Blue Top Ridge at Riverside

One of the great things about where I work is that I got today off as a company holiday in addition to yesterday.  So, what to do when your kids are in school and your family is going about their normal routine?  Well, I chose golf, and I decided to play Blue Top Ridge at Riverside, which is about an hour from my house. 

I was joined in this golfing adventure by 3 friends/coworkers, and we tee'd off at 9 am.  As has been the pattern all summer, it was really hot, so I was very glad for the cart that was included in the green fees.  Blue Top Ridge is a Rees Jones design and is extremely hilly, so walking would have been really silly.  To make the day a little more difficult, there was some kind of PGA Club Professional Tournament going on later in the day, so the pins were in some really tough locations.  I don't recall one pin being in the middle of the green.

Overall, I liked this golf course. I played from the $500 tees. Since the course is associated with Riverside Casino, all the tee boxes have dollar values assigned. The $500 tees were 6,989 yards, and had a course rating of 75.2 and a slope of 144. What that means is that the course is difficult!  There was a $1000 set of tees, but that set of was over 7,400 yards, and I don't need that kind of challenge. I was plenty challenged by the tees I chose.

If I had my way, I would like to see a couple of changes. I think the back nine should be the front nine and vice versa. Holes 1, 2, 4 and 5 are all blind tee shots, which is a really difficult way to start off a round of golf, especially when you don't know the course. After that, there aren't any blind tee shots until #13. If the nines were flipped, I think the course would be more fun, but it would also be easier, which maybe isn't what Rees Jones wanted. The other change I'd like to see is faster greens. I was expecting really fast greens, but they were just moderately faster than what I am used to from my club. Granted, it's been super hot this summer, so the grounds crew is probably leaving the greens a little longer to keep them alive.

I've got a few pictures to share.  The first picture is of #16, which is a 633 yard par 5.  I hammered a drive down the middle and still had around 330 yards left to the green.  I got virtually no roll off the tee shot, which surprised me because the tee shot was straight down hill.  After I thought about it a while, I think this was actually smart by the grounds crew because if the fairway was firm a lot of balls would run into the water hazard.  So this spot was obviously watered more than the rest of the course to keep it soft.  The 2nd shot is straight back up hill, and I proceeded to dork up the hole and make a 6.

The next picture is of the 14th hole, which is a short par 3.  There's a cool barn off to the right.  The hole itself wasn't overly memorable, but I thought the barn was cool.

My favorite hole on the course was #12.  It was a 540 yard par 5 that goes straight up hill.  I played it as Driver, 6 iron, 9 iron and made par.  It's a great hole, because it's a true 3 shot hole, but one that allows you to be as aggressive as you want on your 2nd shot.  I chose to lay back on my 2nd shot, but I could have tried to sneak a fairway wood in the narrow part of the fairway if I wanted.  I took this picture from the green looking back down the fairway.

Like I said above, I really liked the course, and I would play it again.  I thought the green fees were a little steep, and for the money, I'd rather play Finkbine in Iowa City then this course.  I think the next time I play Blue Top Ridge will be when the rates are cheaper, such as spring, fall or twilight golf.  I think the course is tough, but fair.  You do have to hit it straight, and wild shots are penalized.  I had two penalty strokes, and had to play out of 6 bunkers.  The course has good variety...I used every club in my bag, except my hybrid iron.

My score was an 83, which wasn't as good as I had hoped, but not too bad considering the difficulty of the course.  I had 10 pars, 6 bogey, a double bogey and a triple bogey (yuck!).  Not making a birdie was pretty disappointing.  I think it's a course where I could break 80 if I have an above average day driving the golf ball, but if I start hitting it crooked (which I can do), I could also shoot in the 90s pretty easily.  If I were to rate golf courses like I rate movies, I'd give Blue Top Ridge at Riverside a very solid 4 stars.

Not Too Exciting Movie Reviews

I have four more movies to review, and sadly, none of them were super good.  In fact, all were in the 2-3.5 star range.

"Safe House":  Anybody who knows me, knows that I believe it's not possible for Denzel Washington to make a bad movie.  I think he's one of the best actors in Hollywood, and I've really liked pretty much every movies he's made that I've seen.  Apparently, my hypothesis was wrong.  All you have to do is add Ryan Reynolds and he immediately sucks the life out of the Denzel movie.

