We got to see some of my favorites, Christina Kim, Suzann Petterson, Jiyai Shin, Se Ri Pak and Kristy McPherson. The weather was beautiful, if a bit hot, and it was a nice preparation prior to hitting the trail for golf ourselves. I'm not going to go through every course we played and discuss "memorable holes" of either triumph or disaster (although in my case, disaster is the more common). But I'll give some general impressions.
First of all, the people of Alabama were uniformly exceptionally friendly and helpful. They have to take into account here the need for water on the course due to the heat. Off the course we had wonderful food (although we joked about one "tavern" we ate at that didn't have any beer on tap).
I found the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail to be loads of fun, and the courses at times stunningly lovely. The fairways wind though longleaf pine forest, and I found the courses very challenging. On more than one occasion we commented on the fact that Robert Trent Jones senior must have been a sadist. But more objectively, I would have to say that there was one glaring problem. It was clear that the addition of tee boxes for women was an afterthought. Their placement frequently left blind shots off the tee that the other tee boxes did not have, or necessitated hitting a very short first shot because the box had been placed too close to the dogleg. It penalized women who hit drives of longer than about 150 yards. We managed. Of the three of us women, Kit clearly was playing more consistently well, with Karen and I alternating between playing solidly or struggling, usually at different times.
I had expected that playing 11 different courses would cause my play to improve significantly as we progressed, but that didn't happen. Or maybe it did, in that the level of difficulty of the courses caused me to improve enough that my scores were in the neighborhood of what I usually experience on other courses (usually 90-93). I'll go into the experience in Destin in the next blog, but I consistently scored about 4-5 shots better on those courses there (more water, but less hilly and few blind shots).
The other thing we did when not playing golf was sightseeing. We had a great time in Mobile, Montgomery, and Birmingham. We went to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, which was exceptionally moving. We noticed that each of these cities has now a very open attitude about the benefits for all citizens of the improvement of civil rights after 1964, but they also don't hide the past history, which makes the museums quite stimulating. They go through in detail the roles of various officials who fought tooth and nail against integration, and the commitment of the civil rights workers.
Much of the fun, as always with golf, is the lively conversation with Kit, Jim and Karen, both on the course and otherwise. In addition of course to solving all of the problems of society, we (Jim excepted) manage to excuse all of our lack of skill on the golf course. Jim, of course, plays so well that he's sort of on a different planet anyway. Karen had to leave a few days before we finished on the Trail, but Kit, Jim and I struggled onward, braving more unbelievably beautiful scenery, sweet golf course people, and very warm temperatures.
The final day got rained out. We were in Muscle Shoals, and the thunderstorm was impressive. We drove to Birmingham and dropped off Kit and Jim there, and then I drove on to Mobile, so I wouldn't have to drive so much the next day on my way to Destin. I really enjoyed the RTJ Trail, but if I were advising them, there are a few things I'd suggest they do differently. But it was great fun, and a real treasure to be able to do it with people with whom one is close. Thanks Kit, Jim and Karen.
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