I’m home from my Golf Mesquite experience and what a trip it was! After four days of golf in the heat of the desert, late nights and early mornings, I was feeling pretty good. I guess the high of the trip wore off a bit because now that I’m caught up on my sleep my lower back is trying to tell me something. I’m not fluent in back but I think it’s got something to do with age so I’ll just do my stretches and ignore the nag.

My own performance in the tournament was embarrassingly poor (17th gross, T22nd net out of 31 players in the flight) but I had an incredible time.

Warm-up round

We played the Oasis Canyons course on Monday – Memorial Day – for our warm-up. It wasn’t really a practice round since this course wasn’t on the rotation for my flight, but I’m glad I got to play another course in Mesquite. It was a relaxed and easygoing round on a scenic and challenging course designed by Dave Druzisky. I played with a great group of people who developed into good friends over the course of the week and it was probably my favorite day of golf in this event. Given my love for competition, I might have picked a different day as a favorite had I performed better, but this one encapsulated my overall feeling about the Mesquite Amateur: good friends, good times, good desert golf courses.

I needed a blue hat to complete my Memorial Day ensemble. Golf Mesquite Nevada gave us all blue hats but it was a couple days too late for the Oasis Canyons round.

I enjoy playing new golf courses all the time and one of the things I love about golf is all the different and gorgeous scenery. Mesquite golf provides that aplenty. Unfamiliar courses provide a particular challenge due to a lack of course knowledge and Oasis Canyons had a few holes that were particularly sneaky that way.

This hole had a blind tee shot and the drawing of it on the score card didn’t show this water in front of the green. Luckily, my drive ended up just short of the cart path in the picture. I think this is #12 – can anyone confirm or correct that?

I don’t remember what hole this is but thought it was a good representation of the course and how it got its name.

Tournament Round One – Casablanca

As I mentioned in my previous post, we played the first official round of the tournament at Casablanca Golf Club. One of the women I played with that day (middle of the photo in that post) ended up winning our flight. Congratulations, Patti!

The Casablanca, designed by Cal Olson, was in good condition and had its share of beauty. Of all the golf courses I’ve played in Mesquite, this was the flattest and perhaps “easiest” even though my score didn’t show it. In a city of great golf courses, I have to say this one doesn’t exactly stand out. Plop it in my town – or many others – and it would be a gem. It’s just a comparison thing.

Here’s a pretty par 3 hole on Casablanca – perhaps # 8 – anyone?

So that’s the first two days of golf. More to come on the next two as well as hotel commentary and the spa experience. Also stay tuned for accounts of the nightly festivities which were a lot of fun including some embarrassing golf chick shenanigans.

Next post.