Probably just as well he didn’t play final round

I stopped by earlier this week – several times, in fact – in an effort to pay my last respects to an old and often fickle friend, but couldn’t.

Scattered showers ran me off on Wednesday, and the thunderstorm that blew threw on Thursday, covering much of the ground with hail, chased me back indoors again. Friday turned out to be a near-perfect day for weather, but when I arrived for what was probably my final chance to play Liberty Lake Golf Course before it shuts down for its scheduled $5 million makeover, both the parking lot and tee sheet were crammed.

I had hoped to play the course one last time prior to its closing later this fall, but just couldn’t make it work.

So instead of playing, I settled for hitting a few chips shots on the short-game practice area next to the 18th hole, and then drove back home, wondering what I might have come up with as a fitting final-round farewell to a quirky layout I was slow to warm to after arriving in the Pacific Northwest almost 28 years ago.

I have not been especially kind with my comments about Liberty Lake in the past, having included a couple of its holes on my list of the 18 worst in the region several years back. And with good reason.

As a golfer whose normal ball flight travels left to right, I’ve always had some serious issues with the way the county-owned course sets up.

Think about it.

Four of the first five holes play alongside a chain-link fence that parallels three different and heavily traveled streets – all of them to the immediate right, of course – which means any tee shot lost in that direction ends up bouncing down the blacktop into oncoming traffic.

Believe me, I’ve lost my share of tee shots to the right.

In addition, one of those opening holes – the par-4 second – plays 462 yards straightaway and past a maintenance building and battery of parked mowers, while another – the par-4 fifth – stretches some 463 yards and brings a pump house into play just to the right of the fairway.

The 18th, a short 328-yard par-4, is about as benign as finishing holes get.

Still, through the years, I’ve managed to cultivate some genuine affection for LLGC, one of three courses owned and operated by Spokane County. The clubhouse staff there has always been among the friendliest I’ve encountered. The practice range still allows you to hit shots off grass. The minor facelift it underwent several years ago, which included the rebuilding or replacement of several greens, greatly enhanced the playability of the front nine.

So I would like to think – had I been able to play it one last time – I would have done my personal farewell up right by fanning my tee shot on No. 2 onto the roof of the maintenance building before taking a drop from ground under repair and slicing my long-iron approach over the fence and onto Valleyway Lane, hoping it didn’t bounce into the grill of an oncoming Mercedes.

I would have probably knocked my drive on No. 5 behind the pump house and then bladed my second shot into the side of the building one last time, adding to the sick number of indentations in the wood siding. I would have undoubtedly pushed my drive on the par-5 sixth into the hardpan to the right of the fairway, drawing a bare-dirt lie between two tufts of brown grass that would have made solid contact on the my second shot nothing more than a dream.

My tee shot on the 431-yard par-4 ninth hole would have fittingly sailed right over the fence and onto the driving range. Given a good, hard bounce off the tee in the hardpan to the right of the par-5 12th – which is one of the few holes with an out-of-bounds fence on the left – I would have, I hope, ended up behind the high screen that protects whatever its supposed to protect over in that area, forcing me to chip my second shot out sideways.

I would have probably hit my only pull of the day on the short, downhill par-3 16th, leaving my tee shot hanging in the tall grass on the hillside with an impossible chip to that small, crazily tilted green. Knowing me, I would have lasered my drive on the par-4 17th directly into the side of the steep rise in front of the tee box and had a long, blind second shot to who knows where.

But then I would have capped my farewell round with a flair by making par on the short finishing hole – provided I didn’t get confused, like I did the first time I played the course, and hit my approach shot to the chipping green just to the right of the 18th’s official putting surface.

Of course, none of this actually happened, which means my love-hate relationship with the Liberty Lake Golf Course I first came to know, has – in all likelihood – ended without much fanfare.

County officials plan to shut down the front nine holes sometime next month to begin work on the new $2 million irrigation system that will be a central part of the renovation project. The back nine, if all goes as planned, will be closed in mid-October, with the grand reopening scheduled for late spring in 2010.

I’ve studied the master plan for the remodeled course that is expected to emerge some 20-plus months from now, and it seems to effectively address every concern I’ve had about Liberty Lake through the years – including the rerouting of the second and fifth holes, along with the addition of a pond on the 18th that promises to make it one of the best risk-reward finishing holes in the region.

Spokane County has done the right thing here, and while I’m a bit saddened by the fact that I didn’t get a chance to bid an old and fickle friend a fitting farewell, I’m OK with simply saying, “So long for now,” knowing full well that the, “Welcome back,” in 2010 should be cause for great celebration.