The Three Amigos go for a walk

Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 27, I had the honor of playing nine holes with the Three Amigos: Charlie Jenkins, Bill Fletcher and Brooks Sheifer — except Brooks couldn’t make it. Had to stay home and, I don’t know, wash dishes, chop firewood, shovel snow?

The Three Amigos customarily play the traditional honors game: Win the hole and you tee off first on the next hole. Right out of the gate, I won the honors and got to tee off first on the second hole, which was actually the 11th hole, as we were playing the back nine.

I won honors one more time with Bill winning them hole after hole and Charlie capturing it a couple of times, also. The Amigos always walk, which makes Dr. Charlie Jenkins the oldest walker on the Little River Course. Charlie is a youthful 83, strides fluidly and swings smoothly. For me, it was a fun nine.

Speaking of walking, when Cindy Ellis and her hubby Jim play their frequent 18, they always walk and Cindy has one of those gadgets that records distance covered, a pedometer. Cindy’s device showed that during a round, she walks about 5.2 miles, which is 15,604 steps or 30 flights. Flights, in this case, meaning stair flights as you would find in a building.

To duplicate the 30 flights, one would have to journey to one of San Francisco’s high-rise buildings, like the newly-constructed Salesforce skyscraper, which is now San Francisco’s tallest building at 61 flights. Climb those stairs halfway to the top and you’ve got your 18. (Cindy didn’t mention the number of unnecessary swings it took her to climb the 30 flights, though.)

So how many swings does it take to climb 30? As in the rest of golf: The fewer swings, the better the flight.

Scott Dietz reported that Jack Carlson’s wonderful set of golf clubs will soon be available via a silent auction. The clubs may already be in the Pro Shop by the time this edition hits the street. If interested please contact the Pro-Shop. The clubs are in great shape including an almost new driver. All proceeds from the auction will be given to the high school golf teams at Mendocino and Fort Bragg. Thank you, Scott, for putting this together.

An actual golf event is on the horizon! It is the annual Northern California Golf Association zone two-man best ball qualifier. This is a two-golfer team format where the best ball between the two is scored on each hole. A signup sheet is in the Pro Shop, and the event is scheduled for Feb. 21. Winners advance to the next stage, to be played at Monterey on April 5-6. Good luck to all.