The Wilshire
Today began like pretty much every other day of my life, up before the sunrises and tip-toeing around the bedroom to get ready. Although today was special, as not only am I celebrating year 44 I was headed to play golf at Wilshire Country Club with my friend Scotty and his son, Jake. I’ve known Scotty for over ten years now, as he was my General Manager when I was the Golf Course Superintendent at Debell Golf Club in Burbank, CA. He’s a few years older than me and has always felt like a big brother; although we grew up miles apart we share similar passions: golf, bbq and 80’s music. He taught me how to fish, and I taught him how to make the perfect ribs :) I’m super excited for the round as we’re going to play a great golf course and be able to hang out and enjoy each other’s company. But first, earlier in the week I met up with an old superintendent friend who lives further down the California coast in Orange County. We had a great time playing at a local public course near where he lives—and it was great to catch up with him overall. Perhaps as important (sorry Donny), it was a chance for me to ingrain the Peter Cowan Youtube lesson I had been feasting on in preparation for the round at Wilshire CC. Towards the end of the round Tuesday the swing started clicking and the golf ball was getting compressed how it should be. It was time to take on Wilshire!
I met Scotty and his son at 6am and we headed to Hollywood for a quick eggs and bacon, then off to the course. The wind had picked up in the morning and was blowing around 15 mph, enough to have an effect on club selection and a minor impact on putting as the greens were greasy fast. The turf was in all around in great shape and I’m thankful for the many opportunities I had to hit my approaches from the tight hybrid bermuda fairways that the maintenance team had spent the morning topdressing with course sand and dragging in. The sand helps the turf stand up a little straighter, improves the soil profile and allows for firmer surface—all benefiting the overall playability, which was excellent. The greens were fantastic and although I only made one putt outside of 15’, I had plenty of chances but wasn’t quite aggressive enough to capitalize on the many good iron shots of the day. No worries though, as we had a very relaxed walk around the property, sharing stories of the past and catching up on our kids’ activities of the present. Overall, it was a very unique property to spend 4 hours at, although it doesn’t feature the “WOW” factor panorama views that some places have, the charm of being smack dab in the middle of Hollywood/LA surrounded by historic houses, such as Howard Hughes’ mansion, or John Travolta’s old house, you can’t help but get nostalgic about the history of the town. Finally, our day came to a close on the par 4 18th hole; I managed to get up and down to save a respectable day of 79. Once we were done in the locker room playing “member for a day” we collectively decided to head over to the iconic Pink’s hot dog to take in one more piece of Hollywood history. The dogs are great—mustard and relish for me, chili covered for Scotty and Jake, but the magic is in the waiting room where the walls are covered with headshots of celebrities from yesterday and today. I think my favorite picture was of Jaime Fox—he was looking suave leaned up against a wall with his sunglasses on. Very cool! We left highly satisfied, and I was grateful to return home to see my wife making my birthday cake! Chocolate cake with vanilla frosting—classy and simple. Later, I was nominated to bbq my famous burgers and once again, everyone at table ended the meal with a smile and a full belly. A great birthday indeed!
Fifth hole
Rough, rugged and manicured—golf at its finest
Holding the pose
It was looking good until it was half club short :)-