It has been a little over two weeks since I last posted. I somehow don't think it all that interesting when I am hanging out in Ontario, so there is less urgency to record my activities.
I quite enjoyed my time at Earl Rowe Provincial Park, which is on the outskirts of Alliston, a community that is growing quickly as there is a relatively new Honda auto plan there. The campsite I had reserved was supposed to be a pull-through, but in my opinion that wasn't the case for a rig my size, unless I wanted it set up right next to the road. It was better to back in towards one side, and the fact that I found a fellow camper who was happy to do the maneuver for me, very expertly, was a bonus. As is the case with many of our Provincial Parks, there is no water or sewer connection at the site, only power. They do have a place to fill your water tank on the way in and a place to dump on the way out, but when I am stationary for a whole week, I have to conserve water use and space in my drain tank to a degree. For this reason I did use their shower facility a couple of days. They were quite modern and very clean, seeing as the park was not very busy at this time of year. I met and spent some time speaking with a couple that have been RVing for about 12 years. The husband is the handyman for the campground. They gave some RV lifestyle magazines with me. I did a couple of loads of laundry on site as their prices were considerably lower than the Laundromat in town. The campground I was staying in was across the road and down a bit from the main part of the Provincial Park. I headed over there a couple of times for a good walk. The park is located around a man made lake, which was created in the early 1960's. There was a Terry Fox run and a metal detecting club event going on in the park on Sunday morning.
As seems to be my habit, I didn't get away from Sibbald Point Provincial Park as early as I should have and the drive took a bit longer than I had expected, so by the time I got to the park and was set up, it was getting kind of late in the afternoon. In the morning I had called Osprey Valley to see if I would be able to take a look at the golf course. I was told I could take a cart and drive around for $20.00. I thought I would get there around 2:00 but instead it was closer to 5:00. The good thing about that was the fellow who was working in the pro shop at that point gave me a cart key, without charge. I managed to ride around the course quickly enough to see all the holes and help familiarize myself with it before the tournament the following day. I did come across the beverage cart girl and though a good way to show my appreciation for the free cart was to purchase a beer, it was so cold it was a bit slushy! The course was not busy at all. I didn't run into anyone until I reached the 18th hole! When I returned the cart around dusk, the fellow working in that area shared some local knowledge with me.
I am not as excited to be playing in the A flight as I was in the spring. On most of the courses the 6,400 yards (up hill) is just too long for me to be able to score well. At Osprey, I managed 8 pars, 8 bogies and two doubles, for 84. I placed 16th out of 21 in the flight. If I had been in the B flight at this event, I would likely have placed no worse than T2nd as that flight was won with an 80 and second was 84. I would have been playing a slightly shorter distance so might have managed to shoot 81 or 82. Oh well. The course is very nice and well conditioned. I enjoyed my group and the weather was O.K.
Friday my preparation for the next tournament at Mad River began. I was able to arrange a practice round with the former Club President who is also a member of my home club. She filled me in on all the local knowledge as we went around the course. I played what I though were my tournament tees and she played the ladies tees she usually plays. Once again the layout is too long for me, but the course is very nice, though lacking in any effort for beautification and was lacking in visible wild life. The greens are the fastest I have played anywhere in the world in 2017! I adjusted my Cure putter accordingly.
I went back to the course on Sunday to use the practice facilities again and spent some time speaking with Daniel from the pro shop who was going to be playing his first event on the AM tour hoping to leverage his home course knowledge (he ended up coming 12th out of 26). I could have played the back 9 with the committee but declined their offer.
I wasn't very happy with my group for this tournament as the other three, two golfers and one caddy were all smokers. I have become very sensitive to second hand smoke as I am so infrequently subjected to it anymore. Not that any of them were chain-smoking but when even one was lit up the smoke always seemed to loft towards me, and I didn't feel it was my place to complain to them about it, we were outside after all.
I wasn't playing my best golf on this day, I think the yardage and the smoke in my lungs was getting to me. I wasn't very happy while we were playing the 9th hole there were 6 machines working on the adjoining 18th hole, though the operator of one waved to me, none of them stopped while we were playing our approaches or putting. On the day, I ended up loosing 3 or 4 balls (it is rare for me to loose one in a round), which helped to inflate my score and with 4 holes left, I had pretty much given up, playing the last 4 holes in 10 over par. I had 3 Pars, 8 Bogies, along with 3 doubles, 3 triples and one quad, for 99, ouch. I finished 23rd out of 26. All around it wasn't a very fun day.
Though I wasn't really in a celebratory mood, on the way back to the Provincial Park I did stop in downtown Creemore to check out the brewery. They offer 3 small free samples of their craft beers, though I managed to try 4 and purchased a 6 pack to go, split between my two favorites, which were the Lot 9 Pilsner and Altbier.
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