Should be a nice time. New Mexico has a very fine quality if light for some reason. I go down to Taos or Santa Fe every other year or so. Albuquerque has some excellent golf i'm told. Santa Fe is a bit expensive golf wise , but an interesting place to be a tourista.

Played again last evening. Drove the short par four 16th . A 245 yard carry over a lake , with sand in front and back and water everywhere else. I usually lay it up to a thin fairway on the right and then hit a pw or something over an inlet to the green , but a nice hardy breeze behind , so i hit it right at the flag and ended up six feet from the hole for eagle......put a good roll on it and caught the left lip......no eagle for you !
I had just pitched it in for par on the previous hole and got up and down for par with good pitches on three holes before that one , so i guess i was out of magic. Playing good though........although my back is begging me to take a day off from golf.
Bought the fall pass at a course i haven't played all year , so it's a smorgasbord of golf. Played until dark the last four days .

Max -

Nice goin'! Two forty five is very tidy, indeed.

Sounds like you have a hole like our signature hole. We call it "The Round Wrecker". Bigger than your's - 372 p4 - but, like your's, sounds like you have to hit it in exactly the right place or you're toast.

Our tee shot is diagonally across a small lake and you have to fly it 200yds off the blues. (Whites get a break - it's only 170 to dry land.) Then back, diagonally left, across that same damned lake to an island green. Miss-hit it a groove or two thin and you're wet. Overcook it and you're in a back bunker that has you trying to flop it onto a green that slopes severely away, back to the water.

The fun part is seeing green fee players from company golf outings eying up the green and figuring they can hit it from the tee. I've measured it with both a Bausch & Lomb LASER and a Sky Caddie. Both say it's 352 across the lake from the very front edge - in front of the whites. Go for it skippy!

Sounds like you're enjoying yourself and that's what counts.

Cheers
Tele

Altitude is nice for driving;-) My timeshare is in Santa Fe and have priced some of the courses but lots of others within reasonable driving distande.
Long wait for the doc today, must be getting back at me for the ER call. Already had me scheduled for day surgery on the 12th. Hope he finds a cure, this is getting old.

Teleman......i have played a hole very much like the one you described somewhere. I think it was on a Pete Dye course. A definite ballstrikers hole !

The hole i was describing is the 16th at the course i'm playing every day now. It's 292 yards from the tees i play.....247 carry across the water .....with sand bunkers up front and ringing the green with everything else sloping into the water. I hit my driver when i have some airflow going toward the green , but it makes more sense to lay it up down that ribbon of a fairway with just about anything from a 6 iron to a 3 wood. Problem is...theres a hazard right of that fairway ( where you will be lucky to FIND your ball , much less hit it across that inlet to the green.) and the ubiquitous water left....it's a really hard layup shot ! It should be an easy hole to make par.....par four 292 yards....but it can be a real snake in the grass ! It tests your ability to make good swings and get out of there with par...a great hole.

I watch guys pumping balls into the lake all the time. It's a fun shot to drive it over there , but i'm usually trying to finish off my round with a decent score , so i play it in a conservative manner more often than not. It's the second hole in a difficult four hole stretch that can cause some serious oil leakage trying to get it into the barn. I play more like Corey Pavin than Bubba Watson .
Like a bad......evil....Corey Pavin

Played a Taylormade Penta last night. You are right ! Really great ball.....they keep the greens fairly soft , so no problem stopping it at all. Unfortunately ; they keep the fairways a bit too soft also , making some holes play really long. I was getting some nice carry with the Penta last night...very close in playability to a Callaway i (s).

Santa Fe is a great place to play, although a bit pricey. You really get some distance down there at 7,000 feet. I play at 4900 feet above sea level , so much better than that pea soup you play in up in Seattle , but not quite the distance you get at 7,000 feet. I have found ....in my travels....that the firmness and design characteristics of fairways has a lot to do with how far i can get a drive to go. The dryness and temperature of the air is a big factor too. I drive the ball the same distances at 1500- 2300 feet in Arizona as i do at 4900-5400 feet here in Colorado. They have very firm fairways there and the air is warm and dry. Iron shots seem to carry only a bit shorter ....about half a club , to maybe a full club. (The fairways i'm playing now are too soft. Ball is hitting and stopping on some fairways....two popped backwards a yard the other day....hate that. )
Seattle must be awful for distance. Great grass.....heavy air....i hope they try to keep the conditions firm. Must be beautiful though.
Have we had this conversation before ? Probably........i love golf....hope you guys do too !

They say that it is about 3 strokes on your handicap to play here. Good for going other places and scoring well;-) really hope I get out soon. Have the tpc at Snoqualmie ridge coming up on 11/7. will need the practice.

Wow...Snoqualmie ridge must be a spectacular place to play. A TPC course will have more than a few trouble spots. I would think the appropriate tees would be important up in your neck of the woods. Got really cool for the last few holes last evening during my round. I hit a really solid 6 iron right where i was looking and it came up ten yards short on a par 3 hole. Duffed my pitch...due to a flap of grass behind the ball....played an irritated pitch shot and ....nothing but net....easy par. The temperature of the air really takes the legs out from under the ball .

Played really well again......need to take that game to those hit and wait days when i play with other folks. Slow play almost always affects my game. I play better when i can move right along.

It is quite spectacular, the views aren't bad either;-) 3 years ago we decided we didn't want to play the whites becaus most of us could reach trouble from there. So last year we couldn't remember how far back we moved. We went one set to far back and really struggled. I will remember this time. Think there are 5 sets of tees there.
After putting I was looking at what balls to play. they usually give us a sleve of Callaways so don't want those. to many of them will be laying around. Have to decide between some old titleist DT's or TM Burners.

Different tees can really change your strategy. You are hitting over some usual hazards and INTO others. There are five sets of tees at the course i'm playing now , and two of them are fun for me. I sometimes will play from a front tee on a par 5 and change the par to four , just for grins. The par threes are all really good , from any tee.
Old Titleist DT's......no thanks. Play the Burners ...not bad. Have fun . Stay well.

Should be get well