Mountain View Mine (Des Plaines, IL)

July 22, 2006, afternoon

This was course five of Alma's and my mini golf odyssey.  Drew and I had played this course on Thursday and not done very well; he commented that he would be shocked if I didn't break his "course record" of 52.  As it turned out, even on a dry course I couldn't break my personal record of 53, finishing one shot off that at 54.  I'm not a huge fan of the contouring at Mountain View, but regardless, my putting just let me down.  I took three double-bogey fours on the back nine (threes on those holes and I could have had the course record), struggled to a five at the fifth (a ridiculously hard hole, but I could probably have played it better), and in general took too many threes on par 2s.  I managed just one birdie, at the par-3 eleventh; Alma got the first hole-in-one in our Mountain View history (and possibly the last after this attempt), but her dropoff in play was similar to mine, taking tough consecutive sixes at #5 and #6, and ending the round with four straight 4s.

July 20, 2006, evening

Drew refused to let me play this course without him because he was so intrigued by the mining theme, so we headed out after work.  Unfortunately, it had rained all morning and the course was probably a little wetter than one would have liked - in particular, the turf was just a bit too moist in some places and the cup on the ninth hole was actually half-filled with water.  The game was pretty competitive throughout with only a few holes providing the difference, but oh, did they.  On the front nine, we were dead even on eight of the holes, but at the par-3 fifth, I scrambled to four while Drew was saddled with a six.  The hole in question was uphill most of the way and hard to read, making getting the ball to stay up difficult.  I picked up a shot at #12 when Drew bogeyed, but gave it back (or he took it back, since I made par) when he birdied #14.  I then proceeded to have my awful hole of the day, taking a six (though at least a legit six) at #15 after failing to hit the ball between two obstacles and instead hitting it directly into one of them.  I didn't feel very comfortable all night, to be honest; the club head was lighter than I'm used to seeing and I felt like I wasn't getting as good a stroke on the ball as I otherwise might.  This showed when I gave away another stroke with a bogey at #17 by totally mishitting the drive.   #18 was another quite difficult uphill hole; you have to hit hard enough to clear a water hazard but not so hard that the ball bounces back and ends up in the hazard anyway.   I managed to stay out while Drew went in, giving myself an unlikely chance to tie the match as he made six.  I missed about a five-footer, though, and had to settle for bogey four and a narrow defeat.