2006-02-17

Riviera Country Club Pictures

I went to the Nissan Open Monday and Wednesday and took a ton of pictures (283 = a ton?). The first 40 or so pictures are pictures of each hole at Riv and I added them to the middle section of Eat's Riviera Country Club page. Go check them out if you're following the Nissan Open.

As an example, here is the first hole:

Before I went to the Nissan, I knew it would be smart to get fresh batteries for my camera so I unloaded the 4 batteries out of it and put them in a drawer for future computer mouse or keyboard needs. On my way Monday morning, I stopped at a 711 convenience store for a cup of coffee (1/2 regular coffee, 1/2 French Vanilla, + 4 ice cubes so you can drink it = my perfect coffee) and noticed that they charge $5.00 for a dusty 4 pack of Energizer AA batteries - what a rip off! $5.00! So I decided to go to a grocery store instead and save the two bucks.

But then while fighting LA traffic I saw one of those one dollar type stores. I popped in and sure enough they had pallets full of batteries -every size and type you can think of. I ended up buying two four-packs of batteries for a grand total of $2.00 - sweet. Take that 711!

I hand the lady $25, chit chat a little and mention that I'll be there all three practice round days and maybe a Thurs or Friday. She says "Oh - wait, we ran out of the three day practice round tickets... How about I just give you three individual $25 practice round tickets and you can use one each day. Fine with me, what do I care - cool thanks.

$75 dollars worth of tickets in my hot little hands; I was very tempted to step twenty feet backwards and scalp them right then and there for a quick $50 profit. But I didn't - I wanted to go. I figured I could scalp two of the tickets though and then the next day, sweet talk a different ticket booth lady while showing her my practice round ticket from the previous day and she would let me back in for free. But I didn't - cause I'm such a fumbling chump that I would feel guilty taking advantage of a situation like that.

Anyway, I get through the gate and am happily taking pictures anddecide to walk the entire course and get a shot of each hole from the teebox. I only made it to the 6th hole when the batteries go dead. Straight up brand new batteries - dead. Camera just gives a dark screen with an error message "change the batteries." I take them out and put them back in - no love.

Just so you know, the sixth hole at Riviera is about as far as you can possibly be from the clubhouse. This isn't Disneyland - there are no battery stands or venders selling stuff like that. Last year it started pouring rain and there was no where to buy an umbrella (it rained so hard the tournament was shortened to 36 holes). Point is, PGA Tour basically discourages cameras or anything electronic that might beep and rightfully so - but would Riviera have double A batteries for sale? My thought was this: because for the practice rounds, as a spectator, you can have a camera - but no camera bag (for security reasons?). They probably sell batteries. Think about this (as I was during my long uphill walk to the proshop) No camera bags for us non-professional photographers means no extra set of batteries.

Added to their policy of "bring your camera, but leave your camera bag in your car" must mean that they are making bank on the film, batteries, and whatever else might be in a camera bag - and since it is camera day, they must be selling overpriced batteries somewhere and I need them. I mean, they have a "no bringing food or drinks with you" policy and sell 12oz bottles of water for $3.50. Three fifty - holy cow! Five dollar hotdogs as well (the $4.00 pretzels do kick ass though; they're worth every dollar).

Well, like I said, the Nissan Open is not Disneyland - touristy maybe but no Disneyland - no batteries, no film, no memory cards, and certainly no peoplemover that you can drop a superball off. I walked all the way back, all the way up the huge hill to the proshop, crossed my fingers and asked if they had double A batteries for sale. As if a proshop would be selling batteries. The lady behind the counter says no they don't sell 'em. This means I'd either have to shuttle bus it all the way back to my car or start trying to *bum batteries* from anyone that had a camera until I get my 4. But then some other proshop lady shows up and says that they "JUST    MIGHT    have some in the back."

{Cue porno music: bow chicka schika wow wah}

She disappears into the back room for a while and comes back with 4 batteries that were super cold (like they've been in a refrigerator). She hands them to me and say's [Keep in mind this is Riviera Country Club where a golf shirt costs well over a hundred dollars] "I don't know WHAT TO CHARGE YOU FOR THESE, we don't sell these here - Then she says - "how about $1 each: $4.00?" Since I'm such an average fumbling chump, I turn all honesty on her and say "Well, even 711 charges more than that; they are like five bucks there. - She says OK $5 then.

I was just kidding about that porno music stuff but I did get you to pay attention eh :)

How cool was that though. These people at Riviera - awesome - I was sure they were going to charge more like ten bucks for batteries and that saved me an hour atleast. And I ended up using those batteries for the entire two days of pictures and have a feeling that they still are like 3/4 power (duracell)

Speaking of camera day - Nissan Open does not allow video cameras. Digital is ok but no video. My camera (don't tell anybody) takes video as well as pictures. I think all digital cameras do that. But because they said no video cameras I resisted getting a few seconds of John Daly hitting a driver or Ernie Els out of a trap.

The Nissan Open people were very cool and lax about enforcing stuff like this and I respect that so I'm totally down with following their rules. They could have been total jerks about the 3 day pass for $25, not having batteries, maybe inspecting cameras or something. Instead, everyone I came in contact with was super cool, I had a great time and can't wait to post all the pictures I got. Nice jorb Nissan Open - I already look forward to next year.

Don't forget to see the pictures of Riviera I took

BTW I'm in over my head at the moment. If you've emailed me lately I have not replied yet - I will. Keep 'em coming, I'll catch up soon! Backlog of every email that needs more than a one-liner reply - sorry, as you know, I'm a fumbling chump..

*** COMMENTS CLOSED ***