LIVE FROM THE US OPEN (tough course, great weather, and huge crowds)

What I have seen | 6-16-2012 | Me

[Neanderthal]

"Two hour wait to check your cellphone and security checkpoints that are very personal and thorough.

45 minutes to buy a beer - limit of two only. The walk from the limo drop off is uphill about 35 miles and the course seems to stretch from sea to shining sea. Still have not walked the entire 18."

I was there for the practice round Tuesday. No lines anywhere and it took about 30 seconds to get through security.

But it was the practice round . . .

[James Oscar]

Norm,

The grandstands at the 16/17 turn is a primo spot. You can see the approach on the 670 YD. 16th and the tee on the 17th. Great spot.

NO wind to speak of an the sun is kicking.

[James Oscar]

We arrived on Wednesday and it was building a bit. But this is just crazy.

They are passing hors d’oeuvres now and setting up the evening buffet.

The only way to do this is with a corporate package. We can park at the Merced Club House and shuttle to the event 10 minuets away. There is no parking anywhere in the city otherwise. Cops and blockades everywhere.

[James Oscar]

OK

We are on our second round and have eaten something served in a carved out potato(e). I am told it was caviar - but it was odd none the less.

Part of our group just got back from the course and are having a snack before going back. Four more are coming in from the city to meet us and we are all going back for the last hour or so.

Tiger just regained the lead and it could get dicey on the back nine. The 16/17 stands are right inside the security checkpoint so that looks like our destination.

[Carriage Hill]

Sounds like everything you’re going thru is 3x worse than a rectal exam? Good thing you like golf. (I’m the world’s absolute worst golfer, and don’t punish myself with it, anymore.)

[hattend]

Tiger not putting like Tiger.

Furyk looks good

Wouldn’t it be great if a 17 year old amatuer won?

[Neanderthal]

"The only way to do this is with a corporate package. We can park at the Merced Club House and shuttle to the event 10 minuets away. There is no parking anywhere in the city otherwise. Cops and blockades everywhere.

We had a parking pass for the SF State garage, then a 10 minute shuttle ride.

[Neanderthal]

"Wouldn’t it be great if a 17 year old amateur won?"

That would be one of the best sports stories of all time.

[hattend]

Looks like a cooler, foggier day than the previos 3 days.

Are you there?

[hattend]

Tiger just ain’t Tiger

Bogie, Bogie, Double Bogie on first 3 holes.

He’s out of it for this year’s Open.

[hattend]

Hossler! Nice putt!

[Neanderthal]

"Are you there?"

Not today.

[jocon307]

Um, who won?

[hattend]

Congratulation Webb Simpson. 2012 US Open Champ

Won with a +1 overall - won by one stroke.

Furyk hosed it up big time on the #16 Tee shot and never recovered.

[hattend]

Another great thing about this tournament?

Obama didn't somehow show up on the screen trying to make the US Open about him!

[jocon307]

Thanks!

[James Oscar]

Summer 2012
Daly City, California

I am tired of walking the course even if it is the US Open and the scene is full of pageantry and excitement. My right knee is screaming, my forehead is badly sunburned and I have a terrible hangover from being on full throttle since arriving in town on Wednesday afternoon.

So I have planted myself in a seat by one of the TVs in the Hospitality Tent which today (Sunday) has been moved from the Lake Merced Country Club ballroom to the 18th green outside the ballroom. Because I have just finished heavily tipping all the service staff and the bartender for the fine attention to detail they have shown myself and my friends over the last five days – my drink is a triple and everyone is all smiles.

Just a few of us here at the tent now, because it is Championship Sunday with the winner still in doubt – so most folks are on the course.

But I am tired.

In my golden years I have put on quite a bit of extra weight, wore out all the ligaments in my right knee and drink to excess at the drop of a dime. So being tired is a condition that seems to have become my default status in the afternoon.

It is what it is…..

“And you're losing all your highs and lows ain't it funny how the feeling goes away”

Summer 1976
Texas Prison Farm

As a newcomer you really stick out on the Hoe Squad with your gleaming white uniform and pale skin. The old hands have worn and red dirt stained uniforms that reflect the time and wear that mark their years in the field. Faces worn by the Texas sun and spirits broken by the relentless weight of “doing time”.

I am still a revolutionary in my spirit. Neither broken nor repentant, having fought the Law and lost, I resign myself to simply paying the price that the State says I owe. It is a foolish attitude that will not survive the cruelty of the coming years – but I do not know that yet.

It is water that occupies most of my thought process. In the morning we get a water break and after so long in the county jails my body is screaming for water. When the break finally comes, the old man who is too lame to work in the fields anymore will go to the wood wagon being pulled by the tractor and bring us the bucket. It is a single bucket with a dipper. The bucket is filled with ice cold water – the finest beverage your mind can imagine.

You drink by seniority – old hands down to the “new thangs” that have just been dropped into hell like aliens from another planet. It is an old metal dipper that stays cold itself even after your drink is finished; it tastes of decades of well water - the taste of the farm and of the closeness to the land that will mark your entire existence.

Summer 2012

Spent a wonderful evening on the porch with my lady sipping Courvoisier and smoking the old half of what was once a nice Rothschild Maduro before I left it outside for a few days A bit crumbly but nice. I have been trying to adjust the water system in her yard. Several zones are not right yet and the lawn has some sad looking spots. Water will cure it.

Her husband died last year and there are a lot of things need to be serviced, repaired or replaced. It has been cathartic for me. We had been friends for a long time and there was always that spark between us, but now that a year has passed since she became a widow – we have moved to a far different relationship.

Some nights we spend at her beautiful home up on the hillside overlooking the city and sometimes we stay in town at my townhouse with the great view of the mountains at sunset. Not a bad life. We both feel a bit blessed right now, and just a little apprehensive about hoping it doesn’t end. You know the feeling – when things get just a little too perfect you begin to worry that it might go away.

