An early round (i.e., the rough life in Los Angeles)

Another first in California: actually playing golf, not just hitting golf balls!

Yep, that's right, this morning I got up before the sun and found my way to Rancho golf course down on Pico Boulevard, before 6 a.m., which is pretty darn early. And although I was anxious about the whole adventure, it turned out very very well. But let me back up...

When Angela and I went to hit golf balls with Susan she suggested I might like to play a round of golf with her husband some Saturday morning. I smiled and nodded, thinking I really would not like to do that at all. It's not that her husband didn't seem like a very nice man or that I didn't want to actually play golf with my own golf clubs for the first time in four years, it's just that I get really nervous when I'm playing golf with anyone who isn't related to me (i.e., my dad, my mom or Angela). And I've been that way since...well, since high school.

See in high school I played on the golf team, earning my Varsity letter freshman year, and wound up as co-captain by my junior year. And while it was great fun and I have tons of good memories and stories to share, even got my picture and name in the paper a bunch of times, it was an agonizing experience in many ways. Basically, I figured out that the stress of competitive sports just wasn't for me. Especially competitive high school GIRL sports. (Newsflash - girls can be mean, and their parents, sometimes just as mean, and coaches, sometimes meaner.) So for a while, I put away the golf clubs. And then, when I decided to go away to college my junior year, I got out the name of the college coach who'd tried to recruit me my senior year. And off I went to play golf for Olivet College which was really a whole other experience, a much much more positive one. And just like that, my love of golf came back.

But golf is an expensive sport and one that requires large blocks of free time and in California, Angela and I just never got around to it. Sure I play constantly every summer in Michigan but today was different. Today I was going out to play with two people, two older men, I didn't know from Adam. And although I debated it heavily, worried obsessively, and barely slept last night, off I went this morning. But why such the big rigamarole, you might ask? Well, this wasn't just a game of golf. This was also a networking opportunity. See, my manager, AKA Angela, is always trying to get my name out there, and I so appreciate that. So she told her co-worker what I do, and what I am trying to do, here in Hollywood and bam!, all of a sudden they decided I just had to play golf with these two men, the husband and his friend, who works in The Business.

And really, how could I turn that down? Networking has been my number one goal this year, trying to get a script sold, trying to get a job, trying to meet people who can help me with my career. And this week I've been on a roll. I had lunch with a friend who helped connect me with some people and I talked to another friend about a meeting. So now back to the golf game. I had to go...and yet...

So I went. To my networking golf game at six o'clock in the morning. And it went fine. I always dread that first tee shot. If only it goes well, then the rest of the round can be so-so, I pray. If only I don't whiff the ball. If only, if only, if only...And guess what? I did not whiff the ball! It was a good, not great, first shot. And it got better, then a little worse, then great, then okay, and just like the gentlemen I was playing with, I had a pretty good round of golf.

We played nine holes, the back nine at Rancho, and the two plus hours went quickly and were a lot of fun. It was a great walk, a good workout to carry my clubs which I haven't done in years, and I laughed a lot and overall, just enjoyed the beautiful day. And they were very nice to me, the girl they really didn't know, who did not 'just miss the LPGA tour' as they might have heard. We played from the white tees, we took a couple of mulligans for fun, and on the 18th hole, the guys made me go to the brick bench and read the plaque dedicated to Arnold Palmer.

Apparently, back in 1961 when Arnold Palmer played the L.A. Open at Rancho, he shot a 12 on the 18th hole which is a par five. So they decided that today, we should play from the black tees for just this hole. And off we went! It was a long hole, with out of bounds on the left and the driving range on the right (and balls kept coming through the mesh fence, a lot of them!) and I managed to get in my only sandtrap of the day but by the end, I was pretty happy that we all shot only two over on the hole!

Afterwards, I gave each of the guys one of my cards, and told them to keep me in mind for future foursomes, and off I went. Living through, and enjoying, my first official California round of golf, and my first official networking meeting on the course!