Tournament Catch Up

It seems this author took a couple of days off, so I need to catch everyone up on our most exciting tournament. At my last post we left off after day 4 with Jim with 2 wins and Greg and Linda at 1 each.

Day 5, game of the day was Nines, where the winner of the hole gets 5 points, 2nd gets 3 and last gets 1 point. Jim won after Linda gave last minute pressure, but to no avail.

Day 6 we started the game rotation over with a regular game. At the end of hole 16, Greg and Jim were tied. Greg went ahead and won after going to a sudden death hole.

Day 7 Jim won as we played match play.

Day 8 was Round Robin day. Greg gave Jim pressure on the last 2 holes, but Jim prevailed.

So after 8 rounds with 2 days left Jim became the winner of the tournament with 5 wins, Greg with 2 and Linda with 1.  Here's Jim after he accepted his trophy for the 3rd straight year.

A bit of relaxing after a long, hard fought tournament.

The tournament meals have been delicious every evening. Monday and Tuesday, the restaurant is closed so Monday we BBQ a turkey (Thanksgiving in March) and Tues. we had brats. Then back up to the club for prime rib on Wed.; Thurs. & Friday off the menu. We have been consuming our share of calories.

Friday we took a break from golf (since the tournament was over) and we drove to Desert Hot Springs to visit the Cabot Museum, which is an old adobe house that was built back in the early 1900s by Cabot Yerxa who was a distant relative of Henry Cabot Lodge.

See the picture of the sign below in regards to this carving.

 

"Greg, where are you going?"

"I'll have a 'cold one' while I'm sitting here on the veranda."

After our excursion to Cabot Museum, the bus stopped next at the local casino. Greg donated about $10, Jim came out about $2 ahead and Linda walked out the winner with an additional $44 in her pocket, which was immediately turned over into a 11 pound box of dates at the Shields Date store, which was our next stop on the way back to the RV.

Today brings our last day here in paradise. We will do a round of golf this afternoon with our final boat cruise before heading up to the club for our final dinner. Tomorrow morning we will pack everything up and head on back home to Tucson to wait another year for the 4th Annual Indio Invitational.

Days 3 & 4

I would sound like a broken record if I kept giving the weather report - mid 80s bright sunshine and light winds - so until that changes, just understand we are just putting up with some ho-hum weather! Ha Ha, it couldn't get better!

Well on to our 3rd round of golf on Sat. (I had to stop and think what day of the week it is). We played what we call Round Robin where for every 6 holes we change partners and one person is single. If the person who is single wins a hole he (or she) gets 2 points, the partners get 1 point each if either of them win the hole. It went pretty even throughout until the 16th hole where Jim took a 2 point lead. He was the single at that time, so Greg and Linda needed to win the next two holes for Greg to tie with Jim. Under the fierce pressure, Jim collapsed and Greg ended up tying with Jim and went to a sudden death playoff. Greg won the hole. Contrats to Greg.

So after 3 rounds - we are all tied with 1 game each. After our boat cruise, we enjoyed Lobster night up at the club with all 3 of us having steak and lobster - very good dinner.

Round 4 game we played points for birdie, sandy, greenie, and hole. It started out pretty slow then Jim took a commanding lead on the 12th hole and by the end of 17, we announced him winner and went back to the RV to quench our thirst. Congrats to Jim who is now 1 game ahead.

Sunday night up at the club is Southern Comfort food (but it has been modified to be not so southern comfort) which we all had our fill. Greg had a bow tie pasta with chicken and Jim & Linda had fish and chips. Another enjoyable evening which included, of course, our boat cruise.

Since the photographer has been on vacation and not taken golf shots, I thought you might enjoy some pictures of the many flowers around the resort.

Jim ran into an old buddy.

Out for the morning walk.

Day Two Results

Day two of the Indio Invitational brought a little more challenge to our games with light winds of 5-10 mph., but the temp was perfect around mid 80s. The wind didn't pose a big challenge, but just added more dimension. Our game of the day was our version of 3-way match play where two tied-all tied. Linda jumped out to the lead of winning 4 out of 5 holes, then went into a slump. Jim picked up the slack by winning 5 holes, while Greg won 3 holes. It came down to the last hole with Linda 1 hole behind Jim and she miraculously took the hole to tie. So off to sudden death for Linda and Jim. Both of their tee shots came up short, but the advantage was with Linda as Jim was in the sand bunker. His shot out of the bunker left him with a very difficult next shot - Linda ended up winning the hole and the round. Congrats to Linda!

We celebrated Linda's win with an evening cruise.

It was such a perfect day-

 to "Wine Down"!

We finished the day with BBQ ribs with our traditional mesquite flavor.

 Another fine day here in paradise.

Opening Day Indio Invitational

All aboard the Moon Venture traveling machine (RV), Jim Greg and Linda set out Wednesday mid morning bound for Indio to hold the Indio Invitational Golf Tournament. The trip was accented by all the beautiful wildflowers along the freeway. It's always to colorful this time of the year. We arrived at our lot in time to set up before our dinner reservation at 6 p.m. to partake in the prime rib dinner.

Thursday afternoon was opening day for our tournament. We played lowest score for our first round to get used to the course.

The day started out quite windy, but by the time we headed out to the course a little after 1pm, the wind had died down and it got quite warm - around 90 degrees. So on our first day we got acclimated to the heat and the course.

Our tongues were hanging out by the end of the round, so that first gulp of our refreshment (beer) after the round was highly enjoyed. Of course we had to congratulate the winner of the day - Jim for shooting 1 under par. Great score Jim - now you can let either Greg or Linda win a round.

We finished the day watching AZ Wildcats beat Belmont, took a boat cruise, then up to the restaurant for another fine meal.

Friday brings another beautiful day with bright sunshine, highs in the mid to upper 80s with 10-12 mph winds. The game for today will be our version of match play for three, where if two tie all tie. Another exciting day on the course.

Slim Pickin's

Last Thursday I took my first trek of the spring in search of wildflowers. They're out - but you need to search for them. This has been a late spring for the wildflowers, I imagine that by the end of this week into next week, the flowers will be at their peak and should put on a beautiful show.

My search brought me to me favorite Sabino Canyon.

Here are a couple of shots of some wildflowers, but I didn't too many good shots.

 The creek is flowing. It's so peaceful to sit beside listening to the water rush over the rocks.

We are planning to head back over to Indio this week for our annual Indio Invitational Golf Tournament. So my search for wildflowers will be put on hold till we get back. Hopefully they will still be in bloom. But I will keep you posted on the Golf Tournament on whether Greg or Linda can beat our two time champion - Jim.