The Kokopelli Golf Stance

6716 yds, Par 72, Slope 135, by Bill Phillips

They Say: "Bill Phillips designed this 18-hole championship course to challenge the advanced player while still allowing the novice player to experience an enjoyable round of golf. Highlighted by seven serpentine lakes, Kokopelli favors accurate tee shots while the fairways are cut through series of moguls and bunkers that lend a links-style feel to the golf course. From the fairways, players are left with entertaining approaches to small, undulating greens."

I wanted to go back to kokopelli; I tho't it was wrong to not have a review of my namesake course . . . but now I remember why there wasn't a review . . . it's not amazing in anyway that causes a bloggable comment . . . certainly it doesn't look like this photo . . . there's too much water on the course to be an actual Links style course . . . I suppose you could still call it a "desert-style" Links course, for once you are into "desert links", there aren't many rules left to break, if you see what I mean . . .

I should have realized on the par 5 first hole, when I skulled my 5iron 2nd shot -- that's the easiest shot in Golf, IMVHO, the 5iron-par5-layup -- but I hit the next shot 15 ft below the hole, so I passed it off as one-of-those-things.

Then, when I bladed my 5iron tee shot on the par 3 #2, I recriminated with myself about my technique, tempo, and concentration -- that shot had so much top spin on it it skipped over the water hazard and just up short of the trap. Mrs Cactus had never seen that before, so she was agog, but, of course, it happens to me all the time . . . once, at Walden on Lake Conroe, on the double-dogleg par5 signature hole that requires a heroic 3rd shot sometimes, with ALL water carry, I skipped a 3iron off a wave onto the green over a 5ft bulkhead.

So I wasn't worried -- my driver t-shots seemed to be just fine, and I kinda got lucky on #3 when my ball stopped just short of the water up by the green that you can't see from the tee, leaving me my favorite approach, the half-wedge. Inexplicably, I hit it fat -- even tho' it was teed up in the rough -- into the water. I dropped another ball from the same shot but it buried itself inthe tall grass on the steep slope between the green and the bulkhead -- so then I knew.

We were playing with the Markae: two guys both named Mark that worked together. Mark I had a tame hook to work with; Mark II was a big guy that played the Othello ball . . . "Hit Well But Not Wisely" . . . man, he hit the ball a long way . . . we had the fun of counting his birdies, especially on the short par 4s . . . 5, in all . . . 8^0 . . . pretty outstanding! I don't think he broke 85, tho' - he might not have broken 90 . . . 8^P. . . sometimes he hit the ball a long way the wrong way, if you see what I mean . . . 8^D . . .

I had a rather indifferent 46-43=89, with 6 pars and NO birdies . . . mainly because of the iron problem . . . typically, on #18, a par 5, I hit a good drive, then a spanking 7wood, then chunked the half-wedge I had left to the green into the water I had not seen, on the left front of the green -- shouldna been in play, but . . .

Mrs Cactus had her first real Par on a Par4, #16 . . . just 3 solid shots to 15 ft left of the pin, and a good putt, that tractored over all the aeration holes with the singular purpose of going into the hole. She had 11 real scores this round, for something over 120, and periodically she hit a shot that made the Markae jaws drop, not just mine: there was one hole, where we had to fish her ball out of casual water, and she dropped it in the rough . . . the Markae had pulled ahead of us to their balls in the fairway, mindless of her shot, which they regretted as it whistled over their heads, a superbly struck hybrid! They didn't mind -- they were embarassed at their lack of etiquette . . . 8^D . . . what a shot!