Pebble Beach Redux

Unbelievably beautiful weather greeted us in Pebble Beach for the two days and one night we spent on the coast. Anthony and I headed down early on Wednesday morning. We had a tee time at Pacific Grove Golf Course, the municipal course run by Pacific Grove. It is known as "The Poor Man's Pebble" and is a bargain at $40. The back nine runs along the ocean and is next to the 17 mile drive and bordered by the State run Asilomar resort. I was relaxed and played a pretty good game, shooting 41+43=84 and Anthony shot a 93. We saw deer along the course and they would come right up to you. We had lunch before we teed off and I only ate half of my tuna fish sandwich(still toeing the line with this cholesterol problem). I got a styrofoam container and figured I would eat the sandwich on the back nine. While we were on the putting green a huge seagull found his way into our cart and made off with the whole styrofoam container. He dropped it in the ice plant and one of the pro shop guys collected it for me and put it under the seat in the battery compartment. It was a little bit cooler on Wednesday with some low level fog that drifted in and out, but still mostly sunny and about 64 degrees.

Anthony and I met our agents back at the Howard Johnson's in Monterey. The rooms were clean and nothing fancy, but $59 a night. We headed in to the Cannery Row area where we had dinner at the Fish Hopper restaurant. The Fish Hopper was built out on the ocean with huge pillars supporting the building above the ocean waves. They have spotlights on the ocean and you can watch as the waves crash below you. Neat stuff. I did go off my diet and had the 10 oz prime rib and lobster tail for dinner. We called it an early night as our tee time at Pebble was 7:30 AM.

We awoke to a heavy fog shrouding the motel in Monterey and we dreaded a cold, wet start. As you can see by the picture on the first tee, the fog was not at Pebble and we teed off in incredible sunshine and the day topped out at about 68 degrees. I was able to concentrate on my golf more this trip and had less trouble with the tough course and undersized greens. We played from the gold tees , which is short of the tips, but a comfortable distance. I managed 43+45=88 on the course and felt that I could have played better. I parred the second and third holes and also parred the tough number 8 "cliff" hole. The back nine was a disaster waiting to happen as I went double-bogey, double bogey, double-bogey to start the back. I pulled it together by parring the number one handicap 569 yard par five 13th, as well as 15 and 17 for a 45 on the back. I think I somehow lost my concentration on the back, but I was able to rally and play good golf from then on out, going three over for the last six holes. I played with our number one agent, Rich from Cal Pro. Rich is a 5 handicap and also a member of RGC. He struggled a little on the course and shot an 89. Both Anthony and Rob shot over 100. It was a great time.

The NCGA is offering some deals on golf in Monterey in March and I plan a return trip at the end of the month to play Spyglass Hill. I've somehow managed to miss playing the second leg of the AT&T Pebble Beach classic. I've played both Poppy Hills and Pebble Beach, but never Spyglass. The deal is $175 with a cart for the month of March, so I will definitely plan on that.

I got a head start on the blog this weekend and started a draft of this epistle on Saturday morning. Darla had a team meeting of her Silpada reps at the house and I didn't golf until 1:00, so I worked in the office Saturday morning, working on some quotes and getting a start on the blog. It was an estrogen party with much laughter and good times with Darla leading the band. Darla, at one point, brought me in a hot plate of sausage and cheese quiche with fruit on the side, so it wasn't all bad.

I did play Woodcreek at 1:00 PM on Saturday. I have a friend who always wants to play golf with me. The problem is that he has young kids in sports and can never play in the morning. I hate playing in the afternoon on a weekend as the hacks are in full plumage and this weekend was no exception. We teed off right on time and had a wait on the second hole as the group in front of us was still on the tee. By the time we got to hole three, there were two groups on the tee and that was a theme for the day. I'm a rhythm golfer and like to stay active. One reason that I like to walk is that it keeps me active between shots and I can concentrate on my game. With Curly, Moe, Larry and their other brother, Darryl, in front of us, it was impossible to concentrate on anything except their gross ineptitude. I finally walked off the course after 16 holes and four hours and 50 minutes of inane golf. I shot an 86 when figuring in my handicap on the final two holes, so in spite of a strong wind and gusty conditions, I played okay, but my frustration level was boiling over. Boyd had quit after nine holes and 2 1/2 hours of golf. It was his wife's 16th birthday (she was born on February 29th) and the family was going to dinner at 6:00 PM. Bob and Mark soldiered on and I heard later that they finished in the dark and the group in front stood on the 18th green shaking hands and talking about their game before Bob finally drilled a seven iron shot into the green and they scattered. I'm glad I was gone already or I probably would have ended up in some trouble that night.

I got home and fired an e-mail off to Mark inviting him to come and play any morning he felt like joining us. I had told Boyd and Bob that I understood if they wanted to play in the morning, but like troopers, they came out and joined us on Saturday afternoon.

I'm wearing bandaids over the tips of my index and middle fingers of my left hand today. I googled "pool scale" and found out that I could chisel off the carbon and calcium buildup with a tile spatula. I had a large one that I use to spackle with and took it out yesterday and it worked wonders on the pool tile. The problem was that the blade is so sharp that I didn't realize that I was cutting into my hand as I used the corner to scrape the tile. I have painful "paper cut" like cuts on the pads of both fingers that were sore yesterday, but really painful today. The website suggested scraping the calcium off and then bathing the tile in an acid solution. Luckily, with the cuts on my hands, I didn't have any acid or my hands would really be sore today. I plan to stop and get some acid today at Lowes as well as some rubber gloves to use when I sponge off the tile.

Darla and I spent about a half-hour on the Skype last nigfht with Jennifer and Samantha. Something about the Skype experience makes Samantha need to go number 2 as for the second time she overfilled her diaper and left Jennifer with a mess on her shirt. Last time it was John. Jennifer's web cam has a blue light that comes on when it is in use and Samantha was staring at the light, which means she was looking right at Darla and I. It was great. Technology is a blessing.

Diane had her surgery last Wednesday and it was less invasive than they had thought. They were able to get into her thymus by going below her ribs rather than through her spine and she is already up and walking. The tumor was really large and they hope to have results on the biopsy this week. Jennifer and Samantha will be here on Saturday. I have to get the car seat from Diane and will pick them up at the airport and they will stay with us Saturday night. I have a 54 hole team championship that starts on Sunday, so Darla will take them to church Sunday morning and then to Diane's Sunday afternoon. I look forward to seeing Samantha. She is so much more active and is developing her personality now. It will be a blast.

Well, work awaits. I have a guy coming in to present information on our new 401k program. We have changed providers from ING to Mutual of Omaha and he will present on the new options. Then I have a guy coming in for lunch and will interview him for an underwriting position. He has experience in the E&S industry and I want to find out what makes him tick and what agencies he has relationships with. I hope you are all well. Ciao.