Hack Plays Torrey Pines

I spent the past week on vacation in La Jolla, CA. I decided that the best way to get away from it all was to leave the laptop and work at home. While in La Jolla, if you are a golfer of at any level – you have to play Torrey Pines!

My golf game has not been the same since hip replacement surgery in 2008, but I thought why not give it a try. In the good old days, I was a 10 handicap! Today, well let’s just say – I am not!

I decided to just walk up and give it a go. I was told that making reservations and such on the web is not the best way to go – cost is much higher! I walked up and asked to get on the list for a single to go out. By the time that I walked back out to the car to get the clubs and putt a couple of times, my name was called. Now, that was fast… I was paired up with a twosome from New Mexico and a local fireman from La Jolla. Off we went out to the South course (North course is the famous side – but was booked up till the afternoon).

I have to say that the views from this course at outstanding! Being by the ocean, playing golf on a beautiful sunny high 60’s day – gets no better than that! I decided to walk the course, not a solid decision for a person 1.5 years from hip replacement – but why not give it a try. My golf score was nothing that I am extremely proud of – I was able to keep it to 3 strokes under triple digits. I know have played two courses, that I am extremely happy that I have played (Pebble Beach and Torrey Pines)! I have now completed 2 of the 5 courses that I want to play before I die. The ones left will be a bit tougher to complete but it is a goal of mine (St. Andrews Old Course, Augusta National, Oakmont, PA). Getting to Scotland to play St. Andrews will not be easy. The other two are super stops for golfers, but my wife is not a golfer – I have to find a real vacation for her as well.

I had a great time meeting up with the other golfers – they were great people! We laughed, talked about everything from work, family and golf. For the 4 hours that we were together we found out that each of us all had something in common besides golf – we all had spent time (at least two years) in New Mexico. Not bad for complete strangers, that just got together at a golf course in CA for the first time.

I am looking forward to playing the course again – this time the North course – after I have played more. I really have to work on my game (I have a completely different swing than before surgery).