Tag: golf

Fore!

Monte introduced me to golf.   He started me off with my first golf clubs.   He chose a nice ladies’ club line with custom fitting from Golfsmith, the Snake Eyes Viper LS with graphite shafts, and suggested I only get a few to start and add the rest over time, as I improved.   So, I started with an 8 iron, pitching wedge and putter, which was enough to get me out on the course to learn the game and how to swing.  After a few years, I added a 6 iron, for a little more distance, and a sand wedge, for those darn sand traps.  A few years later, I added a 5 wood.  I can now say that I enjoy golf, and love the clubs I have.  But, when I went back to Golfsmith a couple of years ago to add my next club, I was very disappointed to hear that they had discontinued their line of custom made club heads/shafts!   Since then, I’ve just kept playing with my incomplete set.

Now that I’m retired, though, I’m ready to take my golf game a tad more seriously; i.e., golf more than once or twice a year, and fill out my set of clubs.   I didn’t really want to dump a grand on a completely unknown new set, brand, fit, flex and performance.   But with my Snake Eyes discontinued, I thought I was out of options.   On a whim,  I decided to check out eBay, and am so glad I did.   I found lightly used clubs identical to mine from various sellers and was able to fill out my set!   The sellers were very responsive via email to give me measurements so I could see if the length would be right.  I’m still waiting for the 7W/4I hybrid to arrive, but the rest of them were delivered yesterday.   I trotted out to the driving range today to try them out.   After emptying a big bucket of balls, I was thrilled that I could hit them as solid as my existing clubs.   I’m certainly not ready for the pro tour, but I am excited that I now have a set of clubs to play with that will help me take my game to the next level.  Woot woot!

Thanks eBay!

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Playing through.

Fran and I enjoyed playing a round of golf this evening.   Awesome!

This family of ducks wandered through one of the holes.

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And we caught a glimpse of Mount Rainier looking back from the tee at 18.

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It was a beautiful day for golf among the Christmas trees.

Walking 9 (well, 14 really).

At the beginning of the year, I had scheduled today as an extra day off after the long weekend. Bonus! I relaxed, swam laps at the gym, and then this evening monte and I zipped over to the newly renovated Morris Williams golf course for the sunset rate. We usually can only squeeze in 9 holes before sunset. But we made good time today and finished 14. The golf course looks really great and there is a fabulous new clubhouse.
This is a shot from the 15th green looking west right before sunset. You can see the old Robert Muller airport control tower still standing in the distance.

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And this is a shot of the new clubhouse as we were heading in.

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Back to work tomorrow. Yay 3 day week!

Just playin’ a round.

Looking back at the 17th hole (I think).

We made a trip down to southeast Austin to run an errand or two this morning.  Since we were heading down there, we planned to play a round of golf at Jimmy Clay Golf Course.  So, we loaded our clubs into the car on our way out.

We played 18 holes.  Not only has it been a while since we played golf together.  It’s been a very long time since we played 18.  We usually play a twilight 9 holes after work.  But we got there early enough today to hit the range, the chipping and putting greens, and then play a full round.  We even got a cart today… a treat… as we usually walk it.

It was a nice day – sunny with highs in the 70’s.  I wasn’t quick enough to get a photo, but when we got there, we found a big flock of Monk parakeets (aka Quaker parrots) in residence at the golf course.   They were noisily greeting golfers from the oak trees around the clubhouse.  When we finished our round, they had gone – they must have returned to their nest for the evening.

A nice day.

Hmmm.  What’s wrong with this picture?  🙂

Fore!

Mo’ Willy.

Number 6.

Today we walked 9 holes at Morris-Williams Golf Course.  I’ve been looking forward to golfing with my sweetie since vacation started.  The rain put a damper on that for a bit, but today was beautiful with temps in the 60’s.

This is a shot of the Number 6 hole, taken from the Number 5 green.   The rain we’ve had the last few weeks have greened things up a bit.  You can just barely see the UT Tower – the one building visible on the horizon.

I really enjoy Morris-Williams.  I am still quite the novice golfer, but this is the course that I know best – by far.   The tee-to-green distance of the first 9 holes is about a mile and a half.  So I figure we walked 2 or so miles.  Though the way I hit today, it might have been more like 3-4 miles.   🙂   And, on this course, every hole seems to be uphill.   But no matter, it was really nice to be out there.

I did not lose any balls in the out of bounds or in the water hazards.  I did, however, hit several trees that popped out of nowhere.   Oh well.   Maybe one of my New Year’s resolutions will be to play at least once a quarter in 2012.  We’ll see….

 

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