Being local, the wife and I had a chance to go watch several days at La Costa. We had an awesome time, way cooler experience than I anticipated. Wanted to share a few quick thoughts and pics with the Bunker:
See below for a few pics I snapped. The first one is pretty cool. I was standing right behind JM as he hit "The Shot" on 17 to seal the deal. Right after this shot, I told him... "now go close this dude out" and he gave me a lil head nod. So I take partial credit for the natty
WDE.
JM Butler honing-in on his target, from the 17th fairway, just before "The Shot."
Trophy Presentation
Nice landscape shot of the pond between 15th and 17th greens with the "NCAA" sign.
Random cactus flower that I thought was exceptionally beautiful, on the Omni La Costa grounds.
- Koivun's talent is off the charts. I followed him on Saturday, Sunday, and all 14 of his match play holes on Wednesday. He only hit a couple of truly "bad" shots -- everything else was on point. He plays fast and confident, like a great baseball pitcher that pitches with an edge. He does have a tendency to get a little emotional, but he reigns it back in quickly.
- Got to meet his family and some of his family friends, including his junior coach -- all really great people, very nice and down to earth, and they raved about Auburn and how much Jackson likes it there and how glad / proud they are to be part of the AU community / family.
- I was told JK loves AU and plans to return "at least 1 more year" but obviously things can change quickly.
- 2-3 years ago, La Costa was not a desirable place to play.. it had fallen into a shell of its former self, but man, the Gil Hanse redesign is amazing, and the course looks great. It was playing extremely difficult because the greens are brand new and haven't had a chance to "settle" into nature quite yet. But the course is back to being what it once was (a championship caliber PGA course).
- La Costa will host the next 2 NCAA championships (Men & Women) and is in discussions / deals to make it the permanent home for the NCAA Championships. They are trying to market / brand it as "The Road To La Costa"
- After Koivun won his match 5&4, we joined up with JMB's group and followed him thru the end. I was so impressed by this kid's demeanor and focus down the stretch. His gallery ended up being quite large (several hundred) for those last few holes, and he had a lot of cameras and eyes on him, but he was absolutely nails down the stretch. They were allowing the gallery to get pretty close to the players, so I was pretty much on his hip the entire time - giving him encouragement.
See below for a few pics I snapped. The first one is pretty cool. I was standing right behind JM as he hit "The Shot" on 17 to seal the deal. Right after this shot, I told him... "now go close this dude out" and he gave me a lil head nod. So I take partial credit for the natty
WDE.
JM Butler honing-in on his target, from the 17th fairway, just before "The Shot."
Trophy Presentation
Nice landscape shot of the pond between 15th and 17th greens with the "NCAA" sign.
Random cactus flower that I thought was exceptionally beautiful, on the Omni La Costa grounds.
