Spring Valley Lake and a Bunch of Hoodlums
Played: 3-2-11
The good people at Spring Valley Lake Country Club in Victorville were nice enough to have us play their very nice private course. SVL was in a little rough shape do to the heavy winter rains, but it is always a fun experience because of the layout and fast/smooth greens. The bunkers are in excellent shape with the exception of the motorized raker which leaves a very pronounce groove, -that I was (un)fortunate enough to find on two occasions. The fairways were a little thin, but quite playable and the tee boxes were very nice. The rough was the only (somewhat) major problem where mud had rolled into some of the low-lying areas, but the staff is doing an excellent job of marking the unplayable areas 'GUR' and getting them back up to par.
We had twenty-two players this week and that's with two late cancellations! Even with that kind of attendance and diversity of players, all of the final team scores were within 12 strokes of each other. We've been closer in the past, but with the two guys dropping out the replacement "phantoms" did more good than the two no-shows would have. (i.e.: Our "C" player, Doug, who called off late, would have shot 92 - 96, but our replacement "C" player, Calm-Don, shot 89, which helped offset our "B" player, Tino, -who shot 95!) Remember, we use the best 3-out-of-4 scores per hole system, and with just the right amount of ham and egging, we were able to shoot a total of 249 which tied for first. With three doubles on my scorecard I was still able to shoot an 81 and our "D", Mark, (who shot 103), had two pars while I was making two of those doubles, and that really helped! We got back $19.50 apiece after our $8 buy-in. Big bucks.
The big news of the week though, was having Not-Calm-Don back and playing. Only 8 weeks after having a triple bypass, 30 pounds lighter and a lot less volatile (for now), he hung in there and complained of nothing after his round. This is truly a 'New Don'. He did say he was still able to display his club-throwing technique to its fullest, which made us all smile.
Other than that, there were no truly memorable shots, stupid/funny remarks or displays of idiotic behavior to reminisce about (or I will admit to). Just a bunch of guys having a good time getting pissed about their dumb-ass shots and losing $2.75.
