Phoenix and Pebble Beach

 Darla, Shawna and Jeff Crab Feed

 Mike and his wife Scottsdale

 Darla's new piano

 Ron with Webb Simpson

 #15 Waste Management Open

 #17 WMO

 Jimmy Walker on #12

 Jimmy follow through

WMO Winner Ricky Fowler

 The enclosed #16

#16 view from our corporate venue

Darla and I met Pete and Vicky and Shawna and Jeff from my office at a crab feed a few weeks ago. I'm not a cold crab fan, but they had tri tip as well and Renee in my office is on the board of the charity, XP, which is a disease whereby people are allergic to the sun and have to cover up all of their skin when they are outdoors. It was $60 a ticket per person, but we had fun with the group, and it was nice to contribute to the cause.

I hosted a trip to the Scottsdale Waste Management Phoenix Open for Ron Floyd, a great friend and the sales manager at Placer Insurance, who just got bought out by one of the largest national retailers in the Sacramento area. We flew out on Thursday for the tournament , catching a 7 AM flight. I got a rental car when we got there and we drove about thirty miles out to the Legend at Arrowhead, an Arnold Palmer designed golf course in Glendale, AZ. Michael Maharaj, our corporate VP in charge of Sales Development, met us at the course. He had two rental carts already loaded with two sets of right handed clubs that belonged to he and a friend of his. Ron and I had brought our golf shoes and tees and balls. Mike had range balls, drinks and extra towels on our cart and we were ready to go. I ended up shooting 86 on the course with borrowed clubs and was happy with my score. Ron shot 88 and Mike shot 82. It was a beautiful curse with a lot of traps and water which is Arnie's signature. That afternoon we got checked into our rooms at the JW Marriott resort in Scottsdale and then headed out to a bar in Scottsdale where we had a mixer with Webb Simpson, our golf ambassador on the PGA tour and the current champion of the Players Championship in Ponta Vedra, Florida. Webb will be defending his title next month. I have a picture of Ron with Webb above. After cocktails, we went to Mike's house in Scottsdale and then over to Tommy Bahama's restaurant in Scottsdale with Mike and his wife.

Friday we had tickets with entry at the Skybar at number 17. Ron and I spent most of the day walking the course and seeing all of the tournament holes. We knew on Saturday that we would be with all of the Burns and Wilcox guests at the famed number 16 hole, which cannot be seen outside of the corporate tents or the grandstands. People line up at 4 AM to get into the grandstands at 16, so we didn't even bother and the lines to get in were about 250 people long. Crazy. We did drop into the Skybar for drinks and lunch. I have limited myself to one drink a day at these events and held myself to that standard while we were in Scottsdale. The venue is beginning to rival the number 16 as it is a drivable par four and a lot of fun to watch. Ricky Fowler and his group which was Justin Thomas and Branden Grace, all drove the green on the 317 yard par 4. It was a rowdy venue and the police had to remove several drunk patrons, one of whom tripped over a chair and was passed out on the ground. At the end of the afternoon, there was a fistfight between two drunks who both swung and missed before both connecting. That left one of the guys bleeding profusely from the mouth. The police came, investigated and hauled both of the combatants away.

Ron and I had a nice quiet dinner at the resort that night and then went to bed early. Saturday was our corporate day at number 16 and we had groups from Scottsdale, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Fresno, Georgia and Detroit in attendance, all with their retail guests. The venue looked right over the 16th green and it is a crazy place to watch a golf tournament as the entire hole is ringed with three story corporate tents and a 4000 person grandstand that is open to the public. There are about 12,000 patrons in the corporate tents. Our tickets were $1050 per person, so you do the math for a three day tournament. The corporate visitors get unlimited food and drink and are pretty well behaved. The grandstands on the other hand are full of rowdy's dressed like bananas, nuns, referees, cowboys, a group of Canadians from Alberta dressed as Big Bird, the Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie, Kermit and Elmo, among others. These 4000 partiers throw beer cans, scream and boo for any shot that misses the green. They also chant "Bogey, Bogey, Bogey" on any par putt over five feet. There are a number of players (lead by Tiger Woods) who refuse to play the tournament because of the craziness of number 16. Other players revel in it like Bubba Watson who routinely changes into an Arizona State or Arizona Cardinal jersey before teeing off and then throws Frisbees into the crowd. There are "caddy races" where caddies with full bags will race from the tee to the green on the 178 yard hole with the crowd swelling in cheers as they approach the hole. More than one caddie has tripped and fallen, sprawling on the desert sand with his bag's contents sent flying. We had fun and then caught a 6 PM flight back to Sacramento.

