Last Saturday I was asked to participate in a four man scramble tournament to benefit my niece and nephew's school. The tournament was held in Farmington, south of the Twin Cities at Southern Hills.
I have played Southern Hills one other time, which was two years ago in late fall. The only thing I really remember about the course was the aerated greens that made putting a task.
The Ramlynn Open has been held for over a decade and the winners are engraved on the cup. This year our Team was my brother-in-laws Jeremy and Dave, and Dave's dad. Despite surprising people last year with a 6th place finish, Dave's team this year was predicted to finish second to last.
The school really does a nice job and gets some great prizes donated. This year there were lots of tickets for Twins, Vikings, Gopher Football, and Hockey. There were also some rounds of golf and hockey equipment.
The night before the event we got heavy rains. In the Shakopee area they got close to 6 inches overnight. While driving to the tournament I heard on the radio that The Meadows at Mystic Lake, and Bent Creek in Eden Prairie were both closed due to flooding. Southern Hills was actually fairly dry, all things considered. We were able to take out carts and not stick to the paths, but there were some areas of standing water, like this puddle right by the ninth green. Because of the wet conditions the local rule allowed for complete relieve from bunkers, since most of them had severe wash-outs or were flooded. With the scramble format that never came into play but Jeremy and I both lost a ball when they went into a greenside bunker holding several feet of water.
We started on hole 7, a tight 363 yard par 4. The fairway slopes go the left and is only around 20 yards wide. We all hit good drives but all missed the tiny fairway. here Larry tees off first. he hit first all day and put a safe ball in play on almost every hole letting the three of us hit away. We failed to hit the green in 2 and settled for an opening par.
The second hole is a tough 196 yard par 3 with the pin in the very back, uphill, and into the wind. Dave hit what looked to be a good shot that turned out to be 20 yards short of the green. I hit a 4 hybrid to the collar that we ended up using. We failed to get up and down and suffered a devastating bogey. Not good in a 4 ball scramble!!
Here you can see the typical state of the bunkers, the ones that weren't submerged.
Jeremy tees off on the short Par 5 ninth hole. At only 462 yards a reachable green. Jeremy hit his a bit thin but I connected with a solid tee ball and we had 150 yards in.
A view into the green from our approach. Jeremy hit a nice close shot which we failed to convert on, but we made a tap in birdie.
Hole 11 is the prettiest on the course, a down hill par 3. At 155 yards you need to be precise and factor in the wind. Two bunkers protect the front of the green and one bunker is behind. This shot was taken from the 9th tee box, showing the green from a side angle. The green is also bisected by a hump to make any putts from the wrong half more difficult.
Another view of the 11th, showing the farm fields in the distance.
Hole 12 is a 534yard par 5. There is no bunkering on the hole at all. A dogleg right off the tee, the green is protected in front by a hill down the right side. This makes going for it in two a blind shot to the pin. Today you can see an extra water hazard appeared short of the green, were a grass hollow is normally.
The downhill par 3 15th. At 128 yards only one of us hit the green. A stiff wind into us fooled 3 of us and we ended up hitting long into the water guarding the right and back of the hole.
The green on the 358 yard par 4 16th has water and trees guarding the right edge. We hit to the right collar of the green here. I hit a great (and lucky) chip that found the cup for birdie.
The 18th is a par 5 at 490 yards that was playing dead into the wind. I hit another good drive just down the middle, leaving us with around 220 yards into the wind. Dave hit an unbelievable 3 wood straight into the wind that landed on the front right corner of the green. Larry putted first and drained a 40 foot shot for eagle! He won the longest putt on the hole and got Vikings tickets from Whitney Wheelock's family.
Another shot showing the clubhouse behind the 18th hole. You can see again the washed out and flooded condition of the bunkers.
We ended up with a par on every par 3, except the 8th that we bogeyed.
We were 5 under on the par 5s, with an eagle and three birdies. We had an easy chance for a second eagle when I hit our second shot on the Par 5-1st hole to within 10 feet.
On the nine par 4s we shot 6 under.
Collectively that gave us a -10 score. We ended up finishing one stroke out of first place. We lost to a team with 2 members of Hazeltine. I figure not too shabby.
We shot a blistering 28 on the front nine, and that included a bogey! That was the lowest nine of any team in the tournament. Guess the predictions of Dave's team were a little bit off.
The best part of the whole thing was as my prize for coming in second I received a round of golf at Woodhill Country Club with Rama, his brother Ravi, and their father. I am so pumped for that!!!
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