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Here’s me on Monday standing in the middle of the 18th fairway at the U.S. Amateur qualifying tournament at Bel-Air Country Club in front of the swinging suspension bridge that connects the 10th tee to the 10th green.
The fellow in a turquoise shirt on the 18th green came in last out of 311 contestants with a round of 88, which I can identify with. (Qualifying finishes on Tuesday at Bel-Air, and match play continues through Sunday at Riviera in Pacific Palisades.)
Even though I went to B-School right across Sunset Boulevard at UCLA, I had never seen Bel-Air CC before, since I haven’t had many famous movie star golf buddies, such as Bel-Air members Jimmy Stewart, Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Fred Astaire, Spencer Tracy, Ronald Reagan, Jack Nicholson, Sean Connery, or Clint Eastwood.
Bel-Air CC is pretty great, and I would strongly encourage you to become a famous movie star too so they will let you join. If, however, you follow Bill Murray’s advice on how to become rich and famous by trying just being rich first and seeing if that does it for you, Riviera is quite a course.
Bel-Air’s 10th hole, which plays perpendicular to the 18th, was a desperate improvisation by golf course architects George C. Thomas and Billy Bell in the 1920s when the front nine they had laid out south of Sunset was sold to the U. of California to lure the UCLA campus away from Pasadena to Westwood.
Taking one last hike on the property, they came up with the idea of running the 10th hole across the deep ravine in the Hollywood Hills. But could golfers be expected to span the chasm? They had only a putter with them, but Bell blasted a shot across the arroyo, opening up the outlandish scenery of the current back nine.
Here are Howard Hughes and Katharine Hepburn landing on one of Bel-Air’s par-5s:
And here they are playing Bel-Air:
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So, SPLC intern, tell Heidi she’s out of luck again. And ask her how long until you get paid, what with Morris having piled up a $303 million endowment.
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Or, you can use the Bill Murray strategy in Zombieland: be one of the few surviving humans in L.A., and make yourself up to look like a zombie …
I will not contribute funds to terrorism and white supremacy.
Places like this have led directly to the Charlottesville massacre
In fact I have reported everyone here to the southern poverty law center
Full Disclaimer: I have been on a golf course 3 times, twice to drive the buggy when I didn't have a driver's license yet, and once to hang out with some guys in high school who were on the course in order to smoke dope away from
ourtheir meddling parents.Nice dog whistle Steve. 88 generals like this post.
In other news check out this graph. Trump voters mostly social and identity conservatives but economic moderates. Trump campaigned well. If his governing record aligns with campaign he will get 8 years.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/08/14/mooch-gives-potus-advice-on-how-to-lose-wh-adopt-morning-joes-moderate-playbook/
Not a bad round, Steve. Bel Air is lovely, walked, didn’t play, that course back in my Navy days in the 70s. Pro setups are tough for amateurs and duffers. I played Avenel before the rebuild, Congressional after a US Open years ago and several years back TPC Myrtle Beach. After each, I felt like I’d been mugged. Knarly rough, narrow fairways and fast greens, not to mention the sheer distances of a pro condition makes it a rough go for average golfers. But having shot honest scores in the 101-110 range for 18 on those courses made them my finest golf. And reminded me that my scores in the 80s on various layouts in New England and around DC weren’t much of an accomplishment.
Steve where does Bel Air find more land as the drivers and balls produce greater distances? I understand architects and greens people are constantly struggling to protect par and many classic courses are simply out of room to grow. Riviera, Firestone, many old courses are going to be skipped for lack of distance. You can only trick up the greens and fairways so much to protect par. Members of country clubs HATE to see their layout played to a winner’s 24-under par, a common result most weeks. Quail Hollow? Might as well be a putt-putt course.
Who was the old geezer that described a golf course as: “the deliberate and willful misuse of a perfectly good rifle range”?
Steve where does Bel Air find more land as the drivers and balls produce greater distances? I understand architects and greens people are constantly struggling to protect par and many classic courses are simply out of room to grow. Riviera, Firestone, many old courses are going to be skipped for lack of distance. You can only trick up the greens and fairways so much to protect par. Members of country clubs HATE to see their layout played to a winner's 24-under par, a common result most weeks. Quail Hollow? Might as well be a putt-putt course.
