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EDITOR’S LETTER

“It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease.

Hack away at the inessentials” — Bruce Lee

B

ruce was better at hacking than most of course, and though I do my best to emulate him on the golf course—well, I’m trying to emulate Ben Hogan, but it often ends up looking more like Bruce Lee—I find that chopping down life’s inessentials is tough kung fu indeed. Perhaps that is why I had no particular optimism when I was sent a bottle of Dewar’s White Label Scotch and given instructions so elementary that they barely constituted a recipe: add ice, ginger ale, and a lemon peel. Still, I carefully concocted the drink according to the prescribed ratios and…

Wow. My new daily decrease. As with Bruce Lee’s minimalist philosophy, there is much depth to the seemingly simplistic Highball cocktail, invented by Tommy Dewar nearly 30 years before any 20s were roaring. The Scotch itself is the fulcrum, double-aged and beautifully blended, and the other parts— the simple additions—so incredibly complement the Dewar’s that the result is an exaltation of all of the parts (p100). How refreshing, in so many ways, and how like so many of life’s perfect moments. Golf with friends, a touch of sunshine and a light cool breeze keeping things comfortable. A stunning islands setting with simple fare pulled from the sea and then prepared by a French culinary hero (p80). A backyard, a vision, and a private golf oasis (p160). The Masters, a legend, and the local photographer who knew him growing up (p52). The Highball is but one example of how something deep and complex can be paired with lighter elements and shared socially to great effect. Pro-ams offer a variation of that (p34), offering scratch golfers and duffers alike the chance to play golf alongside the game’s best, on some of its best venues, and with profound results personally, whatever the individual performances. In a peculiar twist, the simple natural beauty of Orlando ultimately is what created its current reputation as a chaotic, theme-park-rich metropolis. There’s more to the story (p88), and it has nothing to do with mice. There’s so much more in this special double issue of Kingdom, and much of it relies on the same kind of subtleties and commitment to integrity that the Highball does.

A country with thousands of temples and only one golf course? Yes (p94). The relationship between Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus? Amazing (p58). Our picks on who will be successful on Tour this year? You’re not going to catch us that easily! It’s good to have clarity, good to be able to identify what’s essential and what’s not, good to play golf. To that end I’ll be hacking away, and I hope you will, too.

Whether you more resemble Ben Hogan or Bruce Lee, just remember, grasshopper, that if you believe it, if you get there, out of nowhere the game comes forth.

Best to all,

SPRING 2020

13

PUBLISHER’S LETTER

Here comes the sun

W

riting this in late February from my office in Northern climes, the warmth of the Arnold Palmer Invitational seems far away—the azaleas of Augusta even further—but it is with some cheer that I realize the “real” golf season is nearly upon us. Welcome, then, to our special Majors double issue. While the golf shorts may have been gathering dust these last few winter months I have taken advantage of the off season to not just practice my game away from scorecard pressure but also to take expert advice on my clubs. Given the sums most of us spend on equipment, coaching and play, I am amazed more players don’t go for a custom club fitting. Of course Arnie worked on and fitted his own clubs, but on page 104 you can read how Kingdom’s Robin Barwick and I got on with an independent fitter; an expert not linked to any of the major manufacturers—or to their commissions!

As a predominantly private members’ magazine we have a vested interest in seeing clubs prosper.

Membership is at the heart of the game; it is the social glue that turns individuals into communities, while links between clubs across the nation and across the world turn strangers into friends with a common language: golf. To that end it is wonderful to see organizations such as Palmer Advantage provide individual private members with privileged access to such a wide range of clubs and amenities.

And, for those who want to extend their membership to include golf destination usage, the Dormie Network has an amazing menu of clubs with rooms, fine dining and a concierge on site to take care of you and your party, be it friends, family or clients (p118).

You may well be reading this just after, or even at, the Arnold Palmer Invitational. It’s wonderful to see Arnold’s tournament thrive and particularly pleasing to see the loyalty of so many of the tournament’s sponsors, among them St. Johns Insurance Company. Its continued support of the Arnold & Winnie Palmer Foundation, the tournament, and Palmer’s pro golfer grandson, Sam Saunders, would surely make Arnold proud, given as he was to supporting those who were loyal to him. That included friends of course, one of whom was also his rival: Jack Nicklaus. It’s incredible to think that Jack celebrated his 80th a few weeks back. We wish him every continued success and thank him for his comments about his rivalry with Arnie and competitive lessons learned (p58). There will never be another grouping like Arnold, Jack and Gary Player—or will there? On page 44, eminent British golf writer Paul Trow considers whether a new Big Three may come to dominate this coming decade of golf. Who knows, but if a certain Northern Irishman buckles down it could certainly be the “Rory 20s” all over again. For now, we’re just happy it’s warming up. Bring on the azaleas!

14

KINGDOM 48

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CONTENTS

Kingdom Magazine Q UA R T E R LY

ISSUE 48

34 FEATURES

34

SPRING 2020

94 74

Pro-ams

Dream for some, nightmare for others—a 360˚ look

TPC Harding Park

Warm sourdough and the 2020 PGA Championship

100 DRINK

100 Whisky Social

The original Highball and some modern twists

TRAVEL MAJORS

44 52

80

Majors Preview

Paul Trow wonders if a new “Big Three” is emerging

88

Local Masters

Palmer and Augusta as seen

by Latrobe local Harry Frye

58

Jack & Arnie

64

Beside the seaside

Rivals, friends, and a great sporting epic A trip to The Open’s southernmost port of call

94

Cayman Islands

Clarity, tranquility, and dreaming in Cayman

More Than A Mouse

Orlando was happening long before Disney came to town

Myanmar

Solace among 3,000 temples and only one golf course

CLUB

104

No compromise

112

Pacific Blue

118

All for the price of 1

124

Company Course

Kingdom’s own learn the value of being properly fitted Where to turn your vacation dreams into reality Added value of multi-club memberships When employee perks meant a company golf course

SPRING 2020

17

EDITOR

CONTENTS

PUBLISHER

Reade Tilley

Matthew Squire

ART DIRECTOR

MANAGING EDITOR

Matthew Halnan

Robin Barwick

FOUNDING DIRECTOR

Arnold Palmer

SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS

DESIGNER

Kieron Deen Halnan

Cori Britt, Doc Giffin

134

158 158

WGJ

130 134 138

Focused Forward

EY, Kelly Grier, and the culture of looking ahead

APDC Roundup

Lakewood National and other news from Palmer Design HOME

Maria Fassi

We speak to a rising star of the LPGA Tour

Community

Stunning tranquility and natural golf at Bay Creek

160 Ultimate Backyard

A dream private golf playground out the back door

164

Wagyu

Grill tips for a sensitive, savory type of beef

GIFT GUIDE

147

HEAD OF ADVERTISING SALES

Joe Velotta

Jon Edwards

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Getty Images, Meghan Glennon, Tom Miles Evan Schiller / golfshots.com, USGA EXECUTIVE ADVISOR

