Mike hitting in glorious light on 4

Not a bad shot either. - BK (aka Not Mike)

Live Blogging Sharp Park...

... and round two of the EssEff Bad Public Golf Invitational.

Foursome of Mike, Mike, Mike and Not Mike.

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19th Hole at Harding Park

Brad K 45 38 83

Don Q. 42 42 84

Mike W 52 54 106

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Brad and Zach duel on approach from the traps on 18

Which Brad won.

He hit the shot of the day to 5 feet. Then missed the birdie putt.

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18th tee at Harding

Mandatory selfie.

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16th Green

... and the site of yet another infamous putting duel.  Brad and I parred the hole. Don Quixote did not. It wasn't in the same category as the John Daly miss, but close.

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Somewhere after the turn

ZN 42

BK 45

MW 52

I've done worse. 

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Semi Live blogging TPC Harding..

...at the First Annual EssEff Bad Public golf Invitational.

Playing with Brad and Don Quixote. 

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19th Hole at Stanford

RH 81 37 44

GV 82 40 42

BK  86 44 46

MW 99 52 47

Obviously, I was out of my league with this foursome. But I have to be happy breaking 100 my first time on the Stanford course. I had a five stroke differential between the front and back.

There was a beer in between.

Just sayin' ...

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Rich bringing us home on 18

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12th at Stanford

MW

Rich

Geno

Brad

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At the turn

RT 37

GV 40

BK 44

MW 52

It could be worse.

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Brad off the tee

I don't remember which hole.

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Not live blogging Lincoln...

...because Rich got us a tee time at Stanford.  Playing with rRch, Brad, and Geno.

New course and new golf buddies. Probably best not to be live blogging anyway.

Maybe I'll post a few pics though.

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Announcing the 2015 SF Bad Golf Invitational. Plus Bonus New Year Golfing Resolution

As part of my personal commitment to continuous golfing improvement I annually declare a  new year golfing resolution. I am told that increasing personal pressure by publicly declaring your resolutions are a way to improve the odds of keeping your commitments. Hence this blog post.

Some of you may recall in 2014, my New Year Golfing Resolution was to get my Index down to 25 (I started the year at 30).  I failed. My Index on January 1, 2015 was 27.  Since I did not achieve my goal, you might expect that I would simply recycle that goal again for my 2015 resolution.  NFW.  Why would I do that? It's depressing to fail so miserably. Instead I will recycle the last New Year Golfing Resolution that I did achieve.

In 2012 I resolved to play more rounds of golf than the President of the United States and I kicked his ass. Granted 2012 was an election year and due to political optics the Golfer In Chief may have restrained his golfing impulses to get reelected. In 2015, as a lame duck, he no longer has to pretend that he gives a shit what any of us think. 2015 will be a tougher challenge as we can expect he will be playing a lot more golf.

I don't have an up to date count how many rounds he has played this year. My usual source is the blog page of this Tea Party wingnut with a serious case of Obama Derangement Syndrome.  At the time of this post, he has not  updated  his Obama Golf Counter to include the 2015 rounds yet. The POTUS recently returned from his Hawaiian vacation, so I am sure he already has played at least three rounds in 2015.  I cannot let myself get behind this early in the year.

Lincoln Park

Hence I am announcing the First Annual Bad Golfer EssEff Public Course Invitational. The usual suspects are being recruited for rounds at Lincoln, Harding, and Sharp on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Harding Park

 I thought a good way to support the courses and get in the swing of things is try this EssEff Golf Total Immersion Therapy. Plus it will help me keep pace with the President.

Sharp Park

 Also, I've been helping out the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance and they've got some big plans this year.  They've done a great job protecting Sharp Park from anti-golf activists hellbent on destroying the course (aka The Golf War -as reported in this blog over the years).  Anyone interested can keep in touch by "Liking" their Facebook page, "Following" the LinkedIn organization and joining their LinkedIn Group.

All rounds will likely be live-blogged unless my play sucks worse than usual. That is all.

Christmas in Sonoma (with a side trip to Ethiopia)

 I've noticed that an increasing number of my blog posts seem to start with a loving photograph of a martini. I can't explain this phenomena. No matter. We celebrated Christmas Eve and the oft overlooked 9th Night of Hanukkah with the traditional dinner of vodka martini, abalone picatta, and parmesan polenta.

Christmas day we drove to Sonoma for an enjoyable visit as guests of Oliver, Lord of the Manor and his vassals Lee and Joanne.

Lord Oliver

First order of business was a Christmas Day and 10th Night of Hanukkah Feast with fellow guests Joan and Rod. 

Sigrid's contribution was a wild rice and mushroom soup. Lee and Joanne prepared an extraordinary Beef Wellington, twice baked potatoes, and a selection of pies for dessert. The dinner and company was as enjoyable as the exquisite setting.

Pecan Pie

Sigrid insisted on humiliating the pack by making them wear reindeer ears.

Oliver

Rosie

Jasper

I am not sure they will ever forgive her. Nor should they.

For Boxing Day, we decided to go to the movies. I wanted us to do our patriotic duty and see The Interview but I was outvoted and we saw Unbroken.  Ignore LaSalle's snarky review in the Chron. It was excellent and inspiring. Nevertheless I've reported the rest of the crew for their questionable patriotism and look forward to their appearance before the House Committee on Un-American Activities to explain their failure to screen The Interview. 

Last stop was Sonoma Square and the Lisa Kristine Gallery.

We've been intrigued with and admire her work, in no small part because of the overlap between her photographic subjects and some of our own travels. I was struck in particular with her photograph of a Hamer woman in Ethiopia.

I found the photo reminiscent of some of Sigrid's portraits from our 2012 trip to the same region:

It was kind of an Ethiopian themed Christmas, as "Santa" Laurie delivered more Ethiopian coffee and I finally got around to compiling a photobook of Sigrid's portraits from the trip.

Landsmen Dinner at the Golden Gate Yacht Club

Strictly stag and black tie, the Landsmen Dinner is an old school tradition in San Francisco. I joined friends Doug and Lee for their winter event held at the newly renovated Golden Gate Yacht Club. Some pics from the evening festivities:

Food was good and the jokes were politically incorrect.  We finished the rainy night by continuing the same throwback traditional San Francisco theme and an Irish Coffee nightcap at the  Buena Vista Cafe.