Waterskiing attempts, 500 miles driven, 2 ugly rounds at 1 amazingly beautiful course

Wow, lots of driving today – but great day. Day started at 6:15 when Mrs. Wroe took us out on the lake to go waterskiing (or at least try to…). We met her friend Ken at the lake and had a blast. I was first into the water and tried to wakeboard and then waterski– I was absolutely terrible! I managed to fill my nose and ear with water each time I fell and even turn my ankle the one time I kinda got out of the water.

Luc was up next and fared a whole lot better, at least in regards to getting out of the water (more on his back injury later). The first couple times he fell as he tried to get up but the third time he stood up on the skis and actually stayed on for awhile!

I was super impressed with him, at least until we saw how it’s supposed to look when Ken took a turn on the way back to dock.

Next was a cool coffee shop and then onto Montana, about a four hour drive to get to Old Works Golf Course. We’d been amped about playing this course since seeing the writeup in Golf Digest calling it a top 100 course and the #1 value out of the top 100. Also, Matty Nelson had played it and raved about it.

As we got out of the car we weren’t in the best of shape. As Luc stood up for the first time in 4 hours his back tightened up and my right ear was still full of water and popping painfully at the mile-high altitude (both symptoms directly related to our relative success at waterskiing – my ailment had to do with falling and his had to do with staying upright). Luc took a bunch of aspirin and Nina consulted from 2500 miles away to fix my ear.

After taking care of our injuries, we noticed people arriving for a wedding next to the clubhouse. I came to the conclusion that Montana is a lot more casual and chill then the northeast since the groomsmen were all wearing white polos and not sweating their butts off in suits or tuxedos. Seeing the reception was a cool and different view during lunch. After the reception the bride and groom were taking pictures near the fourth teebox. Not every day that this is the background to a teeshot.

The course is beautiful, both for its conditions and the panoramic views in every direction. Its signature feature is the jet black sand in all the bunkers. This comes from the slag that was originally produced at the mill that existed on this site. Check out this picture, the interesting part is not me in the bunker, anyone who plays with me knows that isn’t rare at all but check out the sand and the background!

The scenery is unreal!!! I’m a little ashamed that this natural wonder reminded me a little of Big Thunder Mountain as Disney and not the other way around but oh well… Here’s a couple more pictures of the backdrop for this spectacular course. 9, 8, 11, 13, 12, 14.

Neither of us played well, but looking around at the amazing backdrop was a great reminder to stay calm (it worked for the most part… ;-) )

Luc won today’s match in a landslide, I paid for dinner but lucked out that we had another 230 miles to drive so dinner was just Wendy’s drive through – I got off cheap on this one…

Lastly, both Luc and I have been pleasantly surprised by my relative ease driving a stick shift. It helps that I haven’t had to park on any hills but overall is has been pretty smooth. Definitely a couple of stall outs coming out of traffic but no harm done so far.