Let's Walk 18

We just purchased a golf membership in Talking Rock Ranch in Prescott. Oh boy! This will allow us to play without worrying about greens fees accrued in the course of a month’s play. Today, we’re heading out to golf for the second time this week. I continue to work on my handicap, and am still very inconsistent with my game. I did manage a Par and a Birdie when I played on Tuesday – but those are the exception rather than the rule.

I am becoming more intimately familiar with the course and its challenges. It all used to be one big mish-mosh in my mind, but now I can walk the course mentally in pretty good detail. It’s helping me with club selection and strategy (that is, as much as someone at my skill level has a strategy).

HOLE 1: A fairly simple hole, unless your drive goes wild right into the retention pond…
HOLE 2: A straightforward Par 4, right behind our house!

HOLE 3: On this tough little Par 3, you have to hit over a small desert scrub-covered hill on the left. I use a 3 wood. “3 on 3” is how I remember it.

HOLE 4: The beautiful sweeping fairway on 4 often is a runway for jackrabbits.
HOLE 5: A oddly challenging hole, fraught with fairway bunkers.
HOLE 6: Ron has nicknamed this “The Death March”. It’s a 606-yard Par 5 that gives my 3 wood a workout. Very little hope for us chicks to par this hole. The best I’ve ever done is a double bogey, and happy to get it.
HOLE 7: Another Par 3. I use my 7 wood – “7 on 7”.
HOLE 8: Native landscape on the left and bunkers on the right. Stay in the middle, for sure.

HOLE 9: Front 9 finishes with a Par 5, and a water hazard on the right. Hit too close and your ball bounces right- splashing into the pond. The ducks scatter when they see me coming.

THE TURNAROUND: I recommend the panini-grilled hot dog. Delicious.

HOLE 10: A wide open, forgiving fairway. A fresh start for the back 9.
HOLE 11: Nicknamed “The Chasm”, on this Par 5 hole you must hit over a deep, dry ravine before approaching the green. I have lost many, many balls on this darn hole.
HOLE 12: Here, your drive has to fly over a “mini chasm” to get to the fairway. Not so bad. The green is elevated, which is a bit tricky.
HOLE 13: An uphill Par 3 surrounded by bunkers. If your drive misses the green, you are probably in trouble.
HOLE 14: My least favorite hole for a reason I have yet to determine.

A beautiful day on 15.

HOLE 15: The course’s signature hole is at a higher elevation, with a downhill approach to the green. The view of Granite Mountain is spectacular from the tees.
HOLE 16: A Par 3 where I very nearly got a Hole-in-One earlier this week. My first birdie on this course.
HOLE 17: A fairly straightforward Par 4 on the home stretch.
HOLE 18: This Par 5 is a tough way to finish, with prevailing winds often in your face from the west. Watch out for the big bunkers on the right, and the water on the left!

It’s a beautiful and challenging course – and it’s helping me become a golfer!