As I sometimes do on Monday evenings, I worked until 5:30 or so and went over to my club to play some holes. I hopped on a cart and tried to race around what is usually a pretty empty course.

My conclusion on this night was pretty simple: Hosting Monday outings is akin to making a deal with a devil.

Why? Because while the revenue is great and crucial and the outings can lead to some membership leads, they come with a price.

I don’t know what group had an outing at my club yesterday, but afterwards it looked like Ronnie, The Situation and Paulie D had taken over the place. It was trashed.

I wish I knew how many ball marks I actually fixed on the greens. They were all over the place. And I’m not talking about the kind of ball marks you see because the sun is getting low and they stand out a little better. I’m talking about pretty good sized ball marks that were extremely obvious. Is it too hard to fix your ball marks? Apparently so.

And there was trash everywhere. These people drank. A lot.

So is there an answer? Having been on the board of my previous club, I get the economics of Mondays. When a group hosts an outing on a Monday that includes food and beverage, the host club is making serious coin. There’s a whole lot of profit built in as there is very little in terms of cost.

While clubs could certainly choose to have zero outings and use Mondays strictly as a day for the grounds crew to work (or open it to member play in the afternoon), that would mean dues increases to offset those revenue losses. At my club, I would estimate that dues would have to go up $50-75 a month. Would it improve course conditions? I would guess probably.

That, in a competitive environment to get members doesn’t seem realistic.

There isn’t an easy answer in Minnesota when it comes to outings. There is a limited number of Mondays each golf season, so most clubs have events every Monday and some clubs routinely have a morning and an afternoon shotgun start.

I would think that clubs in a more temperate climate don’t feel the same pressure to host an outing each week as they can spread the same number of outings out over more weeks of the year.

I don’t know if there’s an answer, but seeing what our greens looked like last night left me thinking about it.

Other items:

- I did finish 18 holes last night, but I can’t imagine there will be many more nights when I can go out after work and play 18 holes. It was just about 8 p.m. when I got to the 18th tee last night and it was really getting dark. Had I walked, I would have had zero chance of finishing. And that bums me out.

For me, after work golf is like therapy. Most of the time I walk, so I get a little exercise. I think about the shots I need to hit and that gives me a nice break from reality. Evening golf, simply put, leaves me happier and healthier.  I will certainly be able to play nine holes or even 13 (since the No. 13 green is near our clubhouse). That’s not bad. But it’s not the same.

- Is it possible to read a golf publication or even a newspaper without reading about long/belly putters? Dang the stories are everywhere. Even the Wall Street Journal got intot the action with a pretty good story. I will admit to trying one very briefly at Golf Galaxy the other day. It was weird. But watching guys such as Keegan Bradley and Adam Scott and Webb Simpson roll in almost everything makes me think there’s something to it.

- Final item. If you’re in the market for a private club membership, this just might be the time to pull the trigger. My inbox is filled with offers from clubs. Many with no initiation fee. Others with reduced initiation fees. With the exception of the older west metro clubs, pretty much every club in town is looking for members. And most everybody will let you play this fall for free in exchange for a commitment for next year.

Really nice piece in the New York Times this morning by Bill Pennington.

In the story, golf is described as a window to the soul.

The nutgraf:

“This adage persists on the premise that four or five hours thrashing away on the golf course will reveal our inner selves. It will lay bare our personalities and make known our character, or lack thereof. It will expose dishonesty and summon demons. It will be a laboratory for grace under pressure, for skills of solidarity; it will test our social charm.

In other words, it’s a big place in the sun, and there is nowhere for the real you to hide.”

I agree with much of what is in here. One of the things I cherish about golf is that the overwhelming majority of people I meet and have met through the game are good people. They are gentlemen. They know that there is a way to behave on the golf course.

That doesn’t mean that people who don’t play golf are bad people, but I enjoy spending time with those of us who consider themselves to be golfers.

Course: Blue Mound Golf and Country Club

Location: Wauwatosa, Wis.