"Safe House" is really about Reynolds' character.  He plays a relatively inexperienced CIA agent, Matt Weston, who is in charge of a safe house in South Africa.  When Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) walks into Weston's safe house as a prisoner, Weston's life changes forever, and he is faced with challenges he never expected.

My biggest problem with this movie is the way Ryan Reynolds plays a CIA agent.  He spends the entire movie looking horrified or about on the verge of tears because of what is happening to his character.   My thinking is, "Dude, you're a CIA agent...man up!"  Denzel does a nice job, as always, but he cannot overcome Reynolds' ineptitude.  This is a 2 star movie at best.

"Mission Impossible:  Ghost Protocol":  I've never been a big fan of the "Mission Impossible" series, but the trailers for "Ghost Protocol" looked cool enough that I decided to give it a shot. 

Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt.  Hunt has been in a Russian prison for an unspecified amount of time.  Early on, he is broken out by 2 other IMF agents, and put on a super-secret mission by the IMF secretary.  In fact, this mission is off the books, so they have to invoke "Ghost Protocol", meaning the agents are on their own and are the only thing standing between the world and nuclear war. 

Lots of cool action here, but not much of a plot.  Basically, it's Tom Cruise running around, fighting and shooting things...oh and scaling the side of the tallest building in the world.  Jeremy Renner is added to the "Mission Impossible" team, and he's excellent...is anyone surprised?  After all, he played a character in "Avengers" that was from Iowa.  Just the association with Iowa helps. 

Overall, the cool action manages to elevate this movie to a 3 star movie.  I can't see giving it any higher than this, but it's worth a watch if you are in the mood for mindless action.

"I Am Number Four":  I really liked the book, "I Am Number Four".  After resisting for quite a long time, I watched the movie after hearing from others that it was actually a pretty good movie.  Well, it's not a terrible movie, but I wouldn't classify it as pretty good.

The premise of the movie is much the same as the premise of the book.  Nine aliens and their guardians from Lorien are on earth.  The evil Mogadorians, who destroyed Lorien, are hunting the nine because the nine possess special powers that are a threat to the Mogadorians.  Each of the nine are assigned a number, and a special charm requires that the Mogadorians kill them in order.  As the movie begins, Number Four is with friends as number three is killed.  A scar is burned into Number Four's leg indicating the death of number three, and meaning the Mogadorians will be coming for him next.  So he and his guardian, Henri, flee and end up in Paradise, Ohio where Number Four takes the name John Smith and begins a new life.  But, he quickly gets too involved, his secret gets exposed, and a battle with the Mogadorians ensues.

"I Am Number Four" is a three star movie.  I thought the cast was actually chosen pretty well, though I always pictured John's friend Sam as more nerdy than he was portrayed in the movie.  Plus, it's always tough when you are getting 20 somethings to play high school sophomores and juniors.  Overall though, it was a nice job of casting, especially Timothy Olyphant as Henri.  But in the end, the movie doesn't quite do the book justice, hence my 3 star rating.

"John Carter":  This is the best movie over the four I'm rating, and I'll put this one at 3.5 stars.  My wife actually liked it more than I did, which is rare.  She says that she like it "a lot".  I know Nuke also really liked this movie.  Maybe that set my expectations too high.

"John Carter" is based on Edgar Rice Burroughs "Barsoom Series".  Starting out in 1868, John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) is in a cave on earth where he has just found gold.  After fighting with and killing an alien, John Carter wakes up to find himself on Mars, which is in the midst of a Civil War.  Due to the different gravity, Carter has the ability to leap extreme distances and possesses great strength.  After some struggle with the aliens who initially find him, Carter comes to the aid of Princess Dejah Thoris in the Civil War.  But how much difference can one "earth man" make in the struggle?  And what of the mysterious Thern (sp?)?

I liked "John Carter" well enough.  It's not fantastically acted, but it's not bad either.  I think where it fell short of 4 stars for me is that it just never quite reached the epic status that I think it was trying to reach.  I am interested enough, based on the movie, to read the Edgar Rice Burroughs series, or at least add it to my list to read. 

So my basic review is "John Carter" is a good movie that falls a bit short of really good, and well short of great.