Austin Golf Club

I played golf last Sunday at the Austin Golf Club. Its a Coore-Crenshaw design, like Chechessee Creek Club that I played in Spring Island, SC. My friend Skip had told me "we should play there" so I called him and set up the game for Sunday. I ran the Capitol 10K again like in 2009 with my friend John and had a great morning. So I usually think that I will get my first hole in one on these days.... Didn't happen this time but still a great experience. The course is located west of Austin, west of Lakeway, west of Paleface Park (can you believe that racist name?). If you weren't with someone, you'd never find it. No sign at all. You buzz in the gate and announce yourself. Like at Shadow Creek, you go down a pretty drive and up front where your pros and caddies are waiting for you, a la the Bachelor. A memorable thing of the course was the tee boxes(!). Yes, the tee boxes. They are like putting greens. They have special plastic tees to use. Afterways, you are to pick up the tees. Verboten to leave a broken tee behind. I carefully picked the tees up. Then you notice, it sure is nice not to have any trashy tees around. The course was generally wide off the tees and not overly long, both of which I liked. But the greens were well bunkered and interesting. Not overly fast, but still "slippery". Our caddy Matt was a college student in the golf professional program at Methodist College in North Carolina. My friend Tim went through that as well. During the round, I told Skip to look for our friend Ronnie Krist who was a member. Ten minutes later, Matt (unrelated) said "That's Mr. Ronnie Krist in the group in front of us". So we caught up to them at the turn and said hi. That was worth the trip just for that. The holes are named. I birdied the hole # 13 called "Spring" with a nice faded 5 iron to the front of the green and then drained a 30 foot uphill putt. The back nine was harder than the front. Very challenging. I did finish with a good round of 86. A great golf experience. One of the best I've played, a lot like Shadow Creek ( which I liked a lot).