Teaser: Something Coming Up

I've been playing golf a lot over the last three months with a guy named Sonny.

He works as a golf teacher and also plays a pretty good game.

On Sunday he is playing in a tournament and I've offered to caddy for him.  We went out and played the course to be used today.

It is out in Tracey, a town about 20 minutes east of me.  It's almost in the flat of the central valley of California, but  some of the property catches a small amount of the foothills.  Those foothills are the border between the east bay area and the central valley. 

Most of the course is quite flat.  However there are a few greens that have some slope.  And a few holes where you hit to a small valley and then back up to an elevated green.

The greens are quite small compared to my usual courses.   The fairways are bumpy and the grass is somewhat sparse.  It seems to be a course where there is just not enough water.  Their driving range is almost completely dirt.  It's also short and there is a $100 fine for hitting over the fence!  Not sure how they can know you did it, so always hit with a group!

The course has a number of longish par 4s.  A couple in the 430 range.  There are some 300 yarders, that are cleverly designed so that banging away at the green might not be the best way to play them.  It looks like 200 yard shots make the greens more accessible and avoid some of  the hazards -- always a good combination.

The par 5s are 500 to 550, which are not too long, even for yours truly (as long as the drive goes ok!  Ha!).

There are some water features on 4 holes or so.  They are all man made versus being natural.  There is not a lot of free running water in this part of the country.  Though one area had a carp in it that was almost 3 feet long.  It might have been living on golf balls and thus well fed.

For the most part the course is wide open, though there are a lot of large trees to avoid.  One tee area has a forced carry over some tall trees.  It's a tough tee shot and the hole is fairly long.  We are still discussing strategy on this one.

I'm looking forward to getting inside the ropes and watching the guys play.  I suspect that to win it, one will have to shoot around par.  So the golf should be reasonable.

Sonny plays a pretty good game.  He drives the ball about 260 to 270 and is pretty straight.  He is a very good putter too and as I think about it, a pretty good chipper.  His wedge might be his weakest area.  He bangs down on the ball and there are some gaps in his coverage.  He doesn't like 110 yards in -- shorter or longer are fine.  His favorite is 60.

Over the last year or so, I've been paying more attention to managing my game.  I seem to think more about this than my golf buddies.  Putting a ball in a reasonable position and not just as close as you can hit it, pays some dividends.  I always thought I knew what I was doing in this area, but the more I pay attention the more things I see.  There is always room for improvement!

I'm expecting I may be able to offer some help along those lines when we play.

So that is about it for the moment.  I've been playing ok.  Still the driver can be an issue.  I have some good holes and then I seem to lose it.  I'm going to strive on ball contact and forgo my dreams of distance for the nonce.  I'll play tomorrow and see what I can do.  Of course as soon as the contact is good, the next step is how to hit it longer.