Flyout tomorrow to San Jose California. Staying with my Vegas birthday weekend friend. ER chum is driving down from Orinda and we are going out for dinner and drinks. No wives.
Saturday meeting a friend in my golf league and playing here:
Flyout tomorrow to San Jose California. Staying with my Vegas birthday weekend friend. ER chum is driving down from Orinda and we are going out for dinner and drinks. No wives.
Saturday meeting a friend in my golf league and playing here:
mj, here is a preview of our annual golf trip to Pinehurst a couple week-ends ago.
Thursday Tee time at Pinehurst No. 2 at 9:30am--8 of our 12 total golfers for the weekend playing the course this year. The package is a round at No. 2, stay at the Holly Inn overnight and breakfast buffet there at the hotel the next morning. Not a bad deal for about $500.
Golf was great--weather was a little foggy and cool but no rain or wind. We got caddies for the round--2 per foursome. One of the guys we got in our foursome had been caddying for over 60 years at No. 2 (He is John Ross referenced in this article from a couple years ago). He's an old black guy who when he spoke we could barely understand anything he said. Kind of like the Cajun assistant coach from The Waterboy. Thankfully me and my buddy (we'll call my buddy B for this story) got the 'other' caddy for our foursome. His name was Chris and he was great. Gave me a few tips to help with a terrible slide I have been fighting forever. Noticed immediate results. Anyway, I shot a 106 (56/50) for the round and only lost a couple golf balls.
Went here for lunch after the round. Had the Deuce Burger with tater tots for a meal of food and one of their signature barrel aged manhattans. Yummy stuff.
Had some time after the round so we decided to putt around their massive putting complex just outside the clubhouse. Pretty cool experience. They have it set up like an 18 hole course with lots of undulations and differing hole lengths. Each 'tee box' had a cup holder for your beverage (think something you'd have for your backyard corn hole setup). 6 of us ended up doing a whole round around the course before it started to get around toward check in and dinner time.
Went over to the Holly Inn to check in and clean up. Dinner was at 1895 Grille in the inn. Had time for one drink at the inn's bar so I had a Bulleit Rye Old Fashioned. Had the cast iron seared grouper for dinner (had the she crab soup for a starter). Got a Buffalo Trace Old Fashioned to sip as well. Some of the fellas who had been drinking bourbon prior decided to switch over to wine. They went with the Prisoner Red Blend. I only had one glass because I knew we had bourbon back in the room (one of the guys brought a couple bottles from his stash--one of them was a barrel pick Blanton's) and I didn't want to mix too many different alcohols together. Well, my buddy B was one of the guys who went a little heavy on the wine. I think the rest of the table (5 or 6 of the 8 of us) drank multiple glasses of wine. They ended up going through 4 bottles altogether.
Went back to one of the rooms to hang out and drink the Blanton's (and the other bottle which was a Smooth Ambler barrel pick--had one pour of that and it was kinda rank). My buddy B got pretty hammered--to the point where when a couple of the guys went out front to smoke they had trouble getting him back up the steps and into the inn. B was rooming with me so he pretty much crashed once he hit the bed in our room.
Friday Next morning our tee time was at 10:30 at this course. Weather was upper 70s with sun/clouds. Perfect for late February in NC.
Had breakfast at the Holly Inn prior to the round. Breakfast was solid for a buffet--I had had scrambled eggs, biscuit with sausage gravy, bacon, chicken apple sausage, maple sausage, home fries, coffee, and orange juice. My buddy B came down for breakfast a little after I did and he looked like reheated death. Thought he was gonna hurl right there at the table. The other guy he had rode from Raleigh with took his keys to drive the two of them to that day's course.
Those two guys and me and another guy were in a foursome that day so it figured to be fun seeing how he'd recover. And we weren't disappointed. Apparently they had to stop multiple times on the way from the inn to the course to pull over so B could throw up. Then he threw up multiple times over the front nine. It was impressive really. But he did rally and finish off the round pretty well. Me and my partner that day shot an 80 (combined scramble) with a couple birdies on the back nine. Won our match over the other twosome with about 7 holes to play. Only lost one golf ball the entire round.
Went here for an early dinner after the round. Had another Bulleit Old Fashioned to go with the buffalo chicken sandwich and fries. We all decided to head back over to Pinehurst Resort (I hit up the pro shop and got a couple logo balls and a couple golf shirts) and some of the guys played the putting green course again. They do have a really cool outdoor bar area with fire pits set up between the putting course and the par three course they opened there a couple four years ago. We hung out there for a while before it started to cool off and we needed to check in to our condos so we headed over to do that. Didn't have any plans to go out or anything so we all just cleaned up and everyone came over to our condo to hang out and drink. My MIL got me this cocktail smoking kit for my birthday so we broke that out and made drinks and just hung out at the condo.
Saturday Saturday's round was at this course at 10:30--weather was much cooler (low 60s) but ended up being a great day for late February.
Had breakfast here. It's a hole in the wall literally right across the street from the condos where we stay. I had the horseman's special (with sausage, scrambled eggs) for my meal of food. I paired it with coffee. It was yummy.
Golf was great again. Played with a good buddy I've known since 2nd grade--he's usually a pretty solid player but he rarely ever plays much during the year and whenever we are paired together neither of us seem to play well. I think we shot somewhere around 90 or so (combined scramble). But I didn't lose a single golf ball this round. Just couldn't putt for shit.
