Round #30 - Newcastle Golf Club Coal Creek Course

SEATTLE

After seeing my father off to the SeaTac airport for his early afternoon flight and closing the chapter on our 9 day golf trip, I headed to downtown Seattle to meet Jenny Binder, a friend of Tracy and mine, pick up a key to her apartment and begin to settle in for the next 2 days. Jenny proved to be an excellent hostess – having already solidified evening entertainment plans for both nights of my stay.

The first night she and I met a friend of hers named Jill at a pizza place in Ballard – a hip old style section of western Seattle. The building housing Madam K’s Pizza had served as a brothel in the early 1900’s. Madam K celebrated this fact and decorated her establishment accordingly with corsets and bras adorning bright red and walls trimmed in black. The pizza was equally sinful and after excellent conversation we left full and exhausted.

The next day was reserved for life maintenance. It began with a journey to a golf discount store. This is the third of these stores I had visited in the past week, each with little success. This store had on sale exactly what I was looking for – a waterproof jacket and pant set. For less money than anticipated, I was now equipped to survive the elements. However, buying a golf rain suit is like buying an insurance policy, you hope never to have to use it. After a quick venture to the Seattle Public Market to pick up gifts and watch the fishmongers throw fish then to the barber for a haircut, I was back at Jenny Binder’s apartment. Once there I updated scorecards, sent postcards, and worked on this very blog.

That evening Kerri, one of Jenny’s co-workers came to her apartment with her straight from work. Her arrival was followed by the arrival of her boyfriend Shane and their 2 friends Lana and Rob. We socialized for an hour then headed to a curious Italian restaurant owned and operated by a Chinese couple (needless to say we were all skeptical) called Perche’ No – Italian for “Why Not?” The name of this establishment echoed our thoughts exactly as we trotted through the restaurant door and to our table. We enjoyed an exquisite authentic Italian meal. My favorite course was dessert – chocolate crepes filled with mascarpone cheese and Nutella in a white and milk chocolate sauce – wow! The friendly owner of the restaurant stopped by our table to chat with us about the restaurant, her family and life. She was quite congenial and talkative as well. After our 2 ½ hour dining experience had ended we parted ways, Jenny and I to a Queen Anne Hill neighborhood establishment called The Sitting Room and the other couples back to their homes on the Eastern side of town.

At The Sitting Room we were met by Jill from the night before and her fiancé Chris. I had the pleasure of dining with all 3 of these people and Tracy late last year when visiting Seattle on our way to a New Year’s Eve ski vacation in Whistler, British Columbia. Their company was enjoyable that evening and this was no different. After an hour or so, we retired back to Jenny’s apartment and I began preparations for my trip the next day to Coeur D’Alene, Idaho.

THE GOLF

The Newcastle Golf Club’s Coal Creek Course is designed by Fred Couples. Unfortunately, Fred’s powers are limited to moving and sculpting the earth and not in controlling the weather. The rain began on the drive to the course and has probably still yet to subside. Rain is manageable, but the temperature made the conditions difficult. Today the high was predicted at 48 degrees and 48 strokes per nine. I played by myself in the driving rain because I’m sure nobody else was dumb enough to be on the course on a day like this. I was wrong. I ran into a Japanese couple on the 6^th hole and waited for every drive they sprayed, shot they duffed, and putt they missed, pulled back, and re-putted. I waited as they played 2 balls each. I waited as they walked from the cart path to their ball in the fairway, checked the yardage to the pin, then walked back to their cart, picked a club, walked to their ball, decided they had the wrong club, walked back to their cart, picked another club, walked back to their ball for the 3^rd time, and finally hit. Through the cold and rain, I waited.

This couple did not speak a word of English. Maybe the concept of playing through is solely American. I could see this being the case as we are all rushing about trying to get things done as quickly as possible – using up our free time in an effort to make more free time, often times unsuccessfully. I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt in this matter and write it off as a cultural discrepancy. Until the 16^th hole when the let me play through. I still cannot fully understand the masochism involved in their thinking – let him suffer for 10 holes and he’ll really enjoy the last 2 holes. It was beyond me. I accepted their invitation and blew past them. The rain had since stopped and was followed by an enormous wind – making shots play 40 yards longer than they normally would. I was apparently going to receive no breaks from Mother Nature this afternoon. My newfound freedom of pace allowed me to finish this miserable round quickly and head to my car to change into warm, dry clothes and begin down the road to Coeur D’Alene Idaho.

Today’s Course: Newcastle Golf Club Coal Creek Course
Score: 92
Handicap: 11.1
Overnight Location: Coeur D’Alene, Idaho
Tomorrow’s Course: The Coeur D’Alene Resort Course
Tomorrow’s Overnight Location: Jackson, WY