After a couple of hours of sleep, and a bit of a steep learning curve driving a big van on narrow roads on the other side of the road from what I am used to, we made it to the Irvine Golf Club in Bogside, Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland - http://www.theirvinegolfclub.co.uk/. Celebrating their 125th year (the club opened in 1887), it seemed like a good choice for our opening round in Scotland. Looking at the scorecard, we [...]
Another great day for golf (aren’t they almost always are?!?), and today’s venue is The Club at Bond Head – North Course (http://bondhead.clublink.ca/). Another course that I have never played (which is the theme this week as I have not played any of the 11 courses on our schedule), I’ve always wanted to play here as I have heard that it is a great track. The first hole starts on a big downhill and the [...]
Driving down to Toronto from Ottawa, we had a bit of a detour as there was a large accident on the 401 which closed both lanes Westbound. With a detour across Ottawa in rush hour, we reached Glen Abbey around 1:30 for our 2:12 tee time. Starting out on the back nine, the 10th hole was the warm-up for the 11th which is a spectacular downhill par-4 with the green over water. I had a [...]
Day 3 of the forum outing is unfortunately my last. I have to miss Cape Fear tomorrow, however the day dawned bright and clear (although a bit brisk), and after a final breakfast at the Caravelle (which was great to stay at again), we checked out and headed for Arcadian Shores, which I had never played before. #2 is a great par 3 with lots of tee boxes of to the right which really change [...]
Tiger’s Eye is a great course. I played it for the first time a few years back during the forum outing, and once again, it did not disappoint. Today I played with Jeff C, Mike S and Steve. It was a very enjoyable round of golf and the best of my week so far, shooting 40-41 with no doubles, and lots of opportunity to score much lower. I was hitting almost all of my clubs [...]
The 2011 Forum Outing started officially at the TPC of Myrtle Beach. 32 golfers met under cool, but sunny conditions. I was partnered with Bob, Andre and Martin, who were great to play with. Playing from the white tees, I struggled on the front, but managed to shoot a 41 on the back for an 86. Some of the pin positions were very difficult, and putting was mostly a defensive action rather than aggressively chasing [...]
On the way out to the range, I caught the words that send a shiver down a Myrtle Beach golfer’s spine “Cart Path Only”. With the front that blew through Myrtle Beach over night dropping several inches of rain, the fairways at the Barefoot Resort were water laden, making it a very sloppy day with a lot of walking. That said, it was a great day for golf, as I was paired up with Charlie [...]
The last day of the pre-pre-forum outing takes place in Myrtle Beach at the Dye Club at the Barefoot Resort. This is my third round there, and Jeff’s second after playing there in last years Forum Outing. Today, we are teeing off at 9:08, and are paired up with another pair of Signature Gold members, were very nice, and played quickly, which was great as we were trying to get 36 holes in before the forecasted [...]
Monday gets us all the way to Raleigh, North Carolina. First on the list is Lochmere Golf Club - http://www.clubcorp.com/Clubs/Lochmere-Golf-Club. Lochmere was built in 1985, and is a traditional woodland layout with lots of trees and water that comes into play on several holes. We started on the back 9 just after 8am in brilliant sunshine. It was going to be a hot day, and we needed to get to our next round for 2:30. Struggling through [...]
The day started with lots of promise. A brilliant blue sky, warm temperatures forecasted for the afternoon, and an early enough tee time that we could hopefully get 36 holes in. My opening drive put me in good shape to score well on the first hole at Stonehenge, but no luck. Double followed by another double, a bogie, my first par and a double. By the time the smoke had cleared, I had a smooth 91, [...]
