A Bucket List Prize

It was an early morning in November of 2021 when my phone started blowing up with text messages like, “Hey, Steve, good buddy, you’re my new best friend!” On further inquiry, someone suggested that I check my email from the OGA. Again, there were more congratulatory messages, mostly from golf buddies offering various incentives to share in my good fortune. There was also the customary bi-monthly email from the OGA with the usual links to member benefits and announcing the annual “Member November” prize winners. Frankly, I didn’t even remember entering any prize drawings since it wasn’t a regular habit of mine (it is now!). One click later and there it was, a list of various prizes to a few lucky OGA members followed by the announcement of the Grand Prize—a $3,500 gift card to Pebble Beach awarded to Steve Bryant of Widgi Creek Golf Club in Bend!

My wife, JoLee, loves to watch golf, but she doesn’t play. My son, Ben, on the other hand, was practically born with a golf club in his hands. He sharpened his golfing skills on the OGA Junior Golf summer circuit and made All-State as a high school senior at West Albany before playing for the Willamette University team. Naturally, my first call was to him, and he was over the moon with the prospect of a bucket-list Pebble Beach trip. The three of us made a prior pilgrimage to Pebble Beach in 2010 to watch the entire U.S. Open, follow our favorite players, and soak in the sights. As a result, we knew the course well, but only as spectators.

We quickly began making plans and decided that we would take the opportunity to play multiple courses on the Monterey Peninsula with JoLee serving as our observer and score keeper. As fate would have it, thoughts of completing the trip in 2022 soon took a back seat to the announcement that Ben and his wife would be expecting their second child in the summer, and we might be advised to wait until the summer of 2023 to make the trip (some things in life do take priority over golf—even at Pebble Beach!).

Finally, our year and a half of planning came to fruition in mid-June as we were waived through the entry to Seventeen Mile Drive in anticipation of three days of golfing bliss. Day one brought us to the Links at Spanish Bay under partly cloudy skies and light winds. Spanish Bay was an unexpected treat with its undulating links layout along the ocean, fast greens, and immaculate conditions. With no driving range on site, and with no recent experience on fast challenging greens, our play reflected the circumstances. We kept repeating that we were there for the experience and not our scores. After the round, we had drinks around a patio firepit overlooking the course and ocean followed by dinner at their wonderful Italian restaurant, Péppoli’s. Not to be missed is the nightly appearance of the traditional bagpiper at sunset—a tribute to the Scottish design influence.

That evening we checked into our fabulous accommodations at the Pebble Beach Lodge where we were greeted by a chilled bottle of champagne—a gift from the resort after they heard we were also celebrating our 49^th wedding anniversary! In the morning, we enjoyed our balcony view out over the first fairway and Stillwater Cove in the distance.

There is nothing quite like anticipating your first tee shot at Pebble Beach. Ben promptly hit his out of bounds left while I managed a weak push into the right rough—and quickly discovered that the rough was being prepared for Pebble’s first U.S. Women’s Open in just a few weeks making conditions even more challenging than usual.

Again, it was never about the scores! The sights and our scoring began to improve as the course began to open up on #4 toward those magnificent ocean views. We both managed to make easy pars on the famous #7 par three and I surprised myself by reaching the #8 green in regulation with a well-placed hybrid over the ocean inlet to a postage stamp green in the distance. This must be the most nerve-racking par 4 in golf as evident from Jordan Spieth’s second shot from absolute the edge of the cliff earlier this year.

Perhaps the most iconic finishing hole in golf is Pebble’s par 5 #18 and it came along all too soon. While I didn’t sniff a par, Ben hit a stellar drive followed by a hooked long iron which magically rebounded off the retaining wall separating the long fairway bunker from the ocean. He ended up in the middle of the fairway in route to a “there are no pictures on the scorecard” par. We finished our memorable day by lingering over drinks and dinner around a fire pit at The Bench, Pebble’s outside patio bar overlooking the 18^th green and ocean—a highly recommended experience!

We concluded our trip at Spyglass Hill, the most difficult of the three courses, by a significant margin. While Spyglass lacks the expansive ocean front holes of Spanish Bay and Pebble Beach, or the fabulous clubhouse buildings of either, it has its own unique charm highlighted by a beautiful forested hilly landscape, very difficult greens, and frequent changes in elevation. It is a course that begs to be played again to better position your approach shots and understand the many nuances of the greens. Still, Ben managed to shoot an extraordinary 75 with three birdies while I continued to muddle along and be completely satisfied with bogey golf.

We ended with hugs all around and a feeling of great satisfaction for an experience never to be forgotten.

Hopefully, many others will be able to enjoy the fruits of OGA membership. Golf is a wonderful game that creates incredible memories—thank you OGA!