Course stats: Back tees – 6,666 yards, par 70

Website: www.bluemoundgcc.com

Date played: July 29, 2011

Overview: Starting today, Blue Mound will be the second stroke play course for this week’s U.S. Amateur at Erin Hills. I’m really interested to see what happens here. Blue Mound is a wonderful Seth Raynor course that opened in 1903. It is currently in the “next 100″ on the Golfweek Classic course list. The course hosted the 1933 PGA Championship, which was won by Gene Sarazen.

Blue Mound would be a wonderful place to be a member (since it is probably the closest club to Miller Park, I also like the Brewers colors in the ‘back’ flags). There is a great collection of Raynor template holes and wonderful green complexes. And the club has done a very admirable job restoring the course to its previous glory. There has been great work on the bunkers, greens have been expanded back to where they once were, trees have been removed. As good as it is, it was really nice to hear that the club is going to continue with tree removal over the next three years, removing another 500 or so trees in the process.

Thoughts: That said, I expect there are going to be some really low scores here this week. At 6,666 and par 70, the really good amateurs — the long hitters with the college bags in particular — are going to overpower this place. There is very little trouble off of the tee and there will a lot of short irons and wedges into greens.

Because of a summer filled with moisture and humidity, I’m guessing the course won’t play as firm or as fast as the club and the USGA would like. If somebody gets their wedges and putter going, I think scores in the low 60s are very possible. The putter is clearly the most important club in the bag if you want to have success at Blue Mound. Many of the greens have distinct shelves/quadrants/areas. Putting from one to another can be challenging and being above the hole is problematic.

If you want a really good overview with about a million photos click on this thread from Golf Club Atlas. It is really well done and the author took the photos while watching the Western Junior.

Here are a number of photos I took of some of the holes during my recent round.

Here’s an example of the bunker, this one on the first hole. This is a pretty standard greenside bunker. If you miss greens, you are going to have work to do.

Here is a very severe bunker to the right of the 11th green:

There is ton of attention paid in the GCA.com link to the greens at Blue Mound. They are really cool. One of the good ones is No. 2. This picture shows just how segmented the green is.

Here are some of the cool holes at Blue Mound.

Here is a shot from the landing area on No. 6, a 335 yard short par four. I hit hybrid to here. I have no idea what the good ams will hit off of the tee here. I don’t know that I see a lot of reason to hit driver. I’d hit something to a good number and try to hit it close and make birdie. Will be interesting to see whether this is a short hole that plays sneaky hard.

Here is a picture of the pretty darn good redan No. 13. It is 185 from the back tees and 178 from the white tees. There is a really nice kick bank short and right of the green that will bounce balls onto the green. I, obviously, overcooked one here into the bunker — pretty much exactly where you don’t want to be.

Summary: As someone who believes that fun is good more than hard is good, I love Blue Mound. There are many cross bunkers that jut into the fairway and make you think where you should hit the ball off of the tee. The green complexes are interesting with cool bunkering. If you are loose with your approach shots, you better have a good short game.

This is not a golf course that is going to beat you into submission, but it is a place where you can make a whole bunch of bogeys in a big hurry. I think it is a very good Raynor that has been well taken care of. I think it is a better course than any of the three Raynors in the Twin Cities (Somerset, Minnesota Valley and Midland Hills). It is just a great time.

Will any of the amateurs go really low over the next couple of days? Considering Billy Horschel shot 60 at Chaska Town Course in the stroke play portion of the ’06 Am, I would guess somebody will go low and flirt with 60. Pretty much every player in the field will get to the 497-yard No. 5 in two. And I don’t think many of them will be all that scared of the 560-yard finisher.

But regardless of the scores that are shot, this is a wonderful course for normal golfers. It’s great fun and I was happy to get out there last month.

