Jordan and I had planned our Pebble trip for months. He and I were to play Pebble Beach yesterday. That was the plan. The best laid plans…
By 9 am Jor and I were headed to Monterey and the land of Pebble Beach. The skies were gray, the ground was saturated, and our spirits were hopeful but realistic. It rained for nearly the entire 2 hour drive down highway ONE. We arrived in plenty of time for our 11:40 start and just as we made our way up 17 mile drive the skies opened as if they were following a script. Gray turned to blue and our spirits turned upward as well. I ran into the Golf Shop to confirm our arrival and check the weather. The Starter showed me the radar and reality came crashing in. We had a 90 minute to 120 window before the next storm. If we were lucky, we would be able to play 7-9 holes. Bummer. Pebble doesn’t do rain checks, and we made the decision that even though the moment looked good, the risk was too high. We decided to check out some other courses in the area that weren’t so steeply priced. NOTHING.
High noon hits. We head home.
Jordan and I decide that the day isn’t lost and that we’ll just drive back to HMB and, if the weather breaks, we’ll play his course by the sea. We talked poker, people, and BTL all the way home. The rains came 30 minutes outside of Pebble. Thirty minutes outside of HMB the skies began to break again. Could it be…
We pulled into HMB golf course at a little before 2pm. We ran into the club house, paid our fee, grabbed Jordan’s sticks and headed to the Ocean course. The time was just past 2pm. The first hole was parred by both. We smiled and headed to the second thinking that a good 9 holes would be our reward. Three birdies later we were both thinking of playing until dark regardless how many holes remained. On the 11th the rain came. I told him lets go in, as my teeth chattered through the cold. He talked me into staying for one more hole. We both made an amazing par and smiled as we headed to the 12th. The rain stopped.
From there the wind picked up and we had to face the teeth of it coming in beside the ocean from holes 15-18. We both struggled on the difficult par 3 17th and were happy with bogeys. The sun was falling fast as we teed it up on the final hole. We looked at each other and felt a victory as we realized we were going to finish our round together. We weren’t looking at the famous 18th at Pebble. We weren’t looking at the clubhouse draping the famous green by the sea. We were, however, smiling at what had been a great day. We finished the 18th and the phone rang as if on script. Sunflower Sally had the entire Scott clan at the clubhouse awaiting our arrival. We hung out and recounted the round with those that we love. Magic.
We had driven four hours to NOT play Pebble. We had recovered nicely. Yesterday Jordan and I enjoyed a memory. A memory that I’ll take with me. A memory that wasn’t what we planned. Memories often aren’t…
BUILT TO LEAD 