Honestly, the thing I remember the most is the trash, tons of it. Couldn't play after a game or on Sunday morning, and maybe all day Sunday. Course was closed and there was trash everywhere. Sunday morning, still trash.
A couple of things about the conditions I mention down below. The conditions these days are WAY better than they were and I think they take way better care of the place than they once did.
There is a lot more money in the program. We never had the full practice facility out there on South Main Street that you see when you look to your left walking down the monstrous par 3 12th. It's a really nice facility.
I digress...once the trash was picked up, usually by mid to late Sunday, it was business as usual, and you might be able to get out and play around 3 or 4pm.
Since they kept cars off the fairways, the only fairway issues were ones you'd shake your heads at, like where kids had been playing football and tore some of it up. Or maybe some coals from a grill that were dumped in the rough but some made it to the fairway, and even though it was picked up, you still had some black on the fairway and some burnt grass. I'd say by Tuesday morning, you couldn't really tell so much. But it was only on those few holes; 1 (the old 10th), 9 (the old 18th), and 15 (the old 6th) mostly. Every other fairway was pretty much untouched.
And back then, the U course didn't really host many tournaments. Only one or two in the 4 years I was there. If they did, it was in the spring season, because of football.
I think the team now hosts a yearly invitational in the spring.
My biggest gripe about it all...was the rough. Especially on 1 and 9 (the old 10 and 18 in my day).
It would be a mess for a week, likely two. It would be matted down all facing one direction from cars driving over it, all swirled around, trampled, etc.
This made it hard to cut. And then if your ball found it, you're hitting some strange shots with the rough laying down. Into the rough, with the rough, sideways, a combo of both...
It produced wildly unpredictable results and used to piss me off to no end.
I was already having enough trouble with my game at that point in my life too. That did not help.
It would take a couple of weeks for the rough to get back to "somewhat" normal where it would start to rise up from laying down and they could cut it right.
I always preferred playing in the spring because of this.
Little did I know all of that would be some of the last golf I would play for a good 10 years of my life. But, good memories still. Better now that I can go back there without any pressure as an old man and just be there and smile.