I think I’ve said enough about the golf stuff over the past year…  

52 WI courses in 52 weeks money shot 

[golfwi52]

Round 51 – No Ball Left Behind

Greenfield Park Golf Course, Milwaukee, WI 53214 Par 34 White Tees, 2,735 yards, 67.0 rating / 112 slope, $0 Sunday, December 17th, 2017, 9:30am, 32 degrees, 5-8 mph winds, cloudy

My final 2 rounds are targeted for Milwaukee County courses I’ve never played before.   I’m much more comfortable playing closed county courses versus private courses as the county courses openly allow cross country skiers and other walkers on their grounds in the winter.  This week takes me to the short par 69 Greenfield course and my final week will be at the much more challenging Oakwood course.   In hindsight I probably should have played Greenfield during the summer to give me a great shot at breaking 80.   But who would have thought that breaking 80 would have been so hard for me?  Oh yeah, that should have been me.  And boasting that I broke my 80 on a par 69 track just wouldn’t have been right.

View of the 9th green from the clubhouse

Since the gates were closed at the entrance to Greenfield and the park was enclosed by a high fence,  I had to snake around the park in my car to find a safe opening.  I ended up parking a block from the park in a residential area and then trekking over the train tracks on the backside of the park to sneak in.  The good news was that this quaint little park was isolated from visitors so I wouldn’t likely be busted for trespassing if no one else entered the park.  The bad news was that this isolation can be an issue if I needed medical help and my phones weren’t working.  I carry both my work and personal iPhones but their batteries can both quickly go dead in the cold weather.   Hey, a little danger element can keep the blood going.  But it was middle 30’s and no wind, so the playing conditions weren’t too dangerous.  

Milwaukee County keeping it simple

There was only a spattering of snow, maybe an inch in some spots, so losing some balls today shouldn’t be a problem.   I spanked my opening drive a couple hundred yards on number 1 into the right rough and settling in plain sight between a few trees.    I intentionally sliced my second shot back onto the fairway and towards the front of the green.   I then spent the next 15 minutes looking for that shot across a number of snow planes that lined the fairway from 30 to 10 yards in front of the green.  I finally gave up it and played a short pitch to the green that skipped off the green to the back.  So a triple bogey and lost ball on the first hole.  Dang, I hate losing a ball in these “decent” conditions.  The winter game is more about not losing balls versus scoring well.

The front nine on Greenfield is a par 34 with no par 5’s.  So this would be a fast round and chance to actually break 50.  And a chance to finally par a hole in winter rules golf.   I doubled bogeyed the next four par 4 holes as I neatly followed my winter golf formula of hitting a decent drive, hitting a short approach shot due to no roll in the snow, misgauging the firmness of the green on a short “chip”, and then finally punching on and taking the auto 2-putts for a double bogey 6.  I was only carrying a driver so my short approach shots were tricky without having an iron to hit them.  But it is so much easier to just carry one club around on these winter rounds.  An easy rules almost as much as warmth in winter golf.  

Huge moon trap on the par 4 third

My drive came up far short on the very reachable par 3 sixth and I settled for a bogey.  On the par 4 seventh I popped up my drive and scrambled for another 6.   With so many layers of clothes on, I struggle to hit a clean drive from my tall rubber tee.  I often swing way under the ball and pop it way up, like 30-50 yards from the tee.   I should probably switch to my shorter rubber tee for my drives to take the popup drive out of play.  But then I won’t get as much height out of my drives which you really need in the snow.  The low worm burner drives in the snow just don’t get any roll.  Decisions, decisions.  

Par 3 8th was no match for my snow drive.  Par!

So the par 3 180 yard eight was my other great chance to par a hole on this easy course.  I hit a nice relaxed drive straight to the green and it looked like it landed right before the green and bounced on.  But did it stay on?   I strolled down to the green and to my delight I saw my little yellow ball straddling a streak of snow at the middle of the green.   Not bad hitting a green in regulation during winter golf.  I’ll gladly take it.

On my way to the ninth tee I double-checked the first hole fairway again to take one last look for my only lost ball of the day.    I spent another 10 minutes looking before I saw it hiding more towards the middle of the fairway and just 20 yards from the green.  A lot closer to the green than I originally thought.  I replayed the first hole again from that spot and after rolling my third shot just off the green, I “chipped” back on to record a 6.  One better than my first time around and now zero lost balls on my register.  I finished the par 4 ninth with yet another double bogey 6, which left me at a friendly 49 for the round.   Easy course.  Maybe one to shoot par on one of these days.   OK, maybe I should break 80 on it before talking about shooting par.

My approach shot lands just short of 9th green

Final Score:  49.  1 par, 0 lost balls.  Greenfield is a very friendly, quaint local county golf course where the new golfer can learn the ropes on and the average golfer can score very well on.  There was no water but there were some larger traps that protected some of the greens quite well.    This may also be a good course to bring some of my golfing buds back to, to show them the winter golf round ropes.   With the isolated setting I never ran into any dog walkers, cross country skiers, or county workers.   A very peaceful winter round that tempted me to play 18.  But too much work to do before heading to Portland for a family Xmas vacation.    And then I’ll just have 2 days left when I return on Dec. 28th to finish my 52 season off.    Hoping for more decent winter weather like this…  

[golfwi52]

Round 50 –Snow Day For Jughead

Riverdale Country Club, Sheboygan, WI 53081 Par 36 (Back Nine) White Tees, 3,165 yards, 67.7 rating / 118 slope,  $0 Friday, December 15th, 2017, 9:30am, 23 degrees, 15-17 mph winds, cloudy

I had to push back this week’s round until Friday because I had a major food poisoning incident the prior weekend.  After losing around 4 pounds in 24 hours to that “creature” last Friday, there was no way I was going to tempt fate by heading out by myself on Sunday to a snowy, isolated golf course with a depleted energy level and no porcelain throne within sprint range.   So I waited until Friday for this week’s round, which provided time for me to regain my energy and for a little more snow to fall to officially start my second winter rules season of the year.    As I get closer to the end of my 52 week quest, I’m getting much more nervous about delaying weekly rounds until a Saturday.   Because if something goes haywire on that final day of my official golf week then my whole journey would abruptly fail.  I didn’t want a sudden illness or flat tire or family tragedy to derail my quest.   So I took a morning off from work on Friday to play a “quick” winter round.  The good thing about winter rules golf is that I only play 9 holes.  Trudging in the snow for 90+ minutes is more than enough for this old man.

I chose the Riverdale Golf Club in nearby Sheboygan as this week’s course.  I had checked it out alongside the more prestigious Sheboygan area courses (e.g. Whistling Straits, The Bull) earlier in the year, but I relegated it to the winter season schedule due to its simpler, less interesting course layout.   Of course, 99% of the courses in Wisconsin would fall into that category when compared against Sheboygan’s finest.  I scouted Riverdale on Thursday via Google Maps and determined that the back nine would be the more private of the nines and one that I would be less likely to get caught on.  I do have a bit of an irrational fear of being busted for playing on a closed course.  Outside of the disc golf mercenaries I ran into in round 3, I don’t think anyone has really cared that I’ve been hiking and hitting thru closed golf courses.  Scouting a new course layout also helps me navigate the course when I play, in case the tee box signs have been removed for the winter or the greens are hidden by snow.   Nothing worse than getting lost on a new course in the middle of a freezing cold round.

Snowshoes, tied rubber tees, and 3 inches of snow.  Priceless.

I decided to try a little snow golf this time with the “aide” of snowshoes.  I didn’t get a chance to wear them even outside of golf during the last winter season so it was about time to bust them out – and a first for golfing with them.  The snow evenly blanketed the course at about 2-3 inches so in theory it would be perfect for snowshoeing.  For this winter round I tied my long and short rubber tees together with heavy string to make it harder to lose a flying tee after taking my patented violent swing.   But losing my rubber tees would be the least of my worries today.   I never had this much snow in all of my earlier winter rounds so it was going to be interesting to see how quickly I went thru my 9 colored golf balls.  For clubs, I carried an old backup driver and a 6 iron I found earlier in the year.  I’d only use my 6 iron near the green (I mean white) when I wanted to get a bit more height on my shot.  I didn’t construct a clever holster or carry a bag for just two clubs.  I just carried them freestyle.  Old School.  Caveman style.  With snowshoes and rubber tees.  OK, Dork style.

I drove my opening drive from the 10th tee “box” off to the right of the fairway around 100 yards.  Fortunately it landed at the of a small group of trees that provided a good landmark for ball finding.   I teed up my second shot with the long tee and used my driver again.   I popped up my second shot and immediately lost sight of it.  I listened for it as I thought it was heading towards trees farther up the rough on the right side of the fairway.   But no sound so maybe it didn’t hit the trees.  Rule #1 in snow golf – avoid hitting your ball into trees because you easily lose track of it and it may ricochet off a tree towards any direction.   I spent around 10 minutes looking for my second shot and finally threw out another ball and took a penalty stroke.   Nothing like losing a ball on your second shot of the round.  Good thing I brought nine of these colored puppies.  

Looking back on 10th fairway from the "green”.  Crazy white-out.

I hit a decent fourth shot 100 yards back onto the fairway, but into a wide blanket of snow.  So who knows if I was going to find that one as well.  On my way to that shot I stumbled across some entry holes in the right side of the fairway and uncovered my real second shot.  It looked like my shots were going to produce two holes – a larger entry hole where the ball landed and then skipped about a foot to a second hole where it came to rest under the snow.   So I had hit two shots into the snow and had found both.  All while wearing snowshoes.  Incredible.  My third shot from 100 yards out plugged in the snow before the green.   I hacked up a couple of other chips and finally ended up on the green in 6 and took the winter rules auto-2-putt for an opening snowman - quadruple bogey 8.   How appropriate to shoot a snowman in these conditions.   Good thing this was virgin snow – hardly any animal or human footprints obstructing views of the golf ball entry holes.  Seemed like I was on a cable winter hunting show rather than a playing a round of golf.  Cool.

It was a bit breezy so my hands were getting cold with just my cold weather golf gloves on.  Halfway thru the first hole I switched to my mittens and decided to take them off for each shot so that I got a decent grip with my swings.  The mittens were golden.  Good to keep my hands warm 90% of the time and just expose them for a few seconds with each shot.  Sometimes I can get by with just regular golf gloves during a winter round but not today with the chilly and windy conditions.  Also, looking for my ball in the white blanket snow for a few minutes would cause me to start getting a bit dizzy and worrying about blacking out.  A lovely way to possibly end my round of life way too early.  No worries.  I just had to look up to the gray sky every once in a while to keep me from passing out.   Cable channel survivor dude.  Haha.

Par 3 11th.  Lost drive in trees to the right.  Argh.

