Viva Las Vegas: Golf In the Kingdom, Courses I have Played In Las Vegas-Part 5

Have I bored you enough with my posts about Las Vegas and the courses I have played?  Hang tight with me for just a little while longer because this should be my last post on the courses I have played in Las Vegas. Here goes, stay with me now. 

We packed up the car and headed out for the fourth PGCC Coaches Clinic and Tournament, once again traversing the vast nothingness of the California High Desert.  This was going to be a bit different conference in that we were to stay at a different hotel and we were not returning to Stallion Mountain.  The courses for this event were in Boulder City and the courses were the new course outside of Boulder City, Boulder Creek which had just opened about a month before we got there and Boulder City Municipal.  I don't know why the change was, but I really enjoyed playing the two courses. 

Boulder Creek had three nines, but one of the nines was not open because it was still under construction. The two nines that we did play were great tracks with some interesting holes.  All in all, the two nines were fair as far as their architecture, but being very new the greens were like concrete and when you hit into them the ball would bounce into the air as if you had hit the ball onto the concrete of a parking lot. That was an interesting part of playing there. The course was well bunkered and there were many sand collection areas.  Yes, there was water, but the lakes were placed in areas that you could navigate them.  They were not punitive but came into play in a very logical way.  I would play Boulder Creek again and it rates high on my courses to play again should I ever be in Las Vegas again.

When I saw the list of courses we were to play in this my fourth PGCC Coaches/Clinic I was taken aback a bit and kind of disappointed.  There was a municipal course on the course rotation that year, Boulder City Municipal Golf Course.  All of The PGCC events played courses that were upscale, and I was kind of wondered why we would be playing a muni and not an upscale course.

I am actually a very boring person, or so I am told. I don't get very many surprises in my life.  Boulder City Golf Course was a true surprise.  I had dismissed it as another muni golf course, probably not worth playing. I was WRONG.  This course is truly a hidden gem.  It was a lot of fun to play and I was totally amazed at how this course in the desert was so lush. The layout was interesting and the greens were fast.  Set in a what seemed to be a housing development, the fairways were pretty tight.  The rough was, what can I say, tallish and lush.  I want to play this course again should I ever return to the Las Vegas area. Probably never again, but never say never.

Let's fast forward several years.  Did you read my post "Detail A Car-Buy A Timeshare"? Please go back and read it as it lays the groundwork for these next few comments.  At any rate, my wife and I found ourselves in Las Vegas.  I have a good friend that lives in Las Vegas that I used to play golf with so we decided to hook up for a round of golf.  We decided that The Paiute Golf Resort Wolf Course would be a great place to play a round of golf with myself and my wife. 

We totally enjoyed this course. Being in the middle of nowhere in the desert, I was totally taken aback as to how lush and green the course was.  It was in perfect condition, with the greens running fast and true. The layout was what I thought fair with no forced carries.  There was one thing I thought was a gimmick as I think this particular feature on a golf course is.  They had an island green.  I am not a fan of island greens for a number of reasons.  Overall, I rate this course very highly and do want to  play it again, just move it away from Las Vegas.

I will never go back to Las Vegas.  Those were famous last words that I have uttered. Yep, I was wrong again.  My third daughter was pregnant and a revealing party was planned. The location of the party was-you guessed it-Las Vegas. My youngest daughter was graduating from masseuse school on the same weekend, so it was planned that the family that was stretched out from Missouri to Spokane, Washington to Bakersfield, California and Merced California would gather in Las Vegas for two celebration events. So I hopped a plane to Las Vegas and booked a one room suite at the time share.  The parties were on two separate days, so what was I to do with my down time?

My youngest daughter lives in Las Vegas so I was looking forward to spending some time with her.  Did I mention she plays golf? I got off the plane at 7:30 AM after the flight from Fresno that left at 6:00.  I had been up since 3:30 in order to catch the 6:00 flight so I was fairly tired when I got to Las Vegas. My daughter and I had breakfast and guess where we went from there. It wasn't bowling, my friend. She has connection in the Las Vegas golf world so we got a great rate at Bear's Best.  Of course-no pun intended-I was going to play golf, especially with my daughter. I should mention here that she is a pretty good stick and drives the ball about 270, enough said.

