Fall Colors in Pittsburgh

RSG Mini-Pitt 2005

Dave Tutelman - November 2, 2005

Thor had this great idea...
How about getting together for one last RSG event for the year.

Some of us were inordinately fond of those courses north of Pittsburgh that we only got to play once. RSG Pittsburgh was held there in 2003, and has been difficult to schedule there since. After a flurry of email, we had five hardy golfers show up: Thor (of course -- it was his idea), Mark Georg (of course -- he lives right there), Joe Dean, Fred Stluka, and me. The intent was to get in three rounds, including two Saturday in spite of the shortness of the daylight hours. And we made it! It was nowhere near dark when we finished the afternoon round at Krendale. That's where the photo above was taken, about three holes from the finish. But there was plenty of daylight left to finish.

Saturday: Stoughton Acres and Krendale

Here's our group, enjoying the fall colors and delightful weather. (Of course the weather was delightful! Hey, Thor was there; in fact, it was his idea.) From left: Joe "Deuce" Dean, Dave "Thor" Collard, Fred Stluka, and Mark Georg.

We got together as planned at 8am at Stoughton Acres. We got on line to register in the folksy "pro shop", intermixed with a group of riding regulars there. We let them go out first, since we were planning to play as a fivesome. (Yes, they let you do that.) The lady behind the counter assured us, "They're fast. They're really fast. I know them." Well, the first few holes, they weren't really fast -- more like half-fast. But they finally did pull away from us so we were no longer waiting by the middle of the front nine. There were holes open in front of us by the turn, and we were caught by a riding threesome a couple of holes from the end; but we didn't slow them up much. We finished in just over four hours, so we didn't embarrass the course for letting us play as five.

Mark and I switched our usual roles for the round. He normally carries and I have a three-wheeled push cart. But I had just bought a new bag, and wanted to test it as a carry bag. And Mark now has his own three-wheeler. So he wheeled and I carried. (While the bag was a big success and a great design, I'm probably no longer physically up to carrying. I played well -- my best round of the weekend -- but I started to feel it in my knees and obliques, and had a nasty toe blister by the end of the day.)

Stoughton is as lovely as I remembered it. Rolling, even hilly, they keep it in immaculate shape. No two holes are similar, and the course (especially the back nine) just "flows" over the land. A few memories of specific holes:

Thor had two birdies this round. The first came on the "signature" thirteenth hole, a Z-shaped par-5 that goes steeply down a hill and across a pond to the green. Thor hit a great drive to the middle of the "Z", only a little over 200 yards from the green. The good news is he was well above the green. The bad news is that it was a downhill lie, and the last 70 yards to the green was all carry over the pond. He hit a hard screamer, but a little too low because of the lie. It splashed about 10 feet short. But, because it was a screamer, it skipped twice and wound up dry in the rough below the railroad-tie retaining wall fronting the green. A lob and a putt later, he had his birdie -- the hard way.
He also birdied the last hole, a drivable (265-yard) par-4. He was hole-high to the left, and got up and down.
I did pretty well too on the last hole. I used the left greenside bunker as an aiming point, figuring a good drive would be a fade into the fairway short of the green. It was straighter and longer than I expected, and I had a really challenging lie in the bunker. I made the most of it, hitting a good shot onto the green and two-putting for my par.
I had two consecutive bad breaks on good shots. On the fourteenth hole, I hit a soft approach wedge to land in the neck in front of the green. It hit a paved cart path that I didn't even see, and took a big leap toward the water hazard. As it turned out, it stopped inches before the water, on a downslope in the very deep rough at the edge of the pond. Instead of an easy chip, I had to pitch over the pond from a snarly downhill lie. I made a good shot of it, and almost got it to the green. It landed at the top of the slope; another few inches and it would have been stiff. Instead, it rolled down the slope, again almost into the water. I had a sloppy stance (right foot on near-mud) and a sloppy lie. Much to everybody's amazement, my lob wedge managed to find the ball and get it up onto the green.
The steep hill to the left of the sixteenth fairway is a certifiable ball magnet. Three of our five drives hung up in the slope, and the escape shots did too, in spite of serious sidehill lies that you'd expect would prevent it.

