Traveler: Local golf course "immensely satisfying"

There's nothing like a relaxing day of golf. Or a week.

My uncle John Fox, who works in North Dakota and lives in Baja, Mexico, golfed five rounds of 18 holes, or 90 holes total, at the Banks Lake Golf Course while on vacation in the area recently.

I golfed 18 holes with him on June 21 and had a great time, and he was very patient with my, let's say, "sub-par" (over-par?) golf skills.

Uncle Johnny, as I know him, was so taken by the course that he wrote down some of his thoughts and observations on it and hoped his nephew could use his connection at The Star to get them published.

"I'll start my review by saying that the course definitely lived up to my favorite description of this so-challenging game," Fox wrote. "It is said that the game of golf is similar to the game we call life. Deceptively simple and endlessly complicated. Simultaneously satisfying to the soul and frustrating to the intellect."

"Yes, this describes your local public course to a tee," Fox quipped. "Surprisingly well planned with lengthy holes and dog legs both right and left. The tree-lined fairways add a scenic touch but also require you to be quite precise with your drive. Long par threes and the mossy bent grass greens make a round of golf on this course by the lake an immensely satisfying day."

He said that from the white tees his best score was 88 strokes.

Fox also enjoyed learning that benches at the course came from the Kingdome, the now-demolished Seattle sports stadium.

Being out on the course, thinking about the game, wondering why the ball goes this way or that, and how to take a few strokes off your score, my uncle explained to me, are great ways to take your mind off other aspects of the game of life, and a relaxing way to spend your time.