Tenth Golf Game in 2007

This should probably be subtitled "A Rainy Day on the Golf Course." It was a damp morning, with rain falling for at least three holes. This photo gives an idea of how the day looked, but it's actually this dim because I took it with my cell phone. I didn't want to take my good camera out into this sort of weather.

Earlier this year, Karen bid on a set of greens passes to Baywood Greens for me at a silent-auction fund-raiser. I should have used them during the summer. I failed that, but wanted to make sure to use them before it gets too cold.

This was the seventh different course I played this year. It is a very nice course; well-maintained and challenging.

I asked Andy and my work-friends Sandy and Mike T. to join me. Andy, Mike and I had the day off for Veteran's Day. Sandy took a vacation day and we met first thing this morning at the pro shop.

We made a good group. Andy and I often play together. Sandy has joined us in the past. Mike and Sandy and I work together on a lot of projects and I was fairly certain Mike and Andy would get on well. I was right.

I had worried that it would be too cold, but it was in the mid-40s already by the time we started. I was comfortable in a mid-weight sweater. It did start raining at one point, but not to hard and it only lasted for a few holes.

I wish I could say I played better. I had fewer blow-up holes, but maintained a steady, dependable mediocrity and carded a lamentable 121. It is a harder course than I'm used to, and it has been more than two months since I last played, but why make excuses? I enjoy the game and the occasional well-played hole. I hit some drives I am proud of and I had a par.

And I spent a few hours with friends. You can't ask for much more than that.

Ninth Golf Game of 2007

Andy and I played The Rookery this afternoon. We got an afternoon tee-time and arranged to meet our wives and kids afterwards at Big Fish Grill for our annual last-day-of-summer dinner.

We got to play with a fellow named Ray, the head horticulturalist at The Rookery. This is the guy who plans and plants and maintains the gardens and the grounds. We were literally "on his course."

Ray is a very nice fellow who knows the course intimately and, though he has a singular swing, hits the ball a mile.

I can't say that I played very well, though I did make at least one par. I carded a 110. My putting was terrible, but my chipping is looking good. And, though I only had a few chances to show it, I was quite proud of my play out of bunkers. Somehow, I've found a swing to get my out of the sand and onto the green.

Andy started slow, but improved steadily and finished the day at 99. He sank a ridiculously long putt for birdie on the par-5 18th.

It was a bright and sunny afternoon. The course was in fairly good shape, in spite of the dry summer we've had.

Eighth Golf Game in 2007

Christina and I played 18 holes of practice/instructional golf this afternoon at the Midway Par 3 course, just outside of Lewes. It was her idea; I'm glad she suggested it.


View Larger Map

Midway is a great place to learn to play. It was where my friend Andy took me some years ago to get me started, and it was the first place I took both Colleen and Christina. Christina has played with me twice before. She's starting to get the basic idea. Now all she needs is more practice.

Because we were in practice and teaching mode, I didn't keep score. It was just as well; I'm rusty, not having played since we were in Vermont.

Sixth and Seventh Golf Games in 2007

I had two chances to play golf while we were in Vermont this summer. Vermont is, topographically, so much different from Delaware that is great fun and a real challenge to play up there.

At Bakersfield Country Club
On the Tuesday of our week at the Tyler Place, we put together a group of 10 interested in playing a round of golf and headed out to Bakersfield Country Club. Several of us had played there in the past; it is one of my favorite places to play just for being so different from what I am used to here in the flat lands.

Bakersfield is a local club and very down to earth. The parking lot is gravel and the members are neither hoity nor toity. The holes range from rolling meadow layouts to long thin dog-legs that hug the sides of what seem like towering mountains. There are plenty of elevation changes and challenges.

I played poorly, as is my habit, though there were some good moments. Since my drives are dicey at best, I usually play safe and use my 3-wood off the tee. On a course like Bakersfield, where many of the holes feature dense forest on one side and yawning chasms on the other, straight-though-short is a good approach. I carded a par on one hole and felt mostly positive about my game despite a few blow-up holes and a final score of 126.

The weather was lovely, with blue skies and a few clouds.

At Richford Country Club
Later in the week, Andy Southmayd and I headed a bit further out to play a neat little 9-hole course at Richford Country Club. This is another very local club that sits just south of the border with Canada and boasts a healthy membership from north of the line.

Andy found this place and counts it among his favorites. I am fond of it as well. It also varies between meadow and woods and has even more elevation changes than Bakersfield. Like many courses in the area, it includes wonderful mid-fairway boulders that, if hit, can send your ball well off to almost anywhere.

Our round was wet. we played in a slowly lifting fog that occasionally forgot itself and became light rain. On the positive side, it made reading the greens a bit more interesting.

Again I played badly, mixing in a par with a series of mediocre holes and a few blow-ups. Not terrible, but not great. Good only another 126.

Over the last nine years, I've played some seven different courses in upstate Vermont and New York. I've enjoyed all of them, played poorly, learned things, and seen some spectacular views. I've bought golf shirts and hats. There are grass stains from mountainsides on my golf shoes and towel.

