36 Holes in Eastern Idaho

A single entry blog about Mike, RJay, and me spending a Saturday golfing at Teton Lakes (Rexburg) and Sand Creek (Idaho Falls).

May 3, 2007

It takes something special to be a Golf Course Guru, and my something special is my wife Stacy. Last Saturday Mike and I wanted to get together for a 36 hole day of golf. Since my wife is over eight months pregnant I thought that it would be best to golf close to home with my cell phone on in the event I got a call informing me to meet her at the hospital. Now, most women at that stage of pregnancy (and most every other stage) whine and complain about virtually everything and want to be catered to until the day of delivery. Stac isn't like most women though. Not only did she spend Saturday watching our three girls (all under the age of six), but we called Mike and told him to bring his three oldest girls to come play for the day. So while Mike, RJay, and I are off golfing for the day Stacy is back home, over eight months pregnant, watching six kids so that we can enjoy ourselves. There is no way I could do what I do in relation to golf if it weren't for such a supportive wife - she's a keeper!

Our goal this trip was to play two courses that Mike hadn't had the opportunity to play before. We've talked for years about getting him up to Rexburg and figured we would pickup Teton Lakes on the way to the family cabin in West Yellowstone sometime, but it just never happened. In addition, Mike has played Pinecrest and Sage Lakes in Idaho Falls but hadn't had the opportunity to play I.F.'s third municipal course; Sand Creek. With 80 degrees on the forecast and virtually no wind, Saturday was the perfect day to play two courses we've been meaning to get Mike to for sometime now.

5th hole at Teton Lakes Golf Course

Mike came up Friday night so that we could pickup RJay and leave Pocatello by 6:30 AM in order to make our 8:00 AM tee time. We grabbed a high quality breakfast at the gas station and jumped on I-15 North towards Rexburg. Teton Lakes has an open, relatively easy front nine and a target golf back nine. In fact, there are only two holes on the back nine where water doesn't come into play. The signature hole of the day is the driveable par four 14th hole. Playing 294 yards from the blues and just 229 yards from the whites, the green is surrounded three sides by water and begs you to take a crack at eagle. Having already tanked our rounds, Mike and I both took a crack at the green while RJay layed up in hopes of preserving his solid score. Neither Mike or I hit the green but I still managed to save par with Mike limiting the damage to a bogey. RJay's safe approach proved solid as he laid up to the fairway on the left, hit the green in regulation, and two putted for par.

RJay played well all day long as evidenced by his tee shots on Teton Lakes' 4th and Teton Lakes' 12th holes.

12th hole at Teton Lakes Golf Course

For lunch we drove down to Idaho Falls and pounded as many BBQ chicken legs as we could at Chuck-a-Rama before forging on to tee it up at Sand Creek. Hoping to tee off early we asked the pro shop if they could move us up the tee sheet at all. The accomodating Head Professional put us together with another twosome they figured would be of similar playing ability as us. To our pleasure we joined up with a pair of great guys, Damon and Mark, and a rousing game of Wolf was on.

Damon, who has plenty of game, is the son of a former professional golfer and is full of more hilarious one-liners than I've heard from someone in a long time! Mark was a big hitter off the tee and was shaking off some rust in preparation of playing in a Pro-Am tournament with Pinecrest's Head Professional, Tim Reinke. With all of us being of comprable skill levels we knew the game would be a fun one.

I played much better at Sand Creek than I did at Teton Lakes and was able to claim all the points on the front nine via a 38 and half the points on the back nine with a 39. One hole that threw some heavy momentum in my favor and propelled me forward en route to winning the match was on the 205 yard par three 7th. I was Wolf that hole and put my tee shot on the green about 30 feet from the hole. Following my shot RJay missed the green and Damon put one pin high on the fringe right of the hole. I liked his angle since he managed to carry his tee shot to the back tier and claimed him as my partner for the hole. Mark proceeded to throw it back in my face by dropping his tee shot ten feet from the cup, below the hole of course. Fearing I may have been too hasty in my decision, Damon quickly buried those thoughts by knocking down his putt from off the green for birdie. Mark still had a chance to tie and did what happened too many times to him that day; he lipped it out. Since the previous three holes were tied and carried over in the 7th, Damon and I were able to claim four points each which brought me up to seven on the round.

All in all we had a fantastic time Saturday. Playing with Damon and Mark really helped keep our heads in it which is very helpful when playing 36 holes in a day and having RJay along always keeps things lively. On the drive home we already devised our next 36 hole day at two courses RJay has never played; Eaglewood and Bountiful Ridge in Mike's neck of the woods just north of Salt Lake. Look for the blog and pics from that trip in the next month or so - see you at the links!