Let's play 9!!

 6:57 am - Saturday - March 9th - GNHS - 49° F, humidity 70%, wind 4 mph out of the north....partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 74° F.  On this date in 2017 I rode my bicycle from Tecopa Hot Springs, CA to Shoshone, CA and back.....27.1 miles....the middle of no where.....

We've been meaning to play golf at Del Rio Country Club down near Brawley all winter, but have just never gotten around to it before now.  The other day Charles suggested we do just that, so around 8:30 am we (all of us) hopped in his Ford F350 PU to make the 40 minute drive south to Del Rio CC, which is just a mile north of Brawley.  I had arranged a tee time of 10:16 am, and we arrived just after 9:10 am, so we had plenty of time to hit a few balls on the driving range, plus do a little chipping, and putting before we teed off on the 1st hole.  

This course, unlike LPG&RVR, is kind of a 'cheek by jowl' affair as TLE would call it.  All of the fairways, at least on the front 9, which is what we played, are very close together, and often players on other adjoining holes, will hit stray shots (a lot of them) which end up one, or two fairways over.  We kind of felt like we were dodging golf balls all morning.  The course is just over 5,500 yards long from the white tees, which is what we played.  LPG&RVR is almost 7,000 yards, with no adjoining fairways.  Many of the par 4's at Del Rio are under 300 yards.  This is a very busy, privately owned, golf course with tee times just 8 minutes apart, and someone is teeing off that frequently all day long, so there is a lot of waiting around between shots, another thing I do not like.  The tee times at LPG&RVR are 15 minutes apart, and you rarely, if ever, have to wait in between shots.  Below is the layout of the course on the back of the scorecard.....

....as you can see, the fairways are very close to one another....

....all that being said, the first hole is a par 5, 511 yard hole.  Now, I haven't played golf since late September, so it has been almost 6 months since I've played, but I actually hit a pretty decent drive on the first hole, then two average 5 woods, then a beautiful 30 yard chip which came to rest 3 feet from the hole.  I then rolled it in for a par!  I had my high points, and low points, just like Charles, but overall I felt good about my driving game, my chipping, and my putting.  I just need to get those fairway woods, and mid range irons dialed in again like last summer.  Out of 7 drives (par 4's and 5's) I hit 5 really good tee shots, and hit one good iron (9) on the first par 3.  My mid range irons, and fairway woods were just not there for me Friday, but over all I was pleased.  I had one par, and 3 bogeys, and shot 47.  I never 3 putted, and had only 12 putts total over the 9 holes....on one hole I sank the putt from off the green for one of my bogeys.

It took us about 2.25 hours to play the 9 holes, so after stowing our clubs in Charles' truck, and returning our carts, we had lunch in the Clubhouse....a BLT for moi, a half turkey sandwich for TLE (called a half birdie), and a meatloaf sandwich for Charles and Phyllis (they split it)....

....we all liked our choices, and a good time was had by all.  Will I play Del Rio CC again?  Probably not.  But, did we have a great time?  Yes we did!  It was good to be hitting a golf ball again, and I am very encouraged about building upon last summer, and getting more consistent.  I played much better than I thought I would after the long layoff.

We were home around 2 pm, and bid our adieus until 5 pm when we headed over to Charles and Phyllis' 5th wheel for a steak salad dinner.  TLE and I were on our way walking back to our site by 7 pm, and spent the balance of the evening reading.

As I sit here, Saturday morning, composing this latest blogpost I can hardly believe it has almost been a week since Charles and Phyllis arrived, and in spite of how busy we have been, I do not feel socially drained at all....lol.....and that is a good thing.

Thanks for stopping by!