Played here yesterday with a 2:44 TeeOff.com “Deal” time for $34 after 20% off promo code. If you know me, you might know I’m rarely interested in playing golf if I’m not going to finish, but this was... Continue »

Played here yesterday with a 2:44 TeeOff.com “Deal” time for $34 after 20% off promo code. If you know me, you might know I’m rarely interested in playing golf if I’m not going to finish, but this was a really good deal for a weekend and I decided to take the chance that I might not play all 18. I arrived around 2:00 to hopefully get out early, and actually did get moved up one group to 2:32. (Careful what you wish for.) Got paired with three nice guys, but also three guys who showed no sense of urgency at all. One guy was constantly playing with his smart watch and submitting all three guys’ scores after every hole, another one was practically a beginner and way out of his league playing the Babe, not to mention the blue tees. The first guy I mentioned often couldn’t find his ball and would be searching literally 50-60-80 yards away from where it actually was. On top of all this, he was also playing what seemed to be Christian Country music really loud all day. (Who has the nerve to think everyone wants to hear that?) Additionally, the carts on the Babe seem very sensitive to where you drive, and my cart often slowed down to like 2 mph even though there often weren’t signs in the fairway about how close you could get to greens and/or slopes. On most holes, I had hit my tee shot and was back in my single-rider cart before any of the other three had given any thought to what club they would hit or anything. After about seven holes, I started saying how we needed to pick up the pace if we wanted to finish. I don’t think that changed any behaviors, but thanks to three of the last six holes being par 3s, we eventually finished right as it was getting dark. A patience-testing round if I’ve ever had one. Overall POP was just under 4:30, but we had no one in front of us and could’ve played so much faster and eliminated any doubt about whether or not we’d finish.

Phew.

Conditions are quite good! As you might expect on a busy course late on a weekend afternoon, greens had their share of unfixed ball marks, which is aggravating. Aside from that, they were mostly smooth, medium-fast and pretty soft, accepting both full shots and chips well. Fairways were good. Rough was in good condition, too, maybe 2 inches deep. I wasn’t in a bunker but took a good look at a few and they seemed to have sufficient sand. They did have ample footprints, though – no rakes due to COVID. Tee boxes are MUCH nicer on Babe than they have been recently on Ike. No complaints.

This was my first time playing Babe since a junior tournament more than three decades ago when I embarrassed myself by hitting my first two tee balls OB left and had to walk back to my bag each time to fetch another ball. That opening tee shot – and memories of frighteningly narrow corridors on several other holes – scared me away ever since. I kept my drive in play yesterday on No. 1 and improved my score by three shots (from 10 to 7 haha). My recollection wasn’t wrong about some of those corridors, too – Nos. 2 and 9 are ridiculously tight off the tee. And No. 11 is just a dumb hole, a par 5 where you can’t see the green until you’re within about 60 yards because it’s the most severe delayed dogleg left in the history of golf holes. (Or perhaps tied with that one at Anaheim Hills that lotrgolfer loves…jk hope you’re doing good Matt.)

I was tempted to throw 9 out as a “bad” hole, too, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot since yesterday and I think maybe it’s a hole that just needs a mid- to short-iron off the tee (something 150-160-ish) to put it in play and then have enough room to maneuver around that tall tree fronting the right side of the green. I hope to get back out there again soon to challenge it again. (And maybe knock another stroke or two off my score on No. 1.) Wish me luck.