Wild Dunes - June 3-4, 2005

Rick Hall and I played together in the Wild Dunes Member Guest. We didn't attend any of the social events, just 45 holes (one of those match play events) against 5 different teams in our flight. (My favorite format for this kind of thing.)

We got off to a great start in our first two matches (5.5 to 3.5, 5 to 4), but sucked in the third and fourth (2.5 to 6.5, 3 to 6). So we shot our way out before the final nine hole match. Oh, well. It was great fun.



Rick is a great partner. Hilarious with a joke, and easily pleased in almost any situation. He clearly loves what he does, selling Golf Digest in the Southeast. We're headed to Scotland together with the Blue Elephants in July, so he'll have plenty of opportunity to get sick of playing with me.

Nothing much to report from this event, only one gripe to voice: why is it that events like this still include something as funky as a "mulligan"? We play the ball down, the course is perfectly painted, everything is set up to make it "real golf," and we buy a $20 mulligan.

(Needless to say, Rick and I didn't use our mulligan very well. In fact, we forgot to use it in 3 of 5 matches.)

Finally, heard a number of good jokes, but the best line of the week came from Rick. Sitting at breakfast on Saturday morning, one guy was waxing on Sage Valley, including the food, wines, etc. Rick put it all in perspective: "Sage Valley's 'Orange Cake' is the best in all of golf."