Here we go again...

Heading down to City Hall for the Round 3 of the latest skirmish in the SF Golf War. This will be in front of  the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Believe it or not, the WEBLEEDU's are fighting a project that will improve the existing habitat for the frog and snake.

Will report on the outcome later. Or not.

Stay tuned. Or not.

 From the SF Public Golf Alliance:

Friends: Please clear your calendar for next Tuesday, March 25, 3 p.m. at the Supervisors' chambers, Room 200, San Francisco City Hall, to attend and speak to the SF Board of Supervisors in favor of Sharp Park Golf Course.  We oppose an appeal by Wild Equity Institute from a unanimous decision Jan. 23, 2014 by the SF Rec & Park Commission to proceed with the Sharp Park Safety, Infrastructure, and Habitat Improvement Project, based on a unanimous decision Jan. 16, 2014 by the SF Planning Commission to approve a Mitigated Negative Declaration and proceed without a full-blown Environmental Impact Report.  Mr. Plater's group wants to halt the project and require a full-blown Environmental Impact Report -- which would delay the project a couple of years, at least.     This is another hurdle that we must clear.   In its unanimous Jan. 16 decision, the Planning Commission adopted a 40-page analysis by Planning Staff, which found that no EIR is required here, because there will be no significant negative environmental impacts to the project if the City performs a list of mitigations.  1.  Sharp Park is historic, course, built 1932 by Alister MacKenzie, history's greatest golf architect 2.  Low-cost golf, beloved by public golfers of all ages, ethnicities, genders, persuasions, economic strata 3.  Founding venue (1955) of Western States Golf Assn., the country's oldest, largest African-American golfing society 4.  Community center and gathering place for Pacifica 5.  One of only 2 reasonably-priced public courses in San Mateo County 6.  A beautiful, enjoyable, sweet place to spend time and enjoy nature and friends and good company 7.  Compatible place for humans and nature to co-exist -- as they have done for 80 years 8.  The work to be done in the Sharp Park Safety, Infrastructure, and Habitat Improvement Project -- much of it ordered by the US Fish & Wildlife Service in October, 2012 -- is for benefit of the frog and snake.  San Francisco is trying to comply with the USFWS directives to build new pond for these species.  And now Wild Equity wants to prevent this work from being done.  9.  The golfers want a place where public golf and the frog and snake can happily coexist.  The City has come up with a plan to do that -- which was developed by the City's expert consultants and unanimously approved by all City Commissions who have considered the matter.  And the City should now go forward with it.   Thank you.  Save Sharp Park.    San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

19th Hole

Brad and Mike  were unhappy with their  scores, but I can't complain.

BK 97
MW 100 So close, yet so far.
MS 101
RZ 113

Sent from my Sprint HTC smartphone.

Redecorating the Sharp Park clubhouse

Brad and Gino do a little redecorating in the clubhouse with an illustration providing historical  MacKenzie context.

The illustration is a recreation of the original Sharp Park layout, from Brad Knipstein's "Alister Mackenzie's Legacy of Public Golf at Sharp Park"

Sent from my Sprint HTC smartphone.

Other Mike out of jail on 18...

... with a spectacular shot through the trees.

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16th tee portrait

One of the great vistas on the course. 

The landscape not the portrait.

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Rick out of 15th trap..

... amazingly on the first try.

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Rick on 14th tee

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Somewhere after the turn

MW  48
MS 48
BK 49
RZ 55

Hope.

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8th Green

Four balls on the green:

Four missed birdie putts:.

Four pars.

You'd think there were real golfers in this foursome.

Rick insisted I report that he was closest to the pin.

Sent from my Sprint HTC smartphone.

In the gallery on the 6th fairway

A very pretty garter snake was meandering down the fairway, but it was not THE garter snake. Looks like a juvenile Coast Garter snake. Still the first snake I've ever seen after 20 years playing here. Very cool. After taking his portrait we stayed well clear and let him continue on his way.

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Other Mike stripes one on 6

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Brad's approach on four...

... had much further to go than my drive 30 feet in front of him.

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Moment of Impact

Rick tees off on 3

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Other Mike's birdie putt enroute

Drano.

