mashleyR7
Journeyman Pro
I wrote this soon after I can back but been waiting to be able to back it up with nice pictures to make the read worth it but they're not going to be fixed for a few more days so i'll post the words anyway.
This is my write up of the trip to Vegas I've just come back from (17/02). Just words for now until I sort my photos out to post.
I won my place on this trip at a Marriott hotels corporate golf day. As you'll all probably know, usually at these things the winner might get some balls or a t-shirt. At this day I thought the winner might get a hotel stay maybe, it being held by Marriott. However with some bandits out there I never hold out much hope of winning them in the first place.
Anyway, after the round I knew I was in with a chance, but even then I thought someone will have beaten me. When he read out my name as the winner I was pleased (not shocked at I did shoot +2 for 45 points) but when he went on to read out the prize I was amazed. Seven days in Las Vegas, all expenses paid, 5 rounds of golf in a 14 man team playing a Ryder Cup match against a USA team. Wow!
I wasn't the only winner on this day though, the Hertz car hire winner was a chap playing off 15 who shot 38 points.
This was back in July 14 so I've bored the pants of everyone since then. They're probably all glad Ive been now!
The rest of the team were made up of qualifiers from the Daily Express national knockout comp, similar to the Golf Care, Nike etc.
The day finally arrives and I meet the team at Gatwick on Monday morning. I've been in contact with the organiser prior to the day but did not know any other member of the team. Luckily it turns out to be a general mix of normal people, some in their 60's, two of three my age (35) and the rest between the two. A range of handicaps the lowest being 5 the highest being 16. In fact from the 14 man team 3 were single figures, 5 were 15/16 and the rest were 10/11. Gladly on 10 I didn't feel out of place.
Pretty soon (at 6am) the beer had started as had the banter. Most of the team were in pairs except for me and one other chap who won the same day as me. So although each person had one mate with them not everyone knew each other.
There were two lads from Limerick Ireland, two from Bushey Hall GC, two from West Herts, a member from Wentworth, two from Scotland, members at Carnousite and Glasgow CG and me from Ashford, the chap from Herts wasn't a member anywhere and the rest I cant remember.
We arrived in Vegas after a 10hr flight and the time is only 2pm local time. Some sensible people went for a nice meal a few drinks and then got an early night. Some sat on black jack tables until the evening then went to bed. I did all three, dinner, plenty of drinks and a bit of black jack and craps. I eventually went to bed midnight local time feeling very merry having been up 24 hrs.
However, I wasn't the worst....the chap I left at the black jack table was a still in the same seat when I woke back up at 5am and went down for breakfast. I went for something to eat, came back and he was still there at 6am. I gave him a little reminder that the bus was picking us up at 7:45!!
Day 1's golf was a practice round at Reflection Bay just outside Vegas city at the resort of Lake Las Vegas. From the moment we arrived at the club everything was taken care off, clubs whisked away, breakfast provided, drinks ready and the range stocked up with unlimited balls. Once we'd eaten and drank we made our way outside into the 25deg heat at 10am to take in the scenery and make our way to the range. The clubs arrived on our buggy, in our pairs, having been cleaned and prepped, the buggies were stocked with socrecards, pencils, tees and drinks. All nice touches so far.
As this was a practice round we were just put in random pairs playing in 4 balls. I was paired with Martyn who was the 16 hcp winner from the same day as me. We were playing against Ian and Frank from Scotland. We lost 3&2 but as it was just a knock about it didn't matter.
Chatting as we went round it turns out Ian is Ian Hart, former director of Rangers Football club who worked alongside Walter Smith in 2014 ish. Ian is still very much involved with the club and it was very interesting listening him to talk about the current state of affairs, Ally McCoist, Mike Ashley, the Amercian chap who tried to take over recently and numerous other things. I wont repeat most of what was said because he was being very frank and I'm sure it wasn't meant for a wider audience but it made for a great round.
The course was fantastic, a up & down course set into the hills working its way between the large houses and swimming pools. It's a Jack Nicklaus design. I'm not up to speed on course designer traits so not sure if this course is typical Jack but several holes ran alongside the lake so water was a feature throughout the round. We played it off the black tee's which measures 6,862 yards. Plenty long enough for me any day.
The greens were very difficult, very hard and very fast. Total opposite to the frosty, wet and bumpy greens i'd been playing on until now. I'd say we have our green this fast once or twice a year in the UK!
Overall, taking into affect the slight hangover, jet lag, excitement, great company and huge amounts of food I was happy with the way I played. I drove well, pitched well but putted badly, mainly my lag puts either going far to long or miss reading the huge breaks from the undulations.
After golf we were bused back to town, quick pint in the bar then started conversations of what the evening plans were going to be! I sensibly opted for a nice steak meal a few pints and little game of craps and a pretty early night! I was however awake at 4am so went for a quick game of black jack with some pie-eyed gamers!!