The second hole was a short par 3 that provided a decent shot to hit the green on the drive.  Of course I shanked my drive right into another set of trees.  I must swing too quickly in the cold weather, getting my hands out to far and forcing my drives to slice to the right.  I spent another 10 minutes looking for entry holes around the trees but to no avail.   After my lost ball penalty shot, I pitched up a shot to the green to finish with a decent 5.  Things were getting a bit better it seemed.   But then I threw down a whopping 10 on the next hole, a long par 4 that I ended up navigating thru the driving range to the right of the fairway and then losing an approach shot into another set of trees.   Argh.  I may be challenged to break 80 on 9 holes today.  I had to keep reminding myself that I was playing in showshoes and there was a good 2-3 inches of snow on the ground.  Just finishing without losing 9 balls will be a big achievement.

Ball entry crater followed by usually buried resting ball

After the tiring third hole, I dropped off the snowshoes and my 6 iron under a group of trees that would provide cover until I picked these items up later coming back on the 18th fairway.  The great snowshoe experiment was over and I really didn’t need 2 clubs on this round.   It was a hell of a lot easier walking thru the snow in just my boots, so I “flew” thru the remaining 6 holes.   I surprisingly only lost one more ball, on the 17th tee when I sliced my drive into tall grass.   I thought I was going to lose more balls on the 17th fairway since a very large gaggle of geese had just trampled thru the fairway.  30+ geese walking thru a fairway can create a lot of little webbed footprints making it very tough to spot my ball entry mini-craters.   I carded a couple more snowman scores and finished with an abominable 61.    But a very different and entertaining golf experience.   I was also able to light up an Absolut cigar on the 17th hole to help warm me up thru the end of the round.  But I really need to invest in a nice humidor as my Absolut was very dried out and quickly disintegrating on me.  And I couldn’t put it down in the snow so I ended up choking down a few smokes while hitting my shots.   I really gotta work on my Parejo game in the offseason.

Contrast adjusted to show geese prints and my ball on 17th fairway

Final Score:  61.  0 pars, 3 lost balls.  The Riverdale course was nicely situated in the middle of a mildly upscale neighborhood and it had a nice combo of tree-lined fairways with a few strategically placed creeks mixed in.   The hole layouts weren’t too challenging so I could see this as a good course to take a run at breaking 80 in the future.   I stopped into the clubhouse for a tasty little burger and a pleasant chat with the lady bartender.  I explained that I just played a little snow golf on her course, but I don’t think that really sunk in with her.  Like my clubs in the winter, this snow golf thing is really hard to grasp for most folks.  And I didn’t even mention the snowshoes angle.  Crazy stuff.  And just 2 rounds to go…

[golfwi52]

Round 49 – Last Call

Silver Spring Golf Club, Menomonee Falls, WI 53051 Par 72 White Tees, 6,481 yards, 71.8 rating / 127 slope, $29 riding Sunday, December 3rd, 2017, 10:00am, 40-52 degrees, 5-9 mph winds, mostly sunny

Silver Spring is another course, like last week’s Kettle Hills, that I saved for the ending winter season.  To my pleasant surprise the weather was mild again for one more weekend and Silver Spring was open – probably for the last time this season. I’ve played this course as a regular and as a sub in our company golf league over the past 5+ years.  It has two 18 tracks, the Island and the Falls.  I was hoping to jump on the much easier Falls track to get a better opportunity to break 80 today.  But due to morning frost backing up the Falls course more than the Island, I opted for the faster start on the harder Island course.   And the Island course includes the signature island green on #8 so I really couldn’t pass that up.  With my course familiarity and the mild weather there was still a chance to bust 80 today.  One can still dream. Especially a dork golfer.

Greg and Zach

We were starting on the Island back none today as the frost was still clearing on the front.  I jumped in with Zack and Greg, a couple of twenty somethings (I think) who looked like pretty casual golfers.    Zach worked for the club so he was very familiar with the course as well as my work golf league that plays here.  Silver Spring has a lot of personality across its two courses.  There’s a fair amount of water, some very challenging longer holes, and a decent amount of trees.  Much like Kettle Hills, Silver Spring is a very enjoyable place to play league golf or a weekend round with the buddies.   I started out bogey and par and then slid thru the rest of the back with 4 doubles and no more pars to card an opening dreary 47.  The break 80 dream effectively ended with an ugly double bogey on the third hole.   Good to pop that dream out of my head early and sit back to enjoy the round.  

Not out-of-bounds on the 14th.  Really.

The two highlights of the first nine define why golf is a crazy and so enjoyable to me.  On the long par 3 14th, I clubbed a 5 iron just to the right of the green where it landed on the cart path and rocketed another 20 yards up and over the metal fence into a tall grass field, home to a bordering power line “roadway”.    Hmm, the fence had a gate and there were no out of bounds markers so I snuck into the tall grass area and located my ball after a few minutes.  It was in a clamped down area (I was obviously not the first to try this) and I proceeded to plop a lob wedge about 30 yards back over the fence and onto the green,  ending up about 15 feet from the pin.   I missed the par putt of course, but I’ll take the recovery.  

Prepare to hole out with my lob wedge on the 17th - for a bogey.

On the long par 5 17th, I sliced my drive into the next fairway, chunked a shot back into my fairway, laid up to 100 yards out to avoid the creek, and then hit a wedge into that creek.  How painful.  So lying five in front of the creek, I proceeded to hole out from 20 yards with a sweet lob wedge shot.  That was my second very satisfying bogey save of the round.   OK, so maybe scrambling for bogey shouldn’t have been so satisfying, but it was today.  Hey, it’s the freaking first week in December and I’m still playing regular golf.    I’ll take these saves.  

Youngsters Greg and Zach were good guys to play with but there wasn’t a whole lot of heavy bonding going on.  Different generations.  And I was struggling to just save bogeys.  Working on golf relationships with young strangers was way too much work on this day.  I was focused on getting thru the round and getting back home to prepare for work and holiday shopping.  As I get to the end of my year long golf journey these final rounds will be more “just get ‘er done” types.  No point in dragging them on with dorky banter with strangers.  That was for the summer season and with a bit older folks.

Signature 8th Island Green hole. Gorgeous.

I played a bit better on the front nine track with a birdie and a couple of pars to card a 45.   I couldn’t even break ninety, which has been the norm for me over this past month or so.  The body and mind are wearing down at this point.  I did thoroughly enjoy playing the final two holes even though I doubled both of them.  On the signature 8th island green hole, I hit a pitching wedge just clear of the water and rock border, but in the heavy grass just short of the green.  I hacked up an A wedge 10 feet above the hole and then I three putted back down the sloped green for an ugly double.   The A wedge was the right club choice but I hit it at the wrong face angle.  Lesson learned.  But will it be remembered?  Definitely not.

Looking back on the 9th fairway.  Great finishing hole.

The 9th hole is a great par 4 ending hole that requires a 220+ yard drive to clear the wide creek with little room for error on either side.  In the golf league we once played epic Tin Cup ball with my buddy Larry, whom we watched drive around 10 balls before he finally made it over the creek.  I hooked my first drive deep on the left side of the creek and then hit a decent second drive over the creek.    I was now about 120 yards downhill from a VERY elevated and sloping green.  Getting to this green is hard enough with the well-placed wide creek and the huge hill.  But the green has the biggest slope on the course and you don’t want to be above the hole.   I dunked by approach wedge short of the green, plopped a wedge below the hole and Alice’d my 6 foot bogey putt to end with a double.   I love this hole better than the island green one.   It has multiple epic shot challenges – the drive, approach, and putts.   Even just 2 epic shot challenges would make it a great hole.  This one has 3.

Final Score:  92 (45,47) 1 birdies, 3 pars, 4 lost balls.  I only had a couple of good drives all day so I definitely need to pursue a new upscale driver in the off season.  M1 or M2 is the question.   This round was likely to be my last open course round of the year.  I see snow and much colder temps on the forecast for the coming week.  Time to get out my winter gear and prepare for my final 3 rounds of the year playing special winter rules golf on closed courses.  Hard to believe I’ve been doing this for 49 straight weeks.  But I was really happy to play Silver Spring in mostly regular conditions today.  It is one of my favorite “fun” local courses to play and it always gives me a good chance for scoring low.     At least for a few holes…

[golfwi52]

Round 48 – The Eagle Has Landed

Kettle Hills Golf Course, Richfield, WI 53076 Par 72 White Tees, 6,348 yards, 71.2 rating / 125 slope, $29 walking Sunday, November 26th, 2017, 10:00am, 35-45 degrees, 10-15 mph winds, partly cloudy

My strategy this year is to play courses new to me in the good weather open season and play courses I am familiar with in the closed winter season.    Its “fun” to play courses I’m familiar with in special snow and ice conditions.  And it’s easier to maneuver a course in winter conditions if I am familiar with the layout.  So I had left Kettle Hills, an hour northwest of Milwaukee, for the ending winter season.  Kettle Hills provides 36 holes in a very pleasant wooded and hilly setting.    I hadn’t been able to get out to play the very enjoyable Kettle Hills course for a couple of years so I was very anxious to finally play it again.    To my big surprise, the last Sunday in November was going to be in the mid 40’s and Kettle Hills was still open.  I partnered up with my good buddy Don, who has fond memories of playing Kettle Hills back when he and his lovely wife Ann were starting out there lives together.   And of course since I was familiar with Kettle Hills, I had visions of one last decent chance of breaking 80, one of my key goals for the year.  One can dream.

Don chose the Ponds and Woods 18 instead of the newer Valley 18 because the P&W is the course he and his wife Ann played back in the day.   I liked the selection because it was a very long walk to the Valley first tee and we decided to walk instead of ride today.  I hadn’t walked 18 in a long time this year because of my bum right knee, still a bit weak from spraining in soccer in the summer.    But I had my brace on and it seemed like a good day for a walk.  I always think I play better when walking because it really loosens my body and mind up.  But at my age walking also tires me out so it’s probably a wash.  But I did need the exercise.  Don also surprised me with a little pre-round gift of a couple Cohiba and Absolut premium cigars.  What a great guy Don is.  Too bad he doesn’t partake in a golf smoke once in a while.   

Don on the 9th green after navigating the narrow wooded fairway

I started out the front nine Ponds track playing bogey golf for the first 5 holes.  A birdie balancing out two double bogeys with no pars.   My reliable front nine driver wasn’t clicking as I had hoped for.  On the second hole I lost a drive long right and never found it.  I did see a ball on the semi-frozen pond by the green and wondered if that could have been my drive if it had bounced and rolled a long ways on the hard ground.   Yes, winter golf changes the equation with drive lengths.  

