As you may or may not know, the West Coast has been hit with a lot of rain this winter. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for it and I want more to tell you the truth. We desperately need it.
The only thing is that it interferes with playing golf.
Last week, I told you about how cold, wet, and miserable I was in playing my worst round in a long time. That was a club tournament, so I HAD to play. If I’m just looking to play for fun when it rains, I’m staying in bed and looking up Pornhub on my phone.
One thing that is golf-related, however, that can be done in bad weather is TOPGOLF. I had a couple of friends in town for a visit and we decided to go to the El Segundo (Yeah Right’s old stomping grounds) facility for some fun on a random weekday.
The setup is that it’s a multi-level range with cameras that track your shots much like the TopTracer facility in Alhambra that I previously told you about. The difference here is that the range is enclosed and they have tables and chairs and food and drinks and waitresses and music and all other kinds of distractions.
They also have gigantic monitors that help you through the different games you can play, track your shots, and can show sporting events. There is also a machine that automatically feeds you balls for you to hit.
The way it works is that you essentially “rent” a hitting bay for a specified amount of time. When you are within 15 minutes of the end of your time, the system allows you the opportunity to increase your time. Food and drinks are extra but reasonably priced.
The thing that is great about TOPGOLF is that it’s engineered so that anyone can play and have fun. My two friends had never swung a golf club in their lives yet they both were able to win one of the games we played.
There are games available for every skill and experience level.
We started out with a game that gave you points for getting the ball in these gigantic holes they have on the ground.
I did well on that one because I have more experience than they do in sticking white things in large holes.
Just so you know, here is what the holes and the facility look like:
We also played an Angry Birds game which was clearly aimed at kids but was a hell of a lot of fun! The jist of it was that your shots had to go straight and they would hit a castle in front of you and destroy it. It sounds silly, but it was totally fun!
We also played another game which I can’t remember right now but a good time was had by all. Overall, it cost me a little over $100 for a solid two hours of entertainment (I paid for the three of us). If we had split it, it would have been super cheap. One of my little nieces has gone here with her boyfriend and other friends for date nights and she told me they have had a lot of fun there.
PROS
It’s a lot of fun for a relatively cheap price.
You can enjoy it no matter how good or bad you are at golf.
They serve alcohol!
CONS
It was a bit of a drive to get there, but that’s part of the fun too.
If you eat or drink a lot, it could get expensive.
OVERALL RATING:
It’s a party at a golf range.
Whoever came up with that idea is a genius.
See you next time.
TopGolf is a super popular offsite for tech companies. The one time I went with my team almost the whole facility was booked with groups from Meta. Very fun though!
While you were in El Segundo did you happen to find my wallet?
Hey, El Segundo is Brick-adjacent!
Look at the aerial photo of Top Golf. Go to the center-top, and then down a little. At the top of a flagpole you’ll see a black square with a white dot in the middle.
Is this the golfing flag? No, it’s a target! The property behind Top Golf is Raytheon Space Systems, and they make satellites and sensors. It used to be Hughes (as in Howard Hughes) so they do all sorts of crazy shit there. The target is a giant billboard and they focus on it from all sorts of different Raytheon facilities.
The other property there, that looks like a shopping center, is a plant that makes potable water from sewer water, and then sells it to the masses after adding brain-control chemicals developed by – you guessed it – Raytheon Technologies! The brain-control chemicals are manufactured across the street at – you guessed right again – the gigantic Chevron/Standard Oil refinery controlled by the Rockefellers! The sewer water comes from the Hyperion plant down the road, which was the filming location of – this is no surprise – Soylent Green!
Enjoy your “golfing” folks.
And Yeah Right is involved in ALL of that!
I’m not involved with Raytheon! Since the late 90’s! That’s all walking distance from my work though.
We only build….
I think I’ve said enough.
