Golf Day
Thursday in Naples.
Fridge still working! And the rain of the last couple of days has passed leaving behind a bit of a cold front; by south Florida standards anyway. Sunny and 21 is the forecast — perfect golf weather and that’s the plan for the day.
In the morning I worked on the Blog from Wednesday while Lorraine prepped for the travel day on Friday a little; Laundry and tidying.
We left the trailer just after noon. Lorraine dropped me at Hibiscus Golf Course in south east Naples. Lorraine headed north to Estero — not to see Koreshan, that will have to wait, but to the Miromar Outlet Malls.
Naples has about 75 golf courses but almost all of them are private; only a dozen or so are public and thus expensive, especially in season. A month from now the green fees will be half of what they are today and during the week may included a free lunch; On Thursday it was $90 USD for a golf course that wouldn’t cost $60 Canadian on the weekend in June in Toronto. Nice enough — I’m not complaining but Golf here follows all the rules of supply and demand. The wind really picked up as we got closer to the 1:22 tee time — about 35mph with much higher gusts; this was going to make the game much more interesting. Naples golf courses are as a rule flat — none of the elevation changes that I’m used to playing at home but lots of water. Hibiscus is a nicely designed course — some good water and sand trap placement to allow for a little bit of risk-reward calculations but the wind made play almost entirely tactical.
I haven’t lifted a club since October and the rust showed on the front 9; I shot a 53 and made a few decent shots but had only one par. A gentleman named Jerry joined us for the first 9 holes; He had been a CFO before retiring last year. We had some nice discussions about corporate governance — he’d left his last job because the CEO refused to support the kinds of rules that were frankly standard and very rigorously enforced at HP. After they fired a VP for refusing to sign off on expenses without receipt detail, he quit. I was sympathetic — my friends in finance at HP and HPE were always business partners regardless of the frustrations of revenue recognition rules and some of the more conservative interpretations of SAS70 etc. My job was to find ways around the rules and theirs was to enforce it. Jerry became very frustrated by the wind and pretty much gave up on the 8th and 9th holes as well and bid us adieu.
On the back 9 the wind was in our favour for a while. I had my first back-to-back birdies on the 9th and 10th holes. On the par 5 9th my approach shot from 220 yards stuck on the green leaving me a 35 foot eagle put that I left a foot short. On the 10th hole my drive went for well over 335 yards — I haven’t hit a ball that far in years. I don’t think JC has ever seen me get back-to-back birds and both holes felt great — always nice to put good golf shots back to back. On another hole I had a putt for bird that JC described as a South American Birdie — just one revolution short.
The birds on the course were great. Clearly, Sacred Ibis either can’t read or don’t care about rules. I watched an Osprey dive for a fish on the 13th hole and carry it away.
Overall a beautiful day and a good game. I only need to make less than 7 to break 100 on the 18th and promptly shanked my drive into the creek just to the left of the tee — 4 of the tee made a 7 for an exact 100 for the day; Not bad given the wind and being my first round of the year. Nancy and John shot 99 and 97 — Jerry was about 60 on the front 9 so I could feel good about keeping up with people who golf regularly.
After golf we went back to the park and picked up Lorraine, returned from a long day of successful shopping even if she didn’t buy much. Then all of us went to Aldo’s, a very popular Naples Italian Restaurant. I had a good Lasagna and Lorraine had a favourite Angel Hair Pasta with Shrimp in Oil and Garlic. Nancy had Lobster and Crab Ravioli and JC had Veal Parm. A perfect end to a great visit. We had hugs all round too end a visit that somehow seemed far too short.
I was too tired to do the blog so it was just time for a nice walk for the dogs around the trailer park and bedtime — the temperature was into the teens already; good sleeping.
Fridge still working! And the rain of the last couple of days has passed leaving behind a bit of a cold front; by south Florida standards anyway. Sunny and 21 is the forecast — perfect golf weather and that’s the plan for the day.
