Mesquite Amateur – the preview

I’m here at the Mesquite Amateur Golf Tournament this week and so far it’s been a blast. There are over 600 players in the tournament and the hotels are packed with golfers. Oh, and the casinos are as well. Go by the card tables and you’ll see an ocean of golf hats and various sporty apparel. It’s awesome. I’ve heard “Where you playin’ today?” and “Good luck out there” so many times I can’t count.

There are multiple men’s divisions – mostly by age group – and one women’s division with three flights. Obviously we’re playing on multiple courses (I think 8 in total but more on that later) and it’s just a golfer’s paradise. The event’s title sponsor is Golf Mesquite Nevada, who have been great hosts with all the wonderful side events. More on that later as well.

Here is Cody Law, Executive Director of Golf Mesquite Nevada and one of our hosts. He recently won a qualifier that will take him to play Carnoustie in November. Passionate about golf and Mesquite, a total professional who makes everyone feel welcome and important, and an absolute cutie pie who has only been playing golf for a few years – congratulations, Cody!

Today’s round

I’m in the Sorenstam flight in the women’s division and today we played at Casablanca Golf Club. I’ve played courses in Mesquite before but all the courses on my rotation are new to me, which is challenging and fun. Yesterday was a warm-up round and the tournament started today. I haven’t met anyone here I haven’t liked, and the ladies in my group today were no exception.

Sue, Patti and Brenda were a real pleasure to play with. Here they are on #? at Casablanca.

We were all pretty much evenly matched with our handicaps. Sue (left) is a __ year old grandmother who plays like nobody’s business. She was my cart partner and a real delight. Patti (middle) had an outstanding game and was a real power hitter. She had one drive that went nearly 300 yards and had a short game to go with it. This is my first Mesquite Am, and I hear they used to have a women’s long drive competition. She’d be a contender if not a shoo-in if they still had it, but I’ve heard they got rid of it after a trans-gender woman won it in the past. That’s not official, of course, but still – I think they should have it regardless. And if not, put something in it’s place like and extra closest-to-the-pin hole. I digress… Anyway, Brenda (right) was the only one of us who had ever played this event before – in fact I think she said she’d played it all 7 years it’s been happening. She was also a solid player and was invaluable for rules and procedures questions. None of the rest of us had been there before. All three of them outplayed me, which isn’t surprising considering I’ve only been playing once a month. Plus, I three-putted 16 holes (yes, for real) so I think I might sleep with my putter tonight even though my boyfriend just showed up and surprised me. Priorities.

Stay tuned… more to come.

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