Just a little above my all-time best of 10.7 at the end of August 2012.

These good rounds always seem to sneak up on me.  I was just hoping to have a reasonable round with not too many poor shots.  Started by missing a 4 foot putt on the first hole for a bogey, followed by bogeys on holes 2,4 and 6 plus a double on number 5.  Not exactly an encouraging start.  But three birdies yielded an even par 36 on the back nine for a final score of 79 even with three missed putts inside five feet.

What a scrumptious morning.  Cool and sunny with just a bit of breeze.  After a great warm-up I set out for my second round at this spectacular course.  Once again, I had the course to myself.  I didn’t have the same shot quality as yesterday and the combination of the wind and back tees added to the challenge. Still, I pared holes 16 and 18 to shoot 89, a very satisfying result.

The 14th hole is another example of the many choices the golfer faces on every tee box.  Here you can take an aggressive short route between bunkers on the left or bail out to the huge landing are to the right where you still have a long iron to the green. 

14th hole, par 4, 408 from the back tees. The green is at the very top left, behind that little strip of sand.

There’s been a ton of hoopla about the new links course north of Chelan designed by David MacLay Kidd, the same architect who did Bandon Dunes in Oregon.  I thought this might me a quiet week to see for the course for myself so I set out this morning and teed off at Gamble Sands around 11:30. What a treat!  It’s a true links course, just missing the salt water air.  Rolling fairways, lots of fairway and greenside bunkers, huge multi-level greens and none of that deep grass rough… just sand and scruffy natural grasses and shrubs. With all the slopes and bunkers every shot is a little puzzle.  The 2nd hole, pictured above, is a perfect example.  It’s just a 260-yard par 4 but the green is well guarded by bunkers so you have to choose a layup past, short of or right of the big fairway bunker in the middle. 

I was very pleased to shoot an 86, recording eleven pars, albeit from the middle tees.  Predictably, missed fairways were very penal resulting in three triple bogeys.  I can’t wait to give it another go tomorrow morning.

I didn’t putt well but otherwise played pretty good golf to finish 1st net and 4th gross in my division, and 20th overall.  Scoring was way up compared to prior years due, I think, to a particularly challenging course setup.  The blue tees were mostly as far back as they could be and the hole placements were very challenging, often on the edge of a slope or tucked into a hard-to-access corner.  I was very happy with three birdies over the two days (on holes 2, 3 and 18). A triple bogey on my nemesis hole, number 11, in today’s round kept be out of 2nd place.

My little trophy case of sub-80 rounds of golf is finally beginning to fill up after shooting 78 and 75 in consecutive outings this week.  I hope I can get in another four of five scores in the seventies this year before the weather gets ugly.

I started today’s round with a pedestrian bogey, missing a six-foot par putt.  Things took off from then on, however.  I birdied holes 2 and 3 and pared the next four, stepping to the 8th tee box at one under par. The 75 ties my low score ever, first recorded November of last year.

Another course that I’ve repeatedly heard and read about is Palouse Ridge on the Washington State University campus in Pullman.  Thus after my two rounds at Wine Valley I drove to Pullman. Palouse Ridge is a very challenging course with lots of elevation changes and sloping lies.  It was a long course for me but I got around in a not embarrassing 93.

Palouse Ridge, 10th hole.
527 yards from the front tees.

Wine Valley, 4th Green
My ball is somewhere in that bunker.

I’ve been seeing advertisements for the Wine Valley Golf Course near Walla Walla, WA and decided to finally drive over the mountains to see it for myself.  It’s kind of a stark setting –not a single tree to be seen– but a fun, challenging golf course.  The greens were rated at 13 the day I played but I ended up with one of my best putting rounds ever with 27 putts on my second round after a mediocre 37 in the morning round.  I’ll definitely make another trip to Wine Valley next year.