Thanks north country. It's been great fun.

Fifth Golf Game in 2007

I'm traveling this evening, staying in a Holiday Inn Express near North East, Maryland. Tomorrow I will run out to Westminster to pick Colleen up from Lacrosse Camp.

I thought it would be easier to drive north from Dover this afternoon and get half-way to Westminster. It's not a long drive, but I'd rather start from here tomorrow than make the trek from home out to Westminster and back again all in one day.

And it gave me an excuse to play Delcastle Golf Club again with my colleague Sandy Schenck. Sandy and I played there last June with several friends for the Quasi-Annual DGS Golf Tournament.

We had to start fairly late this afternoon; I don't leave work until 4:30. But we were able to squeeze-in the 13th hole as the light faded away at about 8:50 p.m.

Delcastle is about midway between Newark and Wilmington. It is a nice, affordable, and pretty course. It has hills and mature trees and rocks and other things to make golf interesting.

I hit more of those trees than I'm happy to report. My first three holes were eights. But then I started to make some headway. Sandy provided a fresh set of eyes for my swing and had a few helpful thoughts. I parred the fourth and felt good about parts of my game this evening.

I think I may have found a swing that works with the driver. Time will tell.

Fourth Golf Game of 2007

Andy and I played a round at Old Landing Golf Course this morning. We walked, carrying our bags. It was good exercise, but it did wear me down by the end of the back nine.

As a result, my last few holes were horrendous blow-ups. When tiring, I tend to stand up during my swing. I was topping the ball badly. And, with my hands tired, I was letting the grass turn my club head, resulting in severe slices.

My front nine hadn't been too bad, but the back nine breakdowns left me with a total score of 119. My worst this year.

Old Landing is our area's most mature course. It has fully grown trees, and some small hills. There is water, some blind drives, and a small squadron of horse flies to distract you. I like the place, in spite of the flies.

Sun? Check! Sand? Check. Fun? Check!

We spent our spring break in the US Virgin Islands. It is my job, as Dad, to get my girls to sunshine, heat, and beaches each year at this time.

This year, we traveled to St. Thomas and stayed at the Wyndham Sugar Bay. A nice place, with its own beach and several pools down about 100 stair steps from the hotel buildings. We got plenty of exercise.

We spent part of our time sunning and swimming and purposely doing nothing. We also played tourist in a minor way.

We visited the Coral World Ocean Park, a small aquarium with the usual pretty fish, a shark tank, sea turtles, and reverse tower that goes down a few stories into the channel between St. Thomas and Thatch Cay.

The Aquarium is adjacent to a very pretty beach at the bottom of Coki Bay, where we spent did a bit of swimming and floating. This is a public beach, and very tourist-y.

As you walk onto the sands, men come forward to offer you rental chairs and umbrellas and what-not. As you sit, you are approached by wandering waters working for the half-dozen or so make-shift taverns that shelter under the palms at the back of the beach. It's moderately annoying, but firm, polite refusals are respected.

We also spent a day on St. John. We signed-up for a guide-led tour of the island, which is mostly made up of the Virgin Islands National Park. We were driven on breathtaking mountain roads, saw colonial ruins, and had lunch at an open-air diner at Shipwreck Landing.

The park includes Trunk Bay, a public beach maintained by the National Park Service and listed as one of the best beaches in the world. It features a snorkeling trail, perfect white sand, and warm clear water. We snorkeled together around a small island in the bay.

After a brief shopping stop, we enjoyed a sunny, scenic ferry ride back to St. Thomas.

I took about 600 pictures. I've distilled that down to 78 posted as a photo set. I've also created a map-based travelogue, using the new My Maps feature of Google Maps.

The US Virgin Islands are a great place to visit. They, like many travel destinations, remind me of our own Delaware beach resorts, but the pace is much slower and the geography is stunningly different. I was pleasantly surprised out how steep and mountainous the islands are; it looks like they are up-thrust sedimentary rock rather than accumulated coral.

Don't go there expecting speedy service. That's not the point. Slow down, look around, and enjoy one of the more beautiful spots on earth.

Looking Ahead to 2007

I've been thinking about New Year's Resolutions.

Mine are simple. I plan to pursue health: physical, mental and spiritual. They are connected.

I've also been looking around the Delaware blogosphere to see what other folks are thinking as they look at the year ahead.

I'm collecting links to "New Year Thoughts" on my flickr account. Here are a few things that jump out at me.

• Joe, at Merit-Bound Alley, has a clear-eyed view of how he can use his blog to help affect change. We're not all going to be the leading political bloggers; some of use are supporting voices.
• Guest-ranter Jud, at First State Politics, will continue to be one of the leading voices. That's appropriate; he has been and probably will again be a candidate. I think Jud needs his own blog in 2007.
• Taylor, at Mac'N'Cheese, offers a recipe for Hoppin' John And Collard Greens. I don't plan to make that dish, but I will be tracking healthy recipes from Taylor this year.

I'll be adding to my tag-list today, and may update these bullets as well.