On Wednesday, I had a morning tee time at The Irish Course at Whistling Straits. I was paired up with a very nice father and son team and at Whistling Straits, everyone walks with a caddie. My caddie was a terrific and it was like having a five hour golf lesson. I say five hours because the course is set up like an Irish links course and if you miss the fairway, it is hard to find your ball even with a caddy. As a result, the course is often backed up, as is the Straits course.

My caddie quickly got the sense of my high handicap and was urging me to hit with a three wood and then lay up on my second shot so that I could chip up near the hole. That way, the theor was, I would stay out of the long grass and have a reasonable chance to score well. He said that he thought the Irish course plays a bit tougher than the Straits course, because it is a bit narrow

We decided to play from the white tees to give ourselves a chance. I strod up to the first tee and this is what I saw:

The hole was only about 360 yards but undulating. I shot a 6 and was happy.

The 13th hole is called Blind Man’s Bluff because you cannot see the green from the tee box. The hole only played about 150 yards long. In the photo below, the tee box is directly behind the large hill so you are looking at the hole from behind the green to the tee. One must hit the drive high over the bluff and then straight down onto a fairly large green. I missed the green to the left and took a 6.

All in all, I shot a 112 on the Irish. It was a beautiful day. My playing partners were as nice as can be and so was my caddy. As my Dad would say, “Good Living.”