A couple of weeks ago, my daughter and I were geocaching in the American River Parkway in Sacramento. During this expedition, we discovered what Geocachers refer to as a “Travel Bug”. A travel bug is a cached item that with a unique identifying number that the Geocaching.com database can track in a log over long distances.
Our travel bug, The Ohio State Buckeye Ball, is a golf ball. It began its journey in Ohio and over time has made its way to the west coast. Its “goal” is to visit famous golf courses.
We wanted to help the Buckeye Ball reach its goals, so we decided take a road trip to kick off the Memorial Day weekend and headed toward Monterey. We’re big fans of the aquarium there (a different story), but that area also happens to be the home of some not so shabby golf courses.
Our first stop was Pebble Beach. We had originally thought that Pebble Beach was a golf course inside or near a town with the same name. Pebble beach is actually a huge gated community managed as a town by the Pebble Beach Company. Key investors are Clint Eastwood, Arnold Palmer, and Peter Ueberroth. It’s nice. After dropping nine dollars to get past the front gate off of Highway 1, we were happy to find that parking and snooping around at Pebble Beach is free.
A short drive up the road from Pebble Beach Golf Links, we found the famous “Lone Cyprus” that is the symbol of the Pebble Beach Company. The Lone Cyprus is perched on a point surrounded by the churning waves of the Pacific.... a remarkable view. Just up the road we made a brief stop at the Cyprus Point Club, a private club with holes along the Pacific. Some consider Cyprus Point to be the best course in the world.
After this, we made our way to the famous Spyglass Hill course. This course, recently ranked #2 as Golfweek Magazine’s best public access courses (Pebble Beach was ranked #1), takes its name from Treasure Island, whose author, Robert Luis Stevenson’s was inspired by the area. I made a point to read this to the kids sometime this year.
Our final stop was Poppy Hills, home of the Northern CA Golf Association.
We’ll be re-caching the Buckeye Ball soon and sending it on to it’s next adventure. Golfing isn’t really our sport, but we had a great time along the 17 Mile Drive of Pebble Beach. Without finding the Buckeye Ball, we probably never would have taken this trip as we much prefer a hike to a scenic drive. But in the end we had a great time and the next time I hear about the AT&T Pro Am I’ll remember the ocean air and stunning views and have a much better appreciation for the significance of these courses.