Yuma Golf - Part 1

Wednesday, 26 December 

As quiet as the campground was, you would not know that there are 102 other campers here.  First chore of the day was to make a tee time for golf.  Next was to officially check in to the campground.  We decided to pay for a week here as the weekly rate was $100, basically pay for five nights, get two nights free.

Golf was at Coyote Wash Golf Course in Wellton, AZ, located east of Yuma.  An interesting my course, it is made up of two nine hole courses located about 1.5 miles apart.  Also a very popular course.  The earliest tee time we could get was 11:30, which left us plenty of time to check in at the campground office which did not open until 8:30.

We both made par in the first hole, then Darrell made a birdie on the second hole to take a two stroke lead.  We both played well, with Darrell up by 3 strokes at the turn.  Darrell toured three sand bunkers on the back, but was still able to pick up three more strokes for a final score of 79.

Overall, we liked the course and expect to play it again.

Next to Starbucks for Darrell to pay up.  We filled the rest of the afternoon with some shopping for windshield repair kits and groceries.

Thursday, 27 December

Golf today was at the Las Barrancas Golf Course in east Yuma, AZ.  With an earlier two time, we were up before sunrise.  The course seemed less well established in that the pro shop was in a temporary building.  While the building may not have been as nice as yesterday, the practice areas were quite nice, with a chipping green, a short approach shot green, a large putting green and a driving range.  The greens fees included range balls, which was nice as we got to experiment with some shots.  We got off a few minutes early, and played at our pace for seven or eight holes when we bumped into the pack.

We both played well for the first nine holes, going back and forth several times.  At the turn, Darrell was up two strokes.  But not for long.  Kris birdied the par 5 eleventh hole to take the lead, and she never lost the lead for the rest of the round.  Darrell worked hard to make up strokes, but Kris was not giving an inch.  Kris finished 4 strokes up on Darrell.  Needless to say, she was one very happy camper as she had to buy for the first time in several outings.  

The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring the Yuma area, which included venturing briefly into California as we followed the Colorado River back to camp.  Once back at camp, Darrell took advantage of warm, sunny weather to fix two more of Sprinty’s windshield chips and clean some of the accumulated dirt off the solar panels.

Friday, 28 December

The weather forecast was for cooler temperatures and blustery wind.  As much as a sunny, wind-less 45 degrees in the Arizona desert feels almost like shorts weather, sunny 58 degrees with 20-30 mph wind feels like down coat weather.  

Golf today was at the Yuma municipal course, Desert Hills Golf Course.  We were surprised that there really was some hills to the course layout.  We had signed up using GolfNow, and snagged a Hot Deal for $18/person including cart.  Checking GolfNow at breakfast, we saw there were still some open tee times in front of our designated tee time, so we decided to arrive early and see if we could start earlier.

We both made par on the first hole, which gave us confidence we might play well for the day.  For the next three holes, we tied each hole.  Then Darrell started gaining strokes one by one as we both struggled with lightning fast greens.  A putt that would normally go 15-20 feet was rolling 45 feet.  On the flat part of the green.  Fastest greens we have played in a long, long time.  At the turn, Darrell was up 5 strokes, and we were both getting frustrated.  We both played the back nine below expectations.  So Starbucks after the round was more of a pick-me-up treat than our friendly wager.

After Starbucks, we drove over to a golf and RV resort to check it out.  The RV resort was quite nice, with over 600 sites.  Reminded us of Riverside RV Resort near Port Charlotte, FL.  It was not setup well for how we use Sprinty with only one set of showers on the whole property.  The golf course was laid out with a few holes down the rows of RVs and cottage units, making accurate shots a must.  Just driving past, we decided we might save this course for another time.  Maybe it was the after effects of our game that day impacting how we were evaluating playing the course.

Once back at camp, we started the process to dewinterize so we have full use of Sprinty’s water systems.