Golf at Hyatt Hill Country

Wow. I got the opportunity to play golf on Saturday, July 9, 2005 at Hyatt Regency Hill Country Spa and Resort in San Antonio.

A bit of a long story, WOAI had sponsored a give away, and I was fortunate enough to obtain a few of the passes, but at 7:30 Friday evening. After calling around and trying to find a few people, I was able to gather a foursome: Mike, Jamie, and Ryan. A good group, I was excited about playing this course.

We got to the course about 7:00 and it was really jammin'. Checked in and was looking in the pro shops. A six pack of Titleists logoed with the club logo: $22.00. Wow....

Walk out to the range and they have the pyramids of range balls ready to go. Long tees in a metal container available for all. Hitting off the grass was nice, but it was a bit sandier than I expected. The range balls were Nike. Damn that's nice!

Get on the carts with the GPS screen. You can even order food and drinks via the GPS system and have them deliver it! Didn't do that, but just played.

Of special note, I broke out my new putter on the course for the day. We'll get to that in a moment.

The course was immaculate. Fairways were slightly firm, but felt awesome going throught them making a divot. The rough was aptly named, with the grass cacthing on the hosel and turning my clubface a number of times. The greens were absolutely gorgeous. Firm, but approachable and holdable with a softer ball.

Play for me during the day was hot and cold. My driver decided he was still on vacation, so I only used it about six times; the rest of the time I used either 3 or 4 wood. My 7+ wood and my iron play was on, and that really saved my ass a number of times. What shocked me was that I was really hitting my irons farther than usual. I usually carry my 7 iron around 150, but on Saturday I was hitting 9 iron almost 150 carry!

Putting could have been so much better. The Contender goes where you hit it, no doubt about that. My problem was alignment and feel. It's solid aluminum without an insert, so I was worred about blowing past the hole on so many putts. Few too many three putts, but ended up only about ten strokes over my average. Everyone had a great time, so I was simply happy to share the experience with a memorable group.

Hopefully, the putter will just get better, and O2 (my driver!) will come back from R&R.