We got to play Bear's Best just out of town set in the rolling hills just out of Las Vegas. This was an upscale experience.  There was the pyramid of practice balls on the range and the place was impeccable.  This was Vegas, especially seeing the scantily clad escorts that were riding on the carts and hanging on to some of the players. This ain't Kansas, Toto. So, what about the course?

As I sat outside of the clubhouse, I kind of got the same feeling about this course as I did when I played Royal Links.  This was a Las Vegas imitation.  Bear's Best is a collection of holes inspired by Jack Nicklaus.  It winds through the contours of the foothills it is designed, but the lies are mostly level and the greens are huge.  They putted fairly truly as well and I would play the course again, even though it is totally overpriced.   I'm not a fan of imitation golf courses but hey, let's play some golf. That is, if I don't fall asleep which I almost did three times. As I flew out of Las Vegas and the wheels of the airplane escaped the bonds of earth, I once again vowed never to return to Las Vegas.

My wife's son was going to be in Phoenix for a couple of weeks. I didn't blame her for wanting to visit him when he was there. She asked me if we could drive to Phoenix, stopover at the midway point for a couple of nights and drive from there to meet her son in Phoenix.  I give you three-no one-guesses as to where the halfway point would be. Yep you guessed it, Las Vegas.  At least we have our time share there and it was open the few days we wanted to go. There would be time to squeeze in a round of golf with my friend who lives in Las Vegas and my daughter. I don't think vowing not to go to Las Vegas again is not a vow, but a curse.  Every time I seem to vow that I will never grace the Las Vegas area again, I seem to return. I will never say again that I will never go to Las Vegas again.

Here's the question.  Where in Las Vegas can we play without spending an arm and a leg?  We found a course that was reasonably priced, under $50 with cart and that was The Legacy in Henderson, Nevada just a short drive from the strip.  The Legacy was sold and the new owner wanted to close it and turn the property into a housing development.  The land around the course was already a full built housing development with a homeowner's association.  In the HOA contract it stated specifically that the golf course would stay a golf course and could not be developed, contrary to what the new owner wanted to do with the land. The HOA took the new landowner to court and won, the new owner could not develop the course. In retribution, the new owner said fine you could have your course, but that doesn't mean I have to maintain it. You can see where this is going.

The tees and greens were fine, but the fairways were in many cases just dirt. Despite the condition of the course, I liked it.  From what I understand, the HOA and the new owner have come to a bit of an agreement and he is putting more money into the course as far as maintenance.  The greens were OK, but had a lot of bare spots and some crabgrass.  There is a unique feature of this course and it is that the tenth tee has the four suits of a deck of cards as teeing grounds. I would play this course again.

Well, in the last two of my posts I have shared with you the courses I have played in Las Vegas.  We have a timeshare in Palm Springs. We enjoy Palm Springs and the courses there much more. Hmmmm...is there a post in there somewhere.  Yes there is in the future.  My opinion of Las Vegas is unchanged.  I will never go back to Las Vegas again- uh, maybe.   

Have you checked out my website?  It is a directory of public golf courses you can play.  Take a minute and click on http://the-golf-course-travel-bag.com and check it out.

 

 

  

Viva Las Vegas: Golf In the Kingdom, Courses I have Played In Las Vegas-Part 4

 How interesting is a seven hour trip in the car through twenty miles on the other side of "The Boondocks"? Let me tell you, it's not very entertaining. How many rocks and volcanic cones can you see when they all look the same. This is basically what you get when you drive from Fresno to Las Vegas.  It is miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles.  There are some interesting attractions along the way such as the tallest thermometer in the world, which is not always working, and of course The Mad Greek in Baker, California but not much else.  You have to have a good reason to make the exciting transit to Las Vegas. I don't mind flying, but I still hate Vegas.

