August 5th, Day 61 - Mint Valley GC, Longview, WA                                                                                                             Drove 380 miles

The LAST DAY of this golf trip began in Kelso, WA. Kelso and Longview are separated by the Cowlitz River and though Longview is much bigger, Kelso is the county seat of Cowlitz County. The Mint Valley Golf Club is in northwest Longview and very close to the Longview Country Club where Margaret & I would play in a couple's tournament in a month and a half (or so) from this day. 

Mint Valley is open to the public (as opposed to the CC) and is an interesting / quirky golf course that I would like to play again. It was built on the former site of a Mint farm, and there is still a mint fragrance in most parts of the course. 

The front nine is short and a LOT of the tee shots look like they are into VERY narrow landing spots. Almost all of them are wider than they look from the tee. The back nine is longer, is more open and has lots of water hazards. There are plenty of trees on this course!  You will likely to find a couple of them along the way. Most of the greens are smallish, well sloped, fast and tough. I like this course a lot better than I liked the Longview CC. This one is fun and was is in better condition when we played each of them.

We paid $44 for green fees and cart. I actually paid an extra $5 each and got two sleeves of Titleist Pro V one golf balls with the course logo on it. Too good a deal to pass up! I played 5866 yards with a rating of 68.1 and a slope of 116. Margaret played 5166 yards with a rating of 69.7 and a slope of 117. This is a par 71 golf course and the longest tees are 6405, 70.56 rating with a slope of 122, very similar to our white tees here at Red Wolf, but we are a par 72 course.  The course is flat and easily walkable if you like to walk when you golf.

We both shot 98 and while I hit three balls into hazards (lost balls!), my biggest problem was figuring out the greens. I had 43 putts in my round which is at LEAST seven too many. Another reason to play this course again.

We headed for home, choosing to drive the interstate through Oregon until turning north at Umatilla. It was a long drive, but certainly not the longest of this trip! Ivan (our 18 year old cat) wasn't sure what to make of me when we got home. He probably didn't think I was coming back and had abandoned him, but after I got down on the floor with him, he warmed up to me. (The next day all was forgiven!) 

We were tired enough that unloading the car could wait until tomorrow. It was so nice to sleep in my own bed again and look out our living room window at MY golf course. This trip was something I had wanted to do for a while, and after writing about it I'm sure I will do something similar again, I just don't know when.

There will be one more post about this trip. My friend Greg wants me to post a list of all the golf courses in order of my preference of them. I will do that on Facebook next month, but for now I'm done. Thanks to my readers for following along with me, this was something worth sharing.

        Randy’s golf course               ratings          play again            could recommend        Price

Prairieview GC (Byron, IL)               5                  YES                           YES                        $

The Boulder Course (Winchester, VA)    5            YES                           YES                        $$

Wine Valley (Walla Walla, WA)         5                  YES                          YES                         $$$

The Walker Course (Clemson, SC)    5                  YES                          YES                         $$

Dakota Winds (Hankinson, ND)        5                   YES                          YES                        $$

The Rawls Course at Texas Tech        5                  YES                          YES                        $$     (Lubbock, TX)                        

The Links at Greystone (Walworth, NY)   4.5        YES                         YES                         $$

Turkey Creek GC (McPherson, KS)   4.5               YES                         YES                         $

Slammer & Squire GC                      4.5                 YES                          YES                        $$$           (St. Augustine, FL)   

Links On The Bayou  (Alexandria, LA)   4.5         YES                          YES                        $ 

Raccoon Creek (Littleton, CO)         4.5                 YES                          YES                        $$

Brooks Golf (Okoboji, IA)                 4                   YES                          YES                        $$

The Legacy (Springfield, TN)            4                   YES                          YES                        $

Awarii Dunes (Kearney, NE)              4                   YES                          YES                        $$

Chicopee CC (Chicopee, MA)           4                    YES                          YES                        $ 

The Architects Club (Phillipsburg, NJ)   4               YES                          YES                       $$

