[Matt Bosela]

Good to hear they came back in the afternoon matches to tie it all up...bummer I had to miss out on the afternoon matches, but got home safe and sound last night.

Big thanks again to all the organizers of this event for putting this together.. As usual the discussion and off-course events were just as good as the golf....and thats taking nothing away from Sagebrush as it too is a fantastic golf course.  Just some wonderful holes out there and local knowledge certainly helps.

The Hideout was an awesome place for some post round fun and food....sounds like the boozing got crazy last night.

P.S.  I'm finally off the snide for Grudge Match as I got one in the win column.  I won 6 & 4 but Garland has been battling some injuries, so he didn't have his normal stuff.  And on one of the par 5s we played, which is about as quirky a par 5 as you will ever see, Garland won the hole with a 10 to my 11!   

Which par five Kalen?  It has to be either #7 or #16...

[Kalen Braley]

Matt,

It was #16....which was our 11th hole of the round as we started on #6.  I thought #7 was fairly conventional until the last 130 yards to the green where the real excitement starts.  That green on 7 also has some head scratching movement as well.  A terrific hole though, I loved it.

[Sean Leary]

Matt,

It was #16....which was our 11th hole of the round as we started on #6.  I thought #7 was fairly conventional until the last 130 yards to the green where the real excitement starts.  That green on 7 also has some head scratching movement as well.  A terrific hole though, I loved it.

I think 7 is way quirkier than 16.

How was the weather?

[Kalen Braley]

Matt,

It was #16....which was our 11th hole of the round as we started on #6.  I thought #7 was fairly conventional until the last 130 yards to the green where the real excitement starts.  That green on 7 also has some head scratching movement as well.  A terrific hole though, I loved it.

I think 7 is way quirkier than 16.

How was the weather?

#16 in my book, by a landslide.  Either way, the Par 5s are the start of the show at Sagebrush IMO,,,and thats taking nothing away from other fantastic par 4s like 5, 9, 17, and 18.

The par 5 14th is the star of the show, closely followed by the par 4 9th.

P.S.  The weather was a bit crap on Saturday morning, but sunny and windy on Sunday.  The wind made 15, 17, and 18 play pretty damn tough.

[Matt Bosela]

I'm with you Kalen - I have played 8 rounds at Sagebrush and I still haven't figured out the best way to play the 16th, especially off the tee.  The 7th became much easier when I finally realized that it's meant to play as a three shot hole.

[Sean Leary]

I'm with you Kalen - I have played 8 rounds at Sagebrush and I still haven't figured out the best way to play the 16th, especially off the tee.  The 7th became much easier when I finally realized that it's meant to play as a three shot hole.

Do what I do. Off the tee, hit it far as you can(assuming back tees) and way right. Hit a club that will land 175 yds short and watch it run downhill onto the green. 3 putt and proceed to 17 tee..

[Sean Leary]

11 and 17 are the two that get me.  Can't make myself hit it far enough right on 11 and the blind tee shot on 17 makes me uncomfortable.

[Matt Bosela]

I'm with you Kalen - I have played 8 rounds at Sagebrush and I still haven't figured out the best way to play the 16th, especially off the tee.  The 7th became much easier when I finally realized that it's meant to play as a three shot hole.

Do what I do. Off the tee, hit it far as you can(assuming back tees) and way right. Hit a club that will land 175 yds short and watch it run downhill onto the green. 3 putt and proceed to 17 tee..

 

[Kalen Braley]

Matt,

Agreed on 7.  I'm not a long hitter, so I can't get home in two anyways.  So for me its Driver to the fairway, 3 wood to just short of the last bunker before the big downhill slope and then a short iron to the green.

As for 16, I tried playing it 3 different ways and didn't so so well.  I think for my skill level I should lay up off the tee with 3 wood, then hit a 5 iron to the end of the top fairway, followed by another 3 wood down to the green. Trying to find that 2nd fairway when its a blind shot from the top fairway is a daunting task...

No doubt its a neat course with some very unique holes and no two holes are anywhere near alike...so those are big plusses.

Sean missing left on 11 off the tee would seem to be a nightmare.  Pete P scared me good our first time around so I always made sure to go way right there....but of course if you do that, you won't find the speed slot.

