President's Cup Weekend

October 11, 2009

I flew back to SF on Wednesday night, in time to catch up with both my folks and Will's folks who were in town. Will and I bought tickets for both our parents and us to attend the 2009 President's Cup at Harding Park, and although I had missed the practice rounds and the opening ceremonies on Tuesday/Wednesday, I was back in time for the actual tournament from Thursday-Sunday.

The President's Cup is held every two years (now odd-numbered years) and features the top players from the US vs. the top players from the International countries other than those in the EU (that competition is called the Ryder Cup). Each team consists of 12 members, the top ten players (a.k.a. moneymakers) with two captains pics. The format each day are various forms of match play (foursomes on Thursday, best fourball on Friday, foursome on Saturday morning, fourball on Saturday aftenoon, singles on Sunday).

The big golf tournaments don't allow cameras or cell phones, so no pics, but it was great to be completely "off the grid". Awesome!

The golf was phenomenal, amazing shots and pressure-filled highlights, so fantastic to see these great players up close and in action. Amazing plays by the biggies (Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods), but I was especially impressed with the consistently solid play of Tim Clarke, Ryo Ishikawa, and Steve Stricker. Very humbling.

Weather-wise, Thursday was chilly, Friday was sunny and nice, Saturday was freakin' cold, and so was Sunday. (At least I got to break in my new snowboarding jacket...). In the evenings, we did a tour of good eats:

• Thursday: Dinner at Mission Beach Cafe
• Friday: Dinner at Slow Club
• Saturday: Dinner in south bay at Dynasty with my family
• Sunday: Dinner at my sister's house for pre-Canadian Thanksgiving feast

See pics below from the evening festivities...

At Slow Club: At Dynasty:


















At my sister's house for feast:

It was awesome spending great quality time with both sets of our parents, especially with great golf to experience. Now I just gotta get the dust off my golf clubs....