Traffic, Traffic, and more Traffic

Traffic in Los Angeles is a NIGHTMARE!! How do people accomplish anything during the day? It is impossible to get from one place to another in a reasonable amount of time. It is a joke! It doesn’t matter what time it is, 7am, 10am, 2pm, 5pm, etc, etc. There is always traffic! I tried every route imaginable and it was all the same – traffic, traffic, and more traffic. I just don’t understand how people live that way. I guess when I think about it, they might have the same comment about my small town country life. Oh well. They can have their big city and all the traffic that comes along with it. I am perfectly happy with the peace and quiet of South Georgia.

Besides the daily sit and wait I experienced, I really enjoyed Los Angeles. I got to practice at Riviera, the site of Tiger’s first PGA tour event at the age of 16 and the host of many great tournaments, including several U.S Opens. Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and all the other legends, have played and practiced at Riviera. This was a great experience and I spent a lot of time inside the clubhouse looking at memorabilia and the history of this great golf course. Unfortunately, I began the week as an alternate for the tournament and ended in the same fashion. All was not lost though. I got to practice and work on some of the clubs issues I have experienced over the last several weeks. Hopefully I figured out some of the kinks and I look forward to more testing this week.

On Wednesday afternoon, I was invited to go and practice at the very private Los Angeles Country Club. Two of my friends were staying in one of the 10 or so hotel rooms that sit above the clubhouse. Their room overlooked the putting green, golf course, and the skyline of Los Angeles. Not a bad view. LA Country Club is very private and exclusive. I was pretty nervous walking around and felt a little out of place. They have a very strict rule when it comes to membership into the Club. No one, past or present, in the entertainment, sports, or movie industry is allowed to join. They even turned down the USGA to host the U.S. Open because they didn’t want the chaos. Right next door to LA Country Club are two pretty famous homes. The first one belonged to the late Aaron Spelling and is a mere 56,500 square feet!! I was told that it was on the market last year for over $150 million. The second home located next to LA Country Club is a lot more famous than Aaron Spelling’s. It is simply called the “Mansion” and belongs to Hugh Hefner. I couldn’t resist having a little fun at my wife’s expense. I convinced her that I was invited to a party that night at the Mansion. She didn’t find this too amusing. I had her going for a while but finally caved in and told the truth.

Instead of visiting the Mansion, I was fortunate enough to sit center court at the Los Angeles Lakers game. I went with three of my friends and we got our tickets from basketball legend, Jerry West. For those of you who don’t follow basketball, Jerry West is in the Basketball Hall of Fame and he is the face of the NBA, literally. He is the player dribbling the basketball on the NBA logo. Pretty impressive. Our seats were 8 rows up, directly behind the scoring table. We also had a VIP parking pass and an invitation to the Lakers VIP room. There were a ton of celebrities inside the VIP room, most notably Jack Nicholson, Jason Sehorn and his wife Angie Harmon. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sat behind us at the game and Dyan Cannon was to our right. The Lakers ended up winning the game against the Charlotte Bobcats despite Kobe Bryant’s 5 point performance. We had such a good time at the game that we went back on Friday. We had the exact same tickets and I appreciate my Pro-Am partner from the Bob Hope Classic, Roy Ryu, for giving us the tickets. There were more celebrities at the Stables Center on Friday night. Denzel Washington, James Caan, George Lopez, Jack Nicholson, and many others showed up to watch the Lakers lose to the Denver Nuggets. Kobe Bryant had 33 points in the losing effort.

This week I am at Pebble Beach for the AT&T Pro-Am. I will update this blog in the next day or so and hopefully post some pictures. The views here are incredible.