[Sean Leary]

Matt,

Agreed on 7.  I'm not a long hitter, so I can't get home in two anyways.  So for me its Driver to the fairway, 3 wood to just short of the last bunker before the big downhill slope and then a short iron to the green.

As for 16, I tried playing it 3 different ways and didn't so so well.  I think for my skill level I should lay up off the tee with 3 wood, then hit a 5 iron to the end of the top fairway, followed by another 3 wood down to the green. Trying to find that 2nd fairway when its a blind shot from the top fairway is a daunting task...

No doubt its a neat course with some very unique holes and no two holes are anywhere near alike...so those are big plusses.

Sean missing left on 11 off the tee would seem to be a nightmare.  Pete P scared me good our first time around so I always made sure to go way right there....but of course if you do that, you won't find the speed slot.

The problem with the speed slot on 11 is that it can roll down the hill but left into the junk on the left side. You have to catch the speed slot on the right side of the downslope.

Did you hit any decent drives on 16? I am telling all you need to do is get it over the hill and it gets all the way to the green. It ends up in the same place as hitting it as far as you can over the hill.

I find 15 and 17 very similar in terms of tee shots, but other than that, the holes are very distinctive. It took me a few plays to really appreciate it for being as good as I think it is....

[Kalen Braley]

Sean,

I agree, and I did hit two decent drives by my standards on #16, one I hit right into the sagebrush and lost it.  But even after those drives, it was still a completely blind shot to the 2nd fairway.  So the 1st time I laid up to the same fairway.  And the 2nd time i went for it and pushed it right into the sagebrush.

For a good player who can hit it 260+ off the tee, I can see how it would be an "easy"...but for us higher cappers its a nightmare based on the semi-blind tee shot, blind layup, and endless sea of sagebrush surrounding it.

I still think its a great and super unique hole, even if it handed me my azz.

As for 15 and 17 they are pretty different in my mind.  15 you can see the fairway, 17 its completely blind and a bit dis-orienting.  15 is mostly bunkerless, with only two greenside bunkers, while 17 has bunkers everywhere.

That being said, in 3 rounds I made no worse than bogey there, so 17 didn't seem that tough...or maybe I just got lucky.

[Sean Leary]

Sean,

I agree, and I did hit two decent drives by my standards on #16, one I hit right into the sagebrush and lost it.  But even after those drives, it was still a completely blind shot to the 2nd fairway.  So the 1st time I laid up to the same fairway.  And the 2nd time i went for it and pushed it right into the sagebrush.

For a good player who can hit it 260+ off the tee, I can see how it would be an "easy"...but for us higher cappers its a nightmare based on the semi-blind tee shot, blind layup, and endless sea of sagebrush surrounding it.

I still think its a great and super unique hole, even if it handed me my azz.

As for 15 and 17 they are pretty different in my mind.  15 you can see the fairway, 17 its completely blind and a bit dis-orienting.  15 is mostly bunkerless, with only two greenside bunkers, while 17 has bunkers everywhere.

That being said, in 3 rounds I made no worse than bogey there, so 17 didn't seem that tough...or maybe I just got lucky.

On 16, I agree that they are blind first and second shots. But I think that you could hit your second shot over the hill, but maybe not. I tried to lay up once over the hill, and it got all the way to the front to the green by mistake, then in a second round hit 3 wood and ended up in almost the same place because I carried the downslope.

Forgot you played 15 from the ladies tee. From the back tees it is as blind as 17.

[Matthew Essig]

Which team won??   

[Tom Yost]

Which team won??   

Some matches today, no?

[Kalen Braley]

Lol.

We played 15 from the blue tees, which is the front of the rear tee box, with blacks on the back.  Its plenty visible from there....

The matches were tied after yesterday afternoon.  They should be playing as we speak, as I think they were set to tee off at 1 PM or there abouts.

[Kalen Braley]

Here a few photos I took with my Iphone over the weekend.  Excuse the quality on a few of them....

On the approach into the course, you really get a feel for how severe the land is.  In this picture, if you look close, you can see the 2nd fairway tumbling down the hill on the right hand side, and the 5th fairway doing the same on the left hand side:




Looking back towards Merritt near the entrance road to Sagebrush:




My playing partner on Sunday determined there was a "loose impediment" in his way for his next shot.....the bare spot is where the rock was and you can see the ball in the weeds behind it:




So after turning over the stone once to get it out of the way, the fairway was so steep from right to left, it kept rolling until coming to a stop about 100 feet down the hill in the middle of the fairway.  We estimated it weighed between 150-200 lbs 




But perhaps my favorite pic of the weekend.  This is Garland looking for his ball in the bush on #1, our 14th hole of the day.  But sadly enough, both his ball and chances of coming back were lost in that bush.  It was over after we finished out the hole for a 6 and 4 win.