Carla Richards SPECIAL THANKS & CONTRIBUTORS

Sam Abdelnour, Clive Agran, Juliane Buvelot, Simon Cooper, Tony Dear, Maria Fassi, Justen Fiddler, Douglas Freedman, Dom Furore, Kelly Grier, Helen Heady, Edwin Hincapie, Gareth Howells, James Leah, Pete Lockett, James McCahill, Mike McGee, Ali McGuirk, Gary Newkirk, Jack Nicklaus, David Plaster, Stephanie Robbe, Sarah Saunders, Ron Sirak, Annika Sorenstam, Scott Tolley, Paul Trow, Kathryn Tye ENQUIRY ADDRESSES

COMMERCIAL ENQUIRIES

advertising

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HEALTH

Spring in Step

Tools for a new season

166

CBD

Real info on the latest craze

LEGACY

156 Gateway to Asia Clive Agran visits Kazakhstan

VP, OPERATIONS

editorial

FOUNDERS

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John Halnan, Matthew Squire and Steve Richards

subscriptions

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LAST PAGE

170

Golden Days

100 years of Latrobe CC

COVER IMAGE

JOHN D OMINIS The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images

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SOCIAL MEDIA KingdomGolf

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Kingdom magazine was first available to friends & associates of Arnold Palmer, members & guests of his designed and managed courses. Now it is available at distinguished private clubs and for discerning golfers everywhere.

Printed in the USA

18

KINGDOM 48

60 Railroad Place, Suite 501 Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 © 2020 TMC USA llc. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.

The articles appearing within this publication reflect the opinion of their respective authors and not necessarily those of the publisher. The contents of advertisements and advertorials are entirely the responsibilty of advertisers.

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SCENE SETTER Majors

ARNIE & J AC K

C

ompetitors first, then rivals, then one of the most captivating stories in the history of golf, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus had a professional relationship and a personal friendship based on mutual respect of the highest order. On course they battled it out relentlessly; off course they celebrated each others’ best and worst life moments, spent time together with their families, and ultimately became one of sports’ most enduring duos. With Gary Player they comprised “The Big Three,” and in testament to the attraction of their rivalry the 1970 U.S. Open at Hazeltine featured all three on the bottom of the on-course leaderboard throughout the tournament, despite none of them finishing in the top 40. Three there were, but in the beginning it was Arnie & Jack. To reach their potential they needed each other, and for golf to move forward it needed them.

Legends, forever.

Feature on page 58

SPRING 2020

23

The par-3 6th at Royal St. George’s

24

KINGDOM 48

SCENE SETTER Majors

IN THE NAME OF ST. GEORGE

R

oyal St. George’s first welcomed The Open in 1894, bringing the championship south of the Scottish border for the first time.

Old Tom Morris joined a legion of Scottish pros for the long rail journey to England’s south coast although, aged 73, he did not intend to play.

However, after four late withdrawals, Morris accepted an invitation to step in. Morris had won four of the first seven Opens but his last victory was back in 1867. After shooting a third round of 100, Morris added his name to the list of

W/Ds. He was not the first, and certainly not the last, to learn the hard way that Royal St. George’s takes no prisoners. It treats reputation with contempt; a foe so cold it made Ben Hogan look warm. J.H. Taylor, aged 23 at the time, won The Open in 1894, becoming the first English professional to do so. Taylor posted a 72-hole score of 326, setting the record for The Open’s highest winning score, which stands to this day. Taylor didn’t break 80 once in four rounds. As for Morris, he would play in one more Open, the following year on his home track, the Old Course, St Andrews.

Feature on page 64

SPRING 2020

25

SCENE SETTER Travel

C AY M A N DREAMS

O

ne part pirate tale, one part luxe getaway, the Cayman Islands are 100% real— though you wouldn’t believe it to look at them, even with the naked eye. With a landscape as uncluttered as its epic Seven Mile Beach, this sundrenched series of rich experiences offer some of the best SCUBA diving, beach-going and dreaming possible, all with luxurious possibilities. Use the local Ritz-Carlton on Grand Cayman as a base of

operations and enjoy world-class dining, sports, amenities and golf—in fact, its Camana Bay Golf Course was voted the best 9-hole course in the world, and it’s a destination of its own. Beyond the fairways and the pirate caves and the jungle and the dramatic underseascapes and the Eric Rippert restaurant and all the rest of it, there’s clarity here, clean lines to the horizon and a vast array of natural colors to fuel the most vivid fantasies and stars to light the most beautiful of dreams—in Cayman, of course.

Feature on page 80

26

KINGDOM 48

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Luxury is our language.

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SHORT GAME

A NEW D E C A D E D AW N S After the troublesome twenty-teens stumbled into the dark night, the Twenties are born, bringing new promise. A new decade can be a clean slate if you need it to be but either way, is there someone out there who can dominate golf’s greatest tournaments?

Your guess might be as as good as ours, but for the record, here our guesses are…

JON EDWARDS, Head of Sales ROBIN BARWICK, Managing Editor PICK

J O N R A H M ( S PA I N ) MATTHEW SQUIRE, Publisher

Jon says: “Jon Rahm will win Majors in

PICKS

the ‘20s, be a leader in more European Ryder Cup victories and exceed the achievements of his hero Seve Ballesteros.”

RICKIE FOWLER (USA)

Matthew says: “Rickie can play all types of courses and conditions—look at his [British] Open record. He plays well on the toughest tracks. He now has the maturity to handle the pressure and he’ll win the Masters this year.”

“He now has the maturity to handle the pressure and he’ll win the Masters this year”

Robin says: “I don’t usually agree with our Head of Sales but this is a new decade, new times. Once Rahm gets a taste for winning majors there will be no stopping him.”

Age on Jan 1, 2020:

25

Age on Jan 1, 2020:

31

World Ranking on Jan 1, 2020:

3

World Ranking on Jan 1, 2020:

23

Pro wins:

0

Pro wins:

0

8

Major Wins:

Something to remember: Not so long ago Butch Harmon—Fowler’s coach—promised Kingdom that Fowler would one day reach world No. 1.

