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One of the pleasures of traveling to the
southwest in early April is the opportunity for the golfers among us to play a
round or two on different golf courses in a different part of the country.
As we have done for the previous seven straight years, we began our week with an
early Sunday morning round at
Painted
Dunes Desert Golf Course north of El Paso. This course was once on a
Golf Digest list of top courses in the state of Texas. We have found that
its condition has deteriorated somewhat over the years, and we're not so sure
we'll return next year.
We also played a round at
Sonoma Ranch Golf
Course in Las Cruces. This course was located and constructed with the
idea of building houses all around and through it. We didn't get to play
here last year, and in the two years since we last visited, the number of houses
surrounding the course, particularly the front nine, which was less built up
previously, has increased dramatically. The course itself is generally in
excellent condition with a good variety of holes.
| Painted Dunes |
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| A rather unassuming wooden sign to mark the turn-off
to the course. |
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| We draw up to the clubhouse in the early light of a
Texas desert morning. |
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| As an easterner, when I go to the southwest, I'm
always impressed by the scenery. The land is flat and devoid of
trees, so you can see forever, and there are always mountains in the
distance. That's Darin putting his golf shoes on. |
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| As just a twosome, there is always the possibility
that we'll be grouped with other singles or paired with another twosome.
In this case, we played with two very nice fellows who, like us, were
just passing through El Paso on business trips and wanted to get a round
of golf in. It was the first time for either of them at Painted
Dunes. |
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| That's the West Course hole #6 information plaque in
front of us. We may have scored like beginners, but at least we
looked good! (Painted Dunes has three nines, and you play any two
of them to make your 18-hole round. The "famous" course is the
East-West pairing, and that's what we usually play if we can get a good
tee time.) |
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| A 106 with six dots for Dan! Horrors!
(Well, it WAS windy!) Darin didn't do so well, either, but he beat
me handily. |
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| Sonoma Ranch |
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| This isn't, of course, a golf course. But it's
where we began our day! |
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| Darin hits his approach shot to the 7th green. |
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| Darin hits out of the waste area to the left of the
15th hole. Why is Darin even IN the waste area? Because he
can play off of grass any time when he's home in Ohio! |
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| View from the tee looking up the 18th fairway. The
hole is a dogleg to the right. |
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| Follow-through on my drive on the 18th. Not bad
form. As I recall, I hit it pretty well, and the ball went down
the left side of the fairway. But I still made a double bogey 7
after hitting it in the pond to the front-left of the green! |
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| Much better than two days earlier. No wind at
all today, so we have to find something else to blame the bad holes on.
Darin still beat me. One dot each. |
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| Now here's something we've never seen before.
Lots of golf courses have restaurants, and lots of them put menus on the
9th tee along with a way to contact the kitchen and order some food to
have ready as you make the turn. But this is the first time we've
ever seen the menu right on the scorecard! Makes sense, though. |
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