February may not be the time of year most people think about golf, but the weather has been nice enough lately to allow a few trips onto the links in the Portland area so far in 2013.
It being winter, rates are low right now. For the value golfer, this is the time of year to be out hacking away.
Another great way to get a value – in more ways than one – is to play near the airport.
Colwood National Golf Club and Broadmoor Golf Course are both within a few driving ranges of the Portland International Airport. They keep their rates reasonably low year round, in part to offset the rumbling sound of a jet engine taking off in your backswing.
That inconvenience keeps some people away. But that’s only a negative to some. For others, it’s an added bonus.
On a recent outing at Colwood, my friend Sam and I found ourselves in perfect position to watch a half-dozen F-15s take flight one after another after another. The sound of the engine thundered as we stepped onto the green. Luckily there was no group behind us and we were able to marvel at the sheer velocity with which these things were leaving the ground.
It was nuts. And it was really, really loud.
Apparently it takes these planes only minutes to get from Portland to Seattle. I don’t doubt it. They were long out of eyesight within just a matter of seconds. That’s why they were able to take off in such rapid succession — faster than we could each miss 8- and 12-foot putts.
This was the first time we’d seen so many of these jets taking off over the course, but not the first time we’d paused our games to watch planes fly overhead.
It’s one thing to watch a drive sail down the middle of the fairway. In fact that’s one thing I wish I watched more. But it’s another sensation to see a jet rising over your head into the sky while you walk down the fairway before bending off course to find your ball out in the rough.
Kyle Boggs is on Twitter. Follow him at @KyleKBoggs
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