Steve where does Bel Air find more land as the drivers and balls produce greater distances?
They didn’t. Bel-Air is a fairly short course at 6777 yards, par 70 for the flexible college players who make up most of the US Amateur field. They are just using Bel-Air as the secondary course to determine the top 64 low scorers for match play, with one qualifying round on Bel-Air and one on Riviera. This way, using two courses, they can invite 312 amateurs to try their luck to make it through to Wednesday’s round of 4.
From Wednesday thru Sunday, all the matches will then be at Riviera at about 7,272 yards, par 70. Riviera isn’t that long by modern standards either, but it’s 500 yards longer than Bel-Air.
On the other hand, Bel-Air is extremely complicated in the third dimension. The Amateurs played it quite slowly as they processed all the complexity of uphill, downhill, and sidehill shots. Scores ranged from 64 to 88 today. I followed a kid on the last few holes who was melting down. He shot the 88.
Bel-Air is built on fairly severe terrain in the lower Hollywood Hills, but the architect, George C. Thomas in the 1920s, figured out a routing that is remarkably reasonable to play.
The paths between greens and tees, however, are some of the most extraordinary in all of golf.
For example, after you putt out on the fifth green, you walk through a tunnel of about 200 yards under the old Reagan house, which Jerry Perenchio incorporated in his property and his heirs are offering for sale for $350 million, to get to the sixth tee.
After you putt out on the 9th and 18th holes you enter more long tunnels, but eventually you reach elevators that take you up to inside the clubhouse. And to get from the tenth tee to tenth green, you walk over a giant white suspension bridge, that sometimes swings when it’s windy.
So getting from hole to hole via the four tunnels, two elevators, and one huge bridge is kind of nuts, but the fairways are pretty reasonably wide and the landing area, while tilted, aren’t ridiculously canted. It’s remarkably playable for such extreme topography.
On the other hand, it’s hard to score on in part because the greens are quite small, like Pebble Beach, another seemingly short course.
On the other hand, Bel-Air, with all the money in the world, has notoriously hired almost as many architects to revise the course as Augusta National has, without it being obvious that any of the subsequent architects, such as Robert Trent Jones, Dick Wilson, and Tom Fazio, were better than George C. Thomas back in the 1920s.
The strength of the course remains the original routing. There aren’t that many genius holes other than the 17th and maybe the famous 10th. But it’s consistently playable without any bad or even just extreme holes.
Ah well, bitch, bitch, bitch, I still watch the stuff. T'anx for the history on Bel-Air.
There’s a reason why the most famous movie stars in the world have tended to belong to Bel-Air: it looks like a really fun course.
Quite a year for amateur golf in LA. A few years back we had kids playing nine at Olympia Fields in 2:45 in the Amateur.
Go to the range and get flabbergasted at what they do to a driver. 350+ is common.
The Asian families are quite a hoot.
Places like this have led directly to the Charlottesville massacre
In fact I have reported everyone here to the southern poverty law center
I agree, TD. Posts on golf do not bring in the big bucks.
I am not nor have I ever been a golfer. Please let Morris Dees know this, It’s not me, it’s these other people who are the golf course freaks. I’m just here for the white supremacy.
Full Disclaimer: I have been on a golf course 3 times, twice to drive the buggy when I didn’t have a driver’s license yet, and once to hang out with some guys in high school who were on the course in order to smoke dope away from
ourtheir meddling parents.Yeah, yeah, I see–you and Howard Hughes… but I bet he didn’t have the cojones to ask for donations!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br-ljup5Bow
The best Bill Murray golf scene is in “Space Jam”, where he, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan all play Lake Arrowhead’s legendary 15th hole.
Steve, I don’t suppose you’ve walked/played on that course, have you?
I’d like to, someday.
http://www.lakearrowheadcc.com/Default.aspx?p=dynamicmodule&pageid=401854&ssid=328503&vnf=1
Bill Murray doing his GOAT thing.
As Hughes tells the Hepburns in the film, when you have it, you don’t care about it.
