Day 24 - Rumford, MAINE to North Conway, NEW HAMPSHIRE

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We were up nice and early (or should I just say early as the temperature is only 2 degrees outside !). I have put on 5 layers of clothing today for the trip to the Sunday River Golf Club.



It was about 30 minutes drive away from the hotel and hit off time was booked for 8.30 am so we left around 7.15 am after breakfast so I would have time to collect my rental clubs, and get a warm up and be ready to play. Kerry was waiting in the pro shop whilst I was warming up keeping warm and looking for any nice souvenir mementos. They gave me a set of fairly new Callaway clubs and off to the range I went and I was quite surprised how well I was hitting the woods in particular (even the driver !) but the pitching wedge was very short in its shaft length which was somehow translating to being short in distance length as well !



Whilst I had 5 layers on I had no hat with me so after warming up I went to the pro shop to look for a beanie to keep the ears from snapping off in the chilly wind and they were $32- plus tax (ouch !) There were a few to choose from but I just HAD to buy any one that I could find. As I went to the counter to pay for it this guy apologised to Kerry for “talking business” whilst she had been waiting for me and said he would give me a hat for free since it was so cold so I asked if we could both get one as Kerry is my official photographer and he said fine which was great. Turns out this was was the general manager and I told him I had been waiting to come here to play for over 3 years. He said you’ve timed it well as yesterday and today are officially “peak foliage” which is very hard to predict each year.



I went down to the practice putting green and had a practice with one of these really heavy spider putters and it was rolling the putts pretty well but when I tried the pitching wedge for a couple of shorts chips I was just blading them across the green !



It had warmed up to 5 degrees when we started and is supposed to reach 12 degrees by 3pm. I played with two guys called Greg and Jack who were a father and son duo from Connecticut and Boston who were nice guys to play with and had played here yesterday so they gave me some useful course tips (such as stay out of the forrest !). They would also be playing again at 2pm this afternoon (keen golfers).



As we teed off it was freezing as the sun had not risen over the mountains and a breeze was already blowing but the lady starter told us it will get better once the sun comes up and also advised us to keep an eye out for the Moose out on the course !



I was not brave enough to hit driver on the first tee but successfully placed a 3 wood right down the middle. First hole was a Par 5 and my second 3 wood was also down the middle and they had these black and white posts in the middle of the fairway as distanced markers 150 yards to the green and my ball was within a few feet of the marker (what a start!). 3rd shot was just short of the green and my short game let me down preventing an up and down resulting in a bogey start.



I would hit the driver on the next hole and smoked it down the middle but again a bogey. I had borrowed a rangefinder from my foursomes aussie mate (Tu) to help me with judging my approach shots but it was not working at all so I had a lot of trouble with guessing distances.



My best shot the day soon came on a par 3 (4th hole) where I hit a 5 wood onto the green and put an aggressive roll on the birdie try that went 6 feet past resulting in a 3 putt and another bogie but from that point on my game fell apart and I would end up losing 7 balls on the front nine and shooting 60 (not ideal !).



The scenery and the layout of the course was spectacular and the only way to do justice is to look at the live webcam for Sunday River Golf Club on YouTube and look at the course flyover video that was taken in the fall to show an overview of each hole. After I had warmed up I had no issue with the weather and with all 5 layers on I actually felt a little warm at one stage. Given this weekend was peak fall foliage I could not have asked for better conditions (OK, maybe a little warmer). The course is really undulating and a lot of blind shots with gorges and small canyons to carry with tricky greens where most pins were placed tight in the corners where you could not possibly aim for unless you were really close the greens and about a million trees if you went offline. If you missed the green on the wrong side or long say goodbye to the ball !



In fact I brought 9 balls with me in preparation and whilst I lost nearly all of them I also found plenty whilst looking for mine. In fact I found 3 “Sunday River” branded Calloway balls which I will present to my regular four-ball mates when I get back home Dave (who never misses a fairway), Graham (the birdie man) and Derek (longest driver and occasionally is cranky pants). Whilst it was cold and my game was crap it was a memorable experience and on the back nine I was more interested in the scenery than how the game was going. Kerry braved it all in the golf cart which was an amazing feat in itself and she got plenty of photos and some videos as well (which I have already reviewed and explain a lot about my lack of performance here !)



We finished around 1.30 pm and headed down to nearby Bethry to have lunch at the Crossroads Diner but alas it was closing at 2.00 pm so we popped into the gas station across the road and bought a chicken roll (on what was like a hot dog bun) and a Green Mountain coffee (the Green Mountains are not far away from the White Mountains in neighbouring Vermont). I decided to take a slight detour on our way to North Conway by going to the Hemlock Covered Bridge which was on a dirt road about 2-3 kms off the main road. Kerry got some more amazing photos of this bridge which was built back in 1895 on her iPhone which was now our camera of choice (sorry Canon SLR !). So we got to see 2 of Maine’s 6 remaining covered bridges.



Soon we crossed into New Hampshire and arrived at the Holiday Inn Express Suites right on check in time at 4.00 pm and our room is a good size on the ground floor with a sofa bed lounge plus a single seat lounge chair and a couple of chairs around a small table and will do us fine for the next 2 nights.



For dinner we drove along the main street (aka White Mountains Highway) and it was going to be hard to find parking and we spotted a place we had seen in our research called the Muddy Moose Restaurant and Pub but there was no parking here and people were lined up waiting outside so we went to a nearby place called the Abenaki Trail Restaurant and Pub. We both had awesome meals (Kerry had a Cheese Quesadilla and I had a Pulled Pork sandwich). The sandwich was rubbed in hickory sauce and was from heaven ! Kerry had an Angry Orchard cider and I consumed two quirky but tasty Seadog Blueberry beers (very unusual flavour indeed).



Tomorrow we are doing one of the many countryside road trips to explore the amazing fall colours around this region

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Photos

Imposing tee shot on 4th hole
I managed to fly this onto the green and had a look at birdie (only to 3 putt !)

Amazing scenery framing this hole
Be careful not to go left or right or you are in serious trouble !