Sixth and Seventh Golf Games in 2007

I had two chances to play golf while we were in Vermont this summer. Vermont is, topographically, so much different from Delaware that is great fun and a real challenge to play up there.

At Bakersfield Country Club
On the Tuesday of our week at the Tyler Place, we put together a group of 10 interested in playing a round of golf and headed out to Bakersfield Country Club. Several of us had played there in the past; it is one of my favorite places to play just for being so different from what I am used to here in the flat lands.

Bakersfield is a local club and very down to earth. The parking lot is gravel and the members are neither hoity nor toity. The holes range from rolling meadow layouts to long thin dog-legs that hug the sides of what seem like towering mountains. There are plenty of elevation changes and challenges.

I played poorly, as is my habit, though there were some good moments. Since my drives are dicey at best, I usually play safe and use my 3-wood off the tee. On a course like Bakersfield, where many of the holes feature dense forest on one side and yawning chasms on the other, straight-though-short is a good approach. I carded a par on one hole and felt mostly positive about my game despite a few blow-up holes and a final score of 126.

The weather was lovely, with blue skies and a few clouds.

At Richford Country Club
Later in the week, Andy Southmayd and I headed a bit further out to play a neat little 9-hole course at Richford Country Club. This is another very local club that sits just south of the border with Canada and boasts a healthy membership from north of the line.

Andy found this place and counts it among his favorites. I am fond of it as well. It also varies between meadow and woods and has even more elevation changes than Bakersfield. Like many courses in the area, it includes wonderful mid-fairway boulders that, if hit, can send your ball well off to almost anywhere.

Our round was wet. we played in a slowly lifting fog that occasionally forgot itself and became light rain. On the positive side, it made reading the greens a bit more interesting.

Again I played badly, mixing in a par with a series of mediocre holes and a few blow-ups. Not terrible, but not great. Good only another 126.

Over the last nine years, I've played some seven different courses in upstate Vermont and New York. I've enjoyed all of them, played poorly, learned things, and seen some spectacular views. I've bought golf shirts and hats. There are grass stains from mountainsides on my golf shoes and towel.

Thanks north country. It's been great fun.

Fifth Golf Game in 2007

I'm traveling this evening, staying in a Holiday Inn Express near North East, Maryland. Tomorrow I will run out to Westminster to pick Colleen up from Lacrosse Camp.

I thought it would be easier to drive north from Dover this afternoon and get half-way to Westminster. It's not a long drive, but I'd rather start from here tomorrow than make the trek from home out to Westminster and back again all in one day.

And it gave me an excuse to play Delcastle Golf Club again with my colleague Sandy Schenck. Sandy and I played there last June with several friends for the Quasi-Annual DGS Golf Tournament.

We had to start fairly late this afternoon; I don't leave work until 4:30. But we were able to squeeze-in the 13th hole as the light faded away at about 8:50 p.m.

Delcastle is about midway between Newark and Wilmington. It is a nice, affordable, and pretty course. It has hills and mature trees and rocks and other things to make golf interesting.

I hit more of those trees than I'm happy to report. My first three holes were eights. But then I started to make some headway. Sandy provided a fresh set of eyes for my swing and had a few helpful thoughts. I parred the fourth and felt good about parts of my game this evening.

I think I may have found a swing that works with the driver. Time will tell.

Fourth Golf Game of 2007

Andy and I played a round at Old Landing Golf Course this morning. We walked, carrying our bags. It was good exercise, but it did wear me down by the end of the back nine.

As a result, my last few holes were horrendous blow-ups. When tiring, I tend to stand up during my swing. I was topping the ball badly. And, with my hands tired, I was letting the grass turn my club head, resulting in severe slices.

My front nine hadn't been too bad, but the back nine breakdowns left me with a total score of 119. My worst this year.

Old Landing is our area's most mature course. It has fully grown trees, and some small hills. There is water, some blind drives, and a small squadron of horse flies to distract you. I like the place, in spite of the flies.

Third Golf Game of 2007

Andy and I played golf for Father's Day this morning. We were back at The Rookery again. The place was filled with guys and their young sons, older men and grown sons, and grandfathers too.

I actually played fairly well. Not great. I still can't putt worth a damn. But my drives are getting better and my irons aren't too bad. There's hope.

And, as Andy noted, it's a bit more exciting when its competitive. For a while there, before I blew up on a par three , we were neck and neck.

Afterwards, we joined our wives and kids at the Jungle Jim's water park outside Rehoboth.

It was a good Father's Day.

Second Golf Game of 2007

I was back on the golf course at The Rookery this afternoon. Andy and I were paired by the starter with a husband and wife golfing twosome. They were very nice.

We started at a bit past three. The course was crowded and things were moving slowly. We didn't finish until about 7:30. It was a beautiful afternoon; warm, not a lot of wind, plenty of sunshine.

My game is still not great. I had a few good shots, but my putting is still a mess and I had several "blow-up" holes. I shot 116. Again.

But I had fun.

My Name is Mike. Once I Had a Cap.

My cap was white, with grass stains, a pair of crossed US and Canadian flags, and the logo of the North Country Golf Club.

I bought my cap on a summer's day in Rouse's Point, New York, after a morning playing golf with friends.

I bought my cap just about a mile from the US/Canada border; about as far north in the US as I have been.

My cap traveled with me on water, up mountains, and onto golf courses in several states.

My cap flew with me to St. Thomas for a sun-filled, but fateful, vacation week.

My cap went to sea with me one Wednesday afternoon, flying over the chop on a jet ski.

My cap clung to my head as the wind and spray whipped past us.

My cap let go when I turned into the wind from Spring Bay and opened-up the throttle.

My cap flew away behind me. and was lost in the channel between Thatch Kay and St. Thomas.

My cap sank into the water about 1,900 miles -- as the crow flies, though crows don't wear caps -- from where I bought it.

My cap, bought almost as far north as I have been, was taken by the sea as far south as I have been.

My name is Mike. Once I had a cap, but I don't anymore.

First Golf Game of 2007

My personal golf season started at noon today when Andy, Rich and I tee'd off at the first hole of The Rookery, just east of Milton, Delaware.

It was windy and cold and I had one of those sinus headaches that make you sort-of hope a miss-hit golf ball might hit you in the head. Not to kill or permanently maim you, just to try to knock something lose in your sinus cavity.

But I was pleased with my game. I was unable to putt at all (I pushed almost every putt well past the hole), but my drives and irons were much better than they had been. My score was 116; nowhere near my best, but not bad given the day and the fact that it was the fist game after a long lay-off. There's hope.

I was uncertain about playing this spring. After my sciatic episode in January, I have been worried about the state of my back.

Would I be able to swing and twist?

On Tuesday I hit a bucket of balls at a driving range near Dover. I wanted to try things out and see if a more gentle swing would work with my iffy lower back.

That turns out to be the right thing to do. I have long been guilty of trying to whale on the ball, particularly off the tee. As a result I slice and hook and top the ball and generally look goofy.

If I swing easy, on the other hand, I can often send a ball straight, up and out. Not as far as I might like, of course, but that may come in time.

One of the lovely things about golf is its long string of counter-intuitive truisms. Hit down on the ball to get it up. Swing easy to get longer shots. And the most important thing to think about while you swing is not thinking.

There are probably lessons for the rest of life here.