Just got back, so here’s my brief trip report. Short version is, it was awesome, amazing, beautiful. It was not cheap, but not as expensive as I would have thought, and I definitely want to return.
Stayed at the Inn at Spanish Bay. The rooms, the restaurants, the lobby were all awesome. The service is what impressed me the most – everyone super-friendly and helpful.
As far as the golf, me and my partner played the whites, our other two older friends played the greens. Whites were between 6100-6200 yards on all three courses.
Played Spyglass the first day. Everyone warned us it was tough. Front and back nine are completely different - front is seaside with dunes and sand, and the back is tree-lined parkland course. Pretty challenging, but my game was a little off. Did make a birdie on the back and shot 88.
The second day, we played Pebble. Here I had couple great moments that I will remember forever. First tee I was really nervous - there were a bunch of people around and just the realization that I was playing this great course, my heart was pounding. But I managed a nice hybrid just short of the fairway bunkers. 8-iron to the left edge, then drained a 20-foot breaking putt for a birdie. Next hole, short par 5 from the whites, hit a pretty good drive, then pured a 7-wood from about 215 and it hits and sticks about 6 feet from the hole. I poured it in the heart for eagle! So now I’m 3 under after 2 holes on one of the most iconic courses in the world. I had no expectations of a good score going in, but at this point, I couldn’t help getting ahead of myself, and promptly went bogie, double to give it all back.
Actually the shot I’ll remember the most wasn’t even one of those. It was number 8. By then, the marine layer had rolled in and we could barely see the fairway from the tee. I could see the group in front of us off to the left by the cartpath and I knew I needed to be right of that, so I aimed down what I thought was the middle, and hit a good shot with hybrid. Got up to find it about a yard and a half from going over the cliff into the ocean. I was getting vertigo addressing my ball, I was scared of falling over the cliff. But somehow I managed to hit an awesome 7-iron from 164 yards, right in the center of the clubface and it comes down about 5-feet above the hole. I missed the putt, but that second shot was one of the purest I’ve ever hit. Really got off the rails and had a bad case of the lefts the rest of the way in and shot 85, but holes 1, 2, and 8 I will never forget.
Day 3 was Spanish Bay, we got out early and luckily got most of the round in before the wind picked up. It would have been brutal if the wind was blowing hard the whole time. After losing my swing the day before, I applied a swing thought that I’m pretty sure I picked up from Jon’s blog – pick a target, commit to making your swing and just accepting the results. The worst thing that could happen is a lost ball. My ball was turning right to left a lot more than normal this weekend, but once I starting committing to it, I was really in control of my ball, even if I had to aim out over the dunes to the right and let it draw back. Hit 12/14 fairways and shot 82. The greens were a lot more undulating and divided into segments here, but ran a little slower out of necessity.
Sorry for the long post, but I’m still on a high from this trip. Just an amazing experience.
