Doc Visits

Back in March when I turned 30 Jodi gave me this:

Thanks to Jodi and Doc's parents, the golfing extravaganza and visit came to fruition this past weekend when Doc flew in from North Carolina.  Since Doc had to take the red-eye back on Sunday night, we made sure to fit in as much as possible every hour that he was here.  The first stop on Friday after picking him up from the airport was to a local golf course to play a warm-up round before we attempted to conquer Torrey Pines.  Friday night we loaded up the car and headed south to San Diego.  Doc got a taste of the Southern California traffic while on our way to San Diego, as we were stop and go through L.A. at 10:00 pm.   After checking in to the hotel around Midnight we set the alarm for 4:00 am to make sure we could secure our spot in the cue to get on to Torrey Pines.

For those of you who don't know, Torrey Pines is a municipal golf course on the Pacific Ocean in San Diego which hosted the 2008 US Open.  Since this course is along the cliffs of the Pacific Ocean in San Diego, as well as hosted a US Open and is not only affordable but also accessible to the general public; it is a popular place every day of the week let alone the weekend.  To ensure you are able to get on the course the day you want to play, you have to arrive at the course before daylight to get in line. Since the course doesn't open until daybreak the line-up occurs in the parking lot and is run by the honor system.  The last person to arrive leaves their headlights on in whatever parking spot they choose.  Once you arrive you knock on the window of the car with its lights on and ask them what number they are.   You then get back in your car and keep your headlights on until the next person arrives.  When the golf course opens just before dawn, everyone lines up in front of the pro shop in the order they arrived in the parking lot.  You then either pay the greens fee to get on the course immediately or you make a tee time for later on that day.  Doc and I chose the latter and made a 2:30 tee time not only to save some money (since the rates in the afternoon are almost half of what they are in the morning) but to also go back to the hotel to try and get some sleep.

Doc and I knew the basics of how the pre-dawn line up works, but we learned most of this on the fly as we were #5 in line with our 4:15 arrival.  We didn't learn of the whole keeping the headlights on rule until the #6 person rudely pointed this out to us.  When we arrived the guy parked next to us, pointed to a car behind and said "they have the sign in sheet."  As you can see the sign in sheet that day was a piece of cardboard.  These nice Asian gentlemen handed us the piece of cardboard to us and said that they were #4.  So we got back in the car with the piece of cardboard and waited for the next person to take it from us.  About 10 minutes later the next patron arrived, so I opened the door told him we were #5 and offered him the sign in sheet, to which he quickly and rather angrily responded "I don't need it, this is why you leave your lights on."  It was at this point Doc and I realized the sign in sheet was worthless and was most likely just used by the guy who arrived at midnight so he didn't have to wake up and tell the next person what number he was.

We got back to the hotel around 6:15 am and got right back into bed.  Before we headed back to the course for our round we made our way to La Jolla to see the Seals.  Since we knew that we wouldn't be able to adequetly capture our once in a lifetime round, Doc and I convinced Jodi to join us as our official photographer.   Doc and I had a great time playing a US Open course with breathtaking views. Thanks to Jodi we have amazing pictures to remember it all by.

Doc felt it would be crazy not to pay homage to Wally World, so Sunday morning we went down the street to ride some roller coasters at Six Flags Magic Mountain.  That evening on our way to LAX we made a stop at the Griffith Observatory to take in the views of LA and the coast at Sunset.  It was great laughing and golfing our way around Southern California with Doc.  As usual the weekend went by too quickly, but it is one that will never be forgotten.