I started to heat up on the 6th hole with a par and then broke loose on the 7th with the second eagle of my life.  My first eagle was a chip in from 80 yards on the par 4 fourth at Sinnissippi in Rockford, Il around 20 years ago.    This time it was the short 477 yard par 5 seventh where I hit a monster drive down the left side of the fairway, leaving me just a 175 yard six iron to the pin.   The six iron isn’t nearly as trusty as my 5 but I nailed it this time to leave my ball just 4 feet in front of the pin.   It was about a 2-cup break putt, one that I probably make only 20% of the time.  With putting it seems that I either under or over think each putt.    I either forget to hit it strong enough or I think too much about the break.  I thought I had Alice’d this putt when I hit it, but thank god it had enough juice to smoothly roll into the cup.   Wow, an eagle.  I’ll certainly take one of those anytime of the year.  Even a blind squirrel…

Don headed down another tree lined fairway on the back

I finally took out my super cool torch lighter and lit up my new Absolut cigar and celebrated this wonderful walk around the course with my good buddy Don.  OMG, the Absolut was so smooth.  My last cigar at Evergreen was packed so tight I had to relight it a half dozen times.  Not the case with this one.  Nothing like a walk thru the course with a good friend and a fine cigar on a nice autumn day.    I finished out the Ponds with a par and bogey to leave me at a surprising 40.  I only had 2 pars but the birdie and eagle offset my other bogey-nis.   Don and I grabbed drinks at the turn and headed to the Woods.  Does this mean I had a decent shot at finally breaking 80?   Visions of Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber saying “So you’re saying there’s a chance?” flashed thru my head.   Dumbest.

I never seem to do well after I grab a Jack and 7 during a round.  I always think that one drink will loosen me up and be beneficial to my game.  And that a second or third drink will start to send my game downhill.  But I think evidence from this year shows that the first drink isn’t really helping my game.   But it’s kind of a must, like partaking in a fine cigar, during the round so I’ll have to work around it.  I think what really impacted me today was walking the course.  My tiring legs started contributing to wayward drives on the back and a drop in focus on my game.  If I was really serious about trying to break 80 after the front, I should have taken a cart for the back nine.   But then I would not have had a good excuse for choking on the back.

Back 9 story - I spy ball in leaves, Jack and 7

I quickly double bogeyed the first 2 holes on the back Woods course and visions of breaking 80 quickly evaporated.    At least that goal didn’t tease me for long on the back.  I ended up with an abominable 52 on the back, with no pars and a huge quadruple bogey 9 on the finishing hole.   I only hit 2 fairways and no greens in regulation.    I was exhausted.   I loved walking and would do that again in a heartbeat.  But I’m not in good enough shape to score well doing that.   But I knew scoring well was a long shot to begin with.  So go with at least getting exercise.

Fourth shot way down to 18th green.  Give me a 9.

Final Score:  92 (40,52) 1 eagle, 1 birdie, 2 pars, 1 lost ball.   Don has joined me on a few rounds of my journey this year, but this one was special because it was just the two of us and on a course that was special to him.  I loved listening to him fondly reminiscing about him and his wife Ann playing this course many years ago.  I love Don’s appreciation of this game, his willingness to play this late in the season, his desire to walk the course, his gift of the cigars, and most of all his friendship.   I think all of that good Don karma today helped land my eagle…

Sun going down on the season...

[golfwi52]

Round 47 – Birdy in the Belly

Evergreen Country Club (South, East), Elkhorn, WI 53121 Par 72 White Tees, 6,092 yards, 69.8 rating / 123 slope, $35 riding Friday, November 24th, 2017, 9:48am, 55-65 degrees, 13-23 mph winds, sunny

When I visit Rockford, Il. for my family’s Thanksgiving dinner there’s always the discussion of playing golf on the Friday after the big turkey day.  The weather has only been mild enough a few times over the years and we typically would run out to the local neighborhood Sinnissippi course and play a quick nine.  Well, this season the weather was very mild and with my 52 WI courses in 52 weeks was in play, it was game on to convince some of the family guys to head north to WI and play the Friday round.   I selected Evergreen Country Club in Elkhorn which was around 45 minutes north of Rockford.  Evergreen was referenced by the good guys at Muskego Lakes as a good late season course.  I was easily able to convince my brother-in-law Adrian to play but failed to convince my college senior nephew A. J. to get up early to play on his “day off”.   I was also hoping to get my son Ray to join us to re-live some of Ray’s early golf days when I had to pay him a scoring bonus to keep up his interest in the game.  But Ray was tied up in Milwaukee in a late sleep zone and he wouldn’t be making it to Rockford until later in the day.   Kids.

Matt and Adrian - late season warriors

Adrian and I reached Evergreen before 10am and saw a fair amount of activity for this late in the season.  It was going to reach the mid-sixties today, which was unbelievable for the end of November.  There was a decent wind with gusts up to 30 mph so it wasn’t going to be an easy round.  Evergreen looked like a fairly large complex supporting 27 holes, banquet facilities, large bar, etc.   The course had a very friendly and cozy feeling to it, bordered by a modest residential neighborhood.   It also looked fairly wide open, maybe another opportunity for me to finally break 80 this year.  Haha.  I am an eternal optimist.   Or a fool.

We started on the South course for the first nine and I quickly double bogeyed the first hole beginning with a sliced drive.  That’s a cardinal sin.  Never play over a bogey on the first hole.  Playing in the wind is always tough when gauging distance with my approach shots and it got me on number one.  I recovered to hit the fairway on the rest of my front nine drives and I threw out 4 pars to shoot a decent 43.  Adrian was on fire with his drive and he shot around the same.    The South course was pretty straight forward and one that I could certainly break 40 on if my game was playing average with normal weather conditions.  Right now at the end of the season my body and focus were waning so scoring low was the least of my worries.  But there’s always hope.

Adrian hitting a long approach amongst the long late season shadows

Ok, so after shooting a 43 on the front, I either had to shoot a 36 on the back to break 80 or a 46 to break 90.  Hmm, wonder what’s the number to shoot for?  We headed to the East score for the back nine play.   My “excitement” over an opening 43 was quickly dashed by a 3-putt bogey on East 1, followed by triple bogeys on 2 and 3.  So 7 over par after first 3 holes on the East.  Lovely.  On cue, I started to lose my drives on the second nine and that accounted for 2 lost balls on those triple bogey holes.  I also shanked a couple of approach shots on those holes, which I attribute to over-eating at yesterday’s Turkey dinner.  Too much bird in the belly results in too many bogeys on the back.   I settled down the rest of the nine with straight bogeys and pars to finish with a 47.    Wow, I couldn’t even break 90 on this relatively easy course.  

Sunny, mid 60′s, golfing in late November.  Priceless.

The East course had a couple of very interesting holes, specifically 3 and 4.  Number 3 was a short, downhill, winding par 5 with a blind tee shot and the green fronted by a creek.  I think I may tee off with a nine iron next time to keep my drive in play around the winding fairway.  Number 4 was a 180 yard par 4 with a narrow fairway bordered by homes on the left and junk on the right.   Into the wind.   I was lucky to keep my 4-iron in play short to the left and save a bogey.  I like par 4’s that force you to go with long iron or 3-wood with plenty of risk on one or both sides.  I’ll enjoy returning back here to play some of these holes now that I’ve played them.  Of course, I’ll have to rely on my memory to replay these effectively in the coming years - which is a whole different matter. 

Adrian lines up his approach shot on East 9

Final Score:  90 (43,47) 0 birdies, 6 pars, 4 lost balls.  Adrian and I are usually pretty even but he’s hard to beat if his drive is on– which was the case for today.  My 7 over par over the first 3 holes of the back did me in.   I only hit 2 fairways on the back and seriously have to think about upgrading my driver in the off season.  I really miss my old Taylor Made SLDR driver and I may fork out some bucks for an M1 or M2 driver.   But driver problems aside, it was great to get out and pay golf after Thanksgiving with Adrian.  And Evergreen seems like such a good late season golf course that this could be a new family tradition - as long as I can get the “kids” out of bed…

[golfwi52]

Round 46 – CAR Path Relief

Muskego Lakes Golf Club, Muskego, WI 53150 Par 71, White Tees, 6,050 yards, 69.8 rating / 124 slope, $45 cars, prizes Saturday, November 18th, 2017, 10:00am, 33-36 degrees, 7-19 mph winds, cloudy

I had Muskego Lakes marked as one of my late 52 courses in 52 weeks in Wisconsin rounds after I saw they offered a special cars-on-the-cart-path outing around Thanksgiving. Now how many golfers can say they used their car as a golf cart for an 18 hole round?  A must do.  I actually was scheduled to play Muskego Lakes last Sunday in a 4-man scramble with cars, but I had to bow out as it was sleeting and my partners had to bag due to a big IT install that weekend.  Fortunately Muskego Lakes does this car thing a few weeks in a row and today was a 2-man scramble with cars.  My co-worker Scott reminded me of this during the week and he willingly agreed to join me.   With winter golf I usually have to do a big sell job to find a partner but not for today.  At least not yet.

So of course it was sleeting again this Saturday and I woke up wondering if this round was still going to happen.  But it was Saturday so my official week was ending and I had to make it happen even if the course cancelled the event.  I had all of the necessary clothing to weather major rain or snow so it would be more of an issue with the course not letting me play if they closed everything down.  I had some backup courses in mind that were also probably closed, but that I could try to sneak on if Muskego Lakes shut me down.  So a lot of “what ifs” floating thru my head as I drove an hour down to the Muskego area, southwest of Milwaukee.  

Overlooking icy/snowy 9th green from the clubhouse.  No worries.

Around 5 minutes from the course I saw a text from Scott that said “Sorry buddy, it’s miserable out there.  No way I could do it”.    Oh man, a 2-man scramble is just the not the same without the second man.   But no panic yet.  I had to check if the outing was still happening before I attempted a painful recovery sell job with Scott.  I arrived at Muskego Lakes amid the sleeting rain and to my surprise saw a dozen cars in the parking lot.   I popped into the clubhouse bar and quickly confirmed that the event was still on.  It looked like there were a dozen teams signed up and around ten teams had already shown up a half hour before the shotgun start.  I love Wisconsin golfers.  We don’t need no stinkin’ warm weather to enjoy golf.  So I lit up a nice Savoy cigar to warm me up and proceeded to start selling Scott via texts on how his honor would be spared if he got his arse down to the course right away.  He resisted strongly with texts like “I golfed in the upper 40s in the ran and it was terrible. I can’t imagine 10 degrees colder.  You’re a maniac.”  I finally guilted him into it with 10 minutes to go and he hustled down to meet us on the first tee.   Game on.  Better late than never Scottie boy.

Car path parade for the shotgun start.  Seriously.

