Monday - Spanish Bay course

We played our first round at Spanish Bay. Woke up about 6:30am. Roomate Joe had an early tee time, so I got up after her left. Breakfast was at the resort restaurant – banana pancakes, glass of orange juice and milk. I wanted some fuel in my system for the day’s events.

Spanish Bay is the only course of the resort that doesn’t have a driving range. You can take the shuttle to any of the other ranges, but I decided to just pitch and chip and putt for an hour before the 11:35am tee time. I had purchased a new hybrid chipping club at the Washington Golf show – good for 100 yards and in with a full swing, great touch for the chipping. Putting green was pretty true – short and fast with lots of movement. Weather looking questionable, it was cold and windy and the clouds were forming over the Pacific. I had on my long sleeved white polo from Farm Neck, khaki Tommy Bahama long pants and a red rain/wind jacket from Lighthouse Point.

I was partnered with Nick from Malibu – owns a used fitness equipment company, Dan the Sales Director from Precor and the Director of Football operations for the San Francisco Forty-Niners. We were all pretty much the same level of golfer. Our group was assigned one caddy – can’t remember his name. This was the first time in my golf life I have ever had a caddy, so I was excited about this special treat. He turned out to be an average caddy, more interested in listening to the stories about the 49er players than looking for our balls and giving advice. I was disappointed.

I hit first from the #1 Tee. Decided to hit my 5 wood to get the ball in the fairway. Nice easy swing, slight draw to the left, landed in the fairway. Good start to the day. Nick didn’t make it past the lady’s tee and the others were off the fairway to the right. I should have stopped there. I three putted and posted a 7 on the first hole.

One of the memorable holes was along the Pacific, where a family of deer grazed on the right side of the fairway. Like a laser guided missile, my tee shot ended up rolling to a stop under the biggest of the deer, didn’t even move – caddy said that they are use to golfers feeding them all the time. Great picture of the me and the deer.

At the turn, the weather started to get worse and so did my game. In the weeks prior to the trip I had been working on my flexibility. The good news is that I was much more flexible than before, the bad news was that my golf swing was still the same, so the two weren’t quiet in sync yet. Decided to just enjoy the rest of the round and not let my poor playing dampen my spirits. The other two decided to put some money on their game – skins for $20 a hole – too rich for mine and Nick’s game that day. Worked well for those two – they played much better with money on the line.

There is a rumor that "someone" pulled one of their drives left off the tee and hit the condo of former Miami Dolphin Coach Don Shula. I can neither confirm nor deny that report. Damn rain.

Rain started on #12 fairway. Fine mist at first. By the time we reached the #15 tee it was a torrential downpour with the Pacific Ocean fueling the storm. Wind was blowing the rain sideways, everything was wet, my pants were now a dark khaki. We were miserable. One of the guys even wrapped the grip of his club with a towel so he could hang on. We teed off at #15 and decided that was enough and left our tee shots in the middle of the fairway (figures we all hit our best drives of the day).

We found the maintenance road that led us back to the pro-shop. I’d share my scores with you from the day, but the rain destroyed my golf card, so I have no record of my poor performance.

Precor was a fantastic host. They had a gift card waiting for me at the pro-shop. So much fun to shop for memories – a new half sleeved rain vest, a water proof Pebble Beach hat, a Spanish Bay polo shirt, a Pebble Beach shoe bag, and a few souvenir golf balls. I was $.02 over my card limit, the pro was so impressed that I could shop that well, he put in the $.02.