Edgefield and a bit of technology

I’ve got to admit, I rely a bit too much on one piece of technology and it seems to have bitten me in the arse today.  My phone, for some strange reason, completely crashed while updating to the newest version of iPhone software and I lost everything since the previous time I backed it up, which was about 3 weeks ago.  It wouldn’t be too big of a deal (and honestly isn’t a really big deal anyway) but I take all of the photos that I post with it and so lost a good bit of images from this month.  moral of the story, back up your important documents whenever possible

I had heard there was a good par 3 course just a few miles from my house, about 12 to be precise, but I had not ventured out there until today to see what it was all about.   A few people told me that it was one of the most challenging par 3s that you can find in Oregon and from what I saw today they were spot on.

Here is a little view from the 10th hole:  (I have this photo and one more from today because I luckily posted them to facebook after my round)

The image sums up the course.  There are a lot of short holes, most of which are less than 100 yards, that are over some rough and have a smallish landing zone with very fast and sloped greens.  Many times, I thought I had hit a perfect shot but then watched the ball run to the back of the green and down a large hill.  I have a feeling this is somewhat like it might be to play on the tour, you have a tiny landing zone and if you miss it you are in trouble.  The only difference is that they are hitting their approach shots from much farther away.

It was a great place to practice the short game, all that is needed is a 56 degree, wedge and putter and perhaps whatever club you like to short-chip with, but the 56 can do that too.

It was also a good place to learn distance control over changing elevations.  A handful of the holes were only about 70 yards, but either dropped or climbed 40 yards, making for an interesting “tee” shot.  I realized that you just ignore the height and go for the distance.  Here is one, number 18:

The funny thing was that even if you hit your mark on this one, you ended up 10 yards long chipping back.  Think that you have to land it in the rough before the green and hope it rolls out..

There were two short courses.  One was 20 holes and the other 12, leave it to McMenamins to split them up that way   I played the 20-hole course twice and par being a 60, shot a 75 and then a 76.  Not a good score, but as always, a good place to start and work from.  I actually only had to shanks and hit the green almost every time, but was putting 40 feet from the fringe and with the amount of break they had ended up 3-putting far too many holes.

The only downfall to the place was that you have to hit from mats, which gives you such less feel for the ball and I think cuts back on the amount of spin that I can put on it.  Perhaps next time I’ll cheat a bit and drop from behind the mats, should have done that today, but wanted to be nice and all being my first time out.