What a beautiful night, Maybe even for Golf.

It was a beautiful evening for golf last night. Derek and I played the front 9 in just over 2 hours, and after I ate, I sat on the patio and watched the golfers come in until it got dark. I only wish my game was as beautiful as the evening. I shot the worst I have since last October finishing with an ESC 53. It was pretty pathetic. Didn't hit a drive all night, and though I hit the 8th and 9th greens in regulation, I 3-putted both. That part was frustrating. The good news is that I at least hit the green with my tee shot on #9 for the first time this year. Hopefully I'll continue that trend at least. The other good news is that I will be ready to do it all again next week, though the league situation at Wellshire is going to make things tough.

Going forward though, here is how the tee times will work. I will continue to get the tee time closest to 5:30pm on Thursdays with the following course preference: 1) Wellshire, 2) Kennedy, 3) City Park, 4) Willis Case, and 5) Overland. If I don't get any takers by Wednesday at 1:00pm I will try to get a 4:00pm tee time at Wellshire. The rationale is that I want to play with you guys first and foremost, and secondly to get better at the course I will be playing tournaments at. Don't hesitate to e-mail me to ask for a particular course on a particular night because I'll do my darndest to make it happen. Now on to this week's tee time.

Next Thursday's Tee Time is set for 5:32PM at City Park. Please e-mail me your intention to play by Wednesday at 1:00PM as noted above. My e-mail address is n3xt@arrl.net . As always, spots are first come first served. Cost for 9 holes at City Park is the same as for Wellshire and is $14.

The next Wellshire Men's Golf club event is next weekend June 7th and 8th with the 2-man, 2-day event. Day 1 is a scramble, and Day 2 is a best ball. A picnic is being served following the Sunday round. Prizes will be awarded for best Hawaiian shirt on Saturday, and best 'Bobby Jones era golf atire' on Sunday. The Match Play brackets are posted and it's time to schedule the first round matches. I am the number 15 seed in the C Flight and get the opportunity to go up against the number 2 seed. As I have noted here before, I have yet to win in a match play round. Maybe I will play up to my ability this time. June 7th is also the deadline for the next tournament, the Skills by Age group event. This event awards points based on hitting fairways, 1 putting, etc. and should be a fun event. I am scheduled to play this event, but do not have my registration in yet, but will get it in the mail this next week.

The US Open at Torrey Pines is fast approaching as well. It will be interesting to see how Tiger plays after his knee surgery, but the more fascinating event will come the day before the US Open when a Joe Schmoe who has been selected by us will play the Torrey pines course with Tony Romo, Justin Timberlake, and someone else I can't think of to test the Tiger theory that an average golfer would not be able to break 100 on a US Open Course. Oh, and NBC will have the cameras rolling on the event and will televise it either before or during its US OPEN coverage. It should make for some great TV, and regardless of who the guy is, I'm rooting for him.

Give me a call or an e-mail soon, and let's play some golf!

Until next week, hit'em straight and long!

David C.

A Breezy Night on the Course

Yep, it was a breezy evening for golf with winds whipping at least 20 to 30 miles an hour over the first 5 holes at Wellshire last night. The first 2 holes were direct head winds and the rest caused us to fight significant cross winds. But no rain hit us and it ended up being the best round I've shot so far this year with me carding a 47 despite poor putting. Maybe I should play in adverse weather more often. Jason did pretty well last night too given it was his first time out with the clubs since last fall. With his new found distance in his 7 iron he could be pretty dangerous this year.

Our next tee time is next Thursday evening at 5:31PM at Kennedy golf course. This may have to be the norm for every other week given the league play on those nights since the reservation system seems to not allow me to get decent tee times (anything after 4:30pm). It may not be Wellshire, but at least it's golf. Let me know if you can play, as always it's first come, first served and I need to know your intention to play before 1:00pm Wednesday to release any unused spots. Let me know at n3xt@arrl.net .

Jason and I talked about these posts and he indicated that he thought they were about right as far as length, content, and number sent per week (one that is). If you'd like to add to the conversation come to the blog and post your comments, or even better, come and play golf with me on Thursdays and we can talk about it afterwards over a beer and some 25 cent chicken wings (they are surprisingly good).

The next Wellshire Men's Golf Club events are the 2 man, 2 day event with a club picnic after the Sunday round coming up on June 7th and 8th. The skills by age group competition is scheduled for June 22nd with registration due on June 7th. I hope to see you there.

