The same student who was here last week is also taking this week’s class. It would seem that whenever this particular student takes a class that I am teaching, the fates conspire to make us play golf together. I don’t know why that is, but it’s a pattern that I don’t mind repeating.
So, this time, we decided to visit Lakeside Golf Course in West Bountiful, Utah. This course has a local nickname (some of you may even already know it); it’s also known as, “The Sponge” due to it’s usually rather wet state. It’s a very nice golf course, but we were surprised to find out that it was about 44% more expensive than the course we played last week. However, given the timeframe of some things we had to do in the afternoon, we decided to only play 9 holes.
We decided to take a 7:36am tee time. It was a beautiful morning, the air was clear, not too hot and not too cool, either. The sun was still a bit low over the east, which made the first couple of holes a little more difficult (playing towards the east), but it didn’t take long to get past that.
We had a great time. The course was a little wet in some spots, but overall, it wasn’t bad. Things were definitely greener than they had been last week. We didn’t keep too close a tab on our score, but we both noticed that I was significantly improved. I was hitting straight, solid shots one right after another. I even took par on a couple of holes and only double-bogeyed (or worse) on 3 of them.
There was one 530+ yard long par 5 (trust me, that’s a long hole, even for a par 5) I was about 30 yards short of the pin with only 2 strokes played. If I made the simple chip shot onto the green close enough to the pin, it could be an easy 1-putt for only the third birdie in my life. But, no, I had to nip the tip of my 9-iron on the ground before it reached the ball, rotating the club and sending the ball off to the right at a 35-degree angle to where I was aiming for. I just couldn’t putt it out from there, although I was only 18 yards from the pin. So, I chipped it on and my 1-putt ran out of steam about 2mm sort of dropping the ball (it was litterally sitting on the rim of the cup but didn’t go down). So, I ended up with a bogey.
Overall, I think I was about 16 over for the front 9. Considering how little golf I’ve played in the past few years, that’s not bad. I just really wish I could have made birdie on that par 5. It would have been nice. Oh, well. Better luck next time.
