Karsten Creek - Stillwater, OK

Monday, we left the home of Bill and Joyce after a nice breakfast and drove to Stillwater, OK. Like Tulsa, you may not know that Oklahoma State is the Duke of college golf, with OSU having won 10 NCAA team champions and is a perennial contender. A top 5 program deserves a top course, and, like at UT and other big schools, Oklahoma State has its own top course, which is Karsten Creek.

Located just out of the town of Stillwater, which looked very College Station like, we headed off the main road into a very rural area. The facility was top notch and being Monday morning and cold weather, we had the place to ourselves.

The course is a Fazio design and it has similar aspects to Barton Creek and UT Golf Club in Austin. So similar you could call it.. "Karton Creek". But that's a compliment.

Memorable holes were number 6 with a blind shot off the tee, and #9 and # 18, both reachable (for big hitters) par 5's that would be sure to give a lot of finishing drama. Course was in fine shape and we only saw a few other players. Those college students, even the top golfers, sure look young!

I would recommend the course not only for a good test, but also to see the history of the storied Oklahoma State program. They had a nice hall of honor set up and I enjoyed seeing it. I'll look forward to telling my friend Bob about it, since his son played golf at Oklahoma State and is a member of that Hall of Honor.

Southern Hills - in Tulsa

You might not think of Tulsa, Oklahoma as a golf mecca, but then you might not think of Tulsa as an oil patch boomtown either. Southern Hills in Tulsa has hosted 3 mens’s US Opens, 4 PGA’s, and 2 US Amateur, as well as US Women and Junior championships and 2 Tour Championships. What are they doing right?

It’s not easy to overlook this history, because this list seems to be everywhere at the club. On the scorecard, in the locker room, on the shopping bags. As the club history indicates, Southern Hills has found a way to make money for the club from these tournaments. And they invest the money back into the club in both the well-kept championship course, the sprawling clubhouse and the expansive grounds. Facilities were not only top notch but also top in size, making it a good place to host a large national event. Tulsa also has a good reputation as a city of people that get things done.

We arrived at the Tulsa airport and drove straight to the course. Driving in, we changed quickly and headed straight out, no lunch, no warm up, just on the tee. I had decided since I could not remember the last time I played (October?) that I would be content with playing the shots I was comfortable with. It was a good plan as I hit the shorter clubs with confidence, did not try and overpower any shots and generally kept the ball in play.

The course had the honor of being challenging but not overpowering. It helped that we played from the white tees but in general, the fairways were wide, the rough not so rough, the trees not too thick. But the trees did creep in the fairway just enough to make it a driver’s course. And the Hills! Very challenging were the namesakes. Chipping near the greens, nearly all elevated, was tough. On hole 9, I was over the green, hit what I thought was a decent chip that landed short of the green. It rolled past the hole, completed across the green, down the hill and ended up about 50 yards from where I had been! Amazing – I thought that only happened at #9 at Augusta National.

Speaking of, I thought that Southern Hills did looks a bit like Augusta, with the elevated climb to finish, the fast greens, and the ability to see across much of the course. It also reminded me of Colonial, which I found was not far off the mark, having the same designer Perry Maxwell.

The course was also free of visual clutter: no ball washers, buried trash cans and green stained concrete cart paths. There was a nice amount of water, not big forced carries but just enough to keep the ball straight, generally.

Very interesting was the creative logo.

From a distance it looks like a crest with a cross behind it. Upon further inspection, it has many different historical club aspects:

1 side of the cross: a rifle for the skeet range

1 side of the cross: a polo mallet for the polo

The bottom of the crest: a spur for the equestrian

Inside the crest/spur: tennis, golf, swimming

Vacation?

Had it not already been planned, I would not recommend going on vacation right after a holiday. It seems there is a lot of things that will have to be placed on hold (but not before a heroic final push Sat. morning) to get out of town.