In my last post, I talked about how I took part in the first of four annual PGCC Coaches Tournament and Clinic. I must say here that the conference turned into mostly a tournament where the majority of the almost 200 coaches played in the tournament but didn't stay for the clinic.  Being one of the 20 or so coaches that stayed for the clinic, I must say that I learned a lot about coaching golf from the instructors. Believe me, it was not a waste of time and I had plenty of beside the pool time back at the hotel.

I looked forward to the second year of participating in the event. This particular year the tournament was played over all three of the Stallion Mountain courses. We didn't get to play one of the courses last year as I said in my last post so I was excited to play the third course, and it was a lot of fun to play-but nothing to write home to mom about. After playing the on the third day, we packed up the car and headed for home.

After a long school year the summer vacation finally arrived And this was going to be my third trip to the PGCC Coach's Clinic.  This year's lineup of courses was two days at Stallion Mountain and the third day at Desert Pines in Las Vegas.  I am not going to say that I was excited to be going back to Las Vegas and The PGCC Tournament but I was ready to go because we were going to play a different golf course than Stallion Mountain for the third course and I was curious what the course was like. 

Stallion Mountain was..Stallion Mountain. I must admit though it was good to play the courses because I had played all three courses and they were not new to me.  Desert Pines was a different story. It was different and unlike any of the courses we had played in past tournaments.

What a total change of pace.  Yes, this was a course that was suggestive of courses you would find in the Carolinas such as Pinehurst and did not have a "Las Vegas" feel at all. There were tall Carolina Pines outlying the fairways and collection bunkers as well as lakes came into play. Desert Pines falls in a high place on my courses I have played.  I haven't gone back to Desert Pines, and I hear that the course has been neglected.  I don't know if that is true, but I have seen some of the reviews on GolfPass and they seem to reflect this.

I would be remiss-what does that mean, by the way-if I didn't share this story about my playing Desert Pines.  We of course were in Las Vegas and this was the last day of the Tournament.  In a rare form of misjudgement, I decided to slip out of the hotel room and do some enjoyment of the Las Vegas nightlife. I gambled too much and imbibed in what native Americans call "firewater". You could say that I was a bit "in the bag" when I returned to the hotel room at 2:00 AM or 02:00 for those of you serving in the military. Tee off time was 8:00 or in 6 hours. 

Yes, I did make it to Desert Pines in enough time to go to the driving range and hit some balls. Let's just say that the fog had not cleared over the Golden Gate Bridge as far as my body was concerned.  I walked onto the hitting area and picked out a stall.  The hitting stations were not grass but turf and I noticed there were no ball filled triangle of balls to hit.  There was a ball sitting on a rubber tee on the right side of the turf square? I said to myself what the heck and I hit the ball that was on the tee.  Whoosh and off it went out onto the range.

I turned away from where the ball was and asked someone a question.  When I turned back towards where the first ball was, there was another ball on the tee. At this point I began to doubt my sanity.  I knew that I had hit that ball off that tee and there were no more balls. But yet, a ball was sitting on the tee as big as you please. I knew I was in pretty bad shape and was slightly hungover, but I didn't think I had lost it that bad. Like Columbo in a good mystery, I was going to solve this. I was a little beat up mentally and physically I know, but I wasn't ready for the looney ward just yet. hey, I'm from Fresno and now Merced.  These things don't happen in my neck of the woods.

Here's what I did. There was a ball sitting on the tee. Thwack, I hit it off the tee and off it went majestically into the air.  I froze my eyes on the tee to see what was going to happen. The tee went down into the ground and then up comes another ball on the tee. There was a ball feeding system where the balls came up from a machine under the hitting area.  Wow, what high technology. I was still sane and the mystery was solved.  I was not losing my mind, but that didn't cure the intense hangover. 

I want to stop here because this blog is getting a bit too long and I don't want to lose you.  In my next post I will share with you my fourth trip to the  PGCC coaches Clinic/Tournament which was my last year participating in it. I will also talk about the three other courses I played in Las Vegas-Paiute, Bear's Best and Legacy- but on separate occasions. Stay tuned for Viva Las Vegas: Golf In The Kingdom Part 5 coming to a computer near you on The Golf Course Travel Bag.

