today was a day for me to make a new and different route for a photo walk. I've exhausted the routes I have pounded along since the start of Covid. The one through downtown. The one around the lake. And lately, the one down S. Congress Ave. But a photo walk has to be convenient for me or I'll figure out some way to procrastinate and eventually skip it altogether. I crossed the pedestrian bridge over Lady Bird Lake, into south Austin and walked over to see something I'd never bothered to explore before. Right next to the Peter Pan Miniature Golf Course is a "Pitch and Putt" course with five or six holes.
While I have had lessons from Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw I'm not a very good golfer. Mostly because I find it requires too much practice; and a full round takes too much time. I played a round once with Sugar Ray Leonard and while I can swim pretty well and he could box really well neither of us was even average on the day we played the Fazio Course out at Barton Creek Country Club. He did have some good stories to tell as we whipped around on a golf cart....
But I digress. I walked over onto this little course which is owned by the city of Austin. Everything was extremely casual. The course is just across the lake from the core of downtown and, on a sunny day I suspect the view would be pretty cool. I took a lot of shots but as you are no doubt aware, I am a mediocre landscape photographer. So there it is.
But I will say that whoever it is that manages the course has a great sense of humor. At least if you can tell anything about someone's sense of humor by the signage they sprinkle around their course.
Since the course is small and nearly every hole is a par two nobody uses or even brings woods or drivers. Everyone was playing with wedges and putters. And having a blast at 11 a.m. on a Monday morning.
Some random course signage. Just for fun...
If the game left you exhausted you could pull up and plant yourself at the observation deck in one of these comfortable lawn chairs. The "pro" shop serves coffee, biscuits, and various other traditional golfing beverages and snacks. There's also a burger truck that serves up $16 Waygu beef burgers....
But for me the chairs were the real draw.
the hell with those thousand dollar Adirondack chairs. Who needs them when you have folding, aluminum lawn chairs at your disposal?
An all purpose building housing rest rooms and a self-service ice machine.
I remembered that I'm not all that interested in golf so I got on with my walk into South Austin. What used to be the blue collar guts of a much smaller city. One of the original neighborhoods. Now overtaken by yuppies and over the top construction re-dos of 1950s to 1970s era houses in a close in neighborhood with infinite live oak trees.
a sign in response to those like Elon Musk who would like to pave over our parks and put shopping malls on the publicly owned lake front properties. Fortunately Lady Bird Johnson put a hard stop to all that a while back. Holding the capitalist/fascist at bay. At least for now...
Toy dogs hanging out in front of a dog speciality shop. They look real at a glance. Especially when you are going by in your car and see them for the firs time. Fun.
Seven flavors of Doggy Ice Cream. Pup cups galore.
I stepped into the Dougherty Cultural Arts Center.
It's in a 1950s building just a bit down the road from the pitch and putt.
They do a lot of really first class art exhibitions. Classes for kids and
some live theater performances. The art displays change about every six
weeks. Today I saw gorgeous paintings by Bibi Flores.
She's one of the top fine art painters in Texas.
The show was great and the restrooms just dandy and clean.
With a bit of curated fine art under my belt I headed back onto the trail and found a convenience store with some great murals and permanent signage. The store is called, "The Austinite Market."
It's right next to a very good restaurant called, "El Alma."
Convenience Store BTS....
Sandy's Hamburgers is a long time South Austin tradition. The burgers are Texas Authentic and
a huge draw is their soft serve ice cream. They've been actively cooking happy stuff on this spot since 1947. that's a lot of tradition. Nice to get a hot burger and even hotter fries on a cool, winter afternoon.
Near the end of my walk I came across this great and perfectly formed tree.
In the background is the empty building that once was home to the world
famous Threadgill's Restaurant. Live music every night. Gospel Jazz for
Sunday brunches. And maybe the best chicken fried steaks since the Stallion
on South Lamar closed. Now gone. The landlord raised the rent and chased out a bit
of history. Then karma struck the landlord and his building has been sitting
empty since just before Covid struck. Still sitting there un-rented.
And the property was right next to the Armadillo Headquarters which suffered a
similar fate. I remember watching Bevo open for the Talking Heads there one night.
the cover charge was $4.00. But the Shiner Bock beers were only fifty cents.
And Willie Nelson, Kinky Friedman and Jerry Jeff Walker were all week night regulars...
A nice time to be alive in Austin...
And then, camera in hand and back home to the snooty suburbs....
Wow. That takes me back. My uncle took my brother and I to what I remember being called a "chip and putt" back in the sixties. You could only have two clubs on the course. I've never seen another one like it and always wondered why nobody was doing them. Always seemed like there'd be a market since most of the game is played in that range, or so it seems to me.
ReplyDeleteI used to play a course like that in Atwater Village, a neighborhood in Los Angeles. No bag, two balls, one to play with and on in my pocket, pitching wedge and a putter. All par 3s, if I remember correctly. No grass tee boxes, you hit off mats. Been in a lot of movies.
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