Day 2's golf was back at Reflection Bay, playing four ball better ball. Over breakfast we got the chance to meet the USA team which was made up of a mixture of people of all ages just like us. I assumed that they too had qualified through a knockout comp too but in fact the USA team are just a team of friends from the Vegas and Nevada area of come together each year to play against the UK team. They were all friends and pleased to see each other as well as the trips organisers who the also knew well.
I was paired with Peter from Bushey Hall CG who was a 16 hcp. We was paired against a monster of a man playing of a 4hcp and not so monster of a man playing off 8. Unfortunately, Peter had an off day and I was left carrying us both. From early on it was clear that the two had played with each other before as they took plenty of time on each hole weighing up the options of each shot, lining up the puts and taking advice from each other over every aspect of the game. Something that I've never seen pairs in the UK do. It clearly worked as we got beaten, I can't remember by how many but it wasn't close!!
The 4hcp turned out to be a chap called Dusty Allen who played major league baseball for the San Diego Padres before a big money move the Detroit Tigers. He moved for millions of $ in 2000 on a 15 year contract but only a year in got injured and had to retire, however he still got paid the full 15 yr contract!!! Playing of 4hcp he hit the nicest, highest and longest draw I've ever seen he was averaging 300 plus on every drive hitting little wedges on par 4's and 5/6 irons in two on par 5's. Magnificent golf and very good company, very gracious and very generous with the drinks cart, not allowing us to pay for thing! His playing partner was an older chap playing of 8hcp very steady but not tight as Dusty. Still great company and a pleasure to play with. His daughter is Anglea Stanford current LPGA tour player. Both Larry and Dusty are member at TPC Summerline in Vegas where they hold the Shriners Open. Chatting to them about membership and they ask how much ours costs, my reply of £1,100 must have made them chuckle....... TPC Summerline has a joining fee of $15,000 and monthly subs of $840!!!!!
Back to the course, Reflection Bay. Dusty says that he rates the course as one of the top 5 in Vegas in terms of difficulty and layout. He went onto explain that the whole resort has been derelict for the last 5 years as the previous investor went bust, the course has only been re-open since January and that the greens were only laid in December which is why they were playing very hard and almost impossible to stop a ball on unless you had tremendous back spin, as Dusty did of course! Even being fairly used to playing links golf with hard, fast running surfaces, it was hard for me to judge the greens or the bounce and roll. On the par three 9th I hit an 8 iron which pitched before the green and ran all the way across, off the other side and into the lake
This is my write up of the trip to Vegas I've just come back from (17/02). Just words for now until I sort my photos out to post.
I won my place on this trip at a Marriott hotels corporate golf day. As you'll all probably know, usually at these things the winner might get some balls or a t-shirt. At this day I thought the winner might get a hotel stay maybe, it being held by Marriott. However with some bandits out there I never hold out much hope of winning them in the first place.
Anyway, after the round I knew I was in with a chance, but even then I thought someone will have beaten me. When he read out my name as the winner I was pleased (not shocked at I did shoot +2 for 45 points) but when he went on to read out the prize I was amazed. Seven days in Las Vegas, all expenses paid, 5 rounds of golf in a 14 man team playing a Ryder Cup match against a USA team. Wow!
I wasn't the only winner on this day though, the Hertz car hire winner was a chap playing off 15 who shot 38 points.
This was back in July 14 so I've bored the pants of everyone since then. They're probably all glad Ive been now!
The rest of the team were made up of qualifiers from the Daily Express national knockout comp, similar to the Golf Care, Nike etc.
The day finally arrives and I meet the team at Gatwick on Monday morning. I've been in contact with the organiser prior to the day but did not know any other member of the team. Luckily it turns out to be a general mix of normal people, some in their 60's, two of three my age (35) and the rest between the two. A range of handicaps the lowest being 5 the highest being 16. In fact from the 14 man team 3 were single figures, 5 were 15/16 and the rest were 10/11. Gladly on 10 I didn't feel out of place.
Pretty soon (at 6am) the beer had started as had the banter. Most of the team were in pairs except for me and one other chap who won the same day as me. So although each person had one mate with them not everyone knew each other.
There were two lads from Limerick Ireland, two from Bushey Hall GC, two from West Herts, a member from Wentworth, two from Scotland, members at Carnousite and Glasgow CG and me from Ashford, the chap from Herts wasn't a member anywhere and the rest I cant remember.
We arrived in Vegas after a 10hr flight and the time is only 2pm local time. Some sensible people went for a nice meal a few drinks and then got an early night. Some sat on black jack tables until the evening then went to bed. I did all three, dinner, plenty of drinks and a bit of black jack and craps. I eventually went to bed midnight local time feeling very merry having been up 24 hrs.
