Randy's Golf Travels

     This page is for myself, Margaret & other "figure filberts"! Active hours are driving to a destination city or golf course, playing golf, doing laundry, tire rotation or other services, almost anything OTHER than eating, sleeping or sitting in my motel room watching TV, reading a book or writing a blog! 3/8 421 miles, WA 268, OR 144, ID 9 13.25 hours 3/9 501 miles, OR 383, CAL 118 15 hours 3/10 274 miles all CAL 13 hours 3/11 239 miles CAL 209, NV 30 11.75 hours 3/12 527 miles NV 487, AZ 30, UT 10 11.75 hours 3/13 294 miles AZ 185,UT 109 5.25 hours 3/14 211 miles all AZ 12.5 hours      First week summary MILES 2467      ACTIVE HOURS 82.5 out of 168 7 states, golfed in 5 states 3/15 153 miles All AZ 8 hours 3/16 315 miles AZ 176, NM 139 10 hours 3/17 49 miles all NM 8.75 hours 3/18 579 miles TX 557 NM 22 9.25 hours 3/19 116 miles all TX 8.25 hours 3/20 7 miles all TX 3 hours (laundry & tire rotation, big rain day!) 3/21 52...

3/28 & 3/29 - Days 21 & 22 The Road Home I got up this morning and left Aurora, CO at 7 a.m. I arrived in Boise about 6:15 p.m. It was a long day, driving into a big head wind in Wyoming, some snow, some rain, lots of freezing temperatures along the way. It was an interesting drive until I got down the hill near Ogen, UT, and from then on it was easy. I only made two stops all day, both for fuel, coffee and a long stretch and emptying my bladder. (What, too much information?) When I left Clarkston, Margaret made sure I had the ice scraper in my car. Good thing, because snow had frozen to the passenger side of the car this morning and it would've been a drag having to wait for it to thaw out. Thanks, Honey! The sight of the snow capped Rocky Mountains as the back drop to Denver is awesome. I had never seen them with this much snow on them. The roads in northern Colorado and most of them in Wyoming are siped/striated so that they have better traction when there is sn...

Trip golf courses played in order of MY preference:                                       Recommended golf courses 5 Yocha DeHe (Brooks, CA)  beautiful, great layout, many hazards, but fair! A RARE 5 from me! 4.5 Sand Creek Station (Newton, KS) This is an interesting, well maintained course w/great greens! 4 Falconhead GC (Austin, TX) there aren't any level holes, great greens, tough, but fair 4 Meadow Springs (Richland, WA) very good golf course, a little pricey if you even can get on! 4 San Ignacio (Green Valley AZ) very good, very fair 3.5 Sonoma Ranch (Las Cruces, NM) fun track to play, medium condition-wise 3.5 Forest Ridge Golf Club (Broken Arrow, OK) I would like to play this one again 3.5 Lakeridge GC (Reno, NV) pretty good layout, not in the best of shape, but it was early in                           ...

3/27 - Day 20 Sand Creek Station, Newton Kansas      I played golf at Sand Creek Station in Newton, KS, this day. I had a 9:18 tee time and was joined by Preston a late 30's local guy who LOVES golf and his son Tyler rode with him for the front nine.      I had a bad front 9 as I couldn't seem to do anything right on a couple of holes, and found no consistency until we made the turn. Shot a 45 (par 36) on the back and anytime I play a new course I think bogey golf is good, for me. Preston was better on the front and much less consistent on the back. He's a nice young man & I enjoyed the conversation and golfing with him.      This is a GREAT golf course, my second favorite of the trip (after Yocha DeHe in California). It has bunkers that you can avoid, water hazards, greens with distinct levels (better be on the right one!) and the greens were smooth and fast. There is a train track that runs through a part of the golf course (...

3/26 - Day 19 Forest Ridge GC in Broken Arrow, OK      Fort Smith is on the western edge of Arkansas and Tulsa, is near the northeast corner of Oklahoma. I didn't have much of a drive to get there, less than two hours to the golf course. I had an early tee time so I when I left it was dark, but it turned out to be the prettiest day since I left Las Cruces. BTW, on my drive from eastern Arkansas to Fort Smith yesterday the temperature got up to 86 degrees. I was heading west at the right time.      This is a good golf course I would play again. I didn't get much roll, it was cart paths only and the greens had been aerated on Monday (this was Thursday). The back nine greens were actually pretty smooth, not so much on the front. On the other hand, with the putting cups sticking an inch or so up out of the hole, you didn't have to be too precise anyway. I have now seen upside down putting cups, (San Antonio), hole fillers (plastic sponge fabric in the cups...