[Bill_McBride]

Which team won??   

Several of us are at the ferry terminal on the Vancouver side, waiting for the 9 pm ferry to Victoria.   After all but one match today at the lovely Marine Drive Golf Club (A V Macan, 1922), the matches were all square.   The final pair came from 2 down to win for South, securing the team win and leaving the King's Putter in Captain Pete Lavalee's bag until next year!

[Bob Jenkins]

We have had a great 3 days, 2 at Sagebrush and today at Marine Drive.

Sagebrush definitely showed it's teeth with some wind over the weekend but I believe all of us saw that the course is truly unique. Over the last 3 years, I have been fortunate enough to be able to host several GCAers up there and it has been a real treat for me to be able to watch your reactions to the course. Never have I seen a course where you can watch a ball run out for such a long time and the looks on many of your faces as a shot rolls out over time make it all worthwhile.

Today, Marine Drive came through magnificantly. I was there a few years ago and spent time with Jim Urbina when he was working on the changes to the bunkers and surrounds, thanks to our Marine Drive member / host, Sandy Smith. It looked interesting while the work was ongoing but I had no idea it would turn out as well as I witnessed today. The bunkers attract balls, with no rough between the fairway and the bunker. Plenty of the surrounds lead to a bunker or a run off area with challenging recoveries required. Overall, it shows how a course need not be 7,000 yards to be interesting. Thanks to Sandy and to Tim Tait, the Director of Golf at Marine Drive, for letting us spend a great day at Marine Drive.

Great to have all of you in British Columbia and only sorry to see the south barely walk off with the Putter.  Thanks again!

[Sam Morrow]

Glad you guys had fun, great to see the pictures and read the stories. As someone who is heading to Dismal in a few weeks this thread gets me even more excited.

[Dale Jackson]

Really, the thanks for this KP must go to Bob Jenkins.  He was the force behind the event and made it happen.  And thanks also to Will MacEwen for organizing the competition.  Actually, it seemed more like herding cats at times.  It was a terrific weekend, seeing a few old friends and meeting new ones.  It is always interesting to put a face to a name.  And what a treat to have the architect, Rod Whitman, onsite for the whole weekend!

Sagebrush is truly a unique and special place, its combination of unique architecture, remote setting and The Hideout is not replicated anywhere else.  I was not able to make Marine Drive today but know the course well and I am sure everyone will have enjoyed playing it.

While I had nothing to do with it, I am gratified to see the south win!

[Will MacEwen]

Thanks to Bob for setting this up, and to Sandy for being so kind to us yesterday.  I can see why so many players have come out of Marine Drive.

Thanks to the Petes for captaining, and to everyone who made the trek from near or far. 

[Pete_Pittock]

If Kalen hadn't gotten off the schneid (short for Schneider) the north would have won .  Posted looking at my canopied bed waiting to head towards VGC and ur afternoon round. The Olympics won't be visible. Herr McBride will sit out with his bum hand and take over photograhy and caddy services.

[Kalen Braley]

Well I'm glad I could provide my services to the south for this KP!!   

Bummer I couldn't get over to the coast for the last day, but work called. 

[Richard Choi]

I want to thank everyone for organizing such a great event.

That was one of the most fun golf weekends I have ever had. Playing a round with GCA'ers is something to be cherished. Everyone of my match companion/opponents were delight to play with and I learned a lot from them. My only regret is not being able to play a round with everyone at KP.

Thanks again to Bob, Will, Sandy, and PeteX2 for organizing everything. Hope to see everyone again real soon!

[Brent Carlson]

Thanks to Bob, Sandy, Will, Pete and Pete for organizing such a fine event.  

Sagebrush was a blast with its firm and fast conditioning.  Marine Drive was a pleasure to play as well.

Every match was competitive and enjoyable.  GCAers truly are a great group.

Congratulations to the south team on their victory.

Brent

PS - I'd like to hear more about the 308 yard 7 wood.

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