Golf Notes: Don’t mess with my goats!
Bill Speak and I playing golf last week at the Little River Course looked over from the first green, and we saw the goats were back. We pointed them out to our playing partners, Scott Dietz and Jim Ehlers. Yes. They were corralled behind the electric fence on the hill below the eighth tee, watched over by their trusty herd dog. When players would pass close to the fence on their way to the eighth fairway, the dog would bark, “Don’t mess with my goats.” A golf ball or two could be seen nestled safely behind the fence amongst the goats. No one will challenge the bark or the fence to retrieve an errant ball. Golf supervisor Terry Stratton said the goats are there for an experiment to see how well they could clear the fenced area of poison oak, blackberries, and other growth. If they are successful, they could be moved to other course areas.
Last week Gary Nelson reported netting an eagle on the third hole from 142 yards out using a 7 iron. An eagle, of course, is two under par. Nice shot, Gary. Dan Barrett eagled hole eight also with a seven iron. Dan’s drive was on the right side of the fairway, so he had to punch his shot underneath the tree limbs. It went right in the hole, congrats Dan. On Sunday, Terry Stratton sunk two birdies to help him shoot an 82, and Dave Coddington came in with an 83 netting him 39 Stableford points. And Dave Minor now narrowed his swings thoughts down to two. Initially responding to the question, “What are your swing thoughts?” Dave answered, “My mind is full of swing thoughts.” Now, last week, Dave
reported that his swing thoughts are, “Keep your head down and don’t swing too hard.” Dave and his wife Wendy play it seems almost every day, and they are extreme mudders. A mudder plays golf in the rain. Lindy Peters recalls the Minors being the only players on the course one day in October during the rain deluge. Wendy and Dave played the front nine in the wet and were ready to play the back, but Lindy had to curtail them as he needed to close the course.
The new ball machine has been installed in the new shed enclosure built by Mike Meuschke’s workers and finished by Terry Stratton. The range balls are dumped into a ball washing device attached to the dispenser then fed automatically into the dispenser. Nice. Modern.