Kingdom 35

ISSUE 35

Q UA R T E R LY

SUMMER 2016

MAJORS SPECIAL ISSUE The world’s finest golfers make history at Oakmont, Royal Troon & Baltusrol

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special thanks & contributors



Jason Chan Jason Day Tony Dear Don Devine Ray Easler & his great team at Bay Hill Mary Flanagan Lynne Fraser Gil Hanse Ada Ho Dale Holmes Daniel Jacobs Bud Martin Christine McCafferty Lisa McGhee Paul McGinley Rosie Niven Marino Parascenzo Maureen Robinson Chris Rodell Major Dan Rooney Adam Scott Art Spander Royal Troon GC Paul Trow SuLing Wong Mike Woodcock Marisa Zafran Wilfred Zaha

June 1964

Leon Harris junior designer

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Arnold Palmer special contributors

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Arnold Palmer Foreword

L

Major Memories

et me start by welcoming you all to the 35th issue of Kingdom magazine.

We have focused on golf’s majors in this issue, and with the U.S. Open returning to Oakmont and The British Open returning to Royal Troon, I have been reflecting on one of the most memorable summers of my career, that of 1962.

I can hardly believe 1962 was 54 years ago, but these days I am getting used to that feeling! I can tell you one thing though, when I think back to both the 1962 U.S. Open at Oakmont and that summer’s British Open at Troon, my recollections are so vivid. I can feel the heat, the sweat on my brow, I can hear the calls of “Go get ’em, Arnie!” during that playoff at Oakmont—when a rookie Jack Nicklaus ultimately out-played me—I can still hear the eerie quiet as the Western Pennsylvania crowds shared in that suffering loss.

A lot of people say life is too short for regrets. I hear it all the time and part of me agrees. You have to look forward and appreciate the people close to you, but I have to admit, it is one great regret of my playing career that I didn’t win a U.S. Open at Oakmont. I am not going to deny it. I first played the course as a boy with my father and have always had the greatest respect, admiration and affection for that golf course and the whole club. Don’t get me wrong,

I have enjoyed a wonderful career and I don’t dwell on disappointments, but Oakmont is one that stuck.

Troon in ’62 was the perfect remedy. On the final round, the crowds burst onto the fairways, the atmosphere was exciting and this time I won. The R&A began roping off the fairways after that day, but honestly, it was amazing to be in the middle of it all that day.

I mention appreciating people close to you. In this issue we pay special tribute to a dear, dear friend and colleague of mine, Doc Giffin, who marks 50 years as my employee this year. Doc has done so much for me over these five decades. Loyal? Dedicated? That does not begin to express it. Doc is one-of-a-kind, an exceptional man and I simply can’t imagine working the last 50 years without him.

All the best,

Arnold Palmer

SUMMER 2016

13

Editor’s Letter

I

Integration

was in early grade school when my parents bought our first computer, an Apple IIe, which landed on my father’s desk like a cream-colored boulder. Its blinking green cursor promised the mysteries of the universe, but it mostly just sat there like an aloof foreign exchange student, demanding that we learn its language for even the most basic civilities: 10 INPUT “What is your name: ” ; U$ 20 PRINT “Hello ” ; U$

My school had assured us that this was how people would speak in the future, in code, and so parents dutifully paid for machines to ensure children weren’t left behind.

But it didn’t make a lot of sense to most of us kids, and so we continued to check out books from the library and to do our school assignments by hand. That is, until the Macintosh came along with its pictures-based interface, its friendly name and, of course, the mouse. Steve Jobs (and his designer Jony Ive) excelled at making computers that seamlessly integrated into daily life. The first time you picked up an iPad, you knew how to use it. And can you remember a world without the iPhone?

Today technology is everywhere, but too often it feels superfluous. Consider the “Egg Minder” app that tells you how many eggs are in your fridge—“no matter where you are!”

But what about email? Digital cameras? Digital calendars? How did we live without them. And this brings me to the BMW 750i xDrive, the latest flagship sedan from

the storied German marque. More than anything else we’ve encountered in recent memory (not just a car), the vehicle is a supreme example of integrating technology into everyday life (p102). Likewise, how much technology was used (along with some serious sweat equity) in designing the new golf course for the Olympics (p80) and in getting the sport back into the Games? Even the host city, Rio, is celebrating tech, opening a new media museum just in time for the Olympics (p88).

Of course integration takes many forms, and in the case of aligning integrity and spirit with players, traditions and a brand, few have done better than Rolex (p132). Lastly, is there a better example of commitment and service both in and out of uniform than that displayed by the Folds of Honor Foundation (p174)? Truly the best of the best.

With a tip of that hat to everyone working to make our lives better—seamlessly, and with or without technology— I wish all of you a great summer on course.

30 PRINT “Goodbye ” ; U$ 40 END

Reade Tilley

SUMMER 2016

15

Publisher’s Foreword

T

Plenty to smile about

he 2016 season is in full swing and, like the Kingdom Cup golf tournament we hosted at Bay Hill this spring, so far it has more than lived up to expectations—beginning with an incredible Masters in April. As publisher of an American golf magazine my obvious hero was Jordan Spieth, but as a born-and-bred Englishman it was wonderful to see an unassuming fellow countryman be fitted for the fabled Green Jacket.

Like Masters champ Danny Willett, a vicar’s son, Jason Day is one of golf’s good guys whose personal class belies his humble beginnings. When Day won the Arnold Palmer Invitational this year, I know Mr. Palmer was as impressed

by Day’s demeanor and conduct as he was with his game. But Day’s victory at TPC Sawgrass was even more compelling, at least as far as we’re concerned. You see, we interviewed Martin Kaymer a few days before he won THE PLAYERS in 2014, and we spoke with Rickie Fowler just prior to the 2015 event. So when our managing editor told me he was speaking with Day a couple of days before this year’s tournament, I confess that I might have laid a small wager among friends.

Needless to say, I’m as shocked as those friends—and staff has decided that next year we’ll interview a complete outsider so as to maximize our returns! (And no, we won’t be tweeting the player’s name prior to the tournament.)

Many call THE PLAYERS “the fifth Major,” and with good reason, but this year we do have a another standout championship: the Olympics. Many of golf ’s premier organizations, including The R&A and the PGA TOUR, along with legends of the game like Annika Sorenstam

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SUMMER 2016

and Gary Player, lobbied tirelessly to get golf back into the Games. They have done this not for personal profit but for the greater good of the game globally. Hundreds of millions of people in places like India, Thailand and Argentina have little interest in or knowledge of golf, preferring cricket or football—sorry, I mean soccer (though it’s really called football). But should Anirban Lahiri, Ariya Jutanugarn or Angel Cabrera come within a hair’s breadth of winning a medal, their entire country might pick up clubs.

Considering the hard work so many have put into getting golf into this year’s Games (for the first time in over a century), it is a matter of some personal disappointment that certain players have said they won’t participate, citing “spending time with family” for bowing out. I’m sorry, but this is a special, historic moment. More than any other tournament in recent memory, this year’s Olympic Games represent an incredible opportunity to attract new fans and players to golf. As far as I’m concerned, those that make a [very good] living from this game we all love would do well to remember that. For what it’s worth, my enthusiasm as a golfing ambassador has been reinvigorated by the Olympics, and I hope that you are similarly inspired. In that global spirit I wish you the best, no matter where you play.

Sincerely,

Matthew Squire

Contents

Kingdom Magazine ISSUE 35

Q UA R T E R LY

SUMMER 2016

24

36

46

The Summer of ’62

Into the Great Wide Opens

Jason Day

An Oakmont Open, the British at Troon and a lifetime’s worth of memories from Mr. Palmer

30 52 58 64 70 80 88 96 102

Forget the Big 3, the cast of players on stage now numbers like the stars above

Wins in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and THE PLAYERS only begin to tell the story

Palmer’s Guy You don’t become a legend without solid foundations behind the scenes Hades of Hulton Road The U.S. Open returns to the sternest test of them all Steel City A local’s take on how to get around the fabulous city of Pittsburgh Son of a preacher man It turns out that arriving late at Augusta is ideal preparation for the Masters The Major Set Our latest fantasy golf course takes on a Majors theme Golden Standard After 112 years out of the Olympic picture golf is back, but it hasn’t been easy Rio de Janerio In the land of samba keep your spirit free but your wits about you Carson Daly One of media’s most famous on his near-career in golf Future Perfect Tomorrow’s car today in BMW’s exquisite 750i xDrive M-Sport

SUMMER 2016

19

Contents

Kingdom Magazine ISSUE 35

SUMMER 2016

140

158

167

3 in a row

Mr. Jones

The First Century

For a classic links triple-play you can’t do better than Turnberry, Prestwick and Royal Troon

Swish, swanky, call it what you like; this guy has all the answers, all the toys and a look that says “I win”

It is little known that exactly 100 golf clubs in the United States have hosted Majors.

We map them

108 115 123 132 136 148 152 154 174 178

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Q UA R T E R LY

Empire Golf Enjoying golf in New York and a lot more besides Life in Pictures History in the making at 2016 Major venues Oakmont, Troon and Baltusrol Gift Guide The best of everything under the sun Perpetual Spirit Respect, sportsmanship in golf handed down through the generations Taming Troon Arnold Palmer didn’t just claim The Open at Troon, he won the crowds over too Johnnie Walker From noble grocer to legendary global brand Summer Fare When the sun is out, a hot meal is not what you need Shades of Cool Eye-pleasing cocktails to keep a fiery season at bay Honor and Duty One soldier’s story and Folds of Honor Foundation’s important mission The American Double A select bunch who have won both U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open titles

SUMMER 2016

Strategic.

Sustainable.

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Arnold Palmer, Thad Layton and Brandon Johnson at Castle Stuar t, Scotland.

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SUMMER 2016

The Summer of ’62 The next two Major venues of 2016—Oakmont and Royal Troon respectively— bring back a full range of memories and emotions for Arnold Palmer. An Open champ at Troon, and painfully close to being U.S. Open champ at Oakmont, Palmer recalls the summer of 1962 and also reflects on major champions of recent months: Jordan Spieth, Jason Day and Danny Willett K:

As ever, it was a tremendously exciting Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in March. Jason Day finished like a genuine world No.1. What Impressed you about his performance?

AP: Besides being a great golfer, Jason is such a nice young man and one I have been watching for some time. His wire-to-wire victory was quite impressive and I’m sure you can expect more great performances from him coming up.

K:

You met Jason that week. How does he do as an ambassador for the sport, and in maintaining the spirit of the game that you and others have handed down?

AP: I met Jason’s family that week and spent some time with him after his final round. He is mature beyond his years—humble and gracious. Not to take anything away from Jason, but I’m seeing more and more of this on Tour in recent years and I’m quite pleased.

K:

How did you feel about the warm reception you received at the Masters this year?

AP: Returning to Augusta each year is always a highlight on my calendar. I was disappointed I could not participate more in the activities, but the crowds were wonderful to me as usual throughout the week.

K: What did you think about the Texas barbecue served

up in honor of Jordan Spieth at the Champions’ Dinner?

AP: I’m not a huge barbecue guy but I do enjoy it some and the

chefs at Augusta certainly served it up properly.

K:

It was a surprising end to the 2016 Masters, with Jordan Spieth scoring a 7 on the 12th and with Danny Willett coming through. What did you make of that exciting finish?

AP: Any time someone is leading like that and they let it slip away, you have to feel for them. It was hard to watch. However, Danny won the tournament just as much as Jordan lost it. He played incredibly well and deserved the win. It certainly was not given to him.

K: Augusta’s par-3 12th—the heart of Amen Corner—is that a hole you love or fear or both?

AP: I’ve had my share of issues with number 12 myself. I almost

lost my first Masters title in 1958 there. And in 1959, I lost my final-round lead there and never gained it back. I always walked to the tee with a bit of apprehension and respect. I knew I had to be especially focused when playing that hole.

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25

“One of the biggest regrets of my golfing life is that I didn’t win a U.S. Open at Oakmont”

respect for. It was certainly exciting to be competing in the same tournament with the greats of the game too, but unfortunately I missed the cut in that Open.

K: Back in 1953 the furrowed bunkers of Oakmont were notorious. What did you think of them?

AP: I liked the look of them until I was in one of them! No, the

K : There is talk of extending the par-five 13th at Augusta. What would you like to see happen to such an iconic golf hole?

AP: I’m not a fan of lengthening golf holes just for the sake of lengthening them because the guys are hitting the ball further. But if the original design is being compromised because of the distance the ball is traveling, then I’m all for restoring a hole to play the way it was intended.

furrowed bunkers were synonymous with Oakmont and I think they added to the character and challenge of playing there.

K:

The [British] Open returns to Troon in July, where you staged one of your greatest wins in 1962. The locals were so determined to watch you on the final day that many came onto the course from the beach without paying admission and the marshals and police lost control. Were the crowds a problem for you that day?

AP: That final round at Troon was one of the most memorable rounds I ever played. Not only did I play very well but the energy from the crowd was amazing. Throughout my career, I always drew strength and encouragement from my army of fans.

I wanted to please them and the more they cheered the more I wanted to hit great shots. They were never a distraction.

K:

You came close to winning the U.S. Open at Oakmont, yet the title eluded you there. Are your memories of Oakmont as a U.S. Open venue bittersweet?

AP: One of the biggest regrets in my golfing life is that I didn’t win a U.S. Open at Oakmont, particularly since it is in my home area of Western Pennsylvania and I first played it when I was a teenager. I’ve been a member for many years.

K: What can you recall of your walk up the 18th fairway

K : You made your U.S. Open debut at Oakmont in 1953.

You were 23 and an experienced amateur golfer but you must have been nervous going into that week. Can you recall how it felt to make your debut?

AP: That week, I had so many things going on in my head. It was my first U.S. Open, it was in my backyard at Oakmont and it was being played on a course I knew fairly well and had the greatest

26

SUMMER 2016

Palmer plays out of the notorious Church Pews bunker during the U.S. Open in 1983

in the final round? Were you literally stopped from walking up to the green by the swarming people?

AP: The fans were clogging the 18th fairway and the police were having a hard time keeping everyone back. I recall being in the middle of this cheering crowd but I never felt concerned. I finally broke through the huge gallery filling the fairway and pretended to be beaten up a bit. But it was all in good fun.

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K : There are mixed feelings among the pro ranks about

golf returning to the Olympics. Do you think golf should be an Olympic sport and would you have liked the opportunity to play for Olympic gold?

AP: I’m a bit disappointed that some guys are deciding not to play in the Olympics. I have been looking forward to golf returning to the Olympics because it is such a great opportunity to grow the game worldwide. Any time I represented my country on the golf course, I did so with tremendous pride and appreciation for my country. I’d have loved the opportunity to play in the Olympics.

K:

Have the USGA and PGA been slow to push their major championships into new territories?

AP: I think mostly the reason they haven’t gone to places like Florida and other areas has been the weather, although they have had the PGA Championship in South Florida. Eventually I think they will have the U.S. Open and other championships in various areas throughout Florida and other states not currently in the rotation.

K:

How long would it take you to ready Bay Hill for a major?

AP: I could have it ready in a month.

K : Do you think the PGA Championship should persist

with its policy of including the leading 20 players from the PGA National Championship in the field?

AP: You’re talking about the club pros who play in the tournament.

Certainly, since it’s the PGA Championship, run by the PGA, they deserve recognition. Whether it’s overdone or not is probably the only question I would have.

K:

Are the Majors stronger today than they were 50 years ago?

AP: Much stronger. The players are stronger, their abilities are greater and there are more of them.

At the 2016 Kingdom Cup (l to r): Peter Nicholson, Mike Snapes, Buddy Sheldon, Brandon Johnson, Dr. Howdy Giles [Below] The Arnold Palmer dealership in Latrobe, Pa.

K: With global growth, is an overseas Major needed?

AP: I think that would be a mistake, but eventually it’s probably going to happen. Then there will have to be a decision how to select tournaments as Majors. I’m not sure what the qualifications for being a Major are going to be. Certainly the field is one— you’re going to start and stop with the people who play in a Major. The Open being played in Europe, Japan, China…

Eventually you’re going to have to look at certain qualifications.

One is going to be geographic; what’s the geographic status for a Major championship? We will see important golf tournaments [increasingly] spread throughout the world, so [perhaps] a Major for Asia [and] a Major for Europe other than the Open Championship. That’s all going to take a lot of thought and consideration.

K : Buddy Sheldon hit an array of trick shots at the Kingdom Cup at Bay Hill in May. Have you ever hit any “trick” shots during a tournament?

AP: How about the shot I hit with a three-iron from up in a tree one year when I played in Australia? Rather than take a penalty when one of my shots stuck in a tree, I climbed up and hit the ball back in play. I called it my “tree-iron shot”.

K:

Regarding your Cadillac dealership in Latrobe: how much of the reason to open that was because you wanted to be in the car business in general and how much was it down to you wanting to work with Cadillac specifically?

AP: My business partner Gar Laux and I first bought a Cadillac dealership in Charlotte, North Carolina. That was appropriate because I had a contract with Cadillac at the time. The opportunity developed a little later on for us to buy a Cadillac dealership in Latrobe that also carried Buicks, Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles.

That’s the only dealership I still own.

SUMMER 2016

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00

SUMMER 2016

Palmer’s guy A

t his Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Florida, Arnold Palmer had this long-running game for members and friends called “The Shootout.” It wasn’t the Masters or the [British] Open. This was just golf with the guys. The man who pioneered modern golf would come in from the course yapping about having to pay off sandbaggers. “Arnie,” the man who loves golf, was in his element.

Up north at Palmer’s Latrobe Country Club in Pennsylvania—and when he wasn’t working—Doc Giffin enjoyed nothing more than the same deal: golf with the guys.

Giffin couldn’t hit it out of Arnie’s shadow, but when it came to loving golf he was as tough as Palmer. The parallel was uncanny and so is their enduring link—employer-employee, friend-friend, or whatever. This year makes 50 years of this unique relationship.

“I almost feel like a brother to Arnold,” has said Giffin, 87, barely a year Palmer’s senior. Earlier they were more alike than less. Neither was exactly born rich. Palmer grew up having to carry water for his mom to wash clothes and dishes. Doc Giffin was only six when his dad died, and he and his younger brother and mom had to move in with his grandfather, putting seven people into a two-bedroom apartment. It almost seems their paths were destined to meet.

On tour, Giffin is known as “Palmer’s guy.” This doesn’t mean gofer, handyman or such. You’d think that for a man in his position, after 50 years, Giffin would have a corporate-speak title with some muscle to it, but his nameplate says “Assistant.” It doesn’t say much, but it says it all. Giffin is the keeper of the gate, media liaison,

Doc Giffin was the unassuming and unfailingly efficient press secretary for the PGA TOUR, until Arnold Palmer came in for him. That was 50 years ago, and the two men have worked together ever since. Marino Parascenzo, a sports writer on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for more than three decades, pays tribute to “Palmer’s Guy” facilitator of things, arranger of dates, writer of speeches and letters—and on and on. He’s dealt with everyone: writers, broadcasters, paupers, pretenders, potentates and presidents, including Eisenhower, Clinton and George W. Bush to name three.

“Doc has done everything,” says Palmer. “He’d better not retire—I don’t know what I’d do!”

A pragmatist’s view comes from Alastair Johnston, the executive at agency giant IMG who handles Palmer and a man famous for not flitting off in flights of fancy.

“Remember,” starts Johnston, “that the media had embraced Arnold, but at the end of the day someone had to lead him to the media, to make the connection. Also remember that in writing and in speeches, it wasn’t what Arnold said, but how he said it. Doc never changed the content, never changed the message, but just tidied things up. And so Doc played an immense role in building the legend of Arnold Palmer.”

It began in 1962 when an affable New England golf guy named Jim Gaquin got promoted and was looking for someone to succeed him as the press secretary of the PGA TOUR. It was a vital post for a tour that was growing wildly in popularity with the volcanic success of Palmer.

In addition to doing the procedural stuff in running the press tent, the press secretary had to be agile enough to deal with a demanding press corps on one hand and with prima donna golfers on the other. Gaquin knew all the golf writers of the day.

The one who really impressed him was one he rarely saw, the backup writer of the Pittsburgh Press: Donald W. Giffin (or “Doc” as everyone called him).

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31

But Giffin, Pittsburgh-area native, was then 33 and nine years into a newspaper sports-writing career he loved and had no intention of leaving. Fate thrust him into a scary juncture at a most awkward time. He was comfortable and happy, but the opportunity was attractive.

Giffin had come to that self-defeating fork in the road.

Yogi Berra, baseball’s resident philosopher, was no help.

“When you come to a fork in the road,” Berra counseled, “take it.” Robert Frost wasn’t much better to a literate guy, not even in iambic tetrameter. Frost took the road less traveled by and never looked back. Giffin was torn. Then came some pithy advice from a good friend and colleague, blustery Bob Drum, the golf writer on the Pittsburgh Press whose questions Palmer had grown up answering: “Doctor,” Drum offered, “if you don’t take that job I’ll never speak to you again.”

Gaquin ticked off Giffin’s qualifications. “Doc was bright, industrious, likable—just such a competent guy,” Gaquin said. “I was the pioneer on the job, and Doc did a better job than I did. He did a spectacular job.”

But he did it quietly. There was no fanfare about Doc— and there still isn’t. Gaquin had recognized Doc’s ability despite barely knowing him, but was surprised that Palmer had done the same.

“They were in two different worlds,” Gaquin said.

“Arnie was a superstar and Doc ran the press tent. I was surprised that Arnie, or any player, would recognize Doc’s talent. The only time he saw Doc was when he came to the press tent.”

Doc spent five years on the tour job, and then Palmer came with the big question in 1966.

Palmer needed help. He was a victim of his success.

He was being swamped in a sea of requests, demands and whatnot. He needed someone to handle this tsunami of attention and he asked Doc. If Doc wasn’t the first to hold such a post, he was the first to have the depth and breadth of responsibility—and the authority—that Palmer bestowed upon him. Think of the simplest thing: autographs. The request was simple, the traffic was not. It’s not true that people wanted Palmer to autograph their firstborn. Some did, however, want him to autograph them. He signed people and everything else. He also signed a Cadillac and a tractor, the twin of the famous Pennzoil tractor.

Giffin is an accomplished writer. Even so, in the matter of his job description he would probably come up with a blank sheet of paper. “It’s always been: when something comes up, deal with it,” Giffin said.

Palmer’s office, sitting up in the trees across the road from Latrobe Country Club, is a tranquil place that hums quietly, where everything clearly works in harmony. It’s a reflection of Giffin as much as anything. He’s a unifier and a director. The office is as stable as Gibraltar. Apart from

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Giffin’s 50 years, others have been there from 20-plus to 30-plus years.

Bob Demangone, a vice president and 28 years at Arnold Palmer Enterprises, is based at the Latrobe headquarters.

“Doc is my go-to guy,” Demangone says. “He’s always been the person I go to for advice. Working with him has been a priceless experience.”

Cori Britt, a vice president based at Bay Hill, is a 30-year man who started as a kid, emptying wastebaskets and cutting grass, joining the staff after graduating from St. Vincent College, and he credits Giffin for practically everything.

“His job is quite a balancing act— making Mr. Palmer accessible but also protecting him” - Cori Britt “I spent a lot of time shadowing Doc,” Britt said. “I pulled up a chair and sat beside him, and I learned how to do what I had to, especially in writing. He’s such a good writer and he was so patient. His job is quite a balancing act—making Mr. Palmer accessible but also protecting him.”

“Doc’s always been a very fair person to work for,” adds administrative aide Debbie Messich. “It’s been a great place to work over my 33 years. And the other thing about Doc—it still amazes me what a memory he has for Mr. Palmer’s life and career.”

That’s been the whole point all along—Doc Giffin and Arnold Palmer’s life and career. It’s been the grandest irony: in working for a legend, Doc Giffin became one himself.

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In clinical trials, those taking Myrbetriq made fewer trips to the bathroom and had fewer leaks than those not taking Myrbetriq. Your results may vary.

USE OF MYRBETRIQ® (MEER-BEH-TRICK) Myrbetriq® (mirabegron) is a prescription medicine for adults used to treat overactive bladder (OAB) with symptoms of urgency, frequency, and leakage.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION Myrbetriq is not for everyone. Do not use Myrbetriq if you have an allergy to mirabegron or any ingredients in Myrbetriq. Myrbetriq may cause your blood pressure to increase or make your blood pressure worse if you have a history of high blood pressure. It is recommended that your doctor check your blood pressure while you are taking Myrbetriq. Myrbetriq may increase your chances of not being able to empty your bladder. Tell your doctor right away if you have trouble emptying your bladder or you have a weak urine stream.

Myrbetriq may cause allergic reactions that may be serious. If you experience swelling of the face, lips, throat or tongue, with or without difficulty breathing, stop taking Myrbetriq and tell your doctor right away.

Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take including medications for overactive bladder or other medicines such as thioridazine (Mellaril™ and Mellaril-S™), flecainide (Tambocor®), propafenone (Rythmol®), digoxin (Lanoxin®). Myrbetriq may affect the way other medicines work, and other medicines may affect how Myrbetriq works.

Before taking Myrbetriq, tell your doctor if you have liver or kidney problems. In clinical studies, the most common side effects seen with Myrbetriq included increased blood pressure, common cold symptoms (nasopharyngitis), urinary tract infection and headache.

For further information, please talk to your healthcare professional and see Brief Summary of Prescribing Information for Myrbetriq® (mirabegron) on the following page.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Myrbetriq is a registered trademark of Astellas Pharma Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2016 Astellas Pharma US, Inc.

All rights reserved.

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Myrbetriq® (mirabegron) extended-release tablets 25 mg, 50 mg Brief Summary based on FDA-approved patient labeling Read the Patient Information that comes with Myrbetriq® (mirabegron) before you start taking it and each time you get a refill. There may be new information. This summary does not take the place of talking with your doctor about your medical condition or treatment.

What is Myrbetriq (meer-BEH-trick)?

Myrbetriq is a prescription medication for adults used to treat the following symptoms due to a condition called overactive bladder: • urge urinary incontinence: a strong need to urinate with leaking or wetting accidents • urgency: a strong need to urinate right away • frequency: urinating often It is not known if Myrbetriq is safe and effective in children.

Who should not use Myrbetriq?

