Monday, 20 July 2015: Executive golf
Written 21 July 2015
Each morning, when I woke up, I looked out the bedroom window. The first morning, a mule deer was walking by. The second, Jan and Zorro's tiny bunny was back (I'm told that the local bunnies are Nuttall's cottontail). Later, it was chipmunks. Always something
Monday, David and I went off to a 9:12 a.m. tee time at the executive 9-hole golf course, which we played twice around. Estes Park has just two courses, the 18-hole "regular" course that David had played the day before, and a 9-hole "executive" (read "fast and easy") course a couple of miles away. The shorter course was once private, but both are now munipical and under common management—rain checks issued at one can be redeemed at the other, etc.
As we arrived, a lady was using a thoughtfully provided compressed air jet to blow clippings and dirt off her walking cart, which was loaded with a Callaway GES set, in its original bag. I introduced myself as a fellow GES fan and told her I'd only ever met one other person, besides her, who used them. She was delighted, never having met another before. She also loves the set. I wonder if Callaway still makes them.
As at the 18-hole course the day before, I had absolutely no problem borrowing an empty golf bag. (The last couple of non-Tallahasee courses we've played have looked at me like I was from the moon when I asked about it.) We played right behind the men's league, so the round was a little slower than the course's recommended time.
The course had no sand traps at all, and no par 5's, but its holes were regulation size. (Some executive courses cut their holes nine inches in diameter!). The last four holes (pars 3, 4, 3, 3) were all over water—swiftly flowing streams and rivers! As the "local-rules" sign shows, players were allowed free drops from elk droppings and elk hoof prints. We saw no (just lots of geese, as in Tallahassee) but the fifth green was decorated with two of these life-size fiberglass wolves, presumably to discourage elk from using it as a thoroughfare. The bodies and heads were rigid, but the tail and the legs were represented by hanging strips of gray terrycloth. From twenty yards away, in a breeze, the illusion is pretty good that the wolves are walking or swishing their tails.
It was the last day (rain delays and a playoff) of the British Open, so after our round, we went to the Hangar Restaurant at the 18-hole course for a burger and fries in front of the big screen, but all we got to see was presentation of the trophies. The burger wasn't bad.
We got back up to the cabin to find a note to the effect that Jan, Jack, and Zorro had gone off to explore downtown Estes Park. They got back shortly afterward, before I even finished washing my hair.
I prefabbed chicken tetrazini with some of the leftover chicken and sweet potato casserole with leftover sweet potatoes from Saturday night and made a BLT salad. Jan went off to the Y's massage therapist, as her hip was troubling her. She spotted elk down on the main campus while she was there. Dinner was a big hit, and afterward we went down into Estes Park for ice cream at Munchin' House for dessert. I had a single (large) scoop of excellent black cherry, as the salted caramel ice cream had oreos in it, which didn't appeal to me.