Golf Notes: Where are we?

“Where are we?” Last week was beautifully warm. Playing Stableford golf on Friday, February 12th with Phil Dunn and others, Phil completed his par putt on hole five, stepped off the green, looked up into the shimmering clear blue sky, threw up his hands, and said, “where are we?” There we were in mid-February, and the current Little River Men’s Club Champion, Phil, is playing in short shirt sleeves. Short sleeves or not, fairway talk, turned to the Winter Olympics. Snowboarding, to be exact. In his younger version, it turns out Phil was a snowboard competitor and competing in skateboard events. Phil recalls traveling throughout California competing.

Later, sitting around the Pro Shop, Jim Ehlers added to Phil’s resume pointing out that Phil was a rock and roll drummer and a guitar player. All true. Chuck Allegrini, who had played in Phil’s golf group, sitting nearby listening to the conversations, commented, “Snowboarder, skateboarder, guitar player and drummer and I still have to give him a handicap stoke? Not right.”

What is right was Rick Swanson shooting a oneunder-par 70 last Saturday, February 12th. The 70 is Rick’s best round ever in the history of his life. Twenty-one years ago, Rick shot his second-best round, a 71, which is par at the Little River Course. Congratulations Rick. Keep it up. And the good scores didn’t stop there… was it the weather… Butch Carlstadt, 89 years young, shot an 85 even though he had four double bogies. A double bogie, as golfers know, is two over par on any given hole. Golf presents many opportunities to overcome difficulties — Butch doesn’t give up.

Also, last Friday, one could not help but notice Mike Meuschke in front of the Pro Shop, notebook in hand, consulting with Kathy Shepley. “What’s going on here?” I wondered. “What’s going on here?” I asked Mike. “We’re going to remodel.”, he responded. “We’re going to build a second story on top of the Pro Shop.” “What?” “We are going to put a bar and restaurant on the second floor.” “What?”

“We’ll put the bar on the west side so folks can see the ocean and watch the sunset.” “What?” “We’ll put windows and tables along the south side so folks can watch the finishes on the eighteenth hole.” “What?” I turned to Kathy and asked, “Is that right? Is that what is happening?” “No.” Kathy answered, “Mike is going to build a cover to protect the range ball machine.” “Oh.” Well, it sounded good, really good, actually. Keep up the good imagination Mike.