Do not use Myrbetriq if you have an allergy to mirabegron or any of the ingredients in Myrbetriq. See the end of this leaflet for a complete list of ingredients in Myrbetriq.

What is overactive bladder?

Overactive bladder occurs when you cannot control your bladder contractions. When these muscle contractions happen too often or cannot be controlled, you can get symptoms of overactive bladder, which are urinary frequency, urinary urgency, and urinary incontinence (leakage).

What should I tell my doctor before taking Myrbetriq?

Before you take Myrbetriq, tell your doctor if you: • have liver problems or kidney problems • have very high uncontrolled blood pressure • have trouble emptying your bladder or you have a weak urine stream • are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if Myrbetriq will harm your unborn baby. Talk to your doctor if you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.

• are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. It is not known if Myrbetriq passes into your breast milk. You and your doctor should decide if you will take Myrbetriq or breastfeed. You should not do both.

Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, including prescription and nonprescription medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Myrbetriq may affect the way other medicines work, and other medicines may affect how Myrbetriq works.

Tell your doctor if you take: • thioridazine (Mellaril™ or Mellaril-S™) • flecainide (Tambocor®) • propafenone (Rythmol®) • digoxin (Lanoxin®) How should I take Myrbetriq?

• Take Myrbetriq exactly as your doctor tells you to take it.

• You should take 1 Myrbetriq tablet 1 time a day.

• You should take Myrbetriq with water and swallow the tablet whole.

• Do not crush or chew the tablet.

• You can take Myrbetriq with or without food.

• If you miss a dose of Myrbetriq, begin taking Myrbetriq again the next day. Do not take 2 doses of Myrbetriq the same day.

• If you take too much Myrbetriq, call your doctor or go to the nearest hospital emergency room right away.

What are the possible side effects of Myrbetriq?

Myrbetriq may cause serious side effects including: • increased blood pressure. Myrbetriq may cause your blood pressure to increase or make your blood pressure worse if you have a history of high blood pressure. It is recommended that your doctor check your blood pressure while you are taking Myrbetriq.

• inability to empty your bladder (urinary retention). Myrbetriq may increase your chances of not being able to empty your bladder if you have bladder outlet obstruction or if you are taking other medicines to treat overactive bladder. Tell your doctor right away if you are unable to empty your bladder.

• angioedema. Myrbetriq may cause an allergic reaction with swelling of the lips, face, tongue, throat with or without difficulty breathing.

Stop using Myrbetriq and tell your doctor right away.

The most common side effects of Myrbetriq include: • increased blood pressure • common cold symptoms (nasopharyngitis) • urinary tract infection • headache Tell your doctor if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away or if you have swelling of the face, lips, tongue, or throat, hives, skin rash or itching while taking Myrbetriq.

These are not all the possible side effects of Myrbetriq.

For more information, ask your doctor or pharmacist.

Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to the FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088.

How should I store Myrbetriq?

• Store Myrbetriq between 59°F to 86°F (15°C to 30°C). Keep the bottle closed.

• Safely throw away medicine that is out of date or no longer needed.

Keep Myrbetriq and all medicines out of the reach of children.

General information about the safe and effective use of Myrbetriq Medicines are sometimes prescribed for purposes other than those listed in the Patient Information leaflet. Do not use Myrbetriq for a condition for which it was not prescribed. Do not give Myrbetriq to other people, even if they have the same symptoms you have. It may harm them.

Where can I go for more information?

This is a summary of the most important information about Myrbetriq.

If you would like more information, talk with your doctor. You can ask your doctor or pharmacist for information about Myrbetriq that is written for health professionals.

For more information, visit www.Myrbetriq.com or call (800) 727-7003.

What are the ingredients in Myrbetriq?

Active ingredient: mirabegron Inactive ingredients: polyethylene oxide, polyethylene glycol, hydroxypropyl cellulose, butylated hydroxytoluene, magnesium stearate, hypromellose, yellow ferric oxide and red ferric oxide (25 mg Myrbetriq tablet only).

Rx Only PRODUCT OF JAPAN OR IRELAND – See bottle label or blister package for origin Marketed and Distributed by: Astellas Pharma US, Inc. Northbrook, Illinois 60062

Myrbetriq® is a registered trademark of Astellas Pharma Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2015 Astellas Pharma US, Inc. Revised: December 2015 15L110-MIR-BRFS 057-0910-PM

Into the Great Wide Opens

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Near the end of last year, a new “Big Three” was installed as golf’s post-Tiger Woods era began to take shape. However, following an unexpected turn of events in the final round of the Masters in April, a more realistic assessment suggests the remaining Majors of 2016 are well within the compass of a “Big 10” or even a “Big 15.” Paul Trow examines the potential permutations

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A quarter of the way into the Majors’ season, golf finds itself at an unprecedented crossroads—one populated with alternative destinations, speculative signposts and perhaps a few blind alleys.

Any other year, the U.S. Open, [British] Open and PGA Championship, followed by a fall Ryder Cup, would be enough of a menu to whet any enthusiast’s appetite. But for 2016 this smörgåsbord has been cast as a mere amusebouche as the governing bodies salivate over their new main course—golf ’s return to the Summer Olympic Games in August after an absence of 112 years.

Despite early declarations of non-support from Major champions Vijay Singh, Adam Scott, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel, it seems most leading players are prepared to travel down the road to Rio. The desire not to miss out on something future generations might regard as a big deal might be as much of an incentive as any patriotic impulse, but only time will tell whether the wide-eyed participants or the world-weary refuseniks will be looked upon as having seen clearly.

The Olympic course, designed by Gil Hanse, has exceeded the expectations of those who have already flown to Brazil for some reconnaissance, but fears over the threat posed by the lingering Zika virus could well prompt further withdrawals nearer the time. At present, the Big Three of the men’s game—Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy— remain wedded to the project along with fellow wunderkind Rickie Fowler, newly-crowned Masters champion Danny Willett, and influencers like Bubba Watson and Justin Rose.

In the meantime, these titans and their rivals face more immediate and recognizable challenges. Even though this year’s three remaining Majors have been squeezed into a tighter timeframe than usual—spanning a mere six and a half weeks during June and July, and providing precious little downtime in between—they remain the priority for those professionals in pursuit of golfing immortality.

To concentrate their minds and tease their ambitions, three notoriously treacherous arenas lie in wait.

Time will tell whether Olympic participants or those who opted out will have chosen best Jordan Spieth should be Rio-bound in August

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Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

The “hardest test” in golf First up is Oakmont Country Club, just outside Pittsburgh in Western Pennsylvania, where the 116th U.S. Open will be staged from June 16-19. This will be the ninth time in its 112 years that Oakmont has hosted the U.S. Open—some feat considering it was the only design ever undertaken by its founder, steel tycoon Henry Clay Fownes. With a crew of 150 men, Fownes took less than 12 months to convert a plot of disused farmland into a links-style layout overlooked by an imposing mock-Tudor clubhouse.

In addition to eight U.S. Opens (the first, in 1927, won by Tommy Armour), Oakmont has hosted three PGA Championships, two U.S. Women’s Opens and five U.S. Amateur Championships, a tally of blue-ribbon events that comfortably outranks all other American clubs.

Recalling his first game at Oakmont as a 12-year-old in 1941, Arnold Palmer said: “The greens and surfaces have not changed since this course was built. When I first came here to play with my father there wasn’t a tree here. Zero! It was beautiful, something I’d never experienced before. It was truly an inland links and it played like one. It was one of the great thrills of my life.”

Defending champ Spieth displayed similar reverence recently after his first visit. “Yeah, it’s lived up to and passed the hype it receives from everybody,” said Spieth, who followed his 2015 Masters triumph with a U.S. Open victory at Chambers Bay. “If you win a U.S. Open at Oakmont, you can say that you’ve conquered the hardest test in all of golf.”

The 22-year-old played 27 holes and came to a simple conclusion: “There are so many tough holes, I’d sign for even par right now for 72 holes.” Considering Cabrera won in 2007 with five over, it’s safe to say Spieth isn’t wrong.

The 18th at Oakmont [above] and Tommy Armour with the U.S. Open trophy in 1927

Palmer, by the way, has especially fond memories of the Old Course at Royal Troon Golf Club, venue for the 145th [British] Open from July 14-17.

It was here on the Ayrshire coast in the summer of 1962 that he retained the Claret Jug by six shots from Kel Nagle. Known then as plain Troon (the club didn’t receive its royal charter until 1978), it had been baked by an unusually hot summer. But this didn’t prevent Palmer from giving a dazzling exhibition of long, straight hitting and, following a tip from wife Winnie at the halfway stage, deadly putting.

Troon’s first two Opens—in 1923 and 1950—were won respectively by English club professional Arthur Havers and South Africa’s Bobby Locke. Palmer’s triumph then triggered an unbroken run of six American victories, starting with Tom Weiskopf’s sole Major title in 1973 and followed by Tom Watson (1982), courtesy of Nick Price’s late collapse, Mark Calcavecchia (1989), after a playoff with Australians Greg Norman and Wayne Grady, Justin Leonard (1997), with a closing 65, and Todd Hamilton (2004), after a playoff with Els.

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Meanwhile, the local community’s preparations for its ninth hosting of golf’s oldest championship have been overshadowed by controversy over the absence of women from Royal Troon’s membership. Rather than acquiescing to political correctness, the club seems to be digging-in over the issue, prompting unrealistic, 11th-hour suggestions that the R&A should relocate the championship in punishment.

While the R&A would be happier not to have to field questions over its chosen venue, the preparations for staging The Open are far too extensive for a change to be seriously considered. The defenders of male-only Troon point towards Troon’s Ladies Golf Club, which has enjoyed unfettered use of the Old Course since 1882 and of the 18-hole Portland Course from its advent in 1895.

The decision to form a golf club in Troon was made in 1878 at a meeting in the town’s Portland Arms Hotel. The following year the first six holes were designed by Charles Hunter, the professional at nearby Prestwick, scene of the first 12 Opens. By 1888 the links had been extended to 18 holes—in the classic, out-and-back style of the Old Course at St Andrews—by Troon’s first two club professionals, George Strath and Willie Fernie, the 1883 Open winner.

Interestingly, Royal Troon is home to the shortest hole on the Open roster: the 123-yard “Postage Stamp” 8th, scene of a hole-in-one by 71-year-old Gene Sarazen during the 1973 Open. The R&A could set-up the hole as short as 99 yards in The Open this year, depending on conditions.

The 2016 Open will be the last staged at an all-male club unless Royal Troon makes a late u-turn

The Lower life Named for 19th-century farmer Baltus Roll, who farmed 500 acres in Springfield Township, New Jersey, Baltusrol, is one of America’s oldest golf clubs and it is where the centenary PGA Championship will be staged from July 28-31.

Louis Keller, publisher of the New York Social Register, bought the site in the late 19th century and built nine rudimentary holes. These were expanded in 1895 to a full 18, the Old Course, on which Willie Anderson (1903) and Jerome Travers (1915) were crowned U.S. Open champions.

Immediately after World War I, Keller commissioned A.W. Tillinghast, author of Winged Foot, Oakland Hills and Bethpage Park, to scheme a second full-length layout. But Tillinghast, unimpressed with the original design, insisted the Old be plowed over and instead created two new courses, the Lower and Upper, which opened for play in 1922. The Lower is spread across rolling parkland while the Upper runs along a ridge known locally as Baltusrol Mountain.

The Lower’s first national championship was the 1926 U.S. Amateur, when George Von Elm beat Bobby Jones in a close final, while the Upper waited a further decade before staging a Major: the 1936 U.S. Open, won by the unheralded Tony Manero. From that point onwards the Lower became the preferred layout. Out of the nine championships held at Baltusrol since, the Upper has hosted just two: the 1985 U.S. Women’s Open and 2000 U.S. Amateur Championship.

Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

The famous 4th at Baltusrol

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In 1946, Robert Trent Jones, Sr., was retained by the club to give the Lower a facelift, an exercise the USGA asked his son, Rees Jones, to repeat prior to the 1993 U.S. Open, when Lee Janzen prevailed after a Herculean tussle with Payne Stewart.

Three other U.S. Opens have been staged over the Lower: the first to be nationally televised, in 1954, when Ed Furgol held off Gene Littler by one stroke; in 1967, when Nicklaus outpaced Palmer by four shots; and in 1980, when Nicklaus held off Japan’s Isao Aoki by two. More recently, it staged the PGA Championship for the first time in 2005, when the winner at the end of a storm-affected week was Phil Mickelson.

The Lower’s signature hole is the 647-yard, par-5 17th, which only John Daly (in 1993) has ever reached in two (although Tiger Woods actually hit his second shot over the green in 2005).

The 553-yard closing hole, a right-to-left dogleg par-5, has also earned fame for showcasing spectacular Major finishes by Nicklaus, whose 1-iron into the green in 1967 is commemorated by a fairway plaque, and Mickelson, who secured the Wanamaker Trophy with a brilliant flop shot to two feet from thick rough. The mercurial left-hander, for one, will surely relish a return to this happy hunting ground.

Another Major for Mickelson is by no means out of the question

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Bubba Watson [right] is looking for a third major title while Phil Mickelson plays the decisive chip onto the last green in the 2005 PGA Championship

Trophy hunters So who will trouble the trophy engravers during these three enticing, pressure-packed weeks?

Spieth has too much composure and acuity not to bounce back from the disappointment of his unscripted finalround implosion on the 12th hole at the Masters. Whether he is as feared by his rivals, though, is another question.

Day, winner of this season’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, WGC-Dell Match Play and THE PLAYERS, is deservedly world No.1 at the time of writing; a player with no apparent weakness, apart from the occasional physical infirmity and bout of illness. In terms of pure talent, McIlroy— four times a Major winner at just 27—should prevail if every cylinder is firing, while Fowler can never be discounted, not least because he has a short game that only Spieth and Day can rival.

Of the rest, Watson, Scott, Rose, Zach Johnson, Oosthuizen, Schwartzel and even Willett are more than capable of adding to the Majors they have already won.

Dustin Johnson, Branden Grace, Hideki Matsuyama and Patrick Reed all look ready to step up. And none of those who have yet to strike gold despite a lifetime of distinguished service—Henrik Stenson, Matt Kuchar, Sergio Garcia, Brandt Snedeker and Lee Westwood, most notably— would be begrudged or deemed unworthy if their day in the sun belatedly arrives.

And let’s not forget Mickelson. He seems to have outlasted his nemesis Tiger Woods, who for the moment plans to play in the Majors, if only to test the water after his lengthy lay-off. Another Major for Mickelson is by no means out of the question, though one fears it might be for Woods.

In the heydays of Palmer, Player and Nicklaus, the original Big Three, the competition was never as fierce nor the opposition as strong. Now, you only have to count the names. Forget the Big Ten, forget even the Big Fifteen; we’re talking the Big Twenty these days, maybe more.

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Cometh the Day Jason Day is a major champion, world No.1, and possibly the best putter in the game right now; 15 years ago, though, his life was in complete turmoil. Day spoke to our Robin Barwick about his rise to the top and his determination to stay there

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When it’s all over for another year at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, as the crowds go home and tranquility returns to Bay Hill, Arnold Palmer always invites the winner to his house for a drink. It’s not compulsory and there’s no expectation, that’s not Palmer’s style. Some players stop by, some can’t. As for 2016 champ Jason Day? He was there.

“I spent some time with Jason after his final round,” Palmer tells Kingdom. “He is mature beyond his years, humble and gracious.”

“To win Mr. Palmer’s tournament and to have a drink with him afterwards was pretty special,” starts Day, 28, in an exclusive interview with Kingdom. “Mr. Palmer’s personality saw the game evolve into what it is today. To sit there and have a one-to-one conversation with him is a very special memory I will always have.

“Every generation has its own set of great players and it is special to be a part of that. Without the standards set by golfers like Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, and more recently by Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, I wouldn’t be pushing myself as hard as I am right now to stay at number one in the world.”

Adds Palmer: “Besides being a great golfer, Jason is such a nice young man and one I have been watching for some time. His wire-to-wire victory was quite impressive, and I'm sure you can expect more great performances from him coming up.”

Not to say that Mr. Palmer is always right, but no sooner had he uttered these words than Day went wire-

Jason Day (left) joins his host for a drink after the Arnold Palmer Invitational; Day and caddie Col Swatton [top right] and with the Arnold Palmer Invitational Trophy [bottom right]

to-wire impressively again, this time at THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in May. That was the world No. 1’s third win in six starts and his eighth PGA Tour victory in the space of the best 16 months of his golfing life.

He is ‘such a nice young man’ who is on a roll that this year began at Bay Hill.

But when Day arrived at the 2016 Arnold Palmer Invitational a couple months ago he had a point to prove.

He had reached No. 1 in the world for the first time last September—towards the end of a five-win season that included his first major triumph in the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits—but after the winter break and a slow start to 2016, Day was ranked No. 3 in the world behind Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy and his game was in a funk.

Form in golf is so fragile, so slippery.

If you squeeze it too tight or try to force it into a bottle it disappears without trace, as if it had never been there at all. But likewise, if you have it but seem to ignore it, just for a moment, it also will be gone. It’s not fair, but then golf never has been fair.

Day arrived at the tournament in Orlando full of the kind of uncertainty no golfer needs, talking of how he “normally struggles in Florida.” But then, fickle as ever, form showed its other side by turning up unannounced. And just in time.

“Without the standards set by golfers like Arnold Palmer...

I wouldn’t be pushing myself as hard as I am right now” — Jason Day

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After his champion’s drink with Palmer, Day outlasted another world-class field convincingly at the WGC Dell Match Play to return to No. 1 in the world.

“It is hard to be world number one, and there are a lot more demands on your time, and it is hard to get the right balance between personal life, competitive life, media and everything else. While all this is going on I still need to compete and win at the highest level—and everyone expects me to, all the time. It’s tough but I wouldn’t want it any other way. I know that the longer I can stay at number one the easier it will get to deal with all the demands; the pressure will ease and I will adjust.”

Day’s ranking and status was reinforced emphatically at TPC Sawgrass, where he won wire-to-wire and by four. He seems to be making those adjustments to being No. 1 just fine.

“The one thing I do have to focus on is trying to get better each and every week,” he adds. “If I can focus on that rather than all the other stuff, if I can make sure I am fully involved in that process then I know all the other stuff will be taken care of. I have to keep working hard.”

Childhood Trauma Day has a rare talent, one that his father Alvin and mother Dening saw early. They had an inkling when Day was as young as three, after they found an old 3-wood near the impoverished family farm in the dusty Queensland town of Beaudesert, Australia. The club looked good for nothing, but in Day’s hands every stroke was magic.

“I grew up on a farm where we raised cattle and sheered sheep. We were very poor,” says Day. “We would go to the rubbish tip to find furniture and stuff we could use around the house. We found a golf club there one day, when I was three, and my dad gave it to me. It was a cut down 3-wood and I hit a tennis ball and he turned around to my mum and said: ‘This guy is going to be a champion one day.’”

But Alvin, a violent alcoholic, would force his young son to play golf every day and beat him up if he posted a bad score. Alvin died of cancer when Day was 12, and Day admitted last year: “It’s amazing the journey you take in life. Just to be able to look back on it and talk about it… If my father was here I wouldn’t be here. If my dad was alive there is no chance I could have played on the PGA Tour.

Absolutely none.”

The loss meant Day was free of tyranny, constant fear and brutal episodes, yet also he had lost his dad. That’s too much for any 12-year-old, and Day himself started drinking and getting into trouble.

In an attempt to get Day back on track, Dening borrowed money to send him to the Kooralbyn International School in nearby Brisbane, where they had a golf academy. It was the same school attended by Adam Scott a few years before, and the golf coach was a nice guy

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“I started to get up every morning at five o’clock and I practiced 32 and a half hours a week” —Jason Day Day and Adam Scott; friends, compatriots, major winners—and intense rivals too

named Colin Swatton—“Col” as Day calls the man who remains his bag-carrier, coach and confidant.

“Col was a life-changer,” says Day. “He is the reason I am here. It is because of him. He has supported me all the way through since I was 12 years old.”

The academy closed down 18 months after Day joined, and he moved to Hills International College in Jimboomba, but Swatton stuck with him then as he has done ever since.

“I just had an opportunity from an unfortunate thing that happened to me,” reflects Day, “a tragedy that happened to me, but it changed my life for the better.

“Hills International is a special spot for me. I started to get up every morning at five o’clock and I practiced 32 and a half hours a week. I still think of those days often and I miss them. I miss hanging out with my mates and the solitude of waking up at five o’clock and being out on the golf course by myself and being with my own thoughts and just gathering myself as I practiced each morning.

“That was when becoming a professional and playing on the PGA Tour became my main goals. I had that ambition since reading a book about Tiger Woods, and from the age of around 14 I realized I had to have that focus and that I had to get practicing, particularly on my short game.”

The work is paying off.

Scott—who has become close friends with Day since they first played together when Day was a teenage rising star on Australia’s amateur circuit—tells Kingdom: “Jason’s short game is phenomenal. He is very strong and he hits the ball long and everything is good. We are talking about the number one player in the world, and there are no real weaknesses to his game. They are all relative to the rest of his game, but his

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short game and putting are phenomenal. Right now Jason looks like the best out there with a putter in his hands. Jordan looks great putting too, but I just love the way the putter sits out of Jason’s arms and hands. He looks so solid with it.”

As Scott, 35, progressed through the amateur and then professional ranks, he showed Day—seven years younger— what was possible.

“Tiger was my idol growing up but, being from Australia, Adam Scott was also my favorite player. It was both of them,” says Day, who is now Presidents Cup teammates with Scott and they paired up to win the 2013 World Cup, although the world will not see them team-up in the Olympics as Scott is the highest-ranked golfer to have controversially announced he won’t travel to Rio. “Having been to the same school as Adam I heard a lot of stories about him. Adam Scott stories would be passed around golf clubhouses on how he had performed in tournaments that I was then playing in. He was huge.

“Adam has done a lot for me, and being able to talk to him when I was 17 or 18 was really significant. It was around then that I was thinking about turning professional and Adam was one of the few people who thought it was a good idea. He said to me that if you feel you are ready, you are mature beyond your years so what is stopping you?

Adam believed I could succeed on tour at a time when Col was one of the only other people who believed I should turn professional.”

Scott and Col saw it back in the Kooralbyn days, the tough days, and Palmer saw it at Bay Hill. Now, finally on display for the entire world, Day’s true essence: that of a champion—with a story that’s far from over.

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Hades of Hulton Road The U.S. Open at Oakmont often isn’t pretty, but more a test of golfing survival. The last man standing wins. Marino Parascenzo— who has reported from four different U.S. Opens at Oakmont, venue for the 2016 tournament—reports on the player protests, sharptoothed rakes and battered egos of Oakmont

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1953 1935 Pittsburgher Sam Parks put a new shade of dark on “dark horse” and a new flavor to homecookin’. Parks, an obscure local club pro, practiced at Oakmont every day for a month, hoping to finish in the top 10. He three-putted the fierce greens just twice, didn’t break par for any round, and shot an 11-over 299. When big-hitting Jimmy Thomson bogeyed four of the last five holes, Park won by two. “I had never planned on that,” Parks said.

H

Ben Hogan, 40, finished on an un-Oakmont-like 5-under 283 and holed up in the locker room, wondering whether archrival Sam Snead would catch him. Snead was wondering whether he would even finish. He staggered in with a 76 and Hogan won by six, tying the record of four Open wins. Would he go for five? “I’m getting old, tired and weary,” he said. “And rich,” someone noted.

The ’53 Open was in crisis before it even started. Some players threatened to withdraw, protesting against the notorious furrowed bunkers, created by a rake with huge teeth. The crisis cooled when Oakmont agreed to shallower furrows. (they’d eventually abandon them entirely.) Jimmy Demaret, bon vivant, had the final word on the Oakmont rake. “You could’ve combed North Africa with it,” he said, “and Rommel wouldn’t have gotten past Casablanca.”

.C. Fownes, Pittsburgh iron-and-steel magnate, came to golf in his late 30s, got good fast and when he couldn’t find a course that could give him a proper fight he designed and built his own—Oakmont.

Just outside Pittsburgh in the rolling hills of Western Pennsylvania, Oakmont opened in 1904, letting the world know what “penal” in golf means. And without the need for water hazards and forced carries. The USGA enjoyed the notion so much that it has held a record eight U.S. Opens at Oakmont and is holding the ninth in 2016.

Of the eight, dating to 1927, none had the drama and the impact of the Arnold Palmer-Jack Nicklaus Seismic Shootout of 1962. (Sotto voce here: But it would never have happened except for, as Conan Doyle might have put it, Phil

Rodgers’ Singular Misfortune at the Little Evergreen. But back to Arnie and Jack…)

It was a rematch from the bout in the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills, when an emboldened Palmer drove the green of the 340-yard first hole in the final round, made up a seven-stroke deficit and shot 65 to win. Nicklaus, a brilliant amateur of only 20, finished second by two shots.

Oakmont, Pittsburgh, Latrobe, Western Pennsylvania— this wasn’t simply Arnie Palmer Country because Palmer Country had no boundaries, but this was its thriving capital.

Hence the magnitude of the 1962 U.S. Open. It was a collision for the ages.

In a duel of two power hitters, it came down to putting. Palmer three-putted 10 times, Nicklaus only once.

They tied at 283, one under par, and Nicklaus won the

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1973 Johnny Miller shot 76 in the third round and had his wife pack for a quick getaway on Sunday. But he landed one of the hottest hands in the history of golf and caught a rain-soaked Oakmont looking the other way. He closed with a record 63 and won by a stroke with his five-under 279.

“A round that must have been made in heaven,” Miller said.

“Johnny Miller?” said Tom Weiskopf, who finished third. “I didn’t even know he’d made the cut.”

18-hole playoff, 71 to 74.

Palmer’s bold game betrayed him this time. In the final round he was leading by three coming to the ninth, an uphill, 480-yard par-5. Instead of playing for birdie he wanted an eagle, but he just missed the green with his second shot, flubbed his first chip, left his second eight feet short and bogeyed. Palmer closed with a par 71, Nicklaus a 69.

Palmer turned to the gallery. “Are there any good putters in the crowd?” he cracked.

“This was the best I’ve ever played for anything,” Nicklaus said. The Nicklaus Age had dawned, but the Palmer Age was far from over.

