|
July '05
 7/65:27pm:
So now I'm hangin' out for a bit here in O'Hare International
waiting for a flight to Hartford, CT. I just spent 5 days hangin'
out w/ my oldest/closest friend Bill "Tank" Sherman. This is now
a yearly tradition that affords both of us the opportunity to just get
back to basics (fun!) and check in with each other.
We spend 5 days in Monterey, CA at he Pebble Beach Lodge. The
first day is just chillin’ and getting settled in. Sunday we
played Pebble Beach. The course is such an amazing site.
Just so beautiful. My golf game although there are moments of
brilliance, is barely adequate. There are much worse players who
play this course, but I can assure you there are many who are much
better! Bill and I both play like good athletes who need to play
more. My shot of the day was on the majestic 18th of
Pebble. After a couple of mediocre shots playing up the right
side of the fairway, (fear of the Pacific Ocean on my left and a sand
trap the size of Libya adorning the water!) I went with the strongest
part of my game: Power, and hit a ball almost onto someone’s deck, way
to the right barely still in bounds. This is the most difficult
part of my game. Being a social creature I love to golf and hang
out with friends, but the combination of extreme power and
inconsistency can sometimes leave me very far away from civilization
while I’m on the course. I’ve actually had rounds of golf when I
have missed my friends for all 18 holes!! So as everyone stood on
the green, there I was a good 90 yards away and off to the right,
someone’s deck furniture to my right and a mammoth tree right in front
of me to my left. If I pretended the tree didn’t exist, I had a
shot to the green. If I hit to the left, I take my life into my
hands. Did I mention the huge almost vertical bunker just in
front of the green? It’s 18 at Pebble beach so there are always
spectators around. Always one to love and audience, I hit my Sand
Wedge with everything I had. The ball went straight up and down,
caught a bit of tree leaves, carried the bunker and dropped on the
green and rolled to about 7 inches from the cup. I got a bit of
applause from the gallery and a congratulations from an enthusiastic
Asian man on my way to the green. “Tankenheimer” gave me the
putt, but was upset because he hit a beautiful chip from the fairway
over a bunker and onto the green and nobody cared because of my shot!
We played Spyglass on Monday and Pebble again
on Tuesday and ate great food and drank great Scotch and talked and
laughed a whole lot. Most importantly two great friends who met
in Nursery School at the age of 3 have managed to nurture almost 40
years of laughter, pain, hopes & dreams. It has been and
continues to be a friendship to be very proud of. Bill is a
friend I am very proud of.
I didn’t mention a whole lot more of my golf
game because it wasn’t very pretty. We did get massages every
day. There was no “release” / “Happy Ending”. At a classy
place like Pebble Beach you pretty much gotta’ pleasure yourself at the
end of the day. “Full Service” has to draw the line somewhere!!
Thank you Pebble Beach staff: Keith, Juan & Sam. You guys Rock!
|
