Run the Gauntlet

Trip Start Jul 18, 2008
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Trip End Dec 31, 2008


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Flag of United States  , Virginia,
Friday, July 25, 2008

Since I already logged 38 hours this week and I will be working on Saturday, I decided to spend Friday on the links.  I am a member of the Virginia State Golf Association VIP Card program.  As a member I get complimentary green fees (as long as I pay for a cart) at more than 200 courses in the Virginias, Carolinas and Maryland.  Most the courses have constraints like only good Mon-Thurs and some even limit the months of the year that you can use the discount, but if you are smart you can easily make the $65 membership fee back in a couple rounds.  YTD I calculated I have saved $270 in green fees.  Plus a portion (14%) of the annual $65 membership fee is paid directly to the VSGA Scholarship program, so you can feel good about contributing to charity.  Today, I am playing the Gauntlet in Fredericksburg.

The Gauntlet is nestled in Curtis Memorial Park.  In the few times that I have played this course, I have never seen anyone using the other facilities in this park.  When it opened in 1995, the Gauntlet was voted as one of the "Top 10 New Courses" in the US by Golf Digest.  Unfortunately through mismanagement by Stafford County, the conditions of the course have slowly degraded through the years.  Good news...Stafford County have turned over the management of the course to a company which actually specializes in golf course maintenance, so the conditions are improving.

Designed by P.B. Dye, the course layout is "dyeabolical" with many elevation changes, blind shots and multi-tiered greens.  A GPS unit is provided with the cart so it helped navigating the course, but my best guide was Wayne, the person I got paired together.  Wayne gladly shared his course knowledge and let me know what distance and lines to hit...too bad he could not help in my execution of the shots.  My biggest problem were the 3 FUN (Fcking Ugly Number) holes.  The most frustrating hole was #17 where I four-putted because I landed on the lower tier of a drastically tiered green...my first putting attempt rolled back down the hill and finished further away from the pin.  I did manage to par one hole, #15 215 yard par 3.  The final tally was 107 strokes, 5 lost balls and slightly deflated ego...today I decided to play from the black tees thinking my game was up to the task.
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