Great comeback after his 7 on the first hole. 

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Brad found a little trouble on two

The pressure of playing with a new group no doubt.

Not to mention having your round and bad shots live blogged.

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Live blogging Sharp Park

A little Alister MacKenzie-ish Scottish fog this morning.

Playing with Rick, Brad, and the Other Mike.

Sent from my Sprint HTC smartphone.

19th hole

RZ 107
MW 111

Ethan,  the 13 year old who was put in our group, who has existed as a human being on this planet for less than half the time that I have been playing golf, shot a 78.

That is all I have to say about that.

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In your face Ethan!

My only par of the day was on 18.

Even more important, it was my only opportunity to trash talk 13 yr old Ethan,  who I tied on the hole.

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Rick off the 16th tee

By request.

He is apparently emulating my corkscrew finish. 

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At the turn

The scores are not really important.

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This is Ethan, the real golfer in our group.

Here he watches his birdie putt. He missed the birdie but got the par.

 He is 13 years old.  He is 1 over par through 4 holes.

I hate my life.

Sent from my Sprint HTC smartphone.

Ricks 4th shot on the par 5 fourth...

 ... after he took a divot with his "practice" swing.

My ball is also lying three, just a little off to the right.

On the green you can see real golfer Ethan waiting for us.

He is on in regulation, which is how golf is supposed to be played.

Sent from my Sprint HTC smartphone.

Not Live Blogging Sharp Park

Another beautiful golf day in drought stricken Northern California.

Just me and Rick today. To avoid distracting to the real golfers we are playing with, live-blogging will be limited.

Sent from my Sprint HTC smartphone.

San Francisco, Larry Ellison, America's Cup, Sharp Park, Social Media, Politics, and my new friend John Avalos

 We'll come back to the graphic at the top of this post later. First a column by C.W. Nevius in the Chronicle:

S.F., Ellison can't let game of chicken sink America's Cup
"The city insists it's just holding the line on costs. The Oracle group counters that there are several other locations that would be just as attractive as San Francisco Bay.  Nonsense. Last summer's event may have been a bit of a slow build, but once we got done with the one-boat "races" and New Zealand versus Oracle got under way, it was a rip-roaring success. Russell Coutts, head of the Oracle team, called the finals "the best ever." Why mess with that? You'll be astonished to hear that the reasons involve money, politics and hefty egos."

So this gets me aggravated. It's a good article, you should read the whole thing, but Nevius is wrong about the prospects of keeping the America's Cup in EssEff. Yeah, the event was great. It was great for the image of the City. It was great for the Cup. It was great for locals. Let me briefly remind everyone just how great it was:

Oracle takes America's Cup in comeback for the ages
No oracle could have foreseen this. Oracle Team USA completed its miracle comeback Wednesday and retained the America's Cup in a regatta that carved a place in the San Francisco pantheon of unforgettable sporting events. Twice down by seven wins, Larry Ellison's team rallied to win 9-8 in a 19-day marathon that was the longest final series in the Cup's 162- year history. And probably the most thrilling. The final race of the 34th America's Cup brought three more lead changes to a series that was full of them, but skipper Jimmy Spithill's catamaran simply had too much speed for Emirates Team New Zealand and won by 44 seconds. A roaring, flag-waving crowd greeted the crew after its eighth straight win. It secured each one knowing that a single mistake could mean the Cup was lost. Ellison hopped on board and told his sailors, "Do you guys know what you just did? You won the America's Cup!"

Just great. So of course we are going to fuck it up. As much fun as it was to have the Cup here and as much sense as it makes to keep it here, I don't see it happening. We've got too many ideologues on our Board of Supervisors pandering to the far left to expect rational, practical, common sense decisions that are good for the City. Exhibit A - Supervisor John Avalos. Yeah, the same guy who wants to give away San Francisco's Sharp Park to the feds. He opposed it the last time and he'll fight it the next time.

