Monday, September 24, 2007
Sun City Lakes West
6251 yds, Slope 119, Par 72, by Gary Nash (I think)
One Reckons that a Sun City course only 6251 yds long is a little overrated at Slope 119, but the course is not defenseless either by design and by maintenance.
By Design, it has every appearance of a Nash course, wide open, attractive, and maybe just a little bland, but subtly deceptive, so that a mis-step deprives you of par: the greens are elevated and canted to add to the interest of the green, over-and-above mere multi-level-tiers, ridges, swales and mounds.
By Maintenance, the fairway grass is longer-than-usual-enough to take 20 yds off my drive (and dangit! I Need That Roll), the rough was longer-than-common, but not so deep or wooly that lost balls were a problem ('cept in a couple of places), and the greens were longer-than-common, but not unkempt -- they were just slow enough that it was hard for us to adjust to, especially after the greens over at Troon North we were on the day before.
I was still suffering from mis-reads due to my new glasses, and suffered a handful of 3 putts, in addition to missing makable 1 putts, too.
I shot 46-44, despite this horrible putting; while Mr Science coasted to an 82, with his Birdie Quota -- we'd both like to score 3-4-5 shots better on a course like this but we were left instead with grudging respect, if not enthusiastic appreciation of the slow greens.
I'm in a malaise now where I either mishit a weak slice with my irons or else absolutely puree the shot over the green, unless I've misclubbed. That happened to me several times, especially in the back9. There's very little more sickening than seeing your ball fly over the pin but take a big bounce. The way things are now for me, 3putts are ruining my game, because if I get the speed wrong, I have no confidence in the come-backer.
Mr Science hit a flutterer on one approach.
"What was THAT?" I asked.
"New stroke," he said. "I open the face a little bit and sweep the short-iron, rather than taking a divot . . . it doesn't go as far, but it sets down soft!"
That's why he's Mr Science . . . 8^) . . .
Good course to walk; we enjoyed it even tho' the renta-carts tended to wallow in the tall grass and the handles were loose. The heat wasn't bad, teeing off early.
One Reckons that a Sun City course only 6251 yds long is a little overrated at Slope 119, but the course is not defenseless either by design and by maintenance.
By Design, it has every appearance of a Nash course, wide open, attractive, and maybe just a little bland, but subtly deceptive, so that a mis-step deprives you of par: the greens are elevated and canted to add to the interest of the green, over-and-above mere multi-level-tiers, ridges, swales and mounds.
By Maintenance, the fairway grass is longer-than-usual-enough to take 20 yds off my drive (and dangit! I Need That Roll), the rough was longer-than-common, but not so deep or wooly that lost balls were a problem ('cept in a couple of places), and the greens were longer-than-common, but not unkempt -- they were just slow enough that it was hard for us to adjust to, especially after the greens over at Troon North we were on the day before.
I was still suffering from mis-reads due to my new glasses, and suffered a handful of 3 putts, in addition to missing makable 1 putts, too.
I shot 46-44, despite this horrible putting; while Mr Science coasted to an 82, with his Birdie Quota -- we'd both like to score 3-4-5 shots better on a course like this but we were left instead with grudging respect, if not enthusiastic appreciation of the slow greens.
I'm in a malaise now where I either mishit a weak slice with my irons or else absolutely puree the shot over the green, unless I've misclubbed. That happened to me several times, especially in the back9. There's very little more sickening than seeing your ball fly over the pin but take a big bounce. The way things are now for me, 3putts are ruining my game, because if I get the speed wrong, I have no confidence in the come-backer.
Mr Science hit a flutterer on one approach.
"What was THAT?" I asked.
"New stroke," he said. "I open the face a little bit and sweep the short-iron, rather than taking a divot . . . it doesn't go as far, but it sets down soft!"
That's why he's Mr Science . . . 8^) . . .
Good course to walk; we enjoyed it even tho' the renta-carts tended to wallow in the tall grass and the handles were loose. The heat wasn't bad, teeing off early.
