[Ira Fishman]

We played our first round yesterday. A terrific combination of fun and challenge. In particular, 7 through 18 is just a wonderful run of highly differentiated holes. But there were two especially wonderful happenings not directly related to architecture.


First, a guy proposed on the first tee. I just happened to catch it looking out at lunch. Good thing his now fiance  said yes, and the whole golfing party seemed very excited when they let us play through.


Second, my wife (24 handicap) birdied 5 and 7 to shoot 44 on the front. Her excitement and success more than made up for my struggles in the too many bunkers I found.


Ira

[Jeff_Brauer]

Congrats!  Repost this on the definition of fun thread, if you haven't already.


Your story reminds me of playing La Costa Champions with my wife.  Although she struggled most of the day, she birdied 15 and 16, both sitting below the hotel, patios, and pro shop.  We get to the 17th tee and I mention that if we quit now, everyone up there will think she is the best female golfer in the world, and yes, she opted to quit, LOL.


It may be changing, but it seems that in the past, not too many husbands got excited about couples golf.

[Ken Moum]

It may be changing, but it seems that in the past, not too many husbands got excited about couples golf.

Well, in 1994, my wife and I got married so we could play in a golf tournament.


Not BS.  We'd been living together for about 5 years, playing in every mixed event we could find, and the previous winter I said, "Do you think the State Husband and Wife is a good enough reason to get married?"


She said yes, and 27 years later we still play in every one we can.


The nine-hole course we play in SD has a couples league every Monday at 5:30 p.m. and there are 27 couples in it.  So we shotgun with sixsomes. How's that for popularity in a town of 5,800 population?

[John Kavanaugh]

It may be changing, but it seems that in the past, not too many husbands got excited about couples golf.

Well, in 1994, my wife and I got married so we could play in a golf tournament.


Not BS.  We'd been living together for about 5 years, playing in every mixed event we could find, and the previous winter I said, "Do you think the State Husband and Wife is a good enough reason to get married?"


She said yes, and 27 years later we still play in every one we can.


The nine-hole course we play in SD has a couples league every Monday at 5:30 p.m. and there are 27 couples in it.  So we shotgun with sixsomes. How's that for popularity in a town of 5,800 population?

Ken,


When you were living together were you both paying dues at a private club? Can't beat those family rates. How soon after the ceremony did you join a course?

[Ira Fishman]

Congrats!  Repost this on the definition of fun thread, if you haven't already.


Your story reminds me of playing La Costa Champions with my wife.  Although she struggled most of the day, she birdied 15 and 16, both sitting below the hotel, patios, and pro shop.  We get to the 17th tee and I mention that if we quit now, everyone up there will think she is the best female golfer in the world, and yes, she opted to quit, LOL.


It may be changing, but it seems that in the past, not too many husbands got excited about couples golf.

Jeff,


That is a great story. My wife has been my favorite golf partner for many years. It does help that she is willing to try pretty much any course, and we tend to agree about them. NB (the walls at 3 and 13) and Old Mac (the greens being too big) being the rare exceptions of courses I really enjoyed but were not at the top of her list.


Ira

[Tom_Doak]

It’s:  I’m glad your wife is enjoying herself.


I’ve had many reports of women playing career-low rounds at Pacific Dunes, Barnbougle, and Ballyneal.  The rollout on the fescue fairways helps them more than any other class of player, and the shots around the greens are more doable, too, once they get the hang of them.  The wife of a friend of mine, who had never broken 100 in Chicago, shot 92-89 at Pacific Dunes the year it opened.

[Daryl David]

My wife’s 3 lifetime low scores were at Barnbougle, Ballyneal and Grand Saint Emilionnais. Obviously, she is a Doak fan-girl. 

[Tom_Doak]

My wife’s 3 lifetime low scores were at Barnbougle, Ballyneal and Grand Saint Emilionnais. Obviously, she is a Doak fan-girl. 

The one that surprises me is St Emilion. It is certainly playable for women - the Mourgue d’Algue family includes three of the best women golfers I know! - but they don’t like their golf easily and all agree that they like how challenging the course is for them.

[Daryl David]

My wife’s 3 lifetime low scores were at Barnbougle, Ballyneal and Grand Saint Emilionnais. Obviously, she is a Doak fan-girl. 

The one that surprises me is St Emilion. It is certainly playable for women - the Mourgue d’Algue family includes three of the best women golfers I know! - but they don’t like their golf easily and all agree that they like how challenging the course is for them.

I agree. Not the course you would expect her to go low. There should probably be an asterisk next to that round. It was during the horrible drought they had in 2016. I have never seen a course that dry. Cracks in the fairways and rough. Ball rolled a mile. The Rouge (forward) tees are a bit under 5000 yards so many greens were reachable in regulations for the short hitter. I think with those conditions, it’s helps to be a short and straight low ball hitter. I keep running through fairways into bad lies. It took me a round and a half before I was smart enough to put the driver away.

