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| Signature hole, 10th, 626 yard par 5 |
Palouse Ridge Golf Club designed by
John F. Harbottle III is a fabulous new course owned by the Washington State University and is considered to be one of the best university courses in the US. It is a links course routed amongst the palouses which are rolling hills giving you a very accidental layout, again similar to Tobiano but without all those canyon crossings. Discussing the course with Daryl, I agreed with his suggestion that the main quality of this layout is that each hole offers multiple options of play, each option being weighed on a risk/reward scale befitting each player's skill level.
Daryl played an excellent round that included two birdies and two memorable holes: the 15th par 4 playing from the middle tees at 307 yards that Daryl reached in 1 and easily birdied (missing the eagle put by a mere 3 inches) and the par 5 fifth hole where, trying to reach the green in 2, he landed into deep fescue. From there he managed to find the green in regulation which was a superb effort. He however had to negotiate a 60 foot putt on greens that had been aerated the day before and proved to be difficult to putt at the best of times. His bogey on that hole felt more like a par and was quite rewarding.
Brenda and I managed a birdie each, the highlight of this round for both of us. Hers came on the par 3 eleventh hole, mine on the par 5 18th when I had finally found my lost swing thanks to Daryl's observations and coaching skills. I had been playing fairly poorly for the first 13 holes then shortened my back swing and started coming back square at the ball at impact thus improving my shot making considerably. Needless to say that on our continuing competition Brenda won this match by a very large margin. As I have learned recently from Chris Zelkovitch's blog,
Breaking 80 things will often get worse before they get better and that all of us can go from an 85 to 105. And yes, I might have reached the hell of golf but there will be redemption. As for wildlife, the adjoining palouse is farmland. Reminds us of our time in Switzerland, no bells on these cows though.
Palouse Ridge Golf Club designed by John F. Harbottle III is a fabulous new course owned by the Washington State University and is considered to be one of the best university courses in the US. It is a links course routed amongst the palouses which are rolling hills giving you a very accidental layout, again similar to Tobiano but without all those canyon crossings. Discussing the course with Daryl, I agreed with his suggestion that the main quality of this layout is that each hole offers multiple options of play, each option being weighed on a risk/reward scale befitting each player's skill level.
Daryl played an excellent round that included two birdies and two memorable holes: the 15th par 4 playing from the middle tees at 307 yards that Daryl reached in 1 and easily birdied (missing the eagle put by a mere 3 inches) and the par 5 fifth hole where, trying to reach the green in 2, he landed into deep fescue. From there he managed to find the green in regulation which was a superb effort. He however had to negotiate a 60 foot putt on greens that had been aerated the day before and proved to be difficult to putt at the best of times. His bogey on that hole felt more like a par and was quite rewarding.
Brenda and I managed a birdie each, the highlight of this round for both of us. Hers came on the par 3 eleventh hole, mine on the par 5 18th when I had finally found my lost swing thanks to Daryl's observations and coaching skills. I had been playing fairly poorly for the first 13 holes then shortened my back swing and started coming back square at the ball at impact thus improving my shot making considerably. Needless to say that on our continuing competition Brenda won this match by a very large margin. As I have learned recently from Chris Zelkovitch's blog, Breaking 80 things will often get worse before they get better and that all of us can go from an 85 to 105. And yes, I might have reached the hell of golf but there will be redemption. As for wildlife, the adjoining palouse is farmland. Reminds us of our time in Switzerland, no bells on these cows though.
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