 

     

Viva Las Vegas: Golf In The Kingdom-Courses I have Played Part 3

 The car was all packed and we were ready to leave the wonderful urban sprawl of the Las Vegas area.  What was I going to do for the next seven and a half hours of riding through nothingness of the California High Desert and then the pleasing to the eye experience of riding up Highway 99 up through California's San Joaquin Valley from Bakersfield to Merced. There was a stop in Bakersfield at the Famous Hodel's Buffet Restaurant for lunch and then it was off to finish our trip back to Merced. 

Seven and a half hours is a lot of time to kill.  My wife hates my driving so she does ALL of the driving when we go on any trips-anywhere.  To a lot of guys this is truly not what guys do, but I kind of like riding shotgun wherever we go. That's another story. I don't care to get into it because my wife reads my blog and I don't want to kick the bear, if you know what I mean. So, what do I do for those seven and a half long and boring hours other than converse with my wife about how much we hate Las Vegas?

What do you think I did?  I will wait for your answer.........OK, time's up.  I'll tell you what I did. We got to play golf this trip so my mind was on golf and I started to think about the many courses I have played in Las Vegas on my many trips there. I try to get in a round of golf when I am there, sucking up my pride and shelling out the non-resident green fee.  As I have said in my last post, I have issues with how out of town golfers have to pay a premium green fee to play the courses in Las Vegas, but I've talked about that in my last post and I won't go there. 

As each mile that looked a lot like the last ticked away, I started to make mental notes about the courses I played in Las Vegas and how I would share them here on this blog. I guess I will do what I normally do and write about them. Keep in mind, I enjoyed playing them. I have also listed them on my website, although I do have to update my website to include The Legacy.  By the way, if you haven't done so visit my website at http://the-golf-course-travel-bag.com. 

So that you can gain a sort of perspective on this, I think I need to share with you a paragraph of introduction here.  The first group of courses I played when I was a participant for four years in The Professional Golfers Career College Coaches Tournament and Clinic. I enjoyed playing these courses and each one was unique in its design.  What courses did we play? I will give some feedback on those courses later in the blog but first I want to give you some context as far as playing the courses.

The first year we played at Stallion mountain which at the time had three courses.  One of the courses was out of play so we played two of the three. We did play all three Stallion Mountain courses the following year.  The third course we played that year was Royal Links which is closed presently. Stallion Mountain's courses were fairly straight up, by that I mean that the course was flat but the rough and fairways were pristine.  I remember the greens being large and fast with some undulation to them. The three courses were nothing special really, but they were fun to play.  Stallion Mountain's three courses have been rerouted into one course, which I haven't played.

I remember arriving at Royal Links and looking over the course from the clubhouse. I  thought  to myself that this course is truly Las Vegas.  It had a sort of unique twist to it that truly made it a "Las Vegas Concept" course.  All of the holes on it were representations of the courses in the British Open rotation such as "The Road Hole" at St. Andrews and "The Postage Stamp".  To me, it was kind of a gimmicky golf course. I enjoyed playing the Royal Links and especially enjoyed "The Postage Stamp".  The course was pretty damp given the fact that the turf was a hybrid rye and in order to keep rye grass alive in a hot climate, you have to put a lot of water on it.  There were a lot of damp spots and puddles. I do have a good memory of the place in that I shot one of the best rounds of my life there.

Memories, tucked between the pages of my mind. You didn't think I could get away with not coming up with some throwback to an Elvis Presley song when this blog is entitled Viva Los vegas which is a Pressly song, did you?  Well, there it is. This post is running a bit too long so I will split it up into two posts. In the next post I will share more of the Las Vegas courses I have played. In the meantime, Viva Las Vegas.  That is, if you like Las Vegas.

   

 

  

Viva Las Vegas-Part 2 Golf In The Kingdom

 My little tirade on Las Vegas didn't go over too well, judging the number of hits it got.  That's OK, it was a bit of a downer to Las Vegas and the bottom line is I still do not like Las Vegas. Have you seen the parking rates downtown? You better win big in the casinos in order to just pay your parking bill. Enough said about that.