 3/25 - Day 18 27 holes in Arkansas      About an hour southwest of West Memphis, hidden away in the woods, just off a small state highway sits The Ridges at Village Creek Golf Course. This is a state park golf course (fairly common in the south) and at least 18 of the 27 holes I consider a GEM! There weren't too many people on the golf course when I was there and after talking to the grounds crew guys it is not unusual for them to be slow. One of them said the course was one of the state's "money pits". The course is never advertised and there are no towns (therefore no motels) to overnight in nearby. The closest population center is West Memphis and they (the staff) told me they have some regular weekend players that come from there that won't tell anybody else about the golf course so as not to screw up their "good thing". There are no towns / motels for people to stay at near      The course was started as a private venture and those pe...

3/24 - Day 17 SPLAT golf in northern Mississippi      It's a six hour drive from Alexandria, LA to Olive Branch, MS. I left in the morning dark, heading east and north on Louisiana state highways. It got lighter about an hour into the drive and while I don't know what I missed, this is a beautifully green state. At the town of Richmond, LA, my route joined I-20 and turned due east to Jackson. I crossed Mississippi state line (The Mississippi River) at Vicksburg and Jackson is not far from there.      Louisiana had no mile markers on any of the roads I traveled except for the interstates, which were federally funded and probably required. When I got into Mississippi on I-20 they had mile markers on their interstates every two tenths of a mile for a while and then every quarter mile. I assume whoever got the government contract to make all these mile markers was the friend / donor of a prominent legislator, but pardon me for being cynical. I cannot imagin...

3/23 - Day 16 Texas to Louisiana (Patterson & eventually Alexandria)          It was 72 degrees when I got up and left Liberty. I think the high in Austin was only 59 on Sunday so I'm thinking it's going to be a nice day.  I had a 3 hour & 45 minute drive to my 11:10 tee time near Patterson, LA, at The Atchafalaya at  Idlewild Golf Course.              (pronounced At Chaw Fall I ya  (falaya, like jumbalaya with an f instead of jumb))      When you cross over the high arching Lake Charles bridge on Interstate 10 you are in Cajun country. My drive continues about an hour east of Lake Charles, to Lafayette and then south to the Patterson area. The Louisiana interstate highway section I drove may have been the nicest section of any interstate I have ever been on. Very smooth, well maintained, and unlike Texas, Louisiana doesn't forget about the need to pee occasionally on a car trip....

3/22 - Day 15 Avery Ranch GC & Austin to Liberty, TX        Austin is a beautiful city! Very green & well laid out. I like it a lot and would like to visit it again  WHEN THE BARS/MUSIC VENUES ARE OPEN! I have to say missing out on the music here is a major disappointment for the trip. I did try some Texas BBQ. I don't think it was top shelf, but I had a combo of brisket and smoked turkey, and the turkey was something new to me and excellent!      I fueled at Costco on the way to the golf course. It's a weird scene with so many people standing in a long, scattered line outside the store, waiting their turn. Costco is now mandated to only let 75 customers at a time in to shop. The waiting line reminded me of a zombie movies, people just milling around waiting for brains to eat (or something like that)! I'm sure I will be standing in one of these lines soon.    I played golf this day at the Avery Ranch Golf Club in northwest ...

3/21 - Day 14 Falconhead GC in Austin as the rain holds off!      As I am writing this (Sunday a.m.) the weather is looking up for today's round at Avery Ranch. The Stephen King (short novel, long short story?) book was finished Friday night, the 20th. "Elevation" is a wonderful story without horror or murder. It DOES have a mystery and social interplay and confirms that Mr. King still has his story telling Mojo after all the years. I just started "Sleeping Beauties" last night. It is a thick tome, co-written by King & his son Owen King. So far, so good.      Falconhead Golf Club is a really nice golf course / practice facility. It gives its address as Austin, but it's a little SW of the city and you have to drive through the suburb of "Bee Cave, TX" to get there. The weather forecast was for rain, possibly heavy starting at around one o'clock, when I should be making the turn for the back nine.      I got there early enough to...

3/20 - Day 13 Laundry day, tire rotation and Mexican Roast Chicken.      Thunderstorms and a lot of rain were forecast for Austin today and tomorrow's forecast is also iffy rain wise. They hit the nail on the head for today, but I'm hoping they're wrong about tomorrow.      I have an 11 a.m. tee time for Falconhead Golf Course and then a 1:12 tee time on Sunday for Avery Ranch. IF it is raining tomorrow I will still play (if they allow carts) and Sunday's weather looks to be better, especially for the later tee time I made.      Today I did laundry and had my tires rotated. I was GPS(ing) my way toward the laundry when I saw the tire place on the right side of the road. They were able to get me right in and about forty minutes later I was just a short drive away from the laundromat. Laundry wasn't as big a chore as I thought it might be and I started reading my Stephen King novel ("Elevation", at only 145 pages it is actually a sho...