[Phil Burr]

The stories of women shooting career rounds deserves its own posting, but I won’t let the fact that this is an architecture forum dissuade me from sharing my favorite.


My mom took up the game in order to join my dad.  Over the 20 years she played, her handicap never wavered outside the 24-27 range.  Her low round at her home course (Valley Hi CC; Elk Grove Ca) was 94.


One of her final rounds was a rare foursome with my dad and her two sons (my brother & me) at Rancho Canada (NLE) in Carmel CA.  The course was a pushover for men, but was a fairly stout 5400 yards for women with red tees placed in rudimentary fashion about 20 yards in front of the whites on the same elongated tee box.  Mom played her typical game: 150 yards tee shots, fairway wood second shots that had little change of reaching the greens (only two par fours were under 300), and hoping to make as many bogeys as possible.  As is often the case with women (there’s a lesson in this for many male golfers), she was just enjoying the day, surrounded by the men in her life, oblivious to her score.  The rest of us were acutely aware of the fact that she was having a special day.  When she holed out for bogey on 18, we asked her if she knew what she had shot.  She guessed something in the low 90s.  When we told her she had in fact shot 83 (vs. a par of 71), she burst into tears.  I think she nearly pulled a Suzann Petterson, as she played 18 holes no more than twice over the rest of her life.  This will forever rank as one of my top 3 days on a golf course.

[Daryl David]

The stories of women shooting career rounds deserves its own posting, but I won’t let the fact that this is an architecture forum dissuade me from sharing my favorite.


My mom took up the game in order to join my dad.  Over the 20 years she played, her handicap never wavered outside the 24-27 range.  Her low round at her home course (Valley Hi CC; Elk Grove Ca) was 94.


One of her final rounds was a rare foursome with my dad and her two sons (my brother & me) at Rancho Canada (NLE) in Carmel CA.  The course was a pushover for men, but was a fairly stout 5400 yards for women with red tees placed in rudimentary fashion about 20 yards in front of the whites on the same elongated tee box.  Mom played her typical game: 150 yards tee shots, fairway wood second shots that had little change of reaching the greens (only two par fours were under 300), and hoping to make as many bogeys as possible.  As is often the case with women (there’s a lesson in this for many male golfers), she was just enjoying the day, surrounded by the men in her life, oblivious to her score.  The rest of us were acutely aware of the fact that she was having a special day.  When she holed out for bogey on 18, we asked her if she knew what she had shot.  She guessed something in the low 90s.  When we told her she had in fact shot 83 (vs. a par of 71), she burst into tears.  I think she nearly pulled a Suzann Petterson, as she played 18 holes no more than twice over the rest of her life.  This will forever rank as one of my top 3 days on a golf course.

She must have felt like Olympian Bob Beaman in Mexico City when they told him how far he had long jumped! Awesome story.

[Ira Fishman]

Phil,


Wonderful story.


My wife ended up shooting 93, 93 at Ballyneal. Her only disappointment is not being able to post the scores because of the absence of a rating, but she gladly trades that for the enjoyment she had.


Regarding the thread running about playing wrong tees, although the Ballyneal approach clearly cannot be used most places, it was refreshing. I tried to give my caddie good input on my game, but he quickly figured out that there still was some ego even in my modest claims. He moved me around on the tees to give me the best possible way to experience the course features and routing especially in light of the wind. I have no idea what yardage I played and do not care in the least.


Ira

[Daryl "Turboe" Boe]

It may be changing, but it seems that in the past, not too many husbands got excited about couples golf.

Well, in 1994, my wife and I got married so we could play in a golf tournament.


Not BS.  We'd been living together for about 5 years, playing in every mixed event we could find, and the previous winter I said, "Do you think the State Husband and Wife is a good enough reason to get married?"


She said yes, and 27 years later we still play in every one we can.


The nine-hole course we play in SD has a couples league every Monday at 5:30 p.m. and there are 27 couples in it.  So we shotgun with sixsomes. How's that for popularity in a town of 5,800 population?

I was excited reading your post when I saw SD, thinking fondly of my childhood in South Dakota, but prepared to be let down as I so often am when I inquire to people who mention SD only to find out that they were referring WAY more frequently to San Diego.   But reading the 5,800 population gave me renewed optimism that you are indeed talking about South Dakota. 


Where do you live?  What course?


[size=78%]I grew up in Wolsey, went to school at SD School of Mines, and have lived all over the country since then.  Settling on South Carolina many years ago since SC is so close to SD, but the winters are eminently more golfable...[/size]

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()