Matthew’s back-up bet: Viktor Hovland (NOR)

9

Major Wins:

Phil Mickelson on Jon Rahm in 2017: “There’s an intangible that some guys have where they want to have the pressure, they want to be in that tough position, they want to have everything fall on their shoulders, and he has that.”

Jon’s back-up bet:

Robin’s back-up bet:

Cameron Champ (USA) Joaquin Niemann (CHI)

SPRING 2020

29

READE TILLEY, Editor & MATT HALNAN, Art Director PICK

PAUL TROW, Contributor

TIGER WOODS (USA)

PICKS

Reade says: “Tiger’s era of consistent domination has passed but no one has his combination of swagger, success and storyline. He’s been a phenom, an outcast and a comeback and now he’s a wildcard.”

Matt says: “Tiger is the G.O.A.T. Even at 44 I expect Tiger to win the Masters this year, and even if he does not compete towards the end of the decade he could do enough in the next few years to dominate the rest.”

Age on Jan 1, 2020:

44

World Ranking on Jan 1, 2020:

6

Pro wins:

15

94

Major Wins:

Something to remember: The 20th anniversary of the ‘Tiger Slam’ (2000-01) is coming up fast… Wow, how time flies!

XANDER SCHAUFFELE (USA)

JOE VELOTTA, VP, Operations PICKS

Paul says: “A thoroughly pleasant young

JUSTIN THOMAS (USA)

man with more than a hint of silent assassin about him. Does everything extremely well and efficiently and only lacks a bit of experience. With more miles on the clock he would have won the 2018 Open at Carnoustie.”

Joe says: “Justin Thomas is just getting warmed up and he won the first PGA Tour event of the new decade to set the tone.

He’s still got bags of potential to unleash.”

Age on Jan 1, 2020:

26

World Ranking on Jan 1, 2020:

9

Pro wins:

0

4

Major Wins:

Something to remember: Schauffele has been knocking on the door: In three U.S. Open appearances he has not finished outside the top six: tied-5th in 2017, tied-6th in 2018 and tied-2nd in 2019.

Age on Jan 1, 2020:

26

World Ranking on Jan 1, 2020:

4

Pro wins:

1

13

Major Wins:

Something to remember: Thomas opened 2020 with victory at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, making him the first golfer since Tiger Woods to win 12 times on the PGA Tour before the age of 27.

Reade’s back-up bet:

Matt’s back-up bet:

Paul’s back-up bet:

Joe’s back-up bet:

Viktor Hovland (NOR)

Rory McIlroy (N.IRE)

Collin Morikawa (USA)

Viktor Hovland (NOR)

30

KINGDOM 48

IT’S JUST A PAR. Until you splash it out of the sand and it’s rolling slowly across the green and seems to be in slow motion as it clinks against the flagstick and drops into the hole. Until you give your best Tiger fist pump and your friend reaches up for a high five. Until you’re looking out at the palm trees and the fairway that dips into the waterway and realize you truly feel alive. It’s just a par. Until it isn’t.

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FEATURE Pro-Ams

PRO AMS Arnold Palmer recovers from the rocks by the 17th at Pebble Beach during the 1964 Bing Crosby Pro-Am

34

KINGDOM 48

Walter Hagen said, “You’re only here for a short visit. Don’t hurry, don’t worry— and be sure to smell the flowers along the way.” Talking about life, he could have been giving advice for playing in a pro-am (except for the “don’t hurry” part). Warm friendships and heroic moments are possible at pro-ams, but two things are guaranteed: red faces and plenty of great stories when it’s all over.

Here, from a range of sources, is some perspective and advice on one of sports’ greatest intersections

W

hen Walter Hagen was born in 1892, gentlemen golfed and rogues golfed for a living. By the time he died in 1969 that had changed, with pros respected and better-heeled than many of their gentlemen fans. Hagen himself gets some credit for the shift, as Arnold Palmer pointed out during a 1966 dinner honoring the legend: “If not for you, Walter,” Palmer said, “this dinner tonight would be downstairs in the pro shop, not in the ballroom.”

Today’s clubhouse ballrooms are filled near-weekly by golf fans who’ve paid top dollar to play alongside pros—a far cry from the days when pros weren’t even allowed in the clubhouse. Pro-ams, which usually involve a professional golfer and four amateurs playing a pre-tournament round together in competition against other pro-am teams—often on the host tournament’s course—help to fund events, raise money for charity, and are a special part of golf. Baseball fans will never catch for the Yankees in Yankee stadium.

Hoops lovers won’t get a chance to guard LeBron James (or to try to, anyway) at Staples Center, and it’s likely a good thing that the average pizza-loving NFL fan won’t ever have to face a Bears defense at Soldier Field. Friendships are formed, business relationships cemented and egos sometimes bruised at golf pro-ams but, in the end, few participants wouldn’t do it again.

A M AT E U R S “I’ve had people approaching the first tee who’ve said, ‘I think I’m going to throw up,’” laughs Jim McCahill, a businessman who invited clients to join him in more than a dozen pro-ams over the years. “It’s high stress.” Even more so if you draw a big name, he says, pointing out that golfing alongside a star might not be the best call, depending on what you want out of the day. “Take Tiger,” he says. “He’s going to go out first in a pre-assigned group, one of the sponsors’ groups. They’re going to get on and off that golf course as quickly as they can. I’m sure everyone is trying their hardest, but going out with Tiger or Rory or Phil, it’s a heck of a lot of pressure. The size of the galleries and so on…

You want to get to focus on your golf game, it’s a lot harder to do that if Tiger Woods is in your group as opposed to, say, a journeyman who’s just happy to be there.”

McCahill tells a story about one pro-am at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in which his group fell towards the end of the draw party: “There were 65 teams and we were 64th,” he says. “You can’t let it bother you because the pros are all good guys and your 64th player may be someone who might have been Xander Schauffele years ago, when you just didn’t know who he was. This particular time it was up to a couple of journeymen. We knew their names and enough about them, so we said we’ll take so and so. The guy was really nice, quite a good player. He looks at us and says, ‘Hi guys, you got 65th, huh?’ We all said ‘No, no, that’s not it, that’s not true.’ He said, ‘What number was it?’ And my buddy said, ‘64.’ We all laughed and he turned out to be a wonderful guy. We had a great time all day.”

Pros and Amateur: Al Watrous, Bobby Jones, and Walter Hagen

SPRING 2020

35

Sam Abdelnour, retired Vice President of Sales for Whirlpool and current Vice Chair of the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, agrees that playing in a pro-am with the bigger names on the PGA Tour poses some potential issues, but says that those same names on the Champions Tour are a completely different story.