As an indicator of just how screwed up our local politics can get, I've no doubt he'll brag about opposing and killing the America's Cup being hosted in San Francisco when he runs for mayor again, as he inevitably will. Why should Larry Ellison put up with this when there are other venues begging to host the event? He owns an island in Hawaii for Pete's sake. Why wouldn't he run the regatta off his island to the finacial benefit of his vassals who live there, people who would love to have the event there, in a state that would kill for this event and BTW would also benefit him financially by promoting his island? That's what I would do. That's what any sensible billionaire would do. 

But I am not a billionaire, so I do what any non-billionaire would do - initiate a series of  rants, cries, lamentations, figurative rending of garments and literal gnashing of teeth across all the social media at my disposal. Which turns out to be a lot.  Best if we just summarize what happens next with storify:

So there you have it. For anyone who does not make it all the way through the storify slide show, this is how my twitter conversation with Supervisor Avalos ends:

Still, I've got to hand it to Avalos. I'll never see eye to eye with him on policy. In fact, I'm pretty sure that he and I will never be in the same time zone as far as politics and policy are concerned. And I am sure he would be a complete disaster for the City if we are so foolish as to elect him mayor. But...

That said, it's rare for a politicians at any level to engage with constituents on twitter as John Avalos does. It's retail, grassroots, personal politics at its best. The exchange gave me a greater appreciation for the role of social media in general and twitter in particular as the modern upgraded "handshake" of politics. And it gave me an appreciation for the John Avalos style of direct one-on-one politics via social media. It's also kind of frightening if you don't agree with his politics. It's hard not to like someone who will engage with you directly as Avalos does on twitter. And people vote for people they like. And it does not take a lot of votes to win elected office in San Francisco.
 
I am not immune to this personal touch in politics. I feel really bad that I called him a jerk in the first tweet in this thread. John Avalos is not a jerk. He's just completely absolutely wrong about everything.

That about wraps up the day. Except as I was writing this I got one more tweet from Supervisor Avalos:

@Dividist @MWatLarge thanks for giving me a Sally Field moment!
— John Avalos (@AvalosSF) February 10, 2014

He just doesn't play fair.

At the ATT Pro-Am Tournament in Pebble Beach

17th Green at Pebble from our vantage in United Fairway Club

After virtually no rain in California for the last year, it was on the day I had tickets for the Clambake that the skies finally opened up. Can't complain though. We need it.

Rain comes to Monterey Peninsula, delays AT&T Pro-Am
Monterey Herald
What locals still like to call "Crosby Weather" has dropped 0.62 inches of rain on the Monterey Peninsula, 0.42 in Salinas, and well over an inch in parts of Big Sur, even delaying the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am for about three hours. Forecaster Bob Benjamin of the National Weather Service's Monterey station said rain began falling on Marina shortly after 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, and became measurable at the Monterey Peninsula Airport at 10 p.m. 

In the United Fairway Club

It  poured for most of the drive to Monterey, but when we got to Pebble Beach the rain stopped. We even got some  sunshine for a while.

In the Stands at the 5th

In past years we chased the celebrities who were mostly on Spyglass Hill. This year we decided to just walk Pebble Beach and enjoy the golf and scenery.

18th Fairway

We probably saw more of Jimmy Walker than any other golfer as we walked the course. With two wins this season, and on the leaderboard after t5he first round, he is one of the hottest golfers on the tour early in the season.

Andre Loupe leads soggy Pebble Beach National Pro-Am

Rain soaked the Monterey Peninsula in the morning, which was great news for an area desperate for rain, not so much for the tournament. Puddles quickly formed on the greens at Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill, forcing play to be stopped on all three courses.  

Monterey Peninsula played the easiest, and Loupe took advantage. He never had to scramble for par, missed only one fairway and only two of his birdies were over 10 feet. This was his first trip to the area, and it was everything he imagined. “This place is amazing,” Loupe said with a smile as wide as a fairway...

Pebble Beach played the toughest, though the weather was not nearly bad enough to make that much of a difference with only a cool breeze and no rain the rest of the day. Jimmy Walker, already a two-time winner this season, got up-and-down for birdie on the 18th for a 66, the best score at Pebble.

A good day.

Sent from my Sprint HTC smartphone.

Super Bowl Notes and Predictions

An octopus, sea turtle, and penguin pick the winner of the Super Bowl. Sound's like the setup for a joke, but I don't have a punch line.  Just me adding my pick to the menagerie.

