July 23, 2006

Golf Birds

Today I played golf at Shoreline in Mountain View. Very nice course. Birds for days. Every golf course I've ever been on has had geese, and Shoreline had more geese than the other courses combined. At one point I hit a goose with a golf ball, which I didn't mean to do and felt bad about. I felt worse because I then had to hit the ball surrounded by several dozen geese, and I was afraid that at any moment they would suddenly swarm upon me and exact revenge. Shoreline has a few life-sized ceramic coyotes scattered about the course, apparently intended to scare away the geese. They don't work at all.

I also saw a little owl, who was adorable. He was about eight to ten inches tall, and when he saw me he tensed up and scurried into a hole in the ground. The moment felt very Legend of Zelda somehow. After he was gone I noticed the carcass of a small bird that the owl must have been eating before I interrupted him. That made the owl less cute, but far more awesome. When I told Chris, one of my co-golfers, about my owl encounter (encowlnter?), he said that it was a burrowing owl. There was a whole blurb about them on the scorecard, about how they're endangered and if you see one of their holes you're not supposed to play in the area. I guess I should read the rules before I play.

Posted by hb at July 23, 2006 06:46 PM

Comments

It seems silly that the golf course advises you not to play near the owls since the who area is for playing golf... Are you supposed to quit, pick up your ball and move it, or skip that particular hole? Or maybe they just mean that you shouldn't go trying to hit your ball into the owl's hole because I'm sure that's tempting when one is already in the mood to hit little white balls into little holes in the ground from afar.

Tomorrow, I'm heading to San Mateo to check into my hotel for the next few nights. I'm wavering between confident, apathetic and apprehensive (hence my still being up at 2am)... any last words of advice? Also, are we still on for dinner sometime this week?

Posted by: Kristina on July 24, 2006 01:50 AM

If your ball ends up near an owl burrow you get a "free drop," which means you pick up your ball and drop it somewhere away from the burrow. It's a "free drop" because you don't get charged a penalty stroke (as you would if you hit the ball into the water or otherwise out of bounds). Golf is stupid.

And yes, we'll totally bring you dinner sometime this week. Name your date and your poison. Or I'll give you a call.

Posted by: matt on July 24, 2006 08:18 AM

I still find it weird that you are in my old 'hood. My brother used to play golf at Shoreline as well - I wonder if he had problems with the birds....

Oh, and good luck with the move... I hope the movers don't break *too much* of your stuff!

Posted by: Julie on July 24, 2006 09:00 AM

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