What a great weekend for the 1st Annual Martini Rock Invitational. Have I mentioned that I put a 9-hole miniature golf course in my front yard? (My friend Matt also blogged about this.)
It all started last summer. Joe and I were sitting out front, sipping wine and watching the hummingbirds fight, and it came to me. I had enough room to put in a miniature golf course. We had landscaped in gravel (I think it’s called “pea size”) with large rocks and grasses. The surface is even enough that a golf ball can roll effectively. Add some 3-inch PVC pipe, with some screen around the edges to prevent the hole from filling up with gravel, and Wah-la! (Or should that be “Fore!”?) The course at Martini Rock was born.
It wasn’t really that easy. I had to figure out where the holes should go. My friend Violet, who plays golf for real, was very good at envisioning and carrying out hole design. The course was completed just in time for the 1st Annual Martini Rock Invitational, held this past Saturday. Joe made very durable tees.
Mary the Photographer made gorgeous flags with a FLW feel. I made scorecards and rules. And I managed to collect 8 putters (and one little one for Miss K!).
As we always do, we asked the guests to bring a canned good for the Central PA Food Bank and as always our friends were generous (five grocery bags of food coming their way today!).
The course was busy all day, mostly with the kids. My more competitive friends couldn’t make it this year, which was too bad. I was looking forward to a little trash talk and rowdy play. The trophy—a giant martini glass—was won by a 16-year-old. Next year I may do pro-am or have a special set of prizes for the under 16 set.
Over the next year I’ll be adding holes—the goal as I see it now is 12 holes. Someone suggested a Stonehenge hole and that will be installed within the next month.
The course will be open until the leaves fly in the fall and make it too hard to play. Then I’ll put away the tees and dream of what I can do next spring . . .
