Sunday December 4

It's the middle of the afternoon now and both Spencer the dog and I had a good rest this afternoon. It was a well-needed break, since I was working on finishing the Christmas lights outside. The house is looking good as a result.

Last night we went to the Quinceanera for Alexi C. and it was a big party at the McAllen Convention Center. Food was quite good and the entertainment was fun, even for the middle-aged crowd. I joked, had I known how I would age out of those parties, I would have had more fun at them. But on the other hand, I don't think I left too much on the table :)

It'd be nice to get out to the golf course this weekend since it is mild weather, but there's only so much action to take. Right now I'm watching the Texans v. Falcons. Yesterday the Longhorns v. Baylor was a good game, even thought Baylor soundly beat UT.

Saturday December 3

It was a nice day of not too much action today. We went out for a late dinner last night after the Christmas parade at the Argentinian steakhouse which is always a treat. As a result I slept a bit late today.

The parade was very nice. My friend Casey's daughter was one of the beauty queens in the parade riding by in convertibles. But what makes this 3rd grader special is that she is in a wheelchair with Spina Bifida. It goes to show, beauty takes a lot more than 2 good legs.

Also in the parade after the color guard, was the band, the Prancers, the cheerleaders and all of the football team. It was great to see everyone together again after the last game of the season.

I worked on hanging Christmas lights outside and got most of it done. The rest can be done tomorrow. It's always a big job (to me) with the ladders and getting into the attic and such.

I watched the UT-Baylor game and it was a good game. UT looked OK to start but Baylor closed them out. At least Baylor makes the Big 12 look good. Final score 48-24.

Flint Hills National

We left Hutchinson about 4:00 p.m Tuesday and made a reasonable 1.5 hour drive to Andover KS just east of Wichita. Getting to the course, we drove to our accomodations which was the Dower Lodge. This was a real lodge, down to the log cabin design. But it was quite large, 4 bedrooms, each with our own bath, and a great room and big patio, all overlooking the 10th hole. Top notch facilities.

In the locker room was a poster showing this as a "golf retreat", a place you could take 2 or 3 groups, with a top course, good food and drink, and away from a major city. This hit all of those categories.

Wednesday we had another frost delay but teed off about 10:30. There were relatively a lot of people there, especially compared to the last 3 places we had been. Breakfast highlight was the blueberry pancakes.

The course is a Fazio design, but it was unlike others. It was more playable and more of a classic design. It took cues from Prairie Dunes (since they are so close) but this had greens mainly sloping left to right instead of back to front. It had a championship course feel and I can see why the USGA has already had tournaments here. At the end of the round, I thought I could have stayed longer and continued to play - high praise. But we ended up going straight back to the airport and flying out that afternoon.

It was fun today to tell someone "I just played golf yesterday in Wichita Kansas".

Prairie Dunes

Driving out of Stillwater, we headed north on I-35, into Kansas and on the Kansas Turnpike. Speed limit was 75, but that didn't stop Richard from getting a ticket for going 88 mph. He handled the highway patrol well. Better him than me.

We got to Hutchinson KS about 7 but spend some time driving around looking for the hotel. The men were getting mighty antsy that they had not had dinner yet and it was dark. Like Jerry Seinfeld says, the older you get, the more you start acting like a kid again. We finally found the hotel and went to dinner at the Lone Star Steakhouse next door. It was quiet for a Monday night. Our waitress was called "Homeskillet" by the manager :) After dinner I was able to use the computer at the hotel which was great.

Tuesday morning it was cold again but we had breakfast and headed to the course. Prairie Dunes is a very historic and original course, located in the sand hills just northeast of town. This area looks like no place else, even the land right around it. Much of the course is just long grass, pasture-like. And the dunes are quiet large.

The clubhouse was remarkably nice and I enjoyed meeting the staff and seeing the place. It looked like my kind of place. We warmed up on the range and then went out. I carried my clubs and walked so that helped to warm up.

The holes here are all named with old-style names and signs which I liked. Greens sloped quite a bit, mainly back to front. There were many elevated greens with false fronts. You really have to be a good iron player here. I drove the ball well, made some putts and shot a good round of 89.

This being a small town, it was a jeans-permitted place, at least for the locals. I thought that gave it a very authentic vibe. The course was a true original and is certainly an inspiration to many other courses. It definitely lives up to its high rankings. In fact they should probably be higher.

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!