Swan-e-set - Pitt Meadows, BC, Canada

[Silver]

**EDIT** - MORE PICS ADDED AT THE END OF THE POST

Accidentally lost a long'ish post about Lee Trevino, Swan-e-set and two courses (one members only, other public), big gate, Happy Gilmore being filmed here, etc. I'll cut to the chase instead:

www.swan-e-set.com - my first time playing here, was $55 CDN today ($45 USD) - peak is $69 CDN.

Grand entrance:



Wind down a road cut out of the mountain to a very nice clubhouse that seems fairly big. Yeah, check it out from the back though - f'in huge! 65,000 square feet!



Bogeyed the par 5 1st without hitting any balls prior to the round, despite the trouble down the left with the water by the willows (handy to play a huge fade like I do):



2nd - par 4 - has a nice run of bunkers down the middle. I landed square in between the two in the centre and ended up sending it into greenside that I outed and 2 putted for bogey again:



5th - Par 5 - creek crosses the fairway at 307 - safe enough for me to drive. Yeah, woops. Pulled one hard and long across the river on the left. Pull hooked the next one to a similar spot. Damnit, why didn't I bring my dingy to the round today? Ended up in the fairway on the third try, shooting 5 off the tee. Duffed two pitches and scored a wicked 11. I think that's the worst score I've EVER had, at least that was recorded. Nice work.



The creek from 5 also crosses 6. Oops. There goes ball #3 for the day. Still only doubled though. That's 17 on the last two holes. Kept my cool though, I was impressed with myself, although quite dejected by the scorecard.



A good shot of my friend in trouble on the 8th. He threaded the needle to safety. Good job Chad. Too bad I duffed 3 chips and ended up with a 7. 28 in 4 holes (bogeyed the par 3 7th).



Approaching the behemoth clubhouse (and the 9th green). What a site.



Long Par 4 11th - I duffed the drive 30 yards then cranked an attempted layup right into the far fairway bunker on the left, 6 iron to 2 feet off the green and holed the fringe putt for my first par of the day. Time for a turnaround.



Bogeyed the par 3 12th, only took the picture because of the backdrop. I love where I live.



More of the scenery from the (bogeyed) par 4 13th:



Got into a rhythm and didn't get any more significant pictures until the 18th. Par 5 14th was another par, only because I pussed out and decelerated on an easy 8 foot birdie putt. Par'd the Par 4 15th, doubled the 16th (drive into the left rough that just disappeared - almost called embedded ball due to winter rules, but elected to take my lumps instead, as that's the only way I'll really get better) - missed the relatively easy 12 foot birdie putt on the par 3 17th, and lost another ball in the rough on the right (blocked fade) on the par 4 18th to finish with a double.

Here are the other 3 guys putting out to finish the round:



Funny - 53 on the front (thanks to the 5th, 6th, and 8th), 43 on the back with some minor'ish mistakes that led to lost balls. Overall, the round was decent but just had a few problems that I just had to grin and deal with. Without the MAJOR unforced errors, I could have been looking at a cool 87 or so. That makes me feel good, because I know the direction my game is going.

A good day with good people. More to come this week hopefully. Have a minor surgery tomorrow that I hope won't effect things too much (if at all).

**EDIT** - NEW PICS BELOW:

So, here we have some pics sent to me by the other guy that likes to photograph his rounds.

First, his shot that is more picturesque than all of mine put together:



Here's one of another friend taking an approach shot with his ever strange grip and stance, but yet quite successful. He shot a 99 after not touching a club since November and with a brand new to him set of X-16s. He'd been to the range twice in the past couple of weeks and that was it. I'm in the red and black.



As we're approaching our tee shots on the par 5 that I mentioned par'ing above, we were looking for sprinkler heads with the distances on them - proof that someone has a sense of humour:



You know that 8 foot birdie putt I decelerated on? Yeah, here's the proof:



And finally, the usual foursome (I'm in the red and black, as mentioned above):

[Rockford35]

Phat pics, Silver. Course looks nice for this time of year.

Hard pull over the river? Ouch. We have a hole on a course near here that is almost spitting image (except the mountains in the background). It has water down the left like that one does, but the creek crosses the fairway at about 245 so you have to hit it about 260 carry to make it over.