Thanks for the history lesson. Meh, aside from the courses, the players have gotten so vanilla, too friendly with one another and they’re making so much dough, no one is going to excel going forward. I wish the PGA Tour would put all the dough in the top 5 spots so these guys would have to work to cash a check, rivalries would develop, winners get seriously richer, play would improve. Win or get nothing, or near to it. A return to a top-60 and ties wouldn’t hurt, either, there would be better competition at the bottom. Also unattractive, they’re turning these guys into billboards.
Ah well, bitch, bitch, bitch, I still watch the stuff. T’anx for the history on Bel-Air.
Does the UCLA men’s golf team play at Bel-Air? Or do they have their own course on campus? That’s one way to get in tons of hours per year, “I’m a student and I’m on the golf team.” When the shot hooks into the sand trap, “Well, I never said I was the best on the team, that’s why I need more practice!”
I rode the shuttle bus from the UCLA parking lot with the Stanford golf coach, here to cheer on his players and recruit some high school qualifiers. Somebody asked him that: he said that the UCLA team uses Bel Air (and a few other clubs) as home course, while Stanford has its own course on campus.
I noticed that one of the high school qualifiers is the son of the guy who was number one on my high school’s golf team.
OT: Pretty much the opposite demographics of Bel-Air. An interesting situation for Amazon:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/11/amazon-sparks-hiring-uproar-in-overlooked-silicon-valley-city.html
Meanwhile, I wonder why we are not hearing about this in the Lying MSM?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4783068/amp/Ohio-driver-brutally-beaten-road-rage-attack-dies.html
Think of the children, in particular, his child who it seems witnessed it.
Of course, the article carefully does not mention the race of the attackers.
Most of the articles say nothing about the attackers except for the primary one being a 16 year old boy (sound familiar?). But looking around we find: http://www.toledoblade.com/Police-Fire/2017/08/12/Family-of-slain-Toledo-man-struggles-to-cope.htmlAnd this: http://www.eutimes.net/2017/08/ohio-driver-beaten-to-death-by-mexican-gang-in-front-of-4yo-daughter-media-silent/
Now that the definitely late Larry Auster has permanently eluded the not-hot Heidi, I’m sure she won’t give up so easily on you, Steve.
I wouldn’t be surprised if desperation drove her to offer to buy you lunch. You and Mrs. Sailer might be headed on your next vacation (at an undisclosed location) sooner than you planned.
Movie stars weren’t the only celebrities at BACC. I saw Glenn Frey there during one of his rehab periods, gaunt but still friendly and smiling as he loaded his clubs into the back of a Porsche convertible. Golf can help clear the mind and take thoughts into positive directions, especially at a visually compelling course.
Steve you look like you’ve lost some weight and are tanned. Are you playing more golf or walking more?
Well at least we can be sure the attackers weren’t those evil alt-right people (that would have been mentioned).
Most of the articles say nothing about the attackers except for the primary one being a 16 year old boy (sound familiar?). But looking around we find: http://www.toledoblade.com/Police-Fire/2017/08/12/Family-of-slain-Toledo-man-struggles-to-cope.html
And this: http://www.eutimes.net/2017/08/ohio-driver-beaten-to-death-by-mexican-gang-in-front-of-4yo-daughter-media-silent/
Thanks. One more confirmation that the sons of Westwood do get a lot of perks and benefits. Wonder if there’s such a thing as golf boosters, the way there’s football boosters in the NCAA? Golf boosters could employ UCLA golf team members as caddies during summer or perhaps employ them at their regular jobs.
As you’re a UCLA alumnus, perhaps you’re eligible to play Bel-Air for free so many days per yr?
As you’re a UCLA alumnus, perhaps you’re eligible to play Bel-Air for free so many days per yr?No
Steve, I don't suppose you've walked/played on that course, have you?
I'd like to, someday.
https://youtu.be/3LH8qisTVj0
http://www.lakearrowheadcc.com/Default.aspx?p=dynamicmodule&pageid=401854&ssid=328503&vnf=1
“Larry’s not white, Larry’s clear.”
Bill Murray doing his GOAT thing.
Places like this have led directly to the Charlottesville massacre
In fact I have reported everyone here to the southern poverty law center
Best Tiny Duck comment ever?
Looking fit and trim with plenty of hair. Paleo diet?
Freaking love that scene in LiT where Bill nails the shot w Mt Fuji in the background. I hope to be doing that in 20 yrs, if I’m still alive…..