However, I wasn't the worst....the chap I left at the black jack table was a still in the same seat when I woke back up at 5am and went down for breakfast. I went for something to eat, came back and he was still there at 6am. I gave him a little reminder that the bus was picking us up at 7:45!!
Day 1's golf was a practice round at Reflection Bay just outside Vegas city at the resort of Lake Las Vegas. From the moment we arrived at the club everything was taken care off, clubs whisked away, breakfast provided, drinks ready and the range stocked up with unlimited balls. Once we'd eaten and drank we made our way outside into the 25deg heat at 10am to take in the scenery and make our way to the range. The clubs arrived on our buggy, in our pairs, having been cleaned and prepped, the buggies were stocked with socrecards, pencils, tees and drinks. All nice touches so far.
As this was a practice round we were just put in random pairs playing in 4 balls. I was paired with Martyn who was the 16 hcp winner from the same day as me. We were playing against Ian and Frank from Scotland. We lost 3&2 but as it was just a knock about it didn't matter.
Chatting as we went round it turns out Ian is Ian Hart, former director of Rangers Football club who worked alongside Walter Smith in 2014 ish. Ian is still very much involved with the club and it was very interesting listening him to talk about the current state of affairs, Ally McCoist, Mike Ashley, the Amercian chap who tried to take over recently and numerous other things. I wont repeat most of what was said because he was being very frank and I'm sure it wasn't meant for a wider audience but it made for a great round.
The course was fantastic, a up & down course set into the hills working its way between the large houses and swimming pools. It's a Jack Nicklaus design. I'm not up to speed on course designer traits so not sure if this course is typical Jack but several holes ran alongside the lake so water was a feature throughout the round. We played it off the black tee's which measures 6,862 yards. Plenty long enough for me any day.
The greens were very difficult, very hard and very fast. Total opposite to the frosty, wet and bumpy greens i'd been playing on until now. I'd say we have our green this fast once or twice a year in the UK!
Overall, taking into affect the slight hangover, jet lag, excitement, great company and huge amounts of food I was happy with the way I played. I drove well, pitched well but putted badly, mainly my lag puts either going far to long or miss reading the huge breaks from the undulations.
After golf we were bused back to town, quick pint in the bar then started conversations of what the evening plans were going to be! I sensibly opted for a nice steak meal a few pints and little game of craps and a pretty early night! I was however awake at 4am so went for a quick game of black jack with some pie-eyed gamers!!
Day 2's golf was back at Reflection Bay, playing four ball better ball. Over breakfast we got the chance to meet the USA team which was made up of a mixture of people of all ages just like us. I assumed that they too had qualified through a knockout comp too but in fact the USA team are just a team of friends from the Vegas and Nevada area of come together each year to play against the UK team. They were all friends and pleased to see each other as well as the trips organisers who the also knew well.
I was paired with Peter from Bushey Hall CG who was a 16 hcp. We was paired against a monster of a man playing of a 4hcp and not so monster of a man playing off 8. Unfortunately, Peter had an off day and I was left carrying us both. From early on it was clear that the two had played with each other before as they took plenty of time on each hole weighing up the options of each shot, lining up the puts and taking advice from each other over every aspect of the game. Something that I've never seen pairs in the UK do. It clearly worked as we got beaten, I can't remember by how many but it wasn't close!!
The 4hcp turned out to be a chap called Dusty Allen who played major league baseball for the San Diego Padres before a big money move the Detroit Tigers. He moved for millions of $ in 2000 on a 15 year contract but only a year in got injured and had to retire, however he still got paid the full 15 yr contract!!! Playing of 4hcp he hit the nicest, highest and longest draw I've ever seen he was averaging 300 plus on every drive hitting little wedges on par 4's and 5/6 irons in two on par 5's. Magnificent golf and very good company, very gracious and very generous with the drinks cart, not allowing us to pay for thing! His playing partner was an older chap playing of 8hcp very steady but not tight as Dusty. Still great company and a pleasure to play with. His daughter is Anglea Stanford current LPGA tour player. Both Larry and Dusty are member at TPC Summerline in Vegas where they hold the Shriners Open. Chatting to them about membership and they ask how much ours costs, my reply of £1,100 must have made them chuckle....... TPC Summerline has a joining fee of $15,000 and monthly subs of $840!!!!!
Back to the course, Reflection Bay. Dusty says that he rates the course as one of the top 5 in Vegas in terms of difficulty and layout. He went onto explain that the whole resort has been derelict for the last 5 years as the previous investor went bust, the course has only been re-open since January and that the greens were only laid in December which is why they were playing very hard and almost impossible to stop a ball on unless you had tremendous back spin, as Dusty did of course! Even being fairly used to playing links golf with hard, fast running surfaces, it was hard for me to judge the greens or the bounce and roll. On the par three 9th I hit an 8 iron which pitched before the green and ran all the way across, off the other side and into the lake
