alright now that my body is finally feeling back to normal I decided to write the TR for our 11th annual Flagstaff Trip! I didn't take as many pics as I normally do (due to heavy boozing) so I have added a couple of old pics for those that havent seen some of the places.
September 20...
- Our group of 12 left the valley at approximately 6:15 AM headed to Seven Canyons for our 9:00 tee times.
- Conditons at Seven Canyons have officially got back to "normal" now that they are fully private. The clubhouse is finally starting to be built and the place is getting ready to be truly special in another year or two when everything is done. The greens were running very well (not terribly fast) but lush and held well. Ended up faltering down the stretch and shot 76 which isn't terrible considering I wasted 2-3 shots into the desert.
old pics of Seven Canyons (conditions were much better this time than what is shown on these)
- Finish our round and drive up 89A headed straight for the meca known as Forest Highlands. Picked up a keg of Mr. Pineapple San Tan that we had reserved of course!. We got a brief shower on the way up the 89A and this ended up being the only rain we saw for our entire trip which was a miracle considering the forecast all week.
- Arrive at Forest Highlands, pick out our rooms to stay and continue boozing and head straight to the putting course for some gambling and degening. Ended up pushing our team matches so no blood there. Cooked up some bomb grilled chicken and mashed potatoes and then continued to booze/degen and play cards until approximately 4 AM.
picture of my buddy's cabin
View from my buddy's patio behind 14 on meadow
September 21..
-Wake up feeling pretty groggy but muster up the energy to cook up some egg mcmuffin style breakfast sandwiches for the group before we head out to Pinewood (about 15 miles south of Flagstaff in Munds Park). This has always been our favorite round of the trip. The course is relatively easy and the laid back atmosphere tends to lead to a ton of drinking and lots of fun. Before we head out we put 15 lbs of pork shoulder in 3 crockpots and filled it up with Mr. Pineapple beer so we would have some epic pulled pork sandwiches for dinner.
- Course conditions were perfect to say the least. The greens at pinewood are quite sloped so when the greens are running fast some of the shots that you get are downright impossible to get close but fun to try. I started off pretty bad playing 2 over through the first 8 holes but then got it going on the back nine and ended up shooting the low round of anyone on the trip 70 (2 under). Really pleased with this score considering the beer count was HIGH.
only one crappy pic from Pinewood (too much boozing)
- Headed back to the cabin at Forest Highlands (I wasn't driving obv) and it was time to grub the pulled pork and then go fishing (see pic). Really happy with how this turned out as it was super easy and didn't have to spend any time cleaning up. Plus we had plenty of leftovers for rest of trip. Repeat night 1 with boozing/degening and poker until probably 5 AM this night (I think lol).
September 22.....
- Wake up feeling like **** obv. My buddy cooks up a bomb ham egg, etc scramble and we start to feel a little better. Head down the road about a half mile to the Canyon clubhouse at Forest Highlands. If you haven't been to Forest Highlands, it has a really stuffy feel about it. Like you feel like you can't even laugh or even talk too much out on the driving range/putting green because it's so quiet and calm. Obviously we don't want to draw attention to our 12 comp players but it's always struck me as really stuffy if you understand what I'm saying.
-Anyways, we tee off and the course is impecable as always (a theme for this trip). This was the first time they let us take carts off the path on the canyon course and it made a world of difference. Usually Canyon is rough because it's a ton of walking out to your ball, guessing yardages, etc. The greens are fast as hell and the fescue is so thick that you could literally lose your ball 1 yard off the rough. I played very well and still managed to only card a 77. There's so many ways to make bogey out there it's not even funny. Now during this round I start to feel a muscle strain/pull in my ribcage that's bothering me coming down the stretch. I don't think much of it and just drink it off (this will end up being a major issue).
- Rinse, repeat...dinner/degen/cards/bed time.
September 23
- Last day of the trip playing my favorite course in the state which is the Meadow Course at Forest Highlands. Immediately upon getting up for the day I know I'm screwed. I can barely get out of bed, move, cough, sneeze, etc anything that I do hurts bad. I'm not even sure I can even chip a ball much less play a round of golf. I can't just quit since we are playing a ryder cup format so I decide I need to gut it out. I get to the practice range and decide I can't even hit any range balls because I don't know how many swings I have in me. We tee off and I proceed to have to swing about half my normal swing speed just chopping it around wincing in pain every shot/swing. To be honest it was terrible but I made it through the round shooting about a 93 which is a laughable score for me but at least I finished the round.
-The Meadow course conditions were outstanding and there was no one really out there but our group. It's the end of the season up there and they barely have any players so it works out well for our degen group to troll around. Greens were fast but not quite as fast as we had seen them in the past but that helped us out actually.
-My squad ended up winning the "Ryder Cup" which included a trophy made by spray painting a Jack Danield Bottle and putting a golfer guy on top.
All in all the trip was great and obviously I left out many degen details but you can just imagine what goes on with 12 guys for 4-5 days away from gf's and wives.
Looking forward to next year!
bonus pic of stupid girl that drove a cart into the water while texting and trying to get pins while we were fishing like 20 feet away....luckily she was okay
again sorry for the lack of good course pictures as there was just too much bull**** going on to really take good pics on this trip....hope you enjoy
Last edited by durango155; 09-30-2014 at 01:02 PM.