2013-04-06 Kappa Klassic Golf Tournament

Ray and Kara played in the Kappa Klassic golf tournament at Grand View golf course in Des Moines.  The tournament is put on by Kara's sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma, and is a benefit for the Children's Cancer Connection of Iowa.  This was the second year of the tournament and had almost 100 golfers competing, including sorority members, other students, and parents.

The Grand View golf course is one of the oldest public course west of the Mississippi river, built in 1902.  It has a brand new club house, sitting on top of the bluff.  The course starts and finishes on the top of the bluff, giving a few blind shots as the elevation changes dramatically    Most of the holes are below the bluff and fairly flat, although the greens have their share of slope.   The course is relatively short, but for a charity tournament with golfers of all levels (and so early in the season), it was a good fit.  I was surprised how well the pace of play went, as we finished in about 4 hours.  There were some backups though, as the last groups took closer to 5 hours, we were just lucky to be in the right part of the groupings.

It was a little windy and cool on Saturday morning, but considering it was snowing when I left Eagan on Friday night, this was much better.  We were teamed with one of Kara's sorority sisters, Ashley, and her dad, Rick.  Since this was the first golf for either Kara or myself this year, we each started a little slow and rusty.  We started to play better after the first 5 or 6 holes and using more of our shots in this best shot scramble.  We were able to use some of Kara's drives and she made a few nice putts.  My driver straightened out as the day went on, and also made a some contributions to the score.  We ended up -4 for the day with only 1 bogey.

Ray hit his best shot of the day on the 9th hole, which was the hole being used  for the closest to the pin contest.  He ended up about 10' out, which held up for the day in the non-student category, winning him a set of Iowa pork grilling skewers.  As a bonus, he made the putt for birdie.

After the tournament, Ray and Kara went downtown and ate at Zombie Burger. This is a very popular place as evidenced by having to wait about 45 minutes for a table at 2:00 in the afternoon.  All of the food is named after zombie and horror film names, places and characters.  They also make a wide variety of drink and milk shake concoctions.  The afternoon ended with a trip to Target, a must for any college student when the parents come to town.