In the morning I worked on the Blog from Wednesday while Lorraine prepped for the travel day on Friday a little; Laundry and tidying.
We left the trailer just after noon. Lorraine dropped me at Hibiscus Golf Course in south east Naples. Lorraine headed north to Estero — not to see Koreshan, that will have to wait, but to the Miromar Outlet Malls.
Naples has about 75 golf courses but almost all of them are private; only a dozen or so are public and thus expensive, especially in season. A month from now the green fees will be half of what they are today and during the week may included a free lunch; On Thursday it was $90 USD for a golf course that wouldn’t cost $60 Canadian on the weekend in June in Toronto. Nice enough — I’m not complaining but Golf here follows all the rules of supply and demand. The wind really picked up as we got closer to the 1:22 tee time — about 35mph with much higher gusts; this was going to make the game much more interesting. Naples golf courses are as a rule flat — none of the elevation changes that I’m used to playing at home but lots of water. Hibiscus is a nicely designed course — some good water and sand trap placement to allow for a little bit of risk-reward calculations but the wind made play almost entirely tactical.
I haven’t lifted a club since October and the rust showed on the front 9; I shot a 53 and made a few decent shots but had only one par. A gentleman named Jerry joined us for the first 9 holes; He had been a CFO before retiring last year. We had some nice discussions about corporate governance — he’d left his last job because the CEO refused to support the kinds of rules that were frankly standard and very rigorously enforced at HP. After they fired a VP for refusing to sign off on expenses without receipt detail, he quit. I was sympathetic — my friends in finance at HP and HPE were always business partners regardless of the frustrations of revenue recognition rules and some of the more conservative interpretations of SAS70 etc. My job was to find ways around the rules and theirs was to enforce it. Jerry became very frustrated by the wind and pretty much gave up on the 8th and 9th holes as well and bid us adieu.
On the back 9 the wind was in our favour for a while. I had my first back-to-back birdies on the 9th and 10th holes. On the par 5 9th my approach shot from 220 yards stuck on the green leaving me a 35 foot eagle put that I left a foot short. On the 10th hole my drive went for well over 335 yards — I haven’t hit a ball that far in years. I don’t think JC has ever seen me get back-to-back birds and both holes felt great — always nice to put good golf shots back to back. On another hole I had a putt for bird that JC described as a South American Birdie — just one revolution short.
The birds on the course were great. Clearly, Sacred Ibis either can’t read or don’t care about rules. I watched an Osprey dive for a fish on the 13th hole and carry it away.
Overall a beautiful day and a good game. I only need to make less than 7 to break 100 on the 18th and promptly shanked my drive into the creek just to the left of the tee — 4 of the tee made a 7 for an exact 100 for the day; Not bad given the wind and being my first round of the year. Nancy and John shot 99 and 97 — Jerry was about 60 on the front 9 so I could feel good about keeping up with people who golf regularly.
After golf we went back to the park and picked up Lorraine, returned from a long day of successful shopping even if she didn’t buy much. Then all of us went to Aldo’s, a very popular Naples Italian Restaurant. I had a good Lasagna and Lorraine had a favourite Angel Hair Pasta with Shrimp in Oil and Garlic. Nancy had Lobster and Crab Ravioli and JC had Veal Parm. A perfect end to a great visit. We had hugs all round too end a visit that somehow seemed far too short.
I was too tired to do the blog so it was just time for a nice walk for the dogs around the trailer park and bedtime — the temperature was into the teens already; good sleeping.
Does that mean I get another blog later tonight? Loving every blessed word.
ReplyDeleteRan out of steam before I could publish it... :(
ReplyDeleteI did send you the playlet.
Back 2 back birds! Nice!
ReplyDeleteNothing else like it to entice you into another round of this foolish past time.
DeleteYiu did well on with thecgolfing after being away from it for a while.
ReplyDelete