Catching Up .....

Catching up...

2015 courses completed

Story	Ames G & CC	Ames	4/11/2015
Story	Twin Anchors GC	Colo	8/22/2015
Johnson	Hi-Point Golf	Iowa City	8/28/2015
Greene	Hill GC	Grand Junction	8/30/2015
Marshall	American Legion	Marshalltown	10/4/2015

Ames Golf & Country Club - Tim joined us and it was a great course for me as this was a very flat course.   Last course I completed prior to my hip replacement.    We took a long break after that.  :(


In August I was finally released to golf again and boy was I ready to get going.

Twin Anchors Golf Course in Colo was our first stop.   SO close to a hole in one at this course but just wasn't quite there.    Darn!!   Still determined to get one though.     The clubhouse was NOT the place for lunch at the turn.   I was told there was a great place at the course to eat, unfortunately it was next to the campgrounds and we went to the clubhouse.    Only had a toaster oven so only one pizza could be made at a time and couldn't use anything else while it was on or they would blow a breaker.    We shared a frozen pizza and finished another 9 and got the heck out of dodge.       



Hi-Point Golf - Jim and I golfed here in August but I didn't have my photographer Shirley with me to take any pictures.       Shirley and I will go another time so she can check it off her list too.  This is a 3rd generation family that owns this course and it is very well maintained and the family couldn't be any more friendly.    We will go back and get pictures.







 Hill Golf Course in Grand Junction - This was a nice course and as you can tell, we were finding all kinds of pictures to take here.

Aggressive Ducks

The ducks actually came right for us and we hadn't seen so many different ones on one course before.

There is a story with this picture and believe me the pictures do it no justice and I cannot put into words how funny it was and how hard we laughed.   I think we may have wished we had depends on that day.


Shirley hit her drive and it not only hit one of the flower beds but hit ricocheted from one to the other and bounced in the middle.

I'm standing on the T box taking these pictures and now she is pointing where it landed.    

American Legion Golf Course in Marshalltown - After some bad publicity we decided we should give this course some business, so we did.   

 This was a great little grill hut and we stopped for a bite at the turn.

Of course one of us had to land under a tree, just didn't expect this to be there.  HA

Not too much to share for 2015 but there you have it.    

Jim does a great job of keeping our clubs nice and clean!




Our new journey begins with the next post!

The Dipping of the Clubs

We finally did it!    All 99 counties are done, but are we finished??? We don't know, maybe you can help us.    We have certainly had a lot of fun over the last 2 seasons with this challenge and maybe we are ready for a new one next year.    Challenge us.....but first lets recap this last weekend.

 During our travels we have seen many windmills and at the rest stop West of Stuart we decided to pull over and get up close and get a few shots.   Amazing how big these things are when you stand next to them.  


On to golf! 

Day one, Shelby, Monona and Harrison

Harlan Country Club was nice and we noticed how nice it was that they also took care of the women - great greens and friendly staff.    Trees were a problem for me here.   I hit a tree, it bounced back and I lost yardage.  I again hit into the SAME tree and ended up where I started my last shot at.   Hit the ball a third time and missed that tree but hit another one.    It just wasn't my day to be off the fareway.  LOL

Jim also tried out his new metallic golf balls today.   We could sure see them but if the sun isn't out, you can still lose them.   This was proven in Harrison County.

 Dunlap Golf Course has HUGE T boxes and slow greens.  Nothing really stood out for us here.

Monona County

This is probably one of the flatter courses we have been on, and pretty easy course really.

This is another course that needed some TLC.   Had some piles of RR ties and lots of limbs and twigs.  

We stayed at Council Bluffs at the Quality Inn, I would probably not go back there.   The location was ok but the hotel really needed some updating.  Of course, it was close to all 3 casinos but we utilized the shuttle.   The buffet at the casino was WAY overpriced.

Day two, Fremont, Page and Montgomery

The day started off very foggy and cold.   We had to rearrange our plans to golf the courses further South first to avoid the later frost delay times.   We arrived at Fremont County Golf Course and nobody was there so we went into town to gas up, and my phone rang.  It was the manager of the course saying he missed our call.   He told us to come out, he had to run some errands but he would open the clubhouse for us to wait for the OK from the groundskeeper to get on the course AND put the coffee on for us.   How nice was that?   

We didn't have to wait too long and off we went.   I will have to say that on a couple holes the birds were very noisy.   Don't know what was going on but there were hundreds of them and there were a couple times they hushed, just as we were getting ready to hit.   We had to laugh at their timing, it was great.   Nice clean golf carts are always nice also.   Would definitely make a stop here again.

Page County-Shenandoah

They must have just opened their dining area, but they didn't need to put the sign right in front of the golf course sign.

This was just another course to check off our list, nothing stood out.

Time for a selfie!
I think we need practice though








Montgomery - What can I say about Red Oak Country Club.  One thing is that they need to get some personality lessons from Fremont County!   The customer service sure was lousy and who charges 14.95 for a sleeve of THREE golf balls just because they have their logo on it.    Needless to say, they didn't make a sale.

This was a real ball stoppper

This was a pretty neat green to shoot.   All downhill.    

We did notice that people that golf here do not fix their divots.