“The two regular tour events that I played in were very synchronized,” he says. “You showed up at a certain time, your pro was there, he shook your hand, didn’t have a lot to say, he was focused on getting around the golf course with his caddie. He spent time talking to you if it was an awkward situation, if nobody was talking he’d say something, and at the end of the day when it was over, it was over and off he went. You walked away thinking ‘Wow, I got to play with these guys.’ But it’s a whole different environment with these Champions Tour guys. They are engaging, helpful, if somebody isn’t a great golfer they make sure they’re having fun, they go out of their way to be first-class gentlemen.

They are out there to win, out there to get their work done— but they also know it’s not life and death.”

Abdelnour has been a big part of the KitchenAid event over the years, which is played every other year at the incredible Harbor Shores near Whirlpool’s headquarters in Benton Harbor, MI. “It’s a delightful thing,” he says, “over the 10 years we’ve done this, the No.1 thing about the tournament that our customers have talked about and had the fondest memories of is the opportunity to play in that pro-am and engage with sports heroes in golf that they grew up with.” Both Abdelnour and McCahill say it’s nice when pros interact with amateurs and perhaps offer tips, but it can go too far.

“One thing you don’t need is a golf lesson during the round and I’ve seen that happen,” says McCahill. “There are some pros who feel that their role for the event as the pro is to teach others how to play golf. I’ve seen tips offered and tips are terrific, especially as you’re playing in conditions most amateurs don’t see, rough that much higher, greens that much faster. ‘Here’s how you handle this kind of rough with a hard and fast green,’ everybody loves that. But we had a pro who decided to focus in on one of our players, was going to change his swing during a round, and that didn’t go well. Our guy pretty much said ‘I want you to stay away from me for the rest of this round, leave me alone.’ The poor guy has his wife and children out there, he didn’t want to be taught.

“The real test is what happens after the round,” he continues, “when you think you’ve forged a lifelong relationship and you run into them somewhere after that and you find how deep that relationship actually went— sometimes very deep, other times… not! But really, if you get up in the morning and the first thing you do that day is arrive at the range, Phil Mickelson is on one side of you and Rory on the other side… It’s great fun and it’s just terrific.”

36

KINGDOM 48

THE GOOD

Mark O’Meara at the Masters, a winner on and off course

“The first time I played with Mark O’Meara, we were playing at Valhalla. It rained the entire 18 holes. Never hard, but enough where you were drenched. I thought ‘Holy cow! I can’t believe this guy who’s won the Masters and dozens of other tournaments is going to stay out here with us.’ We played the whole round, then we get to 18 and I’m in a deep bunker on the face of the green, and because it’s a pro-am and almost over I start to bend down to pick up my ball and suddenly he says, ‘Woah woah woah! What are you doing?’ I said you’ve seen me play; I can’t hit this shot. He says, ‘Sure you can.

Stand like this, open your blade, hold your club like this…’ He pointed to a spot 20 feet left of the pin and said, ‘That’s where I want you to throw the ball up.’ I hit it up there, it rolled to within 18 inches of the cup. It made me feel like a million dollars. Then afterwards, shaking hands, I said ‘good luck in the tournament’ and was going to leave him alone but then he said ‘when you play golf with your buddies don’t you go in and hang out? I said ‘Yeah!’ He spent two more hours with us.”

—Sam Abdelnour

THE BAD “We had a friend, an attorney, playing with us. He was just having one of those great golf days, he dropped six 20-foot putts on the front 9—he made so many putts he wasn’t even bothering to go to the hole. Then he started drinking, and then sort of asking us (including the pro), ‘Hey when are you guys going to get in the game?’ Comments like that. By the back 9 he was pretty sloshed and couldn’t participate anymore. The round was good fun, that wasn’t the only memory, but I would recommend not getting inebriated or not realizing that your game can come and go.”

—Jim McCahill

Beatriz Recari helps line up a putt in the ANA Inspiration Pro-Am

P ROS “You meet so many interesting people and you can make some really good connections,” says Matthew Wolff, who at 20 is just getting started in pro-ams—in which he is in high demand. “I have already met a number of people who have been so helpful to me in one way or another, whether it has been someone involved with running a tournament or something else in the golf world, and from beyond golf too.

Pro-ams are great opportunities to meet people, and the same goes on tour than it does in life in general, that you can never have too many friends. The more people you know, the better spot you’ll be in.”

Wolff seems to understand something noted golf writer Ron Sirak says many veteran pros still don’t get: That pro-ams are as much opportunities for the pros as they are for the amateurs: “There are certainly some pros who are absolutely brilliant at it and some who are less good at it, and the really smart pros realize that the pro-am is a networking opportunity,” Sirak explains. “Vijay Singh played in the Pebble Beach pro-am with Ted Forstmann and ended up doing a zillion business deals with him. The sharp guys realize when you’re playing in a pro-am you’re playing with somebody who matters and the way you interact with them could lead to good things. Now I’ve seen pros who walk 60 yards ahead of their group, who don’t really interact with them as well as they should, and those people are being really, really short-sighted.”

Of course, the odd poor showing isn’t specific to the pros in a pro-am.

“I have been fortunate to play in a lot of pro-ams over the years and have pretty much seen it all,” says Annika

Sorenstam, LPGA legend and former World No.1. “I will say that I actually enjoy them, especially making new friends and networking. But I find it funny when men in particular always try to out-drive me. I guess that’s their natural competitiveness coming out, which is understandable.

That’s probably the most common thing I see.”

“The worst shot?” asked Tony Finau, talking to Sports Illustrated’s Alan Shipnuck last year about playing in pro-ams.

“Somebody that teed it too high and they popped it up and hit themselves right on the forehead. I got a good laugh out of that for a really long time.”

Sometimes the amateur’s behavior isn’t funny though, as Cheyenne Woods told Kingdom’s sister publication Women’s Golf Journal in 2016. Echoing comments from Paula Creamer, who told us about male pro-am partners’ hands sometimes wandering during post-round photos, Woods said it wasn’t always pretty.

“Maybe they sometimes grab around the side a little tighter than you would like. I’ve had a little of that, nothing too extreme,” she said. “The most shocking experience I had was at the Evian pro-am. An older man who was making jokes all the time. French people are kind of cheeky, I guess, but every time I would make a birdie he would come in for a kiss. I’d make birdie, he’d say, ‘You know what that means!’ and then he’d run toward me and kiss me on the cheek. It started on the very first hole: ‘You know what that means!’ doing a kissy face and running. I tried to laugh it off and tried to get away from it… Stuff like that. I’m not going to give an excuse for him being French or an old man, but I doubt the men on the PGA Tour deal with that.”

