Golf in Canada - lessons learned

As I sit here with a bag of frozen peas on my swollen knees, I find myself pondering the lessons learned over the last 36 holes of golf in Canada. I've actually used my 5 iron. I'd never taken it out of the bag before. I thought that the hybrid was the end all of my fairway clubs, not true. You see, in California where I've golfed, there's the fairway and then there's the "rough" which is grass not more than 3/4" - 1" higher than the fairway grass. No big deal. I can hit my hybrid there no problem. Well in Canada, there's the fairway, then what they call the 2nd cut and then there's the "rough". Well the 2nd cut is grass about 2" high minimum (usually 2.5" - 3") and the rough is grass anywhere from 3" high to 18" high or more likely trees, leaves, bushes, high grass, vines and maybe a little poison ivy thrown in for good measure. So in the rough you do not want to be. My brother lost 12 balls in 36 holes. I'm proud to say that I only lost 2. So a lesson learned is not to use the hybrid in that kind of grass, it's really only good for me on the fairway. I need an iron to get through that thick grass.

Day one was a nice course with many, many mature trees, wide fairways, jack rabbits the size of deer and no bathrooms..... I shot what I think is my best score ever. 107 -- I usually don't even add up the score because I think it's so bad. My family golfs quite seriously. Losing your ball is a stroke penalty per the rules. Stroke penalties are taken seriously. My brother shot a 103 even after taking about 7 strokes. Not bad. He's usually under 100 but the trees ate him up. My brother-in-law shot a 98 and he took about 6 strokes. The 2nd day golfing was at our local course and it was windy as a hurricane all day, blowing our balls all over the place. My dad and I tied again with a score of 115. Not bad considering the wind and a swollen knee.

Well, tomorrow is the 2 day xcountry drive with my mom, sister and 3 year old niece. Wish me luck.