Wilderness Falls (Bolingbrook, IL) - Eagle Course

July 2, 2011, afternoon

While I had played the Bear Course well in my first attempt, making par 40, I had destroyed the slightly easier Eagle Course, shooting a -1 37, the lowest total score any of us have recorded on an 18-hole course (though of course the par is only 38).  This time out I struggled mightily on the Bear Course, but the Eagle Course was still a bit kinder.  I made four bogeys on the front nine and made the turn at +4, but I came home with a par 19 - perhaps I was finally turning the corner, just in time to be finished.  42 is still five shots worse than last time, but that's less than half as bad as the decline on the Bear Course.  At this point I don't really know what to expect from the tournament; maybe with this experience I'll be able to drive well, because my putting was mostly pretty solid; I just didn't put myself in great position on the greens a lot of the time.  Alma was also four shots better on the back nine and as on the Bear Course recorded the only "true" hole in one of the round (the 18th is a par-one) when her ball bounced off the back wall and dropped in at the tenth.

July 29, 2006, afternoon

Despite his disappointment with the back nine on the Bear Course, Drew came out firing, making scores of 2 on each of the first ten holes of the Eagle Course.  We were all playing so well, however, that he couldn't put much distance between us; I was just one back at the turn, having shot par to his one-under, and Karen was just three back at +2.  Unfortunately for Drew, I came in with the 18 he had put up going out, and a couple tough holes derailed him.  After he bogeyed #11, we were tied, and then at #12, I aimed for a hole-in-one shot through a fiberglass log.  I missed, but the slope of the fairway rolled the ball all the way down near the hole, and I made par 2.  Drew hit the log, but his shot was a little too powerful - it ran right at the hole but hit up off it and bounced a number of feet away.  He settled for 3, then gave away another three shots in the next two holes to trail by four.  He birdied 15 and 17 while I could only par them, but I sandwiched in a hole-in-one on #16 to keep the margin at three shots.  Everyone aced the par-one 18th, and that was how it finished.  Karen, who had caught and actually passed Drew following his 4 at #13, ended up falling to him by two shots thanks to his aforementioned birdies.