I got free passes from my sister this year so I decided to check out the tournament over the weekend. It brought back some good memories of the caddie days. Some of the few celebrities I saw were Huey Lewis, Andy Garcia, George Lopez, Emmitt Smith, Tom Brady & Chris Odonell. I didn’t get to see Phil Mickelson. He was playing at Spyglass on Saturday. I did get to see Jesper, Lee Janzen & Jim Furyk play for a bit. Too bad the weather was awful that weekend rain plagued and all. Our shuttle never came so we had to hike it back to Carmel in the rain. It wasn’t too bad. The walk was about 6 miles along the Carmel beach to the Mission Ranch.  At least I got some good exercise in over the weekend. No pictures were taken because cameras were not allowed the days we were there

Today I played the River Course at Hampton Cove. After a half hour drive from Huntsville I was able to book a tee time on the golf Course. Hampton Cove is one of 7 golf courses on the acclaimed Robert Trent Jones Trail. It has 2 championship 18-hole courses and a short course for beginners. I was advised to play the River course because the other one, The Highlands, was backed due to a tournament going on. After talking to the starter for about 10 mins about Pebble Beach I soon started my way down the course. My initial assumption of the course was that it was going to be really easy because there were no bunkers. Yes, no bunkers. However I was completely wrong. The frigid air, 45 degrees temperature, and 15 mph winds proved too much for me. All my shots were short. I was advised to club up 2 clubs after finishing (Would have been helpful to know before starting). The River course is advertised as laid out on former soybean fields in the flood plain of the Flint River. There was water just about every hole and two of my balls managed to find it. Because of the flood plains the greens were elevated on every single hole. This was not good if every single one of your shots was short. I was pretty much chipping the hole day. The greens were tiered which made it even harder. Overall the course was tough today because of the cold and wind. The round was enjoyable. It was nothing like the courses in California. The trees that lined the course were shades of green and red portraying the classic Fall colors of Alabama. The fairways were not as green as I had hoped but I was told that the grass would be turning brown right about this time. All in all the course was very nice compared to cheaper courses in California (not the level of Pebble Beach though). I shot an 87 which is a decent score for me considering I haven’t played since the company outing at Sea Pines a few months back. Definitely worth the $50 green fees. The staff was nice to talk to and took interest once the knew that I was a caddie at Pebble.

 Pictures of the course can be found here