 Today's post is going to focus on one of the biggest reasons I dislike Las Vegas and that is how they do golf.  I have played several golf courses in the Las Vegas area and I did love the courses.  What I hate is how they soak non-residents by charging non-resident rates.  On Golf Now all the course green fees are based on non-resident rates. If you don't live in Las Vegas you pay a premium. There is not even a seasonal rate, just the rate non-residents pay, and non-residents are soaked. As far as pricing is concerned, courses are entitled to charge what they want but I'm not going to buy into that. That's not very welcoming and I just will not spend my money in a place that makes visitors feel unwelcome, but tries to take advantage of them.

Let's talk briefly about this resident rate.  I understand the resident rate if you play a course that is funded and owned by a particular city or county.  The taxpayers of that city or county pay their taxes for services the city or county offers, which may include the operation of  golf courses in that city or county.  I can see a two tiered system for residents versus non-residents. San Diego County which owns and operates Torrey Pines and Balboa Park has that kind of set up. I won't play either of the Torrey Pines courses the main reason being that the non-resident green fee is too steep, and except for the views the course plays a lot like a course I play in Fresno. When we do go to San Diego we try to play Balboa Park where the non-resident rate is reasonable. I'm OK with that.

Las Vegas is a different story.  Green fees are structured for residents are different than for non-resident, and in some cases there is a significant difference. It doesn't matter whether the course is a muni course or a semi-private course.  There is also not a difference between a summer and winter rate.  You have to know, if you are a tourist staying in Las Vegas and want to play golf you are going to pay through the nose. I truly understand that Las Vegas is a tourist town, but does it have to act like a very tight slot machine taking your money where the jackpot never comes up?

Nope, Las Vegas is not going to see me very often.  I may go there to visit my daughter and play golf with her but she lives there and when I go, I get resident rates.

In my next blog, I will share with you the golf courses I have played in Las Vegas.   

 

Viva Las Vegas, Or Not 

I really don't want to put into words how I feel about Las Vegas.  I have been there several times and each time I visited the city I have tried with all my might to like the town. Each time I went there I vowed that this time would be different and I would learn to like the place.  Well, each visit pretty much evoked strong feelings about the place.  OK, I'll say it.  I hate the place. 

Why do I not care for Las Vegas?  There are several reasons that I hold this opinion. First off, from where I live it is an almost seven and a half drive through nothingness, the California High Desert. The drive is basically once you have gotten to the boondocks, you still have about one-hundred and fifty miles to go. Flying there is not too bad, but in order to get around you must rent a car. The freeway system is pretty good, but the whole place runs at a pace that you better be careful you may get run over by that Mack truck. The traffic around the strip is, well what can I say.  Basically, Las Vegas is Los Angeles in the desert with a lot of rude people that just goes on and on. At least in Los Angeles you have an ocean nearby and it is not 150 degrees in the summer. Bottom line is, I just don't like the vibe of the city.

I've had some valid reasons for going to Las Vegas.  Let me share them.  First off, my first visit to Las Vegas was with my ex-wife. Our reason for going to Las Vegas was that we had never been there. Well, cross that off our bucket list. Her and I flew there in I believe it was early June, rented a car and did many of the touristy things you do when you go to Las Vegas. 

 We don't gamble so we really didn't go to the casinos.  We did Hoover Dam, The Liberace museum and The Billagio Fountain as well as going into the Luxor. The Follies Bergiere show at the no longer Tropicana hotel kept our interest and we enjoyed it. I hope the Oakland Athletics enjoy their non-existent ballpark when they move there on the site of the Tropicana. Sitting out at the pool at The Flamingo was a highlight of our trip. OK now, been there and done that. It wasn't that big of a deal and we probably won't come to Las Vegas again.  I was wrong.

I don't know if any of you are familiar with the jewelry company Cookie Lee.  It is a multi-level marketing company that sells jewelry and my ex-wife became a part of it.  She did fairly well with it I must say and recruited a couple of ladies into the company. She had a prospective recruit that lived in Las Vegas so off we went to meet with this lady. I was going to play golf with this lady's husband, so I went along.