But back to the first round, where the 1962 U.S. Open changed course at the uphill, par-four 17th of only 300 yards. It was a wicked little risk-reward hole long before the

expression was ever heard.

Trying for the green, Rodgers drove into one of the little evergreens planted to discourage the shortcut. He baffled everyone by deciding to knock the ball out of the tree rather than take a penalty drop. Cruelly, it took him four hacks to get the ball out of that grasping tree. He made a nightmare eight. He finished third, two behind Nicklaus and Palmer. He would have won with a bogey-five on 17, tied with a 6. Whatever possessed him not to take his a drop?

Rodgers was wise. Under the unplayable-lie rule of the time it was a two-stroke penalty if he dropped near the tree, but only one if he went back to the tee. Rodgers had gambled and lost.

Oakmont was called the “Hades of Hulton Road”, and in its U.S. Open debut in 1927 it was a fundamentalist’s frolic of fire and brimstone. A touch of Calvin, a touch of Dante.

The great Bobby Jones would tie for 11th at 21-over 309. Gene Sarazen shot an 80 and finished third, Walter Hagen an 81 and finished sixth. Tommy Armour won in an 18-hole playoff over Lighthorse Harry Cooper after they tied at 13-over-par 301.

It was a fundamentalist’s frolic of fire and brimstone.

A touch of Calvin, a touch of Dante

1983 This time the rebellion was over the rough—thick, dense and deep. But mildmannered Larry Nelson, 35, had seen worse. It was called Vietnam. The former infantryman won with an Open-record 65-67 for 132 in the closing rounds, edging Tom Watson by a stroke. His final round included a 62-foot birdie putt at the par-three 16th.

What were the odds on making a 62-footer at Oakmont? Said Nelson: “I couldn’t even put odds on a six-footer.”

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Armour needed a birdie at the final hole to tie Cooper, and was studying his approach shot when an Oakmont member stepped out of the gallery. “They say you’re the best iron player in the country,” the guy said. “Let’s see what you can do with this one.” Armour glared, then turned and fired a 3-iron to about 10 feet.

“Will that do?” Armour said.

“Yes,” the Oakmonter said. “But only just.”

The U.S. Open and Oakmont grew from there.

In its way, the 1994 U.S. Open was the most memorable.

Ernie Els arrived on the world stage with his win while Palmer, 64, departed. It was his 32nd and final U.S. Open. He was in the field on a special USGA invitation, a thank-you.

His final interview was eloquent in its silence. Palmer managed a few words, then cried quietly into a towel.

Finally, he said, his voice muffled: “I think that is about all I have to say. Thank you very much.”

With that, he rose and turned and to a standing ovation, he stepped through a door without looking back, his arm lifted in farewell.

1994 There’s an old saying: “You don’t win the U.S. Open, you survive it.” As Ernie Els did, barely.

South African Els, 24, a PGA Tour rookie, was saved by two crucial rulings, and outlasted Colin Montgomerie, 30, the jowly Scot, and American Loren Roberts, 38, a wizard whose putter short-circuited. “I had trouble getting the putter back,” Roberts admitted, on missing a winning four-footer. They tied at five-under 279.

Frazzled nerves showed quickly in the 18-hole playoff. At the short par-4 second, Roberts made five, Monty six and Els seven. Monty then crumbled to a 78, Els and Roberts shot 74s, and Els won in sudden death. “[I was] feeling a little U.S. Open pressure,” said Els.

There’s an old saying: “You don’t win the U.S. Open, you survive it.”

2007 The first U.S. Open for the new-old Oakmont. It was built on wide-open farmland in 1903-04. A member was offended in the 1960s when a writer called Oakmont “an ugly old brute,” and started tree-planting. By the 1990s some members couldn’t see Oakmont for the trees and secretly began cutting them down in early-morning darkness. Then a full-blown restoration began and thousands of trees were removed. In 2007 Oakmont was par 70, average score 75.7, with eight rounds under 70 for the entire championship. Argentine Angel Cabrera was the only man to log two of them, shooting 69-71-76-69 for a five-over 285 to edge Tiger Woods, ranked No. 1 in the world, and No. 3 Jim Furyk. The finish was unbearable. Cabrera bogeyed 16 and 17 and tiptoed to a winning par. “I never thought I would be here at this moment,” Cabrera said.

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Steel City N

o marshal is mighty enough to stem the roar that’s building outside the gates of Oakmont Country Club, in a leafy suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Currently a rumble that’s sensed more than heard, it’s sure to grow to a full-throated holler when the club hosts the U.S. Open this June 13-19, and in the chorus that will no doubt rise above the competition, there will be an underlying message for fans everywhere: Pittsburgh is No.1.

And, no, those yelling won’t all be burly Steeler fans.

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Visitors to this year’s U.S. Open at Oakmont have myriad choices when it comes to offcourse explorations. Local native Chris Rodell offers an insider’s view on how to visit Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh is on a run that’s the civic equivalent to the one Johnny Miller had at Oakmont in 1973 when he shot his record 63. The Steel City is becoming good as gold.

“Pittsburgh is a great city, and we’re still trending in large part due to the fabulous mix of the city’s inherent beauty, the affordability factor, our blossoming culinary scene and the friendly Pittsburghers who make our guests feel welcomed,” said Craig Davis, president and CEO of Visit Pittsburgh. “And we are looking forward to even more great things to come.”

Its Top 10 listings by publications, both prestigious and quirky, include: Friendliest City (Travel + Leisure), Most Romantic (Amazon), Most Livable (Men’s Health), Best Foodie Town (Zagat), Best City for Young Families (ValuePenguin), and Best City for An Active Lifestyle (WallHub). It’s the city that’s nimble enough to be both among the best places to retire (Kiplinger) and the best places to be a young millennial (Forbes).

It’s even No.1 with Bruce Springsteen who in February picked Pittsburgh as the perfect spot to kick off his historic

“The River Tour.” And since he’s The Boss, you might want to start your visit to Pittsburgh with a tour of the rivers.

That means the Gateway Clipper Fleet docked at Station Square on the Monongahela River. For more than 50 years, the fleet of old-time paddlewheel boats is a tourism must for anyone interested in city sightseeing, dining and just relaxing. The bigger boats—barges below the waterline, floating banquet facilities up above—allow passengers to enjoy top-deck libations as the city skyline drifts by. They are especially appealing at twilight when you can hear the

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A Three Rivers cruise offers a great view of the Pirates’ PNC Park

cheers from the Pittsburgh Pirate fans at PNC Park, flush against the Allegheny River and named by Ballpark Digest as America’s Best Ballpark.

A river cruise provides an outstanding overview of a skyline studded crown-to-crown with architectural gems.

Other cities may have gaudier buildings (many do not), but Pittsburgh’s a visual feast because its city proper is geographically gilded by its rivers: The only place downtown Pittsburgh can sprawl is straight up.

Of course, after a day ambling around historic Oakmont (this is its USGA record 9th U.S. Open) another kind of feast may be what you have in mind. Zagat in ’15 named Pittsburgh the No.1 Food City in America; and liveability.com ranked it No.3.

Trending are a quartet of hot new offerings from the Richard DeShantz Group. Meat & Potatoes, a gastropub that serves high-end food and libations; Butcher & Rye with over 350 types of premium whiskey; tako (deliberate lower case and spelling) which boasts fierce margaritas offered in a SoCal surf vibe; and Pork & Beans, a robust pork-centric menu with a beer garden.

These upstarts vie for attention with storied standbys like The Carlton Restaurant, premier in every way and the only one in Pittsburgh to have earned the prestigious DiRoNa (Distinguished Restaurants of North America)

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award. Since 1984 it’s been a Pittsburgh favorite with neck-up caricatures of famous locals.

And the caricatures aren’t the only heady features lining the walls. The Carlton has the most extensive—and not exclusively expensive—wine list of any restaurant in the city.

“Our list has more than 800 offerings,” says the buoyant and convivial proprietor Kevin Joyce, who says sophisticated travelers like those who’ll be attending the Open have a sixth sense about finding places like The Carlton.

“The people who come here are familiar with chains like Morton’s and Ruth’s. When they come to a new region, they’re looking for established independents, real crowdpleasers, places that reveal the character of an individual city. That’s what we’ve been doing for more than 30 years.

We don’t gouge on the menu and we have a terrific staff that really knows how to deliver a memorable dining experience.”

One way to enjoy the same sensation is by taking the famous inclines up Mt. Washington and merely opening your eyes. Restaurant Row on Grandview Avenue combines fine dining with a gorgeous view.

Here’s what USA Today said in 2014 when it picked Mt. Washington as the second most scenic view in all America, ahead of Kauai, Hawaii, and the Grand Canyon, and behind only Sedona, Arizona: “The panoramic view of central Pittsburgh from atop Mt. Washington has long been considered one of the best skyline views in the world. The ‘mushroom’ overlook platforms sit at an elevation of 400 feet, accessed by a historic funicular dating from 1877. From here, one can absorb how Pittsburgh is embraced by three rivers and the striking iron bridges that cross them.”

Top Grandview Avenue restaurants include the Altius, Monterrey Bay Fish Grotto and the fabled LeMont.

You’re likely to be dog-tired after a day at Oakmont and sightseeing. If you find yourself barking for a comfortable place to say, try the Pittsburgh Fairmont. The Fairmont is far from going to the dogs—but the dogs are going to the Fairmont. No upscale brand has done more to attract pet lovers than Fairmont. The hotel even has a lobby dog, Edie, a nod to Pittsburgh native Andy Warhol and his famous protege, Edie Sedgwick. Warhol, by the way, has his namesake museum just across the Andy Warhol Bridge and a short stroll from downtown. Ask in advance at the front desk and you’ll even be able to walk Edie to the Andy.

The Omni William Penn, the city’s grande dame, is this year celebrating its 100th anniversary. Like many iconic hotels, the William Penn has a plush presidential suite. But unlike many of those, this one has presidential history. Commandersin-Chief including Teddy Roosevelt to Barack Obama have stayed there, as have Mick Jagger and the Dalai Lama.

Other notable lodgings include The Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel (Marriott), The Westin Convention Center

and mature, of upscale and gritty. And like so much of Pittsburgh, the two gleefully and good-naturedly co-exist.

The Strip is the home to the famous Pittsburgh sandwich at Primanti Bros., the American Classic with French Fries and coleslaw right on the meat, all between thick slices of Italian Bread.

Night or day, the Strip is a great slice of what makes Pittsburgh special. Upscale restaurants include Eleven, Cioppino and Luke Wholey’s Alaskan Grille, the latter being kin to historic Wholey Fish Market, since 1912 a destination fishmonger/butcher/grocery that also happens to have great deli seafood sandwiches and some of the city’s best sushi.

Stalwart Strip breakfasts can be had at Pamela’s, DeLuca’s Diner and the quirkily named Peace, Love and a Little Donuts.

Of course, if you’re in Pittsburgh for the U.S. Open, you’re apt to be interested in more than donut holes. There’s plenty of championship golf in Western Pennsylvania, golf that, like Oakmont, has a history of challenging the game’s best.

Photo: Alyssa Florentine

Commanders-in-Chief, Mick Jagger and the Dalai Lama have all stayed here—an illustrious and diverse guest list

The William Penn lobby [above], whiskey to sample at Butcher & Rye

Hotel, and the hip upstart, the Kimpton Hotel Monaco, which is drawing raves for its posh design, expert service and appealing vibe.

The great thing about all these hotels is they’re within walking distance to the Strip District, so named because of its foundation as a blue-collar neighborhood where produce wholesalers used to park delivery trucks along an urban strip of destination markets. What was once blue collar is today a mix of throwback and flamboyance, of modern

Laurel Valley Golf Club in Ligonier hosted the 1975 Ryder Cup, the 1989 Senior U.S. Open, the PGA’s 2001 Marconi Classic and the 2005 Senior PGA Championship.

How did this relatively little known splendor earn such a pedigree? It’s been for more than 50 years affiliated with Arnold Palmer. Palmer was instrumental in helping found the club in 1959 with the intention that it would one day be considered the Augusta of the North. Score a tee time here and you have some serious pull.

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Renowned for eye-popping audacity at every turn is Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Farmington.

Any attempt at contemporary updates on the voluptuous resort are in vain. By the time you read anything about Nemacolin, it’s already been modernized to state-of the-art levels, as is reported by resort spokesperson Ashli Mazer-Workman.

“We have a whole new grand front entrance, a newly renovated adults-only Paradise Pool space with 30-person hot tub with fire pit, and in 2015 the resort completed a $30 million renovation of 263 of the 300 rooms.

“In addition, guests are now enjoying our 3,000-foot-long dueling ziplines capable of taking riders to 60 mph, and the Nemacolin casino, an adventure center, shooting academy and the exquisite fine dining options, specifically Lautrec, one of just 27 restaurants on the planet to be honored with both AAA Four-Diamond Award (since 2007) and Forbes Travel Guide 5-Star Restaurant (since 2009).”

Photos: Paul Gelsobello

But there are plenty of satisfying challenges that’ll welcome your foursome on short notice. Right up at the top of the list is Olde Stonewall in Ellwood City, less than an hour north of Oakmont.

Open since 1999, Stonewall immediately landed on all the “Best Places You Can Play” lists of every prestigious golf publication in America. The ranking is well deserved. Many of the holes, especially on the monumental back nine, offer indelible views and glorious vistas—be sure to play from the tips at 16.

Quicksilver Golf Course has hosted both Nationwide and Senior Tour events and is renowned for its muscular layout and refined clubhouse amenities. And for visitors, it’s perfectly convenient. The course is just 30 minutes from downtown Pittsburgh and just seven minutes from the airport.

Want to see more of the region? Western Pennsylvania features two grand resorts—one heirloom, the other nouveau in the best French sense—that’ll see to your every need.

Bedford Springs [above] and the Kimpton Hotel Monaco [right]

The Omni Bedford Springs Resort was a premier resort when the vice president stayed here. Joe Biden? No, it was Aaron Burr, the 3rd vice president. He stayed at Bedford in 1806, two years after dodging a bullet fired by Alexander Hamilton in what was destined to be the most famous duel in American history.

It’s most recent renovation was 2007 when investors lavished $120 million upon it.

The golf course, a true classic, is the only one in America that includes the design fingerprints of revered architects Spencer Oldham, A.W. Tillinghast and Donald Ross, which is like having Paul McCartney and John Lennon add pop flourishes to an Irving Berlin standard.

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Bedford Springs bears fingerprints of Oldham, Tillinghast & Ross All great, sure, but isn’t there anything new for die-hard visiting fans of the game?

“Yes! We’ve broken ground on our second Pete Dye to go along with our Mystic Rock. The first nine will be open June ’17 with the whole course set to open in 2018.”

Still looking for something golf-related to do in Western Pennsylvania during Open week? Head to Latrobe.

You can fly into the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, stay at the Arnold Palmer SpringHill Suites Marriott and play golf at Latrobe Country Club.

It’s the perfect Palmer experience and just another reason why so many independent sources say that the City of Pittsburgh is No.1—Pittsburgh’s always had Palmer.

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Son of a Preacher Man England’s Danny Willett won the 2016 Masters with a brilliant final-round 67 at Augusta, while defending champion Jordan Spieth imploded. It was a final nine holes full of tension, pressure and surprise—classic golfing drama— but was Willett gifted the Green Jacket? Not for a second

I

It’s funny how golf works sometimes. Danny Willett, 2016 Masters champion, nearly didn’t show up at Augusta National at all. His wife Nicole was due to give birth to their first-born on Masters Sunday, April 10th, and Willett had declared he would attend the birth ahead of the Masters.

As fate would have it, Zachariah James Willett was born early, on March 29. While the rest of the field was driving up Magnolia Lane and getting acclimated to Augusta,

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Willett was at home in Yorkshire, England, learning how to change diapers. He arrived at Augusta National on the Tuesday—the very last of the 89 players to check-in—which meant that his caddie Jonathan Smart received the No. 89 white boiler suit for the week.

Talk about good omens: 89 was the number Jackie Nicklaus Jnr. wore when he caddied for his father, Jack, 30 years previously in the 1986 Masters, and that was the week Nicklaus won his sixth Green Jacket and became the oldest ever Masters champion at 46. The Masters does that; it throws up little historical coincidences. Here’s another: Willett, 28, became the first Englishman since Nick Faldo to win the Masters, and “Sir Nick’s” last Masters win was 20 years ago in 1996.

“Me and Nic sat down and had a beer on the sofa and we just laughed at each other” —Danny Willett

Danny, Nicole and Zachariah Willett [above], and Willett with caddie Jonathan Smart (number 89) at the 2016 Masters [right]

Willett took a month off after winning the Masters and you can’t blame him. He wanted to spend time with his family, change a few more diapers and get used to his new status of being a father and a Major winner. A lot of new emotions needed to settle in.

“On the Tuesday after the Masters, me and Nic sat down and had a beer on the sofa and we just laughed at each other,” Willett has said since. They probably shed a couple of tears as well, but Willett is a Yorkshireman and when Yorkshiremen cry it stays indoors.

“The Green Jacket was hanging up in the hallway and I watched a re-run of the final round to make sure it actually happened. I opened a cold beer, was feeding the little man [Zachariah was on milk, dad was on beer], Nic was next to me and the dog was on the sofa snoring, and that was when it all hit home. That’s what it is all about at the end of the day. To be able to share it with them at home was great.

“My life has changed a bit. There is a lot more intrusion on my private time now and so my time is a lot more precious. There is also a lot of nice stuff that has come with being the Masters champion though. The Prime Minister [David Cameron] sent me a letter, which was cool, and so did Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and John Jacobs.”

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Not John Jacobs the American golfer on the PGA TOUR Champions, John Jacobs the English pro—now 91— who was a founding father of the European Tour in the early 1970s and, like Willett, a son of Yorkshire.

There was a lot to digest from the Masters. For a start, Willett’s preparations were unorthodox. He was making only his second Masters appearance after finishing tied-38th in 2015, so he still doesn’t know the course as intimately as a lot of others in the field. He was short of preparation (his focus in the very recent past had been on becoming a father) and he was jet-lagged—all of which sounds like the perfect formula for a missed cut.

But he also arrived at Augusta with a new sense of perspective—parenthood does that—and perhaps Willett was not shackled by the nerves and weight of expectation that can constrict the most free-flowing of golf swings.

Still, when Willett parred the 12th hole in the final round he was five shots behind defending champion Jordan Spieth and running out of holes.

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The last putt drops for Willett at Augusta [left] and Jordan Spieth helps him into the Green Jacket

Recalled Willett: “I said to Jon at the start of the round, ‘Let’s go, play well, stay aggressive and see what we can do.’ I knew the wind was going to be less of a problem so there would be birdies out there. I played nice for the first six holes and then we were five under from six to 16.”

Don’t forget that bit: Willett went five under par in the heart of the final round, in contention. Certainly, Spieth cracked and dropped six shots in the space of only three holes—bogey on 10, bogey on 11, disastrous 7 on the par-3 12th—but that was only half the story. Willett went five under par in the space of 11 holes when he needed it most.

“Any time someone is leading like that and they let it slip away, you have to feel for them. It was hard to watch,” Arnold Palmer, the first golfer to win the Masters four times, tells Kingdom. “However, Danny won the tournament just as much as Jordan lost it. He played incredibly well and deserved the win. It certainly was not given to him.”

And to those who think Willett came out of nowhere to steal the Green Jacket like an opportunistic cat thief?

Maybe you should watch more golf. Willett came into the Masters ranked No. 12 in the world and he pushed Rory McIlroy all the way in the 2015 Race to Dubai—the European Tour’s answer to the FedExCup, which saw Willett finish in a career-high second place.

A former amateur world No. 1 (in 2008), the kid’s got pedigree, and if he has leap-frogged any golfers in the world order into being a Major winner, the list is about as long as that of an Olympic golf team; after Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson, Willett was more or less next in line.

The son of an English priest and Swedish school teacher and one of four brothers, Willett’s upbringing has

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been firmly grounded—and not short of looks to the light side of life—and perhaps that also helped as he battled on the most famous back nine in golf in April.

After all, when he was the halfway leader in the [British] Open at St Andrews last year he received a text from his mother Elisabet that read: “Well done, you’ve made the cut.” (He ended up tied-6th for his first top-10 finish in a Major.)

Best of all were the tweets from one of Willett’s brothers, another schoolteacher, during the final round of the Masters. PJ Willett tweeted: “If the boy does what he should, I will be able to say ‘I’ve shared a bath with a Masters winner’—brilliant.”

Not many people can say that.

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The Major set Kingdom’s tour of imaginary golf courses takes a new turn, as true to the majors theme in this issue we have assembled a layout of some of the greatest holes in the history of majors golf

E

ach hole in our fantasy course remains true to its hole number within its home course and we have tried to create a scorecard with a yardage and total par that is as realistic as possible (although a quintet of par-5s on the back nine might leave some golfers calling for a cart). Honestly, the process has not been easy.

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It has induced headaches and heartburn, debate and despair.

For every great hole included on these pages there are at least half a dozen classics denied. For most hole numbers it was more. Where do you even start with great 18th holes on major championship courses? It was a tough job but we had to do it. Here is Kingdom’s Majors 18‌

Cherry Hills, Colorado Par 4, 389 yards, Handicap 15

After 54 holes of the 1960 U.S. Open Arnold Palmer trailed by seven. As he sat in the clubhouse before the final round, Pittsburgh sportswriter Bob Drum laughed when Palmer spoke of winning. It was just the motivation he needed.

The downhill par-4 1st at Cherry Hills will forever be known as the launch pad for Palmer’s most dramatic comeback. Incensed that Drum doubted him, Palmer gave his opening shot of the final round everything he had, his tee shot rolled down onto the green, Palmer sunk the birdie putt and arguably the greatest final-round comeback in the history of the majors was off and running. Palmer would ultimately win by two.

Cherry Hills’ 1st has since been lengthened and is out of range for all but the most explosive of drivers, which would have been the intention of designer William Flynn back in 1922. We’re playing from the back tee, from where the whole course is in view. The main concerns are a treelined creek running down the right and a fairway bunker on the left. An accurate pitch to a small, sloping green with a swale across its middle is usually required to match Palmer’s three.

2

Kiawah Island (Ocean), South Carolina Par 5, 528 yards, Handicap 8

Kiawah Island rose to immediate prominence when it staged the 1991 Ryder Cup, the “War on the Shore”. The American hosts won with drama on the last green, when Bernhard Langer missed a six-foot putt to retain the cup for Europe.

The Pete Dye golf course was only half-baked in the fall of 1991, only just ready, but it produced a roasting Ryder Cup, and the PGA Championship duly followed to this stretch of Atlantic shoreline in 2012.

The 2nd hole on the Ocean Course is as challenging as it is beautiful. The first hurdle is to drive further than 175 yards in order to clear the marsh in front of the tee and reach the fairway. Always a carpet of impeccably groomed grass, the fairway will yield a second shot to the green from time to time, though the smart play is often to lay up short of the next belt of marsh that juts across the fairway, 110 yards short of the green. The pros play 543 yards of this hole but we are off the Ocean tee, a snip at 528.

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Photo: Larry Lambrect

1

Oakmont, Pennsylvania Par 4, 390 yards, Handicap 4

Welcome to one of the toughest tee shots on arguably the most demanding of all U.S. Open golf courses, 2016 venue Oakmont, outside Pittsburgh.

The famous Church Pews bunker occupies two acres of real estate down the left side of the fairway (it poses a similar threat on the returning 4th). For many golfers this is a place of worship, though Palmer might have dissented just after the photograph of him playing from the Church Pews during his final U.S. Open appearance in 1994 was taken. The Church Pews features 12 grass-covered ridges surrounded by sand, and often a sideways or backward chip is the only means of escape. A line of five forbidding traps down the right side offer no respite, although a straight drive could set up a relatively straightforward approach to an elevated green. However, a cluster of bunkers in front of the green—three right and two left—lie in wait.

The U.S. Open yardage here is 426 but we are inching forward to the blue tee at 390 yards. Stay straight.

4

Baltusrol (Lower), New Jersey Par 3, 186 yards, Handicap 11

In preparation for the 1954 U.S. Open, Baltusrol’s famous Lower Course was modernized by Robert Trent Jones Sr. without detriment to A.J. Tillinghast’s initial design. The most significant changes came at the ‘Famous Fourth’, which was lengthened by nearly 70 yards and toughened by reshaping the bunkers behind a terraced green. Jones’s alterations created a full carry over Tillinghast’s original pond and replaced the wooden façade between green and hazard with a distinctive rock wall.

Today the 4th is viewed as Baltusrol’s signature hole but the members weren’t always so pleased with it. After criticism that he’d made the hole too difficult, Jones said: “Let’s go play it and see if anything needs to be done.” After head pro Johnny Farrell and two prominent members had all hit the green, Jones stepped onto the tee and holed-in-one.

“Gentlemen, I think the hole is eminently fair,” he quipped.

Playing to 195 yards from the back in the 2016 PGA Championship, we are opting for the Tillinghast tee and a distance of 186 yards, to allow some players an extra club of loft.

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Pinehurst (No.2), North Carolina Par 5, 508 yards, Handicap 10

Of Pinehurst’s eight courses, its jewel in the crown is unquestionably No.2, Donald Ross’s masterpiece. Tommy Armour summed it up: “The man who doesn’t feel emotionally stirred when he plays golf at Pinehurst beneath those clear blue skies and with the pine fragrance in his nostrils is one who should be ruled out of golf for life. It’s the kind of course that gets into the blood of an old trooper.”

The 5th, once a par-4 behemoth, has boiled many a competitor’s blood. It averaged a score of 4.4 in the 2005 U.S. Open before Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore restored the course and lengthened the 5th into a more logical par-5.

The predominant feature of No. 2’s raised greens is how difficult they are to hit and hold, even from pristine lies. The putting surface here, an upside-down bowl with curvaceous contours and slick as ceramic, is no exception.

The 5th played to a lengthy 576 yards for the 2014 U.S. Open, when Martin Kaymer played the golf of his life to win by eight, but we are heading to the Blue tee and a more inviting yardage of 508. No.2 will receive its fourth U.S. Open in 2024.

Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

3

Daniel James Murphy / stonehousegolf.com

6

Carnoustie Golf Links, Scotland Par 5, 578 yards, Handicap 5

Carnoustie can be bleak—the least visually appealing of The Open courses—and if you (right-handed) hook your drive off the 6th you will feel the full force of Carnoustie’s dark side. Nonetheless, this is a golf hole for the ages.