3/19 - Day 12 Canyon Springs GC, First Night in Austin Played golf in San Antonio on the north side of town at Canyon Springs Golf Club. I played the white tees, 6210 yards, rating 70.7 / slope 128. The two guys I played with (Adam & Jim) played the blue tees 6677 yards, 72.1 rating, 130 slope. Par 72 golf course. I only had three pars the whole round and the course kicked my ass. After a fair start I was very inconsistent with my driver off the tee. This is SORT of a subdivision course, but the houses are all well off the fairways and some holes have no houses on them at all. The greens are fairly large, hard to read and a little bit slow, which made them tough to putt. I actually felt good (mostly) about my 39 putts as at least I didn't miss anything close. The greens were in good shape except for a couple of them. The guys told me that they were getting new grass on the greens this season. The cups on the greens were installe...

3/18 -  Day 11 The Drive to San Antonio      I drove from Las Cruces to San Antonio this day. With four MINIMAL breaks it was still a 9 hour plus trip (579 miles). This after a 36 hole golf day should've been harder to recover from, but I'm looking forward to my golf game today (I am writing this on the morning of the 19th. I've got 3.5 hours until my tee time and I have to be out of this motel (my first Microtel by Wyndham, not bad by the way) in 90 minutes so I'm trying to get caught up on the story telling.      San Antonio was NOT an original destination. I was going to drive north to Albuquerque and play at the Sandia Golf Course at a casino there. The weather forecast was for a little cold and a lot of rain so I bagged that idea.      My next stop was to be Lubbock, TX. Texas Tech has it's own golf course, called The Rawls. The Rawls is listed by Golf Advisor as the #3 college campus golf course in the country so I really wan...

3/17  - Day 10 Thirty six holes in Las Cruces, New Mexico       I played 36 holes today. The last time I did that was in Scottsdale about 4 or 5 years ago. Margaret & I went down there in mid-May to take advantage of MUCH cheaper than high-season green fees. We both played golf in the morning and she chose to hang out by the pool while I went to a different golf course and played another round.      Today's first 18 was at Sonoma Ranch Golf Course, in Las Cruces. This is a good subdivision golf course (lots of room to NOT hit balls in people's yards) on the front side and a mostly contiguous golf course on the back. I played with a 21 year old, Andrew, who goes to school at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. Nice young man, I have been very lucky with my pairings/playing partners (so far!). The weather was overcast, but dry until a sprinkle on the last hole and the wind was mostly light.      This is a par 72 golf cours...

3/16  - Day 9 San Ignacio, driving to Las Cruces & Chillitos      Doug Mattoon, Robin (Doug's sister), her husband Scott & I convened at San Ignacio Golf Club in Green Valley for a round of golf this beautiful Arizona Tuesday morning. None of us had ever played this course before and everyone agreed they would enjoy playing it again when we were finished.      Robin hits the ball pretty well. She and Scott are both pretty good putters, at least on this day. Doug played OK on the front and pretty well on the back. I started out hitting the ball well, but never could make a putt (42 PUTTS!) which is usually the better portion of my game. Not much to say except I enjoyed the company & the golf course, but hated the way I scored.      It's easy to recommend this golf course. It has a nice variety of holes and challenges without being too penal and the yardage we played (6298, slope of 125) didn't seem too long for anyo...

3/15 - Day 8 Mission Royale, Doug's home & Little Mexico Steakhouse      Sunday started in Casa Grande at Mission Royale golf course. The weather was perfect and the golf course is a fun, not too difficult layout. The conditioning of the golf course was OK except for the greens. THEY were horrible! I hope they are the worst I play on this whole trip (or ever again!), because it's hard to imagine worse! Evidently when they overseeded with rye grass for the winter, the ground froze and the winter grass didn't take or died. So the surface it was either bare spots or clumps, bumpy as hell! I don't know how, but (literally) slamming the ball into the hole worked for me and I shot a pretty good score.      I played with Jerry & Betty, a couple who live in the development and summer in Wisconsin. Nice folks! Jerry could play a little and I hope Betty was just having a tough day. As golfers, don't we all!      After golf it was about a...

3/14 - Day 7 Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, AZ It was snowing when I left Flagstaff this a.m., after it had snowed a bit yesterday while I was in my room catching up on the blogging. It was right at 32 degrees when I left and the snow wasn't sticking to the highway. Flagstaff is WAY up there in elevation (over 6900 feet) so I used caution until I had dropped a few thousand feet, and voila (Don't you love it when I write French!), the snow stopped. I wasn't in any hurry as I knew I'd have some time on my hands when I got to the golf course. I've driven down HWY 17 to Phoenix many times and never seen so few trucks on this route. Maybe it was the time of the morning, I don't know. But I'm not complaining! The Francisco Grande Resort was built in the late 1950s by Horace Stoneman. Stoneman owned the New York Giants baseball team and when he moved them to San Francisco, he wanted a place for them to have spring training in the ...