I've said it before, getting ready to go on vacation must be a training for dying. There is a real sense of time speeding up and realizing that not EVERYTHING will get done. The good part is that not everything SHOULD or MUST be done. Priorization. That of course assumes you don't die suddenly, as my friend John put in describing his car wreck - "It all happened so fast".

Of course, one thing that cannot wait is the Memorial v. San Antonio Reagan high school football game playoff tomorrow at 3:00. I changed my flight for that one. Win or lose, it will be sure to be a game to remember. Likely the last home game for Sarah's senior year. Next week's game should be on the road, probably in San Antonio. But it could be at home or in Laredo. Go Mustangs!

Austin trip

We went to Austin for the UT - Kansas State game on Saturday. This was a difficult trip to plan because, when I decided to get the tickets weeks ago, we didn't know what time the game would be (11, 2, 7?) and we didn't know if Memorial would be playing that Friday night. We assumed they would and they did.

So that meant that we were driving to Austin very early on Saturday. While that was a good plan in the daytime, by the time the game started that evening, everyone was coming down. Next time, we don't do that.

We did get upgraded tickets from our friend Carlos Z and not only were they good tickets, the parking pass was spectacular. We parked right across from the UT Band Hall where the drum line was performing before the game. That was an up close and personal show. I got to talk to some of the band members and their parents. Not too far off from the high school band experience.

Our tickets were on the 35 yard line, lower level, under the overhang. So we saw all the plays very well. UT had a chance to win at the end after they put in Case McCoy, but they had to score a TD and they couldn't. Final: Kansas State 21, UT 17.

New blog

I've set up a new blog for my law practice

It is...

GTurleyLawCenter.wordpress.com

I'll be posting original new material that will also be appearing on my new website at

get-attorney.com

One of the previous problems I've had with websites is that its too hard to upload new stuff. But in the Web2.0 era, uploading is super easy with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN.

By the way, I've also got a new Twitter feed for the law practice

Twitter.com/turleylawcenter

Hope you enjoy!

Sunday

Less than 2 weeks until I go on the big golf trip. Three top 100 courses in one shot, plus a tough 4th course, Karsten Creek, for good measure. Maybe I should be practicing golf? Hasn't happened so far. Plenty of work to do at the office makes it hard to decide to leave for a morning or afternoon. Then the weekends has other good things to do. This weekend: Friday night football game, slept late Saturday, Lector training, shopping, church, grocery, cycling and car washing. I guess I could have fit some golf in: maybe next week.

LSU football game to forget

My friend John went to see an LSU football game and our other friend Robert found out about that. Robert's daughter is now a freshman at LSU. Robert asked John, "Did Greg go with you?" and John said no, but he was invited.

I suppose I'm due to go back and do it right this time. I did go to one LSU game in the 80s. It was November 1986 as I recall, probably the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend or probably the weekend just before. They were playing Notre Dame. I was dating an LSU student long distance and we had arranged this weekend visit.

It'll be so fun...we'll go to the game and sit in the student section.... lot of drinking and partying... everyone will be there. So I got my friend Clint to go with me. I guess we drove from Houston but it may have been Austin. As can expect it is a LONG drive there.

So the game was Saturday night and I guess we got there Saturday. First thing was that since I was not an LSU student, I needed an LSU ID to go with a student ticket. I of course had neither. So the half-baked plan was that there was 1 student ticket and the other person would buy a regular ticket. Being the Nice Guy, I got the regular ticket. I was then supposed to walk into the student section by some complicated handoff/switcheroo. Then, everyone would be standing so there would be no seating issues. What a great time it would be!

This was of course long before the days of cell phones. So we immediately got separated, security was wise to the handoff/switcheroo trick, and I found myself on the outside looking into the student section. After realizing that I was stuck, I went to my lonely seat by myself. To make matters worse, I was surrounded by Notre Dame fans in the upper deck. I never watched a game that I enjoyed less. By the third quarter I'd had enough and left. I figured I'd go back to the apartment. Of course no one was there, so I had to wait outside.

