My holiday weekend grew by an extra day when I received a last minute invitation from my friend to join a foursome at Hazeltine National yesterday. After a “Hazelburger” and fries for lunch, we teed off on the back side first. I learned right away that U.S. Open length rough is nothing to mess around with. My tee shot on ten cleared the bunkers at the dogleg and was only three feet from the fairway, but was buried in grass about 7 inches long. I don’t know how the pros do it, but I could barely advance the ball at all–let alone in the right direction. Double bogey to open.

The par 5 eleventh hole started out better: decent tee shot to the left side of the fairway. My 5-iron layup shot was well struck, but rolled a few feet into the second cut. After another feeble attempt to advance the ball to the green, I decided it was best to just get back on the fairway–even if it meant going sideways. Another double bogey.

Double bogey was a popular score for me as the day went on. My sub-100 round streak runs back about two years and I was afraid it was in jeopardy: tee shot on 12 went wide into the right rough; tee shot on the par 3 thirteenth was awful and in the trees right; tee shot on the short par 4 fourteenth caught a tree branch and went in the junk. Five holes, five double bogies. Still smiling though–this is Hazeltine on a beautiful day and I’m just happy to be here.

There are a number of changes to the course since I last played there (October 2002). Several new tees have been added to lengthen the course even more for the upcoming U.S. Amateur. Back tees were added to 13, 15 and 18, along with numerous changes to bunkering (added new bunkers, moved some bunkers further down holes and deepened others). We were playing the gold tees at 6600 yards with a rating of 73.7 and a slope of 146. I can’t wait to see what the young guns do at the Am from the new tips.

On fifteen, my drive missed the fairway on the left, but I finally got a lie in the rough that was sitting up a little. Bogey instead of double! I hit driver on the lakeside sixteenth and got a lucky bounce off a tree to the middle of the fairway. My approach was wide left and I ended up with another bogey. Two holes left on the first nine–the par 3 seventeeth and the long, uphill par 4 eighteenth. I hit a line-drive iron into the back bunker on seventeen and tried to get cute with the sand shot to keep the ball on the right tier. It hung up in the fringe, then I proceeded to chip it to the wrong tier anyway–double bogey was back.

It took nine holes, but on eighteen I had two good shots in a row and hit the green in regulation. First par of the day! This did not carry over to the long par 4 first hole, however, as I hooked my drive into the recently fire-burned left rough. Penalty shot, drop and an almost perfect approach led to another double. I hit a good drive on the second hole and had a good miss on the second shot that left a straight uphill chip shot. My friend said the greens were a little slow right now, as the club is following a grow and cut procedure dictacted by the USGA to prepare for the Am. They were still plenty fast and I had many chip shots roll through the green.

The par 5 third hole always seems like the longest hole I’ve ever played. It’s not really that long from the gold tees, but it takes three good shots for me to make it to the elevated, well-guarded green. Unfortunately, I didn’t have three good shots in me and I took my only 7-X of the day. I made up for it on the next hole–the tree-lined par 3 fourth. The flag was in the back and was playing to around 175 yards. My tee shot stopped about 10 feet to the right of the flag and I made my second par of the day.

Holes five and six are dogleg par 4s in opposite directions–five to the right and six to the left. I hit a good tee shot on five and missed the green short and left on my approach. My tee shot on six went wide right behind a row of trees and I punched out back to the fairway. I think both of those holes turned into doubles somehow.

The par 5 seventh is said to be the easiest par 5 on the course. Not so from the trees on the right, I found out. I punched out, then hit a decent 7-iron to just over 105 yards out. My wedge went to around ten feet and I made bogey. My tee shot on the par 3 eighth landed just beyond the bunkers on the left and I hit a poor tee shot on the par 4 ninth as well. The round sputtered to an end, but I made it through with my sub-100 streak intact: an equitable stroke-adjusted 98. It’s frightening to think what I could score if I turned even half of those doubles into bogeys.

