Spyglass

Our second round of golf is at Spyglass, but not until 1 pm. Good decision, since I wake up and it's dreary and drizzling -- may be more rain, but they call it fog. I grab some work (sorry, Arthur, but I did work a little bit. but, I controlled it) and head to the Lodge to get a bit done. It's nice and quiet and I have a view of the 18th green.

I've been told that Spyglass is better, and harder, than Pebble Beach. Like Pebble, don't know what tee boxes I'll play from, and my only goal is to break 100.

We're up and don't have anything to do, so we head over early to Spyglass, stopping at the Lone Cypress along the way. Spyglass, is a small little pro shop and little grill, so not enough to keep us busy after a quick meal. And we have at least an hour to kill before wanting to warm up on the driving range.

Off we went to Spanish Bay to say we stopped. It looks like more of the holes are on the ocean than Spyglass. The Inn is nice, but we're now quite partial to our residence at the Lodge.

Like Pebble, we're going to get a caddy and also a cart. Justin is our caddy today -- from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan -- his brother lives in Gaylord. Bob, a professor at Stanford University, who also has a cottage in the area -- is our third. Bob's played here before, so we have extra course knowledge. The pro shop has figured out my handicap from the whites -- a 19 -- would be a 15 from the reds. Bob's recommendation is to make my life easy -- the course is challenging enough. Tony, of course, talks me into the challenge. The white's it is.

The first tee is not pretty -- off to the left, into the gunk. But, we find my ball and I hack out to make 8. Hopefully the entire round won't be like this hole. Next hole, bogey. Much better. We're heading towards the water on the first few holes -- they are very links like with lots of evil ice plants and sand that -- well, just don't get in it. This course is definitely a challenge. Bob tells us that shortly we'll be playing into the woods, which looks a lot more like North Carolina.

We pull up to hole #, where Justin quickly informs us that John Daly made a 13. And Fred Couples a nine one year, followed by an 8 the next. Great swing thought going into a hole, don't you think? We survived. Tony discovered that he hated ice plants and the sand.

Since I'm sure everyone doesn't want a play by play of this course, I'll sum it up as challenging, but awesome. No goosebumps like Pebble Beach, but a great round. I shot a 97, so I was happy. The whites were a challenge since I couldn't reach a lot of the par 4s in 2. Only lost one ball and found 5.

In fact, the entire time of our stay, only lost 3 golf balls. I think about the same for Tony. That's pretty amazing.