Chris van B on guest blogging duties today. Given the opportunity, I will always guest blog. I feel a bit like a the Regis to Jessie's Letterman. Wishful thinking I'm sure, but who's it hurt?
Anyway, today I played 18 holes of golf at the Tamarack Golf Club. Eric could have been in those pictures with me, but he's too busy being a good husband and going on little summer weekend jaunts to Michigan with his wife. I am the bottom most picture, feel free to enjoy the view of my golf appropriate plaid shorts. Matt, in the blue shirt, is significantly better than me, as you can see from his much less awkward follow through. The fellow in the Illinois hat is David. He and his friend Jerry were paired with us. David has almost as wicked a slice as I do, fortunately mine only reared its head on the back nine so I was able to keep ball loss somewhat under control. I also have to mention that the hole placement today was insane. Some of the holes seemed made me think we were playing on Sunday at Augusta.
Anyway, two items of note from this walk through the woods gone bad, are that (1) I walked the course, which I rarely do. This decision was motivated by the weight loss bet I'm involved in that concludes tomorrow. Hopefully carrying ~30 lbs. of golf equipment has put me over the top. I'll tell you what though, walking 18 holes is rough if you're not used to it. Particularly on a course that (a) has no benches, and (b) had some SLOW golfers on it: our round took more than 5 hours (4:30 is about par, pun intended) and we had multiple holes where we got to the tee box and the group in front of us was just getting ready to tee off. One bench. Please!
Item (2) of note is how I ended up on this course that's a 45 minute drive away. I paid for the greens fees using a "groupon". Groupon is a deal of the day type website that negotiates pretty impressive deals for residents of a specific area (started as just Chicago, but they're expanding to include other cities). The caveat of these deals is that they promise the merchant a minimum volume -- get it, coupon + group of people = groupon! So people sign up throughout the day and once they hit the minimum, then the groupon is officially on and you print out your groupon and enjoy your purchase. In this case, I got greens fees for a twosome for $50 at a course that normally charges $65 for a onesome.
What a great concept, ey? Particularly in this economy. I think everybody really does win too. Admittedly, I don't think these sorts of things (Groupon, the Entertainment Book, etc) actually save me money. I likely end up spending about the same amount money in the end, but I enjoy slightly better food, a nice course, or what have you. And the merchants get customers they wouldn't otherwise have. I certainly wouldn't have driven that far otherwise.
Side note: Jessie, you guys are in Saugatuck!? I spent many a boyhood summer there. Get some ice cream at the 'Round the Corner Ice Cream store -- 50 flavors! I believe it's on Mason just west of Butler (the main drag in town). And bring back some Kilwin's fudge.
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