Night Golf III

Friday: Night Golf III - I showed up to Lakeside around 8:00. There wasn't much of a crowd there yet which kinda surprised me, but I thought maybe I was just a bit early. I was talking to my mom and the organizers of the golf and found out that the number of people was going to be down this year (5 foursomes) due to moving the outing from last Friday (due to rain) to this Friday (Labor day weekend). My cousin Marc was the only friend that was available to play this year, so we ended up getting paired with two other guys who weren't part of a team. The one guy was the organizer of the outing who was a dentist and named Phil, so we spent the night calling him Dr. Phil. I grabbed a plate and headed for the food (after grabbing a beer). This year was supposed to be catered food from Ceruti's so I figured it would be very tasty, but it ended up being pretty bland. There was Salisbury steak, chicken, green beans, and mashed potatoes with ham that had not flavor at all. But hey the night isn't about the food, it's just there to soak up the beer. They had some soft rolls that were delicious so I ate quite a few of those. I was surprised to see the sun going down in the middle of eating and it was totally dark by 9:00. I don't remember it being that dark last year. The weather was perfect with cool temperatures in the low 60's with a heavy kind of dewy night. So after taking a bath in bug spray we headed out to the course. The front 9 was still a little rough from all of the rain the past week so we ended up playing the back 9 which is new for me. The front 9 is totally different from the back since the fairways are wide open and there are par 5's and 3's. The back 9 is alot more narrow with tight fairways and a creek going along most of the holes. Almost all of them are par 4's. Stepping up to the first tee, it was again fun to see what kind of game you are going to play with the glowing little ball. All 4 of us put the ball straight on the fairway. Barry had one of those big drivers, and when he hit the ball you would hear this ear piercing "Clink" whenever he drove the ball. The nature of the glowing balls is that they don't fly as far or as accurate as regular balls which is probably good. You have to trust the yardage on the course. If the little steak says you are 100 yards out then you probably are. Depth perception of where you see the flag is never true. Overall I hit pretty well all night. I put a few in the trees, but lucky for me the glowing balls were easy to find. Another member of our team actually hit the glowstick out of the ball on one drive. We found the ball but had to replace the glowstick a few holes later. About halfway through the round we got to an area that was pretty open and we could see the moon rising up. It had been total pitch black dark then this huge full moon came up. The last half of the round was pretty lit on the course..the course not me. I borrowed my mom's pull cart so I wouldn't have to carry my bag, but it was a pain to keep track of my beer, so I will have to figure something out for next year where I can use the pull cart and mount the can coosie on the cart somewhere. We played a pretty quick round and didn't have to wait for the group in front of us or get pressure from behind which is a relaxing way to play. We got back to the clubhouse and the brought the food out again and I just had some more rolls. I found out halfway through the round that Dr. Phil wasn't actually writing down the score on the card, but just trying to remember how many over or under par we were. He thought we pared every hole but I thought we were one under par (thinking about it later I think he was right). We ended up tying for first place, but actually placed second with a backup scoring system. I got my little prize and headed for home around 12:30am which isn't too bad. But the story doesn't end there. As soon as I get home and in bed Andrew wakes up and does his 3 hour "I'm awake" thing so I didn't get to bed until around 4:00 or so. Of course William comes strolling into the bedroom at 7:30 wide awake. Sigh. But again it was a total blast on the course and I will be playing every year that I am able to do it. I usually put away some Christmas money specifically to play in this outing. I keep telling my friends and some year they will be enlightened like my friend Gina and cousin Marc.