Eagle Glen and the Bedlam
Played 3-9-11
Absolutely retarded. Due to early cancellations by fellow golfers that wanted to help me keep my sanity, we were down to a perfect group of 16 players. This is doubly good for Eagle Glen, since it doesn't allow fivesomes and frowns upon multiple threesomes in one's group. HOWEVER, at 9:07pm the evening before, Tim, who repeatedly told me the prior week and weekend before, text me saying he could now play. I immediately called him and mentioned the present situation, but he laughed and said, "tough shit for them!". He also said that someone would probably drop-out at the last minute so everything would be good. I told him, "no, because the other guys let me know way ahead of time if they can or cannot play and stick to their word, -unlike other guys I know". Anyway, I caved.
Once we arrived and let the starter know what was going on, he gave us the 'oh shit' look, but said we could start a group right now, which was thirty minutes before our first time, and then let the other 2 foursomes that were not in our group go, and then the rest of us could start. That was the only other open tee time available until much later. We took it. I told the starter "sorry for the hassle", but he just ignored me and walked away. EXCELLENT customer service, eh? I bring them 16 - 24 golfers about every six weeks and all I get is "screw you". We'll be going back real soon...
Anyway, the real dagger for all this was I called the golf course early Tuesday morning to cancel one of our five times to help the course out. Silly me.
Other than having to make up new teams and dealing with a less-than-charming starter, the golf went fairly well. Eagle Glen was in OK shape with mostly dormant fairways, dried-out rough, very poor conditioned tee boxes and bunkering that is less than consistent in texture. The greens were near-perfect and the weather was spectacular. Get this course in lush shape and it would be undoubtedly one of the best in SoCal. Yes, the rates are very good during the week for seniors at $35, but hitting out of a dried-out divot in the middle of 18's fairway with a wedge is not a good way to leave an impression on someone (like me). If they don't want to overseed for the winter to save money, so be it, but what a shame. Last impressions are usually the ones that stick.
The exciting news was Bert eagled 16! By far the toughest tee shot on the course with a pretty frightening second into a very undulated and protected green makes this one scary-ass hole. I don't know the specifics of how he did it, but it is a monumental feet considering he is not one of the longest hitters on tour. Excellent stuff!
Bert, Bill, Mark and Jon took first place and netted winnings of $8 apiece. They were delighted and gloated a little more than I liked, but good job just the same. My team played well enough for a stellar second place which handed us an extra four bucks each. Not bad for only three guys named Ralph, Al and T. Third went to Elliott, Calm Don and Dave who took home a whopping 50 cents each.. The remaining two teams complained to Tim, figuring he's the one that screwed up the original foursomes, -which of course, would have done better for sure. (They were kidding, of course... or were they?)
