Invitational at Concord CC

August 4-5, 2017: This tournament has been on my list for a number of years.  Others have spoken very highly of the competition, course, and tournament committee.  And it lived up to all the hype and more.  The golf course was in spectacular condition; greens were perfect, fairways were like carpets, rough was thick (sometimes only a 9 iron or wedge was the play back to fairway), and bunkers had just the right amount of sand.  The committee and staff at Concord set up the golf course, scoring, food, starting grounds, and rest of tournament preparations in a first class manner.  In particular, the pin placements were very very well thought out, each one requiring great skill to save par or make a birdie.  In its truest form, there were no gimmies!  

My partner L. Bohman and I were both making our first go around in the Invitational.  We were paired with J. Stoddard and J. Magner in Round 1 and the Arnold brothers in Round 2.  Fun guys and good players, consistent with the entire field.  We shot 75-72 (+7) missing the cut by 1 shot, placing in T21.  The Champions V. Galvani and D.Hynes played very well at 5 under par over the 45 holes.  The last eighteen was cut short due to weather delays from torrential rain earlier in Round 2.  

The story of our weekend was crazy streaks.  We started the tournament on #10 with nine straight pars and followed with only one par in the next 14 holes (includes start of Round 2).  One piece of the latter stretch included six holes where our best score was bogey.  Despite the volatility, we came to our last hole in Round 2 (#9) knowing if we made birdie we would move on to the final round.  My partner made a run at a very difficult birdie putt that slid by.  

Shout out to a great hole out for eagle on #18 in Round 1 by Galvani and Hynes.  Most of the field roared from the clubhouse!  In fact, we later found out this "eagle 2" followed an "eagle 3" on 17.  Now that is a strong finish!

It was great competition with many familiar faces.  Concord CC thank you!

I'm looking forward to playing in this event for many more years.

Keep the summer golf rolling,
Kurt

Sweet Home Alabama

March 31 - April 3, 2017

Grand National - Hotel View

Kyle, Chris, Jay, and I changed up the winter golf trip to Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Auburn/Opelika at Grand National and in Prattville at Capitol Hill.  As I reflect on the trip, I keep thinking of the food...introduced to Pork Rinds, conecuh (?) sausage, and much more.  Kyle, Chris, and I flew JetBlue (upgrade to extra leg room thanks to Bates!) into Atlanta while Jay came up from Fort Myers.  Then we made a 90 minute drive to our first stop at Grand National, home of PGA Tour Barbasol Championship.  The drive went by in a flash as we welcome ourselves into the area with the beats of Jermaine Dupri, featuring Ludacris, Welcome to Atlanta and Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama.  Then, thanks to Kyle, we had a great itinerary of food stops, starting with top local establishments Chuck's BBQ (solid minus the mustard BBQ sauce) and Zazu (downtown Opelika - fantastic sweet tea chicken and cornbread).  Its at these places where we started to experience the Southern Hospitality...random people coming up us to that didn't work at the restaurants, asking us if we needed help and giving us advice.  The same experience happened walking down the street in downtown Opelika.  When I say downtown, its like 2 blocks of stores and restaurants.  People say hello and smile to strangers in Alabama.

Capitol Hill - Judge Course

On the golf course, Jay dominated the Barbasol course at Grand National, dropping 6 or 7 birdies. Each of us had our moments and battled some tough tracks.  The courses had significant elevation changes and a lot of forced carries, especially Par 3s over water.  It felt like most of the Trent Jones greens were of severe undulation, more than we ever see in the Northeast.  Hello 3-putts!  These are big hitter courses from the tips, but also require good touch around the greens.  We also played a great Par 3 at Grand National that was a nice break from full 18, lotta action in WOLF. "Y'all going to have fun" said many of the golf staff.  Kyle had a lot of fun at the Grand National clubhouse, ordering a side of fries and being convinced by the waitress to sprinkle with splenda (sweet home alabama, right?).  She insisted this was the best thing ever (I disagree!).  We all opposed, but Kyle took the chance.  Kyle said it tasted like fried dough and I think he even tried a little in his peanut butter beer.  Yes peanut butter beer; they do things differently in the South.

Pork Rinds at The Hound (Auburn)

Shout out to Mellow Mushroom and Bates recommendation to try it.  Some of the best pizza crust I've had.  I'm not sure I want to know what its made with, but it is pure addiction...no matter how full you are you will want some more.

None of us had ever played golf in Alabama.  After 4 days, 5+ rounds of golf and some great Southern food and hospitality, we intend to go back to play the Trail in 2018.  26 courses across the state.  It is a great value trip.  We enjoyed having access to multiple golf courses on one site to limit drive time and maximum golf time.  Also, this time of year came with weather in the 70s!  We only ran into one weather problem, on the last day, with hurricane force winds and hail.  We were on the 3rd hole at Capitol Hill - Senator Course when the skies went dark and within an instant, the four of us were getting cloaked with hard rain/hail and high winds.  It was so strong that we were concerned about being able to make it back to the clubhouse.  We waited it out for an hour or so in the clubhouse boardroom, but when the electricity went out and backup generators kicked in, we knew our day was over.  We were able to get cash back for the value of the round and spend it in the golf shop.  Next, we had the full day to fill in before a late flight from Atlanta back to Boston.  We thought about every option, including trying to beat the storm east and playing in Atlanta.  Ultimately, it was a wash from Alabama to Atlanta.  Though, the outcome was about as good as it could get, when we found Top Golf Atlanta!  None of us had been before and always wanted to try it.  Golf, food, drinks, and music for 4 hours at less than a price of a round!

Thanks for a great trip boys!  Looking forward to seeing where next year takes us!

Fli

p.s. Did Kyle really ship golf balls and beers to the hotel??