Winter greetings from the Illinois Valley Country Club golf course!
That false spring that Valentine’s week usually brings sure was short lived and it looks as if we have jumped right back into winter. We set the course on fire on the only warm day and cleared up a bit of dry grasses, weeds and brush and hopefully eliminated some fire danger looking toward summer.
We were able to squeeze in some skins golf last week on Monday as we had a nice group- Rhino, Troy, Woody, Todd, Colby, Roland, an out-of-towner Julian and I. Joel, Melissa and their kids showed and played a couple of holes in front of us, really nice seeing Sloan and Stella out there having a great time. The weather was so beautiful, Eugene told me that almost every cart had been rented during the day! I won the first skin on the dogleg #12 with a drive behind a tree, chipped past the tree and somehow made it in. Surprisingly, the ball kicked toward the hole and I made my birdie putt for a very welcome and rare skin. Todd won skins on 14, 16 and 17 and Roland rounded it out with a skin on the long par 5 #15 with a birdie.
The rest of the week the fairways and green were snow covered, but the forecast said sunny on Saturday, so I texted everyone and a few showed up. In the meantime, Todd, D’Lynn and Troy went over to Applegate and did very well, winning second overall. Todd told me that they got an Eagle (two under par) on the number 5, having driven very close on their first time through and missing the putt but then getting even closer for the back 9 and sinking the eagle putt. They were a little disappointed that they didn’t win but they do know that they have the chops to do it if nobody gets lucky.
At IVCC, we had T-shirt weather and I got Zion, Jim, Eugene and Donny to come out. In addition, we had a couple new guys come play. Jim Graham, a hold-out from the original IVGA days and one of the original shareholders, showed up. Jim just turned 82 and is still hitting very well, especially chipping. I offered to let him hit from the front tee boxes but he insisted on hitting from the backs. Sure was nice to have Jim out again. Rich Bower also played with us too, he plays with the Tuesday and Thursday afternoon guys and it was fun to have him go out with us. He ended up winning the double-carry-over KP on #17 with a nice close hit- it paid $27 for his $3 bet.
Another new guy is Randy, he was injured in a terrible construction accident whereby a cement truck crushed all of his ribs, some of them in multiple places and did some damage to his organs as well. He said he had recovered enough to swing the club softly. Normally, Randy hits it pretty dang long but still played good enough to win a skin on #15 with a par. Zion got skins with pars on #10, #15 and #18. Saturday was one of those days that reminds us that spring is just around the corner. There was still a little snow on #2 green and it was really funny watching everyone’s balls stall in the soft, half-melted snow!
St Patrick’s tournament is March 18, corned beef dinner supplied by Gimmees Grill.