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Playing Golf

Sandy has been playing golf for a long time. When I first met her, she was in a league two nights a week. One of the ways that I got on her good side was by babysitting while she played. I never golfed when I was young but Sandy got me started. For many years we played quite a bit together. Then we went to Singapore and stopped completely. Land is at a premium so there are very few courses. When we came back to the US, we started to play a little again. Then the pandemic hit and shut everything down. It's been two years now. This spring we decided wanted to play again.

We are not very serious golfers. I'm not very good and am even uncomfortable when we have to play with others. I get flustered pretty easily when I don't do well and then it's no fun. There used to be lots of golf courses in the Treasure Valley and we usually got to play without getting paired up. Foxtail was our favorite. An executive course near our house, it was low key, cheap, and never crowded. Unfortunately as time goes on it's been a double whammy. There are lots more people here, many of whom are golfers. And some golf courses have been turned into housing, Foxtail among them.

We have been playing at least once a week since mid-May. We've been trying different courses. We have played them all in the past, but we wanted to see what condition they are in now and how crowded they are. We started with Lakeview GC in Meridian, where we were paired with another lady. Even though she wasn't very good, she committed the cardinal sin of golf etiquette - giving unsolicited tips to strangers. We pretty much just ignored her and we enjoyed the course, so we will probably go back.

We played Eagle Hills with Mary Beth. They had a fleet of brand new golf carts which had built in screens and electronics to give you all the info on your hole. Unfortunately the carts in the group ahead of us kept quitting. Then the cart Sandy and MB had would quit. Each time a call to the clubhouse was required and there was a five minute wait for someone to come out. The first two holes took us forty five minutes. Hopefully they will get the bugs worked out soon. I also thought there was quite a bit of construction on some of the holes. Sandy liked the course though and was keen to go back. Me, Iwasn't so sure but we did go back a few weeks later. Things moved better, and I hit better, so I feel batter about the course. Unfortunately I left all my head covers in the cart when we left. I guess we have to go back to play there again soon so I can check the lost and found.

We played at Purple Sage. It was pretty far to go and we didn't care much for it. There was a group of five in front of us, a horribly slow group of five at that. We aren't big "hurry up" players but this round was painful. The course is also very compact. Usually when you tee off, the next tee box is just off the side of your fairway. It would be very easy for an errant shot to go into a group on the next hole. That made me very uncomfortable. Not that I've ever hit an errant shot but you know, some day I might.

We played River Birch in Star. It was pretty crowded. We ended up paired with two singles, one of them a woman who worked at the course. Needless to say she knew it pretty well. The course is pretty open and spread out though so we would probably go back again, especially since Sandy liked some of the ladies golf outfits in the club house.

We played River Bend out in Wilder. It's a 45-50 minute drive from our house but is worth it. We both really liked it. It was inexpensive and not very crowded. On the way back, we stopped at Lonny C's donuts. It was just a tiny hut beside the highway in front of a house. There was a little old lady there with a pan of donuts. The sign said she opens at 5 am and closes when she sells out. The douts were good. Definitely another plus for River Bend. We've already gone back for a second time. It is probably our favorite course right now, even if the donut lady was closed the second time that we went. Man, that was a disappointment,

Our most recent golf round was on our trip to Stanley, when we played at Terrace Lakes Resort on our way up to Stanley. It was very pretty playing in the mountains and the course was low key. We would definitely go again. I'll say more about it when I do a post about our Stanley trip.

I've actually been pretty pleased with how I've been playing so far. My main goal is not to embarass myself, and so far I've been doing ok. My scores aren't great but at least I can play without having to pick up all the time. I still have some work to do since I have a (fairly) new set of clubs that Sandy bought me for my birthday a few years ago. She really dislikes long irons so this set replaces them with hybrids. I still haven't learned to hit those well so that's something that I have to work on. But overall, so far I've been having fun. We have a trip to Washington in July and the clubs are absolutely going to go along.