Perhaps not this time.

We both are at an age where the wind is fairly consistent. We are settled, she is retired except for the occasional gig as an expert witness in a civil suit – and I am at the end of a long and fairly successful career. Again, a pretty good fit.

It improves your reputation, I am discovering, when you are accompanied by a beautiful and elegant woman. I have not always had the greatest taste in women so it is strange to be complimented so often when out on the town.

Elegant I suppose is the correct word for her countenance. For an old cowboy, I seem to have stepped a little out of my league.

I rather enjoy the elevated air.

But there is something odd happening to time. It continues to slow down. A recurrent phenomenon that allows me to make good decisions and be patient in all things – but it is worrisome. Scenes from my past keep slipping into the present. Why do scenes from my past slowly roll by in my mind like some old newsreel? Not vague thoughts but detailed and fully fleshed vignettes of both the important and the mundane.

I will grant you that I am the sum total of all the rather unbelievable events that bring me to this keyboard – however, I do not care to relive them.

Yet I do.

[James Oscar]

Summer 2012
Sierra Mountains

I danced the Ghost Dance last night at sunset - it had been a long time. The moon was large and just visible thru the pine trees and I am feeling a little better, finally getting rested. The water from this remote hot springs seems to help my knees and it certainly helps my soul.

I drove to the closest small town with a grocery store yesterday afternoon and bought 3 fried chicken breasts, 2 small watermelons, a jug of diet cranberry juice and $40.00 in lottery tickets. I try to never forget what the old woman said about buying the lottery - but not much happening on the hillbilly retirement fund scene.

Soaking in the hot springs on a near perfect night high in the mountains with the owls and bats all diving about is a fine way to clear your head. And mine has been awfully thick lately. Sometimes I sleep too long, sometimes not long enough - too many thoughts and too many flashbacks.

Drove back to the city at 1:30 Am, wasting the rent on the cabin, just to sleep in my own bed.

I have a date with The Lady today at 4:00 and not a hell of a lot other commitments pending. We will probably drive up to the Lake and have supper, seems like its going to be a great afternoon.

Not too sure why I find myself writing, but it just feels right. Perhaps the wheels of change are in motion...

[James Oscar]

When I spoke to The Lady she was all geared up for a nice night away from town. So I retooled and found a lake view suite available at Harveys on the South Shore.

We met at the townhouse and I added my luggage to hers in her Lexus. As much as I love my big truck it is not fair to ask her to climb in and out when we are dressed up. And she was dressed up in a grand way. There was no question that I had made the right decision when I saw her sparkling blue outfit. Complete with red white and blue accessories.

Sometimes the cowboy in me fails to rise to the appropriate social level when dealing with The Lady and her friends - but not tonight.

We arrived at valet checked in and set up house in a lovely suite overlooking Lake Tahoe. Very nice digs.

I brought a bottle of champagne, a bottle of Baileys and bottle of vanilla flavored cognac and some unsalted nuts - she brought her MacBook Air.

We dashed down to the hot tube to soak a little. We settled into the elevated hot tube with the great view of the lake and I, being a bit thirsty, went to the poolside bar.

There to my surprise the bartender was closing down shop. I asked if we could still get a couple of Mai Tais and he was nice enough to say yes. Evaluating the early evening I put two fives on the bar and asked if he would make us four and charge them to our room. Being the enterprising young man you would expect to find in his position, he said yes.

And so it went, we soaked in the sun and drank. As is our nature, after a bit of play and some showers we called for reservations at the Sage.

A very nice steakhouse from top to bottom. Old native American lamps and a staff of what seemed like dozens. We settled in with an Absolute Martini, one olive, and glass of St. Michelle’s Riesling for her.

While we waited on the Halibut and steak, we talked about New Orleans and our common attraction to that wonderful city, fishing in the Keys and her brother in Alaska.

Perfect food, a beautiful woman and a warm summer evening - not a bad trifecta.

The Bananas Foster was prepared at the table, keeping with the NO theme, and the waiter brought the Maitre D over to chat with us as we started to leave. Time to gamble.

We played three card poker, roulette and video poker before pocketing our $98 win and heading upstairs.

We both had glasses of room temperature Baileys but she curled up on the couch while I fired up her MacBook. Had to pay $10 for wireless service because I forgot to bring my Sprint wireless thingy that plugs into the computer and gives access anywhere.

And now I am here with her crashed in the bed with local news on the tube. It has been a great day and the past has remained quiet and orderly - in the past.

[James Oscar]

I danced the ghost dance in the warm pool this afternoon. The buoyancy of the water relieves the pressure and pain from my knees, allowing me to move gracefully and laterally.

It reminds me of who I once was, and what my body did. When my mind clears with the fluid movement I am reminded that not far from here on the side of a lake they danced the first ghost dance - in a time now lost to us all.

It is quiet in the mountains with the occasional hawk leisurely patrolling his realm.

I have been working hard to repair the damage done to The Lady's lawn. The irrigation system had been chewed in a bunch of places and as a result I have had to resod large portions of the lawn.

It is dry and all the animals can smell the water, so I built them a little ground level drinking fountain with stone and a two foot bowl.

Hopefully they will drink here and not chew my repaired 5/8” plastic water feed line. Already we have seen a family of quail with the little fuzzballs swimming in the fountain and the male watching for hawks. There are tons of rabbits around her property but I have yet to see them drink.

A few nights ago we heard the coyotes playing near our window in the night and we found a disemboweled rabbit in the back yard one morning as a little gift.

She borders the BLM land and it is beautiful up on the hillside overlooking the world with all the high desert wildlife passing in parade.