A Playing Round in Switzerland
Took the family to Switzerland for a few weeks recently.
Managed to get in one round of golf, at the golf club in Lugano, which is in the Italian-speaking south. My 15-year-old son, who’s played in Scotland, wasn’t completely surprised that the course could easily have been anywhere in the States.
(Except that the tee markers were placed in the rough, not on the teeing ground proper. Which, being a golf pro/superintendent in the making, he thought worthy of mentioning.)
(One other fun aspect: We rented clubs that were older than he is. He never quite got used to how unforgiving older-generation clubs are. I mentioned that it was a lot like skiing, where it seems like you don’t even have to know how to ski, the equipment’s so good. We had quite a few skulled shots, though we surprised ourselves with a few good bunker shots using pitching wedges.)
The picture at the right is of the Matterhorn. Which is outside of Zermatt. Which is nowhere near Lugano. (Though it’s closer than Disneyland.) We didn’t climb the Matterhorn. But we did take a cog train up to the glacier nearby. There’s a golf course in Täesch, which is 5 miles south of Zermatt.
There’s a lot of golf courses in the Luzern area, which is (like most of Switzerland) really pretty. Also remarkably warm. Probably because of the (relatively) low elevation. Coming from Colorado, where my front door is at 8000 feet, the Alps seem virtually at sea level. (When we got back home, it had already snowed. In late September.)
So now we’re back home, enjoying crisp autumn weather and golf. One challenging part of playing this time of the year: With all the fallen leaves, you can hit a perfect drive and never find your ball.
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Aspen, CO