Mesquite Am Day 3: Skins Game at Falcon Ridge, Am Registration and Opening Dinner

Day 3: Falcon Ridge Skins Game

Memorial Day 2013 arrives and Bryan and I grab a quick coffee and a light breakfast in the Casablanca coffee shop.  We head over to the local Walmart and purchase a couple of American Flags to decorate our cart with for the holiday.  We are playing in a practice round / skins game at Falcon Ridge, which will also be the host course of our first tournament round of the Mesquite Am the next day on Tuesday. 

This was our first time playing this course and we were paired up with a brother/brother team Greg and George.  With Bryan and I both having names with "B's", I dubbed us the BeeGees!  Here is a picture of the four of us at the 10th hole of Falcon Ridge.  

Falcon Ridge was featured as the host course on Golf Channel's Big Break Mesquite so you may have seen some of these holes before.  There are several with large elevation changes.  The Skins Game this year was the first of an annual charity event to celebrate the life of a multi year attendee of the Mesquite Amateur that passed away from cancer in November, Bruce King.  The event raised money for a scholarship in his name that will go to a local Mesquite high school student.  Bryan and I had little expectations for winning skins as neither of us make a lot of birdies and looked at the round as a chance to see the course.  We started on hole number 4.  Bryan hit a decent drive, but his approach faded just right of the green.  So what does he do, he proceeds to chip in for Bird!  What a great start!  I birdied, hole #5 a par 3, then birdied the difficult Par 4 6th hole, pictured below.

I hit a solid drive to wear the cart on the left is in the above photo, then hit a 9iron just right of the pin and made the 15 foot putt for bird.  We found out after the round that this birdie would end up winning a skin for me, and Bryan's birdie on Hole #4, our first of the round would win a skin for him.  What a great start to our week!  $$$$ money! This round was my best of the week.  Here is my score card:

Here are a few more images of Falcon Ridge:

#7 Par 5

#12 Par 5

 #15 Par 4

 #3 Par 3

After the Skins game we head back over to the Casablanca and register.  We receive a good amount of tourney swag.  A Mesquite Am golf shirt and hat.  A Mesquite Am glove and switchblade repair tool with Mequite Am ball markers.  We also received a $25 coupon good for merchandise in any of the tournament course pro shops during the week.  Golfer's love free stuff!

Later that evening we went to the welcome dinner for the event.  This featured a buffet style spread with salads, entrees and sides.  The dessert spread was even better!  Christian Anderson, the Tournament director gave a welcome address and went over tournament details.  It was a great start to the week.  Bryan and I hung out in the Casino for a while after dinner then called it an early night so we'd be ready for the opening round at Falcon Ridge the next morning.