Tee Tattler

Hello from the Illinois Valley Country Club golf course!
The recent frost has caused the many oaks on the course to begin the fall drop of their leaves so we will be very busy using the giant leaf blower in trying to get them pushed off the fairways and into the “rougher” areas of the unplayable roughs. I was looking with great interest at the fancy picker/vacuum that the guys at Applegate use to pick theirs. It has a spinning wand at the front of it that causes the leaves to become somewhat airborne, then a giant vacuum pulls them up a chute and blows them into a huge cage. They can then deposit the leaves into a mulch pile for use later in improving areas with thin soil. If you’ve been out on #5, you will know that we have quite a large area of very thin topsoil that could use organic material.
So this week, some of us traveled with our former pro and coach, Rex Denham, to Mesquite, Nev. for a four-day pro-am tournament. We are playing some of the most beautiful courses that exist. These courses have been carved out of the wild desert and the grass on some of them was flown in by helicopter in rolls. The topography is pure desert interrupted by swaths of impeccably manicured fairways and greens. Of you’re not on the fairway, you are out of bounds. They are very strict that you do not walk out into the desert as the sudden rare rainfall events will cause your footprints to make a gully from the runoff. The scenery is beautiful and rugged. We marveled at our view of Zion Valley from our teebox on #12 at Copper Rock golf course. The black, copper, red and tan cliffs in the distance, beckoning us to visit that awesome location. I got pretty close, looking for my ball on the right side of #13, a dogleg left that tempts a golfer to cut the corner and see if his drive will clear the desert-mine did not (ha ha). I am playing in a foursome with three farmers from Scio and Albany. These guys are big country guys and one of them hit a drive into the setting sun over the large pond on #18. The glare from the sun blocked our view of his drive so we assumed that the ball landed short of the 292 yard green and settled into the large fountain. We were very surprised when we walked up onto the green and found his ball only 6 feet from the pin. Of course he three putted for par, as we would expect. This same guy also chipped in from 60 yards on a previous hole. We are allowed handicaps so his handicap erased the drive and the chip, giving him a net zero for that hole, pretty fun.
In local action, we are beginning a Friday evening glow ball night in which we will set up the course with lighted wands bordering the fairways and greens. A beautiful streamer winds its way up each flagpin and we decorate our carts with all sorts of lighted wands, streamers and glow sticks. The merriment can be heard cutting through the cool night air from hole to hole.
In unrelated action, we hosted a really nice kids’ pumpkin carving event at Pappy’s Pub. We had 35 kids all out on the warm patio making a huge mess of pumpkin insides and seeds. A face painter was kept busy making zombies, skeletons and other scary ghouls that metamorphosed from our grandchildren. Brown apple cider and Taylor dogs kept the kids energized.
Well, teeing off on #4 at Wolf Creek Golf Course!