New Orleans on day 150

Posted by Michael on 2 June 2010 | 1 Comments | Tags: , , , , ,

Day 150. We had driven through the night from Dallas. I was operating on 3 hours sleep. JP a couple hours more. We were knackered to say the least.

So we went to the French Quarter for 3 hours of sight seeing before our 3pm tee time at the TPC Louisiana Golf Course. We haven't had too many opportunities to sight see of late, but we weren't going to let Nawliines pass us by.  

The French Quarter is one of the best spots I have visited, up there with the Old City in Jerusalem. It is buzzing, the atmosphere is electric and it sucks you in. Many people have commented that we were disciplined to get out after 3 hours!

We were even more disciplined considering the thunderstorm which arrived at around midday. Thunder storms for us mean, get in the car and get to the golf course asap so we can fit the golf in around them if needs be. 

As Dodgy pulled up at the TPC Louisiana track the hooter was going off to suspend play. But by 315pm and after a couple of hours of admin in the clubhouse play resumed and we made our way to the first tee.

By this stage we were fading pretty badly.

The golf was not flash and there were more than a couple of tired swings.  Unfortunately the greens resembled sand pits and so putting and chipping did not require much finesse. But the track was lush with plenty of water and small bunkers obscurely placed around the greens and surrounds that looked like little craters. If you missed the green you had a 50/50 chance of getting in one of these little beasts.

 "Named by Golf Digest the ??No. 4 Best Upscale Public Golf Course? when it debuted in 2004, TPC Louisiana??s championship layout was crafted by world renowned golf course architect Pete Dye, with PGA TOUR players Steve Elkington and New Orleans native Kelly Gibson serving as player consultants"

Pete Dye is an architect whose name keeps popping up over the last week. On first impression I can't say I'm wowed by his courses.  But I need to really sit down and work out what his design philosophies are before I make any in depth comment. 

We were hoping for a quick round but then after a couple of holes found ourselves behind a group playing a bit slower than us. After one or two slow holes they let us through, we were stoked. And then as we played through and said "thanks" one of the chaps said 'no worries' in the most distinctive kiwi accent you can imagine. So we stopped and got chatting - they had heard of our odyssey from following the local papers back home. 5 kiwis in Louisiana playing as some of the only other people on the course - what are the chances!  Now these kiwis were over here with famous kiwi Director Martin Campbell (goldeneye, Casino Royale and many others) filming a blockbuster movie called Green Lantern. As film techies they are part of the crew who travel around filming various movies around the world - not a bad gig!  

After we played through our golf continued on a downhill spiral. As we were considering falling asleep on the 11th green one of the kiwi chaps (whose name I forget due to my sleep deprived state) came over and invited us to stay. How we would have loved to have said yes, but for our tee time in Florida the next day. Devastating. 

As fatigue set in somehow we stopped thinking and started making par after par after par on the back nine. As if we were on autopilot. So that kept the scoring to a respectable level in the low 80's. I think JP may have even ended up with 79. 

After golf we showered up and prepared for the next overnight drive through to Florida - the last leg to get us across the US. We sent a few more emails in the clubhouse, had another chat with the kiwis (great humans) about our adventure (proudly showing off Dodgy) and then jumped in the van and got driving... again.

 

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  • Exactly like the Old City in Jerusalem.

    Posted by Cleary, 03/06/2010 1:58am (3 years ago)

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