After the round, I stopped in the pro shop to pick up some presents for the kids and a U.S. Amateur hat for me. One final drink in the grill and some popcorn to snack on and my day at the number one modern course in Minnesota was over. Thanks again to my friend for his kind hospitality…DK

Sunday was one hot day to pick for 36 holes of golf. The temperature hit 97 degrees and the wind was howling out of the south. My regular Saturday morning golf buddy grew up in Hayfield, Minnesota, and I wanted to get down there and play the course where he worked during school. I had visited both The Oaks and Maple Valley during the Golden Links days, but this was the first time playing both.

The Oaks is not what I anticipated at all. Based on the few holes I had photographed near the clubhouse, it looked like your typical wide-open Minnesota farm course. The reality was a course with several narrow, tree-lined holes, a meandering stream that comes into play on multiple holes and small, severely sloped greens that, when combined with the constantly blowing wind, made for a challenging start to the day. Despite the double bogey on one and triple bogey on two, I managed to string together a number of pars and shot an 89.

After a great lunch at the Miller ranch, we drove from Hayfield to Maple Valley–located just south of Rochester. Designed and built by Wayne Idso in 1964, Maple Valley is a shorter course that sits in the Root River valley. The course has craggy rock cliffs, large elevation changes and beautiful views of the Root River itself. It has a very low rating (67.2/106), but I find it hard to believe that the average high handicap golfer would find the course that easy. There are way too many places to get in trouble if you aren’t hitting the ball straight…DK

It amazes me that there are so many online communities that I’ve never heard of before. Today I came across the Live Music Archive and found a huge source of free, legal music downloads by a number of artists I like. It’s important to read through the audio FAQ to figure out the format issues, but I was impressed with what I’ve found so far:

• G. Love and Special Sauce
• Kristin Hersh
• Mike Doughty
• Soul Coughing
• Tenacious D
• Tom Tom Club
• Ween
• Warren Zevon

I’m sure this is all old news to the music traders out there, but I was very happy today…DK

Limited Edition Disneyland Enchanted Tiki Room Figurines…DK

On Sunday evening we took the family to the 5pm performance of Pippi Longstocking at the Children’s Theater in Minneapolis. This was the last of our season ticket package for the 2005-06 season, which included 4-ISH and Sleeping Beauty. There a number of good shows coming up next season, but we haven’t decided to renew yet.

Pippi was a fun show and the kids enjoyed it. Reed Sigmund has appeared in many of the shows we’ve seen over the years and he just knows how to make children laugh–very, very talented. Jessie Shelton was energetic in the title role and her style suited the role well.

The only disappointing thing about the night was CTC’s policy of not letting parents take pictures of their kids in their seats before the show and during intermission. It’s a public theater with no copyright issues during non-performance periods–how about some relief from the threatening P.A. warnings? Better yet, make it more fun for the kids by allowing pictures with the cast afterwards…DK

We played The Summit Golf Club in Cannon Falls yesterday for the first time this year. It’s been one of my favorites the past few years, as there are a number of interesting holes, no houses on the course and all bentgrass tees, fairways and greens. It’s usually not very crowded and that was the case yesterday on an otherwise beautiful Saturday morning.

The first thing we noticed was the newly paved entry road and parking lot. There were also several new cement cart paths and they were starting to build a deck off the back of the small clubhouse. I joked with the manager at the desk that green fees must be going up this year. He said they had sold two more 1% ownership shares (now $50,000 each) and they put all of the money back into the course as capital improvements.

Originally priced at $40,000 per share, buyers received a 1% ownership share and 150 passes each year that could be used however you wanted. You could play all 150 rounds yourself, give them away, us them for business or sell them. The course, which was named Best New Affordable Public Course in Minnesota by Golf Digest in 2002, was built on land costing about $3500 per acre. Asking price of land for sale now next to the course: $40,000 per acre. Not a bad return for the original investors, eh?

As for the round, I played well on the front nine, but tired out quickly on the hilly back nine and closed with three triple-bogeys in a row–something I haven’t done in a long, long time. The trees along holes 1, 6 and 10 are maturing nicely and will really change the nature of those holes in a few more years. The greens were really fast and the closing holes still have my number. I need to get back there again soon to get my revenge on those holes…DK