A perfect course, a perfect test
It’s no wonder that the PGA Tour often holds its annual Q-School
tournament at the San Juan Oaks Golf Club
–and there’s a pretty simple reason why: The course is the
perfect test of golf because the course has all the necessary
ingredients to test your game.
A perfect course, a perfect test
It’s no wonder that the PGA Tour often holds its annual Q-School tournament at the San Juan Oaks Golf Club –and there’s a pretty simple reason why: The course is the perfect test of golf because the course has all the necessary ingredients to test your game.
There is wind, water, O.B., waste areas, creeks, canyons, and doglegs to the left and right, straight-away holes, strategic bunkering, and the greens are true, big and not unfairly undulated. On top of that the course is fair, each hole is unique and the surrounding scenery is serene and enticing.
Just the fact that it’s right up the street for most of our reader’s makes this gem of a course even more special.
On Sunday, I had a chance to play the picturesque Fred Couples-designed track and loved every minute of it, despite the fact that the course record was never in jeopardy.
On the first tee, my biggest concern was putting the tee shot into the fairway – a key to scoring at San Juan Oaks.
I did, but a pulled sand wedge on the second shot that led to a bogey 5. By the fifth hole all scoring thoughts had changed as my allergies kicked in to the point that I had less fear of going for it in two on the 9th hole than I did about sneezing at impact.
On top of that, my right hip, the one body part that hurts only when I golf, started acting up, too. Yet, I forged on, sneezing a minimum of five times a hole, and walking with the pain a man 20 years my senior might experience. But there was no way that I was going to stop playing? The course is too beautiful, and with this job, you seldom have time to tee it up. Not to mention, I’ll be a daddy again for the second time next month so I figured I’d better enjoy the five-hour break while I can.
Despite all of this, I have the audacity to say to my golfing buddy on the 10th tee that I want to play the back nine from the tips, the black tees.
We had been playing from the blue tees, but I wanted to enjoy the course to its fullest.
Even with the 41-year-old, Jack-Nicklaus-like hip and a sneezing session that Steve Elkington could relate to, I somehow managed to hit the ball well of the tee, not in the fairway just off the tee. Maybe it was because the ball was on a tee and I didn’t have to kick up any of those allergy-related grass particles.
As the wind whipped up on the inward half, as Ben Wright would say, the itchy nose and watery itchy eyes seemed to go on a birdie run of their own. Then, as Murphy’s Law would have it, the allergies let up right about the time I hit my second shot at 18, a pulled 8-iron over the back left side of the green. It wasn’t the best round of golf I’ve ever played, but San Juan Oaks is truly one of the best courses I’ve ever played – a must for all golf lovers in this area.
A big thank you to Paul in the pro shop, Steve Janisch and Scott Fuller for setting up the special day. San Juan Oaks is a five-star course and operation…
