July 25th Day 50 - The Championship Course U of NM, Albuquerque, NM                                                                               Drove 560 (torturous) miles

The drive to Albuquerque was a breeze and I got to the golf course about 45 minutes before my tee time so I had a chance to stretch and relax a bit. This golf course has hosted the NCAA Men's golf championship twice and women's championship once. Having played the wonderful college courses at Texas Tech and Clemson I was looking forward to this one too.

This is a very good golf course, but NOT in the same class as the other two and it's not because of the layout. The conditioning of this course was just not up to my standards for an $ 85 green fee with cart. It would probably have been less were it not a Sunday.

The golf course is quite hilly and anybody walking this course (college kids!) had better be in shape. It has six sets of tees that range from 7555 yards (75.2 rating, 134 slope) to 5380 yards (women's 69.8 rating, 129 slope. That is a difficult golf course and I'm pretty sure Margaret would NOT have much fun here.  I played the silver tees (silver has sort of s Senior feel, doesn't it?) at 5910 yards, 67.7 rating and 119 slope. Water can come into play on only three holes, but the rough secondary rough is REALLY rough and every green is well bunkered. There are lots of trees to contend with and they make the course pretty and tougher than it would be without them.

The young men I played golf with (Rocky, Bill & Kenny) were from San Antonio and had been on a long weekend golf tour themselves. Rocky was pretty new to the game and the other two had played for a few years. All of them could hit the ball a fair distance, but Kenny was the only one of the three that (mostly) could keep it in play. They made the rookie mistake of playing the blue tees (6913 yards) instead of the whites (6539, plenty long enough!) and we spent a LOT of time looking for golf balls so it was a slow round. Even at that, we caught the groups in front of us on the 15th hole so it was even slower at the finish. 

I actually played pretty good and shot an 89. I had three pars on each side, only two blow up holes (triple bogey) and 38 putts which was pretty good for my first time on these well sloped greens. The main advantage of playing in a foursome is you often get to watch other people's putts and get to see how the ball breaks and get an idea of the speed before you have to putt yourself. 

I enjoyed the company of the young guys and they were heading back to San Antonio after golf. It's a 711 mile trip for them, the shortest way, but they could split the driving so it wouldn't be all that hard to do. I on the other had about 270 miles to travel. I knew there would be roadwork no matter which route I took and of course no I had no relief driver. 

The road work wasn't just bad, it was horrible. We were stopped still on I-40 three different times and because part of I-70 (Denver to Salt Lake) was closed to semis due to construction, I-40 was jammed with truck traffic. Add that to northern Arizona people heading back to Flagstaff after a weekend, it was a MESS. With all the delays, I damn near ran out of gas. I had planned to fill up in Gallup before turning north to Colorado, but all the idling on the interstate took its toll and I'm glad there was a gas station at Jamestown, about 20 miles short of Gallup.  I didn't even think my fuel tank would hold as much gas as I needed to fill up, so I had to be REALLY close to empty. 

Had I been familiar with the area, I would've gotten off the interstate and driven Route 66 and gotten to Gallup easily and HOURS sooner, but after you get through a no movement traffic jam, you THINK it should be clear sailing the rest of the way. I certainly did not expect two more long delays, one of them construction and the other was a semi tractor-trailer broken down in the left lane of a two lane westbound interstate!

I got to Cortez about 10:30 at night so it was a 7 and a half hour of drive (& wait) for me. I also experienced my first flash flood as I was crossing the New Mexico / Colorado state line. A furious downpour left high water on the road in low areas and I had to take my time plowing through it. Not a great trip for after golf, but tomorrow will be a better day! 
  
          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                          $$    

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                         $

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

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

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

Pilgrim's Oak (Peach Bottom, PA)    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           $

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. 






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