Well, another weekend has passed and another course goes under our belts.  As you know by now, we were in the city that never sleeps this week.  We played 3 rounds of 24 holes at the beautiful Sunset Park which consisted of 2 or 3 long holes that required 2 shots to get to the basket (unless you got off a really good drive).  The baskets we played on seemed to vary a lot from hole to hole, which made the tournament seem pretty unique.  

As for the other holes, there were only 2 holes which required a righty anhyzer shot.  The course did bring a pretty good bit of O.B. into play that did wreak havoc on a lot of players.  Going back now to the other 20 holes, they ranged anywhere from 280 to 370 feet and were fairly wide open, which played well for a lot of righty hyzers and straight shots.  I personally enjoyed playing Sunset Park because

• It was very fair
• All concrete tees
• O.B. made for a more challenging course than others like it
• Beautiful park
• T.D.'s did a great job
• Mountain scenery surrounding the whole area with a very picturesque skyline that had blending/fading color patterns ranging from all shades of blue to violet and pink, just like a painting.  Can you picture that?

Not affecting the play of the course a whole lot, but needing to be mentioned, were the gopher mounds everywhere which, if hit with plastic, were like little sand traps.

Oh yeah, one of the holes, #21, had 5 palm trees guarding the basket and had huge leaves that were shaped and acted like hands.

The final 9 was pretty cool (even though I didn't make it).  Everyone enjoyed watching the long holes being played.  Cam and Steve both made some great shots and some even better putts.  Cam told me that he saw Rob's roller on this one hole during the last round hit a small dirt hill at the bottom of a light pole, jump up over the fence next to it, and go O.B.  Good playing to all the guys in the finals.  Let me take you through a quick version of the final 9 holes.  

Cam got the only birdie on the first hole and stretched his lead to 10 strokes.  On the second hole Steve came up with a big putt for a birdie.  The third hole of the finals was a beautiful 500' shot with small pines surrounding the pin.  Cam and Steve both came up with nice drives and putts for birds.  The fourth hole of the finals was a little strange for the territory available, but anyway Cam threw a sidearm leaving himself a long putt (which he almost made) while Steve put up a nice spike hyzer shot to park the hole.  Rob and Randy both threw straight shots to leave themselves putts.  Hole 5 of the finals was a long hyzer with a left to right wind coming in.  Steve drove the hole to within 25' but missed just a little left of center.  Everyone else parred but Rob.  The sixth hole of the finals was a low ceiling roller with everyone throwing a roller and everyone parring except for Steve.  The seventh hole was long and tricky and, even though all four of the players went for it off the tee, they all still threw good upshots and received their pars.  The 8th hole has O.B. running all the way down on the right with the hole turning to the right and the O.B. fence following it.  Cam and Randy both came up with very nice airshots over the O.B. to safe territory.  Rob threw a roller to safe territory, Steve tried to go crazy with a roller that smacked a tree branch about 50' off the tee.  Steve came up with 2 nice shots after that to save a 4 with Rob taking a 4, also.  Randy got a 3 and Cam got a nice rejection from the basket for his 3.   The last hole was another long hyzer shot.  Steve bounced off a truck's tire in the parking lot, keeping him in bounds and got an easy 3.  Cam's drive looked nice but caught a branch on its way and he settled for his 3 and his 2nd win this year.  

I just have to mention about Freddy and Steve Rico taking us out to their home course while we were at Bamba and Nancy Rico's house.  Sylmar park was its name and rough terrain was its game.  The course had reasonable length (pretty long) and was rocky and hilly.  Thanks for the hospitality to all the Ricos and Freddy and Bamba and Steve's cousin.