In the afternoon we played Krendale. The West nine was closed. (Too bad; that's Mark's favorite nine there, and mine too.) We played the North followed by the South. We played as a foursome; Joe's elbow was bothering him, so he walked with us, tended the flag, and otherwise enjoyed the round without ever hitting a ball.

I started out hot. (Unfortunately didn't stay that way.) I parred the long par-4 first hole, with a great drive -- long and dead center -- a perfect 4-iron to the front apron, a chip and a tap-in. On the second, I hit a decent drive, but found my ball in a bad lie in the right rough. The best I could do was to dig it to the middle of the fairway. (Good thing it didn't go as far as I wanted; from my position, the flag I could see was the ninth green, not the one I was playing -- so I was aimed in the wrong direction.) I hit a perfect 60-yard half-wedge that bounced, checked, and casually rolled into the hole for a birdie.
We still call the fourth on the North "the hole from hell". Remember RSG-Pitt 2003? If so, you may remember that the best we had there was a triple-bogey seven. The photo shows Mark teeing off on that hole. You have to flirt with the fairway bunker on the left, and actually hit your uphill drive well past it, to have any hope of going for the green in two. In fact, you need to keep the ball in the narrow slot you see between the trees to even have an easy layup. The green is tucked well right, with trees overhanging the right and a pond in front. Damn near unreachable unless you're well down the left edge of the fairway.
Well, Thor played it almost perfectly. His drive threaded down the left side, just missing the bunker and finishing just in the fairway about 160 yards out. His iron shot flirted with the trees, but found the front right of the green. He misread the first putt, not allowing nearly enough break nor speed, and finished a good ten feet below the hole. Unfortunately, he missed that putt and had to settle for bogey.
I'm proud that I managed to scrape out a bogey too, after a not-so-good drive but a good recovery, pretty good layup, and up-and-down.
Fred got a birdie on the par-5 seventh hole. Just like on the diagram: good drive in the fairway, good wood in the fairway, approach holds the green about 8 feet from the hole, and make the putt.
The South nine is really funky. Here's some idea of what you're dealing with:

The first and last are pure target golf around a serpentine lake.
The first plays 5-iron to a safe layup area and 8-iron to the green. Mark and Thor tried cutting off some of the lake with a driver; they cleared the pond handily, but were in trouble well right of the narrow strip of fairway.
And the last plays 5-wood (or hybrid utility club) short of the first leg of the lake, 8-iron to the next landing area, and sand wedge over the other leg of the lake to the green.
There is another pure target hole in #8. Unless you can draw a drive around the dogleg left, you need to lay up about 160-180 yards from the tee. If you miss the layup, you can be in trees right or the stream left (which the drawn drive must cross; don't draw it enough and you're wet). If your layup is at all short, you still can't see the green for the trees.
Four middle holes are long par-fours (with one five thrown in) going back and forth across a ridge.

The third is a 420-yard par-4. The approach shot (seen in the Mark Georg photo) is sufficiently intimidating that it's a par-5 for most of us. The last 120 yards or so is across a pond, with a waterfall fronting the green. The green is not very deep, considering that the second shot will be with a long iron or a wood, and you can't run it on. Fred put a great drive in the fairway, and decided to go for it. We didn't see his shot come down, but it sounded like it hit one of the trees on the right. However, when we arrived at the green, we found his ball in the fringe behind the green. He wasn't able to get up and down, but a bogey on that hole was really good. (I managed to save a quadruple-bogey "snowman".)
The seventh is an island green. It's 150 yards, but playing 140 or less because the pin is way front. (The green is very narrow but very deep.) We all hit the green. In fact, we all hit good enough shots that our balls were within a foot of the ball-mark. Mark made a 20-foot birdie putt, and the rest of us made par. Good hole!

Here are some more photos from Krendale.

Fred tees off on the second hole.

Thor's approach shot on the third hole crosses the pond.

Thor relaxes and enjoys the scenery.

Fred and me. Yes, Fred is taller than I am, but he's also standing uphill.

After golf, we went to Mark's house for dinner. We had "undergraduate Italian": pizza and beer. We also met the three women in Mark's life: Grace, Abby, and Sophie. In my opinion, one is a sweetheart and the other two are dogs.

