Magical Rounds and Personal Bests

On my annual sojourn to Southern California with hubby, I played some memorable rounds. The day after we arrived, we promptly went out to Encinitas Ranch, which is known as an "easy course" among the locals. I'm not at the point in my game where any course is "easy," but there is something about this place that brings out my best. The staff is super-friendly and we got paired with two affable old gents who smoked cigars but made up for it with their good-natured humor. I happened to be striping my tee shots all day, and at one point, one of the old guys sarcastically remarked, "Booorrring!" which I took to be a compliment.

The highlight of my round was this 150-yard approach shot that landed within inches of the pin:

Shots like that helped me score an 88, which was a nice way to kick off the vacation. Next stop was taking my goddaughter out for her first-ever round of golf. We went to The Loma Club, a 9-hole par 3 course with a kid-friendly vibe. Close to the trendy Liberty Public Market, it also has a hipster vibe, the kind of joint where you can get a beer and a tee time at the same counter. In fact, there is no proper pro shop, just the bar area of the attached pub, where the bartender doubles as the starter. As I was paying for our tee time, she asked, "Do you want a bloody mary with that?" even though it was only 10am.

At that hour, the course was decidedly more kid-friendly than booze-friendly. There was even a golf dad pushing his bag on a pull-cart with one arm and pulling a stroller in the other, while his toddler daughter straggled along, swinging a plastic club.

But my goddaughter is well beyond her first Snoopy set. Here's her first tee shot:

She's got an amazing swing, after only a year of lessons. Look at that extension! And the Loma Club has some sweet views of San Diego from above.

The course even has formidable bunkers that would have most adults quivering in their cleats.

But my goddaughter handled it all with ease. I'm glad I was a part of her first round, and can't wait to see her game progress.

Next stop was Torrey Pines North. The official webpage of Torrey Pines makes it sound like booking a tee time is as hard as snagging a dinner reservation at the hottest 4-star restaurant in town. Last time hubby and I played Torrey Pines North, we showed up at the course around 9am to put our names on the afternoon walk-on list. But that was in the fall, and I thought it would probably be harder to walk on since it was summer. I called the starter to ask about the likelihood of getting a walk-on tee time. He said it's possible but unpredictable, and the easiest way to get a tee time is through the online booking site. While the Torrey Pines official webpage makes it sound like you have to be a San Diego resident to book online, when you actually visit the Torrey Pines Online Reservations site, there is clearly a button for non-residents. "Just keep checking online," said the starter. "People cancel all the time and tee times open up."

As soon as I hung up, I logged on. Like magic, a tee time at 2:05pm for the next day appeared. I felt like I'd just won the lottery. I mean, this is a golf course that charges non-residents a $45 fee for advance booking. But I managed to score a next-day tee time for free (plus the $105 greens fee, of course.) Hubby even took a screenshot of our reservation in case something happened and we'd need it as proof.

Just for fun during the rest of our trip, I continued to check the site for tee times at Torrey Pines. You can book up to 48 hours ahead online, so as long as your schedule is flexible and you look at booking tee times like playing Pokemon (gotta catch 'em all), scoring a decent tee time is very possible. The South course seemed to have more open slots at any given time than the North, perhaps because the South course costs almost twice the price and is a much harder course. It could also be due to the big renovations at the North course last year, which had everyone saying it was like a whole new course.

So how did I play at the "new" North Course? Well, a heck of a lot better than last time. Back then, the kikuyu grass kicked my ass, but this time, the fairways seemed dry and trim, leading to nice rollouts. Even the rough seemed like a million tiny golf tees sticking in the air, so even if my ball landed in them, it remained perched and ready for striking.

But perhaps the biggest change was the addition of shorter forward tees. Before, there were 4 tee grounds, with the shortest being 6122 yards. Now, there are 5 tee sets, with the shortest being 5197 yards. While shorter distance doesn't always mean easy, the lower slope rating indicates a far easier track for ladies and relatively high-handicappers like me.

Looking at the course maps, the you can see that the routing completely changed so that the front and back nines are switched. Here is the old Torrey Pines layout:

Here's the new Torrey Pines North layout:

At the new course, the most scenic holes are on the back nine, which I think is a great change, so tourists like me can try to focus and score well on the front nine, then relax and enjoy the ocean views a little more on the back. 

And that's exactly how my round played out. 

Of course, so many views at this mecca of golf are idyllic, I found myself snapping pictures the whole time.

And looking out for those ever-present paragliders who seem like they could be landing on the putting green ahead.

On the front nine, I shot only 7 over par.

On the back nine, the ocean views overcame me and I shot mostly bogeys.

In the end, I scored a 90 for the round. I was ecstatic, since that's a great score for me at such a reputedly daunting course.

I almost didn't want to play any more golf on the trip because I was afraid to ruin my buzz. But hubby and I decided to play a few more times at some courses we hadn't played in awhile.

One of them was Balboa Park, which still has the best view I've ever seen from a ladies bathroom window.

The course itself is what I would describe as "dystopian." First of all, there are so many planes flying overhead you feel like you're in a war zone. It's also long and hard from the forward tees, and conditions were tough. There were blind tee shots and crazy uphill sideways tee shots and par-3 tee shots requiring driver. Thank goodness, hubby and I decided to ride instead of walk like we did last time. But I still lost a ball in the canyon, just like last time.

