Gail and I celebrate our anniversary and July/August birthdays all at once. We haven’t exchanged gifts for years, but we do do outings. This year we went to Kohler. We did spa stuff and I played golf.
Dammit, I’m only going to play like 15 rounds in this year and I didn’t go on my annual golf trip with my college buddies, so I’m playing some high end golf. I’m talking real high-end, overpriced golf. Enter the River course at Black Wolf Run. It’s beautiful, well-maintained, complex, challenging, and has impeccable service. It was $280, what do you expect?
I submit, that even with my passion for the game, I didn’t get nearly that much value out of the round. It’s like eating at The French Laundry if you’re a foodie or going to the Super Bowl if you’re favorite team is there. It’s the pinnacle or near-pinnacle of the sensory experience and you pay for it, but I didn’t feel like I got what I paid for. I didn’t feel like I got $280 out of it.
I could have played Dubsdread twice or Harborside four times for that. The River Course isn’t twice as great as Dubsdread and it’s not four times as great as Harborside. I know, I probably sound like a cheapskate, but I’m not. I’m just cognizant of value and I just don’t see it here.
The day provided some great memories of beautiful vistas and a few well-executed shots in the face of great difficulty and stress. Make no mistake, I loved being out there on the Pete Dye masterpiece playing the game I adore. But the best part of that day was sitting on the deck after the round during an absolutely perfect summer evening eating dinner with Gail and watching people finish their rounds.