Our marketing manager, Rich Shipley, asked me this year if I wanted to go back to the Genesis Open in LA or to Phoenix. I wanted to experience the craziness of the Phoenix Open, "the biggest party on grass" and a tournament nicknamed the Wasted Management Open. Now that I've seen it up close from the corporate tents, I'm ready to move on. Next year I told Rich I'd like to go to Florida for the Players Championship, which is a 5th major of the PGA tour.

Our 12 person van

 Our group jammed into the van

The chauffer

The girls at the putting green at Pebble

 DJ putting at number 17

 Number 18 fairway

 DJ teeing off at Number 18

 Darla and I in the grandstands at 18

 Darla relaxing at the 19th hole at Pebble

 Darla and I at the wall of Champions Pebble

Our gang at Tarpy's in Monterey

The next weekend I had 12 tickets for the Sunday finale of the AT&T Pro Am at Pebble Beach. I rented a 12 person van from Enterprise for the 12 of us and we loaded up Sunday morning at 7 AM for the drive to Pebble Beach. It took us about 3 and a half hours after we stopped to pick up Gail and her four travelers and then Pete and Vicky in Elk Grove. Darla dubbed it before we left "The road trip from Hell". It turns out she had a ball visiting with everyone in the van, seeing the beauty of the coast and golf course ad then enjoying an awesome dinner at Tarpy's in Monterey. The restaurant is named for Matt Tarpy, an owner of the land where the restaurant stands. Tarpy made his fortune in the California Goldfields and settled in Monterey. He sold off 400 acres of his 2,280 acres to Murdoch and Sarah Nicholson in 1873. Unfortunately, the boundaries of the sale were never plotted out and Tarpy confronted the Nicholsons at a cabin that they were building in an area that he claimed as his. The dispute turned deadly when Tarpy went for his gun to shoot Murdoch and Sarah stepped in front of him and was killed. Tarpy turned himself in to the constable but a lynch mob formed, broke him out of jail and hanged him. Such a nice story for a restaurant. The food was excellent and we were out of there by 7:00 and home by 10:45. It was a long day, but an adventure for sure. Darla says she'd like to do it again, but wants to rent a house in the area next time and go down on Saturday.

Darla's Piano

Darla got a new piano and is taking lessons with her girlfriend, Julie. The piano actually fit in our living room in the recessed area by one of our front windows. The pool table is still there and we can play around it. I think Shirley got a piano and Darla wanted to do the same. Daniel and I moved it with help from Julie's husband from a home in Roseville. Darla got the 1948 Aldrich by Sherwin Clay and Company for $100. It was last serviced in 2015 and is in pretty great shape. We got the piano from a young couple who inherited it from her father.

I did play in my first golf tournament last weekend and it was rainy, wet and miserable for the better part of the weekend. Ron and I teamed up and shot 93 (me) and 94 (him) for a team score of 72. The leaders were at 63. The rain held off on Saturday, but it was muddy and cold. We woke Sunday to rain and a little wind and Ron texted me that he wanted to withdraw and stay home. I agreed. I then looked out the window and the sky was clearing and the rain was gone. I looked at the forecast and the rain was out of there. I called Ron and said we were back on. He told me that wasn't his first choice, but would acquiesce. We went out and shot 81 (me) and 85 (him) for a 63 (that included a 29 on the back 9) to get within one stroke of the money, but we did acquit ourselves well. I hate to quit on anything.

Well, that is the news as I see it. I hope everyone is well and I'll be back at this in a couple of weeks. Ciao.