By mustang6560 on 8/29/12

I drove an hour north of Myrtle Beach today to play Rivers Edge Golf Club in Shallotte, North Carolina. And I’ll go ahead and say it - it was not my day on the golf course...I shot a 96. But, it’s hard to be too upset when you’re playing golf for work. I really liked the layout of Rivers Edge, however, I thought the course had way too much out of bounds. In my opinion, no course should have out of bounds because stroke and distance penalties are the death of a good round.



A fiew of the marsh behind the Rivers Edge Clubhouse

It didn’t rain much in Shallotte today but the course was sopping wet, so we played through the green except for hazards. I started on hole 11, which is a medium sized par-5 with a tucked green surrounded by marsh. I didn’t have a chance to warm up on the driving range because I had an upset stomach (I’ll spare you the details), so I had to hit my tee shot cold again. Since the green was over 500 yards away and the course was soaked, I decided to play “smart” and hit a 3-wood. I striped it down the fairway and hit a decent 4-iron to leave myself 110 yards to the hole for my third shot. I was in between clubs and since it was wet, I decided to club-up. Well, I proceeded to blade my pitching wedge over the right side of the green and into the marsh. So I carded a double bogey seven on my opening hole.

On hole 12, I stuck a 7-iron pin high about 25 feet left of the flag, but three-putted for bogey. I bladed my approach on the 13th over the green, but managed to get up and down to save par. The 14th hole, the easiest [insert curse word] hole on the course, I chunked my 9-iron from the middle of the fairway, which left me a 45 yard pitch shot that hit on the downslope of the green and rolled 30 feet past the hole. I three-putted from there for double.

And then my round took a turn for the worst! I triple bogeyed holes 15, 16, and 17. Not only did I make a few bad swings on these three holes, I also didn’t get any help from the golfing gods. I lost my ball on hole 15, my tee shot landed on the edge of the fairway bunker on 16 so I couldn’t make a full swing on my second shot, and my tee shot on 17 landed six inches out of bounds. I was ready to take out each of my clubs and execute them one by one like Tin Cup. I decided right then and there my goal of shooting in the 80s for all of my rounds was over, so I might as well enjoy myself on the golf course because after all, I’m getting paid to play golf.



A view of the 18th Hole

I grabbed a few beers at the clubhouse and headed out to the first hole. At this point, I decided to set mini goals for myself to help keep me in the game. As you can see from my scorecard, I managed to put together several good holes together on the front nine (my back). I even had a birdie putt on holes four, five, and seven, but I wasn’t able to convert any of them, so no skins for me. My second to last hole, hole 9, was a miniature tragedy on its own. The group behind me drove up to our tee box (our hole was backed up) during my backswing. I won’t blame them entirely but I sliced my tee shot right into the woods (first time all day). I hit a provision right down the gut (why couldn’t that have been my first tee shot!). As expected, I didn’t find my golf ball so I was lying three in the fairway.

The green is nearly impossible to reach in two because it’s a peninsula green surround by marsh. And there is no room for error because you only have two feet of rough separating the green and the marsh. I hit a beautiful 6-iron (my best shot of the day) to about 125 yards. I was ready to stick my PW to five feet and save bogey. Well, I pulled my shot left and it went it the marsh pin high! The moral of that story is you’re never going to score well on a hole when you have a stroke and distance penalty and a penalty stroke. I finished with a quadruple bogey 9.

The coolest part about my day was the drive home in the Batmobile. Nothing helps erase a beat down on the golf course like cruising in and out of cars for an hour. I'm off to the 19th Hole to mingle and enjoy a few brews. If you want to view my position or any of the oober’s position in my flight standings, you can click here (I'm in Flight 8).

See y’all tomorrow!



The Batmobile!

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