Pinehurst No. 2 - Final Round of the Trip

Pinehurst No. 2
Yards: 6307, Par 72, Slope: 70.7/130
Score: 89, Putting Average: 1.94
Miles Walked: 6.6 Miles

Today was the final round of the golf trip and what a fitting way to end it by playing Pinehurst No. 2! I've been interviewing throughout my golf trip and was fortunate enough to find a great company to start my new career. I'm heading up to DC tomorrow and spending some time with family before flying back to SF on Monday. I'll be shipping my car back so I don't have to drive the long trek back to SF :)

I couldn't have asked for a better day of golf. It was one of the best golf experience I've had ever. Great course, great company, and a legendary caddie on a historic course. I arrived at the club house at 7:15am for my 8:30am tee time, just enough time to hit some balls and work on my putting before I headed out. I was paired up with Mr. Bobby Hill, caddie legend from Pinehurst. Bobby has been caddying for 54 year and knows the course like no other. He's also the only person allowed to drive a golf cart anywhere, and I mean anywhere, on the golf course. I guess if you've been here for 54 years, you've earned the right to do that. I asked Bobby who all he's caddied for and he said: President Gerald Ford, Jack Nicklaus & Arnold Palmer on their private match play, Sam Snead, Luke Donald...the list goes on and on. Getting someone like Bobby just make this experience so much more memorable!

At the 8:30am group was myself, Mark and Janet from yesterday, and Bob, a member of the course. Knowing the course will be fairly difficult, Mark and I decided to play the middle tees so we can actually enjoy the round. The first tee was pretty nerve wracking with everyone watching and the caddies trying to figure out if you have game or not. Wham...I hook one in the left waste area. Great, I thought...I really need to calm down here. Now the course was redesigned by Coore & Crenshaw in 2010 to restore the course to it's 1907 design by Donald Ross. Instead of the rough on either side of the fairway, it was restore to waste areas with natural bunker edges and native wire grass. It was a beast to hit out of that and you have to really pick the ball clean off the ground. That made it to be a very long and interesting round. I get to my ball and Bobby hands me a club and said, hit this. Aim just to the right of the pin. All I can say is, "yes, sir." What else are you suppose to say to a legend who know this course so well?

For the next 17 holes, I did exactly what Bobby told me to do. He would look at a hole and say you are 145 yards out, hit this 6 iron. Really? 6 Iron from 145 yards? I usually hit that 165 yards. I'd go up there and hit the ball and it's on the green every time. After the 3rd hole, I just hit what ever he handed me. He was even more amazing on the green, he knew every single turn, break, and bump on the green. On putts I thought for sure it was gonna go right to left Bobby just told me to aim on the left edge on the cup and it would go in every time. The greens were rolling super fast, maybe a 11 or a 12. We landed a few balls on the green and it would just roll off. We could not even find a divot on the green. Colin, the other caddie told us that they are not punching the greens until after the US Open in 2014 so the greens are gonna get faster. Should be an interesting Open to watch...

Now it was the one liners that he said that was just priceless. I've been hitting my drives really well and he would say, "Josh, nice drive, too bad you can't putt." That was just too funny...I had to just take it and laugh because it was true. Mark would be hear Bobby's comments and be in the back rolling on the ground laughing at his remarks. We estimated Bobby had caddied over 300,000 holes at Pinehurst over his 54 year career. As Mark and I walked off the tees, we can only chuckle at experiencing the caddie legend of Pinehurst, Mr. Bobby Hill.

Here are the pics from today. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

5th Hole, rated the 2nd hardest hole in the US

9th hole, false front. the ball trickles down to the rough if it's not hit right

#15, Nicklaus calls this trying to land a ball on a VW Bug. Obviously, I rolled off.

Me and Bobby Hill

Mark and Janet

Myrtle Beach, SC

Mile Driven: 5892

After I got back from NYC, I drove straight to Myrtle Beach for the Memorial Day weekend. What I didn't realize was it was also bikers weekend during the time I was there. I saw literally hundreds of tripped out crotch rockets and exotic car everywhere. I guess it was blind luck that I didn't hit one of them by the way there are riding. I still don't understand why people don't wear helmets when they ride. In California, you need a helmet just to ride a bicycle!

I checked into a two bedroom apartment in Myrtle Beach and it was nice to be able to cook my own meals for a change. Haven't really done that in a while and eating out all the time does get a bit tiring. The extra space was definitely a nice alternative from the hotel rooms I've been staying at.

