People often ask, "how can you make a living on a teacher's salary?" Well, if you've never made a lot of money, then, it's hard miss what you've never had. However, one of the ways a private school teacher gets paid (never mind the summer vacations) is being invited to play at the most exclusive private golf club in Northern California, The Cypress Point Club. The Cypress Point Club is located at a simple left turn about a quarter mile past the famed lone cypress tree overlook on 17 Mile Drive on the Monterey Peninsula.
I was an invited guest of Frank H., the CEO of Transamerica. By luck of the draw, I taught his daughter Sarah, as both a freshman in Honors Geometry and as a senior in AP Statistics. Sarah is one of those girls that I love and she and I got along famously. A shout out to Sarah as she prepares to enroll at Duke in the fall. Anyway, Frank (right, below) and I played with his friend Jim T. Below is a picture of us on the tee of the 15th hole. It was taken right after I hit an 8 iron to within 15 feet of the hole. I sunk the putt for a birdie. It's too bad our bodies block the picture of my ball on the green.
The Cypress Point Club has only 240 members and has only a golf course. No tennis courts. No other athletic facilities. All you have is a golf course with a very elegant and simple club house with a small building with four rooms for club members who don't live in the area to stay in. I must say that it is this very comfortable simplicity that makes the Cypress Point Club (and also Pine Valley in New Jersey which I have also played) so wonderful. The uber-rich have no need to show off their wealth in terms of ostentacious goods and buildings. Simple, elegant and refined is all they need. In addition, the elite class is also really nice. All the people I met at the club, and most certainly Mr. H. are gracious and always have a kind word. I felt no pretension or sense that these people needed to show off. All these members of Cypress Point could buy and sell those pseudo upper class hanger on's a thousand times over. I was immediately put at ease and I had a WONDERFUL experience.
So how did I play? For those of you who do not want a play by play description can skip the remaining parts of this post. Oh, one last thing, the 15th, 16th and 17th holes of the course are the most famous because they are played right on the edge of the ocean. A picture of 16 is below with the seals as spectators.
So, the first hole is a long downhill par 4. I played onto the green in 3, but three-putted for a 6. The speed of the greens was absolutely something I had never experienced before. The par 5 2nd is the number one handicap hole. I hit a great drive, shanked the second, hit a great third and pitched to within 10 feet for a par putt, but didn't make it and make a bogey 6. The front nine is inland and played through dunes and trees. The 3rd was a par 3. I hit a shot that was the right distance but just off the green. I pitched onto the green and again, three putted for a five. The fourth was a long par-4. I hit a drive off the the right and it hit a tree and bounced back into the fairway. I nailed a three iron to within 3 feet of the cup for a birdie. Now, if I had been playing with my regular buddies, I would have had to actually made the three foot putt. I guess the elite let all these as gimmies. I think throughout the day, I holed out only half the time.
Numbers 5 and 6 are long par 5's. On 5, I shanked my way up the green for a 7. On six, I hit a great drive and great three iron to within a hundred yards of the green. Things went haywire and I scored another 7. Hole 7 is a par three on which I nailed a four iron that rolled back off the front of the green. I got up and down for par. Number 8 is an AMAZING hole. It is a 90 degree dogleg right that is played over the dunes. I pushed my drive to the right into the dunes. At this point my caddy Marty (he's pictured below)
handed me a wedge and told me to get back into the fairway. I didn't take his advice and it took me four more strokes to get out of the dunes since I played towards the hole instead of laterally. From then on, I always took Marty's advice. Hole 9 is a short par four and I hit my second shot to what I thought was pin high right. Instead it landed five yards over and in a dune again. I pitched onto the left fringe and then hit my subsequent putt OFF the green some 50 feet farther away then where I was. 7 again.
10 was a par five and I had my only flat out top of the entire round. Another 7. Hole 11 turns around and heads towards the ocean. The course is building towards the finale of the holes on the ocean. 11 is rather nondescript and I scored a 6. Number 12 is another dogleg where the green is unseen from the tee. Ignorance being bliss, I hit a huge drive over a bunker that most people don't even try. My second shot was again five yards off to the right of the green and I was again in a dune. I made 5.
The above picture is hole 13. I hit a poor drive short of the fairway in a grassy area. I nailed a great 3 iron onto the green and made 5. Number 14 is a hole that has a wide fairway but then there is a narrow chute through which you must play to the green. I unfortunately hit a bad drive off to the right, and had to pitch into the chute and then play to the green. 7 again. I birdied 15 as I mentioned above. Then we came to 16. What an amazing hole. It's a 235 yard par 3 played over the ocean. It looks like it's longer than that, even. I hit a driver that faded off the right, hit off the rocks and into the ocean. My provisional ball, ended up on the beach to the left of the green. It's obvious that golfers hit here all the time as there are stairs onto the beach. However, the green is some 15 feet above the beach and there is a cement wall acting as a sea wall against erosion. I successfully got my ball over the wall into a bunker. I made 7. The 17th tee is on a spit of land that sits above the 16th and it is such an amazing vista. There is a plaque that has inscribed something to the effect of "let us rejoice and be grateful for being one of the lucky few to have had the opportunity to stand on this spot and to have walked these grounds." AMEN, BROTHER. I hit a great tee shot. The second shot must be played over a huge stand of cypress trees. I pushed it, but ended up in the fringe. Bogey. 18 is short uphill par four. I bogeyed.
Overall, I think it adds up to a 99. What a great day. After golf, Frank, Mr. T. and I dined in the Sam Morse dining room. No menus. The server gives the salads and sandwiches available and then they are made to order. A plate of cookies sat on a table in the middle of the room. Serve yourself.
Ahhh, the good life. The H. family has another daughter who will be starting 7th grade in the fall. I might be back here again in a few years.
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