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THE UGLY “A lot happens. A lot. Like at pro-am parties, when they take your picture and things; for the most part people are very aware of your personal space and they’re respectful, but not always, and when you take a picture their hand might wander… It’s upsetting, yeah, but what are you going to do? Punch someone in the face? Like I said, I’m lucky. I don’t get it like some girls get it.”

— Paula Creamer, to Women’s Golf Journal in 2016

T H E

WR I T E R

“The one thing when you’re covering a pro-am,” says Sirak, “and I’ve covered pro-ams that had President Clinton or celebrities like that, is you have to look in every direction.

When you’re covering pros you don’t worry about being hit.”

Sirak has worked more than 150 major golf championships across various tours, in addition to regular events, and as someone who’s both covered pro-ams and participated in them he has an informed perspective on the events—such as knowing where to look.

“At Pebble Beach, No.2 tee is back about 60 yards down No.1 fairway, so when you’re standing on No.2 tee you’ll see the caddies all looking at No.1 tee because if some amateur slices one off No.1 it’s going to land on No.2.”

Being a journalist/participant opens some interesting possibilities in terms of catching pros off guard, but the lauded writer says that when he’s playing he’s not working, not exactly.

“One of the things that any player or agent or administrator who knows me knows, I always establish with them from the get-go that if my notebook’s in my pocket then nothing you say counts, everything’s off the record. If you say something I’m interested in and may want to write about, I might ask, but otherwise no—which is not to say you don’t file information away. If you see a guy who’s being a jerk, you remember that. It may be something you can use somewhere down the road, it gives you a fuller picture.”

As for the golf itself, “It’s intimidating,” he says, “because you’re playing with somebody who’s really, really good. You’ve got to get a feel for what the pro is up to, to what degree they want to interact. What I always try to do is to play fast, because the one enchanting truth about a pro-am is that it’s a long day.”

P H OTO G RA P H E RS Bob Hope and President Gerald Ford during a charity pro-am at Woodlands Country Club, Houston

“I got hit by President Ford at the Hope, but that was common.

He hit a lot of people”

“If you’re smart then there’s a lot of trepidation,” says photographer Gary Newkirk on shooting pro-ams. Newkirk’s photos have appeared in Golf World, Golf Digest, Sports Illustrated and plenty more; he’s covered more than 450 golf tournaments and a fair number of pro-ams.

“I always marveled at the people at Pebble and the Hope who thought a little rope was like a force field—they’d just stand there the same as they would if it was Tiger hitting the ball... People get hit. Usually it’s after a ball lands, a bounce, but they get hit. I got hit by President Ford at the Hope, but that was common. He hit a lot of people and so I was one of many to be hit by the President. He was a very athletic guy, but golf, maybe not his best sport.”

As for shooting events, “I’d always pick an angle with amateurs to make sure I gave them enough latitude,” he explains. “Add another 10 to 20 feet to the side in case of a mis-hit. It didn’t always work.”

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Indeed. Ron Sirak remembers a pro-am trip with noted photographer Dom Furore: “I was with Dom when he got nailed in the shoulder by the First Lady of Rwanda. She hit it off the toe and whacked him.” On the other side of the club, supermodel Cindy Crawford once told Kingdom’s Robin Barwick about the time she hit a photographer in a pro-am.

“It was on the third hole. I was on the tee, and I hit my first ball but didn’t get it in the air and it didn’t go very far, so they told me to take a mulligan and go again” she said.

“The thing is I kept telling the photographers, ‘I’m not Tiger Woods, you need to get back and give me some room,’ but they didn’t listen. So I hit another ball and shanked it off to the right, and this guy was standing there with his camera up and his hand on the lens and he didn’t see it coming and it hit his hand. Then he fell over, his hand was broken, and I tell you I have hardly played golf since then. I felt so bad, and I went over to see if he was okay, and I felt so terrible I couldn’t carry on playing. I was really rattled.”

In Newkirk’s case, the worst shot came at the former Cadillac NFL Golf Classic, a Champions Tour favorite from 1993 to 2002, and the amateur on the tee gave him no warning.

“I was covering the Cadillac pro-am, working for Cadillac. Tom Watson was standing and talking with Vinny Testaverde and I was looking to get a few pics of them chatting, so I was kneeling taking pictures. A guy with Cadillac hit a head-high pull hook; it came in under my camera and smashed my jaw. I was flat on the ground bleeding like a stuck pig, my legs kind of crumpled in a weird way under me. I didn’t pass out exactly but I didn’t know what was happening. I remember Vinny Testaverde

ANNIKA’S DO’S & DON’TS Do: Club Up

“If I could give one tip to all amateurs, it would be to take one more club. It seems 90% of the time they don’t hit it to hole high.”

Do: Pick it up

“If you are out of the hole and we are not going to use your ball, it’s ok to pick it up and try again on the next hole. That will certainly improve the pace of play.”

Don’t: Sweat it

“I’ve seen it all, so don’t worry about a bad shot. Let’s just enjoy being out on the course.”

standing over me with a towel. He got my legs straightened out. Later at the hospital, I had to have plastic surgery.

I had a concussion, a chipped jaw, they had to put me back together. The surgeon said that the scar looked like a Mercedes logo—and the guy that did it was from Cadillac.

“Later on I saw Arnold Palmer. He asked how I was and for details, and after I told him he said, ‘Well, when they deliver your Cadillac…’ In fact neither of [the Cadillac amateurs] came off the tee to say anything to me. Probably scared the crap out of them. All Cadillac ever did was send me a disclaimer saying they took no responsibility. Both Tom and Testaverde, to their credit, held up play until the cart came and carried me away. Tom yelled over, ‘I made a birdie for you!’ It was a bit of a wake-up call for the photographer community. An inch lower would have hit my neck.”

F I NA L LY

Model Cindy Crawford draws a gasp on the course

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In 2012, Will Dean, creator of “Tough Mudder” footraces, which involve navigating ice baths, electrical wires and more, talked to Outside magazine about how his company had earned $70 million in its first two years. “We’ve tapped into humblebragging,” he explained [using a term for thinly veiled boasting]. “What we have found is that experiences, particularly shared ones, are the new luxury good.”

