Although not out as late as some of the boys, Larkin and I were both moving a little slow on Saturday morning. The package for the weekend included a buffet breakfast at the Eldorado. Afterwards, we wandered down to the "Biggest Little City in the World" sign.
The plan for the day was to play golf at the Lakeridge Golf Course. I played here at least once during the annual management conferences when I was working for the Western Farm Credit Bank. Through one of the other guys attending the golf outing, Rod arranged for a bus to take us from the hotel to the golf. While I initially thought that this would be a hassle, it was a great idea.
Larkin and I played in a foursome with Sam and Martin. This is a much different course than the first day; it has a lot more trees and water. The weather was not as nice as Friday. While it never rained or snowed, it got colder and windier as the day wore on.
I struggled from the outset. We were playing a format where you play your own ball from the best drive. I kept hitting my medium irons long and left of the greens. Once we got close to the greens, my short game completely left me. At one point, I think that I chipped into the bunkers around the greens on five of seven holes. By the 13th hole, in spite of the fact that I was driving off the tee pretty well, I was ready to be finished.
The signature hole at Lakeridge is the 15th. It is a long island par three with the tee boxes about 150 feet above the lake. When Sharon asked me at dinner on Sunday what was the high point of the trip, I said that one of the high points was my tee shot on the 15th. With our foursome, the following group and a marshall standing on the tee, I teed off first. Joking about just throwing my ball into the bushes, I hit my tee shot as well as I could hit it. I told sharon that I heard several people gasp. The ball landed about 4 or 5 yards off the back of the green. I think that it may have been the only hole all day that we used my drive.
I finished with a winter rules 107. Even though we were playing from the best drive, this was five strokes worse than Friday...
Taking the bus back to the hotel, we got cleaned up and headed to the group dinner. Last year, the dinner was across the street from the hotel at a restaurant. This year, the group had dinner in the BuBinga Lounge. There were three tables set up in the middle of the small nightclub. It was a very different experience from last year.
After dinner, much of the group headed back up to the hospitality suite. Two members of the group are very talented. With a guitar and a drum box, they played and improvised songs about the groups antics. Larkin and I headed back to the room and crashed sometime after 11:30 p.m.
My only regret was that I never got a chance to play blackjack with any part of the group. With everything more spread out in Reno than Carson City and how much everyone enjoyed the hospitality suite, the dynamics seemed much different than last year.
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