Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

Nearly twenty-five years ago I was stationed at the Presidio of Monterey. I played golf at Fort Ord. There were two courses there, the Bayonet and the Blackhorse. Blackhorse was the newer of the two, and hadn’t quite settled in as yet. It was still a challenging course and has since grown up.

Bayonet, though, was as nice, and tough, a course as you could find anywhere. Tour players coming to the Monterey Peninsula often played Bayonet as a warm-up for the Crosby (now AT&T) tournament at Pebble Beach. Nobody had ever broken par on that course in tournament play, so it was humbling to play. The Nationwide Tour now has a tournament there annually, and par is no longer the barrier it once was.

Of course, it has changed in the intervening years. I played there last January when I went to visit relatives in Santa Cruz. There is no longer iceplant in the rough, which once stole many strokes from me. Although I didn’t score well the day I played, it was certainly easier than before if I strayed from the fairway. Even so, we had several golfers playing qualifying rounds in our tournament to get into the AT&T. The best of them shot 71. With no wind and soft greens.

I mention all this in anticipation of the Champions (Senior) Tour playing on the Peninsula this weekend. One round will be played on Bayonet, and the others at Pebble Beach. Don’t be surprised to see lower scores at PB this weekend, unless the wind picks up.