Aerial shots of courses played

Oh, it seemed like such a good idea: I fly in, and as the plane is approaching I take a picture of a golf course from above. Then once I've landed, I find the course, play it, post about it in my blog and put the picture with it. Unique and easy, right? Witness. What would you think if you saw this:















Might you want to play it? I took this photo from the plane as I was approaching the airport in Seattle. I asked several people at Maplewood and another course called Foster and after some time discussing amonsgt themselves and agreeing it wasn't their course and after hearing about the approach pattern of the aircraft, they all agreed the pictured course was one called "Taee." They warned me that it was crap, or what I would call a "dogrun" but the photo looked playable enough that I thought I could still get through it and post an article about the round with my photo. So when I had time after work one day, I thought I'd go for it. Man, was I wrong and right at the same time. I was wrong that it was playable but right that I could get a post out of it.














Have you seen this cartbarn?
How caddyshack can you get?
Once I paid and rented clubs, they said "Just go grab a cart - if the number on the key doesn't match, just pick one." One of two, huh?
I swear the spiders behind the carts were black widows!



Here's the proshop!











If you look to the left of the proshop, you'll see tees 1 and 10, if you look right, you'll see this: the runway of departing planes. This one happens to be a Southwest flight. I was lucky enough to experience some Alaska takeoffs as well.

I had no idea where to send my teeshot at #1, but as I tracked it with my cart, I saw some shirtless mofos playing my ball going the other way. I was by myself and not about to raise a stink, so I just kind of gave them the golfers tsk-ish stare and head-shake but clearly they didn't care. I guess this is what happens at this course. I dropped a ball and played it, knowing I wasn't long for this course. I grabbed the mismatched 8-iron from my piecemeal $6 rental set (oh, I forgot to mention the dented up "driver" I teed off with). Admittedly, it ended up just off the green, which was also right where another teebox and the requisite mofos were, and I never saw that ball again. I dropped, chipped up onto the green just for good measure, picked up and headed back to the proshop. All the while I wished I had a sports bra on just for the bumpy ride.

I really thought I would be tougher, though. I didn't even get through the first hole. What a pansy. I took off faster than the next planes taxiing out.

I'm still up for the idea so if I see some courses as I approach I'll shoot them and check them out once I land. One failure won't deter me forever. Two might, but I'll let you know! If anyone knows of good airport courses, let me know so I can be prepared.

Next post.