Round #5: Pine Needles

THE GOLF

Pine Needles Golf Club hosted the Ladies U.S. Open in 2001 and will host again in 2007. Before tackling this Donald Ross gem I had to pick up my father and his friend Jerry Updike up at the Moore County Airport. They flew in for the day to donate as many golf balls to the North Carolina pines as possible. Their plane arrived late due to a stong headwind. After loading up clubs and a large tupperware conatiner of chocolate chip cookies baked for me by my mother, we zipped to the course at record speed in order to make our 9:50 tee time. We teed up cold with no warm up. I opened with par, dad grasped a 7 from the jaws of a 9, and Jerry told me to put him down for an 8 after taking 10 strokes, 5 consecutive around, but never on, the green. The second tee box brought me to the realization that my camera was in my hotel room. I kicked myself all day for such a bozo move. Finally I had playing partners that I recognized, a beautiful day to enjoy their company, and no way to imortalize the moment.

And there were many moments worthy of immortilization. Most centered around Jerry and his comic book character approach to life. Imagine Mr. Magoo with better posture and slightly better eyesight mixed with a milder mannered Barney Fife and you will arrive at Jerry. Jerry carries 10 clubs in his bag, none of them matching. He just recently purchased his first sand wedge ever. So new is this club that he still has the wrapper on the grip and will probably keep it there until its retirement. His driver is covered in mud - not on the face of the club, but on the back. I could not imagine a more humorous existence than to be surrounded by Jerry on a daily basis. He is a wonderful soul and the spice which flavors the round.

All said my front nine at Pine Needles ended well with a 41. The back nine saw more strokes as my tee ball began to stray and I saw more of the course. No birdies were had on the day, but I was able to save par and sometimes bogey thanks to the arrival of my short game. My inward nine was completed with a score of 46, putting me at 87 on the day. What a relief! Finally a score in the 80's, renewed confidence, and hope for futher improvement. My father and Jerry, who are much less focused on score than myself, came in with respecable scores which I hesitate to divulge on this post. Let's just say they had a good time...

Today's Round: Pine Needles
Score: 87
Handicap: 8.3
Tonight's Location: Southern Pines
Tomorrow's Course: Pinehurst No. 2

PINEHURST

Once the round was in the books we headed to my hotel room to pick up my camera for photo documentation of the day's events. Jerry wanted to see Pinehurst and partake in their daily ritual of afternoon tea. He masked his desire to see the famous resort by insisting the we wanted to see Pinehurst and that my father would enjoy it. We drove to the famous Carolina hotel.

Jerry insisted we park, for my dad, so that he could see Pinehurst. After walking in, Jerry found rougly 8 brochures, because my dad needed to see them. He then recomended we eat at The Ryder Cup Grill in the Carolina Hotel, because my dad wanted and needed to eat there. The meal took over an hour for 2 sandwiches and an order of fried oysters - I think the waitstaff was distracted by the Duke/Boston College ACC Championship basketball game. After finishing our visit at Pinehurst, I shuttled the itinerent golfers back to the plane for departure. It was wonderful to have this time with my father, as I will not see him until early next month when we are scheduled to play the Monterey Penninsula, most notably Pebble Beach. After dropping them at the airport, I returned to the Pine Needles practice facility to work out the problems with my wedges and tee shots. Two hours later, I was in my hotel room preparing mentally for the challenge of Pinehurst No. 2 the following morning.