Golfing in Nebraska

For some reason in Nebraska I just didn't feel like posting much even though we did a lot. And since then we've either been busy or without WiFi. So now I have a bit of catching up to do with the blog. So bear with me as I play a bit of catch up.

Getting out golfing was always one of the goals for our visit to Nebraska. Both Blake and I started golfing when we were kids, probably thanks to our dad's enthusiasm for the sport. But we don't get to play together much. Maybe we fit in a round every few years if we're lucky. So I threw my clubs in the car with the hope we'd have a few opportunities to play. Unfortunately the weather was against us for most of June. Pretty much every day in Nebraska got into the high 90's, and a good number of days broke 100. For those that don't know that is not the most ideal golfing weather. But despite this we did get out a couple of times.

As Katie mentioned in her last post the first time I pulled the clubs out of the car was not with Blake but our nephews. Blake had signed them up for golf lessons. So on one of the days that we picked them up from their lesson we took the boys to the driving range to check out what they had learned. The boys enjoyed themselves so much that they convinced Blake to take them to another driving range closer to their house after dinner later that same day. It was really cool to see how far they had come in such a short time period

They did so well that a couple days later on Father's Day Blake decided to take them out to the Jim Ager Memorial junior golf course for their first golf outing. It went about as expected. The boys had some good hits but struggled with consistency. Though I suppose the same could be said for both me and Blake as well. That's the game of golf for ya :) Probably the main thing we had to work with them on was etiquette: where to stand when not hitting, when to be quiet, etc. Everyone had at least one decent hole. I got a couple pars and won the round. Cael even got a bogey on the first hole. Overall, it was a lot of fun! I think Blake is hoping to get them out one or two more times this year when our dad is around. In a couple of years they'll probably be doing better than me.

Cael, Eli, and I walking off to find where our drives landed

Cael putting as Eli lines up his next shot

Crossing the bridge on the final hole

Blake, Eli, and Cael after their first golf outing together

A few days later Blake, Cael, Eli, Katie, and myself went mini-golfing at a place not to far from their house. The boys decided they wanted to play the harder of the two courses. Everyone did well but had at least one not-so-great hole. Some more than others. Despite having the lead most of the game, I struggled through on one of the last few holes, letting Blake take over and maintain the lead. He won the round. I took second. Katie proudly took third (cuz she was determined to beat the boys). And the boys followed. But only Eli and I had a hole-in-one. 

Time was running out of our month in Nebraska, and because it had yet to cool down Blake and I had yet to get out for our round with just the two of us. So despite the heat, on the last Saturday of the month we got up early to play nine holes out at Woodland Hills Golf. It's a course we had wanted to play a few years ago but got rained out. Luckily this year we, despite some thunderstorms in the forecast, we were able to play. It was quite windy however. On the first hole it was like hitting straight into the face of a wind tunnel. But the wind also helped keep things a bit cooler, so it all worked out.

Blake started out better than I did. But we both shot well on any hole where we couldn't really see where we were going. There was one hole in particular where it looked like fairway had 4 sand traps all lined up across it, but in fact the farthest left trap was a good deal of distance past the other three on the other side of the fairway as it turned to the right. We knew this because this course was one of those fancy courses where they have a map/gps unit on the cart we were using. So both Blake and I just hit as hard as we could over the first three traps and hoped for the best. Blake's ball landed within 10 yards of the green right on the fringe of the rough. My ball was dead center of the fairway 70 or so yards to the green. That hole was the turning point for my round. This type of thing happened to me at least two more times where I had to hit kind of blind and my shots would end up on or close to the green. I ended our round of nine with 4 pars and one bogey, which meant despite a poor start and one disaster hole, I won the round. 

I'd like to think that means I won the month. When my dad and I have our golf weekend its almost always inevitable that we each win a round and have to do a tie break round of mini-golf. Blake and I went a little out of order. But we were tied after playing the junior golf course and mini-golf. So technically this round was our tie breaking round. But in the end it doesn't really matter because we're not that competitive about it. It was just awesome to get out and play together. We would have liked to get out a couple more times, and in hindsight we probably could have endured the heat because the times we got out ended up not being that bad. But I'm still very thankful for the amount we were able to get out and play. Hopefully with the boys starting to play the family tradition of going golfing when we get together will continue.