A Variety of Golf in Dallas

Written on 6-5-24.

    I am sitting in the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport waiting for our flight back to Albuquerque.  Our original flight was cancelled.  We didn’t pay attention this morning as we rushed out the door of the VRBO that Eric and Amanda are renting, but it worked out for the best.  We had to get the rental car returned this AM anyway, and the later flight was the only other flight going out today, so here we sit.  We board in ten hours and 37 minutes, so we have some time to catch up on some things.  We could get an Uber and go back, but we are choosing to just stay here.  If we did that, they would have to give us a ride back here again, and they have an appointment for Ben this afternoon to check on his hips.  Better to just leave them alone.  

I spoke with Guy using FaceTime for 20 minutes, and we got caught up before...

he had to return to work.  I just walked down to C19 (we are at C29) to see if they sell postcards at a store there, but they don’t.  I bought Belinda a bag of Mike and Ike candy, though.

We had a marvelous stay here in Dallas, mostly for Ben and his arrival!  It was three years ago that Belinda and I drove here to visit Becca and Matt the first time.  I found a video in my photos of the Fossil Rim Drive-Thru Zoo in Glen Rose, so I shared it with them via text.  We also visited the book depository museum that commemorates the JFK assassination during that visit.  

Ben is doing so well, and, overall, so are Becca and Matt.  They have had a lot of help with Eric and Amanda, but especially Amanda (Eric went back home for about a week to take care of some stuff).  We had our last dinner here yesterday, and Matt got to share his boat project with Belinda and me after we ate.  He is building his own sailboat in their garage, and it looked rough, but it wasn’t finished.  B and I were impressed, and he said he was making it because his brother and his father built their own boats when he was a child.  We thought it was very cool; it’s like his little hobby.  I am betting he won’t spend much time on it now, however.

Belinda and I made three meals (and I went shopping for another one) to help the cause, and we all did some babysitting, too.  We were willing to do anything we could to help this new family get some rest.  

It was gratifying to hear Becca say, “I’m doing good,” when her friends wondered how she was doing.  Matt echoed that sentiment when we had conversations after some of our meals together.  It’s wonderful to have family around to make things easier/better when a new baby arrives.  I know we had help when James and Danielle were born, so it feels nice to pay it forward.

We just learned that Casey passed the test that James couldn’t when he was at Fidelity.  It’s the Series 7.  We are so proud of her.  Now that they are a team, we can say that “they” got it together.  We will see them tonight…errr…tomorrow morning at around 1:00 AM, and we can congratulate them in person.

On to golf…

Eric and I played a lot of golf during our downtime on this trip.  It really felt like a vacation, too.  I feel bad leaving him, since I don’t know what he’ll do for entertainment now that I am leaving (outside of visits with baby Ben, of course).  We played at Topgolf, Duck Creek, and the Puttshack, so it was quite the variety of golf activities.  I will write a little bit about each one.

Eric had heard that Mesquite and Duck Creek (real golf courses) would be closed for two weeks due to the damage from all of the storms that came before we arrived.  We could see many fallen trees and branches on the way over to the house, and people were stacking the numerous branches on their lawns near the streets to have them removed.  Since the golf courses were closed, I looked up the nearest TopGolf, and I found one just 30 minutes away.

It was fun!  We signed up for two hours, and we played Angry Birds, Close to the Pin twice, and finished with nine holes at Spanish Bay.  We shared a breakfast burrito while we played.  When we were done, we even played 18 holes of mini-golf next door.  They had three 18-hole layouts for the putt-putt courses.  Because we had already paid at Topgolf, the mini-golf was free.  We just had to use our own putters and golf balls.  

Eric won the Angry Birds and the first round of the Close to the Pin game.  I did better on the second Close to the Pin game, and then I won at Spanish Bay.  I ended with +5, and he got it to +6, but it was a little controversial on his last shot.  He would have tied me with a birdie, but it missed according to the computers.  It did look to be very close, though.

We thought we looked ridiculous on the mini-golf course (although I am sure no-one noticed…or cared), because we didn’t bring our hats and it was wickedly hot and humid.  I gave him some of my spray sunscreen which he applied liberally, and we took my red and black umbrella.  He is fairer skinned than I am, but we both wanted protection.  When one of us would putt, the other would hold the umbrella.  We saw a young couple that were obviously on a date, and we wondered what other people were thinking about us.

“Oh, look at the gay couple holding that umbrella for each other.  How cute!”

Eric and I are used to this, however, after the exterior camper shower incident in Canyon Lands back in ’98.

Eric decided to call Duck Creek again and was surprised to hear that they were now open, so he got a tee time for us at 11:00 on Monday.

It wasn’t busy, so we were able to play by ourselves, which was great.  It was a tale of two nines.

Eric had a game that was different for our first nine holes.  You could win $10,000.00 for each hole, but hitting the fairway and the green in regulation would help you win the money.  Having the low score would really win each hole, but if one of us hit the green and the other one didn’t, that would be a tie-breaker.  That only happened on the last hole, though.  

He creamed me.  I couldn’t get anything going for the first three holes.  Many of my shots sprang out low and to the right, sometimes splashing into the water.  It was frustrating.  Once again, without a warm-up, I am mostly useless.  

I won holes 3, 6, and 9, and he won all the rest.  He was giving me a hard time at the beginning, because I was doing so poorly.  He was saying things like, “This is it for the golf before you head back, so you had better get it going.”

I am paraphrasing, but that was the gist.

It was the last hole on the front nine where we both played the golf we are more capable of.  That hole is the 2nd hardest hole on the front, too.  It’s not really long, but it was narrow and it had water along most of the right side.  Eric had tree trouble for his second shot, and his golf ball fortunately made the fairway after ricocheting off some branches.  He was able to  hit the green with his third shot, though.  I got my driver going, and I hit the fairway for that little advantage I wrote about above.  My approach was short and right, but I made a clever chip from a downhill lie with my gap wedge and made my par.  Eric made an incredible par putt, but I ended up winning the hole because I had hit the fairway.  He won that game $60,000.00 to $30,000.00.  

I thought we would continue that game, but he wanted to take the win and asked me to come up with a new one for the back.  I chose the Escalating Skins Game.  I said we wouldn’t have any bonuses, though, and the money would push if there were any ties.

Then I did better, but it didn’t look good when Eric made a birdie right away on #10.  His approach rolled up to just three feet away, and he made the putt.  I got a bogey, which felt pretty good after the front nine.

I got a par on the next hole, a short par three.  I left my first putt from off the green well short, because it looked like it could roll off the front of the green, but it stopped stubbornly after just getting onto the green instead.  Then I made a downhill thirty-footer for the par!  Eric struggled to a double, so I was ahead by $10,000.00 after two holes.

We tied with bogeys on the next hole.  He had gone 3, 5, 5, and I had gone 5, 3, 5.  The money was pushed to the next hole, and it was a par five.  Eric hit the creek/wash on the right side with his drive, but mine barely stayed out.  With the lift, clean, and place, he gave himself a better lie, but his escape was thwarted by the lip of the small canyon.  He ended up in the water after that shot.  

I managed to get across the water (from the same creek that Eric got stuck in), but now it was guarding the green for my third shot.  I didn’t fare much better after that, though, pushing it well right of the green.  I got an eight, and he got a nine, so I did win two holes’ worth of money.  Things were looking good.  I earned $90,000.00 at that point, and he was stuck at $10,000.00, but it was far from over.  Plenty of money remained.