This trip was a total bust.  We stayed a a fine Best Western which was very nice and had a great pool.  We enjoyed very much the evacuation of the resort in the heat of the July summer when the fire alarms went off.  It turns out that someone badly burned their toast causing the smoke alarm to go off in the room which facilitated the evacuation.  All in the name of safety.  Did I say that the pool was great? All kidding aside though, the resort was the high point of this visit.  The room was very nice and the staff went out of their way to make things comfortable.

Here goes a summary of this trip.  The recruit had ulterior motive and didn't sign up. The recruit's husband whom I was to play golf with backed out.  The whole trip was a bust, except for the exceptional stay at the resort. 

Trips three through six were business trips-sort of. When I was a teacher, I was also coaching golf at a local high school and middle school.  There was a coach's three day clinic/tournament that I was always invited to each year and it just happened to be held in Las Vegas. That clinic/tournament tuned into TOURNAMENT/clinic as most of the almost 200 coaches played in the tournament but sort of disappeared for the clinic. My memories are very fond as I participated in three of these events put on by The Professional Golfers Career College out of San Diego and we got to play some of the great courses in the Las Vegas area. On the rotation of courses were Stallion Mountain, Royal Links which is now closed, Desert Pines and the two courses Boulder Creek and Boulder Creek Municipal in Boulder Creek. I enjoyed very much going to these tournaments but my third was the last that PGCC held. The first year we got rained on and the second and third year the mercury soared to a wonderful 112 plus.  Another reason I hate Las Vegas.   

I've been to Las Vegas three times since The coach's tournament. My present wife drove the seven hour trip there on a time share promotion and came away seven thousand dollars poorer. Yes, we did buy the timeshare and I will share that story tomorrow, we enjoy it even though it was very expensive.  My wife was the one that said yes and we got to play golf. I wrote a post about this and I will repost it tomorrow so that you can get a good idea of what happened.

 The second time I went to Las Vegas on a immediate family reunion of my five children and I stayed in our timeshare. My wife did not come along and I won't go into that. My daughter who lives in Las Vegas is a fantastic golfer and I got to play golf at The Bear's Best golf course with her.  One of the highlights of the trip was finding out the gender of our next grandchild-my only grand daughter-and going through the National Atomic Testing Museum which was a blast, pardon the pun.

The third and last time I was in Las Vegas I was with my wife.  Her son  whom she sees rarely, was going to be in Phoenix, Arizona.  She wanted to meet up with his so we decided to drive and use our timeshare as a sort of halfway point on our way to Phoenix and stay a couple of days at our timeshare.  This not only would also include a round of golf in Las Vegas. This trip went off without of hitch and we got to spend some quality time with her son.

I know that this post was a bit rambling and probably wasn't that humorous, in fact probably downright boring. Thanks for staying with me on this. My post on Friday will be about the courses I played in Las Vegas and my opinions on them.  The bottom line on this is still, I hate Las Vegas.

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Who Am I?  Writer or Golfer?

So, I am having to make some big changes.  I have asked myself what do I want to be when I grow up.  Do I want to be a writer or do I want to be a golfer? I don't want to reveal my age, but I will say that I just entered my seventh decade of existence. I play golf and I write.

Social Security and my teacher's pension have kept me going for a while and so has being married to a wonderful wife. However, eating Hamburger Helper and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as our daily sustenance is not my idea of living.  Once in a while we splurge and make a tuna fish sandwich.  OK, its not that bad, but I would still like to supplement our income and the best way I know of doing this is through my writing. With this in mind, I have decided a couple of things, so here goes.

The biggest thing is that I have to devote more serious time to writing. What I need to do is to set aside a block of time where I am not disturbed and sit down at my computer and write.  This must be a ritual each day as there are a few things that I want to accomplish on a regular basis and I can't do that if I am not consistent. I have to totally internalize that I am a professional writer first and golf along with travel are my subjects. Golf and travel are my subjects that I am painting and the written page are my canvas.  Writing has been a hobby and it is time to change that.