Day 3, Pottatamie, Mills, Cass

We got a little lost and Jim decided to pull over here.  LOL

Dodge Riverside was a VERY nice course, it is right next door to Harrahs Casino (no we didn't gamble here).

Where is the green??

This course was just super and a great clubhouse/Pro shop.   Jim had his best game here for the weekend, and I don't think us girls did shabby either.   I don't think this course has many women that golf here though, didn't see any on the course and it was pretty busy.  

Mills - Malvern Iowa 
Not a great course, lousy T boxes.  Ground was very rough and I think they decided to quit mowing for the year but staff was pleasant enough.

We ate up town at an ice cream shop and had a very nice lunch. Sorry, can't remember the name of it.

Cass County, Nishna Hills in Atlantic

This was another nice course, would like to go back and do all 18 holes.   Staff was nice and asked a lot of questions about our journey.

Dipping of the clubs!

Just a few stats to share:

In the 99 counties, we have golfed 1017 holes, mostly 9 hole courses but a few 18.   

We have golfed all 1017 holes in 47 days, averaging 21.64 holes per day.  We have actually golfed as many as 36.  This was from 4/27-11/9/2013 and 4/5-10/12/2014.

The three of us golfed 98 of the 99 counties together.   Davis County was the only course that Shirley and I golfed, and then Jim had to golf it on another day.   

We want to thank some people that golfed with us along the way:   Tim, Lena, LaRee, Jerry and Galen.   We enjoyed your company!

One thing that we have not forgotten on the course - LAUGH!
We always find things to laugh at and not take the game serious. (Jim tries!)    We will never be pros so it's all in fun.

Help us with our next adventure, any ideas?   We know there are about 417 courses in Iowa and we have a good start with that.   If you can think of any other challenges, we would love to here from you.   

Leave your comments on the blog and let us know if you have enjoyed reading and have any ideas.    We would love to hear from you!

Thanks for joining us along the way!    Although we have completed 99 counties, we are definitely not done golfing.  We will continue to keep you posted....  Until next season, unless the weather stays nice!


"Do you know what my favorite part of the game it?  The opportunity to play."   -Mike Singletary

SINGLE DIGITS!!!

After this weekend, we are down to just NINE!    Hard to believe that we are going to get this in before then end of the season.    Maybe I'm being a little presumptuous but I know we are going to do it.  

Can anyone say WINDY??   It was cold this past weekend! We had cart covers, long underwear, gloves and earmuffs, we were prepared and determined!    The courses have started to aerate which makes putting very challenging at times, which definitely had an effect on our scores.   That's fine, we are only in it for the fun and sense of accomplishment.

Albia Golf Club in Monroe County was first.  Small T boxes here and a little hilly.  I think the layout was a bit confusing, more signage would have been helpful for a first time golfer here.   

We met Lena in Van Buren, always fun to have her join in and complete our foursome.   We caught up with her at a nice little diner in Keosaqua for a quick bite to eat, and off to Riverview Country Club.    We shed our cart covers and just used our windshields as the wind was brutal. Jim was not a happy camper with losing several balls this course.   Even in the fareway and rough, we had difficulty finding our balls.

You can't tell from these pics on the green, but there were plenty of leaves in the fareway for the balls to hide under.

Fairfield Golf & Country Club in Jefferson County was a great course to end our day.   We were just a little cold and preoccupied to take many pictures.   We did manage to get this shot of the three of us girls all landing next to a small Charlie Brown tree on our drive.   We could not have planned this if we tried!   Jim humors us with our silliness and takes the pic.

That ended our day.   We stayed in Burlington and again ate at Gators, we seem to really like that place.  All you have to do for Lena to join is tell her the casino is involved, so yes, we went to the casino.   HA

"Green Acres is the place to be"  

And it was THE place in Donnellson (Lee County).   Started out cold but no wind so didn't need the cart covers and got warmer as we played.    We liked the little windmill T box markers.  LOL

 Us 'girls' all golf so much alike.  The three of us all chipped up to the green and all lined up for the putt.

'Look out Lena' at work,  I don't think there was another sole on this course when we were there.

After we golfed in ate at the clubhouse and had to say good-bye to Lena until the next time.    We will miss her on the next course, and can't wait for her to join us again.

Last but not least!

This is a great course!   The Preserve at Rathbun in Appanoose County is definately a class act to end our weekend.   We had intended to do Appanoose Country Club but when we got there, they told us the cart rental company had already came and picked up all the golf carts.  It looks like a very nice course though so we will go back and check it out.    So we headed to The Preserve and I must say that we golfed here the best of all the courses this weekend.   Loved the GPS on the electric carts but Jim was not thrilled with all the advertisements on it.   Ok for course ads but too many other ads that were not golf related spoiled it for him.  We all understand why, but still annoying.

Jim and I had been to this course before we started our challenge so we knew it was a good one to go back to again, and again...

We also took some ideas from this course.  We have been making a list (and checking it twice) of all the little things that we like/dislike about all the courses.   It's things we want on the course we would build "when we win the lottery" list.   But if anyone knows someone interested in our ideas and wants to back us, we're game!   

Thats it for this trip!

Until we meet again!

When the ducks are walking, you know it is too windy to be playing golf.

~ Dave Stockton