Champ: JJ
HSI VII
Location: Frankston, TX
Date: May 31 - June 3, 2007
2nd Place: Nick
3rd Place: Sheebz
4th Place: Powell
Stats
Score details
Hole by hole layout (from course yardage card and Avid Golfer details)
HSI VII was held from May 31 to June 3 at Pine Dunes Resort & Golf Club near Frankston, TX. The players were JJ, Nick, Sheebz, and Ryan Powell. This was Ryan Powell's first of hopefully many HSI events.
Sheebz found out about Pine Dunes Golf Club while looking at a Golf Digest Top 30 courses you can play in 2003. It stuck out because it was the only course in Texas on the list. It was near a town called Frankston, which Sheebz had never heard of. When he looked it up on a map, it was located about two hours from Dallas and three hours from Houston. He knew that someday it might make a good choice for an HSI event.
Nick, Sheebz, and JJ had been looking for a permanent fourth for future HSI events, but hadn't been successful in finding the right person. This year they invited Ryan Powell, a friend that they all graduated high school with, for the first time. It would be his audition for future HSI events.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Sheebz was in Kansas City on business so he scheduled his return flight to be the same flight that Powell was taking from KC to Dallas. They rode together on the plane and then got in the car and started the two hour drive towards Tyler, TX. At the same time, Nick and JJ left Houston on the three hour drive to the course. They got to the course and checked in and then drove thirty minutes north to Tyler, TX. We all met at Outback Steakhouse for our second annual Champions dinner hosted by Sheebz.
There weren't too many restaurants to choose from around Frankston for the champions dinner. The only steakhouse anywhere close to the course had burned to the ground about a month earlier. So the champions dinner had to be held in the nearby town of Tyler, TX, which is about 30 miles north of the course. We all met there wearing the required dress - Hawaiian shirts - and we ate dinner and had some drinks on the patio. On the way back to Frankston, we stopped at a grocery store to grab our last
Thursday evening we made it back to the condo at about 9:30. We sat down and discussed all the rules and scoring that we would be using for HSI VII. Then Nick and JJ played some Halo on X-box and Powel and Sheebz went out to the 18th green to do some practice putting under the full moon. We made it to bed that evening about midnight. First tee time was scheduled for the next morning at 7:30 a.m.
Friday, June 1, 2007
This was a great morning to play golf. Weather was a little overcast with not much wind. It was very sticky and the ground had a lot of dew. We weren’t sure how well Powell was going to be, and he gave us a scare early. He was three over after five holes and had already scored the groups first birdie. The rest of the players were 7 or 8 over after those same five holes. We were concerned that he would be running away from us. Then he came down to earth and was up to ten over only three holes later after scoring double, triple, double. Everything was going to be just fine. The other very interesting thing here is that Nick started out the week with a 56 on the first nine holes. Very unusual for him.
We seemed to play pretty slow and finished our round of golf around noon. We went into the condo after the round and ate some pizza that Nick had brought. We made it out for our second round by about 2 p.m. It got hot this afternoon. We got to sit back and watch JJ shoot a week low 83. This eleven over par is also the lowest round we’ve ever had at an HSI event. We finished up our round at about 6:30. When we got back to the condo, there were other groups that had already started grilling food. We decided that we’d grill our things the next night, so that evening we had pizza, chips and beer. That night was pretty tame for all of us. We hung out with the other guys in the condo and retired pretty early.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
On Saturday our tee time was at 8 a.m. The day before we were on the range for 30 minutes before our tee time. Today, however, we went straight from the condo to the first tee. The weather was good all day today as well. The most significant thing that occurred this round is that we had our last lead change of the event when JJ moved past Sheebz on the 14th hole. When we finished the morning round we went into the grill there at the course and had some lunch and a few drinks.
We got out for our afternoon round by about 1:30. It got real hot this afternoon and we were pretty tired by the time the day was over. We finished around 6 p.m. Nick fired up the grill while JJ and Sheebz drove to the next county to re-stock with some beer (we were staying in a dry county). There were 12 condos here that each slept four people and they all were full this night. There were about 45 guys there grilling out and drinking. After we finished eating, Powell and Sheebz went up on the balcony and watched other players finish up on the 18th hole. Nick and JJ sat down and solved the Halo game on Xbox. By the time they were done doing this, Sheebz and Powell had been socializing with this group of guys for a long time. Let’s just say that it was a very interesting night and a very interesting following morning.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Tee time today was 7:30 a.m. We got everything packed up and loaded in the cars before the round. The beginning of this round was very intense because of all the carry over holes, but the tension was finally lifted when JJ locked up HSI VII when he won hole #7. We continued to play, but then the bad weather horn blew when we teed off on the 18th hole. We made our way back to the clubhouse, and then sat through a pretty wicked East Texas storm. There was plenty of lightning, thunder, and wind for about 90 minutes. We got back out to the course and had to play the last five holes in about 45 minutes. We were able to finish the round.
When the round was over, we had the trophy presentation in the parking lot before we all went on our way. Nick and JJ drove back to Houston while Sheebz delivered Powell to the airport in Dallas. We were all pretty tired by the end of our four day trip.
There was one significant event that occurred this trip that will impact future HSI events. After hanging out with Powell for four days and observing his golf game, we decided that he would make a good addition to our threesome. Ryan is being invited back to HSI VIII and will be included in future HSI events. This is a milestone for the group as we finally have located a permanent fourth player for our group. This is something that we’ve been aiming to do for quite some time.
HSI VIII
As the winner of HSI VII, JJ has the task of making arrangements for HSI VIII. JJ threw out a couple of ideas for HSI VIII and bounced them off the group. He mentioned Myrtle Beach, New Mexico, or even going back to Maryville and playing at Mozingo and staying at the cabins on site there.
We also discussed planning for a trip of significance for HSI X in three years. Not exactly sure what we’d like to do, but we do know that it will be a trip that will be bigger than those that we’ve taken so far.
Pine Dunes Resort and Golf Club Awards
- Awards
- #2 - Dallas Morning News Best Public Courses in Texas, 2006
- #4 - Golfweek Magazine Best Public Access courses in Texas, 2006
- #13 - Dallas Morning News Best Texas Courses (includes Private), 2006
- #21 - Golf Digest Top Rated Texas Coursed (includes Private Clubs), 2005/2006
- Honorable Mention - Golf Digest Best New Courses You Can Play in America, 2002
- 4 1/2 stars - Golf Digest
- 2nd Best Course in Texas - Golfweek