After that round, my left forearm started to hurt, which was a sign that I needed to take a break. Once home back east, it would be almost 2 weeks since I played golf again.

The first time back, I went out and shot an 83 at my favorite local course, my personal best there, or anywhere. I'm not sure how I did it, except I felt refreshed from taking time away from the familiar. Or maybe I brought a little magic from that day at Torrey Pines back home.

Torrey Pines North Course aka "Kikuyu, I Hardly Knew You"

It has been while since my last post. Hubby and I didn't get away for vacation till after summer was almost over. But in mid-September, we finally made it out west for 9 days of rest and relaxation, 5 of which were spent golfing.

The day after we arrived, we wasted no time and headed straight to Torrey Pines North Course. We'd played Torrey Pines South Course earlier this year, so we followed the same strategy for getting on: arrive at the course around 9am and get on the walk-on list. Those of you who live in the rest of the country, where democracy and equality are the general rule, may not know that there is such a thing as the Republic of Torrey Pines, which is run by localocracy, so San Diego residents get preferential treatment regarding tee times and fees. Outsiders pay more than twice as much as insiders to play in the land of the Torrey Pine. For example, at TP North, the non-resident greens fee is $100 for weekday mornings, versus $40 for residents. At TP South, out-of-towners pay $183, compared to the $61 pittance for locals.

Anyway, hubby and I know it's worth the splurge, since Torrey Pines is one of the best kept public tracks in the country and a famed course for many a tournament. As we were waiting in line, I overheard the non-resident couple in front of us in line telling the starter they had a tee time made by their San Diego resident "friend," but he woke up sick and couldn't play. The starter didn't fall for that old trick and bumped them to the walk-on list since their San Diegan amigo was required to play with them if he made the tee time.

Once it was our turn, we were able to get an 11am tee time with no problem. (And I made sure we had an actual tee time, to avoid the confusion we'd gone through at the South Course.) We had plenty of time to eat a good breakfast with eggs and sausage and toast, and return to the course to warm up at the range. I had forgotten how useless the range was for testing our club distances, so I just aimlessly hit balls with the set of clubs I keep out west, trying to get used to the feel again. When I golf and travel, half the battle is practicing with unfamiliar clubs.

We arrived at the first tee about 10 minutes early. Then it was hurry up and wait. Turned out, one of the local ladies leagues was having their tournament that day, and things had already gotten slow. Hubby and I were paired with two guys, one who was amiable but taciturn, and reminded me of a blonder, chubbier Emilio Estevez. The other guy, a tall Anthony Bourdain lookalike, at first reminded me of the hot-air-filled shaggy local whom hubby and I played with at the South Course, because he had the same nose-in-the-air, know-it-all demeanor. But it turned out that he was actually quite the golf course expert, in terms of course architecture. He and hubby name-dropped Fazios and Doaks and Dyes till my eye glazed over, and I turned my attention to the ladies on the first hole ahead.

There were 3 groups waiting to tee off in front of us, and since they were all hitting from the reds, I had the chance to see the shots to aim for, and to avoid. Not that this helped me one bit, because when we finally got to tee off, I hit a slice into the right rough. I pranced right up to the ball, and seeing that it was sitting nice and high up on the grass, I felt confident that I could just whack it back into play with my 3-wood.

Boy was I wrong. The rough at Torrey Pines North is what they call kikuyu grass, and it's not the same kind of rough they had on the South course earlier this year. This kikuyu is nasty stuff, which is why you'll hear golf tournament announcers go on and on about it on TV. If you've never played in kikuyu rough, imagine thick, tangled hair that's been teased up to look all neat and smooth on top. Now imagine trying to get a comb through it. The comb would just get stuck in the tangled mess and not budge. This is exactly what happened to my 3-wood when I tried to hit out of the kikuyu like a normal shot. My club got wedged in the grass and the ball skittered maybe 10 yards, into more kikuyu. The next shot, my ball flew diagonally across the fairway, where I learned the kikuyu grass is even meaner on the other side. By the time I holed out of that first par 5, I had an 8 on my scorecard. It was a hard lesson in kikuyu management, and the cardinal rule is "Keep it on the fairway."

Fortunately, I parred the next hole, thus proving to my playmates that I am indeed capable of making par, which is all you need to do so you can relax and enjoy the scenery.

Some holes at Torrey Pines North look a lot like those at Torrey Pines South, especially the ones that face the ocean. A ranger had told us that the kikuyu is "the course's only defense," but I would include the greens that were harder to read than a Joyce novel, and the bunkers, the sand consistency of which reminded me of hardened ice cream with a fuzzy layer of freezer burn. To conserve strength, I didn't bother trying to full-swing it out and instead used the chip-out method that Seri had taught me.

And you'll see the famed paragliders all along the coast. If you play with a local, they will surely explain how the beach below is a topless beach, and they will make a joke about how you can walk along the edge and sightsee.

And Torrey Pines North has plenty of torrey pines. I think these might be young torrey pines. Don't they look like they're holding hands?

Here is a daunting hole, with a fairway sloping left and doglegging right, and nothing but scrub and ocean on the left. My slice would come in handy here. But as I recall, I pulled my tee shot and lost a ball. In the end, I shot a 108. I did, however, make par on three holes, thus proving that I am indeed capable, when conditions are right, of making par.