Golf Trip to the Coast

I am typing this post from the cozy confines of a couch in an oceanfront cabin just outside of Newport, OR.  A full week off of work has afforded me a rare opportunity to go on a real golf vacation. Yesterday, I played an old 9-hole course called Agate Beach Golf Course, which was built in the early 1930s.   The course was about what I expected (which wasn't much), though I was disappointed to discover that you can't see the ocean from anywhere on the course.  The course is mostly flat with fairly straight-forward holes until the last 3 holes, where it gets a little more interesting.  While the gentleman staffing the proshop was extremely friendly and welcoming, I don't know that I'll go back.  Ultimately, the course wasn't good enough to warrant the $18 greens fee for 9 holes. 
I decided to treat Agate Beach as a warm-up round, especially since I haven't been playing much at all recently.  While I had a romantic notion of playing little "mom 'n pop" 9-hole courses around the Newport area, my rather disappointing experience at Agate inspired me to make some new plans.  I decided to make the hour-long drive south to Sandpines Golf Course in Florence, OR this morning.  I had played the course once before on a cold and sunny afternoon last December.  Several things stood out in my memory of Sandpines: 1) the back 9 is really fun to play, 2) the front 9 was soggy and not very fun to play, and 3) I was violently limping through most of the round the first time around due to a really bad case of runner's knee.  I decided to go back today to see what the front 9 would be like after a rare spell of dry days, and to see how what kind of score I could post with both of my knees functioning properly. 
I got there nice and early so I could hit some balls on the range before teeing off.  I almost never do this, but an internet special brought my greens fees for 18 holes all the way down to $25 so I felt like I could afford the luxury of spending another $5 on a bucket balls.  Furthermore, I didn't hit it all that great at Agate, so I wanted to see a couple of good shots before teeing off.  The course was surprisingly busy for a Monday morning.  I was grouped with a couple of very pleasant bogey-golfers: the type who could make conversation and were out there to have fun (and not getting competitive with me or each other).  A frost delay had us teeing off on the back 9 first, which was a relief.  The front 9 is much tighter than the back, so it's nice to get a full 9 in before being forced to play more precise golf. 
The back 9 at Sandpines is one of my favorite 9s that I've played in Oregon because it's so fun.  The fairways are wide.  The greens are fairly large with subtle breaks.  The ground is firm and undulating.  The wind blows through this exposed section of the course and really forces you to think.  You don't have to be terribly precise, but there are definitely places where you can't hit it.  Water comes into play on the last 2 holes, the last of which is a classic water-all-the-way- up-the-left-side par 5 (which plays more like a long par 4).  The par 4s and 5s invite you to swing away at your driver while mounding and fairway traps outline the wide, firm, and hump-filled fairways. 
While I wasn't hitting the ball all that great today, I still had a blast playing that 9.  The persistent breeze, seeing the ball curve in the air and bounce when it hits the ground- this brand on links golf brings me right back to my roots and the tradewind-swept municipal courses of Hawaii.  I absolutely love it. 
The front 9 at Sandpines was so utterly disappointing when I played it the first time, but I tried to go into it with an open mind.  Mostly, I was hoping that they had fixed the major drainage issues they were having the last time around.  The front side wasn't underwater today, but it was still a bit soggy.  Part of what I don't enjoy about the front 9 is that it takes driver out of play even for a medium to short hitter like me (I fly the ball about 230 in the air with a lower ball flight, which puts an average drive for me between 250 and 270).  In fact, I can't even hit 3-woods on several tee shots.   I just don't enjoy that type of target, conservative golf.  There are also long walks between greens and tee boxes on this 9, which is a real pain.  To cap it all off, the worst hole on the entire course is the utterly boring 9th hole.  A 400-yard straight-away par 4 lines with trees and very artificial mounding up the left side.  It's bland and ugly and makes for a terrible finishing hole. 
My knee didn't flare up at all today, but I was worn out after about the 13th or 14th hole.  I realized that I hadn't walked 18 holes in quite some time, and the layout on the front 9 makes for a very long walk at Sandpines.  That being said, I kept it together and finished up with a pair of 38s for a nice little 76.  Not a bad round considering I only made one birdie (I knocked it to a foot on one of the par 3s).  Of course, it could have been a lot better had I rolled in some putts.  I made absolutely nothing today, but making putts was a tall order as the greens were still healing from aeration (which is a nice way of saying they were very, very bumpy). 
There's not much as far as quality golf courses go around the Central Coast area. Sandpines is the exception, as it provides some fun golf and better than average conditions at very reasonable prices. 

Autumn Golf

A cold and gray, yet dry Saturday afternoon was all the motivation I needed to go play a quick 9.  These are the perfect days to play golf- there is the ever-present threat of rain and it's just cold enough to keep the crowds away.  I arrived to find my usually overrun neighborhood municipal course largely empty.  I passed by one of the assistant pros on my way to the clubhouse, who invited me to play with him and another one of the pros.  I obliged, curious to see what kind of game the pros had, and equally curious to see if I could bring to the course the ballstriking clinic I put on at the driving range a few days earlier.  I got off to a slow start, mis-hitting a 5-iron off of the short par-4 10th tee box, which left me another 5-iron to the green.  I hit that a little heavy and blocked it out to the right.  Fortunately, I was left with an easy chip shot, which I put to within tap-in range.  The two pros also made pars, though their pars were less sloppy.  One pro hit it to the middle of the green and burned the high side lip with his putt.  The other pro landed it on the middle of the green, but put so much backspin on the ball that it zipped clear off the front of the green.  From there, he got up and down after calmly canning a 10-footer right in the heart.  The second hole wasn't much better.  I clanked a pair of 3-woods, which left me some 40 yards short of the green and in the left trees on the dogleg right par 5.  I hit a nifty little punch gap wedge that took a peek at the hole before coming to rest about 12 feet from the cup.  I took two putts from there and carded another unspectacular par, grateful that my short game was keeping my head above water.  I was hitting last on the next hole, an uphill par 3 over water.  The two pros both hit a couple of sloppy 7-irons leaving them lengthy looks at birdie.  I stepped up and pured my 7-iron right over the flagstick.  Unfortunately, above the hole is no good on that green and I had no choice but to lag my birdie putt.  I struggled a bit with my longer clubs the rest of the round, but my iron play remained very solid.  I wasn't getting the yardages right, so I didn't make any birdies, but I hit a handful of iron shots that went right at the pin only to come up 20 feet short or 20 feet long.  One of the pros shot 2-under for the 9, while the other pro shot the same score that I did.  Truth be told, I struck my irons just as well as the pros (in fact, I'd say my ball-striking and short game was better than the pro I tied), but their distance control and putting were far superior.  They left the ball in the right spots and gave all of their putts a chance.  In other words, they may not have been hitting in flush every time, but they definitely knew how to score even though they weren't firing on all cylinders.  It was a good reminder for me that a solid round of golf requires much more than just hitting the sweet spot.