Good ol’ San Antonio.

For the second annual Looper Trip the crew decided to head to the Lone Star State and landed in San Antonio.  Since we had such a great time playing 54 holes on the first trip in Myrtle Beach, we decided to up our game to 72 holes of golf in 3 days.  That meant playing 18 as soon as we stepped off the plane.  Now this was the first time we tried this and were excited to hit the course and start the trip off right, at least most of us.  One of us was unfortunately sick with the flu.

Now we all know how miserable it can be having the flu.  Now imagine having to get on a plane for a 3 hour flight and then get ready to play golf.  Not something that most of us would want to do, or would even attempt.  But then again, not many of us are Matt Scales, Co-Founder of GFI.  I give him a ton of credit for even coming on this trip!  He manned up and took one for the team, and we couldn’t be more proud of him for it.  Well, that is unless you had to room with him….

Back to why we are here, the golf.  So we all hop in the car and head off to the first course of the trip, The Quarry Golf Club.  Now this was a new one for the Loopers, playing in an old rock quarry, but what a course!  This place is definitely a must play course if you happen to be in San Antonio and have a few hours to kill.  The course was in excellent shape and was just amazing to play.  We loved it so much that we doubled up with this spot, and made it round 3 for us on the trip.  Now we can’t take much credit for finding this gem.

That credit should go to Jack Parker, a man who has been a part of the golf business since the early 70’s.  He was the developing and managing partner of the Quarry Golf Club until he sold it.  Jack was an integral part of helping us plan the trip to San Antonio.  So, if you are ever down there and happen to run into him, tell him the GFI Looper crew says hi, or more appropriately, Howdy Partner.  Oh, and also sorry we were late for a couple of our tee times!

Once we wrapped up at the Quarry course we headed back to the hotel, which happened to be walking distance from the famous River Walk in downtown San Antonio.  So we cleaned ourselves up and headed out to see what the fuss was all about with this place.  I have to say it is worth seeing.  We had a great time down there the first night, and probably stayed there a bit too long, as we had an early round in the morning.  We woke up that next morning, feeling a bit sluggish, and headed out to The Republic Golf Club for the first round of the day.

Unfortunately Matt had to leave half way through due to flu firing up, but the rest of us didn’t fare much better.  I have to say that this course kicked our butts!  I’m not sure if it was from the partying the night before or if the course was just that tough.  One nice thing was that we stumbled upon a golf outing while there and were graciously given a few complementary beverages.  It definitely made the round more palatable for us.  The course was nice, and is definitely one we would play again, albeit not so hungover.

After wrapping up at The Republic Golf Club and grabbing some grub, we headed back to the Quarry course for our second round of the day.  At this point we were down one golfer (flu), a little behind schedule (sorry again Jack), but were feeling much better.  We were ready to go out and shoot a low score on our second attempt at the Quarry course.  I have to say, the afternoon went a heck of a lot better than the morning.  On this round, you could actually tell we had played golf before.  I nice change from earlier, where it looked like we had never swung a golf club before.  After getting a little bit of our pride back, we headed back to the hotel to clean up and head out for another night on the town.  We headed back down to the River Walk to grab some food and drinks.  Now this is where it gets a little blurry.  I’m pretty sure that while we were at the bar, the Duck Dynasty crew showed up.

Well, not really, but there were three men that sure looked the part.  Definitely a little out of the ordinary, but entertaining none the less.  Once all the excitement wore off we headed back to the hotel for a cocktail.  When we got back to the hotel, we somehow made our way to the roof to enjoy a nightcap.  It wasn’t like the view was amazing, since it overlooked a parking lot, but it somehow was our thing and something we did on each trip.  Now, while up on the roof enjoying our drink, we just so happened to see someone trying to steal one of the cars in the lot, and I believe it was a Prius.  We decided to be good Samaritans and not let that happen, so we just started yelling and hollering at them.  I guess it worked since the car was still there in the morning.  Chalk one up for the Loopers!

Everyone woke up the next morning ready to attack the final round of trip.  It was nice to see Matt was feeling better and ready golf again.  We were off to play La Cantera, the Palmer course.  Definitely one of the nicer courses in San Antonio.  The course was in immaculate shape, but a little backed up, so it played quite slow.  I think it was more due to some groups taking their time and enjoying such a wonderful course, but it did end up causing us to shorten a couple of holes on the back nine.  The staff was great about it though and took care of us on the 19th with some free drinks.

As we rounded out the last night there in San Antonio, we all got to see a great piece of American History, the Alamo.  That was a nice bonus to end the trip, and something we will all remember.

All in all the San Antonio trip was a good one, even for Matt while he was dealing with the flu.  It might not rank up there as one of our best, but then again, we weren’t really at our best either.  The golf courses were great, and the night life was pretty on par as well.  It will definitely be on our list of places to go back to, and soon.

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