My second league I am involved in the year started this week. Consisting of 16 players, this is the inaugural year of the Professional Hackers Association Tour, or PHAT.
We started off the year at The Meadows at Mystic Lake. Because of league play on the course we started earlier than normal, at 2pm. I manage to get into work early and was able to leave in time to make the 50 minute drive down to Shakopee.
This was only my second time playing the
Meadows. The only previous time, I played with my dad on fathers day in 2011.
We played from the blue tees, which are 6668 yards.
Because of rains, golf carts were not allowed off the cart paths which was a real drag. Today was forecasted to be stormy, but when things started out it was nice. There was even a little sun peaking out while we warmed up at the range.
Jeff teeing off on the 1st while Brad and Todd watch with envy.
A shot of the lush and soon to be soggy first hole from the tee.
The green on the uphill par 3 second hole. This is a tough hole at 195 yards, which was into the wind. That is my ball on the left on the fringe. You would think that an up and down was likely, but with a terrible chip and 2 putts I was on my way with a bogey.
A look back up the third hole from behind the green. The green is an island. Jason Simek hit a great shot in here. His ball is to the left of the pin. He went on to make bird.
The uphill short par 4 fourth hole. At only 308 yards it is tempting to try driver but all kinds of trouble awaits by the green. On this tee the rains finally came.
On the 5th hole the lightning started and the siren blew to get us off the course. Unfortunately with the carts being path only, the GPS enabled carts wouldn't let us cut across the one hole we needed to get back to the clubhouse from the 5th hole. Instead we had to drive around on the paths down hole 11 and back along hole 10. Not cool when you can see ground strikes by lightning all around.
We had an hour storm delay while the brunt of the storm came through. That was fine, as we all went inside and had a couple of drinks and I got a chance to each some lunch.
After the weather delay we went back out to the 5th hole where we had marked our balls. You can see that the soaked course got even more water logged with standing water in the bunkers. You can see Jason going to look for his ball in the gully that runs down the left side of the 5th hole.
I hit a great shot from 170 yards out onto the 5th green, shown here. My ball is just short of the stick. I went on to make my first par of the day. Maybe the weather delay was a good thing?
Onto the 6th hole, the par 5 "Bear". hence the cool statue to the left of the tee. You can see the 5th green and the casino's hotel in the background. The Round green building is the pro shop and restaurant.
Todd tees of on the 6th in the group ahead. Brad puts the body english on for Todd's ball.
A view of the landing area on the 6th tee. A pretty waterfall and another bear statue gaurd the right side on long approaches to the green.
If you play safe to the left on your second shot, this is the shot you face on your third into the green. Jeff Heil hit a booming 240 yard second shot onto the green from the group behind while we were putting. He drove up sheepishly to apologize to us, at which time we put a hex on his ball and he missed his eagle.
The pretty par 3 7th hole. Too bad the Dakotah Ice arena takes a little of the ambiance away with it looming in the background.
Jason hitting from the sand on the 7th. He hit a great shot and saved par.
A view of the 9th hole's fairway. We played this hole last as we had to switch to the back 9 when the Meadows' league started.
A view of the ninth hole's green.
More great sculpture work on the course. This one is one the 10th hole, "Meadow".
A view of the tee shot on 10.
And the approach in towards the 10th green.
Dan Magunson sizes up his approach into 10.
Yeah!, I finally hit a tight shot into the 10th. Too bad it was too save par.
The 11th green.
Dan teeing off on the par 4 13th.
And a view into the downhill par 3 14th.
The tee shot on 15. Lots of sand to contend with in the landing area.
A look back down the 15th.
And the rains came back. A sudden downpour coincided with us being conveniently located by the shelter between the 15th and 16th holes.
A view of the very wet 16th par 3. We waited out the rain a while and once it let up a little went back out to finish.
The tee shot on 18 must carry the marsh and avoid the waiting bunker right.
Bill hitting his third shot.
And Jason hits his third. I had hit another shot into the green within 5 feet. I hit the putt was on line but the wet greens were too slow and I left it one roll short for of a birdie. That would have been my only bird and good enough for a skin on the hole. Ugh!
A view of the 18th green taken over by the practice area, earlier in the day.
Here are the final standings for the first event. Net score in parenthesis.
1 Jason Simek 81 (70)
2 Jeff Heil 82 (73)
T3 Brad Opsahl 84 (76)
T3 Todd Heil 89 (76)
T5 Kris Halsrud (86) 78
T5 Dan Magnuson 88 (78)
T7 Bill Starken 86 (79)
T7 Jeff Jiovanazzo 86 (79)
T7 Nick Smith 91 (79)
10 Ryan Winterquist 86 (81)
T11 Chad Meschke 88 (83)
T11 Jim Crowley 91 (83)
13 Michael Vigen 111 (18)
14 Matt Oelschlager 110 (94)
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