Went back to the condos to clean up and hang out prior to dinner. We had dinner here. I had the caesar salad to start and then went with the 12 oz NY strip with whipped potatoes and crispy brussels. Paired it with a couple three maple manhattans. Everything was yummy.
Went back to the condos to hang out more and watch basketball. I think Gonzaga lost that night so we enjoyed that quite a bit. Pretty uneventful night imo.
Sunday Next morning it was raining when we woke up and the high was only supposed to be about 43 degrees so we decided to bail on the round. Tee time was to be at 10:30 here. We play this course every year (used be on Fridays but we switched to Sundays a few years back). After 3 rounds for most of us I don't think anyone was willing to slosh around in a cold rain at a course we had already played at least 10 times (and a hard course at that). Don't get me wrong--it's a great course, but we've played it so many times we didn't feel too bad about bailing on that round. One of the guys did stop by and pick up rain checks for us so we've got those to use in the future.
Some of us decided to go to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. I had the Grandpa's Country Fried breakfast--scrambled eggs, country fried steak, and hash brown casserole options. Paired with a coffee. It was fine.
Went back to the condos to pack up our stuff and head our separate ways. Great seeing everyone after we skipped 2021 due to 76's pandemic. We're already making plans for next year's trip. Given our condos were all kinda split up (one of them was over a mile away from ours) I think we're all in agreement it's time to rent a house for one of these annual trips. We're looking here for lodging and golf next year. mj, thoughts?
Those putting courses are fun. Bandon has one, including the drink holders, and it a great way to waste time/bet before dinner.
The Prisoner is a fine wine, but I think it is overpriced for what it is.
Every time you post the courses you play on this trip I am amazed. They look so cool and unique. Pine Needles looks great. Hope you book it for next year and have fun.
Those putting courses are fun. Bandon has one, including the drink holders, and it a great way to waste time/bet before dinner.
The Prisoner is a fine wine, but I think it is overpriced for what it is.
Every time you post the courses you play on this trip I am amazed. They look so cool and unique. Pine Needles looks great. Hope you book it for next year and have fun.
Any time you're up for a trip to Pinehurst let me know. There are so many great courses in that area in addition to the number courses at Pinehurst Resort and Pine Needles. The two other courses we played this year (Talamore and Southern Pines) are really nice, underrated tracks. Pine Needles might be my favorite course in that area--it's criminally underrated.
I have some questions about this bc i have never done a golf trip.
- Does playing 3-4 straight days suck? I dont think ive ever played 2 straight days. Its exhausting. - Do you have to pace yourself to not get trashed at night bc you gotta play in the AM? - Any babes to speak of? Even cart girls will do.
I have some questions about this bc i have never done a golf trip.
- Does playing 3-4 straight days suck? I dont think ive ever played 2 straight days. Its exhausting. - Do you have to pace yourself to not get trashed at night bc you gotta play in the AM? - Any babes to speak of? Even cart girls will do.
I have felt pretty rough physically after these trips before after 3-4 straight days of golf but this year I didn't feel too bad tbh. Actually ended up getting a sinus infection right after the trip but otherwise no physical exhaustion.
You'd think we'd learn not to go too hard on the booze every night but every year we have at least 1-2 guys have a particularly hard night and take the next day to recover. I try not to get too wasted but I did have a pretty good buzz from Thursday night's festivities. I think we've learned over the years (I think our entire group is in the 45-50 yrs old range now) that if we go hard one night we usually back off the next night in response. We do usually drink on the course as well but oddly enough I didn't drink any either Friday or Saturday during the round. Seems like forever since that has happened for me.
Not really much in the babe department other than the women at the halfway house for Saturday's round/course was pretty cute for a late 40s/early 50s broad. Blonde hair, great eyes, nice body. If she had a barren vagina she would've been up mj's alley.
I have some questions about this bc i have never done a golf trip.
- Does playing 3-4 straight days suck? I dont think ive ever played 2 straight days. Its exhausting. - Do you have to pace yourself to not get trashed at night bc you gotta play in the AM? - Any babes to speak of? Even cart girls will do.
I have felt pretty rough physically after these trips before after 3-4 straight days of golf but this year I didn't feel too bad tbh. Actually ended up getting a sinus infection right after the trip but otherwise no physical exhaustion.
You'd think we'd learn not to go too hard on the booze every night but every year we have at least 1-2 guys have a particularly hard night and take the next day to recover. I try not to get too wasted but I did have a pretty good buzz from Thursday night's festivities. I think we've learned over the years (I think our entire group is in the 45-50 yrs old range now) that if we go hard one night we usually back off the next night in response. We do usually drink on the course as well but oddly enough I didn't drink any either Friday or Saturday during the round. Seems like forever since that has happened for me.
Not really much in the babe department other than the women at the halfway house for Saturday's round/course was pretty cute for a late 40s/early 50s broad. Blonde hair, great eyes, nice body. If she had a barren vagina she would've been up mj's alley.
We used to play 36 holes a day on some trips. I don't do that anymore. Most I will play is 18 and then late afternoon maybe the par 3 course.
18 holes a day is not bad, especially if carts are involved. Even walking like I had to do at Bandon and Scotland is not bad.
You do get kind of tired so it seems like you end up going to sleep before midnight or even earlier, so that helps with the booze/hangover situation.
I had my Jeep Bro trip a couple weeks ago, the last night we were out there everyone was sleeping by 11pm. It was actually nice to wake up without a wicked hangover.