The longest hole on the course at 578 yards from the back and usually played into the prevailing wind, we are playing to a more sympathetic 520 but that might not help with the drive. A fence and out of bounds press from the left, while a pair of bunkers occupy the center ground to unnerve the straightest of drivers. The bold play is to a narrow runway between the fence and the bunkers, which Ben Hogan found masterfully in the third and fourth rounds of The Open in 1953. Hogan sent out his customary fading drives towards out of bounds before his ball eased into the ideal landing area. On both occasions he struck a four-wood approach and two-putted for two birdies and he won by four.

The hole has since been known as “Hogan’s Alley”.

A burn angles in from the right, ahead of a green protected by four bunkers. Sandy Lyle, the Open champ of 1985, advised that par should always be the target here.

7

Pebble Beach Golf Links, California Par 3, 109 yards, Handicap 18

One of the shortest holes in majors golf, the downhill 7th at Pebble Beach is also one of the greatest. Five U.S. Opens and a PGA Championship have been staged over this enchantingly rugged piece of Californian coastline, and we will play the 6th to the same 109 yards as the pros. Why wouldn’t you?

It might seem on the card that this hole is a breather after the rigors of Pebble’s long, cliff-top 6th but nothing could be further from the truth. Standing on the tee, the roar of the pounding surf and crashing waves of Monterey Bay behind and to the right of the tiniest of greens (only 24 feet wide and surrounded by five bunkers) is intimidating to say the least. Club selection is predicated by the strength of the wind so the objective is to knock down a short iron and keep the ball from ballooning. Aim at the middle of the green and keep your fingers crossed.

That is what Tom Kite did in the final round of the 1992 U.S. Open, in near gale force winds. His tee shot missed the green but Kite holed the chip and won his only major title.

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Royal Troon (Old), Scotland Par 3, 123 yards, Handicap 17

Better known by its name than number, the tee on the diminutive “Postage Stamp” 8th on the Old Course at Royal Troon offers a superb view of Ailsa Craig in the Firth of Clyde. After a pretty long opening stretch to our fantasy 18 it is just a pity this hole follows the 7th at Pebble Beach, but that’s just how the divots fall. In fact, the R&A may set-up the Postage Stamp to play as short as 99 yards at the 2016 Open, depending on weather conditions. These are the two greatest very short holes in golf, so enjoy them.

The nickname was acquired in 1923 when Willie Park, Jr.—a winner of two Opens— wrote about a putting surface “skimmed down to the size of a Postage Stamp.” Another description aptly dubs it “the hardest stamp in the world to lick.”

The raised tee looks across a gully to a narrow green set beside a large dune and two bunkers to the left. A crater-shaped bunker shields the approach while the right is guarded by two deep traps with vertical faces. There’s no safe option—the ball either finds the green or plummets into trouble. Aged 71, Gene Sarazen famously holed in one during the 1973 Open.

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Royal Birkdale, England Par 4, 400 yards, Handicap 2

This demanding links, famed for its magnificent sand dunes, was the scene of Arnold Palmer’s first victory in the [British] Open in 1961 and the club owns an Open heritage that stretches far beyond. It was here that Australian Peter Thomson won his first and fifth Open titles—in 1954 and 1965—and also where Tom Watson clinched his fifth and final Open triumph in 1983—his only Open win outside Scotland.

The 9th hole, a left-to-right dogleg, is a classic example of how tough the course can play. It plays to 410 yards in The Open and we are taking it on at 400 off the yellows.

The blind tee shot needs to find the left half of the fairway although the wind often comes from the right and can blow the ball too far left into nasty rough. Before changes were made prior to the 2008 Open, many players took on the elbow but now, in all probability, such drives will fall into mounding and an uncertain fate. The putting surface is slightly elevated, thus placing a premium on club selection.

Anything short is likely to be gathered by one of the two symmetrically placed bunkers at the front but there’s also plenty of trouble in the deep rough over the back.

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Turnberry (Ailsa), Scotland Par 5, 495 yards, Handicap 14

Links specialist Martin Ebert has just completed a stunning redesign of the Ailsa course at “Trump Turnberry”, to keep it a relevant Open challenge and capitalize on the rocky landscape along the shoreline of the Firth of Clyde. The 10th—once an excellent par-4—is now a breathtaking par-5.

If and when The Open returns the players will have to cope with a yardage of 562, but having just enjoyed refreshments at Turnberry’s lighthouse—now a halfway house—we are playing from the Whites at 495. The green has been pushed on to where the 11th tee used to be, perched above the cliff, and the hole’s famous doughnut bunker has been relocated and reshaped to now stand as a serious danger to golfers trying to reach in two.

Turnberry has hosted four Opens. The first was the legendary “Duel in the Sun” in 1977 when Tom Watson outlasted Jack Nicklaus by one, and its last was in 2009, when Watson—aged 59—came within a whisker of writing golf’s greatest story. But his 8-iron to the last inexplicably crept off the green, he dropped a shot to slip into a playoff and Stewart Cink won.

David Cannon / Getty Images

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It’s knowing you’re not perfect. Yet hoping that maybe, just for one swing, you can be. It’s gaining complete focus. Pristine, laser-fine focus.

Because that focus isn’t just what’s required, that focus is why you’re here. Everything else dissipates into nothing. Sounds muffle. Touch is sharpened. Every detail is in the highest definition. And there you are.

In the moment. After this you can go back to all the flaws, the fears, the doubts and the doubters. But not now. Now there’s you and the ball. And the opportunity for a split-second of perfection. Wouldn’t that be nice?

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Augusta National, Georgia Par 4, 400 yards, Handicap 3

It’s easier said than done, but if possible golfers should make their way to Augusta National at least once, and they will see that genuinely, Amen Corner is incomparable. There is striking beauty, vivid history, natural tranquility and the combination is intoxicating. So our Majors 18 takes it all in, entering via 11, pivoting on 12 and departing through 13.

The Masters yardage for the 11th—White Dogwood— reaches a forbidding 505 yards these days so we are heading to the Members tee at 400 yards, from where the challenge remains stern. The first rule is to stay out of the trees on the left, from where there can be no return, whereas if drives veer right there will always be some kind of second shot, even if it might be restricted by tree trunks and branches. When golfers reach the brow of the fairway they are entering Amen Corner, with the 11th green down to the left, the 12th hole ahead and beyond, the 13th tee.

Key to the approach is clearly to avoid the pond to the left of the green, just ask local boy Larry Mize. His approach fell right of the green in the playoff against Greg Norman to decide the 1987 Masters. Norman was on the green but Mize chipped in for birdie from 140 feet. Vivid history.

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12

Augusta National, Georgia Par 3, 155 yards, Handicap 16

The par-3 12th—Golden Bell—is the most famous par-3 in golf. It’s only 155 from the back so what could possibly go wrong? Well, Jordan Spieth has an idea. He was in control on the 2016 Masters with seven to play, he had led the Masters since the first round of 2015, but here he tried to force his will over Amen Corner, went for the right-hand pin perched precariously over Rae’s Creek and came up short.

Calamity Corner. Six shots later and Spieth had posted a “quad” and the defence of his Masters title was sunk in the creek with two of his golf balls. Augusta is famous for the roars of the crowd rising from Amen Corner, but this time a collective gasp shuddered the pines.

Reflects Bernhard Langer, twice the Masters champion: “The green is angled from front-left to back-right and so is Rae’s Creek. Due to Amen Corner’s swirling winds I agree with Jack Nicklaus, in playing over the bunker even though the landing area is only about nine yards deep.”

Amen Corner can mess with you. Sometimes the flag on 11 can be flying one way while the flag on 12 goes another. Then you throw up some grass and find a third wind direction. Say a prayer, swing hard.

13

Augusta National, Georgia Par 5, 510 yards, Handicap 13

Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

From the most famous par-3 in golf to the most famous par-5—Azalea. The members play to 455 yards here but we are going to stick with the authentic Masters experience and go from the back at 510. It’s an elevated tee after all.

The fairway bends to the left with a tributary from Rae’s Creek as company the whole way, before the zigzagging waterway cuts in from the left-hand side and in front of the green. A draw from the tee is ideal as long as it stays above the creek, and a hanging lie for the second shot is less pronounced down the left side of the fairway.

This is a classic risk-and-reward par-5. Remember Phil Mickelson’s six-iron from 207 yards in the pine straw on the right? That was the final round in 2010. He holed the birdie putt and won his third Green Jacket by three.

There are rumblings about Augusta National buying land from neighboring Augusta Country Club in order to lengthen 13. The club will proceed with care and it must, here more than on any other hole.

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15

PGA National (Champion), Florida Par 3, 163 yards, Handicap 12

And to the “Bear Trap,” arguably the toughest three-hole stretch on the PGA TOUR. The Champion course at PGA National was originally designed by Tom & George Fazio and hosted the PGA Championship twice (1971 and 1987) before being reworked by Jack Nicklaus in 2014 and it is home to the Honda Classic. The Bear Trap incorporates holes 15, 16 and 17.

Wrote Karen Crouse of The New York Times: “The Champions layout at PGA National is 7,140 yards of venom, a king cobra of a course that rises without warning to strike down the world’s best golfers. Snake charmers may have a better chance of taming it.”

The par-3 15th is a slicer’s nightmare, with a lake dominating short of the green, to the right and long. Playing 176 yards on tour, and perhaps a club shorter on our card at 163 off the gold tee, a broad bunker awaits a pulled tee shot, although golfers are permitted a bail-out area, short and left.

Says Nicklaus: “It’s about precision. It’s about guts.”

Baltimore, Maryland Par 5, 603 yards, Handicap 5

Founded in 1898, Baltimore Country Club is among the oldest golf clubs in the United States and its original Roland Park Golf Course—which is sadly no longer with us—was the first golf course in Maryland to hold a major championship, when the fifth U.S. Open was played there in 1899, won by Scotland’s Willie Smith.

The club’s current East Course at Five Farms in Timonium was designed by A.W. Tillinghast and opened in 1926, and it was widely lauded as superior to the original course from the outset. Like its predecessor, it did not take long for the Five Farms East course to gain major recognition, with the 1928 PGA Championship going there. Under the direction of Keith Foster, restoration of the East Course was completed last year.

The 14th is called ‘Hell’s Half Acre’, after an unkempt and unforgiving hilltop bunker complex that must be cleared by what would typically be a second shot. At 603 yards from the tips, this is a genuine three-shotter today.

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16

Shinnecock Hills, New York Par 5, 542 yards, Handicap 7

Our golfing journey now heads north up the eastern seaboard of the United States to New York, and to a grandee of golf courses that regularly, inevitably features in our fantasy compilations, Shinnecock Hills. Founded in 1891, Shinnecock Hills was one of the five founding member clubs of the USGA and the original 12-hole course was built with the help of 150 Shinnecock Indians from a nearby reservation. The club hosted the second U.S. Open in 1896 and has held the event three times since, including its 100th anniversary in 1995, with the 2018 chapter also slated for the Long Island club.

The existing 18-hole championship course was designed by William Flynn and opened in 1931 and it occupies an exceptional parcel of land with Peconic Bay on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. An open course over which winds frequently change direction—as do the holes—with over 150 bunkers Shinnecock is often likened to the finest British links.

The par-five 16th—called ‘Shinnecock’—runs to 542 yards from the back Red tee and in homage that is where we are heading, even if it means golfers toiling against Shinnecock’s prevailing wind. An ‘S’ shaped fairway is well protected by bunkers on both sides and by the thick golden meadow grass that can reach knee high. Rarely is par such a good score on a par-five of this yardage.

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St. Andrews (Old), Scotland Par 4, 436 yards, Handicap 1

And from one of the oldest courses in America to the oldest of them all—the mother ship—the Old Course at St Andrews, and to its famous 17th, the “Road Hole”. The Old Course is the spiritual home of golf and for The [British] Open, which has been played over the Old Course 29 times, far more than any other course. The clubhouse of the R&A sits like a throne behind the first tee, and while it would be too simplistic to describe the Road Hole as the signature hole of the Old Course, it is certainly the most distinct hole here. A brutal par four if played into the wind, with a glint in his eye Seve Ballesteros—Open champ on the Old Course in 1984—once described 17 as “the best par five in golf”.

A new tee extended the Road Hole to almost 500 yards in time for the 2010 Open, which only added to the sheer majesty and complexity of this incredible hole, although we are going off the Yellow tee at 436 yards, from which there remains plenty of golf hole to negotiate. It is the ultimate double-dogleg. Off the tee, the drive needs to be fashioned as a slight fade over the wall of the Old Course Hotel to hold the fairway; then a second shot shaped gently from right to left is the best route into a long, tantalizing green protected to the right by the eponymous road and its stone wall beyond. To the front left of the green lies the shadowy, sheer-faced bunker that has ruined more scores than any other bunker in golf.

Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

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Pebble Beach, California Par 5, 543 yards, Handicap 9

Pebble Beach, designed in 1918 by Jack Neville and Douglas Grant along an intoxicating stretch of cliff-top Pacific coastline, has become synonymous with the modern U.S. Open, having staged the national championship five times since 1972. That is why—with the exception of Augusta National—this is the only golf course we are visiting more than once in this 18 holes, and it is entirely fitting that we close our round at Pebble Beach’s remarkable 18th.

This golf course has established a track record for exacting standards, in terms of course preparation and in what it demands from golfers who take it on. Nowhere is this borne out more acutely than on the par-5 18th—for many pros still a genuine three-shotter—with the ocean a constant threat down the left. It measures 543 yards from the back and that is where we are playing from, to close out with an authentic U.S. Open experience. Take in the ocean vista, breathe in the sea air and then disregard it as you stand over the tee ball, and think only of delivering down a line that is left of the trees. The second shot should finish on the left half of the fairway to avoid the tree overhanging the green, while a short-iron approach must carry the front trap; then finally, remember that putts on 18 tend to fall towards the ocean.

Kingdom Scorecard – The Major Set Hole

Course

Par

Yards H/cap

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Cherry Hills Kiawah Island (Ocean) Oakmont Baltusrol (Lower) Pinehurst (No.2) Carnoustie Pebble Beach Royal Troon (Old) Royal Birkdale

4 5 4 3 5 5 3 3 4

389 528 390 186 508 578 109 123 400

Front 9

36 3,211

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

5 4 3 5 5 3 5 4 5

Turnberry (Ailsa) Augusta National, Georgia Augusta National, Georgia Augusta National, Georgia Baltimore, Maryland PGA National (Champion) Shinnecock Hills, New York St. Andrews (Old), Scotland Pebble Beach, California

495 400 155 510 603 163 542 436 543

Back 9

39 3,847

TOTAL

75

15 8 4 11 10 6 18 17 2

14 3 16 13 5 12 7 1 9

7,058

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Golden Standard The resurrection of Olympic golf is nearly upon us, 112 years after the sport last featured in the Summer Games. Majors have been moved, a new golf course has been built and players are vying for the chance to compete for Olympic gold. We hear from two of the central figures of Olympic golf in 2016, the Olympic courses designer Gil Hanse and Paul McGinley, the last European Ryder Cup captain, who will be leading an Irish golf team in Rio that looks set to include Rory McIlroy 80

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The march to Marapendi Gil Hanse’s Olympic design takes center stage in August when the controversial development becomes the first course to host an Olympic golf event in 112 years. Tony Dear reports

W

hen, in March 2012, he was chosen to design the golf course for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Gil Hanse remembers having a hard time holding back tears. He’d beaten out seven big-name finalists—Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, and Gary Player among them—to build what would surely become one of the most important courses in the game’s history.

Once the initial excitement following his selection had passed, Hanse says he felt a huge surge of pride. “I thought that Jim (Wagner, Hanse’s design partner) and I had worked hard for decades, and that we were now being recognized for that hard work, and the quality of our proposal,” he adds. “We weren’t being recognized for our names.”

Given the significance of the project and the size of his task, it’s perhaps surprising Hanse didn’t feel any nerves. “We usually save those for when the players come and play the course,” he says. “We’re always confident we would do the best job possible, but it still has to be judged by the people who actually play it.”

Hanse insists his approach for the Olympic course, to be built on the Reserva de Marapendi in the affluent Rio suburb of Barra da Tijuca, wasn’t any different to what it might be for the restoration of a quiet, nine-hole, private club in the US. He and Wagner talked a lot about just doing what they do, with the only divergence coming from teaming up with Hall of Fame golfer Amy Alcott, who would see the course from the womens’ perspective.

“Amy was a key part of our presentation to the selection committee,” says Hanse. “She focused on playability for the lady golfers. Apart from that though, we didn’t want to overdo it because it was the Olympics.”

The acid test for the new Olympic golf course will be the Olympic golf tournament itself in August

It was a wise philosophy; why, after all, would you deviate from what had proven so successful before?

Ninety-nine times out of 100, (or 58 out of 59 – the number of jobs, completed and in progress, he lists on his website), Hanse would have used his tried and tested methods to achieve maximum impact with the minimum fuss. The job would have been completed on time, on or under budget, and to the great satisfaction of the owner, municipality, or club members.

In Rio, however, Hanse and Wagner had to deal with a very different set of issues to those they normally encounter, and their established formula would likewise need to change entirely. Here, comparatively trivial problems such as the relocation of an irrigation pond or fronting bunker were replaced by clashes between environmentalists and organizers over the course’s location, between tax-payers and government officials over who was paying for it, and between various parties over who actually owned the land on which the course was to be built.

Not only would Hanse work under intense media scrutiny from beginning to end, but with vociferous public demonstrations going on just across the street.

Piecing together a list of the numerous controversies and setbacks the course suffered during its three-year-long development is an arduous business.

Every week, it seemed, a new dispute would emerge,

Hanse would work under intense media scrutiny... with vociferous public demonstrations going on

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but none more troubling than the somewhat dubious relationship between the Mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, and the billionaire developer, Pasquale Mauro, who claimed he owned the 240 acres the course would cover. Mauro’s company Fiori Empreendimentos would construct the 18 holes and clubhouse, and it stood to gain tremendously by selling luxury condos in the 23 apartment blocks—22-storeys in each—he had been granted permission to build overlooking the course, despite an existing regulation that stated no building this close to the coast could be more than six storeys.

Hanse eventually broke ground on the par-71, 7,290-yard layout in April 2013, six months after the intended start date. Progress on the course was slowed by court cases, political wrangling and the developer failing to pay Hanse and his team their agreed installments on time, and Hanse could not control any of it.

“There wasn’t a lot we could do,” he says. “We knew these things were happening, but didn’t dwell on them.

The most stressful parts involved aspects we thought we could control; methodology, equipment, schedule and specifications. After several months, however, it became clear we would not be managing those areas, and would need to be very patient when dealing with the land owner.”

It was with some relief that Hanse announced construction of the course was complete in January 2015, and when Paes officially unveiled it in November following almost a year of grow-in, the golf media and Olympic officials gave a collective, and almost audible, ‘phew’.

The environmentalists were certainly not delighted the course was finished after claiming it had been harmful to Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, the endangered Fluminese Swallowtail Butterfly and Barredtailed Pearlfish, but they were at least pacified after learning workers from Mauro’s construction company had planted an estimated 650,000 seedlings during construction, raising the amount of land covered by native vegetation from 10% to 67%. Better still, the site ended up with 127 more species of plants and wildlife than the 118 that had been catalogued prior to work starting.

A test event featuring nine Brazilian players took place in March of this year when the consensus seemed to be the course would be a worthy test for the two (men’s and women’s) Olympic fields of 60.

Hanse, who will be attending the event, hopes his course will be the stage for two compelling competitions, and that an iconic Olympic moment will be associated with golf. “Really I just hope we have two great Gold medalists,” he adds. “I think that would really help grow the game both in Brazil and around the world.”

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“I just hope we have two great golf medalists... that would really help grow the game both in Brazil and around the world” —Gil Hanse

Olympic golf course designer Gil Hanse

RIO’S DYNAMIC DUO The announcement that a new course would be built to host the Olympics in Rio came as bad news for the city’s two other 18-hole clubs—Gaveá GCC and Itanhangá GC—both of which desperately wanted to host the tournament. Gaveá, south west of the city and located at the foot of the formidable Pedra da Gaveá, a 2,769ft granite outcropping, was where Gary Player shot a 59 during the 1974 Brazilian Open. First laid out in 1923, it was renovated by great Canadian architect Stanley Thompson in the 1930s.

Thompson, and his associate Robert Trent Jones, also had a hand in the design of the beautiful, 27-hole Itanhangá on the opposite side of Pedra da Gaveá, about a 15-minute drive east of the Olympic Course.

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Leading from the front Paul McGinley was captain of the victorious European Ryder Cup team at Gleneagles in 2014.

Widely regarded as one of the most inspiring captains in Ryder Cup history, McGinley’s next challenge is to lead the Irish Olympic golf team. He spoke exclusively to Kingdom

Paul McGinley with the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles in September 2014, and [above] the Olympic golf course

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Kingdom: You paid a visit to the new Olympic golf course in Rio in March. What did you make of it?

PMcG: The golf course has a linksy style and it is in perfect condition. They could have a tournament there tomorrow morning, it is so good. The course is only a couple kilometers from the ocean so we can expect a strong, stiff breeze to blow across. From the American perspective it has similarities to Sea Island, Georgia and Kiawah Island. The turf is on the firm side and it is sand-based so the ball will get a lot of run on downwind shots. It’s a really good test.

The course is going to create a lot of excitement for the players and crowds and it has a great finish. The 16th is a driveable par-4, the 17th is a short par-3 of only 120 yards, and then there is a par-5 18th, so golfers will have the chance to maybe finish their round 2-2-3, eagle-birdie-eagle, five under for the last three holes.

What are your priorities as a non-playing Team Leader?

I am the guy in the middle liaising between the players and the Olympic Council of Ireland. I need to be aware of how our golfers need to prepare for competition and I need to work out what we can do to ensure the players have the best opportunity to go and play well and try to win a medal.

You fostered a fantastic team spirit among the European Ryder Cup team two years ago at Gleneagles, but the

Olympics is going to be very different. Will team spirit still be a factor?

It will. Firstly, we are going to be staying in the Olympic Village. Your uniform as an Irish athlete is your identity walking around the Olympic Village. All the Irish golfers in Rio love other sports and they will watch other events and be fully involved with the Irish team. Creating that team atmosphere is critical, although at the same time the golfers will be competing as individuals.

McGinley served as vice captain on Jose Maria Olazabal’s team that won the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah

Running a successful team can’t be all that different from running a successful business can it?

Absolutely. There is lots of common ground and this is something I have looked at in detail with my partners at EY. In business and in sport you need to assess a situation, gather all the information you can and then find a solution that plays to your strengths. In business and in golf you need to track results, examine metrics and set goals. It’s just that while a business is judged by profit and loss, with the Olympics my analysis is based on scores and medals.

The leader of a sports team needs to know his or her players too—know where their strengths and weaknesses lie and that is exactly the same in a business environment. Communication is also key: I need to communicate effectively with the Irish golfers to ensure everything is in place for them to perform at their best.

Teams cannot realize their potential without great communication.

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Rory McIlroy celebrates victory in the 2016 Irish Open

“In future years they might look outside of the box and make it more of a team event” —Paul McGinley Anirban Lahiri will not be short of support at the Olympics

Rory McIlroy is someone you know very well and he is likely to be on the Irish team. What will it be like for one of golf’s icons to be part of the Olympics?

Rory is a leader in golf and he understands the role he plays, in terms of representing Ireland and in representing our sport.

He is a big picture guy and he has a clear appreciation of the scale of the event we are getting into. Rory loves sports and he will engage with the other athletes and watch other events and encourage the other Irish athletes to hopefully win some medals.

Does the Olympics represent the greatest growth opportunity for golf worldwide?

It does. By having golf in the Olympics it puts golf on the radar in a lot of countries where golf has not been a factor in the past.

A lot of countries fund sports depending on whether they are in the Olympics so hopefully a lot more governments will now fund golf development.

In the Olympics, people watch sports they have never previously taken an interest in—I know I do. I watch sports even though I have no idea of the rules, but you see team spirit and you see athletes pushing themselves to win a gold medal and you can get consumed by it. Golf will be that way for a lot of people who have never watched golf before. The big picture is to grow the game, not who wins gold.

The International Golf Federation has been criticized for not bringing a match play element and mixed golf. What do you make of the 72-hole, stroke play, individual format?

The whole idea of this first Olympics is to get it off and running and to see what’s possible. In future years I think they might look a little bit outside the box and make it more of a team event. There are all kinds of options, like mixed foursomes. The players are open to different formats but for this year I understand the conservatism.

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GOLF’S NEW FRONTIERS Anirban Lahiri is India’s finest golfer. When he tied for fifth at the 2015 PGA Championship it was the best finish by an Indian golfer in a major, and he become the first Indian golfer to play in the Presidents Cup. Coming from a country of 1.25 billion people, where the dominant sport by a mile is cricket, it is hard to measure the impact Lahiri’s potential participation in the Rio Olympics would have in his home country.

“It would be huge,” says Lahiri. “How many people watch the Olympics in India? I would say eight or nine out of 10 people. How many people watch the Masters?

Probably one out of 100. Just in terms of eyeballs, just in terms of popularity, in terms of just making people aware of the sport or having the government take a stronger initiative to promote the sport, it would be massive.”

There is the essence of golf’s Olympic adventure.

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RIO DE JANEIRO

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Glamorous, sexy, lively, exciting, and a bit rough round the edges: that’s the image Rio has worldwide, and it’s all true. Caressed by tropical sunshine, with some of the world’s most sumptuous beaches on its doorstep, Rio is as stunningly gorgeous as they say, and it couldn’t ask for a more beautiful setting. The city sits at the entrance to the fabulous Guanabara Bay, against lush mountains that give it a magnificent backdrop and, should you choose to ascend them, a perfect point from which to enjoy the view. True, not everyone in town is as prosperous as they might be and there are neighborhoods you definitely wouldn’t want to venture into unawares, but even Rio’s shanty-town favelas have a certain beauty, making Rio a complete experience across the entire spectrum. Bold and living life to the fullest, Rio beckons with open arms.

Daniel Jacobs offers an introduction...

