hello san diego

Oh Billy Billy Billy...

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Felix
2012 JAFFL Champ
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hello san diego

Post by Felix »

So two weeks ago my wife and I took a trip to San Diego and I wanted to play Torrey Pines......so when I call the Pro Shop about 60 days before we’re headed down there, the assistant pro told me that the weekend were arriving was the weekend of the Farmers Insurance Open. The course had been closed for two weeks prior to the tournament, and was closed the Monday after the tournament, but opened on Tuesday after a day of what I assume was repairing the damage that pros inflict on a course......I asked the guy what the chances of getting a tee time were and he told me almost zero. .....given the course had been closed for two weeks, and it was in tournament condition (probably the best condition it will be in all year) there was a frenzy of people wanting to play......I gave him my name and said I’d be a single and if anything opened up on the South Course (if I’m going to fork over $200 to play, it’s going to the best of the two courses) to call me….weeks go by and nothing…..finally about a two weeks before we’re scheduled to leave he calls me and tells me they had a member of a foursome cancel and they can get me on with these 3 other guys…..I’m scheduled to play on Thursday January 30th at 9:46….so when I arrive about an hour and a half early, I’m asked if I want a walking caddie or a fore caddy (walking caddie is $115, forecaddie is $180/group)…..I told them I wasn’t certain because I was playing with a group I didn’t know……fortunately, the guys I got set up with hadn’t chosen either so I was off the hook for that additional cost…..the guys I end up playing with were all SD residents so their course knowledge proved invaluable to me…..all were pretty good players, but one guy was really good.....if you step on that course and don’t know the subtleties it would kick a typical amateurs ass so badly they’d likely give the game up…..so, I’m warming up (range balls, sand shots, etc.) then step over to the putting green…..I realize that putting on these greens is essentially like putting on a granite counter top…..without a doubt, the fastest greens I have ever putted and they were twice as fast as the second fastest (which would be either Pasatiempo or Pacific Dunes)…. the air was extremely heavy so the guys I was with opted to play the white tees, which still plays over 6,600 yards……so on the first hole, I’ve got about 155 to the pin, which is normally for me a medium 8 iron (I'm not one of you monster hitters that can pound the ball 410 yards with a 3 wood)……recognizing the air was heavy, I pulled the 8 and hit it hard…..came up about 10 yards short then I remembered that at sea level, the ball flies about 5% to 7% shorter than it does where I play….so on a 155 yard shot, I should have played it to about what would be 163 to 167 yards here…..mishit the chip shot leaving it short by about 15 feet, blew the first putt about 8 feet by the hole, blew the second about 4 feet past…..and so it would go….while they had cut the rough back somewhat, it was still tall and thick in a lot of places and believe me, you could wrench your wrist out of place trying to extricate the ball from that shit…..the course is long and narrow, with danger lurking everywhere…..even if you hit a good shot, if you hit it in the wrong place, you’ll be punished for it and I do mean punished…..ended up shooting an 89 and felt fortunate to have done that…..if I hadn’t been playing with guys that had played the course before, no doubt I wouldn’t have broken 100…..birdied two of the par fives, but the birdie at 18 was pure luck…..dropped a 25 foot putt that had it not gone in would probably still be rolling…..

was it worth it…..I don’t know, $230 is a lot of money to pay for a round of golf, but now I can say I played it…..beautiful course and stunning views….a few average quality holes, a lot of really good holes, and a lot of really great holes…#’s 4, 7 and 12 are some of the hardest par fours I’ve ever played……my appreciation for what the pros can do always goes up when I play on a course they play on and watch them tear it up…..but I'm not particularly fond of hitting driver 3 wood into par 4's.....just becomes daunting......doubt that I'd spend the money again, but it was a great course......but honestly, wouldn't rank in the top five courses I've played, would make the top ten, but not top five.....

the 3 bandon courses I played were all better than Torrey imho....

played another course there called The Crossings which was aight, but nothing special.....would have liked to have made it out to Steele Canyon because I heard that was a really good course.....but San Diego butt fucks tourists on green fees....for residents, I think the cost to play Torrey is like $75.......all in all a good experience, but again I doubt I'd shell out the dough to play it again.....
get out, get out while there's still time
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smackaholic
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Re: hello san diego

Post by smackaholic »

Can't blame SD for buttfukking the tourists if they are standing there, pants around the ankles, bent over. No fukking way I pay that kind of dough to play anything other than Augusta, maybe Pebble Beach. I might drop that kind of money to play one of those fukking cow pastures in Scotland if it was one of the 2 calm sunny days they get a year.

Anyhoo, rack you and your ample disposable income. Got any pics?
mvscal wrote:The only precious metals in a SHTF scenario are lead and brass.
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Felix
2012 JAFFL Champ
Posts: 9264
Joined: Fri Jan 14, 2005 2:37 pm
Location: probably on a golf course

Re: hello san diego

Post by Felix »

smackaholic wrote:Can't blame SD for buttfukking the tourists if they are standing there, pants around the ankles, bent over. No fukking way I pay that kind of dough to play anything other than Augusta, maybe Pebble Beach. I might drop that kind of money to play one of those fukking cow pastures in Scotland if it was one of the 2 calm sunny days they get a year.

Anyhoo, rack you and your ample disposable income. Got any pics?
I don't make that much money, and certainly couldn't drop 2 bills every time I wanted to play.....but I'm passionate about the game and the opportunity to play world class courses has a lot of appeal to me....I don't have a lot of other expensive pastimes so I indulge myself.....but $250 is about the limit and as such, I'll never play Pebble (green fees are 4 bills) or St. Andrews (fees are roughly $300 not including caddy fees).....I'd pay almost anything to play Augusta, but you can't buy your way on there......

I'm not much of a picture guy.....
get out, get out while there's still time
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