Fred Enke Golf Course, Tucson

Friday, 15 March

In anticipation of no golf for several days, we took advantage of decent weather to play golf again today.  The weather forecast was for slightly warmer temperatures, but partly sunny and breezy.  As it turned out, we were glad we were not in shorts as it got chilly in the afternoon as it became less sunny.

Golf today was at Fred Enke Golf Course, one of the four municipal golf courses in Tucson.  Selected in part because it was near Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, and was a little less expensive.  In hindsight, the price reflected the quality of the course in a golf enthusiast area - meaning it was not as nice as the courses we have been playing.

With a full tee sheet, we were paired up with Doug and Don, two guys who play the course regularly.  They had actually planned to play one of the other Tucson municipal courses this morning, but that course had a frost delay.  We were surprised we were not delayed as the temperature got down to about 34 degrees last night.

We both started off with good drives, and both made par on the first hole.  Always good to play the first hole well with two guys you just met.  We remained tied until the fifth hole when Darrell found the sand bunker.  Darrell bounced right back with a birdie, and held a slim two stroke lead at the turn.  Kris took the lead briefly with a birdie on a narrow par 5.  

The fairways were hard as a rock and had a thin layer of dormant grass.  As a result, our shots were going much further than usual, which actually resulted in higher scores.  Kris hit a couple of her tee shots through the fairway as she did not expect to bomb the ball 200+ yards.  A few of her approach shots were well placed to land in front of the green and roll out on the green - except everything was so hard, they just ran off the back.  Hitting irons off hard pan was challenging.  And we both struggled with putting as the greens were fast, inconsistent, and bumpy.  As one example, Darrell was on the green in two on the last hole of the day, and it took him 4 putts to finish.  A disappointing way to finish a round

By the end of the round, Darrell said he was glad to be taking a few days off as he struggled making some shots.  While he had honors by two strokes, Starbucks today was more of a consolation treat.  Kris took some comfort that her average driving distance was 183 yards.

Once back to the campground, we dumped Sprinty’s black and gray tanks and topped off the fresh water in preparation for his next adventure.

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