Day 5; Tourney Day 3: Conestoga Golf Club

The Men's 49 and under flights course rotation saved the best for last with this Troon Golf managed property.  An absolute beauty, but very tough golf course.  True desert golf with every hole having desert surrounding it or running through it.  The course runs through hills, over them and even a few holes run down arroyos.  Stunning and fun to play. 

I had hoped that our tees for this course would be in the 6,600 yard range but we were playing a hybrid of tees between the tips on a few holes and the next fwd tees (gold) on many others with a final range of 6,847.  I felt a bit stretched again but I loved the golf course, even from those tees.

Troon Golf does everything top notch.  Waiting in our carts were a yardage book, logo ball repair tool, and a logo metal bag tag.  Troon courses are always in top notch shape as well.  Unfortunately for us in the south, Troon doesn’t manage many properties nearby.  The only two I know of are Savannah Harbor Club in Savannah, GA and Sequoya National in Cherokee, NC.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was playing with Scott and Barry again whom I had played with the day before and we were joined by Dan Fisherbaugh from San Francisco, CA. Dan kept us in a light mood all day by telling hilarious jokes on every tee. We were all in that mid range in the standings 16^th to 18^th place and only 4 shots out of the money for Scott and I.  1^st place through 10^th place in each flight would receive a Callaway Golf gift card varying from $75 up to $600.   

I could tell early on in the round that this course was going to be a tough one for our flight from those tees.  I predicted to our foursome that low score for the day would be 85 (I was one off, it ended up being 84).  I was swinging better and set a goal of shooting 90 for myself.  I figured that score would be good enough for me to get into 10^th place and the money. 

I played well and had my goal score in range until our 16^th hole of the day, the par 5 Ninth which was playing into the wind.  I ballooned my tee shot so lost a good bit of yardage when the wind stopped the ball and I barely reached the fairway.  I followed with a decent 3wood shot, but this still left me over 200 yards out and into the wind.  I pulled the 3 wood again and made great contact.  The ball however had a slight fade on it and ended up pin high in a green side bunker on the right side.  I was only about 8 yards wide of hitting the green, which would end up being the difference.  My bunker trouble really took hold here.  My first attempt out of the bunker almost made it but caught the lip and rolled back down.  I quickly stepped out of the way and the ball comes to rest in one of my dug in footprints from my just taken stance of that shot.  I had no chance of getting this ball out of my foot print, so my second shot only moved it a couple of feet.  Exasperated I fail to get out with my third shot.  I finally clear the bunker with my fourth attempt but sail the green.  My final score for the hole was a 10!  Thus ended my chances of finishing top 10.  My final score for the round was 96.

Doc Scott of Ogden had a great day and shot an 88.  This picture was taken of him playing his drive from the arroyo on the par 4 Third hole.  He got a great lie and was able to hit his approach about 10 yards short of the green.  He made a great chip and made the 4 footer he had left for a fantastic par!  Scott would finish 7^th overall.

Here are a few more pics from Conestoga:

The championship dinner  that night was a cool event as the top 10 from each flight were brought up on stage.  I happened to sit down next to one of the flight winners and got to take a close look at his 1^st place trophy.  Each flight winner got one of the 20lb bronze sculptured Joshua Tree trophies.  What a nice touch.

That officially ended my Mesquite Amateur.  I finished in 11th in gross score for my flight and in solo 18th net.  Only the top 4 finishers in each flight advanced to Friday's Championship round.  I had a wonderful time and hope to make the event in 2013 for year 11.  My biggest take away was how nice the people that attend are.  All of my playing partners were great.  Two of them finished in the top 4 and two others finished in the top 10 for the flight.