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BEACH LIFE W Who hasn’t heard of Copacabana or Ipanema? But those aren’t Rio’s only beaches, even if they are conveniently served by the city’s subway. Copacabana has gone a bit to seed since the heady days of the 1950s, when Carmen Miranda sang with fruit on her head, but the beach is due to get a new Sound and Image Museum (Museu da Imagem e do Som) in time for the Olympics, with displays on Brazilian media—and a room full of Miranda memorabilia, including some of her fruitier headwear.

In Copacabana, consider the Copacabana Palace (copacabanapalace.com.br), an opulent Art Deco stop that’s Rio’s number one place to stay, if you can bag a booking. Failing that, the area has plenty of reasonable beach hotels, but it isn’t the chic playground of the rich that it once was, and its charms are a bit faded.

Ipanema, on the other hand, still has cachet by the bucket load. Like Copacabana, it’s divided into sections called postos, each with its own fans: Posto 7 is favoured by surfers, posto 8 by the gay community, posto 9 by the young and trendy. Should you need swimwear here, you’re in luck: The store that started it all is Bumbum (bumbum.com.br) at 351 Visconde de Pirajá, famous for pioneering itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny bikinis (this is where the “dental floss thong” was invented), and it remains Rio’s top store for designer beachwear today. Even more famous is the Garota de Ipanema at 49 Rua Vinícius de Morais, the bar where Tom Jobim wrote his hit tune Girl from Ipanema, and a great place to down ice-cold beers.

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Ossos in Buzios, Rio de Janeiro

Rio’s primo beaches nowadays are further along the coast toward the Olympic Village at Barra de Tijuca, and indeed Barra de Tijuca’s own 11-mile beach tops the bill. It’s becoming rather built-up, with luxury malls, apartment blocks and hotels, but it’s the handiest area to stay in if you’re here for the Olympics. The metrô (subway, metrorio.com.br) is meant to reach Barra de Tijuca by the time the Olympics open, but it’s still touch-and-go whether the new section of line will be open in time. Meanwhile, the beach is a lot cleaner than those nearer the centre of town, and less crowded.

If Barra de Tijuca is still not quiet enough, the little cove of Prainha, 10 miles or so further down the coast, could be what you need. Full of surfers on weekends, it’s as tranquil a spot as you could wish for during the week, a stunning bay with a backdrop of green, forested hills. Disadvantages include a fierce and dangerous undertow, and sparsity of public transport; ask your hotel to arrange a cab for the round trip.

Or you could leave Rio behind and head three hours up the coast to Buzios, Brazil’s answer to St Tropez. This is where the in-crowd comes to desport, with a choice of superb beaches, top dining, and some lovely little places to stay, although you’ll need to book ahead. Well-heeled Cariocas (natives of Rio) love the place, as do tourists from Argentina, which of course means there are some excellent slabs of steer on offer. The best joint in town to sink your teeth into a chorizo steak (sirloin strip, the favorite Argentine cut) is Estância Don Juan, at 178 Rua das Pedras (estanciadonjuan.com.br), but the place to be seen at is the Bar do Zé at 382 Rua Orla Bardot, known for its fine fish dishes—arrive early if you can, to bag an outside table before all the local celebs turn up.

Rio Carnival With more than 2 million people jamming the city’s streets each day during the fest, Rio’s Carnival might be the world’s biggest party.

First held in the early 18th century, the party is primarily a showcase for (if not a battle among) Rio’s numerous samba schools, many of which create elaborate floats, costumes and choreographed dances for the festival.

Occurring just before Lent, Carnival most often appears in February, and while one can’t escape the action anywhere in Rio at this time, it all comes together in the Sambadrome viewing area. Access to that is via pre-purchased tickets, which can go for thousands of dollars—so book early and bring your party spirit.

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FOOD Feijoada From the Portuguese word for beans (feijão), Brazilians took ownership of this dish when they added black beans, pork trimmings, bacon, sausage and side dishes like plantains, carrots and rice. As much a part of Brazilian culture as the samba, Feijoada is a slow-cooked stew that’s meant to be enjoyed leisurely.

Accordingly, it’s typically served on weekends with friends, libation and plenty of conversation. Note: the orange slices on the plate aren’t there for garnish: they’re meant to help with digestion—help this often heavy, delicious meal can use.

Not that you’ll starve in Rio. Given its location, it’s not surprising there’s excellent seafood here, and some of the best places is at the Rio-Minho at 10 Rua do Ouvidor, by the port in the center of town, which has been going since 1884. It’s open for lunch only, but the fish is superb.

You can’t go wrong with their fresh fish of the day, but check out the sopa Leão Veloso, Rio’s famous seafood soup, which was invented in this very restaurant.

Unless you’re a vegetarian you’ll want to check out a good churrascaria—an eat-all-you-want meat restaurant with a fixed price and a bottomless grill.

One of the best is Porcão Rio’s (porcao.com.br) in the Parque do Flamengo, a waterside park just south of the city center. Here you can feast on succulent cuts of beef, pork or chicken, grilled and carved before your very eyes, with a range of salads and deserts to accompany, all included in the price. There are branches in Ipanema and Barra de Tijuca too, although Barra de Tijuca’s top churrascaria is generally rated to be Rio Brasa at 2541 Avenida Ayrton Senna (riobrasa.com.br).

For down-to-earth food at down-to-earth prices, check out Adega Portugália at 66a Largo do Machado in Catete, a popular bar on a large square where you can watch the world go by over a cold beer, accompanied by some of the best cabrito assado (roast goat) or bolinhos de bacalhau (saltfish croquette balls) in town.

Copacabana meanwhile boasts a great little street-corner seafood joint, the Caranguejo at 771 Rua Barata Ribeiro

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(restauranteocaranguejo.com.br), where starters include a plate of juicy crab claws, and you can follow them with the house moqueca, a menagerie of crustaceans stewed in palm oil and coconut milk.

Brazil’s simple dish par excellence (or por excelência) is feijoada, a hearty stew of pork, sausage and beans that warms the cockles and sticks to the ribs. Considered the national dish, it also claims to be Brazil’s answer to soul food, although its supposed slave origins are more myth than fact. It’s traditionally served on Friday, which is the best day to find it, preferably in a local spot like the Bar Urca (barurca.com.br) at 205 Rua Cândido Gaffrée in Urca, the neighborhood at the foot of Sugar Loaf Mountain. If you can’t wait, the Casa da Feijoada at 10 Rua Prudente de Morais in Ipanema serves it seven days a week.

For regional cuisine, head to the charming hillside neighborhood of Santa Teresa, whose cobbled streets offer superb vistas over the city below. You can take a cab, but Santa Teresa has its own tramway, and though service has been suspended on most of the system following an accident in 2011, the lower part has now been re-instated, and trams rattle up from the downtown terminal in Lapa every 20 minutes from

11am until 4pm. Once up there, you’re rather spoiled for choice in the way of eating options. Aprazível at 62 Rua Aprazível (aprazivel.com.br) is Santa Teresa’s classiest establishment (don’t bother to turn up without a reservation) where the fine cuisine—from Brazil’s Minas Gerais region, but with a strong French influence— comes with excellent views to take in while you dine. On Rua Almirante Alexandrino, the neighborhood’s main artery, the food is still fine, but the ambience is a touch more rustic: Espírito Santa at #264 (espiritosanta.com.br) serves dishes from almost every region of Brazil on its scenic terrace, while Bar do Arnaudo at #316 is, as its name suggests, more a tavern than a restaurant, but it’s a great place to stop for some solid no-nonsense dishes from Brazil’s northeastern region, notably the house speciality, which is carne do sol (sun-dried meat).

Local pleasures such as sun-dried meats and feijoada are experiences not to be missed

Do’s and Don’ts to stay safe in Rio Like all big South American cities Rio has quite a high crime rate, but common sense and simple precautions will keep you safe:

Music Walk into a record store in Brazil and say you want something from a member of the Gilberto family and you’ll walk out happy. Guitarist João Gilberto invented the bossa nova sound, famously heralded on his 1964 Getz/Gilberto recording with American jazz artist Stan Getz, which features the song “Girl From Ipanema,” on which João’s first wife Astrud Gilberto sang.

Daughter Bebel Gilberto (from another marriage) is the modern torch-bearer, mixing her father’s style with contemporary electronica and her own beautiful voice.

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• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

DO use cabs to get about—they’re safe, cheap and ubiquitous DO leave your valuables in your hotel safe box DO walk purposefully and look like you know where you’re going DO dress like a local as much as possible DO be on your guard at bus stations and airports, hotspots for theft DON’T make it too obvious that you’re a tourist DON’T carry large amounts of cash (or plastic) if you can avoid it DON’T keep your wallet in your back pocket DON’T keep money or valuables in an easy-to-snatch handbag DON’T flash your camera about (a small, discreet one is best) DON’T wander off into badly lit side streets at night, especially drunk DON’T frequent empty streets in the city, especially on Sunday DON’T go into favelas unless you know they’re safe DON’T leave your belongings unattended on the beach DON’T go onto the beaches at night

Follow these rules and you should be OK. If you do get held up, hand over the money with no fuss and call it a holiday experience; if you don’t have too much on you, it won’t break the bank.

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DRINKING AND NIGHTLIFE Caipirinha The national drink of Brazil, this simple but potent drink likely began in the early 20th century as a treatment for Spanish flu. The original recipe included garlic and honey, both of which were dropped in favor of sugar (to cut the acidity of the lime) and ice. Still used in Brazil to treat the common cold (we say why not?), its humble origins (the name is a derivative of a Portuguese word for “redneck”) belie its current place atop bar menus in the finest of Rio’s watering holes.

1.5oz Cachaça half a lime cut into four wedges 2 tsp sugar

Place lime and sugar into an Old Fashioned glass and muddle. Fill with crushed ice and add the Cachaça.

Official recipe, from the International Bartenders Association

Brazil has a fair few breweries, whose beer is easy enough to quaff and usually served ice-cold. It isn’t the best on the planet, but on a hot day it sure goes down a treat. Brazil’s national drink however, which you really should try—unless perhaps you’re a teetotaler—is caipirinha (pronounced “kai-pir-een-ya”). Now there are cocktails and there are cocktails, and some of them slip down like lemonade, so you barely notice you’re drinking anything alcoholic at all. Caipirinha isn’t like that. True, it starts off with limes, sugar and ice, but it then gets a serious dousing in cachaça, Brazil’s fiery cane spirit, and boy oh boy can you taste the alcohol. In some places you’ll find variations on the theme, in which the lime is replaced by passion fruit or something more exotic— raspberry and a local fruit called jabuticaba make a red caipirinha, and stranger combinations include tangerine and chilli, or mango and black pepper.

As for where to drink a caipirinha, well, any bar will do you one, but if you want to make an evening of it head down to Lapa, Rio’s nightlife center, a short way southwest of the city center itself, fronted by an 18th-century aqueduct that doubles as the neighborhood’s symbol and logo. Every night, and especially toward the weekend, Lapa’s main drag, Avenida Mem de Sá, becomes a Mecca for Cariocas in a party mood. Café Cultural Sacrilégio at 81 Mem de Sá (sacrilegio.com.br) is always fun and friendly, with live samba music every night from Tuesday to Saturday and a dancefloor that’s guaranteed to be packed by the end of the evening. For something a touch more sophisticated, Santo Scenarium at 36 Rua do Lavradio (santoscenarium.com.br) on a street running off Mem de Sá toward the city center, is so full of amazing antiques— paintings, sculptures, statues of saints taken from old churches—that it’s almost a museum. The music is more laid-back, light jazz rather than salsa, but the same owner runs a more upbeat bar at Rio Scenarium, just a few doors down at #20 (rioscenarium.com.br), where it’s wise to book at weekends or you’ll be standing in line to get in. And as you’re close to the center here, which can get a bit seedy at night, remember not to go wandering off down any ill-lit side streets at the end of the evening, especially if carrying all your worldy wealth in your back pocket.

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SIGHTS A As a tourist, you’ll definitely want to take the cog train up the Corcovado mountain to see the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer. Don’t forget: you’ll need to get tickets in advance (corcovado.com.br). It’s wise to check the forecast as well, as it would be shame to visit on a cloudy day and miss the fabulous views from the top.

Rio’s other famous protruberance, Sugar Loaf Mountain, is served by cable car, and doesn’t require advance reservation, although booking online (bondinho.com.br) does save you having to stand in line when you arrive.

Particularly if you’re staying in Barra de Tijuca, you may fancy a stroll in Tijuca National Park (parquedatijuca. com.br)—nearly 50 square miles of lush, forested hills.

It’s a haven for monkeys, sloths, ocelots and exotic birds, and most hotels and travel agents organize excursions.

Even Rio’s infamous favelas are open to visitors, but you’ll want to go with a local. Clinging precariously to the hillsides around the city, the favelas are notorious for the drug-related violence featured in films such as City of God, but it isn’t all bad, and the tenacious community spirit is a testament to people’s resilience in the face of adversity. Favela Tour (favelatour.com.br) and Favela Adventures (favelatour.org) both offer English-speaking guides who come from the communities themselves.

Quirkier sights include the Escadaria de Selarón (“Selarón’s starirway”), a set of stairs decorated with colored tiles by Chilean artist Jorge Selarón as a tribute to the people of Brazil. Selarón was murdered by gangsters in 2013 because he refused to pay them protection money, and the staircase is now his own tribute.

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City of God This 2002 Brazilian film is a beautiful if haunting semi-fictionalized look at the dynamics of life in Rio’s favelas (slums), specifically in the real-life Cidade de Deus suburb, and in fact many of the actors were residents of that neighborhood and of other favelas. Nominated for four Academy Awards, from Directors Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, based on the Paulo Lins novel.

From the ferry port on Praça XV de Novembro in the city center, boats run regularly to Ilha de Paquetá, an island in Guanabara Bay that covers less than a square mile and which makes a popular day trip. Once there, you can take a horse-cart for a leisurely tour, and time your journey back to watch the sun set over Rio from your boat.

Another ferry excursion is across the bay to Niterói, where the fish market makes an excellent spot for lunch.

But what brings most visitors to Niterói is the work of Brazil’s most renowned architect, Oscar Niemeyer, best known for his futuristic buildings in the purpose-made Brazilian capital at Brasilia. Here in Niterói, he designed a People’s Theatre (teatropopularoscarniemeyer.art.br) and a memorial to state governor Roberto Silveira, who died in a 1961 helicopter crash; both are very close by the ferry port. Just a mile down the road, Niemeyer’s most famous Niterói construction, the Contemporary Art Museum (macniteroi.com.br), like so many of his buildings, looks like a flying saucer. The paintings inside are a bit so-so, but after all, it’s the building itself that you come to see—as you do the city as a whole, of course. And wherever you go, Rio is sure to thrill.

Daly at this year’s AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am at the Monterey Peninsula Country Club (Shore Course)

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Carson Daly One of the most recognizable voices and faces in American media today, Carson Daly picked up a club long before he sat in front of a microphone. Here, he tells Kingdom how close he came to a career on course…

A

mong the crowd of celebrities who fill foursomes for pro ams and charity tournaments, there are those who golf because it helps their careers, those who golf because it helps them with rehab or personal issues, and those who play simply because they enjoy it. Nearly all of them came to the game after they became successful. And then there’s Carson Daly.

“When I was 18 I dropped out of college and tried to qualify for the U.S. Open,” he says, halfway through one of his days as one of the busiest men in media. “I played a lot of golf between 13 and 18; that’s pretty much all I did. But then at 18 I tried to qualify for the U.S. Open and, I don’t know, I just had a blowup hole and I kind of just burned out.”

Daly, 42 at press time, was born in Santa Monica, Calif., to Pattie Daly Caruso, who’d moved from North Carolina to act, and his father, J.D. Daly, who worked as a Corvette dealer. Daly’s father died from bladder cancer when Carson was 5 (one of Carson’s several tattoos commemorates J.D.) and his mother eventually remarried Richard Caruso, who, as it happens, was into golf.

“He ran the golf shop at Riviera Country Club in the Palisades and he worked for the PGA of America for a while.

He worked as chairman of a tournament at Riviera, and of other tournaments, and he owned a men’s clothing shop in Santa Monica, so he worked in golf his whole life.”

While Daly didn’t immediately jump into the game Richard always made it available, and eventually it took.

“My relationship with my stepfather is as strong as it is today because of the game of golf,” Daly says. He never tried to force anything in creating a relationship with me and my sister [Quinn]—we called him ‘Richard’ for a long time until we felt comfortable—but he led by example. The guy went to work and supported our family, and after a while you think, ‘This guy’s pretty solid.’ He played golf on Sundays and we would go to the club. I got lessons; didn’t like it at first and it wasn’t the greatest thing, but he never pushed it on me. And then the summer before my freshman year in high school I got bit by the golf bug. I came to the sport, and that summer all I wanted to do was golf.”

Daly worked as a caddy at Riviera and at a few other courses in Los Angeles, he joined junior golf associations and spent a lot of time on course. At school, he joined the golf team and seems to have been one of those generally likable guys, an early version of the immensely popular man he is today. But he had his eyes set on course, not media.

“I went to public school my whole life, and I went to Santa Monica high. It was very diverse,” Daly remembers.

“Golf wasn’t this thing; this was before Tiger made golf cool. Maybe playing golf in the late ’80s in high school was pretty much like being in the band in some ways? We had

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GRATITUDE GOES A LONG WAY A BLEND OF OUR MOST EXCLUSIVE WHISKIES

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a lot of surfers and athletes, a strong music program, good scholastics… I was on the golf team, and while I wasn’t ‘Mr. Popular’—we had those guys—I wasn’t lonely either. I would have been a good politician in my school: I could have given a speech and gotten a lot of votes.’

“I made a group of friends in golf; Jason Gore is a tour player today, and Tiger, and a couple of guys like that.”

On a few occasions, at least, Daly and his dad played with Earl and Tiger Woods, as Daly told Colorado Golf magazine in 2013. “I have such great memories of playing golf in my youth,” Daly told the publication. “I remember playing in a Father/Son tournament with Earl and Tiger…

Both of our fathers were very instrumental to us on and off the course; I know how much Earl meant to Tiger.”

With his on-course abilities and work ethic, Daly was given a partial golf scholarship to Loyola Marymount University, where he studied theology—for a short time.

“A year. I dropped out of college, moved to Palm Springs and tried to qualify for the U.S. Open,” he says.

It was in Palm Springs that a young Daly connected with Jimmy Kimmel, himself relatively young but positioned to be a kind of mentor.

“He was doing radio and he said, ‘You can be my intern!

I’ll sign off on your internship. I don’t even care if you show up, you can go play golf.’ Jimmy was like the older brother I never had.”

B:11.12”

S:9.87”

T:10.87”

In high school I made a group of friends in golf; Jason Gore, Tiger, and a couple of guys like that

Daly pushed hard on course to make it in the game, but ultimately says he found it wasn’t to be, citing a disastrous hole as the moment he stepped away from the Open dream.

“I don’t know. I think mentally was where I wasn’t strong enough,” he says. “I found myself not having the mental fortitude. You can average 70, but to average 68, those two strokes… It’s such a hard game. I think I became sort of my own worst nightmare mentally. It takes a tremendous amount of mental fortitude to do what [pros] do week in and week out. I quickly resolved that I could be a club pro but as far as making it on the tour I was coming to the realization that maybe golf wasn’t something I was going to do. And then there was this radio thing, and it was so exciting. I was playing music for a living, getting paid, meeting girls, going out, and I thought, ‘I can have a life.”

Working under Kimmel, Daly learned the ropes and began finding real success on the air.

“Jimmy and I always joke that if you’re drug-free and show up to radio on time you can ascend through the radio ranks pretty quickly,” Daly laughs. “You could be program director in two years if you continue to show up! And yeah, it happened pretty fast for me. We did a year together and after two years he went to Arizona. I went to San Diego on the weekends, kind of moonlighting, and I was doing the morning show in Palm Springs, sending out my tapes.

I thought to myself, I’m going to try this radio thing maybe another year and if I don’t get a real job on my own I’ll have to figure something out. It’s like being at a craps table; I kept rolling and I never crapped out.”

No kidding. Jobs at various radio stations eventually led to a gig at KROQ in LA—“the ultimate get,” as Daly puts it—and while many might see a job at the most popular

[Left] With the cast of THE VOICE; [Above] on THE VOICE with Koryn Hawthorne and Vance Smith (Photo by: Tyler Golden/NBC)

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[Left] With Tiger Woods on TRL in 2002; [Right] On NBC News' Today show

My pathway was a healthy sort of ascension; I don’t take anything for granted

rock station in Los Angeles as the top of the mountain, it was at this point that Daly’s career went into overdrive.

Recruited by MTV to host part of its summer programming, he was eventually hired full-time by the network and relocated to New York. There, he began hosting the popular MTV Live show before eventually hosting TRL (Total Request Live), one of the network’s most popular shows between 1998 and 2002. At the end of that run, the late-night show Last Call with Carson Daly premiered, then came self-titled New Year’s Eve specials for NBC and eventually his position as a host and producer on The Voice, for which he’s won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program.

In 2013 he became the “orange room” anchor (social media reporter) on the Today show, occasionally filling in for Matt Lauer, Willie Geist and Weekend Today as well.

He’s co-founded a record label (456 Entertainment, now dissolved) been a strong advocate for fighting cancer (his mother is a breast cancer survivor) and he has three beautiful children with his wife Siri Pinter. He still hosts Mornings with Carson Daly in LA and the syndicated The Daily Download with Carson Daly, and he says he’s having a blast with all of it.

“You look back in those early days,” he says, “I lived in like five cities in five years. I was flat broke. I had this pickup, I lived in a Motel 6 because my parents didn’t support me if I wasn’t in college (they had my back, but you understand…).

“I lived with my sister on her floor, and when I got my first job the first thing I did was buy a bed. Then the

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jobs, then MTV happened, and everything. It was very organic.

“And all of that stood me in good stead to be successful later in life. It’s all gravy. My pathway was a healthy sort of ascension, and I don’t take anything for granted now. I’ve loved every minute of it.”

Golf is still there, in charity tournament appearances and in family life, and his dad Richard is still making the game available, still not pushing, but still encouraging the grandkids.

“My kids are 7, 4 and 2,” Daly says. “My son Jack plays golf, he loves it. Just got into it. He’s 7 going on 30, an old soul, an old wise guy, a really good kid. He listens, he’s patient. We could go out and play nine holes of golf and he’d behave and be happy he’s there. My dad, it’s always fun for him. He’d always make me clubs when I was a kid, re-grip my clubs. He has a little workbench and cut down Jackson’s first couple of clubs. My girls haven’t gotten into it yet, but my daughter, Etta, if she picks up a club you better run. She might hit you with it! She’s aggressive in a good way, loves to do what her big brother does. I just got her clubs, a little pink starter set. She’s ready and I’ll be ready when I get up Saturday in the same zip code as them.”

And that’s how it is, living on Long Island, bouncing back and forth between the coasts, and still doing the job.

“I’m 42,” Daly says. “This is 20-plus years in the making. And today, you know, I woke up at 4:30 by myself.

I drove myself to a radio station, and I sat behind the board and played music. At the end of day that’s what I do, and I’d still do it even I didn’t have to. I love to do it.”

FUTURE PERFECT BMW answers your questions about what motoring will be like in the future—by delivering it today in the high-performance tech stunner that is the 750i xDrive

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My wife is calling. Her name appears in the heads-up display, next to the gently-lit number confirming that I’m traveling under the speed limit. I wave my hand toward the dash and the phone picks up. “Hey babe, what’s up?” “Change of plans; we’re meeting my family for dinner.” I’m exhausted, stuck in traffic between Los Angeles and Palm Springs at the end of a long work trip, but I don’t protest. I press a button on the steering wheel and my recent calls appear, the numbers seemingly floating in the air in front of me. Eyes still on the road, I roll the scroll wheel with my thumb until I see my mother-in-law’s name. I press to call and ask if she needs me to bring anything. She doesn’t, and so I hang up.

Another hour to go followed by an evening of conversation with family, when all I really want to do is go home, kick off my shoes and open a beer. Suddenly feeling tense, I swipe the touchpad controller on the console’s control wheel to select a seat massage setting: “Shoulders” or “Back”? Ah, “Whole Body.” That’s the one. Boston’s More Than a Feeling comes on the satellite radio—pouring through the brilliant Bowers & Wilkins sound system. “Hide in my music, forget the day…” Absolutely. I draw a quick circle in the air with my finger to turn up the volume, settle back into the massage and momentarily let the new BMW 750i take the wheel as it inches us forward in traffic, automatically adjusting speed for the car in front and staying in the lane while my mind begins to unwind. Hardly flying down the road, I’m enjoying the ultimate driving experience nonetheless. And a half an hour later, when the traffic breaks, the large V8 roars to life, and the gently-lit number in the heads-up display glows red (indicating we’re now over the speed limit), the experience is confirmed: This is a superb automobile.

The real story of the 750i xDrive is how well the technology is integrated into the car’s experience [From top] Speed limit 25, going 0, thinking of making a call; BMW key; handling bass adjustment for the Bowers & Wilkins audio system via Gesture Control; amazing top-down and rear view in reverse

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INTEGRATION Technology in cars can be divided into three categories: that which improves performance (stabilization systems, top automatic transmissions); that which improves comfort and safety (seat belts, air bags, satellite radio); and that which does neither but which satisfies certain curiosities (the in-dash vinyl record player, briefly available in the 1960s).

BMW’s new luxury flagship sedan is heavy on the first two, and if there’s a touch of the last, well, what’s a flagship car without a few bells and whistles (we don’t need the perfume dispenser, though it’s available if you want it).

The real story of the latest 7-Series is one of integrated technology as applied to both performance and to comfort/ safety, and over a few days with the top-of-class 750i xDrive we’re convinced that we’ve experienced the future of driving. Many of the technologies at work here will be commonplace in a few years. For now, effortlessly part of the driving experience, they’re in the BMW 750i xDrive.

It’s big, but then BMW’s 7-Series has never been shy about size. Introduced in 1977, it’s only available as a four-door sedan, with ours just over 17 feet from tip to tail, 206.2 inches, to be exact. With a curb weight of 4,610 lbs (45.7% toward the front) it’s hearty as well, though the current model is lighter than the previous generation and (as tested) it makes 0 to 60 in 4.3 seconds. The weight loss is primarily down to the “Carbon Core” construction, which sees carbon fiber bracing used throughout the car’s structure. Despite the size, it’s quite agile, flying across lanes and through turns when there’s room to play, easily navigating parking lots when things slow down. Further aiding handling is the new Adaptive Mode, which moves the car between “Comfort”

and “Sport” automatically depending on various conditions.