The critters are all going for Denver, the pundits are split, and EA calls it for Denver in OT:


You've got to be a little dubious about the EA pick since they didn't even get the weather right.

Since all Americans are required to go on the record and make a Superbowl pick (even those who do not know which teams are playing), I'll use the blog to get my prognostications on the record.  

ATTENTION: THIS POST HAS BEEN REDACTED BY THE NSA FOR REASONS OF NATIONAL SECURITY. TRUST US, YOU DON'T WANT TO READ THIS! REALLY. WE MEAN  IT.... NO FLY LIST... CAVITY SEARCHES... THINK ABOUT IT.

 I don't have an emotional investment in either team... well... I'll admit to being sympathetic to the old fart (Peyton Manning) and my Alma Mater is in Colorado, so I do have a mild preference for the Broncos - but that will not affect my objective analysis. It seems like most prognosticators are calling a close game. I don't see it.

Yeah, Seattle has the #1 defense and "defense wins championships" yadda... yadda... yadda... but you can throw the Seahawk's defensive statistics out the window when they are not playing in Seattle. Their home field advantage distorts the statistics. The offense for opposing teams playing in Seattle are completely disrupted by the "12th man". They can't hear their own quarterback. Opposing coaches must come up with different & restricted game plans to accommodate the noise.  It makes the Seahawk defense look better statistically than they really are.  Seattle won't have that edge against Denver in New Jersey against Peyton Manning.

Peyton Manning is the best there ever was as a field general reading and reacting to defenses. Nobody can do what he does on the field. This Seattle D has not played against anything like a Peyton Manning offense firing on all cylinders. They're not ready for this.

Russell Wilson is a very talented young quarterback but he has never played with Superbowl pressure. It's very rare for a first or second year quarterback to win the Superbowl - think Colin Kaepernick last year. It takes being there to learn how to deal with it. I don't expect Wilson to play to form outside of Seattle and under this pressure. 

Although in recent years we've enjoyed several close and exciting Superbowl games, that has been the exception and not the rule. Generally Superbowl games are blowouts. The game will return to form on Sunday. Denver in a blowout.

XXXXXX 42 XXXXXX 21

It won't be as close as the score indicates. I'm giving Seattle an additional meaningless late game touchdown to get to 21.

If you are betting, take Denver and lay off 10 or more points to improve the payout.

If I am wrong I will delete this post and deny it ever existed. 

Despite the good work of the NSA in redacting the hacked predictions found in this post, there were consequences:

Back nine - Poppy Ridge

Both batteries for my HTC smartphone were dead by the turn and the live-blog effort at Poppy Ridge ended then and there. I had my Olympus point-and-shoot in the bag, so took few more shots on the back.  In no particular order, and with no particular recollection of which holes were which - the back nine:

Probably as good a day as we've ever seen for an OGC opener at Poppy Ridge in January.

RE 104
DS 104
MW 107
CC 118

I've done worse on this course. The greens were dry, fast, and punitive.  I had a few pars, and a string of good holes, but with five snowmen on the scorecard, there is only so much one can reasonably expect for a final score. 

Despite the scores, our team net was -15. Respectable. Unlike our individual scores.

At the turn

RE 50
DS 52
MW 55
CC 59

Team -8

Battery is almost dead. 

Sent from my Sprint HTC smartphone.

Birdie and par putts on 9

On in regulation, but missed the birdie putt.

Sinking the par putt while straddling Dave's line.

On in regulation.

Routine two putt for a par.

It's an easy game when you think about it.

Sent from my Sprint HTC smartphone.

Roy and Dave tee off on 8

Roy into the left rough.

Dave into the right rough.

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Dave out of the trap on 5

Apparently the golfers in the other cart like the beach.

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Carolyn out of the greenside trap on 1

That would be her second trap of the first hole.

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Live Blogging Poppy Ridge

First Oracle Golf Club event of the year. I'm playing with Roy, Dave and Carolyn.

This weather is a disaster for the state, but is it ever perfect for golf. 

Will try to blog for as long as the battery holds out.

Sent from my Sprint HTC smartphone.