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

Decisions, Decisions! What do we wear!

As the end of the season nears, we never know quite what to pack.   We start of with lots of layers and long pants and by the end of the day we are in shorts and sleeveless.  We go from winter gloves to regular gloves and sometimes rain gloves.

Shirley's '50 shades of grey' for the weekend

 I think we are going to have to start bringing our windshields out and maybe the cart cover and heaters soon.

Friday, September 5th we headed back up NE, and hoping we get to golf.   The weather was not looking favorable when we left at our normal time of 6AM.





Last time we went NE we had to reroute due to all the rain and flooding.   We moved our travels South a little bit so still had all the northern layer of counties to do from the farthest East to the central region.   Then we had one little county in the middle that we used to break up the travel a bit, Buchanan.   So that was our first stop.

Hold on, I messed up!    Got my Bremer and Buchanan Counties mixed up and we ended up at Wapsie Ridge in Bremer County by mistake.  
 We got a few holes done and met up with a couple people that straightened us out that we were in Bremer not Buchanan.   Already have to re-route, DARN IT!

Not much of a decision to make, we had only paid $12.00 for all 3 of us to golf there and it was raining anyhow, so we packed up and headed to Buchanan after just 3 holes.

It was still looking gloomy and rainy and we weren't sure if we would get in the three counties we planned for, but we got back on track and started off at Three Elms in Independence.

This is a nice course with VERY small T boxes.    Sometimes it seemed like there was barely enough room between the markers to even T off.

Afterwards we drove by the Independence Tourism Building, which is the old railroad depot.   It was really done nice.

Winnesheik County was stop #2, Silver Springs in Ossian.   The course had very nice plants and statues, it was decorated nice.   Jim noticed that all the fareway markers were down the right side of the fareway.   If you couldn't see the green, you had better aim left of the markers here.   

 
 

Maybe a little paint touchup would do her good!

The scenery around this course was just beautiful.   With all the rain lately, the farms looked great.   

Allamakee County ended our day.  Waukon Country Club didn't disappoint.   It had a beautiful clubhouse and course was great.    More par 5's for the ladies here than at most 9 hole courses.  Most of them were 4's for the men though.

The courses today were all great and hope they continue to be just as nice tomorrow.  Lot of driving made for a long day today.

We stayed in Decorah at the Quality Inn for the night.   We tried to get into the local pizza place there, but it was football night and the wait was more than an hour so we headed over to Happy Joes.   It was VERY noisy in there with a couple kids birthday parties but food was good.


Day 2, September 6th

Today was a 4 course day so headed out early to Howard County, Maple Heights Golf and Country Club.   The rock that had the course layout engraved on it was certainly different.

We were on our honor here.    Sign on the counter indicated that they were working on the course so either pay at the drop box on hole 1 or later when they were there.   Gotta love Iowa!

Narrow fareways here making it a bit more challenging for some, but we wont mantion any names.   Nice landscaping and great greens!  

Stinky!

Stop #2    Chickasaw County, New Hampton Golf and Country Club

Shirley had her putting going on here.   Funny how we can have our putting working for us or our driving is on target, but we can't seem to put them all together in the same round of golf.   






This is a very mature course and had several places that were 'ground under repair'.   Had to skip a couple holes and then do a couple more twice to get our 9 in since they were aerating.    Very nice clubhouse, would be a nice course to try again.













Stop #3    Floyd County, Wildwood Golf Course in Charles City

This is your typical municipal course, next to a park and kids running around.   

PHOTOBOMB!!

Jim had quite the climb to his T box here, only to find out after he got up there that he could have drove up.   If you look really close you can see him on his T box at the very top.   HA

Final stop - Mitchell County, Sunny Brae in Osage

This little guy decided to hitch a ride with us to this course.   He stayed clinging to the window the whole way!

This course was very hilly, so also challenging.   It was somewhat confusing and could have used some better signage, but we liked the elevated T boxes.    

The green is WAAAAAY up there! 

Gobble, gobble.   We have seen a lot of wildlife on different courses but this is the first time we have seen turkeys.

The bridge over the Cedar River was scary.   After getting across the bridge we discovered that you had to bring your driver for the next hole with you too.    We let Jim hit over the river for all of us since he was the only one with a club to do it.

WE DID IT!!!   We got all four courses in today!











Beautiful sunset on the way to Northwood

We stayed in Northwood at the Holiday Inn Express which was right next door to......THE CASINO!    Quite the experience here, got my room key and found somone else was in the room.   Thank goodness it was early and nobody was in bed!   We did have a good laugh and the people in the room were very nice about it.   We had a little chat with the front desk and was upgraded to a suite.  

Diamond Jo's was our entertainment for the night but we didn't last long, we were tired and had one more day to get in.



Day #3
Golfing our way home via Winnebago, Worth and Cerro Gordo

Rice Lake Golf and Country Club in lake Mills.

Little disappointing that we never really got a view of the lake, either driving there or golfing.  There were a few glimpses but nothing attractive to see, so wish there would have been better scenery here.    

The people weren't overly friendly either.    Course was nice though!    Rough was very thick and tall, and hard to get out of.   Jim lost a few balls here, wondered if he even had enough for the rest of the day.   I'm sure he had plenty in his bag though.


Worth County was our 2nd stop in Northwood at the Northwood Country Club.  

This course was in the middle of nowhere and I mean nowhere!    Some of the signs were marked and some were not, making it a little difficult to know where we were going.   Couple challenging holes and a couple of stinky holes too.    Cows and stagnant water, oh my!







Cerro Gordo was our last county, it was supposed to be in Rockwell at Linn Grove CC but they had a tournament that they failed to tell us about when we called.    Had to re-route to Thornton to Pleasant Valley Golf Club. Didn't have many options if we wanted to get this county in and not backtrack back North.

It was an OK course though so nothing lost.    Its disappointing when we find these courses that we think are OK but yet, if they spent some time weed eating and putting a little effort into them, they could be very nice courses.    The signage was terrible and it was NOT women friendly.   Absolutely no markers, yardage, ball washers, NOTHING, for the women.   I wouldn't say that the men had much either though.   Sand traps were a joke, more like dirt and weeds.   We got it in though, and that was the most important thing.


UPDATE:   So as of today we have 14 counties left to get in.   9 over by Council Bluffs and 5 by Burlington that we got rained out on a previous trip.   Lets hope the weather stays nice for us to get them in this year.

My golf addiction is literally out of control. I really want to play from the moment I wake up to the time I go to bed.
~Hugh Grant