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[astavrides]

 
More pictures of Nancy please.
(Can someone photoshop Jay out of the last one and repost?)

[Andy Hughes]

Nancy's first round ever - 192 at Royal New Kent, (not counting the many, many whiffs).  Five hours and forty minutes for a twosome.

  Jay, I am not sure what it says about either you as a significant other or your sense of humor to have poor Nancy play her first round at RNK!

Updated weather--sunny and 65 degrees tomorrow afternoon.

[Chip Gaskins]

Jay you are not going to believe this but my wife looks a lot like your girlfriend....interesting (rubbing chin now).....see you tomorrow. Is my wife riding with you or me?

[Mike_Cirba]

Have fun tomorrow kids.   The weather should be spectacular and I'll be thinking about you all.

[Jay Flemma]

Pretty Close, Chip.  Mrs. Gaskins looks EVEN MORE like my friend Jeannette (pic tomorrow).

Alex, that was hysterical.

I'll provide more Nancy soon.

Andy, its funny, but when nance told her boss she was playing RNK with me, "his face fell and he asked me, 'are you sure this guy likes you?'"

192...5 hours 40...

we actually went back the next year.  We got rain on the fifth hole,  On the 7th she said, "I feel like I'm wearing a wet diaper", and that was it for the day.

[Eric Smith]

[Mike Mosely]

...and there's another Phish reference...he said "Free."

In a minute "ll be free, we'll all be splashing in the sea, you'll hear a tiny cry, as the carts go gliding by...

FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE."

I also said "Glide."

[Carl Nichols]

Sorry i missed the gathering; glad you guys got great weather. 

[Chip Gaskins]

Great time today!  Folks from Nashville, TN all the way to NYC made the trip.  The course was fantastic and company was even better.  Thanks everyone for making the effort!.

Chip

[Jay Flemma]

Everything was superb except the commute!  A tractor trailer jack-knifed on I-95 spilling noxious something or other and b;locking up BOTH ways!  What a nightmare getting there.

What a great round when we did.  Doak is right, she is better than you remember...and the company was stalwart too.

[Carl Rogers]

Scott Weersing rightly checked with Beechtree on October 12 & 13 and found out that there is a tournament then and the course is closed.

So, we have postponed our trip and will be there on the afternoon of the 19th and the 20th.  We are both open to any of you that want to join us ....

I would like to compare notes with some of you about the course, and will make an extensive comparison with Riverfront (10 minutes from my home) on this site.

[wsmorrison]

While I'm hesitant to come back to this thread due to the photographs of Flemma, and unfortunately none the golf course, now that some of you have played the course, I'll re-post my question about the 5th hole:

Would the hole play better if the left side of the 5th green fell off and was not built up?  That would reward playing along the bolder line on the left near the huge bunker at the corner allowing them to hit into the slope of the green and penalize golfers playing up the left side safely away from the corner.  From that angle, with the green sloping away from you, it is a much more difficult shot.  If the green fell off, the hole would play conceptually like the 5th at Merion East.

[Joe Bausch]

Would the hole play better if the left side of the 5th green fell off and was not built up?  That would reward playing along the bolder line on the left near the huge bunker at the corner allowing them to hit into the slope of the green and penalize golfers playing up the left side safely away from the corner.  From that angle, with the green sloping away from you, it is a much more difficult shot.  If the green fell off, the hole would play conceptually like the 5th at Merion East.

I'll take a stab at this first!  Would the hole play better that way Wayne?  I don't know, perhaps.  But I think it would certainly make it harder.  Yesterday the pin was back left and I had a short iron in from the middle of the fw.  I pulled the iron maybe about 15 feet of the stick but I was happy the left side is built up a bit as my shot hit the green near the fringe and was able to stay on the very back corner of the green.  With your desire for the hole, I would have been pitching back on my next.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Either way would play better than the way it's going to play in a few months.






Mark

[wsmorrison]

Joe,

That is exactly the way it should play when you misplay your approach with a short iron from the middle of the fairway.  Right?

Mark,

Thanks for the photos.  The photo of the tee shot and the third showing the approach clearly show what I'm talking about.  The green doesn't impact the tee shot as much as it should.  Maybe because it is a public course, Tom Doak decided against a high risk/high reward, but I think it would've been ideal here.  I hope I don't come across as too critical.  I am a huge fan of Beechtree and it is a shame that it will soon be NLE. 

[Joe Bausch]

The only photos I took yesterday were put into a couple of panoramic shots.  These are pretty darn neat if you ask me.  I've made these into Quicktime VR movies.  You need a fairly recent Quicktime plugin to view them as they are compressed with H.264.

