From: thor@lucent.com (thor@lucent.com) Search Result 3 Subject: Pittsburgh Report Newsgroups: rec.sport.golf Date: 1999/04/27 View: Complete Thread (3 articles) | Original Format Each year on the last weekend in April, I and a few rsg-ers, ex-rsg-ers, old buddies, and some new friends head to Pittsburgh to kick off the golf season. This year we made it 3-days (Fri-Sun) and had a great time. We always play Lindenwood, which is a beautiful course and always in exceptional condition (at least in April). The fairways are so luxurious that Mark Georg always wants to take of his shoes and walk barefoot. The course is in rolling hills, and meanders through woods and farmland. One of my favorite things about this course is that there are no houses lining the fairways, and very little OB in play. It is a wonderful setting and a great bargain at 30 bucks or so. It is near Canonsburg? or something south of Pittsburgh off of I-79. I should mention that Thursday's forecast for the weekend was rain...thunderstorms...rain. I drove up to Pittsburgh with my buddy Deuce and we chased some heavy clouds most of the way until we caught up with them in Pittsburgh. We arrived very early and went to Kings restaurant and had a sandwich, returning the dirty silverware they gave us multiple times (yuk). Then we headed to the course and when we arrived the rain was stopping. We putted and waited for the rest to arrive for our 11:00 tee time.... the course was empty and only 1 or 2 cars in the lot (the threat of rain scared them away, I guess - they didn't know I was playing :-). We headed off at 11:00 on the Red course. Lindenwood has 3 9s, the Gold, which is the oldest and probably my favorite, the Red, which is probably the hardest and a close second, and the Blue, which is a great 9 also - I think Dave Tutelman said it is his favorite. The rough was long and wet, and scoring was tough as we tried to remove the rust from our swings. We had two threesomes... I played with Mark Georg and Dave Tutelman, and Deuce followed with Coops and Fred. At the 5th hole we caught up with a single in a cart who was following I think the only other foursome on the course. He joined us for the rest of the 9. I made a new driver Thursday night (Chigago 966D with a Harrison shaft), and hit it for the first time on this 9 (the glue was barely dry). I haven't been hitting the driver at all well lately, and was still erratic, but had some good pokes. All our swings were rusty, and the long rough tiring, but it was good to be out, and in good company. After the front 9, we stopped and had a bite to eat. As I ate my sandwich under the roof by the entrance to the banquet room... it rained. It poured like the final flood. Lightning - close and LOUD! A couple of groups came running in from the Gold course (I guess there *were* a few other golfers that day). Coops had gone into the restaurant and I guess he ate there, the rest of us were under the entranceway roof sitting on benches. The benches luckily had little rubber pads to insulate us from lightning :-). Coops finished his meal... the skies over the Gold course turned blue, the sun came out and we were on our way! Right on schedule (it helps being Thor). I'm baaaaack! Okay, so a few tiny drops of rain fell on RSG-OHIO last year. But I did pretty well defying the forecasts on Fripp Island over the winter, and nobody can deny the timing here in Pittsburgh. We re-grouped and I played with Deuce and Mark Georg. The Gold course has a par 3 (4th hole) that usually plays 180 or so from the blue tees.... this day was at 215 into the wind. Both Deuce and Mark hit that green with amazing shots. I played slightly better this nine, but not good enough to keep Mark from winning the most skins. I think I shot in the mid-90s for the round, not very satisfactory. After that 18, we went in to pay for more golf, and they told us the 4th 9 was free. We had planned to regroup, but we were a hole or two ahead of the other group so we decided to try to play 18. The Blue 9 was closed - too wet, so we headed out the Red 9 again. Halfway through this 9, something popped in my weak left ankle and after that I began having real trouble. We did see a tree right off the fairway that must have been struck by lightning during lunch - debris all around, and a burnt smell in the air. Anyhoo, I decided I shouldn't play another 9 with my ankle, and the others also decided we should eat and check into our hotel. So we went to TGIFridays where they had Bass Ale on tap, which after a drank a few metamorphosed into Largemouth Bass and then Largemouse Baths as my tongue got looth (I deny anything anybody thought I thaid after thith point). Deuce drove me safely to the hotel where we harassed Betty the clerk and went to bed with a very early wakeup call for our 7:30 tee time at Butler's the next day. Saturday we played Butler's which also has 27 holes. We had a big group, as Mark's son Chris joined us, along with several other of Mark's friends. This is a real nice course, and we usually stay at a cabin/house they have for rent right on the course [couldn't get it this year], but they have some weird policies. Mark had to call several times for tee times, and reserve some of them under different names. They allow you to walk, but make you pay for the cart up until 1:00 on weekends... but then during the round, Mr. Ranger comes up and demands to know why we are walking! Then he checked our receipts to see if we paid for carts?? I guess one of the other groups had this happen multiple times with different rangers??? Very odd. We had two threesomes and two foursomes. I played with Fred and Coops - each pair playing a Nassau. The weather: cool, but bright and sunny (of course). There was a frost delay for maybe an hour. On this 18, I started hitting my driver pretty well, but putted awful - the greens were drying out and I couldn't get the speed right. Still, I managed to win both my matches... on the final hole, Coops pressed and we both played it badly, ending up on the green in 5 with 3-footers for double bogies. "Good-good?", said I - he agreed, so we halved the hole. But he still had to try to make his for the match with Fred - and he missed! The double on the last hole kept me from breaking 90 (91). Saturday afternoon I played with Deuce and with Steve M and DJ. Steve is from around Pittsburgh, and DJ drove over from New York. They are friends, and have a lot of fun playing golf together. I really enjoyed it - lots of banter. We played a best ball skins match for beer. I was still hitting it well, plus I started to putt better, so accumulated a few skins for our side early on, too much for them to catch up (hey you still owe us beer! :-). This was my best round yet in spite of ending with another double-bogey (hmmmm. a pattern?) and I shot 87. We went to Woody's Little Italy in the nearby town and were loud and obnoxious, though we also got some comments from golfers who overheard our conversation. Sunday morning - bright and sunny, but another frost delay. Cedarbrook has 2 18-hole courses, and we played the Red course. I love this course - "linksy with trees". Not a lot of trees, just enough to cause you trouble. Though they didn't trouble me... I shot a 41 on the front and then got hot on the back - I was 1 over after 7 holes when I looked at the scorecard and realized this. BAM - comfort zone...correction, ended bogey-double to NOT break 80 and ended up with an 81. I just had to get up-and-down to shoot 79 on the last green, but sailed my pitch to the far fringe and took three from there. Still, I played well, putted well (hey Coops - forgot to thank you for the tip!), and was satisfied that I improved each round 96,91,87,81. Back where I belong and ready for the season! It was a *REAL* good time, especially enjoyed meeting all of you, playing golf, etc... hope to see you all again. Mark - THANKS A LOT, it is a lot of work and hassle, I know, to put this together. -- -- -- David "Thor" Collard -- http://ttsoft.com/thor -- thor@lucent.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Google Home - Advertise with Us - Add Google to Your Site - News and Resources - Language Tools - Jobs, Press, Cool Stuff... ©2001 Google