Arklahoma
I learned some geography yesterday. The area around Fort Smith, Arkansas is referred to as Arklahoma because of its proximity to Oklahoma. The area is nothing like what most people describe to me when I talk about Arkansas or Oklahoma. Normally they describe flat, brown plainslands. It’s completely the opposite. Very green with rolling hills. It’s really beautiful country.
So, yesterday I spent about 12 hours getting out here. 3 hours down to Raleigh airport in order to save a few hundred dollars on the flight change (I was originally flying out of Richmond). About 7 hours on airplanes and layovers. Another 2 hours driving from Fayetteville down to Fort Smith. It was a long day, but I got in about 2 hours putting and chipping at the course. The nice thing about getting out here Saturday was that I was able to get in my practice round early today before the Sunday afternoon “death march”. Sunday afternoon practice rounds for Nationwide qualifiers usually run about 5 hours. My practice round this morning took just under four.
The course is incredibly hilly and very poorly laid out for walking…huge walks between greens and tees. Rumor is that we may have a few shuttle carts between holes which would be incredibly helpful. The course is in good condition and is a pretty straightforward layout. The greens are very undulating, so you need to know where to leave your approach shots. Tee-to-green it’s not incredbily challenging, so it will be about placing your approach shots correctly and making some putts. I play at 9am tomorrow morning.