Again, the big draw here was driving our cars on the course.  I took my 2008 Lexus RX350 with 160k miles on it as my golf cart for the round.  We packed up our clubs in the second seat while most other folks with SUVs just dropped their bags in the back and left their tailgate open.  While it was nice to have a warm weather vehicle to sit in up and down the fairway, I actually would have just preferred a covered golf cart for quicker mobility.  While it was sleeting at the start of the round it wasn’t overly nasty where we were jumping into the car to warm up.  My worst fear with the car cart was that its windshield would be shattered with an errant shot from the group behind us.  12 twosomes equated to only 6 foursomes so we were fairly spread out with just one group per hole.  So the group behind us was usually a safe distance from our cars.  But as we slowed down that changed and we (i.e. I) became increasingly concerned that one of our cars would be hit.  On more than one occasion we hurried off a tee box to get out the way of possible incoming shots from the fast group behind us.  Like I need more things to worry about outside of my golf swing.  Next time we’re taking Scott’s car.  Or a rental.

Scott and I were hooked up with Bernie and Carl, another 2-man scramble team to round out our foursome.  Bernie is a chiropractor from Whitefish Bay and Carl, aka The Claw, works for WE Energies in Oak Creek.  These guys were very decent golfers and great guys to be paired up with.   This 2-man scramble format allowed for each player to take a mulligan on every other hole.  So Scott got the even holes and I got the odd holes.  Since we were playing the back nine twice due to water issues on the front, Scott got 10 even hole mullies and I got 8.  Haha, I can’t believe I let that happen.  Very poor planning on my part.   Anyways we played neck and neck with Bernie and The Claw, each of us throwing down 2 birdies in the round.   Even with a very friendly gimme “agreement” we carded a unspectactular 77 and they a 79.  But not too bad considering the playing conditions.  

Bernie, Scott, and Carl “The Claw”

We brought out brooms from the clubhouse at the start of the round to clear off the snow from our putting lines on the greens.   That did help us birdie our first hole, a very tough par 5 where I hit a long 20 foot birdie putt thru the snowless path.  The snow/sleet combo turned into light snow after a few holes and then it cleared up completely around the midway point.   Playing in the mid-30’s with mild wind conditions really wasn’t too uncomfortable, especially with a warm car to go to between shots.   Even Scott was glad he decided to play.  

The back nine of Muskego Lakes was an entertaining track to play.  There were a couple of very challenging doglegs with strategically placed trees that made it difficult to hit the greens in regulation and/or to go for a par 5 green in 2.  There were a few ponds and creeks, but none of them placed too dangerously.   The greens had a decent amount of slope and today they were very soggy and extremely slow in spots.   Scott and I really mangled a few of those soggy readings to score way too many 3-putts for scramble golf.    Even with liberal gimme partners in play.  I’m looking forward to coming back to Muskego Lakes in the summer and checking out the front nine.  

Early round driving - hitting from and on the whites.

The best play of the day was on our second play of the 12 hole, a very challenging par 5 dogleg that we birdied the first time around.  Scott and I both chunked our second shots behind the trees on the left side of the fairway, leaving us around 180 yards from the green and into the wind.  After Scott knocked his third shot into those trees, I picked out my 4-iron to just punch out under the trees to the 100 yard mark in the fairway.  But since this is winter golf and a scramble there was really no reason to play it safe.  So I said “screw it” and attempted to draw a full 4-iron around the trees and to the green.   I actually hit it straight through the bare trees, slicing thru the wind and landing on the green just 15 feet from the pin.    We missed our birdie putts this time, but saving par was a big achievement.  Can’t believe I was even thinking about playing it safe on that third shot.    Who plays it safe in winter golf?

The worst play of the day was a 40 foot birdie putt on the par 4, challenging dogleg 15th hole.  Scott brushed up a little snow wall about a foot behind the hole so that our long 40 foot putt wouldn’t go too long.   Scott putted first and was off by around 6 feet.  I putted next and went a bit long but into Scott’s snow wall and therefore only a few feet from the hole.    I felt great about that putt and getting a gimme par but then Scott reminded me that I had the mullie on the hole and could take a re-putt.  With the pin back in to show me the hole, I struck the 40 foot putt again and it headed straight for the pin.  Clank.  With the 3 gents standing motionless close to the pin, my ball lightly ricocheted off the pin to a few feet away.  I’m sure if the pin was removed that the putt would have hit the back of the cup and dropped in for a fantastic birdie.   Ouch!  I didn’t let my buddy Scott forget thru the end of the round about not tending the pin on that putt.  

Yes, the greens had some wet spots.  And cars on paths.  So?

We hung out at the clubhouse bar afterwards and saw that our 77 and 79 scores were at the bottom of the ladder, only better than one team which left after 9 holes to attend another function.  Two teams carded low 66’s and most of the other scores were in the low 70’s.  Wow.  We scratched our heads as we looked around at the other teams in the bar.  They certainly didn’t look like any special golfer types, like the kind I saw at the Geneva Grand scramble earlier in the year.  I’m assuming these regular Joe golfers today are all Muskego Lakes club members and their keen knowledge of the course and car-driving winter golf enabled them to clean our clocks today.  Ok, I can live with that.   It was great fun to chat with Bernie and The Claw about the round and my 52-52 journey courses over a few beers.  Scott and I ended up winning around $30 for having the best score in the 3rd flight, whatever that meant.

The highlight of the round was that Scott and I were randomly selected with 3 other teams to participate in the $65 100 yard chip-off to the 9th green.   In the growing darkness, the 8 of us lined up 100 yards out and we each proceeded to hack chips around the green – with nobody actually sticking the green.  That was a first per the event organizer.    So we went to round two and I hit a chunked p-wedge that somehow bounced up onto the green, and stopped around 15 feet from the pin.   Amazingly no one else stuck the green on the second round, so I (ok, Scott and I) won the event.  They actually went to a third round with the remaining 3 teams to determine second place, which also won $65.  So more evidence that we were all hack golfers and somehow all of the other hacks shot better than our 77/79 scores.  Head scratcher.  Did they play by different rules?

Final Score:  77 for 2-man scramble (47,45) 2 birdies, 9 pars, 1 lost ball.   What a great experience.  Driving cars on a golf course in late November.  Who’da thunk?   And Scott and I were so lucky to be paired up with Bernie and The Claw.  They were fun, laid back gents and very evenly matched golfers with us.   I shared contact info with Bernie, so hopefully I’ll get to hook up with these guys again in the future.  We also bought $10 frozen turkeys at the end of the night, as there were leftovers from the previous week’s scramble that I missed.    So a major guilt purchase, but an easy one as we used our chip-off winnings to buy turkeys for our foursome.  The guys at Muskego Lakes are an awesome bunch and really enjoy putting on these fun events at the end of the year.    Almost as much as I enjoy playing in them… 

[golfwi52]

Round 45 – Firmest of Greens

Morningstar Golf Club, Waukesha, WI 53189 Par 72, Green Tees, 6,118 yards, 69.2 rating / 126 slope, $52 riding Saturday, November 11th, 2017, 10:00am, 26-30 degrees, 10 mph winds, cloudy

OK, so now it’s getting winter cold again and it’s time to pull out the gator, long underwear, winter hat, extra gloves, etc.  I was lucky to find that one of my target courses, Morningstar, was still open thru the end of this weekend. So an hour long drive took me south of Waukesha to this fine country club-like course surrounded by expensive homes and anchored by a majestic clubhouse at the top of the hill.   Golfers coming off of the front in their covered and heated carts warned me that scoring would be tough today as the greens were like cement from the cold weather.  Hey, I’m just lucky the course is open and the greens still have pins in them.   8 rounds to go this year to complete my 52 week journey and I’m still playing “regular” golf.

Par 4 ninth headed towards majestic clubhouse

Of course the covered carts were personal carts owned by local club members.  I had to go with the standard open air variety, so I lit up a nice little Olivia cigar at the start to keep me warm.   I nixed any putting or driving range warmups and quickly jumped on the first tee to get things going.  Number one was a tight par 5 and after coming up 30 yards short of the green in 3, I hit a decent chip to the green.  But the “concrete” greens bounced my ball high into the air and behind the green.  Oops, I forgot the earlier warnings.  So hitting the green on a fly was going to be like hitting a cart path.   That was going to make today’s round VERY interesting.  I’d have to play down a club length on approach shots and bounce/roll them up to the green.   Now this was a new variety of golf for me.  Argh, no chance to break 80 with this impediment.   And a snowman on number one iced that.

Heavily protected Par 3 14th

One would think that the rock hard greens which launched a ball 20 feet into the air would also putt really fast.  Not the case at all.  The greens were really slow to putt on which just didn’t make sense to my little brain.  I have a mental problem with Alice putting anyways and this hard green, slow green combo just messed up my mental putting game even more.  

Par 4 17th bordered by mini-mansions 

Morningstar has a very attractive layout with a decent amount of bunkers and water.  It’s relatively short and I could see making a decent run at breaking 80 here when conditions are normal.    I almost broke 90 today, which isn’t too bad considering the conditions.  I had a couple of situations where I did hit a green on the fly and saw the ball fly another 20 feet into the air and over the green.   It was very weird to be praying for an approach shot to sit down short of the green.  And every time an approach shot did land short of the green, it stayed in the grass, never making it to the green.  Almost impossible to hit a green in regulation with that formula.

From the 18th tee

After playing the first two holes at 5 over par, I shot 6 over for the rest of the front to card a 47.   Not too bad considering the rough start getting adjusted to the greens.    The par 4’s were short and the fairways were fairly wide.    I was keeping my drives in check and that was giving me a lot of safe bogey opps.   I ended up shooting bogey 45 on the back for a 92 total.  I really could have broken 90 but I ended up running out of gas (and warmth) on the final few holes.  It sucks getting old, but it really sucks getting old in the cold.

Overlooking the 18th green from the clubhouse

Final Score:  92 (47,45) 0 birdies, 4 pars, 0 lost balls.   In the clubhouse bar afterwards I could sense a really strong club atmosphere as the golfers were huddled around the bar talking about their cold weather golf and coming back out tomorrow for one final round before the course closed for the year.  I heard one of the guys brag about playing golf every month of the year this year.  I humbly declined to speak up and note that I had trumped his little arse by playing every freakin’ week of the year – and without any pansy covered cart protection.   But I didn’t want to jinx this little journey with any premature braggadocio and I am deep down a shy little German so I kept quiet.  In hindsight it would have been great to at least have taken a group picture with those gents to show what a hearty group of Wisconsin cold weather golfers look like.   But with 7 rounds to go this winter I’m thinking I’ll have a few more opportunities to do that…

[golfwi52]

Round 44 – Irish Two Bagger

Irish Course at Whistling Straits, Kohler, WI 53044 Par 72, Green Tees, 6,366 yards, 72.0 rating / 137 slope, $200 with caddie (incl. tip) Sunday, October 29th, 2017, 1:00pm, 40-45 degrees, 7-11 mph winds, sunny

Lauren gave me a $500 gift card for Whistling Straits last summer for my birthday and I finally got around to using a portion of it at the Irish Course at Whistling Straits.   The Irish Course is the little brother of the premier Whistling Straits course that has hosted 3 PGA Championships, including the 2010 one where I took my then teenage son Ray to see the Tiger legend play.   The Irish offered a $75 walking rate for twilight at this late fall time while the Straits course was till at the regular $300+ price.  And Lauren is half Irish so it all fell nicely into place.  My work buddy Dave and ex-neighbor Don joined me on my round, both playing the Irish for the first time ever.   After dropping off at the bag drop and learning that Don had signed up for a caddy, I decided to keep up with Don and also go big with personal golf assistant  (PGA?) add-on.  Don and I ended up sharing caddy Phil as strong caddys these days can carry 2 bags.  No discount on sharing so still a cool $65 caddy fee for each of us along with an expected tip of $50 from each.  Hey, I’ve never had a caddy before, Lauren’s gift card covers it, and I think I’ll really need expert advice on this challenging course.  A no-brainer decision.  If only Phil could hit my approach shots for me.  And putt.  And…

Classic Whistling Straits Clubhouse.  Must do dinner there.

