The Golfing Chronicles, Part 1

The first of several blog posts concerning my history of playing golf, and the courses I've played.

A couple weeks ago I played a round of golf with a friend from work down in Plymouth. The course was called Waverly Oaks, and had never played it before, but it’s ranked as a top 10 Public Course in Massachusetts by Golf.com. (I put a goal into my head this year that I’d try to play all 10 of the top courses in MA, so this seemed like a good chance to get that one out of the way.) The day was absolutely gorgeous: 75 degrees, no humidity, not a cloud in the sky. There was a small sea breeze off Plymouth Bay which added a soothing, cooling touch. The course was in great condition, and was relatively uncrowded. On top of all that, I shot one of my best rounds ever: an 85 (only 13 over par), and at one point I had 7 pars in a row. I was playing as well as I think I’ve ever played, consistently hitting fairways and greens, and keeping the 3-putts to only 2 on the day. (In the past I’ve AVERAGED around 4 or 5 3-putts per round, and many rounds I’ve had as many as 6 or 7. It’s not my strength.) Put all those factors together (uncrowded; weather; good score) and it turned out to be a great day on the golf course.

And that got me to thinking: What have been my favorite golf courses? My best rounds? The most fun on the course? I decided to dig into my golf history and determine those things. You may think that would be hard, but in reality it’s not too difficult. Why? Because for the longest time now, I try to save every scorecard that I’ve ever played. (Yes, I’m a packrat. I’ve tried to change, but some things I just can’t let go of.) Last year I decided to build a spreadsheet to keep track of all my golf rounds as well. (Yes, I’m an excel geek. And I’m not apologetic about that at all.) I keep all sorts of data during my rounds, from # of putts, fairways and greens hit in regulation, and sometimes even driving distances.

So on Sunday I entered my latest score into my spreadsheet and noticed that it was my 100th recorded round. (I’ve obviously played a lot more than that, but these are the ones I’ve actually tracked.) As I went through my spreadsheet to try to see what the best scores and different places I’ve played were, I remembered a lot of courses I had forgotten, one or two I wish I hadn’t remembered, and realized that my game hasn’t really improved all that much in the past 10 years. So without further ado, here are some thoughts about those courses and rounds I’ve played. (Numbered in reverse order. Stats are simply what I had written on the cards at the time, which is why there are varying amounts of data included.)

#100. Beaver Meadow Golf Club, Concord, NH. (No Year.) Whites: 6,131. Par: 72. Rating: 68.5. Slope 118. Score: 99. 40 Putts, 6 3-putts. I’ve played a ton of golf over the years at Beaver Meadow. I got my first set of clubs in the mid 1980’s, and Beaver was the closest and cheapest course. And when living in NH after college I played there even more, especially when I worked at Rivco and joined their weekly golf league. (It was during that golf league where I had one of the best 9 holes of my life. I shot a 41, but probably only had 12 putts in that 9 holes. I remember I drained one on #8 from about 50 feet for par – one of the only times I’ve ever parred that long par 4. The next week I think I was back to shooting low 50’s again.) The Beave is an interesting course, with a good variety of holes. It also gets a ton of use and has way too many trees on it. (I have always thought that I always shot better on courses in Florida than in New Hampshire because of the trees. In Florida, a wayward shot very often finds water. When it does, you just drop a ball, take your penalty stroke, and get on with it. When a ball lands amongst the trees in NH I could easily take 3 shots just to get out. Plus, I’d always have pitch on the ball afterwards.) My fondest memory of playing Beaver is probably on October 11, 1996 for my pre-wedding golf tournament. The team of Doug Wicinski, Vince Wicinski, Bob Wicinski and David Page (aka “The Ringer”) crushed the rest of the large field on the way to first place. I still have the trophy to prove it.

#99. Virginia Tech Golf Course, Blacksburg, VA. 1992. Whites: 6,131. Par: 70. Rating: 68.2. Slope 104. Score: 108. 39 Putts, 6 3-putts. I only have this course listed once on my spreadsheet, but I played this course dozens of times while at VT. It was extremely cheap for students (I seem to remember $12 to play all day, but that could be wrong), and it was right on campus, meaning I could walk from my dorm, or stop by on the way back from class when I lived off campus. The front 9 was a dog track (slang term meaning a golf course that isn’t very special or kept in great shape), that only had 1 bunker in the entire 9 holes. The 2nd nine, added later, was much more interesting and challenging, but the entire course was nothing to write home about. I actually took a golf class while at VT one summer, a 1-credit Pass/Fail course, which definitely improved my game. I’m sure I broke 100 a few times while playing there, although I don’t have any scorecard except this one from those times. The boring front 9 of the VT golf course has since been razed and a nice inn and conference center built on top of it. The back 9 has remained, but the Virginia Tech golf team has since moved to the River Course, a new track designed by Pete Dye about 10 miles away. It’s been called one of the best public courses in the country, and I’m dying to get out there and try it soon.