So, what does a guy do? Put away that 3 iron and grab the big dog, only to hammer it about 50 yards left over the creek. Ya, nice work, genius.

Again, nice pics.

What's the surgery about? Nothing serious I hope!

R35

[DaveE]

More nice pics Silver. Keep up the good work.

Thought you came up with a picture of my house for a second there.

[Silver]

Oh yeah, no big deal, just a 20 minute jobbie to remove a cyst, but it's in my left ear, so I hope it doesn't mess with my dashing good looks too much!

As for the pull, it was a pisser because it wasn't even due to a harsh outside in or anything, it was total rollover at impact, which I guess it means that it was probably a combination of the two. Either way, that's the game.

And Dave, my lens isn't wide angle enough to catch your massive house!

[Rockford35]

Originally Posted by DaveE

Thought you came up with a picture of my house for a second there.

Who are you, Cinderella? That clubhouse looks like a Disney Castle....lol.

R35

[DaveE]

Originally Posted by rockford35

Who are you, Cinderella? That clubhouse looks like a Disney Castle....lol.

R35

That's Mr. Cinderella to you buddy.

My house would fit on the front porch of that place.

[Rockford35]

Mine would fit in the garage (re: Cayenne).

R35

[Silver]

I think I saw two Cayenne's there yesterday in the "members only" parking lot.

Bitches.

[Rockford35]

I have a Cayenne. Does that make me a bitch?



R35

[Silver]

It was more because I had to walk from the lowly "public" lot, where I parked my 94 Civic, and then walk through the members lot filled with Mercedes, BMWs, Porches, etc.

Bitches.

Nothing personal

[Rockford35]

I don't drive a Cayenne, S.

I have an 05 Mazda 3 SportWagon.

Did you see any of those in the member's lot?

R35

[Silver]

Actually, I think I parked beside one

I'm diggin the Mazda 6 though, that's a nice looking set of wheels at a pretty affordable price point.

My current favourite in the "value" section of the car lot is the Hyundai Tucson. Holy functional. I just wish they made the 4 cylinder with AWD. Then again, I wish I was already a lawyer and didn't have to pay for two more years of school first.

And why the hell don't you drive a Cayenne? You should!

[Rockford35]

Yes, I should drive one, but I don't. I could drive one for one month until the bank came and got it from my house.

A good friend of mine bought a 5 speed V6 Mazda 6 wagon not long before I bought my 3. A pig on gas. Holds more tho.

You couldn't pay me to buy a Hyundai. Resale is terrible and they have a reputation of being terrible cars, at least around here anyways. I have done alot of reading on them in the last little while, and many guys at Mazda and Honda, not to mention Toyota, are worried about Hyundai's presence in the market. They're making some cheap cars that people seem to like the shape of.

If I had to buy another car tommorrow for ~35K, i'd get either a Prius (gas plus cool) or an Accord Hybrid. Perhaps a Subaru Outback. The guys that sell Subaru here are dicks tho.

Rumour has it that Canada will get an AWD version of the Mazda 6 and Mazda 3 in 06....

And then there's the Cayenne option...

R35

[Silver]

I really dig the functionality of the modern "mini SUV" because it's like an old station wagon, but cool...the full SUV is the bane of society, as far as I'm concerned (even though some of them are really nice). If more of the current "wagons" were more reasonably priced, I wouldn't shake a stick at them, either.

I like the RAV4 (small but peppy and everything folds down nicely to create a good amount of space) and the Tribute just looks great, imo. The Hyundais are purportedly of excellent quality nowadays, but people don't soon forget disasters like the Stellar and what not. But Hyundais have great warranties now and look to be dramatically improving both their look and their quality. I was really impressed when I went and checked out the Tucson, just for kicks.

It's all moot anyhow, no new car for me for a good while. I get my brother's 03 Protege in two years when I graduate, because the deal was that I lend him a bunch of money and he coughs up the car when he pays it off. Good for me, worked for him, good deal all around.

I like the BMW X3 too. Slick look but compact. I've always liked the Subarus but I'm not sure how many of my kidneys I can sell...

[DaveE]

If you're worried about gas, the Cayenne may not be the right option. Turbo version is 13 city/18 highway. I guess if you can afford the car the gas shouldn't be a concern though huh?