The Whistling Straits course is right on lake Michigan while the Irish course is back in a bit but still offering great views of the lake from a few holes.   The Irish course has about half the number of bunkers as the 967 bunkers on the Straits course.   That still comes out to a little over 25 bunkers on average per hole on the Irish course so they came in to play a lot.  Many of those bunkers are waste bunkers which you have harder sand, you can ground your club once, and you don’t have to rake. Afterwards.  Overall I didn’t see the need for the special waste bunker treatment.  Now if they allow you to just throw a ball out of a waste bunker then I’m a fan.

Caddy Phil was a tall, friendly fellow from Two Rivers, about 40 miles north of Kohler on Lake Michigan.  Phil mentioned that caddies for Whistling are no longer shipped in from Ireland, rather many come from Arizona and of course from around WI. Phil has 3 boys going thru the Univ. of Wisconsin at Madison, with the two of them at 6’ 8” and 6’ 5”.  Phil himself was around 6’ 4” so they do grow them big up here in WI.  Phil had a very easy going personality and was eager to run around the course after both Don and I, providing valuable yardage and green reads at every opportunity.  I felt bad for Phil as he struggled to provide me decent green reads for my Alice putting.  I was spoiled by the Blackwolf greens a few days ago and kept believing the Irish greens were just as fast.  

Dave and tall boys Caddy Phil and Don.  Lake Michigan in the back.

We started in the low 40’s with a little wind off the lake so it was a tad chilly.   But certainly not too bad for the end of October.    I started off number 1 with slicing a drive into a big waste bunker to the right.  A weak out and a couple of shaky chips helped me throw down an opening triple bogey.  Not as bad as my opener on Blackwolf (a quint) but not anything to impress my caddy with.   Don was down the left side and I the right side for the entire hole so Phil got his legwork in right away.  Not sure Phil was going to last 18 with chasing both of us with both of our bags.   But what a treat to have a caddy providing yardage and green reads.   I was taken a bit back by him offering to also clean my ball on the green, but I got used to that pretty quickly.  I would have liked him to also keep my score but I guess that’s way over the line, like my score.  

The course was in very good shape for late in the season.  The greens had some signs of patchy aeration but they were otherwise very smooth and fairly fast.   I played bogey+ golf for the front with only 2 pars and another lousy triple on the par 5 eighth to give me a 48.  Phil was getting a little frustrated with me about my short Alice putts.  His putting advice was based on firmer putts so he and I had to calibrate reads for my slower putting.  Amazingly, I didn’t throw down any 3-putts all day, but I did miss short on a few birdie putts on the front, much to Phil’s chagrin.  On the ninth I was helping Dave look for his drive in the brush just over the creek  and I found 10 lost balls, breaking the record of 7 I just set at Blackwolf a few days earlier.  As I plopped them into my bag Phil was carrying I realized that my “good fortune” was at Phil’s expense - as my bag just got a bit heavier to carry.  Recalculating Phil’s tip…

Nice par 3 third around the water

What’s cool about this course and Blackwolf is not to shoot a great score (that’s EXTREMELY hard) but to make some fantastic individual shots or birdieing a tough hole.  Like I birdied #10 with a great drive, a sweet 8 iron to within 10 feet, and then finally hitting a birdie putt strong enough up hill to complete the birdie.   So I was under par for a hole on the back nine.  Sweet.   On the same hole, Don got up and down from around 30 feet below the elevated green.  That was by far the most impressive up and down of the round.   But that was possibly trumped on the 18th when I got up and down from a very low green side bunker. Phil said he had never seen anyone get up and down from that trap before.  Of course, he said that right before the round was ending and my tip was coming out.  Timing is everything.  

Double bagger Phil getting a head start on Don and Matt’s drives

I played much better on the back with the exception of the two par 5’s.  After going 1 over par on the first 4 holes of the back, I proceeded to throw down a monster 10 on the 14th, even without taking any penalties.   I wormed my drive 70 yards into thick grass, hacked 50 yards into the an almost unplayable sideways lie in a waste bunker, popped way right almost out of bounds into the trees, hit a tree trying to punch out, etc.    And those were some of my better shots on that hole. I was 4 over on 7 holes on the back, but 8 over on the two par 5s.     Don shot in the middle 40’s on the back and Dave was in the low 50’s.  Very decent scores for this challenging course.  Every hole had a unique layout of mounds and traps and green configuration.  Never a dull moment.  I loved the narrow 17th fairway doglegging around a huge pond and the challenging twists of the 18th fairway.  Two great holes to finish up with – as the sun was finally setting and it was getting chillier.  Poor Phil, we weren’t the fastest group he’s ever caddied with.   Phil did mention earlier that the group who started the round right in front of us was now around 2 full holes ahead of us.   But we do know how to get our money’s worth per premium golf.  And no one was behind us.  

Dave and Phil near the 10th green - and Lake Michigan

Final Score:  96 (48,48) 1 birdie, 4 pars, 4 lost balls.   Wow, what a great golfing experience at the Whistling Straits facility.  As expected, the service and course conditions were first rate and the caddy Phil experience was awesome.   While the Straits course is cost prohibitive year round for most players, the Irish course has these seasonal twilight rates that make it very reasonable for hack golfers like myself to afford a premium golf experience in Kohler.   I enjoyed a fine Stella with the fellas afterwards by the cozy fireplace in the clubhouse bar as we took in the Whistling surroundings.   Thanks again Lauren.  I’m living the dream baby…

[golfwi52]

Round 43 – Finally Blackwolf

Blackwolf Run - Meadow Valleys Course, Kohler, WI 53044 Par 72, Green Tees, 6,450 yards, 71.5 rating / 136 slope, $105 riding Friday, October 27th, 2017, 12:50am, 40 degrees, 14 mph winds, cloudy

I bet it has been at least twenty five years ago since my brother-in-law Adrian surprised me and a couple of other family members with Xmas gift certificates to Blackwolf Run, Wisconsin’s premier golf course at the time.   And for some reason or another we never made it up to quaint little Kohler, WI to redeem these.  An epic family failure.    One of the biggest rewards of my little 52 WI courses in 52 weeks is that it has pushed me to finally play Blackwolf Run and what a joy that was.  Even as Blackwolf has been eclipsed by Whistling Straits and Erin Hills courses on Wisconsin’s premier list, it is still spectacular to play.  And I only played the Meadow Valleys course, which is second fiddle to the River course.   The back nine of the Meadow is just a gorgeous layout, combining rolling fairways and greens, tall grass roughs, massive bunkers, and lightning fast greens.  There would be no breaking 80 on this day.

Par 3 8th.  Toughest par 3 of the year.  Make mine a double.

I got a great fall twilight deal for $105 riding to play the Meadow course.  The more premium River course didn’t have an advertised fall rate so folks were probably still paying $300+ for a round over there.  There are late fall and early spring challenge weekend outings that combine a round on the River course with a round at Whistling Straits for $400-500.  Add caddies and other fees and you can probably keep it under a grand.   Ouch.  I’m sure I’ll find a way next year to play each course at their lowest rates – sans cart, caddie, decent weather, etc.     After this weekend Blackwolf was also switching to its special “Championship” course which includes the back nine of the Meadow and nine of the River course holes.  This was the original Blackwolf course before they added the second 18 holes and reconfigured into the Meadow and the River layouts.

Narrow, tree-lined fairway on the 10th.  Gorgeous.

So it was a chilly 40 degrees with a fair bit of wind.  I jumped onto the course with little warmup and after a lovely 5 minute cart ride to the first tee I proceeded to drop a whopping 9 on the first hole.  I sliced and lost my opening drive into the tall weeds and I had major trouble in the sand and tall grass around the green.   A lovely layout but brutally unforgiving for this hack.  I lost two more balls in to the tall grass on the 4th hole, a rolling, sharp dogleg par 5 beauty.  I was wearing golf gloves on both hands and I slowly realized that wearing one on my right hand was weakening my grip and causing me to slice my drives – something I had avoided all year.  I managed to lose a total of 5 balls on the front, but no more due to sliced drives.   I love playing fast greens and these were the fastest I’ve played all year.  They recovered very quickly from their earlier fall aerating.  

The par 3 eighth was one of the most challenging par 3’s I‘ve played all year. 176 yards to the pin with water all the way down the left side. I hit a soft 4 iron way short of the green on the right away from the water, chipped on the green and 3-putted for a very weak double.   I finished the front with a monster drive on 9, only to pluck my approach shot into the greenside lake – and then eventually 3-putt for a triple bogey.   I ended up 3-putting each of the final 3 holes on the front to card an ugly opening 53.    The course was very cool, but I hadn’t seen anything yet.

Par 3 15th.  No rolling up to the green on this one.

The back nine of the Meadow was simply gorgeous.  Major rolling fairways AND greens.    The tenth fairway sported a beautiful narrow tunnel of pine trees leading to a sharp dogleg right.  The eleventh included the largest bunker I’ve played all year.  It had to be 40 yards wide and I landed my ball smack in the middle of it – so I raked out about 20 yards of my footprints from it.   And the bunker was twice as long as it was wide –seriously like 80 yards long.  I have never seen bunkers anywhere close to this size before.  The fourteenth was probably my favorite hole.  A long par 4, sharp downhill dogleg right with the green surrounded on the sides and back by threads from the Sheboygan river.   After a decent drive, I went for it with my 180 yard approach shot which I lost into the water.  A great risk/reward shot.  My score sucked at the time so the risk was minimal.  That’s the good part of not scoring well – you can go for the great shots without worrying about breaking up a good scoring round.  

14th green surrounded by Sheboygan River water. Fairway coming down from upper right.

