Rivier-AHHHHHH

I'm gonna be a big TEASE, and only leave a snippet...

I played Riveria Country Club today....it was AWESOME!!! The greenskeeping staff gets "A" on their final exams, because the tees, fairways and GREENS were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

Also saw Tom Watson give a 45 minute clinic, where I actually LEARNED something...and applied it immediately, with successful results!!! (VERY cool)

Details and pictures will have to wait til later, because I'm getting a bunch of stuff ready to exhibit TartanGolfGrips.com products at this weekend's Golfweek Golfest in Scottsdale, AZ, and then again at the Orange County Celtic Festival at Irvine Meadows Fairgrounds.

OK - I'm taking a break from developing the catalogue (digging on Craig Ferguson's monologue tonight (11/9/06)) and I can't hold it any longer....here are my three highlights of my round at Rivier-AHHHHH:

1) My drive on #18 - we teed off on #17, so we had a hole to warm up (we bogied #17, but we were both cold from the road), and I stepped up to #18, took a deep breath to relax, set up, and absolutely RIPPED a LASER straight 270+ yard drive up the blind-hill fairway(454-180=274 - what can I say, the Golf Tiki smiled on me...). Walked up the hill to find the ball 180 yards out, on the right side of the fairway...took a 3-iron and put it 10 yards off the front of the green, right in the throat of the green....it was SO, SO, SO cool walking up that 18th fairway - you could just FEEL the history hanging in the air...Hogan, Nicklaus, Woods, Pavin...

Of course, I totally CHUNKED the attack wedge 20 yards past the hole, and we ended up taking my partner's par score for the hole, but it was MEMORABLE...

2) I birdied #4 - it's a par-3, playing 223. Took my Elway-7 wood and just hit it on the screws...drew it onto the left side of the green, made a friggin' divot the size of a Volkswagen (but fixed it FLAWLESSLY with my GreenFix divot repair tool - it works better than traditional divot tools - shameless plug there), and putted it in from 12 feet for BIRDIE!!! What a rush...

3) I played the ENTIRE ROUND with the same sleeve of Callaway Tour 56's. (Not that I didn't TRY to lose them, but our caddy, Jarod, has eagle eyes, not to mention a mastery of the putting surfaces - he gave me some advice on one line that I thought - "There's no way..." but I trusted his local knowledge, put it right on his target, and if I hadn't muscled the ball, it tracked RIGHT on line, swung about 5 feet to the left, and JUST rolled over the high side of the cup...NICE call, Jarod!)