Belden Hill

Belden Hill enjoys a few advantages over the other golf courses we have played so far. First is the "golf course hot" cashier/bartender. Strub's GPS (read: iPhone) got us lost on the way there and called to make sure we were on the right track. Five seconds after he calls, we see the sign. Strub has to sheepishly apologize and says he feels like an idiot, knowing we will be there in 2 seconds. He is most emarassed because, as he claims, "she sounded hot." In reality, she wasn't ugly, but she was only golf course hot- hot because thirsty golfers will come in and flirt with her after 4 hours seeing only dudes in goofy pants (read: Strub. Have you seen this kid's golf outfits? Plaid pants, argyle socks, striped shirt. Not a joke). As an aside, Strub spent the entire time we were looking for his lost drive on the 5th hole pouring his heart out about the new girl at work who he had a crush on. I have news Strub: anyone who is more than golf course hot is out of your league.

Belden Hill also features a sleeves-optional dress code, which is important to me considering my personal mantra of "sun's out, guns out."

But the best part is the fellow golfers you will encounter. I'm mostly referring to the 3-some we encountered in the clubhouse at the turn. It was a wasted father-son combo, with father's brother to mix it up. They fully embraced both the dress code and the lax cooler rules. The best part is that the scores they were talking about blew ours out of the water.

Also, Strub is strategically leaving out lots of important parts of the narrative. The best part of our day was the half dozen times Strub teed his ball 9 inches up and then proceeded to obliterate his tee while barely touching the ball. He had to hit his second shot from further than his first shot almost every other hole. Apparently this was a better course than the offered compromise, which was teeing it up again but shooting 3.

I want to point out that even though I might have choked on 18, Strub choked even worse on 16 and 17. He gave up 5 strokes on these 2 holes, including needing 3 shots just to reach my own shanked drive on 17.

All in all, leaving the day down by 1 stroke after entering it leading by 1 didn't end up as bad as I thought. I played well on most holes, and choked on just a few and ended with huge scores. I feel like I am in better shape than Strub, who played consistently bad all day.