Blog: Pebble Beach holds a special place in my heart

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It's been a while since we caught up with rookie Joey Sindelar. He's now played in four majors on the Champions Tour and finished in the top-10 in two of them. While he's enjoyed the majors, Sindelar has also relished the chance to play a new course each week and explore a new town. Except for this week at the Walmart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach, where nothing could be better than coming back to a venue with so many memories and staying with old friends.

MORE BLOGS FROM JOEY'S ROOKIE YEAR: Playing near home | Senior PGA Championship | Having a blast out here | My Champions Tour debut

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- I haven't been a rookie for a long, long time and this has been a really awesome revisit this year to be a rookie again. It's a funny thing. New cities, new courses. For me, even before the new cities and new golf courses, I love finding new restaurants because I like to eat. Each city has its own stuff and I like to go to the non-chain places or find whatever the locals like. I had all of my favorite local restaurants on the PGA TOUR so now I'm finding new ones, plus new hotels. Oh, and learning how many traffic lights there are between the hotel and the course. I run late all the time and that lets me know how late I can afford to be.

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Joey Sindelar is enjoying his second chance at a golf career.

Sindelar on his beloved Ohio State Buckeyes

My son Jamie is going to Ohio State now and will play golf for my same coach. The Buckeyes football team is ranked second and he's going to be going to a lot of those games, which is exciting. The traditions are so great there. I know when halftime comes along, most people get up and get a sandwich or drink. But, for those people who haven't seen it yet, stay and watch the Ohio State marching band do Script Ohio on the field. Jack Nicklaus was one of the few to dot the I in Ohio who wasn't in the band. Usually a fourth- or fifth-year sousaphone (a marching tuba) player dots the I in Ohio. It's awesome in person, TV doesn't do it justice. It's one of those great college traditions and the kind of thing that makes us thrilled to be Buckeyes.

Occasionally I've even gotten lost going to and from the airport. Usually the airports are on the opposite side of the city and sometimes you only drive that route twice. That's another thing that's taken some getting used to. With the new security procedures, I've had to find out which airports are busy and which take the longest. Luckily, I haven't gotten caught up it any traffic or long lines yet but I'm sure my time is coming.

Now that I have seen several of the courses on the Champions Tour, I have found that I'm looking forward to playing every one of them again next year. That's one interesting thing that I learned in my 25 years on the PGA TOUR. There were many courses I fell flat in love with and didn't do diddle on them. Then there were other tournaments where I would say, 'This is the last time I'm going here,' because I hadn't done so well on them and was planning to take it out of the schedule. Then, for whatever reason, I played well in that so-called "last" year and decided to go back. I don't know if that was a mental thing or just it took that long to get it right, but I've learned not to discount any course.

Especially once thru, you just don't know. Think about it, a year later the course might be completely different. You come to these places in yearly cycles, it could be so different from one year to the next. For instance, I know the guys at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am and they're talking about how cold and windy it's been there in the past few years. And then we played in hot and not too windy.

Look at Pebble Beach, where we're playing this week. We played in 80 degrees with little wind in a practice round on Wednesday and six months ago I played here on the PGA TOUR and we were all bundled up. I've talked about this before in my blog but there's probably been four or five different categories of golf courses. Some are get-it-in golf courses where you're hitting irons off the tee all day long. Most courses you step up and hit it. We've had some courses with firm greens and other courses with plenty of rain and the ball's stopping and you're drawing it back off the green. I think it's been a great mixture.

As for this week, I saw Del Monte Golf Course for the first time in almost 30 years. I think I came out for the old Spalding tournament years ago but didn't remember a darn thing. It was in great shape and I look forward to playing that a lot. I don't know how low they usually shoot over there but the scores will be pretty good.

Of course Pebble is Pebble. It's going to be an awesome week. I've had some success here. I'd say, over the course of 25 years, it's probably been below average on my curve as it relates to success and paycheck but, as it relates to enjoyment, it's top notch. Plus, two of the most important people in my life are Jim and Gail Griggs, who sponsored me when I first tried to make it on the PGA TOUR. One of their homes is right here near the golf course between the range and the clubhouse. Mike Hulbert, Davis Love III and I have stayed with Jim and Gail for years and years. That's a huge part of the trip is spending time with friends.

Even though Jim sponsored me in the early 1980s and helped me make it on the TOUR, it wasn't just the money with Jim. It was the life lessons and after that, it was the friendship. We've had so many laughs and so many serious talks. As soon as I became a friend of Jim's, Mike Hulbert was in the mix because he and I grew up together and everyone falls in love with Michael, he's such a funny guy.

Then an incredibly sad but meaningful thing took place. Davis Love III had become friends with Michael and I when he came out on TOUR -- that's probably one the things he might regret the most, hanging with Michael and I (just kidding). Seriously, though, he had known Jim Griggs for just a year or two when Davis' dad was killed in a plane accident. And Davis, if I remember right, was in Hawaii at the time and Davis flew back to San Francisco commercial. At the time, Jim Griggs had a plane and he picked him up and flew with him all night to get back to Georgia. Obviously, they had a bonding experience on that flight. A brutally tough one but an incredibly memorable one.

He's a lifelong friend of so many TOUR guys and Jim also served as chairman of the Golf Course Properties board for years. He's one of the most giving people and a friend of golf plus he has an extraordinary wife as well. It's been a great friendship and this tournament means so much to us because of us bunking here and driving him crazy for a week. He's one of those fun guys who has a few residences and they happen to be where we play tournaments so we bother him several times a year.

My 18-year-old son (we have two boys) Jamie celebrated his first and 10th birthdays at Pebble Beach. Besides all the fabulous things people come here for, there's a whole pile of stuff for my family and me personally here.

This week I'm excited to play with a young golfer. I don't know who my young golfer is yet, but one thing I will try to communicate to them very quickly is whatever you do, do what you usually do. You're here. This isn't the time to experiment or change. Don't be nervous. The pro is the only one who is supposed to be good and even we all fail pretty often. Just play ball, be yourself and do what you do. I can't tell you the amount of times in our weekly pro-ams, an amateur will be about two steps off the green and all of the sudden try to chip the ball when I know they could putt it better. Then I'll quiz them and say that usually a putt from there gets good results rather than do-or-die chipping. Then they'll say, 'I would normally putt that but I'm in a tournament this week. Shouldn't I be chipping?' No, you shouldn't be doing anything that you don't usually do. That's a lesson people should pay attention to when they play, especially under pressure. Just keep doing what you normally do.