I was the only golfer at the clubhouse this early in the morning and by 6:46 I was taking a practice swing on the first tee. Total cost was $90 to walk 18 with a handcart, rental clubs, two sleeves of cheap Pinnacles (I like to have a lot of ammo) and tees. This was an odd set of rental clubs. Driver, 3, 4, 5 woods then SW, PW, 9, 8 and 7 irons plus a putter. A long iron would have been nice to have. The 4W and 5W were a bit clunky. But beggars can’t be choosers and I was really out here more for the novelty of playing the course with the lowest elevation. The sign near the first tee indicated 214 feet below sea level. It was a lovely morning for golf. Not a cloud in the bright, blue. No wind to speak of, at least not yet, just a very light breeze and the temperature was already about 70 F, so I was very comfortable in shorts and a golf shirt. Oddly enough, I think this is the first time that I’ve worn shorts while in Death Valley. The course is actually very nice and has an interesting layout. Not a lot of trouble on the course, although there are a couple of water hazards and one or two tight tee shots but otherwise the course is fairly open. There were a couple spots that the routing of the holes was a little convoluted so I had to look for the markers along the cart path to find the next tee box but it is wall marked. After hitting a nice tee-shot down the left side of the fairway on number 17, I was not sure which green that I should be approaching. The trees screening 17 green made it appear to belong to another hole while number 1 green was sitting right out in the open. With no other golfers around there were no clues as to who was playing which hole, but I was eventually able to discern that I needed to hit over the trees to get to the appropriate green, which I did quite nice and walked away with a par on that short par 4. I always enjoy being the first player out on the course in the morning as I can set a nice pace. I’m not a fast player but I like to just keep trundling along. Today was particularly grand and there was no one behind me for the entire round. I did not see another golfer until I was nearly through with the round. So I was able to play at a good clip, but still had time to replay a shot or two, enjoy the scenery (the course is in a pretty setting, very lush and green and affords beautiful views of the Panamint Range to the west) and look for critters especially around the water hazards. All the animal sightings this morning were birds and mostly waterfowl, the most interesting of which were Rudy Ducks that I spotted at two of the ponds. Overall the course was in pretty good shape except for the greens which were atrocious and varied wildly in condition and speed. There were a couple that were smooth and rolled very nice, but most were just pitiful with lots of bare areas and very bumpy. I had a few nice runs at birdie but nothing was dropping on these ragged greens. I basically just invoked the “2-putt rule” as the greens were such a mess. All things considered I played pretty well and was done in fairly short order in just over two-and-a-half hours. Not bad as that included taking some photos, looking for birds and replaying a couple shots. The swing tips that Kirk provided during the recent Arizona golf trip really paid off as I was making good contact with my irons and hit several nice approach shots and generally drove the ball well all day. I carded a 79 based on the better ball and the 2-putt rule, but worst case my score would have been about 85, so I was happy with my play. A net under par round regardless. I finished my round just in time as the wind really kicked up as I walked onto number 18 tee. It was like someone flipped on a light switch as there was only a light breeze while I was playing up 17 but the conditions changed such that I was hitting into a 2-club wind in the long par 4 finishing hole. I hit driver, 3 wood, wedge to get to the green so walking off the course with a bogey on the last hole was not a bad thing at all. As the cliché goes, I had just shot the lowest round of by career, 214 feet below sea level!

etc

Death Valley, golf, National Park

Furnace Creek, California, United States

time : Mar 28, 2016 6:47 AM

duration : 2h 34m 38s

distance : 4.9 mi

total_ascent : 312 ft

highest_point : 0 ft

avg_speed : 1.9 mi/h

user_id : OhioHick

user_firstname : Allen

user_lastname : Arrington

I was the only golfer at the clubhouse this early in the morning and by 6:46 I was taking a practice swing on the first tee. Total cost was $90 to walk 18 with a handcart, rental clubs, two sleeves of cheap Pinnacles (I like to have a lot of ammo) and tees. This was an odd set of rental clubs. Driver, 3, 4, 5 woods then SW, PW, 9, 8 and 7 irons plus a putter. A long iron would have been nice to have. The 4W and 5W were a bit clunky. But beggars can’t be choosers and I was really out here more for the novelty of playing the course with the lowest elevation. The sign near the first tee indicated 214 feet below sea level. It was a lovely morning for golf. Not a cloud in the bright, blue. No wind to speak of, at least not yet, just a very light breeze and the temperature was already about 70 F, so I was very comfortable in shorts and a golf shirt. Oddly enough, I think this is the first time that I’ve worn shorts while in Death Valley. The course is actually very nice and has an interesting layout. Not a lot of trouble on the course, although there are a couple of water hazards and one or two tight tee shots but otherwise the course is fairly open. There were a couple spots that the routing of the holes was a little convoluted so I had to look for the markers along the cart path to find the next tee box but it is wall marked. After hitting a nice tee-shot down the left side of the fairway on number 17, I was not sure which green that I should be approaching. The trees screening 17 green made it appear to belong to another hole while number 1 green was sitting right out in the open. With no other golfers around there were no clues as to who was playing which hole, but I was eventually able to discern that I needed to hit over the trees to get to the appropriate green, which I did quite nice and walked away with a par on that short par 4. I always enjoy being the first player out on the course in the morning as I can set a nice pace. I’m not a fast player but I like to just keep trundling along. Today was particularly grand and there was no one behind me for the entire round. I did not see another golfer until I was nearly through with the round. So I was able to play at a good clip, but still had time to replay a shot or two, enjoy the scenery (the course is in a pretty setting, very lush and green and affords beautiful views of the Panamint Range to the west) and look for critters especially around the water hazards. All the animal sightings this morning were birds and mostly waterfowl, the most interesting of which were Rudy Ducks that I spotted at two of the ponds. Overall the course was in pretty good shape except for the greens which were atrocious and varied wildly in condition and speed. There were a couple that were smooth and rolled very nice, but most were just pitiful with lots of bare areas and very bumpy. I had a few nice runs at birdie but nothing was dropping on these ragged greens. I basically just invoked the “2-putt rule” as the greens were such a mess. All things considered I played pretty well and was done in fairly short order in just over two-and-a-half hours. Not bad as that included taking some photos, looking for birds and replaying a couple shots. The swing tips that Kirk provided during the recent Arizona golf trip really paid off as I was making good contact with my irons and hit several nice approach shots and generally drove the ball well all day. I carded a 79 based on the better ball and the 2-putt rule, but worst case my score would have been about 85, so I was happy with my play. A net under par round regardless. I finished my round just in time as the wind really kicked up as I walked onto number 18 tee. It was like someone flipped on a light switch as there was only a light breeze while I was playing up 17 but the conditions changed such that I was hitting into a 2-club wind in the long par 4 finishing hole. I hit driver, 3 wood, wedge to get to the green so walking off the course with a bogey on the last hole was not a bad thing at all. As the cliché goes, I had just shot the lowest round of by career, 214 feet below sea level!