Foothills Golf Club

Friday | 27 October 2000 | Tempe, Arizona: Today was a good day, though it didn't look so promising around the 6th hole. We woke early and drove about 30 minutes south to Chandler to play The Foothills golf course. The sky was a little cloudy, but it was warm and we were in shorts. We were paired with Barry, a cute, young Intel Engineer. The course was full; with around 36 DUCKS getting in a round of golf before the big game tomorrow... everyone was friendly and talking about the game. Things were going well until the fourth hole, when Barry hit a ball directly to the right of the tee box and broke the kitchen window on a house belonging to a young Taiwanese family. From there, the round went downhill. Barry was summoned over to inspect the damage and phone numbers were exchanged in promise of everything being taken care of. I hit my drive about 40 yards (straight) into the 'waste area' (aka 'sand', but not a sand trap). As Barry was hopping back over the fence to the golf course, it started to sprinkle a little - really not much at all. It was still warm. The drops subsided and we all played a great 5th hole. As we were chipping up to the 6th green, the sky turned black and it suddenly began to pour. I mean, it really was absolutely gushing rain. Rain was falling sideways. Hail was included. Then we heard far off thunder. Completely soaked, we headed the cart toward a large tree and tried to dry off with our (pretty dirty already) golf towels, but the rain was relentless. The group in front us continued to play and DT and Barry teed-off, but as the thunder approached and the rain began to pound louder and louder, we again took refuge under a tree. A wash suddenly appeared from nowhere and was rushing under Barry's cart. We saw lightning. We decided to make a mad dash for the clubhouse! Driving the cart as fast as possible just made the rain seem to hit us directly as we drove into it - plus it was a traffic jam! Imagine an entire course full of golfers racing toward the clubhouse at the same time! (Sorry - no camera today.)

Bad clubhouse! Just a pro shop. No bar. No restaurant. No nuttin'. The entire room filled in two minutes with soggy, but laughing people. Water was DRIPPING from the bottom of my short and from my sleeves!  Since most of us were Oregonians, we knew a little rain should not have stopped us - but this was not a little rain, and it never a good idea to be in a lightening storm with a metal stick in your hand. Everyone was out $60 - no rain refunds. We put our entirely soaked clubs into the back of the BC2 and headed north. Streets were flooded. The washes, which were dry when we drove past them on the way to The Foothills, were completely full of rushing water! Thirty minutes from the first drop! I can't even imagine how hard the earth is here.
 
By the time we arrived back to the motor home, we were chilled to the bone and I was soaked to my knickers. Hot showers and SEVERAL loads of laundry was our future! We put the clubs under the awning (which was not doing much good as the rain was traveling horizontally) to dry-off - the bags were soaked throughout. Our shoes were soaked, DT's glove ended up in the trash (along with the score card and $120 green fees).  
 
Then... left-over pizza and deep-fried artichoke hearts from last night reheated in the oven... ahh... that hit the spot and warmed us up. We watched the local news with interest. They reported every flooded street and intersection, every stopped freeway, airport closures... it was a repeat of last Saturday night!
 
We watched with interest because we were supposed to drive one hour north this afternoon to our friends house near Carefree, Arizona. Since every freeway seemed to be flooded or stopped completely, we decided to drive north on Scottsdale Blvd. We had to drive through many flooded areas, but never where water was higher than the door on the BC2, so there was no problem. It rained the entire drive. We arrived at Carol and Dave's house - which was easy to find as he had all his DUCK baseball caps displayed on his golf cart in the garage to lure us in - and had a tour of their beautiful new home. 
 
The four of us were meeting Gwen and Harry for dinner in Scottsdale, along with several other Duck fans. We met at Ajo Al's (or something like that) Mexican Cafe and had a great meal and talked for several hours and caught-up on what everyone was doing, etc. Everyone is going to the game tomorrow, of course! I had mushroom enchiladas. At least the spicy food helped me chase off the chill.
 
By the time we left the restaurant, it had stopped raining. The report is for sun tomorrow, but I will believe it when I see it. We followed Hayden Drive back to Tempe - the wash running along side of the road was completely full - which made every duck (the feathered kind) very happy.
 
Maybe that is a good sign.