The GPS system analyzes the road ahead, calculates the radius of upcoming turns and other factors, and then makes a prediction on how the driver will want to behave, factoring-in driver input from steering and throttle. If you go for it in one turn, the car will stay mostly in “Comfort” mode. But hit it hard through a series of turns and you’ll feel the 750i xDrive tighten up. It’s fantastic, and well served by the solid ZF 8-speed automatic transmission. The all-wheel drive is joined by rear-wheel steering as well, which, when combined with the suspension and handling tech on board, means that the 750i xDrive feels much more sporting than one would expect. We had the M-Sport package, which adds flair with aerodynamic aprons and M-Sport wheels, though engine and suspension systems are untouched.

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FUNCTIONAL LUXURY If you’re in the front seat, the incredible array of controls and supple appointments (leather, wood and real metal everywhere; the iDrive console control knob with a touchscreen surface; digital, easy-to-read gauges and center display; and more) will thrill. But rear-seat passengers are treated especially well, with 10-inch screens to control in-car entertainment, watch streamed videos, and so on. A pop-out Samsung tablet in the back makes for handy control of the iDrive system plus surfing the Web while an optional Executive Package allows the rear right passenger to move the front passenger seat all the way to the dash, fold out a footrest and recline.

There’s the panoramic roof and a smartphone-esque key with a swipe screen offering info on fuel level and more.

Gesture Control—a system in which the car recognizes hand gestures for control input, including volume, handling calls and other functions—is something we see as inevitable in all cars at some point. Likewise, the “birds-eye view” of the 750i xDrive on the display screen while in reverse is unbelievable in terms of aiding parking and in just looking great.

You won’t fully appreciate the 750i xDrive on a dealer test drive. You won’t “get it” until you take it home and live in it for a while. Once you start making calls, dealing with metro traffic, handling meetings, traveling across town or even across the country, all of the tech makes sense.

You get the feeling that this is the car BMW’s engineers enjoy: informed by the cutting-edge i8, the performance M division, the decades of luxury interiors and tech brilliance.

The 750i xDrive is a car designed by smart busy people who love to drive—for smart busy people who love to drive.

Handing the keys back to BMW, we were sad to leave the future, but we were thrilled to have visited.

That the technologies on display here are so much a part of the vehicle’s experience is a testament to BMW’s engineers, who clearly took time working on real-world integration. That makes the BMW 750i xDrive not just one of the most capable cars on the road, but one of the most functional—and that includes the massage seats. After four hours in traffic, I arrived at dinner relaxed, invigorated and ready for an evening of conversation with the in-laws. I’m not sure you can put a price on that.

Learn more at bmwusa.com

BMW 750i xDrive M-Sport 4.4-liter 455hp turbocharged V8 480 lb-ft of torque 0-60: 4.3 seconds As tested: near $127,500

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BOWERS & WILKINS Among the BMW 750i xDrive’s more impressive on-board technologies is an optional new audio system from lauded English firm Bowers & Wilkins. The Bowers & Wilkins Diamond Surround Sound System was specially created for and calibrated to the 750i, and uses an incredible 16 speakers with a total output of 1,400 watts to deliver stunning audio to all passengers, no matter where they are positioned in the car. Like the company’s flagship 800 Series Diamond speakers for home audio, the tweeters in the new BMW system are made of pure synthetic diamonds in a light, extremely resilient material ideal for producing highfrequency signals. Performance is further bolstered by Nautilus™ technology, which deflects undesirable sound radiation from the back of the dome, allowing a three-dimensional sound to be created, as well as two mid-range speakers with Kevlar® technology and two central subwoofers with Rohacell® technology. Aesthetically pleasing as well, in stainless-steel trim with exclusive Fibonacci cutout design, the speakers are subtly illuminated when activated, beautifully complementing the 750i xDrive interior and adding to a technologically superlative experience.

bowers-wilkins.com

Life Tastes Better With a Liebherr SuperQuiet for you, Soothing for Your Food and Wine

liebherr-appliances.com

Empire Golf While a fair portion of “the city that never sleeps” enjoys the wee hours in New York’s myriad clubs and eateries, for too many the lack of slumber is down to work.

Thankfully, there’s stress-reducing golf nearby, offering the perfect excuse to extend that business trip or to move that meeting. Whether you’re a visitor from afar or a local in need of a few hours’ escape, any of the following should provide ample reason to keep your eyes open just a little longer. Believe us: you’ll sleep better for it

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Base Camp You’ll be staying at The Standard High Line or at the Gansevoort Hotel because, well, they’re sexier and more fun than the bland business boxes where your associates will be bunking down (live a little, and make the other guys jealous the next day) and because they have an added bonus: their Meatpacking District location means you can get out of town fast when you want to—and you’ll want to because there’s great golf in the area, but it’s not in Manhattan. Top restaurants and luxury shopping abound near both hotels, and The Standard has the added plus of opening onto the High Line park system, the series of walking gardens built on the city’s old elevated train tracks. Also, Chelsea Piers is nearby, with its iconic multi-story driving range on the Hudson, and the Lincoln Tunnel is right at hand, meaning you won’t be burning valuable time trying to get across Manhattan when you really want to be on the tee upstate or in neighboring New Jersey. Likewise, it’s easy to shoot down the West Side Highway to catch a ferry service. Some years ago this part of town would have been a miss for luxury travelers, but today it’s one of the best places to stay for those looking to enjoy the area, not just the island.

Bayonne Golf Club,

Liberty National Golf Club

Trump Golf Links Ferry Point,

Bayonne, NJ

Jersey City, NJ

Bronx, NY

Time from lower Manhattan: 20min via private ferry This invitation-only club opened in 2006 with a mind to providing one of the best links courses in the United States, and it seems the mission is mostly accomplished.

Quick fairways and fescue rough beautifully roll over dunes in sight of New York City but a world away, with a stunning lighthouse-inspired clubhouse providing a regionally appropriate centerpiece. One can drive to the course, but we like Bayonne’s dedicated ferry, “Heaven’s Gate,” which must be booked 24 hours in advance and which shuttles passengers from lower Manhattan to a dock off the 16th tee (also available to private boats). There’s a helipad as well, and the club is happy to charter that service for you. After that, you’re on foot: it’s walking-only, with caddies and, presumably, a relaxed smile.

Drive time from lower Manhattan: 22min

Drive time from lower Manhattan: 35min

The much-lauded and celebrated Liberty National was an incredibly ambitious and expensive project that yielded great results due to the vision and perseverance of its developers, the father/son team of Paul and Dan Fireman. When the former, who’d worked as a caddy in his youth, purchased the property, the club’s website offers that the site was “nearly a mile of neglected and decaying New Jersey shoreline… It was an eyesore. It was a gurgling mess.” Years of hard work ensued, and today there are few who don’t consider the club to be one of the most special venues anywhere. Site of the 2017 Presidents Cup and host to numerous Barclays tournaments, Liberty National is a must-play for anyone serious about golf in the northeast.

Right at the end of the Whitestone Bridge and featuring stunning views of the city, this Jack Nicklaus layout puts bunkers in the center of the fairway and sends its finishing holes down the bank of the East River. The course (begun without Trump at the helm) took more than 30 years to complete, and as with many Trump projects there’s plenty of politics and controversy to be had here. But if you don’t mind playing in the wind, you hit it long (the course plays to more than 7,400 yards) and you want a top golf experience at a municipal course in the Bronx ($169 for residents, $215 for visitors), this is it.

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Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

Winged Foot Golf Club

The Saint Andrew’s Golf Club

Pound Ridge,

Mamaroneck, NY

Hastings-on-Hudson, NY

Ridge, NY

Drive time from lower Manhattan: 47min

Drive time from lower Manhattan: 52min

Drive time from lower Manhattan: 1hr 7min

Another A.W. Tillinghast design—and one of the country’s most famous clubs— Winged Foot was founded in 1921, mostly by members of the New York Athletic Club (hence the name, inspired by the NYAC’s “winged foot” logo). In addition to boasting a legacy of tournaments on its West and East courses that includes five U.S. Opens (it will host its sixth in 2020), it holds a fantastic array of golf history. One example: Claude Harmon was Winged Foot’s head professional at the time he won the 1948 Masters, taking $2,500 and becoming the last club professional ever to win a major.

Founded in 1888, it’s likely the oldest continuously existing private club in the country, and at roughly 20 miles from lower Manhattan Saint Andrew’s is a worthwhile consideration for any concrete jungle dweller looking for some verdant green.

Jack Nicklaus revived the design in 1983, and it’s one of the best-maintained clubs in the area, with a proud membership that guards its course and its traditions with honor. Tee times are not required here, cell phone use is discouraged and tipping is strictly forbidden, making this a welcome escape from the city indeed.

A Pete Dye design, the course at Pound Ridge breaks from many area tracks in that it’s a thoroughly modern design, eschewing the “traditional” trappings so common among the region’s golf venues. Carved around the cliffs, wetlands and forest of Westchester County, the course is a charming but seriously challenging journey, with numerous rock-face features and boulders strewn along its woodland fairways. In terms of booking, there are “stay and play” arrangements with some of the area’s finest hotels, including the Mandarin Oriental and Marriott Marquis in Manhattan.

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Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

Bethpage State Park, Farmingdale, NY

Drive time from lower Manhattan: 1hr 9min

One of the greatest municipal golf projects in the country, the 1930s A.W. Tillinghast designs at this New York State park are reason enough to visit the area—and the large morning crowds angling for tee times underline the appeal. We like the Red course as it’s usually easier to get on and, honestly, can be more fun to play than the soul-crushingly difficult Black, host to The Barclays this August. But it’s worth remembering that there are five tracks here, and each has its own charms. If you must play the Black know that it’s not uncommon to see foursomes sleeping in their cars to secure tee times, but if you show up as a single you’re essentially guaranteed to get on.

Neshanic Valley Golf Course,

Piping Rock Club,

Crystal Springs,

Branchburg, NJ

Locust Valley, NY

Sussex County, NJ

Drive time from lower Manhattan: 1hr 11min

Drive time from lower Manhattan: 1hr 18min

Drive time from lower Manhattan: 1hr 35min

It opened on Labor Day weekend in 2004 and it’s been a “day off” kind of place ever since, even if you play it in the middle of the work week. Comprised of three 9-hole “Championship” courses and a fourth 9-hole Academy Course, the facility has hosted such notable tournaments as the New Jersey State Golf Association Men’s Public Links Championship and the USGA’s Women’s Public Links Championship (in 2012). With a Callaway Golf Performance Center and top training facility on site, this is a good bet for a relaxed round. Just note that non-residents must book a week in advance, and tee times can be tough to get.

Opened in 1911 and considered by some to be “the Augusta of its day,” Piping Rock still refers to tennis and squash as “racquets” and takes its croquet seriously (all-white attire requested daily, required for tournaments).

Jackie Onassis and Cole Porter both played here, J.P. Morgan was a member, as were Louis Comfort Tiffany, Condé Nast, various Vanderbilts and Astors and many of the original Standard Oil executives. The 1912 design by C.B. Macdonald reportedly plays well these days, with the 300-yard No.13 and the 538-yard No. 18 (a double dogleg that finishes at the historic clubhouse) being particularly well regarded. Befriend a member to score an invite and enjoy golf as played by the men who built New York.

New Jersey’s rugged landscape is suited to links golf, and so there’s plenty around the Garden State. Some go further than others in referencing inspiration, and the bagpiper on the first tee of the Ballyowen course at Crystal Springs is a rather overt homage. There are seven courses here, at the golf-heavy resort built on a former mine near the Walkill River, with Ballyowen the standout (to our minds). Along with the bagpiper, there are fast fairways bordered by thick fescue, making for hard hunting if you’re off target. The six other courses and plenty of single malts in the clubhouse should take the edge off errant drives, but regardless it’s hard to imagine having a bad time with this much golf so near to the city.

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IN THE SILENCE OF A FOLDED FLAG TRUE PATRIOTS HEAR A RESOUNDING CALL.

The Folds of Honor provides educational scholarships to the military families of our fallen and disabled. Become a Wingman by giving a $13 monthly donation. Your ongoing support returns a life-changing difference in the children and families who’ve paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms.

WE NEED PATRIOTS. JOIN US.

FOLDSOFHONOR.ORG

There is peerless pedigree at the three remaining Major venues of 2016, Oakmont, Royal Troon and Baltusrol.

Oakmont has hosted more Majors (11) than any American golf club other than Augusta National, Royal Troon has eight [British] Opens tied into its storied history, while New Jersey’s Baltusrol has hosted eight Majors.

We take a look back

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A walk of discontent for Arnold Palmer as he and Jack Nicklaus cross over the Pennsylvania Turnpike [left] after eight holes of the playoff to decide the 1962 U.S. Open at Oakmont. Nicklaus would prevail by three for his first professional victory Loren Roberts [below, left] was among the finest putters of his generation, but his flat-stick turned cold in the playoff to decide the 1994 U.S. Open. The putts wouldn’t drop for Roberts, Ernie Els won his first major title and Roberts would never come closer to Major glory.

Palmer rues a missed putt during the final round of the 1962 U.S. Open [below, center], before he and Nicklaus reconvened for the 18-hole playoff the next day. On the tee [below]

Tiger Woods tees off during the 1997 [British] Open at Royal Troon [below], his first Open as a professional. The reigning Masters champ at the time, Woods would finish 24th at Troon.

Payne Stewart retrieves his ball during the 1989 Open at Royal Troon [right]. Stewart would finish 8th but he would not have to wait much longer for Major success, winning the PGA Championship a month later.

Arnold Palmer impressed the locals with his tartan hat at the 1982 Open at Royal Troon [below, center], while Todd Hamilton was a surprise winner of the 2004 Open at Troon [below, right]

Caddies line-up at Baltusrol in 1900 [above].

Nicklaus hoists the U.S. Open trophy at Baltusrol in 1980 [right]. It was his fourth and final U.S. Open success and his 16th career Major success.

Palmer turns away in disbelief from a missed putt during the final round of the 1967 U.S. Open at Baltusrol [far right]. He would finish second to Nicklaus again.

OUR LEGENDARY COURSE IS NOW EVEN BETTER.

When it comes to our exceptional golf course, we’re always on top of our game. The recent comprehensive re-grassing of our greens, fairways and tee boxes opened to rave reviews and the course is in outstanding condition for this season’s play. Whether you’re a PGA Tour professional, or a weekend player, our mission is to continually offer all golfers a superior experience.

Take advantage of our top-ranked championship course and follow in the footsteps of legends at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge. Plan your stay now.

For reservations: Call 888.422.3445 or visit BayHill.com

gift guide

Sunsational Holidays abound, if you know where to find them. Here, then, are gifts for any time and anyone under the sun.

Warmly given, warmly received

Rolex

Among the brand’s storied timepieces, this one has a special history to go with its timeless design —

The Oyster Perpetual MILGAUSS debuted in 1956 as the watch of choice for engineers whose work exposed them to magnetic fields that disrupted standard mechanical watches. The magnetic shield of the MILGAUSS was designed to resist interference of up to 1,000 gauss—hence the name—ensuring supreme accuracy in otherwise untenable conditions. Inspired by the original, the new generation of the MILGAUSS features an orange seconds hand shaped like a lightning bolt, a choice of black or blue dial with a green sapphire crystal or white dial with a clear crystal, as well as even more magnetism-resistant components.

rolex.com

Castangia

A brand that was founded in 1850 in Sardinia before Garibaldi created the modern country of Italy — Castangia has long been one of Italy’s great luxury marques, best known for fabulous hand-tailored clothes for men. Here, another expression of brilliance: in Castangia’s trademark blue, a cutting-edge hand-constructed leather briefcase.

castangiausa.com

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Johnnie Walker

Extolled in verse at the best club tables, Blue Label holds a royal warrant and the hearts of many — Johnnie Walker Red and Black are the world’s favorite and most consistent Scotches. Blue Label, however, is a completely different level, made with some of Scotland’s rarest and most exceptional whiskies. Only one in every ten-thousand casks has the elusive, hard-sought quality, character and flavor that delivers the signature taste of Johnnie Walker Blue Label. With Father’s Day fast approaching, this is the perfect gift for the man of status who has everything—and deserves more. johnniewalker.com

A Tumbler Named Desire

Orrefors’ STREET tumbler is for coveted pours — The hand-cut pattern of STREET from this storied Swedish maker suggests Manhattan’s famous layout, while the weight of the top-quality crystal complements well-considered contents. orrefors.com

Saeco

Your own personal barista, any time of day or night — The world’s first high-end, fully automatic, connected coffee machine, the elegantly designed GranBaristo Avanti allows users to create their favorite coffee drinks from their tablet. The GranBaristo Avanti takes the coffee experience to an entirely new level, delivering the ultimate in variety with over 18 drink options. From a short, intense, full-bodied ristretto to a wellrounded filter coffee taste, or the perfect cappuccino, coffee lovers can experiment with a variety of specialties at the touch of their tablet. Its user-friendly app connects to the machine via Bluetooth, ensuring every coffee need is available right at their fingertips. Perfectly hot, professional quality coffee can be enjoyed in no time thanks to next-generation thermo-speed technology. williams-sonoma.com

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gift guide

Molton Brown

One of London’s finest bath and body firms delivers again — Expertly blended in London, Molton Brown’s Tobacco Absolute Collection for men is the ultimate exploration of masculine, seasoned depth. Born from the cultivated world of botany through the tobacco plant, it is a warm combination of woods and mature tobacco absolutely lifted by a subtle yet decisive hint of citrus. The collection features an eau de toilette and bath & shower gel, allowing you to pick your perfection. moltonbrown.com

Vessel Bags

The best-considered, best-quality bags ever — You don’t need a suit to mean business with the slim profile and easy access briefcase from Vessel. This fully-featured bag comes with multiple storage and organization options; a laptop pocket with secure velcro flap and interior pockets, making it perfect for all tech requirements. Keep it sophisticated with luxury performance leather or go casual with multifunctional canvas.

The best part: for every briefcase sold, Vessel donates a school backpack to a child in need. vesselbags.com

Bowers & Wilkins

You shouldn’t hear the speakers — John Bowers wanted his speakers to disappear, leaving only the music as it had intended to be heard, uncolored. With his firm’s flagship 800 Series Diamond speakers, mission accomplished. Made from cutting-edge proprietary components, you won’t find a better balanced or more fulfilling listening experience.

Book a listening session at your favorite high-end audio retailer and rediscover what music actually sounds like. bowers-wilkins.com

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Bottle Opener

A top architectural firm lifts the lid — Lauded firm Marmol Radziner created this opener, with which a bar reaches new sophistication. Better known for its architectural work and commercial spaces created for the likes of James Perse, Oliver Peoples, Maxfield and others (not to mention stunning residential projects), the group also produces a line of jewelry and home products, including this weighty (and useful) accessory. Solid brass, in light or dark finish. marmolradzinerjewelry.com

Ami

The Ami collection by Francesco Rota moves outdoors with upholsteries and weaves expressly designed for the exterior — Seeking to balance timeless hand-crafting with modern technological sophistication, Ami’s sofa [pictured, right], is created with Paola Lenti’s signature Chain material, a tubular knit directly hand-woven onto the light stainless steel structure, with cushions and pillows that come in a range of color-coordinated fabrics. Likewise, the Wave Chaise, below, also comes in a Paola Lenti fabric and offers complementary accessories. With Old World construction and a modern eye, the line adds flair to outdoor spaces and provides the perfect place to enjoy a well-aged Champagne or a thoroughly modern craft beer, whichever your preference. Both items are available on: luminaire.com

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gift guide

KitchenAid

A personal coffee maker from the foremost name in kitchen appliances — Mornings aren’t always about sharing, and sometimes you’re the only one who really needs that cup of coffee. Brew your favorite coffee quickly and easily with this one-touch operation Personal Coffee Maker from KitchenAid. The coffee goes directly into the included 18oz thermal mug so you can grab and go, or into the vessel of your choice should you be staying put. Either way, this is the perfect way to ensure you get the perfect cup of coffee— for you. Available in a range of colors. kitchenaid.com

Meat Hook

Effective, no instructions necessary — It doesn’t look like much and it isn’t—just a stainless steel hook with a Rosewood handle—but when you have a slab of meat on the grill, what more do you need? Hook the meat, flip the meat.

From Charcoal Companion, this is a refreshingly straightforward tool in an overly convoluted world and, along with the spatula and fork, one of the few BBQ accessories that’s less complicated than tongs. With a price befitting its honest design, its yield in usefulness and man points far exceeds the cost. companion-group.com

Big Green Egg

Often imitated, never duplicated, the original and award-winning kamado-style cooker is still the best — Grill, roast, smoke or bake in the finest ceramic cooker available.

No matter what you want, the Big Green Egg will deliver—and with more moisture, juiciness and flavor than you can believe.

Based on an ancient cooking method, this modern-design kamado-style cooker just plain works, a fact born out by the countless “Eggheads” around the world who’ve loved it since it first appeared in 1974. Try one and enjoy the best outdoor cooking experience you’ve ever had—and the best meals.

Available in numerous sizes. biggreenegg.com

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Apex Black Irons

Callaway brings some serious game — Callaway’s legendary club science is on full display with the attractive and capable Apex Black Irons, which feature the industry-leading 360 Face Cup—a Callaway first in a forged players iron—quadruple net forging for extremely soft feel and a sleek satin black finish. With a range of shaft options and proven technologies at play, you might wear a white hat when you golf, but when you’re serious about improving your performance step up to the Apex Black Irons. callawaygolf.com

Stonehouse Images

No venue evokes the depth of championship history more than St Andrews’ Old Course — Dan Murphy journeyed to the Home of Golf to produce several iconic images of the world’s oldest links, one of which—Number 17—was recognized by St Andrews in honor of the 2015 Open. If you have been fortunate enough to play the Old Course or any of the other hundreds of leading courses around the world that have been shot by Stonehouse, then pick your hole, personalize your picture with names, dates and scores, and your treasured golfing memories will be vividly preserved and displayed for all to see. stonehousegolf.com

GP Sport by Cransal

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WALK WITH LEGENDS. Mark O’Meara

Jeff Maggert

Bernhard Langer

“Experience the most accessible, accommodating and engaging entertainment in professional golf.”

- Fred Couples

John Daly

Colin Montgomerie

Perpetual spirit While the golfers inside the ropes— the sporting idols—change with time, the spirit passed between them remains constant

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he R&A clubhouse occupies one of the great locations in world golf, sitting behind the first tee of the Old Course at St Andrews. Up on the wall of the clubhouse, a bronze of Old Tom Morris overlooks the course. He was golf’s first genuine club professional, four times the Open champion and “Custodian of the Links” in his hometown for over three decades at the end of the 19th century.

As Morris did for many years in person, so today his spirit continues to watch golfers tee off and stride up the first fairway of the Old Course.

Last July at St Andrews, three generations of the world’s finest players came together when the 144th Open was played, reaffirming the eminence of the Old Course as the Home of Golf. On the eve of The Open, Arnold Palmer, now 86, captained a team—the winning team, as it happened—in a four-hole Champions’ Challenge over holes one, two, 17 and 18 of the Old Course. Between them, the field of 27 players accounted for 44 Open titles, including Palmer (two Open titles), Gary Player (three), Tom Watson (five) and Tiger Woods (three).

The Old Course runs straight through the heart of golfing history. Palmer played there in his Open debut in 1960 and in his final Open in 1995, bidding farewell to adoring crowds from the ancient Swilcan Bridge on the 18th hole. Jack Nicklaus made his final tour appearance on the Old Course in The Open of 2005. Ten years later, last July, Watson took the same emotional steps over the Swilcan Bridge in bidding farewell to his most cherished tournament, 40 years after he won The Open on his debut.

Watson followed in the footsteps of The Big Three—Palmer, Nicklaus and Player—in the same way as they learned from Bobby Jones and Ben Hogan.

And as time continues its perpetual beat, younger generations continue to benefit from the experience of the sporting idols that preceded them.

Adam Scott, the 2013 Masters champion from Australia, recalls how he received an invitation to play in the Arnold Palmer Invitational when he was 20. “I jumped at the opportunity,” he says. “I walked off the first green at Bay Hill in practice, and Mr. Palmer came up to me and said; ‘Adam, it’s great to have you here.’ I just couldn’t believe he even knew who I was. His level of involvement in the game is incredible, even now, and Arnold Palmer remains a great leader for professional golf.

“One of the great things about golf is that there is this respect that is passed down through the generations, from the senior guys to golfers like myself, and it is our duty to pass it on to the next generation,” Scott explains.

“I am part of a generation that will tell younger players about what Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player

“I am part of a generation that will tell younger players about what Palmer, Nicklaus, Player and Watson did for the game” —Adam Scott

Open legends Watson (right) and Palmer have carried and bequeathed golf’s spirit of mutal respect and sportsmanship

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Spieth with the U.S. Open trophy (above) while Woods captivates the gallery at The [British] Open in 2012

When a golfer reaches the heights of Mickelson and Woods in the sport’s most significant records, you know it’s serious.

Spieth followed up by winning the U.S. Open, reaching a world ranking of No.1 and finishing one shot shy of a play-off to decide the year’s third major, The Open.

Spieth was so close to becoming the first golfer since Hogan in 1953 to win the first three majors of the year. The manner in which this 22-year-old reacted to the disappointment was as impressive as his golf: he immediately gathered himself, accepted his fate and stayed behind to be among the first to congratulate eventual champion Zach Johnson by the 18th green, right in front of that bronze of Old Tom. Day, 28, and 27-year-old Rickie Fowler also reached new heights in 2015. Day from Australia, won on the PGA Tour five times, including his first major triumph at the PGA Championship, while Fowler, from California, won three times, including The Players Championship in May at TPC Sawgrass.

“It’s fun to be a part of this whole group. It really is,” says Day, the current World No.1. “Golf is in such a good spot now with young guys coming through. We all look up to players like The Big Three, and if we can take our turn to attract more kids to tournaments and to play the game, that can only be a good thing.

“There is a lot of competitiveness between me and Jordan, Rickie and Rory McIlroy, but there is always great sportsmanship too. We are all enjoying ourselves, our successes motivate each other, the back-and-forth is fantastic and that bodes well for the future.”

