Training Log Archive: chitownclark

Back nine at Camarillo Springs GC. Played Front last Friday. Teed off at 6:45...before the sun came up. Heading for LAX by nine: out to Point Mugu through fields of tomatoes, celery, spinach.... To the Pacific Coast Hwy, then down along the Malibu coast, brilliant in the morning sun, past huge burned mountains, for miles and miles.

C • Point Mugu 3

Moorpark Country Club, Moorpark, California. Fantastic mountaintop counrty club. Mostly
Well-heeled members. Tried to walk & carry. But Starter refused my request; told me I couldn’t start w/o a golf cart.

Thank Goodness! Nothing but steep ups and downs. Very challenging for a flat-lander. But I survived!

Spent most of the day getting tests and scans at Rolling Oaks Medical Center. But had 3 hrs after my technium injection before the bone scan. So I wemt back to Los Robles Greens and hit some balls.

Los Robles GC, Thousand Oaks, California. After some medical ultrasound in Ventura, I drove over to the Conejo Valley where I’ll be getting CT and NaF bone scans over the next few days. I have a chorus of docs back in Chicago demanding I update my diagnostics. But I consider Chicago-area medical expertise much inferior to other ‘centers of excellence’ elsewhere. One of which being Southern California.

So I teed off here about 11am under gray, threatening skies. Locals are so weather-oriented. So I was all alone. Very hilly course. Several tee shots were off ridiculously-elevated tees, where you just ‘grip it, and rip it,’ hoping that your shot would soar out into space, and eventually come down far below, on the ‘short grass.’

Fun golf. But exhausting climbing up those mountains!

Note: Large part of the intersection cordoned-off just outside the GC for the Thousand Oaks shooting victims two weeks ago. A couple hundred feet of pictures, mementos and lots of flowers. I stopped and was quite affected by the obvious outpouring of grief from this small and close-knit community. The Borderline bar, where the shooting occured, was also right there, set back in the oaks.

Buenaventura GC, Ventura, California. Played w 3 Californians. Again good camaraderie. No PR. But enjoyable, social round. Afterwards poke tuna bowl and IPA at BJ’s in Oxnard.

River Ridge GC, Oxnard, California. Played w two Californians, so dynamic was very positive. Teed off with them at 7:10am...all of us walking and carrying our clubs! Unheard of in the midwest, where everyone rides in carts.

Hike over to pick up rental car. A lot further than planned.

Camarillo Springs GC. On the way over to Ventura. Stopped w rented Callaway clubs at gc right off the 101. Played ten holes after range warm up. Became very warm. Stripped down you single golf shirt. Beautiful scenery as we worked our way back into the canyons.