My Rocky Road at Rocky River

Rocky River

8/24/10

My friend Kevin just had a baby girl named Olivia. Actually she's about six weeks now. Congratulations! To celebrate her arrival, we played golf. I bought this card online at Myunclevinny.comthat gives complimentary of discounted greens fees at Rocky River Golf Club in Concord. So Kevin and I went to check it out. We paid $18 a piece and were on our way. You know I have to play on the cheap because I'm a baller on a (tight)budget. Kevin used to live in Concord so he was familiar with the course. Iwas feeling good about my game coming off my beach trip that I considered golf camp. I thought I had made some good adjustments to my swing. Wrong. My troubles off the tee caught up to me again on the first tee. I pulled one left and the shanked one right. Already? Yes already dropping two and hitting three from the fairway on a par 4. So I'm pissed off already, but trying to keep it together. Now, playing with Kevin presents a challenge in itself. He has pro length off the tee and with the irons. So if I spend my day trying to keep up with him, it will be a long one. Especially if he is hitting the ball straight. Kevin just got a set of brand new Pings that he had gripped and lengthened to fit him perfectly, and he hadn't played in a while because he's been on baby duty so he was feeling good. To put it in perspective, we played from the green tees so the total length was 6450yards4 holes average about 350 yards. On almost every hole, Kevin would hit driver thenwedge. He drove the green on the 305 yard Par 4 14th hole and two putted for birdie. In comparison, I would hit driver then hybrid on 350-400 yard holes. That isn't good. That is if I was even in the fairway and not dropping because my ball was unplayable. It was the joke of the day. After three holes my score was 24. Ouch! Not good. I was trying to tell myself that it was ok, but I couldn't get off the tee so it wasn't. I did enjoy the course. I heard a lot about it before playing, and aside from some of the greens being spotty, it was in good shape. It presents numerous challenges with well positioned traps and uneven lies. There wasn't much water, but I still lost balls in the tall grass and wooded areas. When you're playing so poorly it is hard to take a moment to enjoy the natural beauty of the course . I did manage to take a few pictures. The 18th hole was probably the most memorable. It is a Par 5 with a downhill approach to the green that leads back to the club house and offers a view of the ZMax dragway in the background. After shooting a 63 on the front nine, I basically stopped keeping score. I was just keeping score for Kevin who shot a 91 with a 41 on the back nine. I probably should keep score each round for my handicap, but I get too frustrated usually. By the end of the round I couldn't even remember how to hit a wedge. I have never been so thoroughly demoralized by a round of golf in all of my one year of playing. It was fun to hang out with Kevin and play a nice course but in this episode of Man vs. Course, the course won and it wasn't even close