Golf in the Kingdom [with apologies to Michael Murphy]
When the leaves start to fall from the multitudinous cottonwoods at Riverwood,
it is more a game of hide-and-seek than it is golf. So five of us traveled
southwest to Beautiful, Downtown Mott ["It's not the end of the world, but
you can see it from there."] Pictured above are Dave Cantrell, Scott
Halvorson, Nick Kjos, and yours truly. We are standing in front of the
house where I lived for most of my formative years. Photo by Dale Hoerauf.
After a hearty breakfast at the Pheasant Cafe, where signs posted on the walls
warn customers to refrain from profanity, we drove to the Mott Country
Club. Rich "Badger" Lindeman, is the course manager and made
sure we had carts to drive. Some of the fairways had been spiked but the
greens were in good shape and the overall condition of the course was quite good
for this time of year. At left, Scott "The Brute" Halvorson,
pitches back to the elevated green on #2 after hitting his drive behind the
green.
Showing off his John Daly-style swing, Dale attempts to drive the 345-yard par 4
hole. Unfortunately, an out-of-bounds fence line along the left side of
the hole thwarted his plans.
Dave Cantrell looks on as Nick Kjos exhibits the silky smooth swing that helps
keep his ball in play.
On our second trip around the 9-hole course, our fivesome waited for a twosome
behind us to play through. Turns out is was my brother Bill and his wife
Elaine. Why he wasn't fishing, God only knows.
We left Mott in the early afternoon, bound for Glen Ullin, where Scott coached
for several years. The Crossroads Golf Club has some unique holes
including a short par 4 #9 that is reachable with a good drive if you're brave
and accurate. Dale was plenty long. He drove past the hole and into
"the deep juice" and Leon Ripplinger would say. Dale points to
his landing spot. Miraculously, he found his ball and played it from
there.
The grueling test behind us, we posed for this photo before leaving "the
west" and returning to Bismarck.