This one was taken from near the 9th tee and shows a good amount of the front nine:

http://darwin.chem.villanova.edu/~bausch/images/Beechtree/panoramas/Beechtree_near9tee.mov

This one was taken from near the 18th green:

http://darwin.chem.villanova.edu/~bausch/images/Beechtree/panoramas/Beechtree_near18green.mov

[Dan Herrmann]

I know that the housing planned is due to a significant redeployment of civilian staff to the Aberdeen Proving Ground.  But do you think that given the state of housing that the closing of Beechtree won't happen?  It could be years before housing starts get back up to a decent level.

[Bill Brightly]

The Boys from Tennessee on the 18th tee

[Bill Brightly]

Dont hook your drive on 18...

[Bill Brightly]

That ball just has to on the green! (dedicated walker, Jay Flemma)



OK, maybe just a little short

[Bill Brightly]

Joe Bausch

[Bill Brightly]

After a little traffic delay, Chip Gaskin walk to the first tee withJay, golf shoes in hand!

[Bill Brightly]

Andy Hughes' approach shot to the 3rd green

[Mike_Cirba]

Do I see a "Stack and Tilt" disciple with that Bausch guy?  

And that Andy Hughes posed followthrough could only have been grooved on the steep sideslopes of Glenwood and Water Gap! 

[Bill Brightly]

Jerry Kluger on the par 3 4th

[Bill Brightly]

More course photos

[Bill Brightly]

Nice set up Phil Benedict!



Mike Malone

[astavrides]

Do I see a "Stack and Tilt" disciple with that Bausch guy?  

I played with him and was wondering that all day, but didn't want to ask because I thought it would be like asking him if he inhaled or exhaled while putting.

[astavrides]

Bill,

Thanks for the pictures.  I thought I was hiding my disgust well, but apparently not. :-).  Fortunately, the day in general (if not always my game) was much better than the 18th hole.

[Andy Hughes]

And that Andy Hughes posed followthrough could only have been grooved on the steep sideslopes of Glenwood and Water Gap

Mike, 25 years on, and I still can't escape my upbringing! 

A very nice day at Beechtree. I had the pleasure of playing with Jerry Kluger and Bill Brightly, some good shots and a few bad ones for the group (by good ones for the group, I technically mean Bill but Jerry and I are more than willing to ride Bill's coattails). Nice to meet some of the other guys, even if just briefly, to put a face to a name. Turns out Mike Malone really does exist and is not an alter-ego created by Wayne Morrison.

I was impressed with the course. It's clearly better than the publix I would normally play around DC.  Unfortunately, things were softer and wetter than they should have been and the course undoubtedly played differently because of it.  For example, on the third hole (where Bill has immortalized my pasty legs with a pic above), the green runs away and to the right. But approaches hit and stuck rather than landing and taking the contour.

Second example--the fifth hole approach is set up to take a low shot up the right side that scoots left and across the green (it reminds me of the 12th hole at Tobacco Road for the those who have been there). It should be a fun shot, but the ground was too soft and balls hit and stuck rather than bouncing.
Minor quibble though.

Wayne, if the 5th green fell off to the left I believe that would make the recovery from the left side easier as it would play more as a backboard.  As it is now, it is a very tricky shot to hit out of the rough over the bunker and the slightly built-up portion of the green to a left side pin like we saw Saturday.  Or am I missing your point?

My favorite holes: 3, 4 (though the approach was too soft), 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 17. Oddly, I did not do so well on many of my favorite holes.

[wsmorrison]

Andy,

I think you are missing my point.  Challenging the left side, even if you miss it in the rough yields a better angle to the green, even though it is still a difficult shot.  Playing safely away from the corner yields a ball above your feet and a shot with the slope of the green.  The raised left portion of the green makes this shot easier to hold the green.  I don't think that is a good balance on the tee shot.  It takes away the reward from the left side and rewards playing away from trouble up the right side.

[mike_malone]

 Thanks to Chip for setting this up. I've got to give kudos to the Tennessee guys for their drive.

  Jay asked us what was our favorite hole. At the time, on the front nine, I responded that I may not have one which is one of the best compliments I can give. But, if pressed, I would say #17 for the strategy off the tee and the wonderful green.

[Jimmy Chandler]

I also had a great time meeting everyone and playing a fun course.  It was great playing with Eric and Jeff, two of the nicest gentlemen golfers you'll ever meet.  I'm glad to have finally played Beechtree and may even give it another try this fall before it closes.

Bill -- Thanks for the photos, but the guy on the left in the first photo and on the tee in the next two is me, and I've never even been to Tennessee!

[John Kavanaugh]

Has anyone confirmed that Beechtree is still going to close?  Seems like parking the land as a golf course may be its best use for next year.

[Bill Brightly]

I was wondring the same thing as JK. Hard to envision a major condo project going forward in this economic environment.

I sure hope the course gets saved. This is an excellent course and the shots are FUN. I didn't take too many pictures of the holes because it was just too sad...and every time I replaced a divot or fixed a ballmark, I was thinking: "why bother"?