Mesa - Weeks 3 and 4

On January 19th I played my 4th ARCIS club, Raven.  It is one I had played on a prior trip, when it was quite new.  It was designed to look like a course in the Carolina's, so not typical of Arizona.  I played with Dan, convincing him that we go there instead of going back to Superstition Springs, which was his plan.  It is a bit of a drive across to the other side of Phoenix so we met and car pooled.  The day was overcast and it sprinkled off an on for our warm up period and the first 4 holes or so.  I wasn't very happy about paying big bucks for the round and playing in less than perfect conditions, but I sucked it up.  We were paired with a couple of guys, one who was a bit better than me and one who was a bit better than Dan so it worked out well.  Dan enjoyed the course and was glad I had suggested it.

That evening was the monthly Canada/US Cribbage dinner and challenge.  I was unsure if I was actually going to get to play, but went and found out I was.  Because of my uncertainty I hadn't prepared the sandwiches I had signed up to bring, but fortunately as is the case with most of the events, the others had brought enough food for everyone and then some.  I played well and Canada won the overall night.

The weather has turned cool, overcast and rainy again so I'm avoiding golf and doing other activities, like Pickle Ball 3 or 4 mornings a week.  

Friday morning I had to go to Chandler (a bit south of Mesa) to pick up my stuff for the Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC of Scottsdale.  I feel for my $40US volunteer fee I did very well.  I got the "straw hat," a logo ball cap, a white logo golf shirt, a very nice zip up jacket in green, two clear tote bags (legal to carry into the event) and a cane/stool.  I will be training during the Pro Am on Wednesday and then working on the Friday (cut day) and Sunday (final round) of the tournament.  I also got a badge that gets me in all days.  I'm looking forward to helping out at "the greatest show on grass."  My job will be to shuttle hole marshals to their holes that are too far to walk to using a 6 or 8 seat golf cart.  I will be busy first thing in the morning and then at the end of the golf.  In between I can watch and hopefully meet up with some of the PGA tour employees I have worked with at my 4 prior events.

Saturday night they had a performance of Dancing with the Stars, featuring a professional dance troop and 6 residents of the park.  One of the ladies from pickle ball, Cheryl was in it.  She placed a solid 2nd.  The first part of the program was the competition and afterwards the pros put on quite a show, which in itself was worth the price of admission.

Sunday I had Carol and Mike over for dinner scheduled for half time of the second  NFL Divisional Championship game.  As it turned out both the games were disappointing from a competitive perspective.  I was in the mood to make my Crock Pot Lasagna and was grateful to have people to share it with.  I substituted rice lasagna noodles for regular pasta to suit Carol.  It didn't make any difference in the overall taste.  We all enjoyed it.

Tuesday and Wednesday January 24th and 25th I was supposed to play golf with my friend John Sharp.  Monday he informed me he wouldn't be able to play Tuesday, because he had been asked to referee a golf tournament in Scottsdale, which didn't upset me too much because the weather was still bad.  Then on Tuesday he informed me he had to cancel for Wednesday.  That really upset me, but life goes on, so instead I arranged to play the Arizona Biltmore Golf Club.  I found a deal in TeeOff.com for playing the Adobe course.  As it turned out the place was not very busy.  I went out by myself and played 18 holes in just over 2 hours, not rushing, seeing as I didn't know the course.  I decided to see how busy the Links course was and found it also empty so went around it in similar timing, skipping the last hole as to not be that last one in.  There were no starters so no one questioned me about being out there.  The older Adobe course is surrounded by very large homes, with high fences and signs warning about security systems and not to trespass.  The holes for the most part aren't very interesting, the greens are fairly small.  The links course has some good holes (185 yard par 3 from a cliff) 

and some bad (par 3 tucked next to some commercial buildings, with a concrete sewer pipe running across the fairway).  It is the newer of the courses as was very obviously laid out in such a was as to afford them as many golf course view/backing housing lots as possible.  Both courses are in pretty good condition, though the greens were on the slow side.  The regular green fee is around $140 at this time of the year.  I paid $60 and then got 35 holes for that.  After that I didn't figure on needing to play golf on Thursday, and Friday turned out cold and very windy. I played Pickle Ball both mornings and got caught up on my travel planning and computer work, including the Blog.

Saturday I went out to the Swap Meet for breakfast and a bit of shopping and then played golf at The Arizona Golf Resort.  

I played with three guys.  One was a very good golfer, the other two not so much.  The course was busy, so the pace of play was a bit on the slow side.  The day was cool so not much fun sitting around in the cart. The course was o.k. It is an older one built among modest homes.  You would think the name would suggest a swanky place.

Sunday I exchanged a pair of sports shoes I had purchased for Pickle Ball that were wearing out too fast for a pair of proper tennis shoes.  Then I had a great lunch at a Mongolian Grill Buffet Restaurant, which offered lots of seafood options and sushi that I came across while heading to a Dim Sum place I had gone to a couple of weeks ago.  The buffet also had some dim sum and with everything else was a much better value than dim sum alone would have been.  After that I went to Western Skies to practice my short game a bit because the weather was quite nice.  Much better than the preceding few days.  In the evening I worked on the blog extensively and was serenaded by the Karaoke singers in the next room of the clubhouse. 

Monday morning I played Pickle Ball and the new shoes worked well.  I did a few errands, like getting some diesel fuel and propane, utilizing my $0.10 a gallon discount from Safeway, which was going to expire at the end of the month.  (Wow, 2017 is already almost 1/12th over.)  I also took my bicycle to a bike shop to purchase a kick stand and get it installed.  I had bought one at home but it was not the right design for my brand of bicycle.  There was a nice path next to the store, so I went for about a 60 minute ride just before sunset.  In the evening I played Mexican Train dominoes, but didn't have much luck.  I never got to start a round or go out and my team lost the night 8 - 5.

Finally the blog is back up to date.  Sorry to my loyal readers for falling so far behind. I have had challenges with internet connections and I've been having so much fun it is hard to sit down at the computer.  Now if I could only get the pictures back into the posts. (Finally resolved March 17th.)