Round number one.....

 7:00 am - Wednesday - June 25th - Deer Lodge, MT - 54° F, humidity 31%, wind 4 mph out of the south....partially cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 78° F.  On this date in 2012 I was having lunch with my mother, Virginia.....

.....at MacKenzie River Pizza Company in Spokane, WA.  I think she was about 85 in this picture.

TLE went to bed around 8:30 pm Monday night, and I about 10 pm.  We both slept in Tuesday morning until almost 8 am; so, so nice after 'the longest day'.  We lazed around until almost 10 am drinking Americanos, and talking with Bob and Hilary before we decided it was time to get dressed and go play 18.  I've never played this course, although TLE and I have been here two times before, so I was determined to do it this time around.  As you know, I have not played golf yet this year, but have hit a couple of buckets of balls at LPG&RVR.  

Before we travelled to Deer Lodge this time I had considered shipping my club set through an outfit called 'ShipSticks', but the cost to do so was almost as expensive as the rental car we are using, so I decided to rent a set of clubs here at the golf course, although I did bring my own golf balls, golf glove, shoes and tees.  Around 10:30 am we headed over to the Pro Shop to pick up a set of clubs, and a golf cart courtesy Bob and Hilary (thank you so much!).  The clubs are made by Titleist , and are actually quite nice.  The golf cart is a Club Car electric with all the bells and whistles.....Bluetooth stereo, range finder, ice chest, etc.  Bob and Hilary each have their own cart so they can play faster, so TLE and I had the rental all to ourselves.  Hilary and I played from the shorter tees while Bob played from the white tees.

After hitting a few balls at the driving range we headed out to the first hole to begin our round....

I got my only par of the day on the 18th hole.....a nice way to end the round

At the 18th hole

....I hit a good tee shot on the first hole, and actually a pretty good second shot, a decent chip and got a bogey; a nice beginning.  In fact for the first 6, or 7 holes I did decently, lost no balls, and was playing just over bogey golf.  And then the difficulty factor of the course began to come into play.  You really have to hit certain areas on the fairway to have a good second shot, as many of the remaining holes you are not able to see the green from where you land your first shot, so the second shots are mostly 'blind' shots.  Additionally, these greens are extremely fast, and not being familiar with them made it difficult for me to judge which way the ball would break towards the hole.  I began to lose one ball after the other in the sage brush, and by the end of the round I had lost all 6 balls I had brought with me, plus several balls TLE had found while looking for my other lost balls.  All that being said, I hit enough good shots on the remaining holes, in fact I almost drove the 15th green with my best tee shot of the day, and managed to finally get a par on the 18th and final hole; a very nice, positive way to finish the round.  By the end of the round I was getting used to the Titleist clubs, and am looking forward to a return engagement on Wednesday.

After turning in our rented cart, and the rental clubs (they put a name tag on them so I will get them again on Wednesday) we headed to the '19th hole' for some adult beverages.  We sat at the outdoor bar talking for close to an hour before heading back to the house to await the arrival of Philip (my brother) and his wife Jeannie.  Hilary made a great dinner for us (she is a very good 'chef') called Chicken Piccata, which we ate alfresco on the patio.....

It was almost 10 pm when it finally began to get dark

Left to right: Moi, Philip, TLE, Hilary, Jeannie and Bob

.....Philip and Jeannie arrived around 4 pm, and after they finished unpacking we sat around talking while Hilary prepared our dinner.  We didn't eat until well after 7 pm, and had a lovely meal, and then sat around the outdoor fireplace on the patio talking until well after 10 pm before I finally surrendered and headed to inside to get ready for bed.

Thanks for stopping by!