Sherwood Country Club-2006 Target World Challenge Volunteer Day I - Jan. 8, 2007

Monday, January 8, 2007 was volunteer day #1 for the 2006 Target World Challenge, and the day dawned sunny, breezy and warm. (Sorry about the "A" pillar, there was another car turning off of Portrero Road behind me and basic photo composition went out the window in favor of being a considerate driver...)

I checked in at the guard station at about 9:20AM, and was wished a cheery "Have fun out there!" by the security guard. She called it - we had fun!

My SCORE didn't look much fun, but with the exception of a couple of blowup holes and unfortunate splashdowns, it was a GREAT day! (More about that later...)

The essence of Sherwood is that the fairways are relatively broad and generous, but the oak trees influence the line of flight on almost every hole. The greens tend to be smallish, relatively narrow configurations, and undulate like potato chips - they're TOUGH to read, and TOUGH to score well on. It's a beautiful course that makes use of the natural topography, has several water features and hazards that can be problematic, and a mudhen problem on Tournament #2/Member #11 that cannot be BELIEVED!!! There's HUNDREDS of 'em, and the little buggers need to wear DIAPERS!!! There's mudhen guano
E V E R Y W H E R E from 150 yards in....even on the GREEN! (Eew! My approach shot landed in some...double EEW!! Thank GOODNESS you're allowed to clean your golf ball - they need to declare a local rule for lift, clean & replace on the #11 approach zone) When we were going out to Member #11 in the morning, the grounds crew were running TWO Australian shepherd dogs around the water hazards to shoo the mudhens into the water hazard. (Those dogs need to be trained to do coot-doo cleanup!) That's about the only fault I can find with the course...but the coots need a place to live too, so they've chosen the NICEST place to live in the area, just like the PEOPLE who live at Sherwood!

It wasn't so prevalent at THIS year's tournament, but there have been some absolutely RAGING parties on the patios (Isn't that an old ZZ Top tune?) on Championship Sunday. From my days as a standard bearer (last year), there were some ragers going on Tournament #2 and #7 - believe me, THOSE people know how to throw a party!!! I checked this year, and that party house on #7 had Vin Scully, longtime (and BELOVED) voice of the Dodgers sitting out on a folding chair on the patio (but no loud music THIS year) - I saw him with my binoculars from the crossover on #6 - hey, it gets boring up there while you're waiting for Padraig Harrington's group.... (LOVE ya, Padraig! Seriously! But I digress...)

The guard gave me my parking pass (pictured below) and I found a great parking spot right where the Tournament organizing committee parked in the members parking lot.
I got checked in and found out that we were starting on hole #13 (Lucky 13?), which is played as hole #4 at the Target World Challenge. It's a beautiful, 459 yard par 4 from the tips, but we were playing from the 435 yard blue tees today...

Wandered down to the carts and found our cart amongst the throng that had been assembled - the organizing at Sherwood is flawless, and each cart had been outfitted with a towel, three tees for each player, two box lunches, a Sherwood divot tool and a partridge in a pear tree. (Just kidding about the partridge and the pear tree, but the guys just TOP out the carts for us!) (See if you can find the TartanGolfGrips.com putter grip in the picture of the Sherwood Country Club golf cart...and NO, I didn't Photoshop it into the picture, I COMPOSED it that way...attractive, huh? You can order your very own at https://shop.tartangolfgrips.com )


Headed down to the putting green to get the eye sharp, but with the undulations in the greens, it's an academic exercise, but at least it gives you something to do...it's a little known secret, but there's actually a SECOND putting green, up by hole #1, so I headed over there to hit a few balls and get the Stimp reading down...they were FAST - it's been really dry and windy in SoCal since Christmas, and the greens were quick! (You can see the general area of the putting green in this pic - it's at the base of the flagpole. It's smaller than the main green, but at least there wasn't three people aiming for the same cup over there!

(While we're over there - just take a look at the size of that house behind the first tee's flagpole! No, that's NOTa hotel, that's NOT an aircraft hangar, that's ONE family's HOUSE, folks! (Can you imagine VACUUMING that place??? It'd be like painting the Golden Gate bridge - by the time you're done with one side of the house, enough dirt has accumulated on the other side that you have to start over and you never finish! Please don't touch anything, and please keep the line moving....))

Sherwood is one of THE most exclusive country clubs and neighborhoods in the area, and home to many famous celebrities including Wayne Gretzky, Pete Sampras, Tom Selleck, Scott Hamilton and many others...the homes that line the fairways are truly AMAZING, and it's a real treat to see the beautiful landscaping and architectural features that the residents incorporate into their homes AND backyards...and the golf course ain't bad, EITHER!

We got our official welcome from the head pro, and headed out at 10AM sharp...it was sunny, warm and breezy - but not so windy that it interfered significantly with our games. It has been another amazing "winter" thus far, it's been windier and drier than normal and the average temperature throughout December has been about 75, and this day was no exception...on the way home, the termperature gauge in the car read 82...at 5PM! The wind kicked up a few times between 10AM and noon, but the afternoon was basically still and absolutely PERFECT for golf!

It's interesting to note this picture - notice the guy wearing the shorts! This is the first year in the seven that I've worked this tournament that volunteers were allowed to wear shorts on volunteer day! Had I known...

