This is Part 3 in a series of articles about my summer trip to the western U.S.

The highlight of the entire trip to the west coast was the day in Los Angeles. We would be playing two iconic private golf courses right in the heart of Los Angeles with Scot Alexander, one of the PGA Professionals at Hillcrest Country Club. We were scheduled to play The Los Angeles Country Club in the morning followed by a round at Hillcrest Country Club in the afternoon.

Scot sent me an email late Wednesday evening confirming last minute plans for the next day. Good thing I checked my email.

In his note, Scot stated The Los Angeles Country Club does not allow shorts of any kind, just slacks of a tailored nature. I had not packed any long pants, tailored or not! George certainly didn't have anything that would fit me and it was already 9:00 P.M. Trying not to panic, I hurried to my vehicle and checked the GPS for department stores and found one in the area that was open until 10:00 P.M. I was off and in no time, had the proper attire for the next day.

George and I were to meet Scot for breakfast at Norm's in the Westwood area of Los Angeles at 5:00 the next morning.

Scot has quite an interesting story. Never having played golf and working as a bartender, he would tag along with his friends to a local golf course where the golfers would have to drink shots of liquor based on their play. As a novice golfer, Scot was required to drink the most to the delight of his friends. Scot was determined to get better and given his nighttime job, he had time to "beat balls" at the local driving range during the day. As a result, he improved quickly and fell in love with the game--to the point he wanted to work at a golf course. This led him to Hillcrest Country Club where he drove up to the guard station and said he was looking for a job. To make a long story short, Scot worked in a variety of jobs at Hillcrest and as his game improved, he earned his PGA Professional designation and became one of the professionals at Hillcrest. Truly a golf "rags to riches" story.

It was on a trip to the Northwest United States in July, 2013 that I met Scot. We were paired at the Eugene Country Club in Oregon one morning and by the end of the round, Scot had invited me to play Hillcrest Country Club. And that was the reason we were sitting at Norm's that early morning.  After introductions and a discussion of plans for the day, we ate a fabulous breakfast and were off to The Los Angeles Country Club. 

We followed Scot to the drive into The Los Angeles Country Club and after a stop at the guard house, we were on the grounds. The course is almost completely hidden from the hustle and bustle of the city. You wouldn't know a golf course is there. Our tee time would be between 7:00 and 7:20 depending on member play.

The Los Angeles Country Club was founded in 1897 and sits right in the heart of Beverly Hills. The current clubhouse, formerly the Club at Beverly Hills, officially opened in 1911 and has served as the club's home ever since. The North Course was designed by George C. Thomas, Jr. in 1921, extensively renovated by John Harbottle in 1996, and finally, in 2010, was reopened after the completion of a five year project to restore Thomas' original masterpiece by the Hanse Design Team.

The course is currently rated 30th on Golf Magazine's "Top 100 Courses in the World", 19th on Golf Magazine's "Top 100 Courses in the U.S." and 41st on the Golf Digest Top 100 Public/Private List. The United States Golf Association has begged the club for years to host a U.S. Open or another major event but the membership had not been on board until late summer. The North Course was just announced as the site for the 2023 U.S. Open.

This is Part 2 in a series of articles about my summer trip to the western U.S.

I was up and out of the Los Arboles Hotel at 5:30 Tuesday morning. It was still dark and I never did get to see that delightful little abode where I spent the night in the light of day. Certainly, it was one of the nicest hotels I've booked in all of my travels and at some point in time, I will return.

As usual, I was on my way to play golf, this time at Cimarron Golf Resort, another Warrior Golf property just east of the Palm Springs airport in Cathedral City, CA. I was less than 7 miles away from a 6:10 tee time and still, I was driving too fast. The speed limit is generally 50 MPH on Palm Springs main roads and I was moving a little bit faster than that when I saw a FLASH and a sign that said "Your Speed is 57 MPH, Slow Down." I noticed the speed limit was only 45 MPH and I thought back to 2011 when, driving in the early morning again in Scottsdale, AZ, I saw the same FLASH that was followed several months later by a mailing to my home that included a picture of me in a rental car sipping a cup of coffee and a $250 speeding fine. I am now waiting with fingers crossed; and it did unnerve me.

Cimarron Golf Resort is a 36 holes facility with one regulation course, The Boulder, that I had played once before in October, 2011. The other course, The Pebble, is a short course, par 55, that I had not yet played.

The Pebble has 17 par 3's ranging in yardage from 101 to 228 and a single par 4 of 315 yards. It was a nice warm-up for The Boulder.

During the round, I stopped the Superintendent, Mario, and asked him many questions about the process of reseeding. In the Palm Springs area, courses are over-seeded with a rye grass mixture in October for the winter season when the Bermuda grasses that stay so green during the searing summer heat go dormant. Mario explained to me how important it is to slowly cut the Bermuda grass down close to the soil before over-seeding so the Bermuda is not damaged. The course is then closed while the rye grass grows in. Having two courses is a blessing as there is always one open for play during the process. 

This is Part 1 in a series of articles about my summer trip to the western U.S.

After fulfilling my volunteer duties by noon Wednesday at the Hotel Fitness Championship, the first of the Web.com Tour's playoff, I finished packing and made all the final preparations for the trip.

I left Ft. Wayne at 4:00 A.M. on Thursday, August 28. My first destination was Forest Ridge Golf Club in Broken Arrow, OK, just a bit southeast of Tulsa and near Mickey Mantle country. So fittingly, the first audio book opened for the trip was The Last Boy - Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood by Jane Leavy. This was a nearly 17 hour biography and I learned some disturbing things about a man so adored by so many people.

After a twelve hour drive, I arrived at Forest Ridge, recently named the third best public course in the state of Oklahoma. The temperature was a balmy 95 degrees and with nobody on the first tee, I hit a couple of practice putts and headed to the first tee. After four holes, I caught a foursome in front of me and as I waited to tee off on the fifth tee, was joined by two locals, Dan Riddle and Paul Rongey, and we played the final fourteen holes together. Dan and Paul were true traveling golfers just like me and we compared lots of notes as we made our way around the course.

Forest Ridge is a relatively flat golf course and pretty straightforward until the last five holes where club selection for the tee ball becomes important. The course has a good mix of doglegs both left and right and water comes into play on seven holes with three ponds and a creek on the front nine.

The prettiest hole is the par 3 15th, one that requires a short iron to a large green with water beginning from the tee and wrapping around the back of the green.