At the end of my last blog, we had arrived in Vegas and proceeded to go eat at 3 different places and we were so full we decided to rest to get ready to play golf. 
Marc got up early in the morning and went out to a donut shop to get coffee and rolls. Heaven forbid that somebody would dare cook something or use the kitchen. So we all took our time getting ready to go out to the course. It was very nice leisurely morning. The course we were playing today was Painted Desert. It was on the northwest side of town and had homes intertwined through out the course. That made it a little narrow but playable.
We arrived at the course and we were all trying to look like we could play a great game of golf. All I can say is we did look good. We did all the usual warming up, practiced putting, and hit the driving range. We probably should have quit there. We would probably have done better at miniature golf. As we went up to the first tee, I looked down the fairway and I thought "Those houses on the left are kind of close." Then I did not give it a second thought. As I got up to strike my drive the last thing I was thinking about were the houses. I was really successful at blocking out the homes to the left. I looked great with my practice swings and I felt really loose. As I approached the ball and addressed it, I felt really good. I took a slow back swing and as I came forward with my swing I let loose with a loud and sort of blood curdling grunt as I made contact with the ball. It was very similar to when tennis players hit the ball. I am famous for my power grunt on my drives. I smoothly continued my swing and thought to myself that really felt good. As I followed through, I caught sight of the ball headed almost straight left at about 61 degrees. I watched in horror as the ball traveled about 225 yards and hit the roof of a house to the left of me. When it hit the roof, it went straight up, bounced off the roof of the second house, went back to the right and hit a tree. Lucky for me, as it hit the tree it careened back to the right and landed in the middle of the fairway about 255 yards from the tee.
We were all in shock. Of course, I told everyone that was how I planned out my first shot. As we played I continued to use houses on the course to my advantage. The old saying 'I would rather be lucky than good' certainly applied to me. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful until the 18th hole. One of the guys, who will remain nameless, got up to hit his drive. It was awkwardly hit and took off at a funny angle around a dog leg. We lost sight of the ball but we did shortly hear the sound of glass breaking. We all stood very still and did not relish the thought of going around the corner. Well, there was good news and bad. The windows in the house were all intact but one of the new windows that was being installed at the house was shattered. We all sheepishly went up to the house to talk to the owner. When they came to the door, and we explained what happened, they were very gracious. We waited until the homeowner called his insurance company and we were sure he was covered. We all chipped in 20 bucks each to help defer the deductible. We felt that was only right.
The next day we went out to the Paiute Indian reservation. They have 3 beautiful courses there. It was north and west of Painted Desert. They told us to go toward Mt. Charleston till we got to Smoke Road. When you see the tribal smoke shop, you take a right till you get to the clubhouse. Because of the elevation of the land we could not see the course from the highway. We were greatly surprised as the course came into view and we saw this huge sea of green. It was gorgeous. The courses are Pete Dye designed and just in great shape. The biggest thing we had to watch out for here was the signs that said "If you hit your ball in the rough, don’t go in after it." The signs said beware of snakes. The coolest thing that happened when we were on the course was when the wind shifted, we were right in the landing path for Nellis Air base. We saw all kinds of military planes coming back from the firing range and many times we forgot about our shots as we watched the planes low over our head going in to land. It was awe inspiring to see them. It really was better than golf, watching our military aircraft. Part 3 will deal with favorite places to eat there.
Until later……………………………………………….ciao.
Fred is Part owner of John Cicco’s menswear and Id plus Marketing. Contact him at 219-769-1744 ext 5. Thanks