More often than not, when we leave things to chance they work out just dandy. On this occasion we got stung, giving a gentle reminder that life??s no breeze. Won??t do us any harm at all.
There might??ve been two or three days this year when we??ve left it literally to the last minute in organising our golf. When we woke up this morning we didn??t know where we??d be playing, but felt comfortable(ish) that something would materialise. A dozen or so phone calls and a bunch of emails later, there was still nothing on the radar. Hatching plans the Monday after 4th of July weekend on Long Island is harder than hard. It??s very hard ?? but we should??ve known that. Amateurs...
We slept in Dodgy last night out at Montauk Point, in a carpark near the famous lighthouse (commissioned by President George Washington himself). A sweet spot. We even had the luxury of a public bathroom for our convenience, and a beach a 4 iron away. I blew away the cobwebs with an early morning dip in the Atlantic, and sat on a comfortable rock to ponder life for a while.
Mike and I parked up at a café in Montauk; had ourselves a fulsome breakfast (first time I??ve ever ordered an omelette - Result); and made the most of their free Wi-Fi for an hour or three. Montauk??s right out at the tip of Long Island, past the super affluent part of the Hamptons, and has a relaxed vibe. Quite a different scene to the likes of Bridgehampton and East Hampton (pictured below).
I had designs to take in some of the local sights before we golfed. So we shot down the road to Bridgehampton, then took a drive around East Hampton and the surrounding area. I??ve never seen houses like that. And they??re holiday houses, likely used for a couple of weeks a year. Decadent doesn??t quite cover it. If you??re not a local you certainly know it: car parking at the beaches is reserved for holders of East Hampton Village parking permits only. Egypt Beach (pictured below) looked like a great spot for a dip; but having Dodgy towed was a risk too great, so we moved swiftly on. To another beach, which was also resident parking only. Then another, and another...
We passed the Old Money club of Maidstone, which looked pretty special. They have a pretty classy looking links track, and a beach club a stone??s throw from the clubhouse. We thought about approaching one of the greenkeepers to ask whether we could sneak on for a quick 18, but thought better of it. Didn??t particularly rate our chances...
As the hour hand crept further around the dial we still had nowhere to play our golf. So around 4 o??clock we trucked back out to Montauk, to Montauk Downs state park. It??s a public track, much like Bethpage where we played yesterday, run by New York State. Quite a different kettle of fish to the clubs we??ve been privileged for frequent of late.
We tried our luck at getting a comp green fee, but it was the Manager??s day off and the ladies manning the fort didn??t have the authority to make it happen. So we reluctantly paid our first green fee of the year ?? a necessary evil in the circumstances. Boys gotta play.
A particularly officious looking mountain of a woman held guard at the starter??s box. Players would not proceed to the first tee until they got the nod; in the meantime, as in the Olympics, they would wait patiently by the start line. That famous old despot at Muirfield would??ve had nothing on this woman. A piece of work.
We were called to the tee about 5.37pm, with slim prospects of making it around by dark. Being the 5th of July and a scorcher, the locals were out in their droves. A packed field playing at a public course pace of play ?? 5 and a half hour rounds. Not my idea of fun, but...well...you know.
The course itself is a Robert Trent Jones Senior design, and is being reworked by the omnipresent Rees Jones (the so-called ??US Open doctor?). Much hype had been made of the course by the ladies in the shed (??much better than Bethpage Black?; ??one of the best courses you??ll play all year?). I have to say I was disappointed, although it did have a few good holes. On one of the par 5s we hit driver 9 iron (I saw ??we? because Michael and I played a scramble); on most of the par 4s we had less than an 8 iron in hand for our approach; and we were playing from the tips. So it??s short.
And (unsurprisingly) not in great nick. Mike and I decided however that we??d leave Montauk Downs better than we found it. On each green we repaired 20 pitch marks each that those before us hadn??t bothered to attend to. Given the pace of play was so slow we had ample time to perform these surgeries and line up on putts with a leisurely lack of urgency.
By the 14th hole it was so dark that the 3 ball ahead gave up the game. Needless to say that wasn??t an option for us, so we ploughed on and lamented not eating carrots for dinner the night prior. Down the final 3 holes we were really struggling to see the ball ?? both at our feet and once it was launched. Ironically enough this was when we played our best golf!
On 17 I hit a hot one 320 yards down the middle and on 18 Mike did the same. Never mind the fact that we didn??t know we??d dun good until we marched optimistically down the fairway. On neither occasion could we make out the outline of the short grass below. Then on 18 I managed to knock a wedge from 130 to a foot! At that time (circa 9.15pm) it was Pitch Black, and I hardly had an idea of where the green was, let alone the flag. A stroke of good fortune indeed. And a debacle.
Shattered and sweaty we took Dodgy back to the carpark at Montauk Point, to sleep as we did the night before. No shower; no dinner; a long day. But a good one to look forward to in the morning: National Golf Links followed by Shinnecock ?? surely the Double Header Of The Year. Masochists...
JP
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Well done boys for repairing the pitch marks - very First Tee of you!
Posted by Pip, 12/07/2010 9:40am (3 years ago)
Chisholm Park
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