Back from LA and getting closer to Vegas and THE WEDDING

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It was a special trip to Los Angeles this week and to Riviera Country Club and the Genesis Open. I worked Monday and Tuesday and then a half day on Wednesday. Darla and I met for lunch at California Pizza Kitchen to enjoy Valentines Day together on Wednesday. I went back to work until about 1:45 and then left to pick up Mike Stewart at his home in Orangevale and then on to the airport. We had time for a quick drink at the airport before we caught our flight. We were meeting Harvey in Burbank and driving together to Beverly Hills and the Hilton there. We arrived right at six and Harvey's flight pulled up to the terminal at the same time as ours. We met up with him and I had a car reserved. I had an Impala lined up, but they upgraded me to a 300. It took us a full hour to travel the 6.1 miles to the hotel. We checked in about 7:30, got cleaned up and then headed to Bedford and Burns restaurant in Beverly Hills. We talked to the Concierge at the Hilton about recommendations for dinner and it was, of course, Valentines night. He was able to get us in at the restaurant in spite of the crowds. He did say that he wouldn't judge three guys going to dinner together on a romantic holiday. Thanks.

 

Thursday morning we were up and in the lobby at 6:30 as Jimmy Walker was teeing off at 7:30 and we wanted to be there to see him tee off. We had parking at a middle school right next to the course. It was the staging area for CBS Sports and the parking lot for all of their employees. How we got in there is a mystery to me. Home Office sent me the parking pass. We jumped on the shuttle, which was (strangely) a golf cart. Not only was it a golf cart, but it was Dottie Pepper's golf cart. Dottie is a former LPGA Champion and the on course golf announcer. The driver asked if we were spotting on a hole. I told him, No, we had a villa on the 17th green. He kicked us out of the cart as it was for CBS employees only. We had to wait and catch the large shuttle van. That van took us to a side street next to the main entrance of the venue. The driver told us to be sure that we got on the shuttle for Parking Lot #4 at Paul Revere Middle school when we came back as there were multiple shuttles leaving from the same area..

 

There was next to no one following Jimmy, Charley Hoffman and Shane Lowry as Tiger teed off with Rory McElroy and Justin Thomas at the same time on number 10. I was able to meet Jimmy's wife, Erin, who was very nice, appreciative and accommodating. We also saw our Marketing Creative Director Royal Russin, who works with our Advertising agency, as well as Rich Shipley, our Marketing Director and his wife, Amy. We followed Jimmy for about five holes and then hustled over to our villa to see Phil Mickelson's group come through followed by Tiger and his group. The bar was open and they had some snacks in the tent. The venue was awesome as we sat right on the green at number 17. We had 40 people in the trailer and stands and we were able to come and go during the day. Jimmy finished his round at 12:30 and would be at the box at 1:30 to meet the agents and sign autographs and take pictures.

 

Mike and I wandered the course for awhile and followed Dustin Johnson, Adam Scott and Bubba Watson for several holes. They had Jordan Spieth right behind them and he was playing with Kevin Chappel. We had a blast as Mike had never been to a PGA tournament and he was enthralled with everything. His son is a huge PGA fan, so he was texting him back and forth as we went.

 

Jimmy did come by the box at about 1:45 and was extremely gracious in meeting with all of the agents and showing an interest in where they were from and how they were doing. He signed Genesis Open flags for each of the agents and posed for photographs. He signed some hats for the agents as we had given out Burns and Wilcox black Titleist hats earlier in the day. They served a great lunch of pulled pork and shredded chicken sandwiches with salads and fruit. The bar was open all day with an Angel's Envy brand Kentucky bourbon, that was my go to drink all day.

 

The pictures above are of the Kings game that we went to last weekend with Pete and Vickie. I took them to dinner at Frank Fat's Chinese restaurant. We had a ball with them. The 2nd picture is of the Hotel in Beverly Hills. The 3rd picture is of my two Valentines, Mike and Harvey, at dinner at Bedford and Burns. 4th picture is of Jimmy on number three. 5th picture is of Dustin and Adam Scott walking on number 5. 6th picture is Dustin. 7th picture is of Bubba Watson at number 5. 8th picture is of Mike with Jimmy in the villa box. 9th picture is of myself and Jimmy. 10th is Harvey and Jimmy. 11th is of Jimmy, myself and Rich Shipley, our marketing director. 11th is of Rich, Harvey, myself and Mike. 12th picture is of the venue (Ours was the second from the very left). 13th picture is of Jimmy with our group. The redhead is Kelly, our Vegas Managing Director. The final picture is of Dustin hitting his approach on number 18.

 

Harvey ended up tired and cold later in the day and Mike and I wanted to watch Dustin, Adam and Bubba finish. He caught a ride back to the hotel with Russin and we hung out until about 5 PM. We walked back to the side street and made sure to get on the shuttle for Parking Lot 4.  Unfortunately the idiots had two different parking Lot 4s. We ended up on the shuttle that took us to the employee parking lot in...wait for it...Santa Monica. We tried to get the driver to stop, but he wasn't allowed to (supposedly). It took an hour to get to Santa Monica and an hour to get back. We were supposed to meet Harvey and our LA Manager, Tim for dinner with Rich and his wife, Amy. We texted them and told them we were in Santa Monica and it was a long story and that we would miss dinner.

 

It took us an hour to go the 4 miles from the middle school back to Beverly Hills. The traffic was at a dead halt on the streets moving to the hotel. You can have LA. I like the weather, hate the traffic and HATE the politics. Mike and I ended up having a nice dinner at the hotel 's restaurant in the courtyard of the hotel. We talked family, some business and decided to roll the book of business they have with Anthony over to Burns and to meet in about two weeks to go over a special program on mobile homes that we will try to put together with our owned insurance company, Atain.

 

I played in the NCGA qualifier with Ron today and we both struggled, shooting a 70 in the event where 62 was leading when we left. Darla met me for lunch as we have an event coming up that I forgot to sign up for. She brought a check for me and I bought her lunch. We had a nice visit with Ron. I shot 46+43=89 and Ron shot 43+46=89. We didn't really ham and egg it well during the tournament. He carried us on the front and I carried us on the back, but we had bogeys on three of the four par threes which killed us.

 

I will play in a two day event next weekend with Paul. The boys are coming over for dinner tonight and Darla has prepared Italian Mac and Cheese for dinner. I'll be back next week with pictures from tonight. I hope everyone is doing well. Be safe and I look forward to seeing you guys in Vegas. Ciao.