36 Holes in Two Days

Last weekend was the long-awaited golf trip that my Dad, my brother Easton, and I had planned months in advance.  We spent three days down in Mesquite, NV, as well as southern Utah, hitting some major golf courses and just having an all-around good time.

Now, I'm not a huge golfer.  In fact, before this trip, the last time I had been golfing was before my mission, meaning it had been at least four years, if not five.  I had the same set of clubs since when I was about fifteen or sixteen, and they weren't the best.  But the night before the trip, my dad and I hit Big 5, where we found an amazing left-handed set by South Bay that included 12 clubs, for only $129.  I didn't buy them, but the next morning my dad spent awhile on the phone with the manager, and talked him down to selling them for $97, and of course I jumped on that.  And I must say, they were definitely worth the money.

So, on Thursday afternoon after picking Easton up from school, we made the journey down to Mesquite, where we stayed at the Virgin River Motel & Casino.  We always stay at the Virgin River because not only do they have great prices and nice rooms, but their prime rib in their cafe is to die for.  And it's only five bucks.

Friday afternoon was our first round of 18 holes, at the Palms golf course...the one that is always advertised on TV on the Casablanca Resort and Casino commercials.  It was a beautiful course, and was a ton of fun.  I was actually impressed with how well I did, and attribute a lot of it to the new clubs.  Beginner's Luck played it's part as well.

The course had just about everything, with a ton of water shots, shorter par 3's, and even a sweet hole where we had to hit off a cliff into a valley below.  It was amazing.  Our tee time was at 2:30pm, which is considered a twilight tee time, and there was a good chance that we wouldn't be able to get all 18 holes in before it got dark.  But, with the moon in the sky and the sun going down, we finished the last hole and still made it back to the motel before it was completely dark.

The next morning we got up at 5am (Nevada time), packed up, ate breakfast at the cafe, and headed to Apple Valley, UT, for the Kokopelli golf course.  For those of you who don't know (and neither did I), Apple Valley is just past Hurricane, UT, near St. George.  We were actually comped the golf game by a friend of my dad's named Mike, who works on the magazine Fairway Golf.  It was really cool of him to do that, especially because the course is well-known and very expensive.

It was extremely windy on the course for about the first 10 holes, but it was still amazing, with tons of cliff/valley/canyon shots, and a sweet par 3 hole where we hit from one hilltop to another, shooting over the cart path down below.  It was very cool.  And at the end of the 18 holes, we were even given chicken enchiladas for lunch.  Can't beat that.

So, this weekend turned out to be a much-needed, relaxing vacation for all three of us, and it reminded me why I used to love golf when I was a teen.