So we are less than an hour away from the leaders teeing off for the final round of the PGA Championship. The leaderboard looks like this:

Jason Duffner -7

Brendan Steele -7

Keegan Bradley -6

While we all know that CBS can’t like this — after all they basically root for Tiger, Phil and any of about a half dozen names that are more recognizable to the general public — I’m trying to get a sense of whether this is good for the game, bad for the game or none of the above.

I kind of think that the PGA Championship gets a bit of a bad rap. I like that they have taken some chances in course selection (Kiawah, Whistling Straits). I like that they gave gone to courses that the USGA has kind of abandoned (Oak Hill, Baltustrol, Hazeltine, Medinah, etc.). I like that they aren’t nearly as concerned about “defending par” the way the USGA is. I think most of the time the setups seem challenging, but fair.

But somehow, the PGA has this uncanny knack at producing unusual/one-hit wonder champions. The two PGAs at Hazeltine left Rich Beem and Y.E. Yang holding the trophy at the end of the day. It’s also the major championship won by Shaun Micheel, Mark Brooks, Wayne Grady and Jeff Sluman.

So what does this leaderboard really mean?

Is an example of the depth of players on the PGA Tour? While so much (I say too much) of the golf media attention goes to too small of a number of players, there are a lot of guys out there who can really play. This year you have young guys like Gary Woodland and Webb Simpson — players the casual fan don’t know much about — in the top 10 of the FedEx points list. And while these three guys who start today at the top of the leaderboard, both Steele and Bradley won tournaments earlier this season.  There is probably something to the theory that the lack of stars on the leaderboard means that there are way more excellent players on tour than the average sports fan realizes.

Is it bad for the game? While I’m not a Tiger fan, he did give the sport an identity. And that is a good thing. Too many of these guys can’t be picked out of a lineup by even golf fans. I like to compare this to baseball in some ways. Last fall, the Texas-San Francisco World Series was pretty darn good baseball. But the viewership numbers tied a record low. They were also down 28 percent from a year earlier when the Yankees played the Phillies. I’m going to guess that the weekend TV numbers are going to be very pedestrian. And that’s not good.

Could this be the beginning of something? Maybe Steele or Bradley is going to play great, win this thing and become a star. I guess it is possible, but maybe the winner will be the next, say, Mike Weir. He won a Masters and a few other tournaments and basically vanished.

I don’t really know what to make of it. I’m playing golf this afternoon and will watch highlights later. I like watching some of the PGA Tour, but I’m not a hardcore person that has to watch every week. If the weather is bad or I play early, I’ll probably watch.

I hope we see some good shots today. I’d like to see someone play well and earn this title. But I do wonder if the general public will really care.

Let’s say you really want to play Spring Hill, the Fazio-designed, super-exclusive club in Orono. You want to play where Michael Jordan is allegedly a member. You want to tee it up on the course that Golfweek ranked among its top 100 modern courses in the country.

Well, now you have a chance.

And all it will cost you is $10,000, at least according to Minnesota Public Radio.

I guess this is a little more than just a typical round of golf. This political fundraiser is being hosted by U.S. House Speaker John Boehner.

At least that was the case in this story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

This is pretty much all you need to know:

State Patrol troopers located and stopped Mansfield driving a golf cart heading south on the northbound shoulder of Hwy. 100 near Hwy. 7.

Mansfield, a bit unsteady on his feet, told the troopers that he worked for a golf course and was returning the cart, but he could not name his employer. He then admitted stealing the cart from nearby Westside Volkswagen so he could get gasoline for a friend who ran out of gas.

Mansfield also said he had about 10 shots of gin and acknowledged being drunk. The troopers declined to have him perform standard road-side balance tests for fear he would hurt himself.

Apparently the dude stole the golf cart and then took it on the highway. Not the smartest move.

Here’s a small piece of advice for a Wednesday morning: Don’t steal golf carts when you’re bombed. And limit your drunk golf cart driving to the actual golf course.

For those of you who know me, this isn’t exactly a news flash. But I’m really over Tiger — and the coverage of all things Tiger — right now.

