Here we go. Just scored tickets to the U.S. Open practice rounds from a source that would like to remain anonymous! The plan is to head down tomorrow morning at 5am and take it all in. I’ve never been to a PGA tournament before, let alone a major, so this should be a great experience.
What’s nice about practice rounds is that camera’s are allowed, so, plenty of good shots will be posted up later this week. Bad news is, Torrey Pines has no parking and the USGA had to set up parking 13 miles south at Qualcom stadium with shuttle service back up to the course for spectators.
Also, in recent events…last night I drove up to Huntington to see some friends from college (and watch the Celtics beat the lakers). On the way home I took the Pacific Coast Highway through Newport and stopped off to grab a drink with two good friends who recently moved onto the boardwalk.
Before going our separate we stopped off at the corndog place near the pier for a quick bite. While enjoying some chili-cheese fries a Canadian sounding fellow came rushing in explaining there was a seal caught in a net at the end of the pier (200 yards out to sea).
My friend Asa is the type of guy who’s always ready for action. So, I said “What do you think man, should we go save this thing?” he replied “Let’s do it”.
We asked one of the Corndog employees for a knife, but, we got a pair of kitchen scissors instead…probably a good decision on her part. We ran down to the end of the pier and sure enough there was a seal flopping around below trying to unwrap himself from the net.
There were some people fishing strangely enough at 12:30 AM and we asked a few how long the seal had been down there. They said 30 minutes or so. Figuring we only had a few more minutes we assembled a plan of action.
Jump in, swim over, I’d hold the seal, while Asa cut the net, then we’d climb back up the pier on a safety ladder we spotted.
Preparing for the plunge I started to look at some people around us, and, while this is total speculation, most of them didn’t exactly look like the most upstanding citizens (and mind you, I just came back from living in a 3rd world country for 4 months).
I raised concern to Asa and he agreed that if we went in, we’d save the seal, but likely get our wallets and phones swiped.
So we called for back-up and waited for our third amigo to come hold our belongings. All we could do was wait…
About 15 minutes went by as we watched the seal continue to struggle. A glow-stick was attached to the net, so when it swam down you could see it trying to shake itself free.
We waited and waited, ready to save the poor guy. But, well, a few minutes later the seal went down below, the light coming off the glow-stick went dim, and that was that.