The par 5 16th included another moon bunker, this time protecting the green from folks reaching it in 2.  The 18th was another spectacular layout with the big Sheboygan River making another appearance as it split the fairway in front of the green.  The approach shot over the river is so long that the course provides an alternate green on the near side of the river for those playing from the red tees.  Now that’s something you don’t see every day.  As I typically do every round, I lost my focus on my drive and popped it up about 70 yards from the tee.  I recovered to get to the green in 3 but then 3-putted again.  Another three 3-putts on the back to propel me to a wonderful 49.  Better than the front but still not good enough to get me under 100 for the day.  By far the worst score of the year, but that was insignificant compared to the spectacular layout of this course.

18th green and Sheboygan River viewed from the clubhouse

Final Score:  102 (53,49) 0 birdies, 4 pars, 6 lost balls.   What more can I say?  I got to break out my old cold weather gear in prep for the very cold wind down of my season.  I got to smoke a nice warm cigar.  I got a great chocolate chip cookie and whiskey drink from the cart girl who was still working in this crazy weather, albeit in a very upscale climate controlled cart.  I got to enjoy a nice Stella in the warm and cozy bar afterwards and hear about the Packer charity outing in the summer from the very friendly bartender.   What a great experience and course.  I really need to take my son Ray and son-in-law Ben to play here in the next year or two.  Wait, I REALLY need to take my brother-in-law Adrian here.  I think it’s finally time to dogleg right that wrong…

[golfwi52]

Round 42 – Finding My Kratoska

The Castle Course at Northern Bay Resort, Arkdale, WI 54613 Par 72, White Tees, 6,407 yards, 72.7 rating / 125 slope, $55 riding Sunday, October 15th, 2017, 12:06am, 48 degrees, 13 mph winds, cloudy

The Castle Course at Northern Bay Resort is part of the vast Wisconsin Dells vacation landscape in central Wisconsin.  The course is special because it includes 7 legendary replica holes from Augusta National, TPC Sawgrass, Firestone, Oakmont, Oakland Hills, and Bay Hill.  I played this course around 5 years ago when we rented a family lake house off the adjoining Castle Rock  Lake.  My close friend Paul from Minneapolis and his lovely family joined us back then and I was fortunate to get him to return this year to join me on my 52 courses in 52 weeks WI golf journey.    My ex-wife and I were so lucky to meet Paul and his soon-to-be wife Teresa some 35 years ago as apartment neighbors in a northern suburb of St. Louis where Paul and worked as engineers for McDonnell Douglas.   When we tell our kids that they will be lucky to “find their Kratoskas”, we are referring to finding life-long friends like Paul and Teresa as they start their new lives after college.  As cool as it was to play at Northern Bay and its replica holes again, it was much cooler to hook up again with my good buddy Paul and reminisce about family and the great times we’ve had together.  And even if I’m able to better Paul at golf this day, he’ll have the major advantage over me with his 3 grand kids living close to him in MPLS, while my little 3 are all on the west coast.  So jealous.

Matt and Paul by the scenic 17th at Sawgrass replica

Considering there was a threat of rain and highs only reaching 48, it was amazing that Paul invested in a 3.5 hour drive from MPLS and I took on a 3 hour drive from Port Washington.  I couldn’t convince my other MKE-based homies on joining us on this replica mission with these conditions, but it didn’t faze Paul a bit.   And like me, he really understands how special these buddy get-togethers are.  We lucked out with no rain and the 48 degree temp with 13 mph winds was very tolerable with just an extra layer or two thrown on.  I’m use to winter golf so this was still “balmy” to me.  We got a good fall deal of $55 for the round, but we did have to put up with aerated greens, one of the major downers of late fall golf.  Oh, and there was a Packer-Viking game on during our round - which made our little MN-WI golf matchup all that more interesting.  Given the big football game and the weather conditions, the course was wide open and we were in heaven.   The plan was to check the game at the turn and then dash thru the back to catch the exciting end.  Heaven.

Replica sign for Augusta #16

The Castle Course has the following replica holes – The13th and 16th at Augusta National, the 5th at Oakland Hills, the 16th at Firestone, the 17th at TPC at Sawgrass, the 18th at Bayhill, and finally the 3rd at Oakmont.  My favorites were the par 3 17th at Sawgrass, the par 5 13th at Augusta, and the par 3 16th at Augusta.  I pared both of these par 3s but doubled the 13th at Augusta when I hooked my drive into the junk at the dogleg.  These replica holes are so enjoyable to play and are pretty accurate looking.  The Sawgrass 17th has the epic island green, the Augusta 13th has the stone bridges and creek fronting the green, and the 16th has the sloped green that Tiger “mastered” with his miracle chip to help him win his 4th green jacket.  This is an amazing golf experience and I look forward to catching the pros play the real holes on tour in the coming years.   I really need to make this a special annual tradition with Paul and my other golf buddies, possibly within a charity scramble context.  And maybe surrounded by a lake house or condo vacation to make the long drive more attractive for those who are not sold by just the pure golf experience.  

Par 3 Augusta #16 bordered by resort condos

Along with this epic golf experience, it was great listening to Paul talk about the fun 100 Hole Challenge golf charity he participated in MPLS in Sept. for the Robbinsdale Women’s Center.   I couldn’t join Paul this year because of my 52 in 52 golf journey, but I hope to join him next year for it.  Not sure though if my back is going to hold up playing speed golf for 10+ hours.   Paul also participated in the Twins fantasy camp last January in Ft. Myers and he shared a few great stories about playing with Twins greats Kent Hrbek and Jack Morris among others.  Again, more jealousy on the Paul front.  A monster bucket list item for me is to attend a St. Louis Cardinals fantasy camp one of these days.   I seriously have to think about inviting Paul to our family spring training trip in March.  He’s got that baseball/golf combo working which is a perfect fit for that trip.  He just needs a little work on his drinking game.

We both played bogey golf on the front, with very few flashes of brilliance.  We can both hit decent drives, short chips, and putts for most of the time.  But sticking 50-150 yard approach shots to provide birdie opportunities seems to be getting harder and harder as we age.  We jumped into the clubhouse at the turn to grab a hot dog and check on the Packer game, only to find out that King Rodgers had gone down with a broken collarbone.  Good that I didn’t waste 3+ hours today watching the start of the slow death of the Packer season.  Playing beats watching every time.

Augusta #13 with classic pebble bridge

The back nine was more of the same with mostly bogey scores.  I’m losing control with my new driver on the back sides of rounds as my body and focus tire.  I guess my old TaylorMade SLDR driver was more forgiving with my aging.  So when my putting finally comes around then my drives start going south.  Golf is so challenging trying to get all facets working well at the same time – and for most of a round.    I was surprisingly able to correct my drives on the last couple of holes by focusing more thru the end of my swing.  But controlling this driver is going to be a work-in-progress and it doesn’t look good to break 80 by year-end while trying to break in a new driver.   I also avoided pulling out my dreaded lob wedge for non-sand shots so that probably saved me a few shank strokes.  I REALLY need to master my lob wedge one of these years.  But that’s not going to happen this year as I can’t let it get in the way of trying to break 80.  So dad’s good old cheapie wedge is limited to bunker shots for now.  At least dear old dad is still in the game.

Bayhill #18 approach shot over the lake - clubhouse to the left

Final Score:  89 (44,45) 0 birdies, 6 pars, 3 lost balls.   Wow, this was a great time with a great friend on a great course!   I was impressed by how good of shape the course was in for this late in the year.  The fairways and greens were still plush and we didn’t encounter any dreaded leaf ponds one typically finds in fall golf.  This is a must play for everyone in WI anytime of the year, but especially at $55 in the fall.  And I loved, loved, loved reconnecting with my buddy Paul back around the lake setting where our families vacationed together before.  It’s sad that a divorce not only breaks up a couple, but it also impacts friendships with other close couples.  I had lost my connection with Paul and Teresa and their family after my divorce 4 years back and I wasn’t sure how or when it was going to come back.  Thanks to this little game of golf for helping me start to find my “Kratoska” again…

[golfwi52]

Round 41 – Classic Links

The Golf Courses of Lawsonia, Green Lake, WI, 54941 Par 72, White Tees, 6,494 yards, 71.5 rating / 128 slope, $55 riding Sunday, October 8th, 2017, 11:45am, 70-75 degrees, 10-15 mph winds, sunny

Even though The Golf Courses at Lawsonia was a hefty hour and 45 minute drive from Port Washington, I was excited to finally try out this premium course that was always mentioned as a must-play in my golf journey.    I’m in the premium course zone portion of my golf journey now and I will gladly trade long drives for discounted rates at these fine courses.  I chose the Links 18 today as the clubhouse pros recommended it as more driver friendly and therefore I thought it gave me a better chance to break 80.  My work and golf buddy Steve highly recommends the contrasting Woodlands 18 so I am anxious to get back here in early 2018 and play that up and down, wooded track.  But after the snow melts.

Aerial view of Green Lake and The Golf Courses at Lawsonia

The course website notes “Lawsonia’s historic Scottish-links-inspired course is a marvel even before you consider it was built with 1920’s-era steam shovel technology. Spectacular elevation changes water features and punishing pot-bunker sand-traps make the course much tougher than it is long. Every green is elevated, undulating and wickedly fast, especially the “boxcar” hole at #7, whose green was reputedly built around a train car filled with tar shipped to the resort for roadbuilding. Miss right and you’ll face a steep 20-foot vertical chip up to the apron. Manage to hang on, or go up and over into a menacing sand bunker on the left.”  Lawsonia has been ranked 71st "Classic" course in the nation by GolfWeek magazine, voted "Wisconsin Golf Course of the Year" in 2008, and ranked #2 best course in State "LINKS" by GOLFWEEK.  

I certainly sensed a strong history and classic golf feeling as I made my way through the clubhouse and onto the course.   I decided to just play as a single today, which was the first time I had done that since playing winter rounds.  I was interested to just focus on my golf game and not get sidetracked by new golf buddies.  I was also trying out my new TaylorMade “cheap” $230 driver that I had just picked up after breaking my old trusty SLDR driver in last week’s round.  I’m waiting until January to pick up a 2017 TaylorMade  M1 or M2 at a discount price.   Unless I need that $300-400 for regular real life stuff – like airfare to visit my kids on the west coast more often.   OK kids, I’ll see how long this cheapie driver lasts.

6th fairway with huge fairway pot bunker, 2-level green

So the Links course was in great shape and it played really wide open, a lot like The Broadlands and Washington County.  The fairways were wide and the normally tall grass in the rough was cut very short.   I never really got into any trouble with my drives, which normally really helps my scoring.  My new driver still gave me 230-250 yard drives and was fairly accurate.  I started to hook my drives on the back nine so I’ve got to get a better feel for this new club and adjust for that in future rounds.    The Links greens were fairly soft and not screaming fast but they were big and undulating.   I ended up 3-putting the first two holes and two more on the back.    It’s so hard to putt well on big and varied greens that you’re playing for the first time.    And when you’re not a very good putter to begin with.

Huge, rolling green on the 6th - somehow I 2-putted from 50 ft.