I had originally planned to play 2 rounds while I was in Myrtle Beach: TPC Myrtle Beach and Caledonia Golf and Fish Club. Both of these courses are in Golf Digest Top 100 Public Courses. On my visit to Caledonia, I was paired up with Tim and John, two coworkers from Tennessee producing Uranium for the US Govt...they joke that they glow in the dark. Given the Ricky Fowler clothing Tim was wearing, I wasn't sure it was the clothes or it that was actually true (that one's for you John, you can make fun of Tim for that one for me.) They were kind enough to invite me back to their place after the round and have dinner with play Cornhole in the backyard while throwing back a few cold beers. Gosh, how I miss southern hospitality! We had so much fun that we decided to play True Blue Plantation Course the next morning.

I think I'm finally finding my golf game with the 3 rounds I played in Myrtle Beach. I shot TPC Myrtle (85), Caledonia (84), and True Blue (90.) Two record lows for me on two Top 100 Courses!! My drives and approach shots were good and my short game and putting is finally coming together. Not bad at one of the golf meccas in the US. The courses were just in absolute perfect condition with the lush fairways and glass like greens. There were even turkeys and alligators on the courses (a bit unnerving seeing a 8ft gator before you tee off.)

Anyway, here are the pictures from Myrtle Beach. Hope you enjoy these. My next stop is PINEHURST!!!!!!!!

Austin, TX

Total Miles Driven: 3518 miles



After playing Paa-Ko Ridge Golf Club (#34 in Golf Digest Top 100 Public) in Albuquerque last Thursday, I set out on the long drive to Austin early Friday morning. It was an 680 mile, 11 hour drive through a combination of highways and local roads. I had originally planned to stop in Lubbock to play the Rawls Course at Texas Tech but then I realized two things. First - It's Lubbock and Second - I refuse to give Texas Tech any of my money since I'm a died hard Longhorn fan :)

The drive was pretty long but it's good to be back in Texas, especially driving into Texas instead of always flying in. It does feel surreal to drive in because I can still remember driving out of the state when I moved to California almost 9 years ago. Before I left on my trip, I had purchased a radar detector since I knew I had a lot of windshield time in front of me. Lucky I did because that thing probably saved me 4 tickets on this drive alone!

I arrived at my friends Chris and Katie's house at around 6:30pm and it's good to see familiar faces. Their place is like a de-facto second residence for me whenever I'm in Austin and I love playing with their 2 kids, Will and Ellie. We hung around the house Friday night and on Saturday we went to their friends house for a little get together so the kids can have a play date. Of course, during these get togethers a lot of beer, wine, and liquor are consumed so we always end up doing some pretty stupid things. After about 4 drinks, Chris and I had the bright idea to go throw the football around in the backyard. As we started throwing, we started taunting each other about how of shape we were and how poorly we threw. Of course this spurred us to start throwing the ball harder at each other aiming for each other's face or groin area (that makes you learn to catch the ball real quick.) Oh, but we're not done there. We decided to get a tennis ball and decided to throw it simultaneously at each other just to make the game a lot harder. The transpired for about an hour and we haven't laughed like that in a long time. I guess boys will never grow up and do stupid things when they are around their friends.

The next morning was rough...sore arms from throwing the football, sore head from the massive amount of alcohol we consumed, and sore ego from being old and not able to recover like we did in our 20's. After eating 3 breakfast tacos and 2 Gatorades to cure the hangover, we went out to Avery Ranch Golf Club to meet up with the friends from night before for golf. Chris and I hadn't played Avery Ranch in about 10 years and had forgotten how nice it was. It was one of the courses we use to play on a regular basis. Chris had reminded me of the time I tumbled out of the golf cart rolling on the cart path10 years ago after having too much beers on the course. Thanks for reminding me I wasn't Superman back then, Chris :)

I started the round okay but kinda fell apart on the 5th hole and shot a 92 for the round. Chris of course shot a 79 after not playing for 4 months and he made me keep the scorecard so I can post the score for everyone to see. Classic move, but I probably would have done the same thing to him :)

Here are the pictures from Paa-Ko Ridge and the scorecard from Avery Ranch. Enjoy!

Paa-Ko Ridge

Paa-Ko Ridge

Paa-Ko Ridge

Paa-Ko Ridge

Paa-Ko Ridge