Sounds like a perfect weekend for golf! Saturday morning at 7AM I played Brookview in Golden Valley. Supposedly the forecast was for rain to start the round and then a break where it would be cloudy with the rain continuing in the afternoon.
I played with my friends Chung, Kieth and Raju. True to the forecast we started off in the rain on the back 9. I was able to truly test out my rain gear for the first time. I have played golf in showers but never rain and on Saturday there was a little of both. The first 4 holes we played in "showers".
I have another great product endorsement for you - FootJoy Rainsoft gloves. Like the warm weather gloves I used earlier this year, these gloves are specially designed to play in wet conditions. The gloves worked awesome. I never felt like the clubs slipped in my hands. While the gloves are not waterproof (my hands were plenty wet) they do their job well. I will definitely use these any time there is wet weather.
After the fourth hole, the rain did let up and actually stopped for a while. It is amazing how much better one can play without the distractions of rain and all the layers you wear to keep dry. It seemed like once the rained stopped the game got much easier.
The round continued but after hole 2, our 11th, the rain started up again. This time it was true rain and not showers. After about 3 holes of downpour my shoes succumbed to the weather and I played the rest of the round walking in what felt like sponges. On hole 7 the weather horn went off. Since we had endured so much misery we all agreed to keep playing the last three holes.
This was probably a mistake. The green on hole 7 had finally become water logged and casual water prevented any chance of real putting. This same would hold true for the last two holes. On all three holes I should have been able to par each but because of the putting conditions had no luck. Since handicaps don't take inclemental weather into account I had to take a 91 for the round. I played a lot better than that score and was overall happy, especially given the circumstances.
The course itself is pretty fun to play. Most of the holes are pretty routine and straight. There are not a lot of elevation changes on the course. Playing from the back tees the course is 6387 yards. There is a fair amount of water on the course and trees will get to you if you are not straight. Also several holes feature out of bounds that is easy to get into. All in all a fairly easy course if you play it straight- but then again you can say that about most courses.
Despite the rain. the course was in good shape. The greens rolled true and normally are pretty fast. During our round they were obviously a little slower with the wet weather. On the last three holes they finally became unplayable which was too bad. The fairways were mostly in good shape. A couple of the lower lying fairways were flooded. Especially bad were holes 14 and hole 1.
The green on hole 14 looking back down the fairway. You can see how the fairway between the two ponds is flooded over.
The tee from the par 5 15th. 560 yards. A pond is in play left of the tee and a creek forces a lay-up on your second.
The 414 yard par 4 18th. A risk reward hole. Cut as much water as you think you can to make the hole shorter. The safer you play off the tee, the longer the hole will play. That is not snow on the ground, just a crab apple tree's flowers.
The month of May has been pretty crappy for golf on the weekends as it seems to be sunny all week until the weekends come. Then the rain rolls in. Hence, most of the golf this month has been a little soggy. here is to a drier June.
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