Summer Golf

Last year I signed up for a 9-holes/week summer league to try and meet other golfers and play semi-competitively again. In order to play, I needed to have a valid GHIN (handicap), so I searched around and found an on-line Golf Club I could join. The Club I joined, NWGolfGuys, was in its first year and hosted tournaments all around the Portland area without being affiliated with any particular course. Unfortunately, I was unable to play in any of their events, but they did help me get my handicap started. Armed with a handicap I’m able to enter almost any tournament as long as I meet the handicap requirement or qualify in a qualifying round. My goal was to eventually get good enough to play in the Mid-Am and/or some Oregon Golf Association (OGA) events. The summer league went pretty well and I got to play out at Camas Meadows, Langdon Farms, and Pumpkin Ridge for pretty cheap. I didn’t win the Championship (a 70-year-old lady from Vancouver beat all of us), but did manage to string together a solid nine at Langdon one week to win some gift cards to Golf Galaxy.

This year I decided to play in the summer league again, though this time all the events are at Heron Lakes. We started last Tuesday, and will be playing through mid-August. I also decided to try and play some of the events that my club organizes since it’s a requirement to play a couple rounds with fellow club members to keep your handicap current. The first event I played was up at Camas Meadows and I won a gift certificate for getting closest to the pin on one of the par 3’s. I also found out that I’m one of the founding/charter members from last year (~60 of us), and our club exploded in membership this year to be the largest independent golf club in Oregon (~200+ members).

Since I have my handicap in hand, I also decided to play in some OGA Tour events. The first one was at Riverside Country Club and I finished in the bottom half of the pack to miss getting any points aside from the obligatory participation point. I missed the second event at Lewis River due to work, but was able to sign up for the third one down in Florence that took place yesterday.

Florence, Oregon is a good 3.5 hours from my house, but is home to Sandpines Golf Links. Sandpines received 4.5 stars from Golf Digest and is considered one of the best public golf courses in Oregon. I had been checking the weather forecast all week and it looked like it would be raining and cold on Sunday. I wasn’t disappointed. The wind was blowing the rain sideways and it was a chilly 50 degrees when I teed off. We were playing the ball down (no pick, clean, place, winter rules), and I was hoping I wouldn’t find mud on my ball after every shot. Fortunately, they built the course on a sandy base, which facilitates amazing drainage. The course stayed pretty firm and my ball stayed pretty clean. The 18-holes flew by and we finished in ~4 hours. I managed to get 7 pars, 5 bogeys, and played the other 6 holes 16 over. I had two quads that pretty much tanked my round, but the 7 pars have me feeling like my game is finally coming around. It’s just in the nick to time, too. The second round of summer league is tomorrow and I have another 18-hole tournament with my club on Saturday morning.