Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Hacker's World

Welcome back to Hackers World, and this weeks outing proved what a hacker yours truly is.

Returning to Glenwood Country Club to take on the course without the aid of a team proved to be disastrous. Once again, I teamed up with David Wagnon, a friend from Little Rock, who arrived Tuesday night and stayed at the clubs lodge.

The GCC offers several amenities for visitors, such as the lodge. The lodge has 12 rooms with a full kitchen where people can prepare their meals. There is also a common room where those staying can gather to talk, watch television or whatever. The cost is $55 per night.

The pro shop is well stocked with plenty of golf balls (hackers and duffers should know this as they will likely lose several balls during play). Monogrammed shirts are available, as are golf gloves, some clubs, shoes, tees and other golfing gear. If its not in stock, Sean Carey, general manager of golf, can order it.

Glenwood is a public course, though memberships can be purchased with unlimited green fees for $55 a month. Cart rental is extra. For those just wanting to make a day of it, during the week green fees are $20 in the summer, with $18 for cart rental. The fee for weekend play is $26 for green fees and $18 for carts. Glenwood offers Twilight Golf for $15 during the week and $7 cart rental and $22 on weekends with $7 cart rental.

Take my advice, spend the extra money for the cart, as slow play is not permitted and the hills will sap a players energy in a hurry. A few other rules to keep in mind include proper dress code (shirts must have a collar), cart path regulations must be observed, and all players must have clubs and bags.

The course itself is beautiful. Rolling hills, plenty of trees and water. While the scenery is nice, the course is rough, and rated one of the best in the state, seventh as of this writing.

What golfers, duffers and hackers need to keep in mind is the fairways are narrow, the rough is deep enough to lose a small car in, and the hills can ruin the best of shots.

While tee times dont have to be scheduled, it is a good idea to call in advance at have a time set. David and I were paired with two other golfers, Scott, an engineer from Camden, and Neil, a preacher from Conway.

This spurred a nasty sense of competition in me, and saw my game blow up. The day began fairly well. We started on the back nine and agreed to play from the white tees as none of us were big bangers. David and I triple-bogeyed this hole after decent drives.

Personally I did well the first four holes, with a couple of doubles before making par on the 13th with the help of a chip from just off the green to within a couple of feet of the hole. From there, though, the game fell apart.

The problem, though, began on 12, when I forgot my sand wedge after knocking the ball out of a bunker and onto the green. We had to go back and get it, which broke my concentration for some reason.

Going to 14, a short par-3 over water, I set up and topped the drive, leaving it short of the drink with a downhill lie. I made up for this by blooping it into the water instead of chipping back up for a better lie. In a nutshell, I wound up four over on the hole.

However, I soon found out playing out of the sand isnt as tough as it looks, as I got plenty of practice. During the round I was in the sand on six holes, twice on one hole (the 15th, where I had a nine on the par-5 hole).

All of us found it hard to get a proper read on the greens. Some played fast, while others were slow, and checking the breaks was a waste of time as you had to hit the cup dead center to get the ball to drop. Anything else lipped out.

David played consistently, shooting 53 on the back nine and 51 on the front. I had a respectable 57 on the back, but spent most of the time on the front in the rough chopping grass, ending up with a 74 for an overall score of 131 for the day. It wasnt pretty.

After making par on the 13th, the best I could do the rest of the day was double-bogey, and has relatively few of them.

On the 15th, my drive was hooked right. I hit a solid three wood for the second shot on the par-5 hole, and found the beach. With 175 yards to the green, I opted to use a 4-iron to try and get down the road a ways. The result was unpretty as I missed, but did get out of the sand. My fourth shot found the bunker on the hill by the green. It was here I learned the ball can be bladed out of the sand, as I did it, flew the green and wound up at the foot of the hill on the other side.

The front nine was spent almost entirely in the rough. I wasnt smart enough to pitch the ball into the fairway, what there was of it, but tried to muscle it out. The efforts were considerably less than successful.

Still, it was a lot of fun, and playing good, tough courses can only help improve my game  right?

I think Ill try and find somewhere easier for the next outing. Im just not sure where that will be yet.

Hopefully before the summer is out Ill be able to break 100. Id gladly settle for 99.