Once again, the Blog is going on Vacation to Mexico

I just finished watching the TIVO of Tiger Woods winning his 14th major and 3rd US Open. I was there on Friday and watched Tiger limp around the 7,600 yards of Torrey Pines and I am even more impressed with him as an athlete. The crowds that surround him, from security and media people, to the throngs of gallery are unbelievable. How he focuses as well as he does in that zoo is amazing. He had at least 60 cameramen running ahead of him and taking pictures. There were at least ten San Diego PD officers, five television cameras, seven reporters from NBC, XM Satellite, Sportscenter and some Japanese reporter. Shutters are popping on every shot that he makes. We sat and watched him on hole number 14 on Friday and he hit a pull to the left that buried in high rough. He absolutley killed a shot from about 170 yards into the greenside bunker where he chipped on to the green and made his par. His swing out of the heavy rough was all out and he winced in pain as his surgically repaired left knee buckled on him. We had set up early on 14 and wached the groups come through and there was little buzz, but after Tiger eagled 13, the swarm arrived and pushed us up against the ropes and the police were forced into crowd control.

I loved being at the US Open and enjoy the memory, but it is no way to watch a golf tournament as everything is happening on other holes and you pick up bits and pieces off leaderboards and some satellite scoring machines handed out to American Express cardholders. The crowds were huge with 52,000 of us on Friday holding our $150 tickets. I flew in with one of my top agents early Friday morning from Sacramento. We were met by our host who handed us little picnic backpacks filled with a thermos, salt and pepper, two metal drinking cups and a golf towel and a dozen nike Karma balls. We drove from the airport out to Qualcom stadium where we caught the shuttle bus to Torrey Pines. They dropped us off at the kite airfield, where the human kites usually fly up and over the golf course. The airfield was closed during the open because of the need for parking and because of the blimps in the sky above the course. We had a nice $45 lunch at the Trophy Club behind the number two tee box, that was exclusive to Trphy Club ticketholders, It was an intimate lunch with 5,000 of our closest friends. I bought lunch and Rich bought us CC and ginger ales to walk the course with. It was an event for sure.

Work has been a struggle lately as we are in a downsizing mode and I've had to let four emplyees go. It is exceedingly difficult, but a necessary evil in these times of increased competition, lower prices and squeezed margins. I have moved from a staff of 23 at our peak to a staff of 16. We are lean and mean and I met with the survivors to ensure them that we cut deep and I promised not to pick at the scab. I could have gotten away with only cutting two, but I wanted the cuts deep enough to impact the bottom line and so that I could promise the survivors that only performance will impact them going forward. Tough times.

I played golf this weekend at Ancil Hoffman golf course, famous for being the site of the "new" governor's mansion built by Ronald Reagan in 1979 and then pishawed by Governor Moonbeam (Jerry Brown). The mansion was never lived in by a California governor and was eventually sold at a loss to the state and subdivided into four home lots including the original mansion. The golf course had a hydrant installed on the number 15 tee next to the mansion for the safety of our governor and that plug still sits by the tee box, looking woefully out of place. I struggled to an 85 on Saturday in the heavily wooded course. I have gone back to my Taylor made R7 driver after an experiment with the Cleveland Launcher driver, which I hit well (at times). I am much more steady with the R7, though shorter off the tee. I decided that I prefer the fairway to the rough.

I played horribly on Thursday night in the league as I was in conference all day on staffing issues and ended up on a thirty minute teleconference in my car on the way to the course. I arrived late, with my group already on the tee and Bob stalled on the box as I changed into my shorts and golf shoes from my work attire. I went in to pay and the starter was on the phone with his girlfriend, I told him (loudly) that I'd be back in to pay after my round. I was almost hyperventilating on the tee and shot a smooth 45.

Father's Day was a delight. Darla found a deal at Sears whereby if you bought $100 of Docker's apparel, you'd get a $75 gas card to Shell. Not bad. I got some new work clothes, socks, etc and she got two thirds of a tank in her SUV. We talked to Jennifer. She took Samantha out and had some professional pictures taken of Samantha and herself for John for Father's Day. John was appropriately emotional when he walked out and Jennifer had the pictures in frames on the dining room table. Samantha is getting so incredibly cute. She is sitting up in the pictures and is close to crawling. Their house is progressing well and they are excited to move in. Jennifer and John bought a small blow-up pool and took it to Boulder City to visit with his Dad, step-mom, and Samantha's aunt, Olivia. They splashed about in the 106 degree heat.

Darla and I went to church Sunday morning after considering skipping it and were blessed with a great sermon on Noah as the great father, building the ark to save his family. We then relaxed at home in the sun on the pool between trips in the house to get caught up on the US Open on TIVO.

We leave Friday for a week at our timeshare in Nuevo Vallarta. It is the Grand Mayan and we have a Jack Nicklaus redesigned 18 hole golf course on site. Unforunately, the course is still under redesign and only 9 holes are open. We will still play it twice and venture out to PV and Marina Vallarta and Vista Vallarta twice (the Nicklaus course and the Weiskopf course). We will go with Bob and Vicki, the President that i worked as VP under, Neil, and my current Vice President, Rick and their wives. It should be a blast. After all of the stress at work lately, I am looking forward to relaxing on the pool at the Grand Mayan with a nice margarita. Ciao.