From: Terry Easton To: RSG-OH Subject: RSGOHIO Fripp Trip - '01 Date: Sunday, February 18, 2001 8:43 PM Hi All - I posted some Fripp pictures at ...my first effort(less) at publishing. (No, it didn't take me three weeks to figure homepage.mac.com out...., only two hours.) There are a few of the first shots fired at the 2001, Fripp Odyssey. After a couple of warm-up rounds, a small cadre of weather-beaten golfers showed up at Fripp Island...again for the love of the game. Before a dusky sky a few snowbirds deemed it necessary to fire a few shots into the powerful ocean, as an offering to the golf gods. As with so many shots in golf, hitting the ocean was easier said than done.... Afterward, we retired to our bungalow, and switching between the golf channel, the weather channel, imported and domestic beer, we looked forward to our assault on Fripp Island's two championship-style courses. (Some of the pick-up players were pretty tough characters. :-) Ocean Creek provided interesting challenges and obstacles usually only found after a few months of relative driver-inactivity. The weather was outstanding (Thanks, Thor!) and I won't go into the actual feats of extra-ordinary shot-making, as the pictures tell practically the whole story. As for my game, in the AM, on Ocean Creek, I would have been quite satisfied to convert the two triples and the quad into pars....almost satisfied. In the PM, on Ocean Point, I think most everyone would have have been satisfied to stop at the five putts I had on the first hole. The hole was in a difficult placement on a strangely textured green. I feel it was some sort of mutated, degenerate swamp moss. There were other, similar factors that affected Ocean Point, that kept it from being as interesting as Ocean Creek. The mutant algae affected several of the greens, and was a most unusual and slippery putting surface. After a predictable dinner-out experience, we were blessed with the sight of a new moon over the Palmettos and a vast sea of stars across a coal black sky. The next day we were up for the first tee time at nearby "Cat Island." I was into my fourth day of wrestling with my new golf bag. It's a Ping Hoofer with a double-strap, but it's nowhere as comfortable as my IZZO strap. One of the problems I realized half-way through the round was the bag was designed for left-handers, and that I'm not. I recalled a conversation I had with the president of Sun Mountain golf about ten years ago. They did a study for Ping, and concluded most people carried their clubs over their right shoulder - which I find odd for a predominantly right-handed population. Nonetheless, this bag is for sale, cheap! Back to "Cat Island", an interesting and challenging course. Still, I didn't putt like I ought to. Wrestling with my new golf bag is a great excuse. Maybe I should keep it around...... Still, it was the best day of the trip, and I felt I ended on an positive round. Great times. -te-