Lakeview Golf Course, Owasco, NY
At long last, I got out to golf yesterday — met my parents at Lakeview Golf Course in Owasco.
Here’s a pic of the ninth green.
And here are the stats, courtesy Golflink: 6,434 yards, par of 70 (via the score card, women’s 5777 par 72), course rating is 70.4, slope rating 118. Designed by Tom Bendelow, opened in in 1916. That date is one of the reasons I wanted to play this course. The 19th and early 20th Centuries were a boom time for the area, as well-to-do downstaters built their summer getaways in the Finger Lakes region. One can easily imagine the course being built to give them a place to play.
History aside, as you can see yesterday was a gorgeous day, not too hot, a bit breezy, wonderfully bright.
My play on the other hand wasn’t all that bright 
I won’t post my score but I will confess I failed to make a single par. I did bogey the 16th, a par 3, and was glad enough to do that, and mercifully only went into double digits once.
My biggest problem is my slice. Apparently it got a nice rest over the winter and has come roaring back, ready to go.
The weird thing is that on the driving range, I’m hitting quite straight. Amazing how much more difficult it is to groove into a consistent swing while actually on the course.
Ah well, that’s why we adore the game, right?
The course itself was okay. My only real complaint is that the signs at the road are, lessee, how do I put this nicely? “Understated,” how’s that. Meaning, they’re about 2 inches square in size and mounted on stone pillars that face the road, not you as you’re approaching the driveway. Since the course itself is not visible from the road, either, a better name for it might be Hah Hah Try to Find Us. I spent a good half hour driving up and down 38A moaning that we’d missed our tee time; it was only after reaching my folks on my cell that I got myself sorted out. (As an aside, I’ll never rely solely on Mapquest again. Yah need a verbal description of landmarks. As long as you’re calling for a tee time, might as well ask for directions . . . )
The name of the course is also a bit of a misnomer, although perhaps when it was built the lake was easier to see — there are a lot more trees in Upstate New York than there were in 1916, when agriculture was more important to the state’s economy and most of the land was cleared for farming . . .