Country Club Living

I have to admit that I could get used to living like I did this week during the Invitational at Serrano Country Club in El Dorado Hills. My partner was very gracious in inviting me, but a bit frustrating in his execution. Whereas my enjoyment was in the competition and in the golf, he was more enamored with the party. Gary is a salesman first middle and last. He enjoys people and enjoys being the life of the party.

Wednesday afternoon was check-in and the horse race qualifier. Each 2-man team that enters is assigned to a hole with five other teams and they play a three hole qualifier. On each hole, two teams are eliminated and if there is a tie for last, there is a chip-off. It is alternate shot. Our third shot was hit a little firm (by me) and I hit the green and it bounced over into the hazard. Gary approached me as I was ready to chip and said, "the rough is nasty here, give it a little extra". The ball was playable, but Gary lost his head and took two practice swings in the hazard and then almost chipped in for a four. We were penalized two shots and that was added to our 5 for a seven. There were two teams that were worse than five, one with a 7 and one with a 6. We were eliminated on his penalty after I'd paid $50 to get us into the qualifier.

Thursday was a morning round and it was alternate shot. Gary put me in some positions I'd never been in before and we shot 10 shots over our quota as a team. Gary did Patron' shots at 8:30 in the morning at one of the bars on the course and was a basket case after that. They took 50% of that overage and reduced our team quota from 52 to 47 on Friday. Friday was an afternoon round and individual play where both balls count. We shot 1-over our quota at 48 and were back in the tournament at 9 over. I deftly steered Gary away from the bars and wouldn't let him do shots with one of the bartenders. I shot 79 and Gary shot 84. Saturday was a morning round and Gary again was back to Patron' shots and Bloody Marys and a flask of Crown Royal in the cart. I shot 88 and Gary had a 92 and we shot 15 shots under our quota to finish in dead last in our flight and Gary lost about $200 in bets to his cronies. He likes to party and I couldn't get him to focus.

The tee gifts were incredible as was the food served at the event. The gifts were a dozen Titleist Pro V1s, a wind jacket, a golf shirt, a pair of designer sunglasses, a beautiful flask, a golf repair kit with the tournament logo, a golf hat with the logo and a golf towel. Awesome. The food was Prime Rib Wednesday night, Filet Mignon Thursday, oysters-crab-abalone-lobster and shrimp Friday, and pan seared ahi tuna-lamb chops-rib eye Saturday night.

It is halftime of the Dallas game, so I'll finish this up later.

8:45PM

Darla and Gary's wife, Kelly, joined us on Saturday night. I showed up expecting to collect $150 for closest to the pin as a friend had played the hole in the next to last group and my 8'4" was still leading, but alas, someone aced me out in the last group. We ended up winning $40 for worst score in our flight on Saturday.



I will be in the office early tomorrow to do payroll and then I'm off to Serrano again to play in a fundraiser for the local high school that Gail in my office bought a $1000 foursome and invited two of our agents to join us. It starts with breakfast, we play mid-day , have cocktails during a silent auction, then finish with dinner and prizes.



I say I COULD get used to playing at a country club, but with dues of about $450 a month I would be married to the course. I'm still looking to play the field and there are too many golf courses out there on my Bucket List of courses to play before I die or get too old to be competitive. Speaking of which I leave for Bandon, Oregon and three days of golf at the world famous Bandon Dunes Resort. Here is a website page of Bandon: http://www.bandondunesgolf.com/this_is.cfm

Here also is a picture of one of the holes on Pacific Dunes, one of the three courses that we will play. Hopefully the weather is good. The trip is expensive, with golf rates at $210 and the resort at $320 a night (luckily I will have a roommate and he'd be advised to bring earplugs). Boyd Robertson is going with me to Bandon and we will enjoy that dream together. Boyd joined me at Pebble Beach and Torrey Pines, so we have been making some golfing memories together.

Darla has said she'd like to take a walk. I watched Dallas beat Green Bay and then tried calling Jennifer, but she gets up so early, she was probably already in bed. I will try to write in the blog next Saturday, knowing that I will be traveling to Bandon on Sunday.

Darla and I really enjoyed church today. We had Josh McDowell as a guest speaker. He is a world renowned Christian author, who became a Christian after being a wild agnostic in College and finally seeing the light. We bought his book, "The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict". He wrote it in the first eleven years of his life as a Christian and researched the validity of the Bible and the claims of the Christian faith. I'm looking forward to reading it. Josh works with teenagers and is a huge proponent of a strong father relationship in a child's life. He says that children will not follow our lead as parents unless we model our values and have a good relationship with them. Jen and John, if you want Samantha to grow up and go in the right direction: find a church, get her involved as she gets older in youth activities and be involved parents in her spiritual growth as well as her physical growth. Enough preaching. I hope you are all well and I'll write more next weekend. Ciao.