My biggest challenge though was my dad’s trusty lob wedge which has been failing, and in a very ugly way, for me for the past couple of rounds.  It’s interesting how one can lose complete confidence in a particular club and then struggle for weeks or months to regain that confidence.  Such a mental game – an aspect I love but one that also drives me mental.   Vicious circle.  My lob wedge cost me at least 4 strokes today with either scolding or chunking shots.   The lob wedge is the club that requires the most precise point of contact with ball or else it typically spells disaster.  The only thing the lobbie did well for me today was get me out of a couple deep pot bunkers.   And the links course had some awesome pot bunkers – which I think I hit the 3 deepest of them.  Time to hit the driving range to get my lob wedge mojo back before the next round.  When the lob wedge works, it can produce the most beautiful shots on the course.  But when it fails, it is such a sucky, humbling experience.   I need to work more for the beautiful option.

Massive green-side bunker “lip” on the 18th. 

Final Score:  92 (43,49) 0 birdies, 5 pars, 0 lost balls, 4 three-putts.    Lawsonia was  a great experience and I will be sure to bring my golf buds back here next year to play the Woodlands course.   I think “classic” is the perfect word to describe this place.  I played much better than my previous round (97) and was fairly pleased with my play considering the toughness around the greens and breaking out a new driver.   But I’m still miles away from breaking 80 and another month of these tough premium courses on the schedule won’t help out with that goal.   The strategy is to keep playing as a single or with familiar golf buddies, hit the driving range more to correct my short game, get the premium round scores into the mid 80’s, and then insert a few easier courses in mid-November to take final shots at my sub-80 goal.   The Packers came back to defeat Dallas on this day and I think I need to channel my inner Aaron Rodgers to drive a little golfing comeback to hit my goal.  Of course I’ll probably chunk my channeling attempt and score a whopping Rodgers 12 on the first hole of my next round.  Maybe I should just take a knee…

[golfwi52]

Round 40 – Breaking Broad

Broadlands Golf Club, North Prairie, WI, 53153 Par 72, White Tees, 6,272 yards, 69.2 rating / 122 slope, $46 riding Sunday, October 1st, 2017, 1:56pm, 65 degrees, 11 mph winds, cloudy

I decided to play the often recommended Broadlands course starting mid-afternoon on Sunday as opposed to mid to late morning as is my normal schedule.   I thought I’d be a bit more awake and energized with a later start.  Wrong.   I quickly ran out of gas midway thru the front nine so it was a very long day on my way to a big fat 97.  But the Broadlands link style course was in great shape and provided very similar links style play that I got from Washington County course earlier in the year.   Considering I shot an 81 at Washington County, I’d rate Broadlands as the tougher of the two courses.  But very similar scenic and entertaining layouts.  Just stay out of the freaking tall grass.

Greg and Ben

I hooked up with another father and son twosome, this time Greg and Ben from nearby Delafield.  Ben is a freshman on the golf team at Kettle Moraine and Greg is an insurance claims adjuster.  Ben reminded me of a smaller version of my golfing nephew AJ.  I felt good that I could still out drive a little high school freshmen, but it wasn’t by much.   Ben shot a 41 on the front, losing a couple of errant drives to the ponds or tall grass.  Greg was around my skill level, shooting a 45 on the front.  These guys were great to golf with as they knew the course inside and out and were genuinely nice people.  Again, that’s what I love about Wisconsin golf.

Narrow fairway on the second hole

I tried to fix my poor approach shot accuracy by greatly slowing down my backswing.  But that radical change backfired and led me to hook and lose many approach shots into the tall grass.  Nothing like being 150 yards from the pin and then hooking/losing the approach shot into the awfully tall grass and scrambling for a double.   Slowing down a backswing is ok as long as you don’t overdue it and mess up your normal shot rhythm.  

I had been putting much better in recent rounds, but today I lost my feel for the flat stick.  On the front nine, I hit 3 holes in a row in regulation, but then 3-putted each of them.   I had five 3-putts for the day.    I finally got the good putter feeling back on the final two holes, but way too little too late.  Argh.   3 foot putts shouldn’t be this hard.  Just don’t take the putter back too far and keep a nice smooth pendulum rhythm.   Sounds easy.

Great par 5 13th hole dogleg.  Last drive for my SLDR.

My trusty Taylor Made SLDR driver was holding up its end for most of the round.   I hit 9 of my first 10 drives in the fairway which is a huge achievement for me.  My 10th drive, on the par five 13th hole, was a booming 298 yarder that nicely cut the sharp dogleg and left me with a long 4 iron to the green.    But then as I drove my cart away from the tee box I heard my bag crash hard to the asphalt path.  I spun the cart around to find my beloved SLDR driver in two pieces on the ground, the shaft having busted off a few inches from the club head.   Lovely.  I thought I was continually checking on the cart bag strap, but maybe not. I attempted to drive the final couple holes with my 3-wood, but that was a disaster.  I struggle with hooking my 3-wood on the fairway and teeing it up just magnifies that issue.   So now all facets of my game were in trouble.   Long day.

Where’s my duct tape?

Final Score:  97 (46,51) 3 pars.  5 lost balls.    The good news was that I avoided any single bogeys on the back nine.  The bad news was that I had 7 doubles+ on the back to go along with 2 measly pars.  This was simply a rough, never ending day.  I fear that my body and mind may be running out of gas for golfing this year.  I hope not.  Maybe a brand spanking new driver will re-energize this old man.  Unfortunately I think the new equipment I need is not the kind of stuff I keep in my bag…

[golfwi52]

Q3 Report – Joining Aleve and Bengay Twosome

I am now officially at the 75% mark of my 52 different courses in 52 weeks golf journey in Wisconsin.  I was hoping to have improved significantly in Q3 and finally break 80 for a round.  But at my age I guess I’m lucky to just still be in the running to complete this journey.  As my approach game and physical injuries seem to be trending negatively, I really don’t know if I should rest my tired body more or hit the range more in-between rounds.   Hmm, resting sounds cheaper and less time consuming.  

Here are the increasingly less interesting quarterly stats:

The great news in Q3 was that I was able to play 10 new courses, many of them very scenic, entertaining, and challenging tracks.   I loved finally taking on The Bull and the hidden gem Autumn Ridge course - which I saw as a mini-Bull at a really great price.    Whispering Springs and Deertrak were also favorites of mine and familiar Grand Geneva was great to play again in the Fisher House charity scramble.   I fudged a few golden opportunities to break 80 at easier Peninsula and Oak Ridge courses.  It now looks very bleak for meeting this goal as I head into Q4 looking to play mostly premium courses, like Blackwolf Run and Whistling Straits, followed by winter rules golf.    But there’s still a Jim Carrey Dumb and Dumber kind of chance.   As long as my Aleve and Bengay buddies hold out.  

Q3 Rounds mapped alongside earlier rounds

Goals for Q4:

Include Blackwolf, Whistling, Lawsonia, University Ridge, Erin Hills.  The big boys – at reduced rates.

Break 80 and/or don’t break any body parts.

Complete the mission

[golfwi52]

Round 39 – RIP Jimmy

Horicon Hills Golf Club, Horicon, WI 53032 Par 70, White Tees, 5,966 yards, 69.3 rating / 125 slope, $36 riding Sunday, September 24th, 2017, 9:30am, 85 degrees, 10 mph winds, sunny

I only have 14 rounds left in my 52 course in 52 weeks in Wisconsin journey and only about 7 of these will be in warm enough weather to give me a decent chance at breaking 80, my big goal for the year.  And I still have some premium courses on my short warm weather list and those are almost impossible to break 80 on.  So enter little Horicon Hills Golf Club for round 39, a great opportunity for me as it’s only a par 70 course and relatively short.   Horicon Hills is around an hour northwest of Milwaukee and is nicely partnered with West Bend Lakes and Camelot, two brother courses I’ve played earlier in the year.   Horicon turned out to be a very pleasant surprise from a scenic perspective with its back nine cozied up along the big Rock River, the same river I grew up around in Rockford, Ill.   Unfortunately Horicon also threw out a surprise per being an easy track to play.  Argh.

My blind dates for this round turned out to be three family in-law gents, Cary from Menomonee Falls, Rod from Madison, and Jeff from Appleton.   These guys were also playing Horicon for the first time ever so I wouldn’t be benefiting today from their local course knowledge.   Jeff golfed weekly so he was the better of the three, but we were all around the same skill level.   A par 70 course combined with decent low-pressure fellow golfers seemed like a good combo for finally breaking 80.  Not quite the whacky guys who were going to give me good golf stories for the blog, but very friendly Wisconsinites who were very enjoyable to play with – like I‘ve been fortunate to encounter on a very regular basis.  

Cary, Rod, and Jeff - family in-laws

I started out the first two holes driving into the left woods, but managed to hit great approach shots to the greens and save par on both.  I bogeyed the next 2 holes to start 2 over after 4 – very on target for breaking 80 on the day.  And then the fifth hole happened.  It’s a straight 422 yard par 4, the longest par 4 on the course.  I crushed a 290 yard drive right down the middle and was setup for a nice little 130 yard approach shot with my very trusty pitching wedge.    After waiting for the group ahead of us to leave the green and for my partners to hit their much longer approach shots, I managed to push my trusty wedge shot far right of the green and onto the 6th hole tee box.  Still pin high, but around 20 yards from the hole.  I never push my PW.  Lovely.

Fortunately I landed on the ladies tee area and not the white tees where the group ahead of us were still driving from.  After weakly apologizing to them and waiting for them to tee off, I took out my lob wedge to get me over the cart path and back to the green.   This was my dad’s old lob wedge which I took from his bag after he passed away 4+ years ago.  For some reason I never had a lob wedge before.  The lob wedge is an awfully tough club to master and I’ve slowly been gaining confidence with it over the years, especially recently with 40+ yard shots.   I’ve been working on a shorter back swing and opening the clubface to get more control and even more loft on it. The problem is if you strike the ball too high (i.e. scold it) the ball may fly 2 to 3 times farther than intended and really mess up the hole.    Guess what happened here?    Yep, I rushed my shot probably due to embarrassment from being on the next tee box and scolded the ball over the green and just into the high weeds on the other side.   Such a mental game.

Packer Sunday - golf then football.  #LTD 

So my ball was only back in the tall weeds a few inches, but not a very easy lie with the weeds hovering all around it.  I decided to hit my more trusty approach wedge and give my failed lob wedge a little break.  Last thing I wanted to do was pop my ball out only a few feet with my lob wedge.   The guys were all on the green and scratching their heads while I was scrambling around the perimeter.  Hang on fellas, I’m almost there. I hit my approach wedge firm, like I was almost hitting out of a sand trap, and of course I got less resistance from the weeds than expected and I popped it back over the green.  Back between the cart path and the next tee box.  Yeah, that was impressive.  Now I’m sitting 4 and not on the green yet.   I said “hi” to my new buddies as I walked past them on the green – again.    