Pictures: Chris Turvey, courtesy of Rolex

and Tom Watson did for the game, in terms of putting the sport in the media, putting golf on the map, and essentially making the game what it is today.

“Individuals like The Big Three also attracted companies like Rolex to golf as a sport, and as a result, today Rolex is an integral part of the game, and one of golf ’s greatest supporters across all levels.”

As Watson follows The Big Three into the twilight of his playing career, so players like Scott, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler have taken on the mantle, leading a new generation of golfers, exciting galleries around the globe and encouraging more people to pick up a club and to play the game.

“The professional game is in great stead,” says Watson, winner of eight career major titles and still competing in seniors golf at 66. “There will always be young people coming along to challenge the established stars, and that is one of the most exciting facets of tour golf. We saw players like Jordan Spieth and Jason Day bring new energy to the game in 2015. They are impressive young men on the golf course and off it too, and it is exciting to imagine what could unfold at the top of the world game in 2016 and beyond.”

Spieth stopped the golfing world in its tracks in April 2015, amid the towering Georgia pines of Augusta National, when he claimed the first major title of his young career at the Masters, matching and breaking records as he went. The young Texan posted 28 birdies over four rounds, breaking the record of 25 held by Phil Mickelson since 2001. Spieth’s final score of 270, 18 under par, won by four and matched the Masters scoring record set by Tiger Woods in 1997. Back then Woods, at 21, became the youngest ever Masters champion, and Spieth is the youngest since.

Pictures: Bob Thomas (Getty) & Chris Turvey, courtesy of Rolex

Nicklaus wins The Open at St Andrews in 1978 (top left) and Rickie Fowler is searching for his first Major success

Watson, who himself once inherited the label of “world’s best player” from Nicklaus, is now taking pleasure in seeing this new generation seize their moment. “I relish watching these young men play the game, and how they launch the golf ball into orbit. Once upon a time that was me, and before me it was Arnold and Jack, but we’ve had our times at the top. I made the most of the fantastic opportunities presented to me by this game, and now it’s the turn of others to carry the torch.”

“Our successes motivate each other, the back-and-forth is fantastic and that bodes well” —Jason Day

35 YEARS AND COUNTING Bill Rogers was just moments away from not making his mark in golfing history at all. As the Texan’s tee time fast approached for the first round of The [British] Open in 1981 at Royal St. George’s, Rogers was still on the practice green, having misread the starting sheet. Fortunately a journalist asked why Rogers was still putting, and after a dash to the first tee he made his tee time with just seconds to spare.

Remember, that late arrival on the tee would have led to instant disqualification.

There is no excuse for confusing your tee time at The Open, but even less so in 1981 as this was the first year that Rolex clocks were positioned around the golf course at the championship. In fact, it was the first time on-course clocks had been installed at a major championship at all. In hindsight, perhaps Rogers should have made panicked dashes to the tee more often as he ultimately won the 1981 Open by four shots—the one and only major triumph of his career.

As for the Rolex clocks, they have been ever-present at The Open since, with this year’s championship at Royal Troon marking the 35th anniversary of Rolex clocks at The Open.

“Rolex clocks have become an iconic timekeeping symbol at The Open, the majors and other prestigious events—for both players and spectators alike,” says Open legend Jack Nicklaus.

An incredible 35 years—how time flies at The Open.

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Taming Troon

The [British] Open’s transformation from a fading relic into a global event was largely spurred by one man, Arnold Palmer. Back in 1962, Palmer arrived an heir apparent and there was nothing royal about Troon. With the western Scottish links preparing to host its ninth Open this summer, Paul Trow recalls one of The Open’s pivotal episodes

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hen Arnold Palmer made his debut in the centenary edition of the world’s oldest major championship at St Andrews in 1960, Australian Kel Nagle went off message and upstaged him by a single stroke. But the 1962 Open at Troon, a forbidding links on the west coast of Scotland, witnessed something of a role-reversal, with Palmer claiming his sixth Major title with Nagle back on message and finishing second.

This time, though, the contest wasn’t remotely close.

The real threat to Palmer’s supremacy turned out not to be from the giant dunes, dense bushes, spiny broom and tangled grasses that menacingly frame every fairway at Troon, nor from the constant whine of jets landing and taking off less than two miles away at Prestwick International Airport.

Rather it came from unruly galleries swarming across the course on the final day when 36 holes were played.

Earlier in the year, the charismatic Palmer won the Masters and came up just short in the U.S. Open at Oakmont following a playoff with Jack Nicklaus. At Troon, he led Nagle by five going into the final round before posting a six-stroke victory, the biggest winning margin since 1929.

To underline the extent of the King’s superiority that week, indeed that year, Nagle ended up seven shots clear of American Phil Rodgers and Wales’s Brian Huggett, who tied third.

It was Palmer’s second straight Open triumph, following his highly popular success at Royal Birkdale the previous year, and the frenzy triggered by his “repeat” at Troon prompted an R&A rethink about crowd controls.

Roping off fairways and fencing course boundaries duly began a year later at Royal Lytham & St Annes, and have been the norm ever since.

It was Palmer’s second straight Open triumph... and the frenzy triggered by his “repeat” at Troon prompted an R&A rethink about crowd controls

Blasting out of the sand on the par-3 17th

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roon, later dubbed Royal Troon in 1978, the year of its centenary, is an unusual test of golf.

Its first six holes, alongside the Firth of Clyde, are flat and bordered by long grass. Then the course turns inland over hilly dunes. In 1962, the fairways were narrow, blotted with deep bunkers that looked like moon craters and burned brown by a rare Scottish drought.

Indeed, on some holes there were better lies in the rough than on the fairways.

Many of the longer shots were blind—for example, the second on the 9th was played to a hidden green beside a trailer camp while the drive on the 10th had to be aimed at the airport runway’s approach lights over towering dunes.

Then there was the distraction of repetitive baritone horn blowing from commuter trains by the 11th.

Gary Player had said earlier in the week that the last nine holes were “the most difficult in the world when the wind is blowing.” The wind didn’t blow, but Player still couldn’t handle the conditions and went home early.

“There’s so much luck involved,” the 1961 U.S. Open champion Gene Littler, who also missed the cut, observed.

“You can watch two perfect drives go down the middle of the fairway, and one will bounce into the rough while the other will kick straight ahead and roll 50 yards.”

But seemingly well-struck approaches that ended in trouble were even more irksome than the stray fairway bounces. As is the case on many British links, the greens were firm and American pros, used to aiming at the pin and spinning back a few feet, had trouble adapting to the home technique of landing short and letting the ball release towards the hole. In addition, it was virtually impossible to impart backspin to the smaller ball played in Britain at the time (1.62 inches in diameter compared to the U.S.-favored 1.68-inch version).

Shortly before his first qualifying round, Palmer sneezed but thought nothing of it. Then he felt hip twinges and leg pains, and the result, on a sparse, windswept links, was an unimpressive 76.

Following massages from wife Winnie, he wore thermal underwear the next morning and carded 67 over the less demanding Lochgreen course.

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Winnie said: “I keep rubbing his back every day and it seems to feel better, but the pain comes back each time he sneezes. I think there’s some pollen in the air.” On Tuesday night, after the qualifying rounds, seven hours of rain softened Troon and drowned the pollen. Wednesday dawned warm and clear, the kind of day to give fresh heart to a man with an aching back.

Palmer shot 71 and followed up on Thursday with 69 to lead Nagle by two—with the rest nowhere. Yet he was still frustrated by his putting (echoes of Oakmont where his propensity for three-stabbing cost him the title).

Winnie then performed her second good deed of the week, telling her husband he was moving his head as he putted.

He worked on the tip overnight and the result was nine one-putts in a course-record 67 on the Friday morning.

But this tour de force didn’t start as planned. Nagle birdied the first two holes to pull level and on the 4th Palmer drove into a deep fairway bunker to fall one behind.

He tugged sternly at his white sweater, walked briskly to the 5th, a 210-yard par-3, and arrowed a long iron to 12 feet.

After curling home the putt, he birdied the 6th and led by one through 10. A strong finish saw birdie putts drop at 13, 15, 16 and 17.

By the 11th hole of the afternoon, Palmer had galloped 10 strokes clear and spectators were joyously stampeding around him. Glasgow was on vacation and more than 15,000 Scots were in attendance, many having gatecrashed the course from the beach to avoid paying for admission. This was Palmer’s magnetism, irrepressible and in full force. The Open had never attracted such mayhem and the modest police presence was overwhelmed. Panicked Troon officials locked up the clubhouse, windows were somehow broken and the golf course required extensive repairs in the aftermath.

Palmer had to fight his way through this mob over the closing holes, dropping a few shots along the way, and it took a police phalanx to usher him onto the 18th green. When he made it, he staggered and stumbled in mock exhaustion, thus defusing a mood that had seemed on the verge of ugliness.

“I’ve never played four rounds of golf like these in my whole life,” said Palmer. “Also, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced crowds like this one. We had to wrestle with them the whole way.”

Palmer’s score—71-69-67-69 for a total of 276 (the R&A didn’t declare a par for Open courses in those days)— was built on 1-iron tee shots into the hogs-back fairways. It also tied him with Ben Hogan’s (then) low Major aggregate from the 1948 U.S. Open at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California.

At the time Palmer was the world’s premier golfer but, strangely, he never finished higher than seventh in the Open after this, and he won just one more Major, the 1964 Masters.

But in 1962 at Troon the crowds were reckless while Palmer was peerless.

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“I don’t think I’ve ever experienced crowds like this one. We had to wrestle with them the whole way.”

—Arnold Palmer With Winnie (left), who played some part in the win, and look at that throng below!

1962 [British] Open

Leading scores (GB & Ireland unless stated) 1 2 T3 5 T6 T8 10

Arnold Palmer (USA) Kel Nagle (Australia) Brian Huggett Phil Rodgers (USA) Bob Charles (New Zealand) Sam Snead (USA) Peter Thomson (Australia) Peter Alliss Dave Thomas Syd Scott

71-69-67-69 71-71-70-70 75-71-74-69 75-70-72-72 75-70-70-75 76-73-72-71 70-77-75-70 77-69-74-73 77-70-71-75 77-74-75-68

276 282 289 289 290 292 292 293 293 294

standrews.com

in a row 140

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Royal Troon, venue for The [British] Open in 2016, is not alone. Next door is Prestwick Golf Club, the original host course for The Open, and 20 miles down the road is Trump Turnberry, with an Ailsa Course that is more than 100 years old yet a modern classic in comparison to old Prestwick.

The three courses have hosted The Open a total of 36 times between them and we can see why.

Robin Barwick reports Photography: Leon Harris

The 8th at Royal Troon, the “Postage Stamp�

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The new par-3 11th at Trump Turnberry

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The Open finally arrived at Turnberry in 1977 and promptly produced probably the greatest Open of all time

deally, this could motivate a golfing trip that ends with a glass of Kummel, but more on that later.

While St Andrews on Scotland’s east coast is peerless in terms of heritage and a concentration of links courses within a 10-mile radius, the quality of links golf on the other side, down in south west Scotland on the Ayrshire coast, holds its own compared to St Andrews every step of the way.

In terms of stunning panoramas, particularly at Trump Turnberry and venue for The [British] Open in 2016, Royal Troon, it holds the edge over the ‘Home of Golf ’, and when it comes to history, well, the combined times and traditions of Turnberry, Troon and neighboring Prestwick— the original Open venue—is just exceptional.

While Royal Troon and its Old Course will become the epicenter of world golf when The Open rolls into town in July, grabbing some attention beforehand is Trump Turnberry, where the renovated Ailsa course and five-star hotel re-opened on June 1. It is easy to mock the unbridled opulence of the five-star Turnberry hotel—you can just see owner Donald Trump fixing his hair in a haze of hairspray in front of one of the elaborately gilded guestroom mirrors— but there’s no denying this is the best hotel in south west Scotland, sitting proudly above the most stunning setting on The Open’s rota of venues, with a golf course below that was always excellent, and is now unequivocally better than ever.

The Ailsa course at Turnberry is not old by The Open’s standards. Lord Ailsa owned the land and in 1900 he commissioned professional Willie Fernie to design a new championship course. Fernie, The Open champion of 1883, was the club pro 20 miles up the coast at Troon, and his new design opened in July 1901, with the hotel following in 1906.

During both the First and Second World Wars, the golf course was commandeered by the British War Office for use as a training air base. During the First World War no less than 60 pilots died at Turnberry in training—a tragedy for which a memorial was installed by the 12th green. One of the old runways is still in place by the Ailsa Course, pot-holed and broken up, and is used for maintenance access. Trump’s pilot measured out the runway with a view to re-establishing it as an active airstrip, but it measured 1,000 feet too short for Trump’s private jet.

The Open finally arrived at Turnberry for the first time in 1977 and promptly produced probably the greatest Open of all time, when Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus surged ahead of the rest of the field and staged modern golf’s greatest headto-head battle over the final two rounds over the sunbaked Ailsa course. Both players shot 68-70-65 over the first three rounds, and while Watson produced another scintillating 65 in the final round, Nicklaus fell just a shot shy. Third-placed Hubert Green finished 10 shots behind Nicklaus.

Thirty-two years and three Opens later, a 59-year-old Watson nearly wrote one of the greatest sporting fairytales

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Matt Kuchar Class of 2006

The Path to the PGA TOUR.

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Before a golfer captivates millions with his swing and goes on to be a legend, he must first prove himself on the Web.com Tour. Every year the Web.com Tour awards 50 PGA TOUR® cards producing some of the world’s best golfers. Former Web.com Tour players account for three out of every four current PGA TOUR cardholders and over 421 PGA TOUR victories.

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Harold Varner III Class of 2015

The new 9th green at Turnberry, where the halfway house is now in the lighthouse

of all time when he reached the last hole of the 2009 Open leading by one. His approach into 18 looked perfect, yet inexplicably rolled through the back of the green, and after Watson failed to get up-and-down, he lost the playoff to fellow American Stewart Cink.

Of the nine golf courses on the Open’s current rota, the Ailsa is the one which brings the sea into play the most.

The ninth and 10th holes, with the lighthouse in between, have always hugged the rocky shoreline, but the latest renovations, masterminded by links specialist Martin Ebert, take the golf closer to the surf than it has ever been. The drama and beauty of the Ailsa Course have been heightened and the golfing challenge has been improved.

Perhaps the most striking alteration to the Ailsa Course has been the conversion on the ninth—previously a par-4 relying on its location more than its own quality—into a stunning par three of 235 yards for The Open, with a tee shot played over the dunes and rocky beach. The shot to par on the scorecard is re-gained at the 10th, which has been elongated from the old par-4 into a great par-5. The tee has been moved back to lie beside the remains of Turnberry Castle—where it is believed Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland, was born in 1274—and after the fairway curves around Castle Port Bay, a new green occupies a parcel of land where the 11th tee previously stood.

“On a tee, if they can see a flag ahead they are probably not facing in the right direction”

A new, relocated par-3 11th also brings the waters of the Firth of Clyde hazardously into a golfer’s sight, while the 14th green and 18th tee have been repositioned to bring golfers closer to the shoreline again.

Turnberry’s renovations have both optimized the coastal setting and modernized a championship test fit for a Major, with the final flourish provided by renovations to the iconic, 80-foot lighthouse itself. Built amid the Turnberry Castle remains, this now serves as the halfway house on the ground floor, and as a deluxe, two-bedroom guest suite above. Rates for the suite begin at $5,000 a night.

The mark of Old Tom Morris More modest, more typically British and also typical of the R&A and The Open, are the neighboring towns of Prestwick and Troon and their back-to-back golf courses. There is no missing Trump Turnberry as you drive up the coastal road, whereas with Prestwick Golf GC and Royal Troon GC, you could miss them if you blink. Low rise and low profile, these two golf courses have hosted The Open 32 times between them (Prestwick, 24. Troon, eight).

“I tend to warn visitors who don’t know the course,” starts Ken Goodwin, secretary at Prestwick Golf Club, “that when they stand on a tee, if they can see a flag ahead they are probably not facing in the right direction.”

That’s the essence of this old course. It is eccentric by modern standards but when Old Tom Morris came here in 1851 to lay out the course, he set the standard for the design of links courses for generations to come. It was here that he effectively became golf’s first club professional too.

“Prestwick was the first course Tom laid out, and his

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The 3rd green at Prestwick

approach to golf course design was to first find a good place for a green,” adds Goodwin. “Once he had identified that, he would find another good place for a green, and so it went on.

If there happened to be a sand dune or a depression on the road to the green then it was up to the golfer to negotiate it, one way or another.”

The golf course at Prestwick, which started as 12 holes in 1851 and was partly re-routed and expanded to 18 holes 30 years later, includes a rare treasure of golf design, a blind par three, the ‘Himalayas’.

“Himalayas has a big sand dune between the tee and the green,” explains Goodwin. “You would never be allowed to build that hole today. Modern pros would hate it in a tournament, but when The Open is at Troon or Turnberry we get a lot of them coming here to play the course for fun, and they think it’s great. Golf in the early days was all about negotiating obstacles like the one on our 5th hole.”

Morris’s work would ultimately be vindicated by the inauguration of The Open in 1860 upon the links he created with his own hands. The members of Prestwick organized the first Open in the hope of proving that their man, Morris, was the best golfer of his day, but Musselburgh’s Willie Park—the great rival of Morris—refused to fall into line and won the Champion’s Belt for the first time.

Adjoining Prestwick from the north is Royal Troon, a youngster by comparison, having been established in 1878.

In fact it was Morris’s apprentice and successor as pro at Prestwick, Charlie Hunter, who was brought in to lay out Troon’s original six holes. Then Troon’s own first pro, George Strath, eventually extended the six into 18 holes by

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Less spectacular than Turnberry, more conventional than Prestwick, Royal Troon is majestic 1884. Illustrating the closely-knit network in Victorian golf in Ayrshire, Willie Fernie—the Open champ who created the original holes at Turnberry—was appointed pro at Troon in 1888 and he would remain in post for 36 years.

Less spectacular than Turnberry and more conventional than Prestwick yet nothing less than majestic, Royal Troon is probably the most rounded test of links golf of the three, and hence why the R&A has brought The Open here eight times, starting with its 1923 debut (Prestwick’s 24th and final Open was played in 1925).

Each of this trio of historic courses is quite distinct, in heritage, appearance and character. The best thing is to play all three and end up in the Dining Room at Prestwick to discuss their merits at length—with a glass of postlunch Kummel to sooth both muscular and emotional aches, as tradition at Prestwick dictates. Caraway-flavored and originating around the Baltic Sea in Eastern Europe, Kummel provides warming, digestive qualities, although some golfers prefer a shot prior to a round to calm the nerves: code name “putting mixture”.

If you bump into Tom Watson any time soon, ask him about Kummel at Prestwick, although he might not remember the details with clarity…

Golf. Lessons.

St Andrews has been home to both for 600 years.

Join the 600 Club and be part of the University of St Andrews’ unique golf and academic programme. www.saintsgolf.co.uk

The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No: SC013532

y t i u n i t n Co ottle b a in 148

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It would be clichéd to say John Walker was a man with a vision.

He certainly was a man with a grocer’s store in Kilmarnock in need of better quality whisky than the inconsistent—and occasionally terrible—batches supplied by local distilleries.

Determined to provide his customers with a superior drink, Walker sparked a revolution in the whisky trade

The original sketch of Johnnie Walker’s iconic Striding Man, drawn over lunch by celebrated Punch cartoonist Tom Browne [left], and [below] , Alexander Walker’s original blending notes for Old Highland whisky

W

here there is imperfection there is opportunity, and that is the great thing about imperfection.

One of the great epics—a story that brings in successive generations of one family, a tale of global fame rising from a humble beginning, a story fuelled by creativity and dedication— is that of Johnnie Walker whisky.

It began with a 14-year-old farm boy in 1819, bereft after the untimely death of his father, who had the foresight to sell his family farm to establish a modest grocery store: “John Walker,” the grocers in the market town of Kilmarnock in Ayrshire, southwest Scotland.

It was customary for grocers in Scotland in the Georgian era to sell local single malts, but 200 years ago such malts were imperfect, to put it politely. Inconsistency was rife, maturation of whiskies was haphazard and a dram from this age demanded more than an acquired taste; it required a constitution of cast iron.

One batch would be rough, raw, ready yet reasonable to drink in small doses by the sturdier citizens, yet the next batch from the same distiller could be so chokingly repellent that customers would joke about keeping it away from the local caretaker in fear the liquid could raise the dead. Whisky-fuelled ghosts haunting the streets of Kilmarnock was the last thing they needed.

There was an appetite for whisky—stood behind the shop counter a teenage John Walker could see that—but there was also frustration and mistrust in the local malts. A shopkeeper geared to finding solutions to problems, Walker could see a business opportunity, so he began to blend the best malts he could find to produce a whisky that was not just more palatable, but consistently so. As fate would have it, Walker proved a capable blender.

“Opened in 1820, John Walker’s grocers was just a small, local shop,” starts Christine McCafferty, Archive Manager for Johnnie Walker, as she takes Kingdom inside the company’s archive in Menstrie, near Stirling in central Scotland. Walking into the Archive is like entering a cavern of treasure, particularly in its “liquid library,” a towering whisky stash of one of almost every type of Johnnie Walker bottle ever produced. Taking it all in is thirsty work.

“Customers would come into John’s shop and tell him what kind of whisky they liked, and he would mix something to their taste from his limited stock. He also stocked rum, brandy and gin, tea from China, pepper from Jamaica and he brewed ginger beer. These were premium products at the time and suggests that John had an appreciation for spices and flavors and enjoyed experimenting, which obviously would have helped with his whisky blending.”

Walker laid the foundations for his sons Alexander and George to establish a whisky brand and to grow an international business.

“Customers would come into John’s shop and tell him what kind of whisky they liked, and he would mix something to their taste”

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By 1920, 100 years after John Walker’s shop opened, Johnnie Walker was sold in 120 markets around the world

John Walker’s priority was to provide his local customers with the finest blended whisky they could buy. It was Alexander who established “John Walker & Sons” so that other grocers, near and far, could serve their customers the same.

“John established a business for the local community but it was Alexander who took the business to a new level,” adds McCafferty, emphasizing that family built the legend. “He created a brand and an identity, and he began the export trade in the 1860s.”

Snakebite

There are hundreds of bottles on display in Johnnie Walker’s Liquid Library, but only one keeps a beady eye on you as you enter the room; the one with a snake in it.

It’s the oldest bottle of “John Walker & Sons” whisky known to be still in existence—containing the original “Old Highland” blend. This was the first branded whisky produced by the company, and the bottle dates back to the 1880s. If only this particular bottle could talk—or if the 130-year-old pickled snake inside it could spin a yarn—because it has been on some journey.

The bottle of Old Highland (pre-snake) was probably exported to Southeast Asia, where the tradition of infusing snakes into wine and spirits dates back to Chinese medicine 3,000 years ago. Some traditions are invincible, particularly when the popular belief is that venomous snakes in wine or whisky are not just restorative, but actually boost virility.

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Maureen Robinson is a Master Blender with Johnnie Walker, based at Menstrie. She starts: “Continuity and quality set John Walker’s whisky blends apart from other whiskies straight from the start. We can see from the records a fantastic attention to detail. They literally set a new standard in blending whiskies, and that continuity and quality has now been the hallmark of Johnnie Walker for nearly two centuries. That is an amazing stretch of time if you think about it.”

John died in 1857, aged 52, but his legacy was set. “John Walker & Sons Old Highland” whisky was first bottled in 1867, and in the 1900s the range expanded into White Label, Red Label and Black Label. Today, Johnnie Walker Red Label and Black Label remain two of the world’s longeststanding product names.

A letter from Alexander Walker to an Australian distributor in 1887— in response to the distributor’s request to cut the prices of Johnnie Walker— clearly illustrates the brand philosophy, one which began in the grocer’s in Kilmarnock and which the company stands by to this day. Alexander wrote: “With regard to different brands of whisky which you mention; they may for a time detract from the sales of John Walker & Sons but we are determined to make our whisky, so far as quality is concerned, of such a standard that nothing in the market shall come before it.”

By 1920, 100 years after John Walker’s shop opened, Johnnie Walker was being sold in 120 markets around the world.

“Today at Johnnie Walker, what we do is actually very similar to what John Walker did originally, and then Alexander Walker,” says Robinson, who started working at Johnnie Walker as a chemist 39 years ago before progressing to the complex skill of whisky blending. “The biggest difference between now and back in the 19th century is the scale of our production, and the ways we use new technologies are to produce quality whisky on a large scale.

“The practices of trading different malts and whiskies that John Walker did from the very beginning are what we still do today. Back then there was a great deal of trial and error— that was the only way to learn about blending—and we are the same today.

We are always trialing new ideas and setting up experiments, be it with new flavors or with maturation conditions and casks.”

Bottled history: Johnnie Walker’s Liquid Library

Red Label is Johnnie Walker’s “Pioneer Blend,” the world’s bestselling Scotch, made with a bold and characterful flavor that has enduring, universal appeal.

Black Label, blended with whiskies that have each matured for a minimum of 12 years, has set the benchmark for deluxe blended whisky.

Gold, Platinum, Blue and Double Black Label blends have followed to great acclaim, along with a small selection of Limited Editions, each taking Johnnie Walker’s journey in different directions, with distinct characters and geared for the whisky connoisseur.

After nearly 40 years at Johnnie Walker, testing and nosing, trialing and perfecting, Robinson likes nothing

better than to sit back with a dram of Black Label.

“Black Label is what I drink at home,” she admits, although it must feel as though she has to pick a favorite among offspring. “It is so rounded and mellow, smoky as well. I usually put some ice and just a little bit of water in it and that helps to get the full flavor journey going. As the ice starts to melt it dilutes the whisky and that allows more flavors and aromas to come through. The flavors open up.”

Old John Walker could not have described it better himself.

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BURGER The classic backyard burger is an ubiquitous part of summer, as well it should be—a perfectly prepared hamburger is one of the great joys in life. However, a few BBQs in and it may be time to switch it up a bit. The Avalon offers a shrimp burger, served with wakame seaweed, yuzu aioli, quick pickled cucumber and yam fries. It is divine. Keep in mind you can keep things fresh at home by trying an Ahi Tuna or Wild Salmon burger as well.