That's about it for this week, I hope to see you all soon on the course!

David C.

Temps going up, Scores coming down

Well it's been a crazy couple of weeks with the ABCD scramble, the related Calcutta as well as a trip to LA, a Sanctuary opportunity and a Thursday Tee Time. So I am way behind in keeping you all caught up in the Wellshire Thursdays Golf World.

First off though, I have a Tee Time set for this coming Thursday May, 22nd at 5:40 PM. First come, first Served as usual, e-mail me at n3xt@arrl.net to reserve your spot by Wednesday at 1:00 PM.

As far as getting tee times in the future, the Denver Reservation system has made it easier for us. The old policy was that we could make the reservations 7 days in advance with the tee times released at 7:00 pm. What this meant was that I would have to rush home after playing on Thursday night and make the reservation for the next week after letting others have their pick for a couple of hours before I got home and down to my computer. Well the policy revision is that the tee times are now available 8 days in advance for residents. So now I can make our Thursday reservations on Wednesday nights when I am generally at home and available. Given the league situation every other Thursday, it may not help in getting an advantageous tee time, but then again, it might.

The Wellshire Men's Golf Club's last event that I played in was 2 weeks ago now which was the ABCD scramble and Calcutta. By the way, the food at the event was spectacular with essentially all you can eat prime rib with all the fixings. Cash bar was reasonable and included the men's club 10% discount which is also good at the pub. Other benefits of membership that were announced at the banquet were 25% off of meals at the Wellshire Inn (not the pub) which would have been good to know for Mother's day, and 30% off of all merchandise in the pro shop. With discounts like that, the Club membership should be able to pay for itself if you lose balls or are looking for upgrades. The discount does not apply however to lessons, green fees, or range balls.

The tournament was delayed at least 40 minutes due to frost, and though I was going in an early group, I knew I would be cutting things close to make my 6:00PM flight to LA. The scramble required each member of the foursome to contribute 3 drives for the day. On number 1 I stiped it down the fairway for my first which I think caught my team off guard a little. In fact I played so well that I had contributed all 3 of my drives by the time we reached number 9. Without any pressure for the rest of the day I could concentrate on the rest of my game which did us well as we ended up in 2nd place for the day. I couldn't have been much happier as it meant I was getting a $500 check and $90 of proshop money. This tournament alone will help pay for the year. I only hope I do half as well the rest of the year. I am thinking I kind of like these Calcuttas.

At the ABCD scramble I found out a piece of information for you that will help in your game at Wellshire that I did not know about. On the holes at Wellshire, the flags are different colors. I did not think that there was any rhyme or reason associated with them, but I was wrong. It was pointed out that there are 3 flag colors in use at Wellshire. Red, White, and Blue. Far from being just patriotic, the colors identify the general relationship of the pin placement on the greens. Red flags indicate the pin is located in the front 3rd of the green, a White flag indicates the middle 3rd, and a Blue flag the back 3rd of the green. This will help those of us with Sky Caddies in determining an appropriate distance to the pin.

The next Wellshire Men's Club tournament is scheduled for June 7th and 8th with the 2 man, 2 day event. Saturday is a scramble, and the Sunday is a best ball. I had been hoping to play with Derek, but he and his daughter are scheduled for a very fun camping weekend and so I will now be stuck with a computer draw. The time has also just past this weekend for entry into Wellshire Men's Club's match play tournament. I got my entry in for the net flights, so will be interested to see how I play. I have yet to win a round in a match play event, but maybe this will be my year. The good/bad news is that my handicap continues to go down and is now at 26.8. My goal for the summer will be to get it down under 20. I know it's possible if I can get out there and play more.

Lastly I have to report that I had an opportunity, however brief, to play at Sanctuary this last week. For those that don't know, Sanctuary is the private course of the REMAX International founder. The facility is only open for charity tournaments, and the minimum buy in for a foursome is $5,000. Well, someone in the last tournament dropped out and my pastor called me at 10:45PM to see if I could fill out a foursome teeing off at 9:15AM the next day. I of course said I'd clear my calendar, but as luck would have it, the organizer of the foursome had found someone else in the few minutes between phone calls. At 11:05PM I was out. Hopefully such an opportunity will arise in the future, and maybe my game will improve such that I wouldn't be embarrased on such a beautiful golf course.

Have a great week and I hope to see you on the course!

David C.