The Eagle Crest Death March

Bill at Eagle CrestBill H-D., Steve B., and I had scheduled yesterday’s golf outting at the Eagle Crest Golf Course a couple of weeks ago, long before we knew about the current heat wave, “heat advisories,” and “cooling centers” opened in metro Detroit. I was a little concerned, Annette was very concerned, and Bill H-D. and Steve B. were not concerned at all. Bill said in an email something like “the day we can’t golf because it’s too hot is the day we’re too old.”

I’m officially too old.

Well, that’s not completely true. I felt okay after the first nine holes, though I was playing like shit and I do blame the heat for much of that. I also blame the course. The last time I played Eagle Crest (which was last year), they had these cool video things in the carts that were a GPS system (how far the cart was to the center of the green), a score keeping system, and a little narrative about each hole. Well, they got rid of those, and, besides the fact that you don’t have the gizmo to play with, you lose a lot of information about the course. For example, Steve B. hit it into water on his drive on #2, not realizing there was even a pond in play. (Of course, this does not explain the other two balls he subsequently put into the same pond). The yardage marking for #4 was off by at least 30 (maybe 40) yards, which I blame for my own problems of shooting it over the green by about 30 (maybe 40) yards, and which also lead to my call for a free mulligan and Bill H-D. accusing me of being a socialist.

But I digress.

Steve B. tees offAnyway, I don’t think I drank as much water as I should have on the front nine because by the time we got to the back, I was feeling it. I always thought that this “heat index” measure was kind of bullshit, but I got to say that by about #14 or so, it was 97 degrees and the heat index to me felt it was pegging at about 175. It was not pretty. I got to the water station and filled up my liter jug for the third time, and Bill H-D. said I looked a lot like Bugs Bunny in one of those desert cartoons: “waaa-ter… waaa-ter….”. Felt like it too.

But I got some more water into me and I bounced back, sorta. I even managed to bogey the very difficult “signature hole” of Eagle Crest, #16, and that was with a lost ball. Still, I had a 117 overall, sunburn, and a nasty heat-inspired head-ache.

So, note to self: no more golf during heat advisories. I’m still kind of feeling whipped from the whole thing this morning.

Indian food

On a happier note, we did have a nice Indian food meal with the golfers and the golfer’s families at our place. The chicken was certainly a hit.

Also on a happier note: it’s supposed to be rainy with a high of 79 tomorrow, and mid-80s Friday and Saturday.

10 Replies to “The Eagle Crest Death March”

  1. First, I must heartily endorse Steve’s Indian cuisine. It was quite delicious and the chicken, as he mentions, turned out especially nicely.

    Two points of clarification:

    1) I would be more than happy to grant mulligans all-around, it’s the taking of mulligans that only apply to some of us (those named Steve) that I objected to. Steve’s mulligan rule system (an elaborate statuory quagmire that is constantly in motion) tends to favor Steve at the expense of anyone who is doing better than he is on that particular hole.

    2) Given the above, I should have called you a mulligo-fascist. Not a socialist. But it was hot, and my political philosophies were melting into one another.

    Finally, let me point out that my “all three-footers are good unless they are for par since we have to play in heat like this” rule was the best sort of social safety net – applicable to all with only the slightist meritocratic reward system built in. :)

  2. “Steve’s mulligan rule system (an elaborate statuory quagmire that is constantly in motion).” This, Bill, sounds like a very fancified way of saying that Steve plays “Calvin and Hobbes Ball”! :-)

  3. First off, “free mulligan” is probably the wrong term; I think I was applying the “rolling mulligan” rule, and I would say this rule benefits all golfers social equally.

    Second, note this entry of wikipedia(okay, I just edited to include a definition of “rolling mulligan;” we’ll see how long that stays in place).

    And third, Bill crushed me so bad that it’s kind of a moot point for this round….

  4. I prefer this definition from urbandictionary.com:

    1:Mulligan- A sex position which involves the use of the anal, and a shoe.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.