June 20th Round

I managed to squeeze in a round here on my examining trip. Finally got to play Dakota Dunes, just south of Saskatoon - a beautiful championship course, which is now a permanent stop on the Canadian Tour. And rightfully so! Black, Gold, Blue, White and Red tee boxes for every level of player. Links style, few trees, lots of long grass and dessert like fescue.

I played from the gold tee box, and turned down the GPS equipped power carts and walked instead. The course was quite walkable, except for some long walks between holes. The gentleman I played with allowed me to ride with him on those longer walks, which helped. We had some trouble with the marshal who accused us of playing slow (and even asked us to skip a hole at one point - when there was NO ONE behind us ... that's another story though).

Anyhow, first time on the course - nothing to be too excited about score wise - but here are the totals:

4 hour 20 minute round, +22c, light winds and sunny. Tons of mosquitoes!

Round Totals:
Gross Score: 95
Net Score: 81 (14 cap - which is probably bit low for that tee box)

Stats:
Putts: 38
3 putts: 5

Birdies: 2
Pars: 2
Bogeys: 6
Doubles: 4
Others : 3 (two trips and a quad!)
Penalties: 4

Fairways hit: 5/13 (38%)
Greens in regulation: 5/18 (27%)

Highlights: The start of the back nine - even after 10, 11, 12, 13 with two birds. Driving was pretty good today once I warmed up. Putting, although looks horrid on my stats - was actually pretty good. Greens were huge and fast! Both my birdie puts were about 20 feet+. Was paired up with three great people!

Lowlights: The marshal on the course - who followed us the whole front nine - confusing us for the slow group that we passed on #2. After he figured it out, and left us alone - we were then followed by an additional two other marshals. An over-marshaled course can be just as bad as an under-marshaled course. My five three puts were nothing to write home about either.