Botetourt Golf & Swim Club

I was able to play a round yesterday at The Botetourt Golf & Swim Club in Botetourt. Before yesterday, I had never played here for some reason even though it is one of the closest to my house. I was watching the local news the other night and they had a short segment on the course talking about how it was under new ownership by a small local group of guys. Funny thing about this was when I walked in to the Clubhouse, I ran into one of the new owners which was on the news. He introduced himself and laughed when I recognized him from the news. He told me about the course and what to expect in our round with the course layout. The Clubhouse sits on top of a hill which provides some great views of the valley. Our tee time was at 8:44 and green fees w/ cart were right over $40. Little steep I believe for a weekday morning in this time of penny-pinching, but no matter now, we were paid and ready to take on this course.

My partner today was Matt(AKA-Wheels)who I work with at the Fire Department and have basically worked with since I got out of the academy seven years ago. Today was going to be Matt's first round of the season so I felt pretty confident I could take him, but since neither of us have ever played here, it could be interesting. We decided to play the white tees which played at 5741/par 71.

I have not played since hitting that almost perfect bucket of balls from previous post so I thought I might actually turn in a personal best today. I felt great stepping onto the first tee with my new 3 wood but that's as far as the good story goes. I burnt up a nice trail of grass with it hitting it a whole 100 feet. I shook it off and just considered it first-hole jitters. I saved a bogey on the hole by sinking about a 15-foot putt which made me feel a little better. To make a long story short, the rest of the day went the same off the tee with my woods until around hole #15 where I made an executive decision to leave the woods in the bag.
The course was beautiful and has some very interesting greens and fairways. We had a great time and were able to play in just over 4 hours including a short pit stop in the Clubhouse after the turn. I felt like we had the course to ourselves since it appeared to be a slow day on the course. The course played great and is pretty much wide-open which sure helped our game by not losing as many balls since our accuracy is a bit off.

Overall, I loved the course and can't wait to go play it again so I can see if I can improve my score knowing the layout now. I would give this course 8/10 and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun round in a great atmosphere. If you are wondering who won, well after 18 holes we tied shooting a pair of 98s. Matt was happy to break 100 on his first round of the season and I was happy to break 100 on a course I have never played before.