Storming the beaches of Burnaby Mountain

This evening I golfed a round at the Burnaby Mountain Golf Course. They did warn me when I called that they had done some form of "sand blasting" to the course earlier in the week, but the price was right so I didn't care. Once I got out onto the course, I understood why they were warning everyone. It is part of some re-sanding and re-seeding process that sets everything up for the next season. It was like golfing on a beach, which is nice that the ball slows down, but on fairways most of the time you don't want it to slow down. The Normandy jokes got some mileage.

I shot a 124, but the guys I was golfing with (whom I met for the first time in the proshop) were outstanding players. 90% of the holes I golfed this season were par 3s, for budgetary/value reasons. There are some tremendous values in the par 3 courses in Vancouver proper, if you are golfing on a budget. I won't say them, because promoting them means I would have to stand in line longer and they don't pay me. I am happiest when nobody else is there. You can play longer courses for more money, and we do that every so often. Today out of the tee box, I was embarrassing. As I stated at one point, "my 3 iron is more radioactive than Chernobyl". I tend not to use my driver, because it is extremely erratic and a formula for losing a lot of golf balls. Basically I was hitting 3-4 shots to get to the other players first shots.

Everything changed however, at every hole, when I got to within 120 yards. My 8 iron and I are in a serious relationship. I hit my ace with my 8. As I say this, my pitching wedge is getting jealous. My pitching wedge is a deadly weapon. I am forgetting my putter. I was 2 putts or less on 60% of the holes. This is the hazard of playing too many holes of “pitch and putt”. You get great in a range and terrible outside of that range when you get to a full length course. It was funny though, because when we all totaled our scores at the end of the day, I was not as far behind the guys who crushed 270 yard drives as I would have guessed. They still kicked my ass, but by 20 strokes, not the 40-60 you might have predicted if you looked at nothing but our opening tee shots.

I don't know how interesting this post is to the "blogging Tories", but if you are even still reading at this point, you "get it".

On every hole, I was terrible until I got to the 150 yard marker.