Summer Fare Tis the season for backyard parties, but with the sun beating down “a nice hot meal” isn’t on the menu. Here are some great sun-season alternatives, courtesy of the kitchen at the Avalon Palm Springs, which knows a thing or two about summer. Try the originals at the Avalon (avalon-hotel.com/palmsprings) or simply use them as inspiration to set your own chill table at home

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AVOCADO TOAST Avocado toast is a thing. We thought it might be a passing trend—until we tried it. It’s glorious and definitely here to stay. The Avalon serves it topped with truffle salt, beets, radishes and a farm-fresh egg fried in coconut oil. The result is a breakfast staple you’ll want to eat any time throughout a hot day. If you’ve never tried avocado toast before, it couldn’t be simpler: Make toast with your favorite bread and top it with freshly mashed ripe avocado. Maybe a drizzle of olive oil. Maybe a sprinkle of salt.

Some chopped nuts? Feta and mint? Hummus and Dukkah? Roasted corn, cilantro and queso fresco? Like pizza, once you have the base the possibilities are infinite. And infinitely delicious.

PRAWN, GRAPEFRUIT AND AVOCADO SALAD Chilled grapefruit is one of those magical foods that can cool you down on the most stifling of days. At the Avalon it complements fresh prawns, avocado and watercress dressed in lemon to create a dish that will refresh your palate through the dog days of summer. If prawns aren’t your thing, you can swap them for some grilled chicken or halloumi cheese. If you don’t love watercress, some spicy arugula dressed simply in lemon, good olive oil and a sprinkle of salt will do the trick.

FISH TACOS In California, nothing says summer like fish tacos.

(That’s a lie. We eat fish tacos all year long—but we love them most in summer, when the sun is just a little more golden and the waves just a little more blue.) The Avalon’s version pairs freshly grilled fish with mango salsa, cabbage, avocado, pepitas and chipotle aioli. They are quintessentially Californian and absolutely wonderful. Next time you throw a backyard bash, ditch the usual serve-yourself bowls of BBQ fare and set up a taco station. A few types of grilled fish or meat, shredded cabbage with lime and cilantro, fresh tortillas, a selection of salsas and, of course, fresh avocado. Your guests will be able to create their own summer masterpieces while you take all the credit. We call that a win.

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Cool The bartenders at the Avalon Palm Springs know a thing or two about chilling out in hot weather. Summer in the desert is never easy, but a couple of years ago July temps in Palm Springs topped out at 122˚F, turning swimming pools into spa baths and making ice cubes as rare as diamonds. The Avalon has it covered, though, with plenty of shade for lounging and a variety of libations designed to cool both the body and the soul. More fun than air conditioning, the hotel’s concoctions are also delicious. Use the following to inspire temperature-lowering drinks of your own design this summer. And if you do find yourself in the desert near Palm Springs, be sure to shelter at the Avalon—a true luxury oasis, any time of year.

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The Spicy Peruvian

Paloma

Desert Jewel

Pisco Agave Lime Cucumber Serrano peppers

Tequila Elderflower Grapefruit Lime Agave

Mandarin vodka Aperol Grapefruit Lemon Veuve Clicquot

This May the BBC reported that a TV journalist from Chile was fired for referring to Peruvian pisco as “pisco.” The Chileans believe they’re the only ones making real pisco, and so they call the Peruvian stuff “brandy.” Turns out the story was a stretch and that he was fired for a different reason. Still, good story. And after a few piscos, who cares?

Experiment with ratios to make your own version of this and don’t be shy with the peppers. Know how a hot shower on a hot day can cool you down? Yeah, it’s like that.

In Spanish the name means “dove,” because if you drink enough of these you dream of doves. Well, that’s not necessarily true. It does mean “dove,” but the origins of why likely are lost. What is certain is that this is one of Mexico’s most beloved cocktails and that it’s a great refresher.

The Avalon adds Elderflower, which softens it. Try a salt rim as well. And go with good grapefruit soda if you’re lazy.

Works just fine.

Served in a wine glass, this is one of those “too easy to drink” summer libations that genuinely cools you down, but which you have to keep an eye on over a long, hot weekend lest one bottle of Champagne give way to two or three or... The bubbly gives the drink some lift, while the slight bitterness cuts what can be a sweet Mandarin vodka.

The Avalon has this balanced about as well as one could hope, and with the pleasing color and presentation, “lovely” is a good word here.

Garden Cooler Gin Cucumber Basil Lime The English spent enough time in hot climates to confirm that gin cocktails do indeed work for proper cooling.

Use a juniper-heavy gin for a true “garden” experience or find a neutral spirit and back off on the basil for a cleaner version.

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Ango Bango Ango Whiskey Orange Pineapple Ginger beer Bitters Now here’s a mouthful, with ginger beer and whiskey evoking Caribbean-style treats and fruit pushing things in a tiki direction. For those who like their summers big and bold, this gives the palate much to consider.

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Fashion

Mr. Jones He’s big in town and short on time, so don’t waste it—or you’ll get it. The evening air is warm, the ice is cold and brother, there’s music and a world of possibilities mingling by the hotel pool. With a full bar, fine threads and a Polaroid, anything could happen tonight.

Mr. Jones is here. Now turn up the band

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Impossible Project The Impossible Project bought the old Polaroid manufacturing equipment and now rebuilds the firm’s iconic cameras to be just like new (like this SX-70). Better still, they’re making Polaroid film again impossible-project.com

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Fashion

Swims Classy, timeless, instantly acceptable but also high-tech, water-friendly and fitted with antibacterial liners so you can keep your stiff upper lip as dry as your gin swims.com

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Bright Style Jonathan Adler makes the chair (jonathanadler.com) and Patrick Assaraf has you covered with the shirt (patrickassaraf.com) but you’ll have to bring your own swagger

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Fashion

dunhill Long favored by gentlemen of distinction, dunhill’s top cufflinks, wallet and other accessories are complemented by a timeless and impeccably packaged cologne dunhill.com

Castangia Pre-dating the founding of the Italian kingdom, this 1850 brand got the jump on making “Italian” synonymous with “stylish”—and so it continues generations later, crafting sublime men’s wear with the best materials and tailoring, fit for world leaders and club kings alike castangia1850.com

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Glenmorangie The men of Tain know what they’re doing, hence this brilliant distillation from top Scotch house Glenmorangie: Artein takes its heart from stone and its soul from the Super Tuscan barrels in which it’s aged. Pour deep, drink deep glenmorangie.com

Orrefors This Swedish firm has been making top glassware since 1726, and its Street Tumbler (with hand-cut grid evoking Manhattan’s layout) is a beautiful way to get the good stuff to your lips orrefors.us

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Fashion

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Molton Brown Everything the traveling man needs to be clean and refreshed, in a travel pouch and TSA-friendly sizes, from London’s top bath and beauty house moltonbrown.com

Bowers & Wilkins Dress your ears in the P7 headphones from leading audio firm Bowers & Wilkins and free your mind with clarity and richness to enliven the soul. Music never sounded better bowers-wilkins.com

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FOLLOW THE RACE FOR THE FEDEXCUP ALL SEASON LONG SIRIUS208XM92

The First Century It is not widely known that in the United States exactly 100 golf clubs have hosted Major tournaments. The first was Newport Golf Club with the inaugural U.S. Open in 1895 and the 100th was Chambers Bay with the 2015 U.S. Open. The first PGA Championship was staged in 1916, but it was not until 1927 that a Major was held outside America’s golfing stronghold in the northeast. That year the PGA Championship broke south into Texas, and while the Masters was established in Georgia in 1934, the U.S. Open did not cross the Mississippi River until 1938. Here we list and map every single Major venue in the United States, while Art Spander—resident of Oakland, California—reflects on the slow migration of Majors golf to the west

The iconic clubhouse at Newport, home of the inaugural U.S. Open

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List of Major Venues

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73

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Course name

State

Newport Golf Club Shinnecock Hills Golf Club Chicago Golf Club Myopia Hunt Club Baltimore Golf Club Garden City Golf Club Baltusrol Golf Club Glen View Club Onwentsia Club Philadelphia Cricket Club Englewood Golf Club Country Club of Buffalo The Country Club, Brookline Midlothian Country Club Minikahda Club Siwanoy Country Club Brae Burn Country Club Engineers Country Club Inverness Club Flossmoor Country Club Columbia Country Club Inwood Country Club Stokie Country Club Oakmont Country Club Pelham Golf Club Oakland Hills Country Club French Lick Springs Worcester Country Club Olympia Fields Country Club Scioto Country Club Salisbury Golf Club Cedar Crest Country Club Winged Foot Golf Club Hillcrest Country Club Interlachen Country Club Fresh Meadow Country Club Wannamoisett Country Club Keller Golf Club North Shore Country Club Blue Mound Country Club Augusta National Golf Club Merion Golf Club Park Club of Buffalo Twin Hills Country Club Pinehurst Country Club Pittsburgh Field Club Cherry Hills Country Club Shawnee Cricket Club Pomonock Country Club Canterbury Golf Club Hershey Country Club Colonial Country Club Sea View Country Club Manito Golf & Country Club Moraine Country Club Portland Golf Club St Louis Country Club Plum Hollow Country Club Norwood Hills Country Club Riviera Country Club Hermitage Country Club Medinah CC Northwood Golf Club Big Spring Country Club Birmingham Country Club Olympic Country Club Meadowbrook Country Club Oak Hill County Club Blue Hill Golf & Country Club Miami Valley Golf Club Southern Hills Country Club Llanerch Country Club Minneapolis Golf Club

Rhode Island New York Illinois Massachusetts Maryland New York New Jersey Illinois Illinois Pennsylvania New Jersey New York Massachusetts Illinois Minnesota New York Massachusetts New York Ohio Illinois Maryland New York Illinois Pennsylvania New York Michigan Indiana Massachusetts Illinois Ohio New York Texas New York California Minnesota New York Rhode Island Minnesota Illinois Wisconsin Georgia Pennsylvania New York Oklahoma North Carolina Pennsylvania Colorado Pennsylvania New York Ohio Pennsylvania Texas New Jersey Washington Ohio Oregon Missouri Michigan Missouri California Virginia Illinois Texas Kentucky Michigan California Michigan New York Massachusetts Ohio Oklahoma Pennsylvania Minnesota

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No. hosted 1st major 1 4 3 4 1 1 8 1 1 3 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 6 1 1 2 1 11 1 9 1 1 4 2 1 1 6 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 80 5 1 1 4 1 5 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 5 1 1 1 5 1 6 1 1 7 1 1

1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1902 1903 1904 1906 1907 1909 1912 1913 1914 1916 1916 1919 1919 1920 1920 1921 1921 1922 1922 1923 1924 1924 1925 1925 1926 1926 1927 1929 1929 1930 1930 1931 1932 1933 1933 1934 1934 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1938 1939 1940 1940 1941 1942 1944 1945 1946 1947 1947 1948 1948 1949 1949 1952 1952 1953 1955 1955 1956 1956 1957 1958 1958 1959

74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100

Course name

State

Firestone Country Club Aronimink Golf Club Dallas Athletic Club Congressional County Club Columbus Country Club Bellerive Country Club Laurel Valley Golf Club Columbine Country Club Pecan Valley Country Club Champions Golf Club NCR Country Club Hazeltine National Golf Club PGA National Golf Club Pebble Beach Golf Links Tanglewood Golf Club Atlanta Athletic Club Shoal Creek Country Club Oak Tree Golf Club Kemper Lakes Golf Club Crooked Stick Golf Club Valhalla Golf Club Sahalee Country Club Bethpage State Park Whistling Straits Torrey Pines Golf Club Kiawah Island Resort Chambers Bay

Ohio Pennsylvania Texas Maryland Ohio Missouri Pennsylvania Colorado Texas Texas Ohio Minnesota Florida California North Carolina Georgia Alabama Oklahoma Illinois Indiana Kentucky Washington New York Wisconsin California South Carolina Washington

No. hosted 1st major 3 1 1 4 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 4 2 6 1 4 2 1 1 1 3 1 2 3 1 1 1

1960 1962 1963 1964 1964 1965 1965 1967 1968 1969 1969 1970 1971 1972 1974 1976 1984 1988 1989 1991 1996 1998 2002 2004 2008 2012 2015

Most majors held by state 1. Georgia 2. New York 3. Pennsylvania 4. Illinois 5. Ohio 6. California 7. Michigan T8. Massachusetts T8. New Jersey T10. Minnesota T10. Oklahoma

Map Key Number of Majors hosted by town/city 1 dot = 1 Major hosted Rings indicate number of Majors hosted Yellow dot & ring = Augusta (80 Major events)

Number of Majors hosted by state 0

1F5

6 F 10

11 F 15

16 F 20

21 F 25

26 F 30

30 +

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84 30 25 19 18 16 12 10 10 9 9

THE BIGGEST STARS. AMAZING GOLF. Exclusive access to Thursday and Friday morning featured groups, round replays, PGA TOUR archives and much more.

Sign up for a free trial or download the app.

Picture: The PGA of America

Chambers Bay, the 100th Major venue in the United States

E

ven now, those who live in the more populated east flippantly refer to the Pacific region—the states of California, Oregon and Washington—as the ‘Left Coast’, a less than subtle implication of territorial imperative. As if the Atlantic, the northeast coast, is the right coast, the proper coast.

America is a huge place; 2,600 miles and four time zones across. It grew east to west, hesitantly. There were mountains to cross, mental ones as much as the physical.

Those sports residing and working in the East—the National Football League, Major League Baseball, National Hockey League and National Basketball Association are in New York; the PGA Tour, LPGA and tennis are in Florida— stayed close to home, keeping their biggest sporting events with them.

The first U.S. Open was at Newport, Rhode Island, and so why would anyone think of holding it out there in the wild west, where there are rattlesnakes and sunburn?

Valid reasons existed to keep the U.S. Open tucked away in a corner of the country’s northeast. The headquarters of the USGA, which runs the tournaments, are there. The historic courses—all private—Merion, Winged Foot, The Country Club at Brookline, were there too. Air travel was in its infancy prior to the Second World War too. Not until the early 1960s did the jet plane go into service regularly.

Golfers and golf people find familiarity comforting.

When the 1970 U.S. Open was held at a new venue, Hazeltine in the prairieland near Minneapolis, Jack Nicklaus said, “I like playing the Open where Ben Hogan played it.”

Interestingly, one of the courses on which Hogan played the U.S. Open and won was Riviera Country Club, a few miles west of Los Angeles, where in 1948 the tournament was finally held for the first time west of the Rocky

Mountains and after Cherry Hills in Denver in 1938, only for the second time west of the Mississippi River.

The USGA ventured to San Francisco’s Olympic Club for the first time in 1955, which was a major decision about its Major championship. That was only the second time the U.S. Open was played in a Pacific state, and not until 1972 at Pebble Beach—which had hosted the U.S. Amateur decades previously—was a U.S. Open played at a course to which the public had access, although with green fees in triple digits it wasn’t exactly the neighborhood muni.

Nicklaus won that, after asking then USGA executive director P.J. Boatwright, “What did you do with all the grass?”

Heading south The first major to be held in the southern states was the 1927 PGA Championship, won by Walter Hagen at Cedar Crest CC in Dallas, Texas. Cedar Crest was the 33rd American golf course to stage what are today considered to be Major championships.

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Western shoot-out The Western United States held its first Major in 1929, when the PGA Championship ventured to Hillcrest CC in Los Angeles, the 36th U.S. course to host a Major. Leo Diegel beat Walter Hagen in the semi-final before defeating Johnny Farrell in the final.

Davis will be looking forward to seeing his main event return to the comfort of the old guard on the north east and to Pittsburgh’s mighty Oakmont, which has held the U.S. Open more than any other club—this will be its ninth.

The U.S. Open does venture to new ground once again next year though, and will be edging out of the north eastern stronghold when Erin Hills in Hartford, Wisconsin will be the 101st American golf club to host a Major. At least it’s west of Lake Michigan.

With the USGA we always thought, whatever the level of the teeing ground, the U.S. Open would be in New York, Pennsylvania or maybe next door in Ohio and Michigan. No more. New frontiers beckoned on the other side of America, and the bosses have stretched their horizons.

As Horace Greeley said long, long ago, “Go west, young man”.

80th anniversary Augusta National, home to the Masters, was the 42nd U.S. club to host a Major. It is golf’s only perennial Major venue, having hosted the Masters 80 times to date, making it not only the golf course to have hosted the most Majors in the United States, but in the world (St Andrews in Scotland is second worldwide in terms of Majors held, staging its 29th Open last July).

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Picture: The PGA of America

What the USGA did was take advantage of television and a shift in the population from the so-called Rust Belt to the sunshine states (California, with more than 36 million people, now homes the largest population of the 50 states) and a change in thinking.

Eastern journalists and some officials were hardly ecstatic when the U.S. Open was held in the Golden State three times in five years (2008 at Torrey Pines; 2010 at Pebble Beach; 2012 at the Olympic Club). Yet the networks are pleased to have a tournament held in the Pacific time zone, which is shown live in prime time in New York and Boston, where it’s three hours later.

Mike Davis, the current USGA executive director, has been willing to step away from the conservative views of the past, and the best example was the decision to choose Chambers Bay for the 2015 U.S. Open, the first held in the Northwest. The PGA of America first ventured to the region with its PGA Championship in 1944 when it landed in Manito Golf and Country Club in Spokane, Washington.

Portland Golf Club in Oregon then held the PGA in 1946.

Outside Seattle, Chambers Bay is a former gravel pit.

It was the first time the U.S. Open had been brought to a new course in 35 years, since Hazeltine in 1970, and it was the first U.S. Open played on fescue, the grass of Britain’s links courses. Unfortunately for the USGA—and for Dustin Johnson, who three-putted on the last green to lose to Jordan Spieth—spectator access was less than perfect and the condition of the greens was worse.

“We had an exciting finish, a great player won, we had a great leaderboard, and that is what really does matter,” Davis said. “We were pleased about the ending.”

“It was a great test of golf. I do think if we hadn’t had the bumpy green situation, my sense is you would have had more of the players say ‘It’s a different test, but it’s a good test.’ I didn’t hear many comments negatively about the setup. It was more the bumpy greens we got.”

After a bumpy U.S. Open it is likely to be considerable time before the U.S. Open returns to Chambers Bay and

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without doubt arnold palmer’s finest links course in europe

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‘I may have designed the first 9, but surely God designed the back’

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Duty and Honor Folds of Honor Foundation ensures the legacy of those willing to pay the ultimate price for their country by providing scholarship programs for children in military families that have been touched by combat in the hardest ways.

Here’s just one story of the great work they’re doing

SUMMER 2016

The Bauguess family

O

n any given day, the bravery of service members is profoundly displayed in the simple act of their pulling on a uniform having accepted the fact that they might die in it. The aim, surely, always is to return home, but there are times when fate intercedes and the ultimate price is paid. For those whose sacrifice is absolute, their fellow citizens bear no greater obligation than to look after the loved ones who also pay the price, those left behind to cope with a loss or injury that might have devastating effects on a household. While such sacrifices can never fully be repaid they can be remembered and honored, and so it is that Folds of Honor Foundation exists, and that, sadly, the Bauguess family came to know the Foundation’s commitment to service members and their families.

In May of 2007, Maj. Larry Bauguess was serving with the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan as part of the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom. With a U.S. group, Maj. Bauguess met with leaders from Afghanistan and Pakistan on the Pakistani border to talk in hopes of easing tensions in the region, which had been building. His wife Wesley recalled the story in an interview some years later: “By all accounts, I’m told the meeting appeared to be a great success with coins exchanged, photos taken and a lot of good will in the room,” she said. “He was the Operations Officer of his unit, he could have left with senior leadership.

But that wasn’t Larry. He wanted to stay with his men.”

Wesley said the Army told her that a uniformed Pakistani soldier opened fire on the Americans as they were leaving the meeting, that Larry recognized what was happening and that he placed himself between the attacking soldier and his own men. As she said in the interview, “He died saving the men of his unit.”

The death of a soldier is always a tremendous loss for the service member’s country, family and friends, but for Wesley, Larry’s death came with both emotional devastation and practical challenges. The couple had two daughters, Ryann and Ellie, then 4 and 6, and Wesley was now left to look after them and to provide for them mostly on her own.

A former service member herself who’d met her future husband while both were in an ROTC program at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, Wesley left the military when the two decided to start a family. With Larry gone, she dug deep and found the strength and courage to raise their girls on her own, teaching them to be strong themselves and to drive to be the best they could be. In Wesley’s mind this included their going to college, but a good education isn’t free and, with limited resources, college was a tough goal.

Enter the Folds of Honor Foundation. Named for the 13 folds it takes to fold the American flag to its triangle shape, the Foundation was created by Maj. Dan Rooney, an F-16 pilot, a Major in the Air National Guard and a decorated military aviator who served three combat tours in Iraq before being called back to service in recent years. Returning home from his second tour, he saw an irreverence toward U.S. service men and women that he found unacceptable, and he decided that he wanted to dedicate his time to honoring those willing to pay the ultimate price.

It wasn’t long before he identified a need in support for education. Many service members’ dependents do not qualify for federal scholarship assistance and, despite some support from the federal government, many could miss out on the American dream for which their loved ones had fought so bravely. So, Rooney created the Folds

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of Honor Foundation in 2007 to assist the more than 1 million dependents of service members killed or disabled while on active duty, giving back by providing educational scholarships to their children and spouses.

To date the Foundation has handed out more than 10,000 scholarships, including the scholarships given to the Bauguess girls. Wesley has said it has made all the difference.

“We both went to college, we both saw how important that is, we wanted that for our girls,” Wesley said. “What I love about the Folds of Honor Foundation… they get the concept of ‘be here now.’ They are doing what they do, providing the funding to help educate these kids.

“Ryann and Ellie are remarkable young people and their potential is endless, and the fact that an organization is willing to be there, not only to remember Larry and remember his sacrifice, but to step in and be there for his kids…

“Those who are gone will be gone forever, and those who are wounded will be wounded forever. The greatest gift you can give to a surviving family is to remember their service member, and the worst thing you can do is forget them.”

For Wesley and her daughters, forgetting isn’t possible, of course, and Wesley pointed out in a recent interview that they’re not alone.

“Ryann and Ellie are just like a lot of the children of our fallen service members,” she said, “they drive on with a different kind of motivation. They have their eye on a prize, and that prize is making their daddy proud.”

To that end, she said, an education is an important step, one made possible by the team of dedicated people at Folds of Honor Foundation, and those who support them.

“I would hope that people will continue to remember long after the wars end,” Wesley said. “To the benefactors, the donors the businesses that contribute to Folds of Honor Foundation, I thank you for your generosity and for your compassion. It is a great gift to remember our fallen heroes and our disabled military, and so with everything that I am, I thank you.”

To find out how you can help the Folds of Honor Foundation achieve its mission, please visit foldsofhonor.org

The Patriot Golf Club

Patriot Golf Day Since 2007, Folds of Honor has awarded over 10,000 scholarships.

This success all began with golf. Our Flagship fundraiser, and single largest revenue generator, Patriot Golf Day, has evolved from golfers adding $1 to their green fee over Labor Day weekend to public and private courses hosting events year round. While Labor Day weekend is Patriot Golf Day promotion week, our goal is that great patriots can do their event anytime of the year—what works best for you: your course, your weather, your mission.” foldsofhonor.org

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Set amidst the rolling countryside of northeastern Oklahoma, The Patriot Golf Club, 20 minutes from Tulsa in Owasso, is a special place indeed.

Headquarters to the Folds of Honor Foundation, which helps the families of service members killed or disabled in service to their country, the club also offers an award-winning golf experience and a proud community.

The golf course was designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr. and it makes epic use of the area’s natural combination of lowland marsh, heavy woodlands, high prairie and dramatic limestone cliffs.

“There’s no golf course like it in the world,” says Maj. Dan Rooney, a current Major in the Oklahoma Air National Guard who founded the Folds of Honor Foundation. “It has truly great golf, and a greater purpose.”

A tribute to America’s heroes, the spirit of patriotism, golf ’s greatest traditions and home to the Folds of Honor Foundation, The Patriot Golf Club isn’t just a top club destination, it’s a living and active monument to this country’s best and brightest.

To learn more about membership, Patriot Golf Club and how you can help support those who serve so that all of us might live free, visit patriotgolfclub.com for more information.

The “Impregnable Quadrilateral”: Bobby Jones in 1930 with his trophy haul from [l to r] The [British] Open, U.S. Amateur, British Amateur and U.S. Open

The American double There is so much talk about golf’s modern Grand Slam of four Majors that one of golf’s most elite clubs gets overlooked: those who have done the American double of winning the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open

Golfers who have won the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open.

It’s a short list:

1. Jerome Travers

U.S. Amateur: U.S. Open: 2. Francis Ouimet U.S. Amateur: U.S. Open: 3. Chick Evans U.S. Amateur: U.S. Open: 4. Bobby Jones U.S. Amateur: U.S. Open: 5. Lawson Little U.S. Amateur: U.S. Open: 6. Johnny Goodman U.S. Amateur: U.S. Open: 7. Gene Littler: U.S. Amateur: U.S. Open: 8. Arnold Palmer U.S. Amateur: U.S. Open: 9. Jack Nicklaus U.S. Amateur: U.S. Open: 10. Jerry Pate: U.S. Amateur: U.S. Open: 11. Tiger Woods U.S. Amateur: U.S. Open:

1907, ’08 1915 1914, ’31 1913 1916, ’20 1916, 1924, ’25, ’27, ’28, ’30 1923, ’26, ’29, ’30, 1934, ’35 1940 1937 1933 1953 1961 1954 1960 1959, 1961 1962, ’67, ’72, ‘80 1974 1976 1994, ’95, ’96 2000, ’02, ‘08

So who could become the 12th? Phil Mickelson (U.S. Amateur champ in 1990) must still be regarded as most likely to add the U.S. Open to his trophy cabinet, which would also complete the career Grand Slam for the Californian.

Matt Kucher (U.S. Amateur champ in 1997) has a chance, although he has always fallen short in the majors to date. Colt Knost (2007) and Bryson DeChambeau (2015) are in the conversation, or how about the first international golfer to complete the U.S. double? Formidable tour players with the Amateur in the bag are New Zealander Danny Lee (2008) and Englishman Matthew Fitzpatrick (2013).

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SUMMER 2016