Lake Panorama Nat. (Panora, IA)      4                   no*1                           YES                       $$

Heritage Shores (Bridgeville, DE)      4                   YES                           YES                       $$

Houston Oaks (Paris, KY)                  4                   YES                           YES                       $  

Eagles Landing (Ocean City, MD)     4                   YES                            YES                       $$

Conquistador Golf Course (Cortez, CO)   4            YES                            YES                       $   

Brandon GC (Brandon, SD)               4                   YES                             YES                      $

Viroqua Hills GC (Viroqua, WI)        4                   YES                             YES                      $

Magnolia Grove Crossings GC          4                   YES                             YES                       $$$

Portland GC (Portland, CT)               4                    YES                            YES                       $

Green Valley CC (Portsmouth, RI)    4                    YES                            YES                       $$

Snow Hill CC (New Vienna, OH)      4                    YES                           YES                        $

Eldon Golf Club (Eldon, MO)            4                   YES                            YES                        $

Foxtail-North Course (Rohnert Park, CA)   4          YES                           YES                        $

Links at Union Vale (Lagrangeville, NY)   4           YES*2                       YES                        $$$

Bandon Crossing (Bandon, OR)          4                   YES                           YES                        $$$

Sunbrook GC (St. George, UT)           4                  YES                            YES                        $

Championship GC at U of NM           4                   YES                            YES                        $$$ (Albuquerque, NM)                  

Bear Slide GC (Cicero, IN)                 4                    no                              YES                        $$

Boulder City GC (Boulder City, NV)    3.5             YES                            YES                        $$

Apple Valley GC (Apple Valley, CA)   3.5              YES                            YES                        $

Mint Valley GC (Longview, WA)    3.5                 YES                            YES                        $

Pilgrim's Oak (Peach Bottom, PA)    3.5                  YES                            YES                        $

Elephant Rocks GC  (Williams, AZ)   3.5                YES                            YES                        $$

Hesperia G & CC (Hesperia, CA)   3.5                   YES                             YES                        $    

Lochmere G & CC (Tilton, NH)       3.5                  YES                             YES                        $$

Rivers Edge (Burley, ID)                  3.5                  YES ?                          YES                         $

Natchez Golf Club at Duncan Park  3.5                  YES                             YES                         $                 (Natchez, MS)

Eastern Hills (Kalamazoo, MI)         3.5                  YES                              YES                        $

Brattleboro CC (Brattleboro, VT)     3.5                  YES  ?                          YES                        $$          

Monroe CC (Monroe, NC)                3.5                  YES                              YES                        $

Martindale CC (Auburn, ME)           3.5                  YES   ?                         YES                        $$$       

Birch Creek (Smithfield,UT)             3.5                    no                       good golfers only           $

Foxtail-South Course (Rohnert Park, CA)   3          YES                            YES                          $

Fort Myers CC (Fort Myers, FL)        3                    YES                             YES                        $

Kimball Golf Club (Kimball, MN)     3                      no                                 no                         $

Buffalo Golf Club (Buffalo, WY)       3                      no                                 no                         $$

Pryor Creek (Huntley, MT)                 3                      no                                 no                         $        Johnny Walker Course (there’s also a Country Club course, but you need to play with a member!)

Westwood Park GC (Norman, OK)     3                   YES                                no                         $

Indian Hills Golf Resort (Fairfield Bay, AR)  2.5       no                                 no                         $

The Brookside Club (Bourne, MA)    2                      no                                 no                         $$

Crosswinds Championship GC          1.5                    no                                 no                         $  (Savannah, GA)

Jones Course (Wheeling, WV)            1                      no                                 no                        $$$

Langston GC (Washington D.C.)        1                       no                                no                        $$

*1 = would play again if a different yardage was offered, with slope and course ratings

*2 = would move up a tee and NOT pay weekend green fee. M-Th fee is $ 77 and $ 61 after 2 p.m. 

                                 Not a lot of pictures to choose from of this course!



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