Only Took ’til Tuesday to Miss My First Blog Deadline

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by Scott McNealy

Sorry this is a little late hitting the web.  It as a full day Tuesday.  Slept in til 6am, did email that I had ignored since getting to Pebble Beach and then hit player dining for breakfast with Susan.  She had some serious work to do at the Spa and left me at Monterey Peninsula Country Club mid morning to work on my game and wait for Maverick to play an afternoon practice round.

I was minding my own business, searching for that game that has eluded me for about twenty years.  The MPCC range is one of the prettiest and nicest ranges in the business.  But right away I hear some serious excavation going on behind me.  Some guy with a Dallas National bag is attacking what must be his 10th bucket of balls.  I have never seen a deeper, broader and wider divot pattern in my life.  The pile of loose divots in front of him looked like a dirt and grass version of the one of the pyramids.  
This is what it looked like after. 

Serious Divot Action!
“I have never seen a deeper, broader and wider divot pattern in my life!”

He actually moved from his first stall to another as he was at risk of turning an ankle by swinging and falling into one of his gouges.  This guy was a machine.  Part excavator, part backhoe, part bulldozer.  Should be sponsored by Caterpillar.  

The range guys were laughing, shaking their head, telling him to keep it near the stall markers as there were still five more days of range use ahead.

Later in the pro shop, someone had ordered some new sod and let the pro at Dallas National know that their earth mover was spotted here today. Personally, I was impressed by this old guy.  I would be in traction if I had to move that much dirt with a golf club.

I hit too many balls myself though.  Worked on my skulls and chunk chips for an hour.  Putted for a while and virtually eliminated most of my four putts.   Maverick shows up after an all morning photo shoot for Cisco.   Said he was posing with some robot that could stripe a golf ball like nobody’s business.  

Wonderful afternoon of beautiful and quiet golf at one of the most amazing courses in the world.  Three and half hours of leisurely play and practice with just me and my son and our caddies.  Plus Hunter Stewart, a former Walker Cup mate of Mavericks who does some statistical course management work for Maverick.  TeamMaverick is an amazing group. Hunter is a fun but valuable secret weapon.  

The mind wanders wondering what that leaderboard will say this week.  Whales are breaching in the background.

Finished at 5pm.  Still desperately seeking my first birdie since arriving in Pebble Beach.  Raced to Player Hospitality to the Pairings Party.  Maverick is confirmed as my partner.  Bad news is that I am only getting 8 strokes.  I am a 10.0 index.  But the guys who run the show (and do a great job of it almost all of the time except this) decided I am too good to get 10 strokes. Note to world: a big time CEO who is a 9.8 told me he is getting 12 strokes!  Fake Handicaps.  Russian collusion. Iowa ballot issues abound.  Oh well.  One official did say I was dinged cuz I have a great pro.  Good point.  Our playing partners for the first three rounds are Seamus Power and Mike Weeks.

Thursday 8:33 am Pebble Beach
Friday      10:12 am Spyglass Hill
Saturday  9:17 am MPCC

Should be fun.  So, after the pairings party, Susan got invited by former 49er standout and super successful VC Harris Barton to THE party of the week at the Beach and Tennis Club.  Harris relented and said she could bring me.  Food out of sight great.  Country band playing my personal playlist or so it seemed.  And stars galore mingling everywhere.

Some of the attendees:

Alex Murray.  Coached my four boys all through high school and beyond.  Coached Maverick to number one amateur in the world.  Great guy.  Great friend.  Great family man. Working with at least half the amateur field this week plus Rod Pampling.
Very gracious of Sir Nick Faldo.  He really didn’t need me going all paparazzi on him.  Saw him on the range.  He is a very big guy and still hits it great.

One of my favorite CEOs, John Chen. Still at it while I am reduced to a part-time blogger. Running Blackberry. We first got to know each other when he ran Sybase.
Here is my buddy Joe Kernen.  He is broadcasting Squawk Box from the Lodge this week.  Wants me on at 3am CA time Friday.  What the heck. I am up worrying about my game all night anyway. Why not go on national TV and rant about big government while I am up!

Here is Patrick Rogers.  He mentored Maverick on the Stanford golf team when Maverick was a young and wide eyed freshman.  Expect to see him do well this week as his game is trending nicely and fresh off his marriage to Jade.
Another of the many superstar CEOs.  Aneel Bhusri of Workday.  And a huge supporter of golf and the many charities that the PGA Tour supports. Sorry my arm is not long enough for good selfies…
Last and not least, Larry Fitzgerald who won the ProAm amateur event two years ago.  So nice and respectful.  Kept calling me Mr. McNealy.  This guy is built.  I am glad my boys didn’t play football.  Yikes.  He is getting eight strokes too.  Not fair.  He is not even forty years old.  He could throw me farther than I can hit a ball.  This is Susan and I posing with him.  My buddy Brian Swette accidentally cut me out of the picture.  Susan seems ok with it.  You can see my right shoulder with his arm behind me on the right part of the picture if you look closely.  Really.  Thats me.

So, after way too much fun, we left the Beach Club.  But the Tap Room was on the way home.  One glass of champagne and a scoop of vanilla with chocolate sauce later, we left a roaring Tap Room and went home.  Up early to write this blog.  And looking forward to a round of golf with the CEO of KPMG this am.  


I am sooooo exhausted already…  
Scott

P.S. Get your pledges in now so you can get in on the Birdies fun at the AT&T ProAm!

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