again slacking on the blog again, but — October was a really busy month… and could’ve been a whole lot more so.. Thanks to Thang I arrived in south San Francisco early Thursday afternoon and was able to park at his work garage. Saved some bucks there, so i paid for the taxi to SFO.. was the right thing to do. We meet up with JT and Jason and have lunch at SFO, then off to United Airlines for our 90 minute flight into PSP.
We started out in Palm Springs, PGA West to be exact, celebrating my buddy Thang’s 40th birthday. We rented a great home via VRBO – on the 14th green of the Nicklaus tourney course. 5 Bedrooms + a casita.. huge… pool, spa, Big BBQ & Gas fireplace on the patio. waaay cool.. Thanks Alan & Kim…
So for the courses, we enjoyed some of the best that this area has to offer… On Friday – 2 rounds at Indian Wells Celebrity, Have wanted to play there since I saw it on Big Break, the Players course was closed for over-seeding. We were originally scheduled to play one round, but we finished early enough and we had enjoyed the layout so much, when we went back in to see if we could go again, they told us that because we booked with Golf Zoo, the replay was comp’ed. Gotta love free golf. The course staff was friendly even when they found our beer, they gave it back to us at the end of the day, and the starter, Bob, took some pics of us to ensure we had a souvenir.
on the 1st tee – IW Celebrity
The long weekend warriors – John T, Me, Jason Colvin, & Thang played 6 courses in 4 days..
Shot 96 – 85 from the blues – 132 slope @ 6632 yards, and won low round of the day with the afternoon round. Chipped in for birdie from a really bad lie on the par 3 11th hole, much to the chagrin of my buddies wallets. Thanks to the Troon Golf staff for treating us to a first class day!! IW pics are here
Saturday – Started at PGA West – TPC Stadium Course.. Pete Dye is a sadistic witch.. Wow.. moguls up the wazoo, deep bunkers, and lots of water. No place to bail out here!
- The 9th @ TPC Stadium
didn’t play worth a crap on the front side, but seemed to pick it up on the back.. Birdies on the 16th, the long par 5 and a double birdie with Thang at the Alcatraz Island 17th made it all worth while, his from about 45 feet with a great putt and mine from about 15-18′.
Lee Trevino once made an ace on this hole to win $200,000 in a Skins Game.
Alcatraz at TPC Stadium
Again opened the day by shooting 96 from 6100 yards and a 135 slope rating. Tough golf course.. Pics of the course are here…
The Afternoon round was at the Greg Norman Resort course at PGA West. This is a pretty straight forward layout, no gimmicks or craziness, just a fun course with water and more desert scapes for your balls to land in. was a little late in the day and saw this on the 17th green, was really beautiful in the desert light, so just had to take this reflection shot from the pond guarding the green:
Shot 82 here from the combo tees – 6500 yds, again low round of the day for those of us that did play, JT, Jason, Huu. felt good about this round, lots of fairways and greens in Reg. Pics for the Norman course are here…
Sunday we played one of my favorites in La Quinta, The Arnold Palmer designed SilverRock Resort. I played here in 2009 with my father and just loved it. This course has hosted the PGA Tour Qualifying school, the Former Bob Hope Classic and other Tour level events. it has a great range and large putting green. Lots of water, made 1 birdie and 2 bogeys on the front 9 and shot a career best tying 37 on the front, missed a 3rd birdie from 2 feet on the par 5 7th hole to shoot even par for 9. Great views as it’s right at the base of the mountains.
didn’t play as well on the back and shot 44 for an 81 total from the combo 6260 yards and a 127 slope rating. Again, low round of the day for the group of 6. Huu, Thao, JT, Jason, Thang and I played here.
- the Silver Rock Group, Jason, Bill & JT
After the round, It was back to the house early to enjoy the hot tub, the pool and JT’s BBQ dinner. We had 18 yr Macallan Scotch & cigars by the fire pit… Did I say it was a really good guys weekend??? Silver Rock Pics are posted here:
Monday was our final day. After cleaning up the house and ensuring everything was packed, we got into the rental and headed to Indio to play at the Golf Club at Terra Lago – North Course. Had not heard about this one prior and driving in it didn’t look very promising, everything was brown, luckily that was the south course and that was the one closed for over-seeding. This was a really nice club, it was in good shape, the greens were firm and fast, and they had not one, but three island /peninsula greens over the course of the 18 holes. I would go back to play this one again. Shot ok -89 from the 6500 yard 132 slope yellow championship tees. Pics from Terra Lago are here…
It was just too bad the weekend had to end, but off we headed to PSP and SFO via United for the rest of the work week. Really enjoyed the company and the Golf,
Thanks to Andy & Kim, the owners of the house and to Diana at Golf Zoo, who really put up with a lot to get us onto the premier courses we wanted with all of the closures and overseeding and also with the ever changing number of players per day. It really was stress free once we got to the courses, and i would not hesitate to use their services again.
GolfinNorCal 