Palm Desert Golf Extravaganza, Year Three

Today is Saturday, day three of our third annual Palm Desert Golf Extravaganza. Gordon, Steve and I flew into Palm Springs on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the three of us, were hosted by Mike, the fourth member of our group, at Andalusia Country Club to play in a one-day, member with three guests, tournament. Andalusia is a beautiful club and course. I am lucky to get to play the course a couple of times a year with Mike. Who is always the most gracious of hosts. The tournament was 2 gross balls and 2 net balls. I won’t say where we finished in the standings but on one hole, our two best balls were double bogeys.

Not many players have to take a penalty drop on a par three out of rocks 30 yards in front of the tee, but I managed to do so. After the drop, I hit a nifty approach shot to 40 feet and three putted for a 6. I love to hear Johnny Miller analyze the pro's shots on TV. After this par three I analyzed my shots and concluded that I had hit the tee ball one groove low on the club face. Think about it, I was one groove from a perfect shot.

Andalusia provides nice plastic cups at its water stations throughout the course. These are sturdy, 16 ounce, high quality cups with the Analusia horse and rider logo embossed in black on the side. With the 24 cups he pocketed this year, Steve now has a full compliment of 300 of these Andalusia, logoed cups that he has snatched over the last three years. It is always nice to be invited to Steve’s lovely home in Salt Lake for dinner, and to be served a gourmet meal on linens with fine china, silver dinnerware and 16 ounce Andalusia plastic cups. Steve loves these cups. After three years of “collecting” these cups (that’s a nice word for it, kinda like someone collecting cash from a 7-11 cash register when the clerk is not looking), the Andalusia staff is on to him. When we finished our round of golf, the club beverage manager approached us and told Steve that the club was having a member party at the end of April and wondered if Steve could send down 100 cups or so from Salt Lake for use at the party. Steve said he would have to check with his wife but would get back to him.

All in all, it was great day of breakfast at the famous 1950’s dive, Keedy’s in Palm Desert; box lunches on the course; a buffet after golf; drinks at Mike’s house; and then because there was still time left, dinner and margarita's at a Mexican restaurant. Oh yes, the golf was a blast.