Hello from the Illinois Valley Country Club golf course!
I missed posting last week as a group of us went on a travel tournament to Bandon Dunes, one of the premier golf destinations in the world, and only just right up the coast from us.
Eighty-eight folks meet every year for a pro-am tournament that has been put together by Rex Denham, our pro from the ‘80s and ‘90s. Our group comes from all over the Western U.S. – from Canada to Seattle, Portland to Eureka, San Francisco to San Diego and a few from Utah, Nevada and Arizona. This year our guys included: Todd, Scott Jason and I as one team and Colby, Tyler, D’Lynn and Troy on the other.
We played four of the five 18-hole courses at the resort. Each course comprised of a links-style, which means that the holes are built close to the sea and on a sandy base, for creating a very firm playing surface. The first links courses being constructed in Ireland and Scotland and close to the coast.
Other features include natural grasses that are not cut out in the roughs, natural sandy areas and the exposure to windy conditions most days. The Bandon courses reflect these traits perfectly. Powered golf carts are not allowed and the distance from the first teebox to the last putt is about 6 miles.
We all got to see friends whom we have come to know and enjoy the comradery that comes from braving the wind and rain and working to pull a 35-pound cart of golf clubs for a long distance, all the while swinging a club about a hundred or more swings. Notable this trip was D’lynn scoring in the 70s every day, Todd in the 80s, Jason hitting an over 330-yard drive and myself breaking under 100 for two days with a 99 and a 94.
After we beat ourselves up in Bandon for 5 days, we decided that stopping by Roseburg on our way home to play their brand new course would be a great idea. Bar Run is a new course built on the grounds of a long-running sand and gravel plant along the Umpqua River. Todd, Jason, Scott and I played and were very relieved to have power carts. We finished the course in 3 1/2 hours when each of the Bandon courses took us almost 4 1/2 hours. Each hole there has a different personality and every green has no flat spots that do not have a breaking roll, so the course is very interesting. Bonus points is that the trip from Roseburg to Grants Pass, where we met my daughter Emily for our ride home, is only 1 hour!
In other news–we put on a Superbowl 2-person scramble tournament on Sunday and had a nice turnout for it. Todd and I ended up winning with a 35 for 9 holes. First net was our brand new golfer to IVCC, Randy Pogorelc; Donny second, along with Roland and Mikey; and Jon and Justin third. Justin also got long drive and Randy got KP. Randy promises that he will be involved in the course and has a nice personality and will doubtless be a nice addition to our men’s group.
We also were able to play on Friday afternoon–we kind of blew it on Thursday evening because it was so nice out, but we let Emily and Sue have the course to themselves. Emily reported that they both are very rusty and played “horribly.” They both redeemed that on Sunday with outstanding performances, even if they didn’t lead their teams to the victory money. Winners on Friday evening were: Eugene, and D’Lynn splitting 2 skins apiece and a three-carry-over-third-shot-KP for about $40 won by D’Lynn on #9.
Coming up will be our annual St Patrick’s Day Tournament.
Men’s League will be starting about April 18 or so, and remember kids, 17 and under always golf for free at IVCC.
