Randy's Golf Travels

  (June 22nd) Day 17 - Springfield, TN   drove 311 miles Because Calvert City CC was sure to be closed on this day due to such a heavy rainfall, I decided to drive to Tennessee and play The Legacy now, instead of on my way back toward home. This means I will be skipping Nashville altogether, but it will save me two days getting home and right now I think that sounds pretty good. I'm sure I'm going to cut a few more of the scheduled rounds out and maybe get tis trip down to 60 days or so. We shall see! The Legacy is a Raymond Floyd design. Springfield is a medium size town (not too city!) a little north of Nashville. Of all the Tennessee golf courses I had in mind, this is the one I most wanted to play. I've never played a Raymond Floyd design and had a great respect for his talent and competitiveness on the golf course. The green fee with cart was $32.00, quite a bargain for such a nice course. I was paired up with three other golfers, Jack & his grandson Grayson. Jac...

 (June 21st) Day 16 – Calvert City, KY drove 286 miles No golf today as the predicted rainstorm (monsoon!!!) showed up. It was coming down in buckets and driving was a stressful experience today. At least I wasn’t on a motorcycle trip like the couple I passed hanging out beneath an overpass. When I got to Calvert City there were two other couples on bikes hanging out under the gas station canopy. It was full speed windshield wipers and that was barely enough. I made it a point to drive near the rumble strip in case I lost traction (I never did!) because you wouldn’t want to try and brake, just foot off the accelerator and find traction. When I left Indianapolis, it wasn’t raining there and entering Kentucky I had (false) hope I might be able to play golf after all. The farther south I went the clouds kept darkening and when I hit the rain it was really coming down in sheets. The golf course here in Calvert City was flooded when I drove by it to see if tomorrow was a possibility. I ...

(June 20th) Day 15 - Cicero, IN   drove 160 miles My tee time for Bear Slide Golf Club, near Cicero, IN was 1:30 and so I wasn't in a big hurry on my way to the golf course. It was fathers day and I guessed there would be plenty of dads out early and maybe not so many later on. It was the most humid day I have played so far and the first time in many years I had sweat dripping into (and stinging!!) my eyes on the golf course. When I finished I would say that I was more tired than after any other round I had played so far (and since as I am writing this on June 28th). There were several foursomes on the golf course ahead of me so I was glad to be paired up with someone. There was a father/son/four year old grandson on the tee ahead of me and the guy that was supposed to be with me had NOT checked in yet, 5 minutes to our tee time, SO the starter sent me out with the family of three, and NO, the four year old wasn't playing. One hole in and I knew it was going to be a long day, ...

 (June 19th) Day 14 - Kalamazoo, MI   drove 204 miles My PLAN for this day was to play golf at Diamond Springs GC in Hamilton, MI, and since I had an early afternoon tee time I decided it was a good time to do my laundry, something you have to consider when going on an extended road trip like this one. It went smoothly and I was back on the road.  There was an "outing" (a scramble) at Diamond Springs. I knew about it, but I checked in at the pro shop, gabbed with the gals there about what I was doing and I was supposed to be the first one off after the scramble was done. I went back out into the parking lot and fired up my mobile hot spot and did a little catch-up surfing and booked a motel and tee time for the next day. AND THEN THE SKIES OPENED UP and man did it rain HARD. It wasn't a shower, it was a downpour and not a short one. The rain stopped, the scramble tried to restart and the skies opened up again. It actually rained a little HARDER on the 2nd downpour!...

  (June 18th) Day 13 - Byron, IL   drove 366 miles Prairieview Golf Club is my NEW #1 favorite golf course I have played on this trip, or maybe any trip for that matter. If I did not know this was a municipal golf course, I would not have believed it was a "muni". It cost me a whole $38 for green fee & cart, the best bargain you're going to see in these writings, because the "quality" of this course could demand many times that fee if it wasn't out in the sticks. It's only about 40 west of Chicago and my Clarkston buddy Aaron is from Chicago. Aaron has played a lot of different golf courses in Illinois and Indiana and never heard of this one. I'm guessing he will play it next time he goes visiting old friends in Illinois. The front nine is fairly level, but not flat. The back nine starts with two uphill holes, not as severe as some I played, but would definitely make you think twice about walking the course. The other thing for a walking golfer t...

 (June 17th) Day 12 - Viroqua, WI  drove 280 miles Wisconsin, the home of Dick Stauffer, an old Coeur d'Alene friend, and a new friend Terry Green whom I met on the golf course, along with his buddy, Tom Groenwald, a resident of Tucson, AZ, that I met on the golf course. $ 35 green fee with cart, a bargain for a really well kept interesting golf course. I got paired up with Terry & Tom who play golf about once a year when they get together, and we had a GREAT time.  Viroqua (long O sound) Hills (yes, it is hilly!) has four sets of tees ranging from 6348 to 4988. I played 5946 with a course rating of 68.8 and a slope of 118. This is a steep golf course too, but there weren't any blind shots and and the holes aren't so long that they were unmanageable for me. There are 9 holes below the clubhouse, and nine holes on the other side of the road (#'s 4 through 12) which you access via a culvert big enough for golf carts. I actually played horrible on the front nine, but s...

 (June 16th) Day 11 - Kimball, MN  drove 353 miles Minnesota, the home of Bob Dylan, Tim Gresback (and the entire Gresback Clan), John Marquette and Cindy Pigg, a couple Margaret & I knew long ago in Sandpoint. My only prior dip into Minnesota was East Grand Forks. The underage Airmen from North Dakota's Grand Forks Air Base would cross the river to drink in East Grand Forks because the alcohol age limit was 19 OR because nobody was going to card them, take your pick. Les, Mike Orr and I went there for beverages (see the June 15th post if this throws you).  "The Land of 10,000 Lakes" is apropos. Although I didn't count them, there seemed to be water EVERYWHERE! My drive through Minnesota was scenic and after golf I spent the night in Rochester, home of the famed Mayo Clinic. It is a great looking town with about half the population of Spokane. Probably a nice place to live or at least live close to.  The Kimball Golf Club has four sets of tees ranging from 6652 t...

(June 15th) Day 10 - Hankinson, ND  drove 170 miles I drove north on I-29 from the southeast corner of South Dakota to the southeast corner of North Dakota. When I say southeast corner of North Dakota, the Dakota Magic Casino & Dakota Winds Golf Course are at the 1 mile marker on the North Dakota stretch of I-29 and is less than 10 miles east of the Minnesota border. I HAVE been to North Dakota before. Les Hurlbert & I drove his brand new Mazda RX3 from Omak (he picked me up in Spokane if I remember correctly, LONG TIME AGO!) to Grand Forks Air Force base when Mike Orr was stationed there. Mike & Barb followed us back to Omak after the visit and we went to Mount Rushmore along the way. I THINK we slept in our cars at a Mount Rushmore view parking lot. We were young and tough in those days. Best road trip of my youth (I was 19 at the time) and I LEGALLY purchased my first beer in Idaho. Les & I had been friends before the trip and ever since I have considered him one...