Pebble Creek

Wed 6th

An unexpected extra course was added to my list today. I had to go back to College Station to visit Capsher so they could set me up with the source control software,register me on their server and get some instruction on how it works. (College Station is where Texas A&M is located)

Essentially we store multiple version of each source code file on the server. When anybody changes anything it has to be checked in so that a history of changes is maintained.

The drive up there today was a lot less stressful and didn't seem to take as long as the first time last week. I guess knowing where you are going helps psychologically even if it still takes the better part of an hour and a half.

We finished the set up and registration work and went to lunch at a hamburger place. Afterwards,  the 2 owners invited me and my contact, Mark, to a round of golf at Pebble Creek, where they are both members.

To be fair, any course that has Creek, Lake, Beach or whatever in its name has given you a fair warning that there may be a bit of water around. As you can see from the photos, there was no false advertising in this case. In fact, only 3 holes didn't have the creek running past or a lake on them.

It was, for a change, a lovely sunny day with clear skies, but a bit windy. The 3 guys were more than competent golfers and 3 of us broke 90 and the other was a few strokes over.

Mark started with a birdie on the par 5 first, while I bogeyed despite being over the green in 2. I made up for that by just getting one the next hole for 2 and sinking a 40ft putt for a birdie myself. I was playing pretty well again but a couple of water hazards and the odd chipping or putting lapse resulted in a 46 on the front.

The back 9 was better,  with  3 pars in the first 4 holes and only one double, on the 18th to finish with 43 to just break 90.

I gave them all a couple of the spike tees, which we use at home, and assured them it would give them and extra 10 metres on their drives., After that I  would point out a spot 10m back from where their drives finished and said, that's where you would have finished with normal tees. When one sliced into a back yard, I said you had to turn the tee in the direction that you wanted the extra 10m and he must have had it turned sideways. We had a lot of fun, as you may have gueseds.

My best drive of the day was on the par 5 16th. By then they all had the Aussie super tees, since I had found the box of them I'd bought in China. They had all hit pretty good drives on this hole. However, with wind assistance and a down hill run at the end, I still out-drove them all. Hitting the cart path on the full may have also had something to do with it. With only 180yd to the green on a 544yd hole this was over 360yards/325m long. I still managed to get a bogey.

After we finished we went to the bar for drinks. Earlier, Mark and I had been talking about shandies and portagaffs and they all wanted to try one, partly to see if the bar maid knew what they were.(She'd never heard of them). We ordered a bottle of Newcastle ale each and I said we needed 4 glasses half filled with Lemonade. I took a sip of mine since it was a bit too full and realised "lemonade" means "lemon squash" in the US. Throw that out and refill with Sprite. Verdict - a nice refreshing drink for after golf.

Today's panorama's - Looking back down the 9th, From the 18th green (on left), past the 10th tee to the 1st. and then looking at the clubhouse from the 18th tee.