Secondly, I must become more consistent posting my blogs.  How can you build a following and when you don't know when another post is coming out.  Readers go away from you work, because they can't depend on you being there.  They want new things and ideas to read and enjoy.  If you are not consistent in your posts, they will not subscribe and think that you have fallen into a cenote in the Yucatan, drowning in that cenote. Well, maybe not that but they won't come back if there are no new posts on a regular basis 

Here is my plan.  I will post hopefully three times a week, most likely Monday, Wednesday and Friday so watch for it.  The Golf Course Travel Bag will be my main blog but I will also try to get a couple of my other blogs such as Golf Is For Couples and David Rallis Writes up and running in this mix. Posts will not only be about my thoughts on different aspects and topics in the game of golf, but I will also share some of the observations about some of the over 250 courses I have played. What was it like to play some of the wonderful courses I have played such as Pacific Grove in the Monterey area?  What are some of the hidden gem golf courses I have played such as Oceanside Muni? I will share that with you.

I have a lot to write about and there is more to come so I hope you will join me on this literary journey. I am also making arrangements to do some affiliate marketing through my blogs so I hope you will support me with that as well. My goal is to get my readership up to at least 10,000 hits a month and a subscribers list of about the same size.  I know it will take time so please help me on this.  I would appreciate it so don't forget to hit the follower's button on the blog.

I don't know if any of you know this but I do have a website.  The web address is http://the-golf-course-travel-bag.com and is basically a course directory.  The unique thing about it is the courses listed in it are all courses I have personally played and some personal comments about what I thought about that course.  They are basically courses on the West Coast, but I have played in Florida and some other places as well. Again, I hope to have some affiliate marketing on that site and please visit as well as subscribe to the site.  I am in the process of updating the website with a few courses that I have played since I last updated it.  

To those of you who have read my blog when I publish, I want to say a hearty Thank You. I hope to welcome many more readers into the Golf Course Travel Bag blog family.  Please don't forget to hit the followers button and thank you for reading, I'll

see you soon. 

 

It Is The Game of Golf-Darn

 Yes, golf is a game that can humble the heart.  It is also a game that can take you to new heights.  In my case, it can also take you to new lows as well.  These things are very true, especially if you have experienced "the wheels coming off" in a round.  We all know that golf is a game of a collection of shots and sometimes those shots are not our best.  We love the game, it is a challenge and is never the same each time we go out. No matter how great we play or on the other hand how bad we play, we always ask that age old question after our round, When is our next tee time.

I don't know how many of you experienced watching the end of the 2024 Byron Nelson Golf Classic?  It was certainly an exciting finish between the two top competitors in the tournament.  Tyler Pendraith won by one shot over Ben Knowles.  There are a couple of things I have to say about the finish of this tournament. 

First off, congratulations to Tyler Pendraith for winning what I believe was his first PGA tournament. This player from Canada was solid throughout the tournament.  However, I don't know at the end of the day that he didn't win the tournament so much as Knowles lost the tournament on the last hole.  Let me explain. 

Two questions have to be answered. The first question is why did Knowles try to go for the green with a hybrid on hole number 18 which is a short par 5 and supposedly the easiest hole on the course?  Why did you do that when you are leading the tournament by a stroke and all you had to do is lay up, take an easy pitch shot from off the green, make the putt for birdie and walk away with the trophy and  $1.7?  

And that my friend is not the end of it.  How could you chunk a wedge out of that thick rough? All he had to do is get the ball on the green and two putt for at least a par and a share of the lead leading to at least a playoff.  He could have put that wedge shot for a makeable birdie and a win.  For pitty sake, I could have taken out my 60 degree and blasted it out of that rough. I realize that the pressure was on, but come on. Such is the game of golf, I guess.  Disaster was snatched from the jaws of victory.  

I don't feel sorry for Ben Knowles.  That little missed pitch from out of the rough by the green cost him about $700,000.  Oh well, he still pocketed over a cool $1000000 so I don't feel sorry for him.  I have to publish a lot of blog posts and book for a million dollars.  One thing he did prove though.  It is truly a difficult and humbling game. But, we golfers already know that.