Pro-ams are that: shared experiences, and for so many reasons they can be incredible (and yield plenty of humblebragging). But among the glitz and the stars and the sponsors, there’s a purity to pro-ams that seems steeped in golf’s golden age, the time of Hagen and Bobby Jones and the shift that saw golf professionals become professional golfers. If you get the chance to play in one, say yes. Just don’t forget that you’ll only be there for a short visit, so don’t hurry, don’t worry—and be sure to smell the flowers along the way. Actually, scratch that “don’t hurry” bit; keep up. But the rest of it, yes. Enjoy.

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ASK YOUR DOCTOR if Myrbetriq® (mirabegron) may help you manage your overactive bladder (OAB) symptoms of urgency, frequency, and leakage If you’re dealing with urges, frequency, and leaks on your own, or if you have ever taken an OAB medicine and stopped, ask your doctor if Myrbetriq may be an appropriate treatment option for you.

Are bladder symptoms affecting you?

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TAKING CHARGE OF YOUR OAB SYMPTOMS STARTS WITH TALKING TO YOUR DOCTOR

Leakage

Visit Myrbetriq.com for doctor discussion tips.

Ask your doctor if Myrbetriq may be right for you.

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 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 take 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®) or solifenacin succinate (VESIcare®). 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. The most common side effects of Myrbetriq include increased blood pressure, common cold symptoms (nasopharyngitis), dry mouth, flu symptoms, urinary tract infection, back pain, dizziness, joint pain, headache, constipation, sinus irritation, and inflammation of the bladder (cystitis).

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 and VESIcare are registered trademarks of Astellas Pharma Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2019 Astellas Pharma US, Inc.

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August 2019

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 take Myrbetriq if you have an allergy to mirabegron or any of the ingredients in Myrbetriq. See the end of this summary for a complete list of ingredients in Myrbetriq.

What should I tell my doctor before taking Myrbetriq?

Before you take Myrbetriq, tell your doctor about all of your medical conditions, including 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. Talk to your doctor about the best way to feed your baby if you take Myrbetriq.

Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter 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®) • solifenacin succinate (VESIcare®) 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.

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• Do not chew, break, or crush 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

• dizziness

• common cold symptoms (nasopharyngitis)

• joint pain

• dry mouth

• headache

• flu symptoms

• constipation

• urinary tract infection

• sinus (sinus irritation)

• back pain

• inflammation of the bladder (cystitis)

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.

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

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

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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.

You can ask your doctor or pharmacist for information about Myrbetriq that is written for health professionals.

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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).

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).

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. ©2012 - 2018 Astellas Pharma US, Inc. Revised: April 2018 206813-MRVS-BRFS 057-3385-PM

MAJORS Preview

The first four Majors of the new decade are imminent and three names dominate grill-room speculation and lockerroom trash talk. The question is‌ can these superstars deliver again on pedigrees long the envy of their fellow competitors? Paul Trow hails this box-office trio, but suspects the support cast will not let them have things their own way

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KINGDOM 48

SPRING 2020

00

T

he history of elite golf is defined by triumvirates—rivalries that stirred the public’s imagination and drove playing skills to unprecedented levels of excellence.

The first truly dominant trinity comprised Harry Vardon, James Braid and J.H. Taylor, winners in total of 16 [British] Opens and one U.S. Open during the two decades prior to World War I. Three personalities towered over the inter-war years— Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen and Bobby Jones—but it is disingenuous to regard them as a harnessed g-force because Jones was a dyed-in-the-wool amateur and the other two were showman professionals. Quite simply, they moved for most of the time in different circles.

The names consistently at the top of leaderboards from the late 1930s to the mid-1950s—Byron Nelson, Sam Snead and Ben Hogan—were all born in 1912 and were major champions on 21 occasions.

By the 1960s, most homes had a TV set and golf fans were delighting in the exploits of a trio of champions branded by Mark McCormack, the master marketer, as the Big Three. Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player accumulated a total of 34 Majors between 1958—the King’s first Masters’ triumph—and 1986—the Golden Bear’s sixth Green Jacket at the age of 46. But once that era had passed it was felt we might not see their collective like again.

46

KINGDOM 48

[Above, l to r] Gene Sarazen, Walter Hagen & Bobby Jones at the 1935 Masters, closely watched by the Duke of Windsor; [below] Player, Nicklaus & Palmer pose at Firestone Country Club

After a period of steady if unspectacular growth, characterized by improved prize money and a burgeoning cast of potential winners, the arrival of Tiger Woods a generation ago shook up the entire game. His main contemporaries—Mark O’Meara, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen—were all older and between them claimed 16 majors. By any measurement that’s a worthy total, but it’s just one more than Tiger’s current tally.

Sure, there was an edge between Tiger and his pretenders, but usually there was only one winner. Not even McCormack could have styled it as a genuine, cutting-edge rivalry and kept a straight face.

Remarkably, at the dawn of a new decade and another round of majors, Tiger is still the man to beat. Since his return to the big time in 2018 after several years of backinjury hell, his PGA Tour titles have swelled from 79 to 82, level with all-time record-holder Snead. Last April, cue much hyperbole and fanfare, he moved within three of Nicklaus’s majors benchmark with his glorious fifth Masters win - fully 22 years after landing his first, aged 21.

But he is now 44 and a Hall of Fame berth beckons once he’s celebrated his next birthday on December 30. So, looking forward to spring and summer, there are questions to be answered. Surely he can never be as dominant again?

Never intimidate his opponents into errors, as much of temperament as technique, as he did in his pomp? Never summon the stamina and concentration to seal the deal down the stretch as relentlessly as he used to?

Or can he?

LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL As things stand, two players, who just happen to be ranked first and second in the Official World Golf Ranking at the time of writing, expect to have quite a lot of their own to say about how the 2020 majors unfold. Indeed, if their plans come to fruition then Tiger might find himself engaged, for the first time in his storied career, in a proper threecornered fight.

Step forward Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy, a duo of four-time major champs. Obviously it’s premature to style Woods, Koepka and McIlroy as the new Big Three, but at least the raw ingredients are in place for a fierce set-to over the next two or three seasons, as long as Tiger’s back stays loose.

McIlroy, who turned 30 last year, is the game’s most charismatic exponent since Palmer, Seve Ballesteros and Woods himself (though Mickelson and his ever-recurring ‘bombs’ might have something to say about that). However, it has already been six years since McIlroy won the last of his major quartet—the PGA Championship at Valhalla.

Since then the Northern Irishman has had a few near misses, but his greatest frustrations have come at Augusta National where he seems almost to want to win too much to complete his personal Grand Slam. Raking over old coals, he succumbed to one of the most visible implosions in the white heat of battle there on the last day in 2011 when a snap-hook off the 10th tee, while leading by four shots, put paid to his first serious tilt at the Green Jacket. He has remained haunted by the whispering pines of Augusta ever since.

