Friday, April 25, 2008
Sun CIty Riverview, Again
We returned to Riverview, I think, so we could "go low" . . . it didn't work . . . I had a 92; Mr Science an 82 . . . I was slicing all my shots, I couldn't stop . . . on to the driving range on #1, into the cement creek that borders #2 . . . the water was only a half-inch deep flowing so slowly the ball wasn't moving at all, so I just waded in with my golf sandals and hit it out of there, no prob . . . 'cept I had to do that twice more on the front 9 . . . then when I did hit a good shot, I would puree it over the green, and my short game & putting sucked . . . just a long string of tap-in bogies.
But this might be the most interesting of those sun city courses that all look the same . . .the elevation changes are the most pronounced here, and while it would never be confused with say, Hillcrest, we aren't bored while we're playing it, it's just that very few of the holes stand out in memory (unless one has to stand in water to hit a shot, if you see what I mean).
The one hole that DOES stand out is the par 5 #1 handicap #11, the river view hole . . . 'course you'd never notice the river, 500 yards away, since all that land between the hole and the river is covered by an RV parking lot -- there must be 1000 of them parked there . . . the tee is very elevated above the 10th hole, the RV parking lot, and the 11th Fairway -- it almost qualifies as a view . . . the scorecard doesn't show it but there are fairway bunkers on many of these
holes, ordinarily I wouldn't give them a second tho't, but this day, not being real sure where my blows would go, I tried especially to avoid them, putting a sand-lock on my ball almost every time, if you see what I mean, and on this day, when the wind was blowing left-to-right on this hole and I was slicing anyway, it meant I had to go into the fairway bunker on the right side of the landing area . . . . course Mr Science did too . . . that trap is sunk sorta deep, not British Open deep, but sorta deep, and Mr Science had to go to a 7iron to get out and left himself another 130 yds to the steeply uphill green. I put the old west-texas tomahawk on mine with a 5 iron and got up on a level almost equal to the bottom of the green in a flat place, about 90 yards away . . . Mr Science got onto the front of the green and 2putted, like usual, but I blew mine over the green trying to soft-pedal a half-wedge to the top of the green, which left me 10 feet below the putting surface. I flopped the ball up onto the top of the hill, but it rolled all-the-way down off the front of the green, where I'd a been in the first place, if I hadn't gotten greedy, so I played a texas wedge back up the hill 45 feet to the pin for a tap-in bogey. That's a good hole. Interesting. but few of the others would hold a candle to it.
holes, ordinarily I wouldn't give them a second tho't, but this day, not being real sure where my blows would go, I tried especially to avoid them, putting a sand-lock on my ball almost every time, if you see what I mean, and on this day, when the wind was blowing left-to-right on this hole and I was slicing anyway, it meant I had to go into the fairway bunker on the right side of the landing area . . . . course Mr Science did too . . . that trap is sunk sorta deep, not British Open deep, but sorta deep, and Mr Science had to go to a 7iron to get out and left himself another 130 yds to the steeply uphill green. I put the old west-texas tomahawk on mine with a 5 iron and got up on a level almost equal to the bottom of the green in a flat place, about 90 yards away . . . Mr Science got onto the front of the green and 2putted, like usual, but I blew mine over the green trying to soft-pedal a half-wedge to the top of the green, which left me 10 feet below the putting surface. I flopped the ball up onto the top of the hill, but it rolled all-the-way down off the front of the green, where I'd a been in the first place, if I hadn't gotten greedy, so I played a texas wedge back up the hill 45 feet to the pin for a tap-in bogey. That's a good hole. Interesting. but few of the others would hold a candle to it. 
