In keeping with our tradition, my father Ed and I met for a trip for 2 rounds of golf this past week. I was pleased to make the first leg arranged, with a round at our old club Austin Country Club, now famous for the Dell World Match Play Championship. It was cool to watch on TV and made me want to go back. So last Wednesday we did.
The course has held up well over 30 years and the recent renovation courtesy of the PGA Tour helped a lot. The greens were as good as I've seen, like at Sand Hills where if you just miss a bit that you've got a tough chip. And no easy putts. I played from the Riverside tees, 6,200 yards and that was plenty.
Ed remembered how he was playing with Davis Love, Jr. and his son Mark Love in 1985 or so when I came out and played the last 3 holes and hit a lot of good shots. I had forgotten but I remembered along with him. That was unexpected. And then to live it again, I crushed a drive on 18, over the bunker, down the hill and in front of the hazard. Just had a partial wedge in. I felt like a pro. We measured the drive at 330 yards. Downhill, downwind, didn't matter, it was still huge.
Our host John was a lot of fun and he walked all 18 holes in the heat. After we finished, we drove the long way to San Antonio through Dripping Springs and Blanco. With the sun going down, it was a great Hill Country drive. We had dinner at the Oak Springs Cafe in Dripping Springs, and it was a real Texas cafe. Complete with peach cobbler.
Thursday we continued the historic Texas golf tour at Brackenridge Park, one of our favorites. We had Dad's good friend Jim there and he was charming as usual. We also played with a nice guy Josh who rode around on a skateboard type golf cart. He was very athletic so he made it look easy.
The last time I played Brackenridge I had a great round, so I had something to live up to. I played hard again, but made double bogey on 13, 14 and 16. On 13 I hit a great drive and then my second shot over the green out of bounds on the par 5. But the drive was 300+ yards again. I bounced back with birdie on 15, and gutsy pars on 17 and 18 for an 80, my best round of this year (so far).
Thursday night we had a nice dinner at Paesano's and then watched the NBA Finals game 6 (Cleveland won) and then I fly home Friday. Not a bad couple of days off.
It was nice to be together during this Fathers' Day week. Ed said he was glad he had introduced me and Elizabeth to the game. I was glad he got to see and remember some good shots by me.
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