It has been rather quiet here in Moronica for the last few weeks. I just haven't had much to write about and when I did I was just too lazy to do it. So I may as well write about my spring training golf trip to Myrtle Beach that I just returned from. Three friends of mine and I traveled to Myrtle to play four different courses this past week to get in some preparation for this year's upcoming golf season at the Livingston Country Club. The courses were, Heather Glen, Glen Dornach, Kings North and Long Bay. All four courses were great to play on with the best by far being Kings North.
Heather Glen featured 27 holes with lots of sand, water and waste areas. I played rather well on the course and shot a 91. On the third nine I shot a 41 and if I had only putted so-so for the whole day my scores would have been much better. I was constantly on the green in regulation but could not connect for birds, let alone in some cases pars. The greens were very fast and it was tough to get the speed right. It is a great course and I recommend playing it if you head down there.
Glen Dornach was a challenge. With more water and sand but fewer waste areas it was a tough but fair challenge that your King was not up to. I guess I was a little stiff from the day before and it showed as I played like I never held a club in my life. The last three holes on the course could be summed up in one word - bitches. With water, sand, waste areas and the intercoastal waterway coming into play they were three picturesque holes but a bitch to play. Not a good thing when you are playing badly. We played the back nine for our replay to get our extra nine in for the day and I played them marginally better finishing with a great par on eighteen.
Kings North, located at the Myrtle National Golf Course, was a treat. A truly beautiful and well maintained course with fairways that made it seem like you were playing on AstroTurf. I played much better and I was happy to shoot a 92 for my first eighteen holes. The course had many holes where you had to play shots over large expanses of water but I managed to stay dry. This course is a must play if you go to Myrtle. For our extra nine we played the front nine of the South Creek course. It was nowhere near as nice as Kings North but still presented challenges. It was here where I bagged my first 'house in one'. The hole's left side was lined with homes and as I hit my tee shot I cringed as I hooked it a bit left and plunked a house loudly. I did not look for that ball and moved quickly along feeling great shame.
Long Bay was probably the weakest of the four courses that we played but it was still an outstanding course. It featured a Jack Nicklaus designed hole from hell. Hole number ten featured a peninsula fairway surrounded by a waste area with lots of 'moguls' if you hit it outside of the waste areas. I guess I do not need to tell you where my first shot ended up now do I? I had moments of brilliance on the course but had too many nightmares leading to a below average round. My crowning achievement for the day was parring the tough eighteenth hole. It is a 380 yard long hole that had tons of water on the right all the way to the green. I blocked my tee shot a bit to the left leaving me 205 yards to the green from the left rough. It was not a pretty sight checking out my next shot and seeing the trouble surrounded the green so I took out my trusty seven wood, which showed up to play all week, and laced a fantastic shot to the middle of the green. I had a forty foot putt for bird that I just missed and tapped in for par. A great finish to my spring training trip as we then hopped in the van and headed for home after finishing up.
All in all it was a great trip as we ate well and had a good time, especially for your King as my wallet had a bit more moolah in it since I pretty much cleaned up on all of the side bet games that we played and I only lost one ball into the water. That in itself is amazing considering the amount of water I had to play over and around for the week. It was a lot of golf. ninety nine holes worth, crammed into a four day period. I am now almost ready for the season but I will need to work on my putting big time as the touch I had in January was nowhere to be seen in Myrtle. I will get to Livingston early tomorrow and spend some time chatting with my putter. If I can get that working, along with the few little changes I have made with my swing maybe I can show some serious improvement this season. I am tired of playing like an eighteen handicapper and I know I can knock that down a few pegs as I need to become more consistent. There is a bit more to write about the trip but I will save that for another posting.
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