I had requested to be paired with Dave and Jan. Dave and I worked on #6 and #15 for the tournament, which are REALLY #15 and #6 the way the members (and the volunteers) play the course. Jan worked (tournament) #3 and #12, which are a pair of par-3's. We were told that holes #9 and #18 would be played the way they are for the tournament, and I think that instruction screwed with several groups, because there was ALL kinds of confusion in following that instruction, and we encountered several other groups that were not adjacent to our group as we played our round on both #9 and #18. Maybe it was because those were the only two holes that were played the same way as the tournament...

Dave and I used to work for Kenneth Leventhal and Company, a Century City CPA firm which is now part of Ernst & Young. I started my career with them quite a few years ago, and Dave was an audit manager for several Palm Springs developers.

I was a staff auditor on a Santa Monica real estate developer that had several Palm Springs divisions that had January/February calendar-year audits at the same time as Dave's account. Back in the day, we'd work the audits Monday through Friday, stay on-site at some of the residential units or hotels over the weekend, and play golf down at the courses that were attached to the developments that we were auditing. It was at some of these weekend golf "stay-overs" that I met Dave, and our friendship was rekindled when we met one another about five years ago at the Target World Challenge. We've golfed together every volunteer day since, and had a great time together. Dave's a member at Wood Ranch Country Club in Simi Valley, and he used to be a member at Sunset Hills Country Club. He's now a senior manager at Countrywide Financial Corporation.

I met Jan last year, and she's in the Marketing group at 21st Century Insurance, an auto insurance company in Woodland Hills who built a second headquarters building on the old driving range that stretched from Topanga Canyon Blvd to Owensmouth Avenue in Woodland Hills, where I first went to practice golf many years ago... Jan's very athletic, and plays a solid game of golf. She ALSO has the exact same Husky headcover that I have on my driver (although ours are last years model and they have PAWS that make them look better). Dave and I suggested an alignment and grip adjustment, and we had Jan hitting 30 yards farther and straighter by the end of our round - I think she was pleased with the result! It was cool offering some guidance, and actually having it help out a fellow golfer...you know what they say - those that can't DO, TEACH!

Anyways, off we headed to hole #13, a 435 yard par 4 with water alongside the right side. Dave and I chickened out and put our drives WAY down the left side on the inland side of the hole, and Jan dropped a mulligan into the drink, and then proceeded to BLAST her second drive straight down the middle of the fairway about 240 yards. Here's a shot of the tee, and another below of my second shot...












My second shot was a hybrid of about 165 yards to within 60 yards of the pin, where I pitched to within 15 feet and two-putted for bogey. Notice how IMMACULATE the fairway and second cut are...(that's Dave doing his best "Wandering Golfer" imitation, by the way...)












This is the view of my approach to the green...and Jan walking to HER approach shot...note the variety of clubs, as we were playing "cart path only"...ugh....
















Hole number 14 is my new best friend...we played it twice (ssssh, don't tell anyone) and I parred it BOTH times! Played it the SAME WAY both times, too...lasered a drive RIGHT at the double-trunked tree on the right side of the fairway, bouncing it left into the fairway (Thank you, Golf Tiki!). Hit a hybrid to the left second cut. Hit a nine iron the first time, and a seven iron the second time to the left side of the green, and funneled it down to 8-12 feet from the pin, and SANK the par putt! Here's the hole 14 shot sequence in pictures:



















Obviously I ticked off "The Golf Tiki" on #14, because my fortune CHANGED in a big way on #15, the hole that Dave and I marshaled at the Target World Challenge. I have been hitting a draw recently, and have adjusted my alignment a bit to compensate for it...

#15 features a narrow, uphill "gun barrel" approach, which is even MORE PRONOUNCED for the PGA players when they play it from the tips...it is a NARROW, BLIND tee shot into a crowned fairway. (This is where Colin Montgomerie corkscrewed his drive into the base of the hill on the left, and my crossover post is about the same place that the guy at the left on the hill is pictured below.)

Well, my "draw alignment" coupled with my sudden LACK of draw EXECUTION resulted in THREE back-to-back drives BLOCKED badly onto the hillside to the SHORT RIGHT... ( I DID find my second shot, nestled safely amongst some native scrub plants inside the stand of trees, but it WAS OB, and good for TWO....TIMES THREE...UGH....). Here's the view down the gun-barrel at #15:The guy at the left side of the hillside is near my post at the crossover to Tournament #7, the bottom of that hill is where Colin doinked his drive in the rain, and the half a tree at the right is the LEFT of where I doinked THREE of MY shots off the tee...

Unfortunately, our photojournalistic escapades end here, because with all the ON/OFF, shoot, repeat action on the course, the battery decided to take the rest of the day off, so you'll have to wait until NEXT year's blog entry to see the REMAINDER of the gorgeous scenery at Sherwood Country Club (or just tune in and watch on TV, instead - the golf will probably be better anyway...)

The irony of the day award went to ME, because I DOINKED up BOTH holes that Dave and I worked - after popping three drives into the tree/hillside on the right on Tournament #6, I ALSO decided to launch a triumvirate of topped offerings into the fishies that swim in the water hazard that guards Tournament #15, before FINALLY landing drive number FOUR about seven feet from the pin, and sinking the putt for the big SNOWMAN (on a par 3...sheesh....). It's spelled B L O W U P H O L E, Scott....(and brings to mind that old saw about crapping where you eat, or something like that...)

Here's the final evidence - I'm not proud of it, but I think I won, because I had more points than Dave and Jan did...right??? Well, at least I DID par TWO holes...whoopee!!!

Thanks for gutting it out to the bitter end - hope you enjoyed the pics and stories...it was a FUN day, and I hope the weather is as nice for the rest of the volunteers at the END of the month...