A Golf Blog

Mountain Golf - Distance Control

I had a chat with the golf pro here at Angel Fire yesterday about a rule of thumb for distance control in the rarified air here at 8,500 ft. above sea level. While it's more anecdotal than scientific, he suggested that carry here improves by 10%.

I don't know about you, but I don't play for big money on television on the weekends so my chasing precise distances is akin to Don Quixote chasing windmills.

But for me, that 10% translates to almost a full club on an approach of 175 yards or less. Then there's the elevation changes - some approach shots are up or down by as much as 50 or 60 feet and some of the greens here, say from 150 yards, look no bigger than a playing card.

I'll go back to work in a couple of days - today and tomorrow is the Angel Fire Invitational. I wonder what it will take to score an invite next year?

Mountain Golf – The Driving Range

We’ve been in Angel Fire since last Thursday and today was my first trip to the golf course. There was no hurry – besides, we took advantage of all the Fourth of July happenings here and Mandy got her second balloon ride.

Anyway, I didn’t have much of an expectation but I did think it was a good idea to get out and stretch and hit some balls. First, a bit about the range – it’s pretty narrow; enough room for maybe a dozen players to warm up and/or practice. On the right side of the range is the first tee box. On the left is the 9^th green. Last summer I didn’t’ pay much attention to either being in harms way but today, golfers were dodging errant shots in both places. Amazing! And, down range is pretty much downhill all the way.

After about 20 minutes of half and three quarter swings I graduated to full swings. Each strike of the ball felt like I was hitting baked potatoes or stale marshmallows. I’ve never hit restricted flight balls until today. Know what? Jack Nicklaus is definitely on to something – I’m inclined to think a standard ball for the PGA tour would narrow the gap between number 1 and number 145.

Wondering what you think?