After supper, I discovered what Joe was saving himself for -- bowling! Actually, we had agreed that Saturday night would be bowling night. The other four actually brought their own bowling balls. I decided not to partake, but had a good time just sitting and watching. Saturday night is date night, of course, so there was plenty to watch. Among other attractions, the near-centerfold identical twins in the next lane kept me from getting bored while the others bowled, but I think they were a major distractions to the bowlers. Fred had tried to get sympathy (I don't think you get strokes in bowling) by pointing out how much dust there was on his ball, but he turned out the big money winner for the evening. Hey, I don't think I've seen that much money change hands over golf at an RSG event. Joe's forbearance during the afternoon bore some fruit; he had the high game -- I think it was something like 189.

Sunday: Birdsfoot

Sunday morning, we drove about 40 minutes to Birdsfoot golf course in Slate Lick. The first thing we noticed as we entered the clubhouse was a face carved into a tree. There were several more all over the course.

We had almost an hour's wait for a frost delay. Birdsfoot is very well-managed. They kept the golfers informed of progress and estimated starting times, and put together a shotgun start to minimize the wait for most. We all had to wait until the course defrosted, but nobody had to wait much beyond that. Clever!

Since we were the only walkers in the Sunday crowd, they sent us off from the first tee, so we wouldn't have a walk out to our start or back from our finish. They actually allowed us to play as a walking fivesome among all those riding foursomes. That shows a lot of confidence in us, and we appreciated it. But they did warn us to keep up the pace, and told us that the ranger, Leo, is highly assertive and his nickname is "Shotgun". We felt duly notified.

As it turned out, their confidence was not misplaced. On the sixth tee, which was on top of the world, we had a wait for the group -- the riding foursome -- ahead of us. So we looked back down the long par-5 fifth hole and saw that the riding foursome behind us hadn't teed off yet; we were a full par-5 ahead. That was not maintained for the whole round. As hilly as the front nine was, the back nine was even more so, with the addition of long uphill climbs from green to tee. With the terrain slowing us down compared to the riders, the group ahead inched away. The last time we had to wait for them was on the fifteenth tee. By the end, the group behind us did a little waiting for us -- but only a little.

I've already said how hilly the course was. It was also quite challenging, and played longer than the marked yardage.

There wasn't much water on the course, but I still managed to drown two balls. Both were terrible shots.
I don't think anybody in our group got a birdie this round.
The ninth hole is an intimidating par-3 that plays 185 yards over a ravine; it's all carry. Still, four of us were hole-high, with two on the green and two just off.
The eleventh hole is the only really badly designed holes on the course. A par-3, it has a long, continuous bunker around 270º of the green. The front is open, so you can run the ball on; that part of the design is reasonable. But the sides and back are all sand. Why is this bad? Because the next tee is almost straight off the back of the green. But, unless you are going to stomp through the bunker, you have to walk in the wrong direction. Obviously walking golfers were not considered when this hole was designed. We made it using a "rake brigade"; walk across raking as you go, then throw the rake back to the next guy.
The twelfth hole (see photo) is a long, downhill dogleg right, with woods guarding the dogleg. If you hit right of the cart path (or even near the cart path) you probably won't see that ball again. By the time we were done, Thor claimed he had found a new "hole from hell". (The rest of us weren't quite up to taking that title away from the original at Krendale, but agreed that it certainly was devilish.) In addition to lost balls (plural) on both first and second shots, we encountered a nasty green. There is a ridge across the green about 2/3 of the way back. The putting surface slopes back-to-front for most of the green, but drops off steeply in the back. And that's where the hole was. Chips and even putts from the front picked up speed after they crossed the ridge, and continued off the green into the rough. One of us saw this and cozied his putt to the top of the ridge -- well, almost to the top of the ridge. His next putt was the one that rolled off the back. Bottom line: Mark and I walked away with double-bogeys, glad to share the low score for the group.
The finishing hole has a double fairway. You have to commit to one or the other on the tee, because there is serious rough and even bunkers in the no-mans-land between them. We all hit good drives that caught the fairway we were aiming for.

After we finished, we said our goodbyes in the bar and headed for home. Thanks to Thor for the idea and Mark for making the local arrangements. Had a great time!