Lapping the field for his maiden major in the U.S. Open at Congressional two months later and following up with impressive wins in the 2012 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island and the Open at Royal Liverpool in 2014 says a lot about his durability as well as his sublime class.

Since 2014 McIlroy has carried on winning with near monotonous regularity (12 times across the PGA and European Tours). He has also racked up 10 top-10s in majors during that time and helped himself to two FedExCups for good measure, the most recent last fall.

Koepka has been a contender at eight of his last 10 major appearances

Rory McIlroy clinches the 2019 Tour Championship at East Lake GC in front of a frustrated Brooks Koepka

His game plan from now on, apparently, is to eschew conservatism, attack every course he plays and enjoy himself.

Winged Foot, this year’s U.S. Open venue from June 18-21, might be the ultimate riposte to that strategy. We shall see!

Koepka’s record over the past three seasons is even more impressive. Apart from back-to-back wins in the U.S. Open (2017-18) and PGA Championship (2018-19), he was runner-up at both the Masters and U.S. Open last year along with a tie for fourth in the Open at Royal Portrush where, in a rare, unscripted aberration, home favorite McIlroy missed the cut following a horrendous first round.

A long hitter who cut his teeth in far-flung corners of the globe before settling, somewhat anonymously initially, on his home tour, Koepka has been a contender at eight of his last 10 major appearances. And during that stretch of impressive form he has always seemed relaxed and controlled at the business end of affairs.

With apologies to Gilbert & Sullivan, the 29-year-old Floridian is the very model of a modern major general, a clone from the Nicklaus template perhaps, and can be expected to challenge again and again for golf ’s greatest prizes over the next decade or so.

SPRING 2020

47

PPPP

SSPP

53 COURSES • 80 HOTELS

VINTAGE VENUES

In terms of the distance they propel the ball, Koepka and McIlroy should be strong challengers for the Masters (April 9-12). Meanwhile, Woods, who can still get it out there but maybe not quite so far, will need to fall back on subtlety and his vast knowledge of the former Fruitland Nurseries because his chances of out-muscling the young bucks have evaporated.

There has been much talk about the hallowed rightto-left dogleg par-5 13th being lengthened off the tee so the copse of trees on the right side of the elbow can be pushed back to around 300 yards from the tee. No doubt that will happen in due course, but word is not for the 2020 Masters.

None of the remaining venues for this year’s majors is overly long by modern standards, but all three pose a variety of difficulties that are not necessarily length-related.

Next up after the Masters is TPC Harding Park alongside Lake Merced in southern San Francisco, a publicly-owned parkland layout that will stage the PGA Championship for the first time from May 14-17.

A regular PGA Tour venue in the 1960s, revisited for the 2005 WGC-American Express Championship (won by Woods after a playoff with John Daly), the 2009 Presidents Cup (won by the U.S.), and three Charles Schwab Cups between 2010-13 on the Champions Tour, Harding Park last featured on the public stage in 2015 when McIlroy beat Gary Woodland 4&2 in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play final.

The U.S. Open will take place for the sixth time over the magnificent, A.W. Tillinghast-designed West Course at Winged Foot in Rochester, upstate New York. The roll call of former Open champions at this undulating, tree-clad brute consists of: Jones (1929), having holed a treacherous left-toright, downhill 12-footer to force a playoff with Al Espinosa; Billy Casper (1959), by one shot from Bob Rosburg; Hale Irwin (1974) with a seven-over-par total of 287; Fuzzy Zoeller (1984), following a one-sided playoff with Greg Norman; and Geoff Ogilvy (2006), who was gifted the crown by catastrophic closing errors from Mickelson, Colin Montgomerie, Padraig Harrington and Jim Furyk.

It is a racing certainty that the rough will be up, the fairway widths like ribbons and the bounces always in the wrong direction. In honesty, the winner could be the best player in the world, or someone no one’s ever heard of or has long since been eliminated from enquiries.

Image: USGA.org

Woods [above] during the 2005 WGC American Express Championship at Harding Park; the pristine parkland setting of Winged Foot G.C. [right]

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This potential scenario might also be true of Royal St. George’s Golf Club where the 149th [British] Open will be held from July 16-19. The last two winners over this bleak, windswept, links monster beside the tiny, sleepy town of Sandwich in the county of Kent were little-known Ohioan Ben Curtis in 2003—who was ranked 396th in the world at the time—and fading 42-year-old Ryder Cup Ulsterman Darren Clarke in 2011.

This will be the Claret Jug’s 15th visit to the links designed in 1887 by Dr. William Laidlaw Purves as a Sassenach rival to the Old Course at St Andrews. And to be fair it has provided the setting for victories by many of the game’s greats—Vardon (twice), Taylor, Hagen (twice), Henry Cotton, Bobby Locke, Sandy Lyle and Norman in the Open; Palmer, Nick Faldo and Ballesteros in the European Tour’s PGA Championship; and Nicklaus as a teenager in the prestigious Grand Challenge for amateurs.

If the R&A decides to let the rough thrive and squeeze the fairways—as they did in 1981 when Texan Bill Rogers was the winner—then expect someone like Woods, hitting ‘stinger’ irons from most teeing areas, to be there or thereabouts.

Woods, Koepka and McIlroy are the names everyone will look for first on this year’s leaderboards, but they are far from the only game in town. Numerous other major champions, like Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson, Louis Oosthuizen, Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott, Danny Willett, Webb Simpson, Jason Day and the two current Open champions, Woodland and Shane Lowry, will all hope to hit form at least once when it really counts.

And what about another huge chunk of the cast who have not even entered the magic circle yet? Think Rickie Fowler, Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Matt Kuchar, Mark Leishman, Bryson DeChambeau, Tony Finau, Hideki Matsuyama and Paul Casey. It won’t be long before several of these names are rewarded for their consistency and excellence with one of the game’s blue ribbons. But not all will. Some will forever be consigned to the outside looking in. After all, several dozen into four simply won’t go.

But three into four? That certainly fits.