In case you haven’t heard, Tiger Woods is playing this week on the PGA Tour. He’s wearing different shoes. He has a new and likely interim caddy.

I guess it has been pretty hard to miss that.

The coverage of Woods has always been pretty breathless. But it seems even more extreme at this point. This isn’t the case with all reporters and all outlets, but there seems to be many, many outlets that are openly rooting for Tiger to start playing well.

While Tiger is clearly the best player of my generation, he has become just another guy on tour of late. He hasn’t won a PGA Tour event since mid-September 2009.

Despite the fact that he hasn’t played since WD’ing from the Players in May, there are stories about whether he can win this week. My thoughts: How can a guy who hasn’t played and has barely practiced really be considered a strong contender or a favorite? To me that is disrespectful to the rest of the guys in the field. Those guys are damn good and it isn’t like there’s a huge chasm between Woods and the rest of the world.

So get back to me when he actually does something.

This really nice story comes from the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Four women in their 80s play golf on a regular basis at Stillwater Country Club. They don’t gamble and they don’t ride. They walk.

Here is a quote from 87-year-old Ruby Kaske:

“Why do I like it? I get to exercise, I guess, and get outside,” said Kaske, who took up golf 40 years ago after her husband, Herman, died. “Exercise keeps you going – sitting around doesn’t help too much. I used to play almost every day. I don’t like to ride. I like to think about (my game) as I’m walking. When I use a cart, I don’t play good at all – much worse than usual.”

And 84-year-old Lorraine Miller added this item:

“If you don’t have a good game, you at least got your walk in.”

As someone who likes the walk, I love it.

Maybe it is maturity. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m only a couple months removed from turning 40. But I’ve kind of found perspective.

There were times when I would let a bad break on the golf course really bother me. Now I’m not going to say I’m thrilled if I drive it into a divot or have one bounce off of a sprinkler head into some less than awesome spot. But I also realize that sometimes things do even out.

How do I know that? Well, here are some examples.

On Thursday, I hit an approach shot into an up pin on a par 5. I didn’t quite get all of it. The ball landed short of the green. Instead of bouncing forward, the ball must have landed just on a slope and it kicked into a greenside bunker.

I wasn’t all that disappointed. I didn’t make a great shot. I figured I’d still have a chance to get it up-and-down and save par. But then I walked up to the green and there was no ball at the bottom of the bunker. After some close observation, we found this:

How the ball ended up there — under the lip and totally buried — on a bounce into the bunker is beyond me. The good news is that I did get the ball out of the bunker on the first attempt. I ended up on the fringe and made a bogey. It could have been worse.

One day later, I had an entirely different experience.

Check out the hole below. Where do you think that you don’t want to hit the ball? Correct, you don’t want hook it into the bunker on the left.

Well, guess what I did? Yep, jumped on a mid-iron and hooked it into the bunker. For good measure, I short-sided myself as well.

When I got to my ball, this is pretty much what it looked like:

Standing in the bunker, I could see the flag and a tiny bit of the flagstick. I couldn’t dream of actually seeing the putting surface. Because I’m not the greatest bunker player (though I have made some progress in that world this year), my only goal was to not have it hit the lip/bank and roll back into the bunker. I just wanted to get it somewhere on the putting surface and was very content to make a bogey 4 and move on with my life.

I opened the face on my 58 degree wedge and hit a good bunker shot. I tossed the ball up in the air, got it to clear the lip and figured it was on the green. I hit it well enough that I thought I’d at least have a run at a par. After getting out of the bunker and raking up my mess I climbed up to the green and didn’t see a ball.

I knew there was no way the ball was over the green. I hit too good of a shot for that. Where was it? Yep, it was here:

I’d love to describe in pretty words exactly how the ball landed, took the break and just crawled over the lip of the cup, but I can’t. I have absolutely zero idea how the ball ended up there. It’s pretty much as big of a mystery as to how the shot the day before buried under the lip of the bunker.

So like I said, it all evens out.