August 1st/2nd/3rd – 2013
Well after a three month hiatus from my quest, I hit the road once again for a weekend venture to the eastern seaboard. This was really a trip to take my mom to visit her sister-in-law in Delaware, but I knew I’d have a bit of time to myself so I figured I might as well throw the clubs in the car and knock off a couple of more states while I’m at it.
If I was to begin this quest from scratch again (which I may actually do some time), I would start it in Delaware. After all, Delaware is known as the “First State” so starting with it would seem far more appropriate. The added benefit is that one can easily knock 4 states off the list (Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania) without even batting an eye. In fact, someone really adventurous (but probably younger with a lot more energy) could conceivably play all four states in one day! But this time around, I settled for playing just two, Delaware and New Jersey. I had played in Maryland previously so hadn’t counted on playing there and though I originally intended on playing in Pennsylvania, I ended up opting out of playing it to simply enjoy the courses in the town where I was. The Pennsylvania state line is as close as a 4 1/2 hour drive from where I live, so it will be relatively easy for me to stroke it off the list at some point in time in the future.
So we left home at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, August 1st, fought traffic and construction for a part of the journey, arriving in Middletown, Delaware 9 hours later. After a quick bite and a very brief visit, I headed to one of the two local courses; Frog Hollow Golf Club. Unfortunately, I ran into men’s league and my thought of putting in a quick 18 there was quickly dashed. No problem, I’ll head up the road 10 minutes to the next course; Back Creek Golf Club. As soon as I pulled into the parking lot at Back Creek I realized that any chance of playing 18 that evening was completely gone. Should have known it would be men’s league there as well. However, the drive to the course provided me with a view of a couple of holes that flanked the main road leading to the course and combined with the drive up the laneway to the clubhouse, it enhanced my desire to play at Back Creek. So, into the pro shop I went and I secured a tee time for later the next afternoon.
But needing to get my “fix”, I headed back to Frog Hollow, hoping that I could somehow at least fit 9 in (the number of participants in their league play was much lower than that of Back Creek) or at worse case scenario, hit a bucket of balls on their range. As it turned out, league play was limited to the front 9 and I was able to get on the back 9 by joining with another player. I ended up playing a very enjoyable round with a local college student who was just getting back into golf after a couple of years away from the sport. It was a great pairing, since both of our games were “inconsistent” to say the least! The 9 holes did provide me with the indication that I wanted to play the full 18 at some point, so I knew right then that I would likely abandon playing Pennsylvania so that I could also fit playing this full course again into my brief 2 ½ day schedule.
Friday saw me wake up early, drive 45 minutes to Town and Country Golf Links in Woodstown, New Jersey, play 18 then “rush” back to Delaware to try and make my 3:42 tee time at Back Creek. Unknowing to me however was that everyone from New Jersey tries to leave the state on a Friday afternoon and the 45 minute drive from the morning became an hour and 45 minute drive in the afternoon. Needless to say, I had to phone the pro shop at Back Creek while I was en-route to inform them I’d be missing my tee time and to see if they could squeeze me in later. Luckily they were able to do that and that delay actually turned out to be a great experience (details in the “It’s a small world” posting). But by about the 30th hole (for the day) I was completely exhausted and the last few holes were more about survival than actually playing decent golf. Luckily my playing partners added some much needed encouragement (and energy).
Bottom line….what I came to realize in this short weekend trip was that up to this point I have been so driven by quickly moving from one state to the next that I perhaps haven’t been taking the time to simply enjoy my rounds enough. And the desire to fit in as much as possible in a short period of time was leaving me just a tad bit tired. Don’t get me wrong…there hasn’t been one round so far that I would categorize as being a “chore”, but that little voice in the back of my head telling me each time what I was accomplishing has, in some small way, slightly affected the simple satisfaction of playing. That will change from here on in as logistics of future trips will be impacted by this past weekend’s experience. If I can easily play 36 in a day, with very little travel etc. then I will do it but gone are the days where I will drive an hour or more to play 18 early in the morning in one state and drive another hour or more after that round just so I can play in another state in the afternoon.
The added benefit of abandoning my plans to drive up to Pennsylvania on Saturday and simply stay in Middletown and play Frog Hollow Saturday afternoon was that I got to do a bit of site-seeing by driving the back roads of Delaware and Maryland a bit. In the end, horse farms and beautiful scenery proved to be a great substitute for golf and provided my body and mind the rest it needed!
