Here is the information about my two days in Pebble. I tee-off at 12:20 (3:20 Eastern) on April 24 at Spyglass Hill. That's my warm up round. At 8:20 (11:20 eastern) on Tuesday the 25th, I tee-off at Pebble Beach.

Live Webcams (they refresh about every 30 seconds)
I will use eastern time from now on. Between 10:00 and 11:10 you should be able to see me on the practice green webcam.
At 11:15, I should be making it to the first tee, so you should probably see me on the first tee webcam. If you see me teeing off from the blue tees, I am expecting to shoot over 100 and I also should be pretty beat up when by the time I reach the 17th green and finally the 18th green, which I am guessing should be around 4pm.

If you do see me on the webcam and you know how to do a screen capture, save the picture for me. Mark you calendar April 25th 11:20 am EDT. It seems that all web cams are currently working (as of April 22).

First impressions. On Sunday, we drove around most of 17 mile drive. These days it cost $8.75 for the day, but it's free for us as we are considered residents. It's also faster to get in as there we small line-ups to pay. If you never get to play these courses, at least do this drive and take your time.

There was something weird about Spyglass Hill on Sunday. Firstly, I didn't see anybody on the course. The other thing about Spyglass is how low key it is. The proshop looks like it's the size of a couple of mobile homes put together at most. If you saw this course, you would wonder how they could possibly hold a PGA event. I went on the 4th green for about 10 minutes taking pictures and admiring this hole. I could have stayed there longer but Myrna doesn't get it and she feels uncomfortable trespassing. I have to keep reminding her that we are paying to be here. I do respect the private courses limit. Cypress Point and Monterey Peninsula are both (very) private. The other 4 are public and do not post no trespassing signs. You are not supposed to walk across greens and stuff, but you can have access through them.

Although I chose Spyglass as my warm-up round, I met someone yesterday who told me it was a tougher track than Pebble. I just couldn't think of playing them in the opposite order. Pebble has to be the climax. I am still debating on a caddie for tomorrow's round. Since it's cart path only, I think a caddie will be the way to go. I want to walk Pebble. As the people that play golf with me know, although I score fairly well, I do not use conventional methods of hitting some of my shots. If the caddy says to me, use a pitching wedge instead of 'it's a 120 yard shot', my PW will fall about 3 yards short. It's my only trepidation about getting a caddie. Today, at Spyglass however, I am going caddieless.

My round at Spyglass Hill. Let me first say that I had a good time and I did get my money's worth. I played with 3 young British guys (actually one was an Aussie). Their handicaps 1, 4 and 6. The starter said that playing from the blue tees (there are none further, even for the PGA) is equivalent to about 7200 yards even if the card reads 69

something. So off we went on the blue tees. Mistake number one for me. The highlight of the day unfortunately came early when I saved par on the first hole by sinking a 75 foot downhiller. Then on 2, I managed another par. No a bad start, but eventually reality sank in. I shot 46 on the front with a 9 on the 7th par 5. The back nine was an awful 52 with another 9 on a par 5. When I get home I will post my scorecard on my golf page. It was cloudy all day yet I managed to get a sunburn. Maybe I'm just red from embarrassment. The club washer guy at the end of the game said that Pebble will be easier. Honestly, I can't see a golf course getting harder than today. So there is hope. It was so hard playing golf today that I didn't take that many pictures. Here is the Spyglass postcard. Spyglass Scorecard

Pebble Beach - April 25, 2006 - A day to remember

How do I start? This was the day I was to play Pebble. The weather was so so, even a little drizzle for one or two holes but somehow that didn't matter. I am not going to walk you through the whole round, although I could probably recount every shot. I will tell you about some highlights and lowlights. First hole - I split the fairway with a drive to just inside 150. The second shot is a little uphill so I brought my 7 and 6 iron because of the cart path only rule (btw Pebble is always cart path only. you can't even drive off them in most places.) So by mistake, I drop the wrong club and I am playing a 7 even though I think I have a 6 in my hand. Of course, I come up short to the right, which is good because a 6 would have caught the trap. From there I muff my chip and 3 putt from 20 feet. Double off the bat, not my Spyglass start. yada yada yada... I will save you from more lowlights but I didn't think I was going to do too well after that start.

Jump to the par 3,

Click on the ball to see the result. (it may take a while to load)

 7th hole. It was playing 106 from the blue and gold and we were on the upper platform for those of you who know there are two platforms. A pretty good wind straight across right to left. Although it should have been a sand wedge shot, I didn't want too much air and short is a deadly trap so I used a very easy 9 iron. The result is in the picture. My playing buddies were in the trap left and long because of the wind. I will leave you in suspense on what I did on the putt.

Skip to 18. Believe it or not, on 18, I was teeing up the ball that I started with on 1. No, I didn't save it, I actually never lost a ball. Well now on 18 is another story. I get my drive on the right side, almost hitting into the bunker but I had a perfect lie for my fairway driver. The only problem is the ocean on the left so I aim a little right. It catches the cart path and takes a trampoline bounce to someone famous' house (OB of course). It may still be there. I reload and hit it perfectly down the middle to exactly 152. 6 iron to 25 feet and an easy 2 putt and bookend my round with another double.

Final score - 85 - 43/42. 42 on the back nine is really amazing (they say). I was only 4 over on 10 to 17 and that with a mindless 3 putt on 15. I am pretty proud of my round from the gold tees, although I hit from the blues when it really made a difference (btw Blue is further than Gold). Here is the Postcard of my PB experience and here is the Scorecard

That's it for the PB experience for now. you can go back to the main page for our last 2 days in the Sonoma/Napa valley. Click here for the rest of the trip.