“Hey, I’ve surfed in that refinery runoff a few times!” – Todd Marinovich
Funny way to spell “bathed”
“No, it looks right to me.” – Lea Michele
For the anti-Bettman group, an interesting update on the Coyotes’ Tempe Arena deal:
https://arizonasports.com/story/3517594/city-of-phoenix-suing-tempe-for-development-that-includes-coyotes-arena/
Long-story-short, Phoenix is suing Tempe because the arena plans are actually an Entertainment District that includes high rise residential that will be in the Sky Harbor flight path. Phoenix says the high rise is in violation of an earlier agreement. The Coyotes are trying to act surprised while their lobbying arm, Tempe Wins, is bringing out the “this is all an attack on a good deal for Tempe taxpayers!” rant.
As much as i want to see a no vote in Tempe on this, a yes without the high rise would be great. I would LOVE to see the Coyotes get the green light on their stuff but then balk when it turns out they can’t have all the other investments they want on the land and they have to avoid saying that the hockey rink is really the Trojan Horse of the whole proposition.
I still think they’re playing the long con in propping up that franchise in the hopes that Auston Matthews signs there as a free agent. There’s no other logical explanation as to why the league is keeping them there.
“By 2054, Matthews, McDavid, and the head of Sidney Crosby will all be top line for the Sao Paulo Polar Bears!”
It’s funny that you think Bettman is acting logically regarding AZ. He does’t want to acknowledge that the Sun Belt strategy isn’t working as well as he’d like.
I really do not understand it.
That looks like a lot of fun. Money made off of food and drinks is probably their bread and butter pun intended. It’s wonderful how we get totally wrapped up in it when the kids are having a blast.
Funny that Balls mentioned how much it’s been raining in Los Angeles, because you’ll never guess what’s happening this morning, and what’s going to happen again tonight!
I’ll take torrents for 600 Alex.
“Homeless pooping syringes on the sidewalk?”
-Michael Cohen’s Only Other Client, Sean Hannity
That’s San Francisco, Blax. God, get your right-wing scarecrows right.
“The Night I Won the Super Bowl” OR “The Most Boastful Story Ever Told at DFO” (Part 7):
“So when are you going to get to the part where you ‘win the Super Bowl’?” you’re probably asking by this point. The good news for you is that, in a metaphorical sense, we’re only about a mile away from the fireworks factory. We’ll get there, I promise.
At the time of this tale, I was working for a medical device company that had recently been bought out by a much larger medical device company. While it had some upsides (most notably my stock options immediately vesting) it had some very large downsides as well. The worst of which was that prior to the buyout, our company was structured in a relatively simple way (for example, I was three promotions away from becoming CEO of the company. As an aside, I became pretty close with the original CEO’s daughter and briefly dated his secretary). Under the new management, there were all kinds of advancement opportunities, which led to many of my colleagues developing new ambitions, and it seemed people spent more time thinking about these advancement opportunities (and the associated politics) than focusing on their actual jobs. Which caused the atmosphere at work to degrade considerably.
I started thinking about finding other employment – or even taking some time off and burning through some of my buyout money – when a colleage came to me with a prospect: continue working for the company as a consultant, but doing so under the guidance of other consultants elsewhere. More specifically, under the guidance of consultants that worked for a mining services company located in Johannesburg, South Africa.
“I was three promotions away from becoming CEO of the company UNTIL I became “pretty close” with the original CEO’s daughter and briefly dated his secretary.”
Fixed that for you.
Wait until you hear about what I got up to with the *new* CEO’s secretary…
Topgolf is awesome. I always try to hit it when I’m in Vegas.
Topgolf and Vegas and hitting things. Name three things that go together better. You can’t!
“Cuddling with The Rog, on the Acela Quiet Car, with a couple bottles of Allegash White!”
-P.K.
3b. FLAT WHITE!!
Hey, this article is cool but this opening is a hate crime against JPP
https://wapo.st/40L6hSS
You’ll need a full hand of fingers to count how many planets you’ll be able to see in the night sky this week. Just after sunset, sky watchers will have the opportunity to see Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Mercury and Uranus form an arch stretching into the evening sky.
Please consult your doctor if Uranus stays in an arch for more than four hours.
Cold, wet, and miserable has to be somebody’s fetish.
Add lost and exhausted and we have a deal.
“It’s the only way I can reach a crescendo YOU ROTTEN JEW!”
–
All of her friends say that serving in Congress has really changed her.
If the voters don’t get her out the diabetes will.