Not a lot of competition for that. Xir’s been off his game lately. Maybe Soros cut his pay per word. His pay per idea is just north of zero.
Most of the articles say nothing about the attackers except for the primary one being a 16 year old boy (sound familiar?). But looking around we find: http://www.toledoblade.com/Police-Fire/2017/08/12/Family-of-slain-Toledo-man-struggles-to-cope.htmlAnd this: http://www.eutimes.net/2017/08/ohio-driver-beaten-to-death-by-mexican-gang-in-front-of-4yo-daughter-media-silent/
You’re a liar. Ron Unz says Mexicans are peaceful, and he is a very smart man.
Beautiful place Steve.
To bad about California. Amazing natural beauty/climate/environment. Like probably a lot of other midwestern boys when i was a kid, i’d expected to move out there someday–and almost ended up there a couple times. But that’s been wrecked by the left, the Democrats, taxes and most of all immigration out the wazoo.
Never thought i’d up owning a house in a boring ass place like Florida. But i don’t like getting looted and the white man gotta live somewhere.
Shame about California though. Americans had one of the neatest places on earth … and–a nasty subset of them–gave it away.
Ben Stein of Win Ben Stein’s Money and The American Spectator wrote at least once in TAS that some nearby country club, I think the Los Angeles Country Club, excluded show business people for Anti-Semitic reasons. (I think he said something to the effect that they’d sure let Ronald Reagan in.) I think Randolph Scott was rejected as a show business guy, then he showed them he had made a lot of money as an investor and was let in. (I think this sheds some light on the Reagan issue.)
P.S.: I’m under no illusions concerning some of the responses I may get on this.
Through.
You calling Steve a tranny caveman?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Pro/Celebrity_Race
Wonder if there’s such a thing as golf boosters
Yes
As you’re a UCLA alumnus, perhaps you’re eligible to play Bel-Air for free so many days per yr?
No
Most of the articles say nothing about the attackers except for the primary one being a 16 year old boy (sound familiar?). But looking around we find: http://www.toledoblade.com/Police-Fire/2017/08/12/Family-of-slain-Toledo-man-struggles-to-cope.htmlAnd this: http://www.eutimes.net/2017/08/ohio-driver-beaten-to-death-by-mexican-gang-in-front-of-4yo-daughter-media-silent/
I’m rather surprised. Whatever else one may say about Mexican (and Latin in general) gangs, they don’t normally prey on outsiders.
My best guess is someone felt dissed. It seems odd that the guy would do something antagonistic with his young daughter in the car though.
Take note: PayPal has just defenestrated VDARE.COM.
And said that they’ll be holding VDare’s funds for 180 days.
Let that be a warning to you all..
Good to see Steve get some sun.
So the issues remain.
Third to basketball and football, there are serious golf boosters. And the golf rules get weird.
Not intentionally anyway. They sometimes seem to lack judgment about people wearing clothing that can be construed as gang related though. Then there is the occasional collateral damage of inaccurate shooters.
My best guess is someone felt dissed. It seems odd that the guy would do something antagonistic with his young daughter in the car though.
That is a pretty good guess about much vibrancy.
Haven’t had time or money to play golf for quite awhile, but have been walking more. I’ve lost about 12 pounds over the last two years — About two months after Merkel’s Boner in Fall 2015 as I was writing very hard, I found myself eating too much and exercising too little.
My best guess is someone felt dissed. It seems odd that the guy would do something antagonistic with his young daughter in the car though.
“My best guess is someone felt dissed.”
That is a pretty good guess about much vibrancy.
It’s a good thing. Besides your kids are getting to the age where you’ll be chasing grandkids in a few years. It’s easier if you keep in shape.
Speaking of trannies with plenty of hair, I was reading about the recently discontinued Toyota celebrity race that mixes celebs and professional drivers. Bruce Jenner won twice, even beating the pros like Al Unser Sr.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Pro/Celebrity_Race
Based on the clips I thought The Aviator looked like a movie directed by a dumb guy and filmed by a cinematographer who is a hack.
Turns out Scorsese directed it and the DP got an academy award.
So I was correct.
Yeah, but he left his wife’s house to go to A GOLF COURSE.
So the issues remain.
So the issues remain.
I just meant he writes a lot.