So I decided to give my dad’s lob wedge another shot and still had visions of getting up and down to save an ugly double bogey – and still be just 4 over for the round and keeping my “dream” alive.  Of course with the fear of scolding my lob wedge again, I hit way the ground way too far under my ball and popped it just a few feet onto the cart path ahead of me.  OK, now this was getting absolutely ridiculous.   I hurried along and quickly moved my ball to the grass right in front of the cart path, a clear rules violation, and quickly hit my lob wedge again.  And again I got under it too much and popped it up, still short of the green.  One more quick lob wedge hack and I was finally on the green in 7.  My 8 foot quadruple bogey putt was just off by an inch and my new best buds chuckled me a gimme.   Score a big fat quintuple bogey 9.    I felt so lonely.

Thinking of father Jim on the spooky 5th

Usually my “break 80” dream dies around the turn, but today it died an early and magnificent death on the 5th.   On my painful walk to the 6th tee I noticed an out-of-place headstone on the cart path circle in front of the tee box.  The headstone inscription read “RIP Jimmy”.  Of course my dad’s name was Jim, it was his lob wedge I was using, he died on April 6th and this tombstone headed the 6th tee, and there is a history of him “impacting” me on the golf course from above – see my first posts.   So that was a bit spooky.   He still must be unhappy with my eulogy speech.  I really can’t blame him.   I deserve this.

Clubhouse deck view of 9th green and Rock River

So outside of the spooky fifth, it was a fairly uneventful round.   The course was very enjoyable, especially the scenic back nine along the Rock River.   The par 3 13th was a very cool shot from an elevated tee to a pond and bunker protected green.  Of course I butchered my 8 iron drive halfway down the hill and it bounced on the hard, dry fairway all the way to the green giving me a 10 foot birdie putt – which I missed.   Fair is fair.  The par 4 15th was absolutely the best hole on the course.  A big pond protected the dogleg and a very narrow fairway with a tough short landing area made this an awesome risk/reward hole.  Either drive deep over the water to a short fairway and risk the water and the junk on the other side of the fairway – or play short to the landing area and still have a 200+ yard approach shot.  I opted for the long drive and dunked a hooking drive into the water.  I then smacked my redo drive far over the water and across the fairway, ending up just a few feet from unplayable brush area.  I did hit the green and 2-putted for a double - which would have had been a par if I didn’t hit my first in the water.  Too many “ifs’ In my game.   But it was one of my favorite holes of the year.  

Jeff measures fun par 3 13th

Final Score:  90 (49,41)  1 birdie, 5 pars.  2 lost balls.   If I don’t break 80 this year, this will be the round (and the hole) that really did me in.   The weather, course, and partner conditions were ideal and I wasted the opportunity.  My driving and putting games are coming along but I’ve really lost my approach shot accuracy and my scrambling short game is not good enough to cover this gap.   Jeff, Cary, and Rod shot 89, 91, and 100 respectively and were fun to play with.  It was also nice to be reminded of my dad again and our times on the golf course.  I just wish his memory came up in a more positive way during my rounds – and not in concussions and quintuple bogey contexts.  Maybe I’ll break 80 by holing out his lob wedge from 50 yards out on the 18th at Whistling Straits.  Now that would be a much better father-son golf story…

[golfwi52]

Round 38 – APBA 3 For 4

Oak Ridge Golf Course, Milton, WI 53563 Par 70, Blue Tees, 5,949 yards, 68.3 rating / 112 slope, $36 riding Sunday, September 17th, 2017, 10:00am, 73 degrees, 11 mph winds, cloudy

My early years of high school in little Rockford, Illinois weren’t too exciting so I hooked up with my cousin Mark, my best friend Jeff, and pink jeep-driving Schnork, to form a little APBA league around 1972.  APBA is a baseball board/card game that is similar to the popular Strat-o-matic game and it can be very addictive if you were baseball stats hound like all of us were.   And stupid shy of girls.  So flash ahead some 43 years and it’s time to get the board game geeks back together for a round of Wisconsin golf and reminisce about the good old APBA days.   Golf is a great venue for old guy reunions.  We get to complain about our physical ailments, wives, jobs, and sports teams while having a few beers, smoking cigars, over tipping cart girls, and whacking a stupid little white ball around the park.  Not quite heaven, but just on the fringe.

So we chose Oak Ridge golf course in little Milton, WI because it was relatively close to Jeff (a FIP from DeKalb, Il.), was inexpensive, and looked damn easy – which gave me a decent shot at breaking 80.   Hey, the year is winding down and I need to reach my goal.   But it would be without Schnork.  As a renown Just-In-Time planner, tracking down someone I haven’t seen in the last 30 years in just a few days was doomed to fail.  But I did find out via the web that Schnork now lives in Byron, Il. and was away on a business trip to D.C. this week.   Of course there was no pink jeep match and that info could have been from years ago – so the Schnork mystery may last for another 30 years.   Jeff popped up from DeKalb, Il., even after hearing that his father has passed away in Florida earlier in the week.  Same time around when Irma hit but his death was deemed natural and unrelated to the storm. Jeff’s mother also passed in the last 6 months so it’s been a rough year for Jeff.   He definitely needed APBA buddy time.  Cousin Mark popped over from Wauwatosa and I came up from Rockford after enjoying a wonderful dinner the night before with my dear mum.  Getting 3 out of 4 original APBA league guys to show wasn’t bad.  That’s like rolling a 33 on an APBA card, getting a 0, and then rolling a 22 to get a 6 on the second column – translating into a double!  Sorry, that’s APBA lingo.

Matt, Jeff, and Mark

At the quaint little Oak Ridge clubhouse and bar I was amazed to find out that they didn’t have any cigars AND that Mark and Jeff hadn’t seen one another for 34 years – not since my wedding.  Wow, it was really great to get them back together again.  Now that’s like rolling double sixes and getting a “1” for a home run (APBA).  This was going to be fun.  Especially when Mark loads up a cart cooler with Miller Lite and Budweiser.   Mark’s a Brewer fan and I’m a Cardinals fan and we were backing our breweries during this exciting pennant race.  Ignore the fact that my Cards were about to get swept in Chicago today to virtually end their season.  It was still exciting that the Crew were in it.  And the Cards still had a slim chance of sneaking into the second wildcard spot.  But they’d need to roll snake eyes (APBA)!    Anyways, I was going to really push myself today by trying to break 80 while keeping up with downing beers with Mark.   I’m not sure those odds are even possible in APBA but it will be fun trying.  And did I mention that I was up from 11pm-2am last night manning an IT install from my mom’s couch?  And I was wearing a knee and back brace today after playing soccer and softball during the week.  Hey, life is short.  If I waited to be healthy and rested, I’d never do anything.

One more quick note about Mark’s drinking abilities.  Mark and I went on an epic family boys spring training trip a few years back to Florida.  After a heavy final night of drinking with Mark, my son Ray, and my nephew Casey, we were sitting at the airport waiting to return home.  My son Ray takes out his company’s new personal breathalyzer device and everyone blows into it to verify that they are now completely sober – like a clean 0.00 reading.  Except for Mark.  He blows a 0.12 reading showing he’s still legally intoxicated the day after.  We suspect he ditched us in the airport for a few minutes to hit the airport lounge, but probably not.  Anyways, he’s legendary with the young family guys per the drinking – and his advice on women.  But that’s for another blog.  I love Mark.  He’s like a grade ‘9’ shortstop with 3 ones on his card (APBA).    Oh, and Mark wore swim trunks at his daughters wedding reception this summer.  Make that 4 ones on his card (APBA).

Ok, so let’s play some golf.  Oak Ridge is a pretty basic course with forgiving fairways, few bunkers, and flat greens.  Not quite as scenic and interesting as the courses I’ve been playing north of Milwaukee, but still very enjoyable – and a great place to break 80.  This course reminded me of the Rockford city courses that us guys played together as kids – so it was very appropriate for today’s round.   Not surprisingly Jeff played his usual steady, boring round – he’s a sports playing machine.  Very good softball pitcher, basketball guard, golfer, etc.   In golf he doesn’t hit the ball real long, but it’s usually on target.  Jeff finished the last two holes with monster putts to card an 84 (42,42), which he was really happy with given that he hasn’t played much this summer.  Mark shot in the nineties, but was very happy with his rusty game that today produced some nice birdie opps.  Mark was pumped up by his play as he prepped for his annual Tosa neighborhood scramble.   Gotta love Tosa.  Tosa probably has the most APBA players in metro Milwaukee area.  That would be Mark.

Mark executing nice approach shot on the 14th

So I shot a disappointing 42 on the front, finishing with painful double bogeys on both 8 and 9.  Yeah, it was the beer talking on the green.  4 beers over 4 hours of golf shouldn’t have much of an impact, but I think it did shankify my putting a bit. I ended up with five 3-putts for the day – that’s awful, even for me.  I did finish with a decent 40 on the back nine, playing the final 5 holes at par.   So my overall score was an 82, 3 lousy putts from my goal.  So close.  I did record my longest drive of the year at 318 yards on the par 5 eleventh, thanks to a decent tail wind and downhill fairway.   Still only led to a par but it’s nice to crank 300 yard drives from time to time – at my old age.  It’s like rolling a 33 on the old Dave Kingman card and getting a “1” for a dinger (APBA).

I was also able to finally try out my oversized torch cigar lighter that I’ve had forever, but never dragged out on a course before.  No more struggles with lighting cigars on windy courses using matches and tiny Bic lighters.  No more relying on Lauren, my literally smoking hot partner, to save my arse and get my cigar going for me.  So I torched up a cigar that Mark kindly gave to me at the start and I thoroughly enjoyed it thru the round – and only had to re-torch it twice.  Like the beers, it didn’t help me break 80, but it did help me enjoy not breaking 80.  That’s like rolling a 13 and getting a “21” which meant reached first on error (APBA).

Cigars beware!

Final Score:  82 (42,40)  2 birdies, 7 pars.  0 lost balls.   The real joy of this round was not the golf but reuniting with my high school APBA buddies and reminiscing about old times.   We hit Lucy's Hideaway, a great little bar just a few miles north of the course, to break out Mark’s old APBA set of cards and chat a while before heading back to our regular lives.   We shuffled thru Mark’s cards and amazingly remembered details about individual cards.  It’s crazy how I can’t remember what I ate for lunch yesterday, but I can remember how many 11’s (single and stolen base) Lou Brock’s ’72 APBA card had.    We all agreed that we had to do an APBA convention road trip one of these years.  But first I need to get Jeff and Mark to join my family guys on our spring training trip to Florida in March, which includes attending the Bay Hill PGA event and playing a few rounds of premium golf.   Man, what’s better than a baseball and golf vacation?    Hmm, maybe helping to get childhood friends back together again after 34 years…

Go Cards!