No Broken Legs, More Bugs and a Solid Round

Played Shandin Hills this past Wednesday and no one was injured, per say.

Quite a few years ago, Don and I were playing with Burz and his brother, Parker, at Shandin Hills and having a delightful round full of doubles, triples and others, when Don decided to wash his golf ball at the fifth tee box ball washer. I, in my infinite wisdom, decided to 'race' him to the washer and he decided to race me back. Bad choice(s), because as soon as Don's spikes (yes, it was back in the days of metal spikes) reached the cement surrounding the ball washer, both feet went sliding as if on ice and his shin collided with the ball washer steel post, breaking his right tibia and fibula in the process. Nasty scene. Thank goodness the ambulance was carrying him off within 30 minutes, which gave us ample time to finish our round before noon, so as not to miss the lunch special that day at the course.

Now, back to this week's round. No one got hurt, including Don. Everyone had a fun day even though there were quite a few gnats again this week to spoil our eyesight and taste buds, but not near as bad as last week at El Prado where I had nightmares for three days thereafter. Shandin was in OK shape with lush and slow greens, thin but mostly playable fairways, long and tough rough, and absolutely terrible tee boxes. In other words: Shandin Hills in its usual condition. For 20 bucks, it's still worth it.

I had a very good round shooting 75 even though I had some bad bounces and only one birdie. My short game was pretty spot-on while I hit some less than "spot-on" irons. Playing with Bob R. (92) made the round that much more enjoyable, even though he does like to pester me a bit. I suppose I deserve most of it... OK, probably all of it.

Our team which also included Clarence (86) and Harry (100+) finished a solid second out of four teams which netted us a big one dollar. Hey, it's better than losing a buck! Ralph, Elliott, Vito and Jon were the big winners clearing a cool $4.25 apiece. Elliott was pissed that his solid 80 didn't come close to my 75, but good for me and my already inflated ego.

Next week were venture back to Hidden Valley where our collective egos take a beating and the lack of hookers is a big turn-off.