97. Westchase Golf Club. 1996. Whites: 6,233. Par: 72. Rating: 69.2. Slope 123. Score: 96. 33 Putts, 1 3-putts. FIR: 11/14; GIR: 4/18. WOW…looking back and seeing I hit 11 of 14 fairways in 1996? That’s amazing. I have a feeling I wasn’t hitting my driver back then, but probably used my 3-wood on most tees. (And my 3-wood at that time, and was up until last year, was an old persimmon 3-wood that I bought used in 1985. That thing was held together by duct tape, the grip was so old it was like grabbing a ski pole, and I used to get so many looks whenever I pulled it out. But I could hit that thing 200+ yards with a slight draw almost every time.) Westchase was the first course I played when we moved to Tampa in 1995, and it became one of my favorites down there, mostly because I think I always scored pretty well there. It was also close to where we lived, and was usually in good shape. I remember the first time I played there I got paired with a teaching pro who gave me great words of advice for playing golf in Florida. One of my first shots I went to replace my divot and he yelled at me, “What are you doing? Never replace your divots in Florida! This is Bermuda son…put some sand in there!” Having no clue what he was talking about but deferring to his knowledge, I did as he said. “And don’t be shy about the amount of sand you drop…this whole state is sand. If you dig a hole and find dirt, you’ll be a millionaire.” I never did find any dirt the years I lived there.

#96. The Claw at USF, Tampa, FL. 6/2/96. Golds: 6,288. Par: 71. Rating: 71.9. Slope 125. Score: 89. As far as I can tell, this was my first round ever breaking 90. I liked the USF golf course. Even though it wasn’t always in the best shape, it had some great holes, and it was one of the few (only?) courses in Tampa that you could walk. Also, it was the first time I had ever seen an alligator on a golf course. One time I played this course with Vince, and we were on an average par 4. I had hit my drive off to the left and had to punch out to about 140 yards. The green was elevated a little bit, so you couldn’t really see the cup, just the top of the pin. I hit a short iron to the green, saw it bounce once and then disappear. I assumed it had bounced over the green, as did Vince. We went up to the green, but couldn’t find the ball. I said, “Maybe it’s in the cup”. Vince doubted that highly, but I looked anyway. Sure enough – there it lay. It was only for birdie, but it’s still the farthest I’ve ever holed out from.

#93. Countryway Golf Club, Tampa, FL. 9/15/96. Blues: 3,481. Par: 61. Rating: 56.6. Slope: 92. Score: 83. Good ol’ Countryway Golf Club. As you can see from the details above, Countryway is an executive, pitch-and-putt type golf course. I think each 9 had 6 par 3’s and 3 par 4’s, and none were long at all. It was a favorite place to play when I lived in Tampa because it was cheap, and covered a lot of the play issues me and my buddies had with our game. Also, we could drink profuse amounts of alcohol while playing and it wouldn’t really affect our game. (I mean, we could come home and say, “I shot an 83!” and think we did well.) I remember one such round where my friend Bill had a bit too much to drink, forgot to put the brake on the cart while close to a pond, and the cart started rolling backwards into the water. Luckily someone was close by to jump in and avert a disaster. (Ah, to be young and foolish.)

#91. Southern Dunes Golf & Country Club, Haines City, FL. 12/11/97. Whites: 6,298. Par: 72. Rating: 70.2. Slope: 123. Score: 105. Putts: 43, 8 3-putts. FIR: 9/14. GIR: 3/18. Vince and I played this course when the family was all staying at a rented house outside Orlando for a holiday get together. We played on a cold, wet day and had the course almost to ourselves. Southern Dunes was unusual for a Florida course as it had a lot of elevation change, and I remember it being very nicely laid out as well. Appealing to the eye is always a good thing when playing golf. Interesting side-note about Southern Dunes: It was built and owned by Dewey Tomko, one of the most successful poker players of all time. Doyle Brunson also was an initial investor in the club.

Look for the 2nd installment within the next week.