Reminder: April 28th Rally to Save Sharp Park Golf Course

Below is a note from the good folks at SF Public Golf about a fund raiser at Sharp Park tonight. I know this is last minute but if you give a shit about Sharp Park or Public Golf, this is an opportunity to step up. We need to show public support for the course to give our SF pols the backbone to defend it against extremist environmental lawyers gaming the legal system in an attempt to intimidate the City and destroy the course.

For any who are not familiar with this story... Sharp Park is an affordable much loved Alister Mackenzie public golf course located in Pacifica and frequented by a diverse clientele of retirees, students and blue collar working stiffs from across the Bay Area. The course is under attack from environmental litigants attempting to bully and intimidate the City into giving up this historic course and park that was gift to The City and is a 100 year legacy belonging to the people of San Francisco.

I've been peripherally involved in the on-going battle at Sharp Park over the last three years and documenting the battle on this blog. Anyone interested supporting public golf should show up and bring a checkbook.

Tee'd off at the anti-golf extremists???? Then do something about it: Attend the April 28th rally to Save Sharp Park Golf Course. Don't forget to bring your foursome. WHEN: Thursday, April 28, 2011, 6:00 p.m. WHERE: Sharp Park Golf Clubhouse, Hwy. One at Sharp Park Rd., Pacifica, CA. Complimentary hors d'oeuvres. Cash bar. Raffle prizes. RSVP: info@sfpublicgolf.com or Facebook. DONATE AT THE DOOR, or send checks to: San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, Attn: Lauren Barr, Treasurer, 2840 Jackson St., San Francisco, CA. 94115.

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19th hole

BD 109
MW 110 10 skins
RE 119 2 skins
RZ 123 5 skins

I have nothing more to say.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Bringing it it home on 18

Almost out of juice on the pre. This may be the last pic.

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My patented corkscrew follow-through.

After my 2nd on 14. Believe it or not - it was a good shot.

This finish executed by an experienced bad golfer on a closed course.

Don't try this at home.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Ricky in the sandbox again

He likes it.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Bob tees up a couple on 12

One of them was good. One of them was not. But he didn't hit any cars.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

On 11 Roy and Rick attempt jail break

Rick escaped.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

At the turn

BD 51
MW 52
RZ 58
RE 58

I had a good round going until that 8 and 9 on the last two holes.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

More 8th tee

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8th tee

Most picturesque hole.

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Rick hitting his 3rd or 4th shot out of the trap on 6

I lost count.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Enjoying a bloody mary..

While Rick plays in the creek.

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Bob's 2nd shot on 4

That's my drive in the distance over his cap.

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Rick tees on 3

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Roy nicely out of trap on 2

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Live blogging Eagle Ridge

Bob is joining our group. He does not understand what he is in for. Or perhaps he does. He reminds me we played in the same group at Poppy Hills a year ago.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Fishing in San Francisco

I think this must be the ultimate in urban fishing. Drain fishing in San Francisco. These shots are from an interesting cover story in the SF Weekly featuring local Kirk Lombard. I am going to have to meet this guy. Maybe sign up for one of his walking tours.

"Lombard's reservoir of fish-related knowledge is deep. He spent seven years as a catch monitor for the California Department of Fish and Game and the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, where his jobs included interviewing local sport fishermen about what they caught, and accompanying sport-fishing charter boats, or "party boats," on trips outside the Golden Gate Bridge. Fish and Game still uses an educational placard he created on California surf perch and bait fishes featuring photographs he took."

This cracked me up:

"True to his background, Lombard's recreational fishing exploits are sometimes akin to performance art. In March, he treated an SF Weekly reporter and photographer to an unusual spectacle: fishing for surf perch through a storm drain in Mission Bay. Casting his line into the drain, which eventually opened on water flowing in from the bay, Lombard caught three fish in quick succession. "You think you're bad? You ain't shit, man," he cried, reeling furiously as a hooked perch gave him a fight. "You live in a drain." A female passerby, incredulous, stopped to gape: "Is that a fish in that little hole?"

Yes, yes it was.

Video of Kirk pulling a rockfish out of the drain linked here.

Bad day in Burkina Faso

Our tour group in Oaugadougou

Apparently the political storms sweeping the African Sahara have blown into Burkina Faso. I am embarrassed to admit I didn't even know it was the name of a country when we visited during our 2007 West Africa Tour. The journal for our 4 days in Burkina Faso are posted here, here and here.


The story of this uprising is getting almost no press coverage here. It is funny how travel changes your perspective. Undoubtedly I never would have noticed this story if we had not visited. The people we met there were wonderful and our thoughts are with them.

Our fist camp in a Burkina Faso village

Burkina Faso army mutiny spreads to fourth city

"An army mutiny which erupted last week in the West African state of Burkina Faso has spread to a fourth city. Protests have now broken out in Kaya in the north of the country, following disturbances in Po and Tenkodogo. The trouble started last Thursday when soldiers and presidential guards in the capital Ouagadougou protested about unpaid housing allowances. Hours before the revolt broke out, tens of thousands of people had demonstrated against high food prices. President Blaise Compaore, a former coup leader in power since 1987, has sacked his government and appointed a new head of the armed forces to try to quell the unrest. His government warned on Sunday that mutinous soldiers would face "the full force of the law". BBC Ouagadougou correspondent Mathieu Bonkongou confirmed that the unrest had now reached Kaya."

Burkina Faso army mutiny widens:

"The West African country of Burkina Faso simmered Monday as a mutiny by soldiers spread to two more towns and a student protest turned incendiary. Troops in the northern town of Kaya took to the streets Sunday night and fired their guns into the air until early Monday morning, residents said. "There was a panic in town and we have closed classes as a precaution measure," said Anatole Kiema, a teacher at a grammar school in the town of Kaya. A resident in Tenkodogo, a town east of the capital, also said soldiers shot into the air for hours Sunday night before returning to their barracks. He said they also stole cellphones and went to bars where they demanded free drinks."

Not paying your army and police is always a bad idea. OTOH - Going into bars and demanding free drinks is my kind of revolution.

Why we didn't get in the water on opening weekend this year.

It was a good decision. Santa Rosa Press Democrat:

"Mendocino County emergency personnel faced their first rescue this year barely an hour after the abalone season opened April 1. In that case, a San Francisco diver who entered the water in stormy conditions was swept half a mile from shore, where rescue personnel found him weak and hypothermic, fire personnel said."

In other World Wide Abalone Diver News:

"A diver has been killed in a horrific attack by two feared great white sharks near south Australia's Coffin Bay. The man, who has not been named, was savaged by the sharks when he surfaced after diving for the valuable mollusks abalone.Police said a search of the area had failed to find the man's body."

Well - that is Australia. Not even the same ocean really. And he was diving in "Coffin Bay". Who is going to dive with sharks in "Coffin Bay". These kind of attacks almost never happen to abalone divers in Northern California.

Heading back

This is getting painful.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Strike 3

Never got in the water. Weather is gorgeous, but water is brown with zero viz, - still - with swells dropping to 8 feet it looked almost safe enough to go in. Alas, we ran out of time. No abalone for you.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Sea Ranch Sunset

The sunset is a popular presentation at the Sea Ranch Lodge.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Nevermind

Swells are too big. We'll check in again tomorrow.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Your New & Improved Convenient Ca Fishing License...

... with Abalone and steelhead report card. Most California fishermen wear their fishing license with accompanying various and sundry mandatory report cards as a dashing sash or wrapped around the head like a turban.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Abalone season opening day.

But conditions do not look good. Heading north to check it out.