As part of my effort to start writing more, today I go back to my roots of golf course reporting. Today’s afternoon round was at one of my favorites: Willingers Golf Club near Northfield. I was accompanied by three generations of Millers – Grandpa Al, his son Brad and grandson Sam. We took advantage of the aeration special ($30 walking or riding), which proved popular based on the nearly full parking lot at 1:30PM.

They seem to be using the newer aeration process with smaller holes that heal quickly. To be honest, it was hard to tell that they punched at all this week. The greens seemed to be rolling a little slower than normal, but overall were quite nice. The winter damage I experienced on the sixth fairway this spring was completely healed and most fairways were fine – just some spots here and there.

I wish they would find an extra 64 yards to get the white tees to 6000 yards, as people keep playing the wrong tees for their ability. The group in front of us was terrible, but they seemed to think the blue tees were the place to be. Unfortunately, they also couldn’t keep pace and were out of position most of the day, which led to a 4:40 round. Frustrating.

On the upside, I tied my best score ever, a nine-over 81. I started with five straights pars, followed by bogeys on holes six through ten. I had five more pars on the back nine, but took a double bogey on the difficult par four sixteenth. I pulled my tee shot into a trap on the par three seventeenth, which basically blew any chance of breaking 80 for the first time. Still, it was nice to play an entire round with the same ball for a change.