My Dad and I visited Austin and Horseshoe Bay, TX for a Golf Channel Amateur event. It was a quick trip. We flew in Friday morning and left Sunday evening. In the middle 54 hours, we packed in a trip to Whole Foods' flagship store for lunch, 54 holes at Horseshoe Bay Resort, and some Texas barbeque.
The golf courses we played, Ram Rock and Apple Rock were both very difficult courses, with significant elevation changes, small greens, firm fairways, and many hazards. With the Texas winds blowing all weekend and temperatures mostly in the 50s (low 40s in the morning and climbing to mid-60s on Sunday), my golf ball was traveling all over the place. I actually could have used winter gloves to drive the golf cart in the am, it was that cold.
In the first round, my ball striking was excellent and I barely broke 90. Hour glass greens were brutal. My first hole of the tournament was the par-3 image below. I won a skin on a different par-3, hitting a 7-iron to inches from the hole. Hit a few drives 350 yards with the firm fairways. The second course, Apple Rock, was one notch lower in difficulty, but still harder than most. I shot worse, struggling off the tee and poor ball striking overall. My expectations were not met. Only one player broke 80 in my division over 36 holes. There were only 12 birdies on the first day across the entire championship field. I think I made 3 of them. Clearly, most players struggled. You needed to have complete control of your golf ball and feel comfortable playing different trajectories and shot shapes. I didn't have that feel, let alone short game, coming out of the winter.
Hotel experience was mediocre. The Marriott at Horseshoe Bay is nice, (cool putting course, nice wedding reception area), but the general area is lacking energy and the Horseshoe Bay community appears to face financial challenges, with mostly underdeveloped real estate lots, short staff, limited food options (and not that good), etc. Don't plan on going back. Austin looks like a great party city.
Best food might have been nacho dip at Slick Rock Golf Club. Biggest mishap, beside my golf scores, was following the rental car GPS from the airport, took us in a loop that added one hour to our commute and left us scrambling to make our practice round tee time (showed up a few minutes late, no warmup time). Biggest upset was my Dad beating me in a game of horse at the hotel.
2013 Season Underway!
Kurt
No comments:
Post a Comment