If you are reading this blog, you are probably a golfer. And over your years of playing, you always have goals you are trying to achieve. My cousin Bud in New Jersey has taken up the game in his retirement years like it was invented for him. He never played much golf during his working years but discovered it in a big way as he neared retirement. I played a few rounds of golf with him last year and he had a simple formula of goals for improving as he played in his nine-hole league. One, no three putts; two, no penalty strokes; three, no score above six on a hole. If he could achieve these three goals, he knew he would be around bogey golf for a round.

Just about all of us have golf goals to achieve. Break 90; break 80; single digit handicap; no double bogeys for the round. Hit ten fairways; hit nine greens. The list is long.

My longtime goal has been to shoot under par for 18 holes. I've been able to shoot under par for nine holes many times. But I could never put two nines together. And when I was in the process of a career round, my brain went into overdrive. I couldn't play shot to shot. That two under through 14 became a three over for the round. It was frustrating.

Yesterday, I fought off the demons.

I was paired at my home course, Coyote Creek Golf Club in Fort Wayne, IN with three excellent golfers and good friends, Mark Bickel, Jeff Miller, and Tom Putman. We were playing our normal Nassau. Three of us were walking, and I had my bag on my back as usual. We were playing from our White Tees at 6209 yards.

On the driving range before the round, I was fighting a hook, even a snap hook. I teed off second on number one and what did I hit? A snap. Fortunately, the first hole is a par five and I was able to get the next shot through some trees (luckily) back into the fairway. I was able to make a par and as I walked to the second tee, I had my normal thoughts for fighting the snaps: weaker grip, quiet lower body and take it back low and slow. It worked for several holes but I was still uncomfortable with every tee shot, even on the par threes. My only decent drives were on six and nine.

By the time the front nine was complete, I had made nine straight pars but only hit two fairways and three greens. I was chipping sufficiently and making every putt. A 20 footer on three, a twelve footer on five, a curling downhiller on seven. Even a sand save on eight. So that was a good nine for somebody who is unsure what kind of shot is going to come off the driver.

The tenth hole is a par four and I rushed my drive, hitting another snap and was blocked from the green. I didn't try to hit a "one in twenty" shot, took my medicine and hit a wedge over a pine tree (below) to about 45 yards short of the hole.

Sixteen states, one Canadian province, eighteen new courses (including ten Top 100's), six resorts, 6600 miles in 16 days. That's a brief summary of my 2018 Western trip just completed.

I knew I'd eventually have to make a trip like this. The Quest is my project to play every course that has ever been on Golf Magazine's "Top 100 You Can Play" list. If the list was static, it would be much easier to plan and stay close to the goal. But the list changes every two years. In 2014, Wilderness Club on the Canadian border in Montana was added. In 2016, Gamble Sands in remote Washington state was added. Courses like these are not exactly "on the way" to someone who lives in the Midwest. It seems I always have a few orphans to pick up.

With this year's trip, I attempted to knock off all the western "orphans". I almost did it. Unfortunately, Shadow Creek in Las Vegas is closed for the month of July. I had intended to play it the day before Cascata, just south of Las Vegas. So it remains an orphan to be picked up in the future. 

This year's trip began in Silvis, IL, turned northeast into Wisconsin for six rounds in three days, included stops in North Dakota and Montana before my first lifetime round in Canada. I then headed south to Washington state, California for three rounds and a visit with long-time friends and then to Nevada before turning northeast into Utah and Nebraska before heading back to Fort Wayne.

I experienced the extremes of weather with upper 90's heat and humidity early on in the Upper Midwest followed by chilling rain in Montana and Canada, more heat in Washington, coolness on California's Monterrey peninsula, dry 100+ temps in Nevada and Utah before normal summer heat in Nebraska.

All in all, a great trip executed according to plan. One of the resorts I experienced has taken its place as my personal favorite. See my write-up on Gamble Sands below.

In the paragraphs that follow, I'll attempt to describe some of the highlights of the trip.

I left the friendly confines of Fort Wayne, IN early on Thursday morning, June 28 for a 10:50 tee time at TPC at Deere Run in Silvis, IL, home of the John Deere Classic. I arrived well before my tee time on a sunny but muggy morning. The temperature was set to climb into the upper 80's.

With the 2018 John Deere Classic scheduled to begin the week of July 9th, there was a bevy of activity on and around the course. Crews were not only engaged in course maintenance but also the setup of spectator stands, air-conditioned boxes, TV towers, and concession areas.

Being a TPC course, there were many elevated grassy areas around the tees, fairways, and greens for spectator viewing.

Each tee station contains a little history of John Deere and the land on which the course was built. John Deere moved from Vermont to Illinois and settled 70 miles upstream from the site of the course. He soon learned farmers were having problems with the cast iron plows they had brought from New England where the soil was light and sandy. The plows got bogged down in the rich Midwestern soil forcing farmers to stop every few feet to scrape the thick soil from the plows. Deere became convinced that the sticky soil would fall off a highly polished and properly shaped plow. So he fashioned a plow in 1837 using the steel from a broken saw blade, providing the solution farmers needed to efficiently farm in the Midwest.

The TPC at Deere Run course is ranked 96th on Golf Magazine's "Top 100 You Can Play" list and is certainly a beautiful, well-maintained golf course. My most vivid memory of the course is the lush, long, emerald green Kentucky blue grass rough (not that I ever had to hit out of it) that was being lovingly attended to in anticipation of the 200 or so professional golfers that would be occupying the course in less than two weeks. The course is not a killer and certainly long rough would be one one of the course's major defenses against low scoring. It didn't work so well...Michael Kim shot a tournament record 27 under par and won by eight shots.

I had a good experience at this course and for the most part, it was easy to decipher from each tee what was in store. I am not a fan of uphill holes and the one hole I did not like was number three, an uphill par three with a crown running through the middle of the green. From the tee, it was impossible to see what was required of the golfer.

The course was not crowded and I was able to play through two foursomes at the turn. I completed my round in just a little over three hours and began a three hour drive to Random Lake, WI where I would spend the night.