March Golf

I played my first Hidden Valley CC nine holes of the year today. I have not played Hidden Valley since the end of October. The conditions were much different than the green grass, blue sky and warm temperatures rounds I have been playing at Ironwood CC in Palm Desert. I had some extra time this afternoon so I gathered up golf clubs that had been in storage since last spring. Not my usual set which is down in Palm Desert, but old friends none the less. I put them in my Utah golf bag, found an old glove and threw in a half a dozen used golf balls. I was kind of excited when I drove into the parking lot which was about half filled with cars. As I drove in I saw a line of golfers on the practice range. All young skinny guys with red golf bags booming drives. Yep, the University of Utah Golf Team was at Hidden Valley today. When I got out of my car I realized I was parked next to the University of Utah Golf coach. I introduced myself to him and told him I was a U of U graduate. He gave me a Utah golf hat and a University of Utah tee shirt. Very nice.

When I entered the pro shop, the pro told me I could tee off the front nine if I did it immediately so I hustled to the first tee without warming up. It was about 48 degrees with about a 15 mile per hour wind so the wind-chill was pretty cold. The sky was steel gray and the grass was brown. The trees were bare, the leaves having fallen last autumn. The wind had blown sticks onto a number of the holes. I played a couple of balls, scratching them around the course, some good, some bad.. As I looked around the course from hole to hole I saw friends who I have not seen since autumn playing while wearing stocking caps, wind coats and a few with gloves on both hands. As I looked around the course I could see a couple of new fairways bunkers that had been cut into the course. Nothing stays the same, change is constant. Surprisingly, the greens were fairly quick. Sometimes it was hard to spot the ball on the brown fairway grass.

It was cold, windy and not particularly pretty, but my, how nice it was to be on the Hidden Valley course again, amongst old friends.