When everyone got back ("What a great game!") I found out that Clint while driving my car had "hit something" which I later gathered was a curb and gashed the tire. So the donut spare was now on. That of course was not part of the planned weekend (note ironic reference). So the next day we had to look around for a replacement tire as close to the original as possible, so as not to tip to my father as to this mishap. Again, this was before the days of Discount Tire, Big O Tires and Goodyear stores, so we had to look around for a Shell station to get that kind of tire (and charge it on the my Shell card).

We got the tire, stayed through the weekend and then left on the long drive home. By this time, we literally had no money between the two of us. Not even McDonald's money. So we made it back on the trusty Shell card, so desperate that we had to eat a sandwich at the Shell station from the cooler. And we were happy to have it.

John and Paul had a much better experience. They stopped and got LSU t shirts on the way to fit it. They got invited to a tailgate party with lots of good food. The game was during the day and LSU won, keeping their #1 ranking. And they had a decent hotel to stay in. I'm guessing they even had cash in their pockets for the drive home.

I guess we have these experiences so we know what NOT to do in the future.

Blogging

I've been inspired to do more writing lately. There are those that don't understand the purpose of blogging - usually those who don't like to write. But for those of us who do, its like free money. Practice, practice, practice. Things always look a bit more interesting when they're on paper (so to speak).

Today I had a meeting/event at 10 then 12.15, then 2.30. What that meant is that I was busy, and that I didn't have much time for anything else. After the last meeting, it was about 3.30, about 92 degrees and I was about done. Tired! So I came home to change clothes... and just stayed there. Figured I could do as much work from there as I could driving to the office. I was right!

The 10 am. was a ribbon cutting for the bank, so it was a good opportunity to see a lot of people. I was most pleased that when I found out about the ribbon cutting (since I had worked on the project), I let the architect know of the event. She was there, was most pleased that I told her about it, and they even mentioned her in the introductory remarks. So it was my good deed of the day.

Monday

The highlight of the day work-wise was to work on figuring out the jigsaw puzzle that is the multi-acre development (name withheld by request). There is an easment, then there is not an easement, then we want to make an easement again. Lots of complexity in a paperwork sense.

Fortunately I had read some good advice that you should not keep multiple copies of things. So after I cleaned those out, the final package looked very straightforward.

After work, our Maniac group had a tire pull exercise. What that means is that you strap on a harness attached to a tire dragging on the ground. Then you run 400 meters dragging the tire behind you. Then you run 400 meters back to where you started. Repeat 6 times.

I actually felt like it was a good workout. Then I got home and made a nice vegetarian dish, stir fried tofu and vegetables. Who knew that was so good?

Sunday

Today was the first day of return from Daylight Savings, so it was nice to wake up when it was light outside. About 7:45 with the time change, falling back. I had planned on not doing much this morning since yesterday, I got up (in the dark) to go meet the group for a 65 minute run in Cimarron, 20 minute drive away.

The other night we were going out and I went out and got some fast food. The Outlaw Spicy Chicken Sandwich. It was good - a calorie bomb as expected. What was not expected was that the next day I told Susan I felt hung over when I got up. "That Diet Coke must have been pretty strong!" she said. But after the day ended, I thought it was a food hangover and we agreed that the calorie bomb must have had something to do with that.

So I've been enjoying some good meals at home and have felt much better. Without the triathlon training, I've been burning less calories and eating less. So it's nice to get active again, after a 2 1/2 week break.

There was supposed to be a meeting at church today. While I thought it was a 1:30, turns out it was a 12:00 so I got there right as people were leaving. I was kind of mad, not really at anyone but myself and the situation. But I stayed and got the information across.

On the bike ride today, we rode into a very stiff wind, and I was only going 9 mph and pedaling as hard as I could, with still keeping the ability to keep going. It was tough, but it reminded me of going up the mountain in Colombia. 6 mph up, 36 mph down. That was worth the effort!

We finished the evening with a good dinner and watching the Amazing Race. Lake Malawi looked a like a very cool place. Next week they go to Denmark. It's cool the local events they find for everyone to do.