Seven Oaks Golf Club

I played in a Golf Channel Amateur Tour event last weekend at the Seven Oaks Golf Club. It was my first time playing in one of these tournaments, and I'm psyched to say that I finished first in a field of eight. Normally they divide players into six flights based on handicaps, but because only eight people showed up, they instead used a quota system in which you get one point for a bogey, two points for a par, four points for a birdie, and six points for an eagle. Players are assigned a negative starting score based on their flight. I finished at plus three, thanks to a stellar back-nine 40. My total score for the round was 89; highlights included four of the best bunker shots of my life and a great bounce off a tree after I jacked a tee shot straight toward someone's house out of bounds.

Seven Oaks was a great place for the tournament. It is the golf course of Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, and was designed by Robert Trent Jones. It has hosted a NCAA Division I Championship and two New York State Men's Amateur Championships. The course is definitely challenging, but not so penal that folks were loosing balls all over the place. The greens were something else, definitely the fastest putting surfaces I've ever played on. I saw more than one two-footer turn into a twelve-footer coming back the other way.

The next event is on the 14th at Foxfire in Baldwinsville, New York. Wish me luck!

Photo credits: Seven Oaks web site