Fore!

     A week ago my friend Tom C. came down for a quick 3 1/2 day visit.  The primary purpose of the visit was to play golf and golf we did.  I played 105 holes of golf during his visit and Tom set the record with 123.  Needless to say, my hands are tired.  Of course it's never how many holes of golf you play, it's how many time you swing the club.  Suffice it to say that with the number of swings I took, I'm more tired than Tom.

     We started at Occoneechee Golf Club in Hillsborough.  In fact, Tom got right off the plane and we headed for the course.  We played the white tees making the course 5,911 yards par 71.  The above shot is of the par 4 368 yard 4th hole from the tee of the 5th.
     The next morning we went over to play Hillandale, which is a municipal course just around the corner from where we live.  We were the first people out on the course.  The trees are just starting to bud so I snapped a quick picture from the first fairway.

     Unfortunately on the third hole I got a call from Nan that Finn's leash had broken and he was busy chasing deer in Duke Forest.  We told the starter that we had a "family" emergency and asked if we could we get a rain check.  He said yes, so off we went on the dog hunt. Nan called back to tell us that Finn was last seen running down route 751 which runs by our apartment.  I let Tom off at one end of the street and went back to the apartment.  Finn is not a stupid dog.  He had found his way home, but was cowering under Nan's car(all right he's not a terribly brave dog).  Anyway, the lost was found and we still had a full morning free to play golf.  Rather than go immediately back to Hillandale and have to explain the "emergency", we drove out to a small course called Lake Winds about 15 miles north of Durham.  We played 11 holes, as we had a PM tee time at another course.  The attendant at the desk was an older man who wasn't quite sure what to charge us for 9 holes.  But the greens fees were only $15.  When we paid the full amount, he told us we could play as many holes as we wanted and threw in some peanuts. The greens were fine, but the fairways need to grow in a little more.
     From Lake Winds we headed east from Durham to the Falls Village Golf Club.  This is a Lee Trevino designed course measuring 6,474 yards and is a par 72.  The greens were very fast and we both  had trouble measuring the speed of our putts. We took a cart as a remembered there were some significant distances between holes.  Here's Tom in front of the clubhouse.

     The next morning we went back to Hillandale with our "rain checks" and had the course pretty much to ourselves until about the 14th hole. (We caught some people who had been allowed to start off the 10th hole.
      Our next course was Willowhaven at Umstead Pines or Umstead Pines at Willowhaven (I'm never quite sure what it's name is).  This is a 6,474 yard par 72 course.  It winds through a development and crosses the main road a couple of times, so a cart was used.(I have to admit, the carts were my idea - an attempt not to run out of gas)  Again fast greens.
     We saved the best for last.  On Wednesday AM we played the Duke University course, using the Blue tees of course.  It measures 6,565 yards and is also a par 72.  One of the distinguishing features of the course is how well trapped the greens are.  Tom said, "If I knew I was going spend this amount of time in the sand, I would have brought a beach towel."  He actually became quite proficient at getting out of the traps.
Here I am on the 18th tee with the Washington Duke Inn in the background.

     After Duke I was ready for a little sight-seeing, but Tom wanted one more round.  Recognizing that he still had a foot of snow in his front yard and probably wouldn't be able to get out on a course for another month, I said "I'll drop you off at Hillandale."  So Tom played another 18 and I took a nap.
     It was a very enjoyable 3 and 1/2 days.  Next year Pinehurst!