PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — There is no driving range, here at Cypress Point Club, not for the event this week, the Walker Cup. The 20 players go down the road a mile or so to Spyglass and use the range there. Even under normal conditions, the range here is just a modest sloping hill, no fancy anything. Cypress doesn’t do fancy. It leans into quiet, timeless, elegant.
Late Friday afternoon, there was an opening ceremony for this 50th playing of the Walker Cup. Some of the observers were on the range and speakers and other dignitaries — President George W. Bush; Mr. and Mrs. Fred Ridley; Mr. and Mrs. Vinny Giles, Mr. Andy North, etc. — were seated on white folding chairs stationed on the first fairway. It was lovely. These are chaotic times all over the world. All is well here. Things are in order.
The American players have been wearing baseball caps with a big W on their fronts. The W is for Walker. The event is named for George Walker, the first president of the USGA. His grandson become the 41st president of the United States and his great grandson became the 43rd. W. spoke at the opening ceremonies here on Friday. He was funny, appropriate and quick.
WATCH “CYPRESS POINT’S HIDDEN BEAUTY” HERE:
The band played on. The Del Monte Brass band, 50 members strong, each of them a volunteer. Amateur players playing for an amateur golf event. There were trumpet players in local colleges and horn players in their 70s. They opened with “Born to be Wild,” all brass, no vocalists, but this will maybe conjure something for you:
Get your motor runnin’
Head out on the highway
Looking for adventure
In whatever comes our way
It wasn’t incongruous. It was congruous.
They were wearing black from head-to-toe, performing for an unlikely collection of club members and amateur golfers and the game’s deepest fans.
The sky was cooling, the 20 players were pretending to be calm and collected, the dignitaries on hand were oh-so-appropriate.
“We will play ‘God Save the Queen,’” the Del Monte Brass band’s leader told his players. “I mean, ‘God Save the King.’ We will play the National Anthem.’”
It was lovely, as golf is lovely. It was timeless, as golf is timeless. It was orderly. The golf here, in four sessions — Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon; Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon — will feature shots that finish in the ocean and greens where three putts are not enough. Disorder will reign, as it always does in golf. But as Friday closed, everything was in its proper place.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com.
