Countryway is suddenly a difficult course now? The same place where most of us have (or nearly have) our personal bests?
Our return after a four-year hiatus was great for all the right reasons — none of which had to do with our golfing ability. The 11 renovated greens were the best we've ever seen at Countryway, and most of the remaining 7 (which they're finishing this summer) were also fairly decent.
So why did we all suck?
The new greens are much smaller than the old ones — which feels lazy and honestly offends me. The dormant Bermuda rough is impossible to chip from, so missing these tiny greens turns getting up-and-down into a nightmare. The oak trees lining every hole have grown noticeably bigger. And a bunch of the tee boxes were in awful shape — poor grading and zero divot maintenance.
Our co-winners, Topor and Moostie, didn't even seem that excited about the victory. Probably because both filled their pants on one of the last two holes.
Buchert easily could have won if not for two triples on the front. Dave was right there too—just one bad hole and a handful of frustrating missed putts.
Gorecki was leading solidly down the stretch with his -17 strokes warmly embracing his decaying corpse, only to blow up +5 and +4 on the final two holes. His solo 5th place still earned him an owed pitcher!
Speaking of pitchers: 14 owed yesterday — one short of the Temple Terrace record of 15 (Spring 2025). We've already passed last season's full total of 33. Looking back to 2020, our Spring seasons average 15 more pitchers owed than Summer. Gotta be the winter conditions plus the fact we usually play shittier courses due to access and price.
In any case, the bar and grill after was still top-notch greasy food and cheap beer. There were no sultry waitresses in sight, but we did get Two Pitcher Billy who played most of the back nine in a freshly made tank.
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We're off this weekend for a make-up we don't need. On the 22nd we'll be down at Scepter - the private course in Sun City Center. Update your RSVP so I can get our official name list to the Director of Golf.
On March 1st we're playing Hunter's Green for the 2nd (official) time in league history. A couple of caveats with this course:
- We must bring at least 16 players (no more than 20). There were 16 people "IN" when I booked it... now we have 15 and 3 maybes. Start thinking of any non-members you can bring.
- I had to prepay for the 16 players ($1,280). This is your Chandler Bucks in action, as they allow me to temporarily fund the deposit. Everyone needs to send me $80 to get placed on the roster. If we fail to get 16 players... then I'm repaying myself from our dwindling league balance.
Countryway is great for the Concussion and I'm glad we went back. It's not nearly as nice as driving 90 minutes to go play in the middle of a trailer park, but it does have some redeeming qualities.
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