Of all the new courses I played golf at the Mesquite Amateur, I was most delightfully surprised with both courses at Oasis – Canyons and Palmer. Hardly unheralded especially with the name Palmer associated with one of them, but for some reason I was expecting their layout and terrain to be more akin to The Palms or Casablanca Golf Club. That wasn’t the case at all. The rocks, hills, canyons, and overall scenery were beautiful and the designs quite challenging. Not the picturesque beauty of Wolf Creek or even Falcon Ridge (the poor man’s Wolf Creek), but not the flat and wide city courses either. They’re a satisfying and gorgeous compromise between the two.
The Palmer at Oasis Golf Club was the last course on my rotation at the Mesquite Am. In my first round, I was driving the ball great and putting for crap. After bonding with my putter, we worked better together the next day but my approach shots weren’t working out. I had hoped it would all come together on the last day, and it did – nothing worked. Next time I play the Palmer course I’m switching tees. This course just doesn’t suit my eye or game from the forward tees. I found myself using mid-irons off the tee in most cases so when I finally got the chance to use my driver on a couple par 5s, it was cold and bitter. And my putter was… well, it’s not my putter’s fault. There were many evil pin placements and some vicious greens in general.
I don’t know if it was the heat making the greens so hard and unreceptive, but nothing would hold. Even after recalibrating my distance for the altitude, I found myself putting or chipping from behind the green every time I “landed” one. The photo above is an example of the many holes where you can’t exactly run your ball up onto the green, either. Plus, on many holes, the greens slope dramatically back to front and it’s near impossible to be below the hole, at least with the conditions like we had. And either this was the hottest day or I was just fatigued and the heat got to me more.
About a minute before I snapped this photo, my ears popped and started ringing and I felt dizzy and weak with heat. As you can see, this green is tucked away in a nook that was the hottest place on the golf course. It was stifling in there and I thought I was going to faint. I was so happy to be out of there but it was a good reminder to drink more water and start cooling off with a cold, wet towel around my neck, which did the trick. The white circle in the picture is just there to point out the blue flag tucked in the furthest corner of this heat trap.
Here I am on one of the easiest holes on the course. But where am I aiming? Nope, I didn’t draw it. I simply landed pin-high between those bunkers. Yes, I have alignment issues as well. Yes, by the last day I had all my excuses lined up and ready. After all, I wasn’t going to let my own poor performance take away from the overall experience of the Mesquite Amateur, which was incredible. I hope to do it again and again – only with a better game.
For more information on this great event, check out the Golf Mesquite Nevada or The Mesquite Amateur websites. I hope to see you out there next year!
as a team) but somehow in the best ball format we have managed to pick up each other’s slack more often than not. This year we are both playing from the white tees which means I will be getting a few extra strokes but losing the distance advantage. We’ll just have to see how that works out.