Randolph North Golf Course
On Wednesday afternoon, Ryan and I played 18 at the Randolph North Golf Course in Tucson. Randolph North is the best of five Tucson, AZ municipal courses, and was the location of the Ping / Welch’s LPGA Tournament. The course was built in 1925 and is a traditional course built for walking. The course was in very good condition, considering it is the end of summer and will soon be re-seeded for the winter. The greens were in excellent condition; the fairways showed signs of summer stress. The weather was warm and partly cloudy, and we got a brief burst of rain on the 12th hole, which left a stunning rainbow over the course.
We went off the first tee at about 2:45 PM and finished well before the sun went down, in about 3-1/2 hours. We seldom waited on any holes even though the course was pretty full.
My score:
| Hole | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | Out |
| Par | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 36 |
| Score | 6 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 50 |
| Hole | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | In | Total |
| Par | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 36 | 72 |
| Score | 5 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 48 | 98 |
Themes:
- Tee shots. I had a pretty respectible day with the driver, hitting about half the fairways. I was less successful on the par-3 holes, hitting only the 15th in regulation.
- Approach shots. Here’s where I continue to struggle. I had a pretty mediocre day with approach shots. An illustrative hole was the par-5 ninth. I hit a driver into the center of the fairway, then misjudged the distance to the creek running in front of the green and put the ball into the water. I took a drop and placed a short wedge shot to about 30 ft, which I promptly holed for par. Basically, although my distance control was pretty good, I sprayed approach shots all around the greens and almost never on them. On the back par-5 holes, I was chunking shots left and right, simply awful.
- Wedges. Pretty mediocre, getting close on very few shots, and flying the green on more than one hole. I managed to get up and down on only about three holes, and that’s some ugly golf.
- Sand shots. I hit into only one bunker, and got out, but not close, to the hole.
- Chipping. For the most part, I wasn’t close enough to the hole to chip, so was left with short wedge shots.
- Putting. Putting improved somewhat, as I tended to hit long putts past the hole instead of leaving them short as I so often do. I nailed a 30 ft putt for par on the ninth, and another long one for par on the 11th. I had only two three-putts that I remember, but I didn’t keep stats like I usually do.
I played poorly today, but the course was very fun. It seems easy at first glance, but is more difficult than it seems from its length.