Day 14 Falconhead in Austin as the rain holds off!
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 go to the practice facility (a short cart ride from the clubhouse) and hit some putts. I liked the practice green. The ball rolled well and you could read the break. The greens had been slit recently, but were mostly healed and not sandy. (These would be the best greens I would play for the rest of the trip!)
It had rained enough through the week that it was a cart paths only day . Not my favorite, but I understood the need for it. Luckily most of the cart paths were on the right side of the holes (my miss side!) so walking to and from the ball was not often too long of a trip.
The are no level holes on this golf course, the closest thing to it is the short par three 4th. There are major elevation changes on many holes, always at least a greenside bunker (sometimes more than one) and several fairway bunkers. It has a little water here and there. You had to hit a REALLY bad shot to go out of bounds or lose a ball, and none of us did.
I played from the whites (5887, 68.7, 124 slope) and my playing companions Bill & his son Cameron, a 21 year old who could crush it) played from the blues (6295, 70.9, 128 rating). There is a 6700 yard tee and a 7181 yard tee if you wanted to beat yourself up and the red tees are 5170, 70.9, 125 rating for ladies. I think Margaret would like this course.
Most Interesting holes: #2 is the #1 handicap hole for men & women. From my tee it is only 401 yards and the tee shot is down hill with a bunker on the right. The 2nd shot is STEEPLY UPHILL with a bunker short left. I hit two good shots & couldn't bounce my way up the hill, but was happy to stay just right of the bunker. The green slopes from front to back (middle pin) and my fairly good chip (for ME!) rolled well by the hole & I two putted for a bogie. Hole #8 is a short par three with a rock wall facing that covers 2/3 of the green, right to left. There is a creek in the right center so the miss is long left. I made a bogie (theme of the day) on this very pretty little hole.
There is a driveable (for some!) par 4. Number 7 is 249 yards from my tee with a lot of bunkers front and left of the green that would be hard to miss. I did not miss one of them, hit it on the green and two putted for a sandy par! All the par 5's have uphill approaches except the last one (#14) and it has a very narrow approach angle.
Bill has a decent all around game and I would guess him to be around a 12 handicap. Cameron kept most of his drives in the fairway and when he did he usually hit a good 2nd shot. He putted much better than he chipped, but I would guess him to be a single digit, 8 or 9 handicap. They were good guys to play with.
The raindrops did NOT start to fall until we were on the 18th green and a light spatters continued was all the way back to the hotel. Around 4 o'clock the rain came down really hard in Austin. It seemed to come down in waves with a few short breaks. It was not a particularly warm day (a long pants day!) and I would've quit immediately if this downpour had happened on the golf course.
All in all I played a pretty good round. If I had not effed up the last hole (my tee shot nestled against a tree on this fairly long uphill par 4) I would have happily shot a 90 or 91 on this golf course. I tripled the last hole and shot 93.
Tomorrow is Avery Ranch & the weather looks to be pretty good. Then I'm off towards Louisiana for a round on Monday.
I may have to shut this trip down early and come home. Golf courses were one of the last things affected (you don't play golf in a large crowd!), but some states are closing them down now. I feel fine (good actually) and I am 20% done with the journey, but if I can't find a place to play where I want to go, there's no point in it.
My next states are Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas & Colorado. At that point I will have to make the decision, because that is the closest I will be to home. My next course would be turning back to the east and south to Nebraska, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia & Florida. It would be a HELL of a lot easier to go home from Colorado than Florida, eh?
I hope all my friends are well.
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 go to the practice facility (a short cart ride from the clubhouse) and hit some putts. I liked the practice green. The ball rolled well and you could read the break. The greens had been slit recently, but were mostly healed and not sandy. (These would be the best greens I would play for the rest of the trip!)
It had rained enough through the week that it was a cart paths only day . Not my favorite, but I understood the need for it. Luckily most of the cart paths were on the right side of the holes (my miss side!) so walking to and from the ball was not often too long of a trip.
The are no level holes on this golf course, the closest thing to it is the short par three 4th. There are major elevation changes on many holes, always at least a greenside bunker (sometimes more than one) and several fairway bunkers. It has a little water here and there. You had to hit a REALLY bad shot to go out of bounds or lose a ball, and none of us did.
I played from the whites (5887, 68.7, 124 slope) and my playing companions Bill & his son Cameron, a 21 year old who could crush it) played from the blues (6295, 70.9, 128 rating). There is a 6700 yard tee and a 7181 yard tee if you wanted to beat yourself up and the red tees are 5170, 70.9, 125 rating for ladies. I think Margaret would like this course.
Most Interesting holes: #2 is the #1 handicap hole for men & women. From my tee it is only 401 yards and the tee shot is down hill with a bunker on the right. The 2nd shot is STEEPLY UPHILL with a bunker short left. I hit two good shots & couldn't bounce my way up the hill, but was happy to stay just right of the bunker. The green slopes from front to back (middle pin) and my fairly good chip (for ME!) rolled well by the hole & I two putted for a bogie. Hole #8 is a short par three with a rock wall facing that covers 2/3 of the green, right to left. There is a creek in the right center so the miss is long left. I made a bogie (theme of the day) on this very pretty little hole.
There is a driveable (for some!) par 4. Number 7 is 249 yards from my tee with a lot of bunkers front and left of the green that would be hard to miss. I did not miss one of them, hit it on the green and two putted for a sandy par! All the par 5's have uphill approaches except the last one (#14) and it has a very narrow approach angle.
Bill has a decent all around game and I would guess him to be around a 12 handicap. Cameron kept most of his drives in the fairway and when he did he usually hit a good 2nd shot. He putted much better than he chipped, but I would guess him to be a single digit, 8 or 9 handicap. They were good guys to play with.
The raindrops did NOT start to fall until we were on the 18th green and a light spatters continued was all the way back to the hotel. Around 4 o'clock the rain came down really hard in Austin. It seemed to come down in waves with a few short breaks. It was not a particularly warm day (a long pants day!) and I would've quit immediately if this downpour had happened on the golf course.
All in all I played a pretty good round. If I had not effed up the last hole (my tee shot nestled against a tree on this fairly long uphill par 4) I would have happily shot a 90 or 91 on this golf course. I tripled the last hole and shot 93.
Tomorrow is Avery Ranch & the weather looks to be pretty good. Then I'm off towards Louisiana for a round on Monday.
I may have to shut this trip down early and come home. Golf courses were one of the last things affected (you don't play golf in a large crowd!), but some states are closing them down now. I feel fine (good actually) and I am 20% done with the journey, but if I can't find a place to play where I want to go, there's no point in it.
My next states are Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas & Colorado. At that point I will have to make the decision, because that is the closest I will be to home. My next course would be turning back to the east and south to Nebraska, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia & Florida. It would be a HELL of a lot easier to go home from Colorado than Florida, eh?
I hope all my friends are well.
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