Some will forever be consigned to the outside looking in... several dozen into four simply won’t go

April 9-12 MASTERS

AUGUSTA NATIONAL Georgia

May 14-17 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP The mighty links of Royal St. George’s

TPC HARDING PARK California

June 18-21 U.S. OPEN

WINGED FOOT New York

July 16-19 THE OPEN

ROYAL ST. GEORGE’S

Sandwich, England

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MAJORS Masters

LOCAL VIEW Harry Frye followed a legend from childhood through to some of his greatest triumphs; a local lens on an epic journey with a global phenomenon Photographer Harry Frye was born four years before Arnold Palmer, in 1925. As the sports snapper for the Latrobe Bulletin, the local paper in Palmer’s Pennsylvania hometown, Harry shot the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pirates through some great years, and he also captured the young golf phenom on his way up. “I’d be out there at 6:30 or 7 o’clock in the morning, and sometimes he was right there and sometimes I had to wait a few minutes,” Frye told Kingdom in 2013, recounting mornings during which the late photog shot a young Palmer practicing golf before school. “His mother had coffee ready for me; she was a great person.”

Unlike many small-town papers, the Bulletin had access to an airplane, and that meant Harry could travel to the Masters and to other events to document the local hero’s rise right alongside photogs from Sports Illustrated, the Associated Press and others. With a local’s eye, Harry captured Palmer in ways others might have missed, and here, in this exclusive feature, Kingdom shares a selection of shots from Augusta National.

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Palmer tees off during the 1958 Masters [above], watched by playing partner Fred Hawkins, who would finish runner-up to Palmer. [Left] Palmer entertains the press after winning the 1960 Masters

With Arnie’s Army in loyal pursuit, it was always standing room only when Palmer played in the Masters, on the sloping 10th green [right] and finishing on 18 [below]

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With Winnie to his right [below] behind the 18th green, Palmer was never one to shirk an autograph request; clearing from the pine needles [right] and intently following his tee shot during the 1962 Masters [bottom], along with playing partner Dow Finsterwald.

Palmer defeated Finsterwald and Gary Player in a three-way playoff [Right-hand page] Palmer hoped to win his fourth Masters in 1963, but from a week doused by spring showers, it was new rival Jack Nicklaus [top picture, seated to Palmer’s left] who won the Green Jacket for the first time, becoming the Masters’ youngest champ at 23

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Augusta National looks great in black and white but the colors of the Masters are unrivalled in golf, such as here around the 18th green in 1962 [main picture]

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Investing in Values

Financial Adviser, Dick Connolly was Arnold’s Palmer’s long-time trusted wealth manager and friend. “’In the 38 years I knew Arnold on professional and personal levels, he never changed as a person; not in the way he treated anyone from presidents to maintenance workers to locker room attendants. And when he made a commitment, he stuck to that commitment, no matter what. It is an ethos I have tried to maintain everyday in my professional and personal life.”

Richard.Connolly@morganstanleypwm.com

MAJORS Arnie & Jack

Friends & Rivals

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Having turned 80 in January, the great Jack Nicklaus spoke to Kingdom about his friendship and rivalry with Arnold Palmer, which ham and egged for more than six decades

J ack Nicklaus was a 14-year-old prodigy when he qualified to play in the 1954 Ohio State Amateur Championship at Sylvania Country Club in Toledo. Coming off the golf course in heavy rain on one of the practice days, something caught his eye.

“I noticed a golfer out on the range all by himself beating balls with a short iron,” wrote Nicklaus in his book My Story. “I went and stood under a tree and watched him for probably an hour. I could hear the balls crack off the clubface, as Gary Player always described it, like thunderclaps. Every swing was flat out. None of the shots flew very high, but they all seemed to go tremendous distances. I could see that the golfer had big hands and wide shoulders and muscular forearms. He didn’t notice me, but I was fascinated by him.”

Nicklaus found out the guy’s name was Arnold Palmer, a name he knew. Palmer was from western Pennsylvania so not that far away, and he was the defending champ. Nicklaus and Palmer would briefly meet for the first time that week, and despite a 10-year age gap, Nicklaus wrote he was “impressed with how friendly and natural he was to me, still a kid in short pants”. Palmer won that week and progressed to take the U.S. Amateur title that summer as well, before turning professional.

Both golfers remember the next time they met, although with a slightly different take on events from each other. It was at an exhibition match in 1958 at Athens CC, also in Ohio, in honor of Palmer’s close friend Dow Finsterwald, who had recently won the PGA Championship.

Recalled Palmer in his book, A Golfer’s Life: “I remember that just for fun we had a driving contest and I beat [Nicklaus] by a hair; I made a mental note on the spot to always keep an eye on this upstart kid…”

As Nicklaus tells it: “The match was preceded by a long-driving contest at the first hole, a 320-yard par four.

I was the only one to reach the green…”

Good to know both golfers hit the longest drive that day… and the friendship and rivalry grew from there.

Two years later, Nicklaus almost became the last amateur to win the U.S. Open (that record still belongs to Johnny Goodman, in 1933), at Cherry Hills CC in Denver, and he could have done were it not for what might be the most famous 18 holes of Palmer’s entire career, when he shot 65, six under par, in the final round to win, having been eight shots back with 18 holes to go. Nicklaus shot 71 to finish runner-up, two shots back.

Nicklaus, who turned 80 on January 21, reflects on that day in an exclusive interview with Kingdom: “I have looked back on that U.S. Open many times, and yes, I probably should have or could have won the tournament.

I think Ben Hogan phrased it correctly when he said: ‘I played with a young man today, if he had known how to win, he would have won by several strokes’. That’s basically what Hogan’s quote was. Obviously at that age, 20, I really didn’t know how to win.”

[You can bet a silver dollar that Palmer would have reflected differently. It goes to show that in a way the rivalry remains timeless. Ed.]

Nicklaus could have become the last amateur to win the U.S. Open were it not for the most famous 18 holes of Palmer’s career Arnold Palmer helps Jack Nicklaus [left] into the Green Jacket after the 1965 Masters

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A PAT R I O T P R O J EC T Like Arnold Palmer before him, Jack Nicklaus has built an impressive second career in golf course design. One of his latest projects is particularly notable as Nicklaus is not charging for his time on the new American Dunes Golf Club in Michigan, which will support Folds of Honor, the charitable foundation that provides educational scholarships to military families.

“I like the purpose of the project and that’s the main thing for me,” Nicklaus tells Kingdom. “American Dunes will benefit Folds of Honor, and thus will benefit the children and family members of our fallen and disabled military men and women. For this school year, 5,000 young men and women entered college on Folds of Honor scholarships. If you love your country that can only inspire you, motivate you, and put into perspective this mission. I have been friends with Lt. Col. Dan Rooney for a long time and I love not only his mission with Folds of Honor but the passion, energy and positivity he brings to everything he does in his life.

“The canvas on which American Dunes sits is a beautiful, rolling, all-sand property. It sits just a few hundred yards from the shores of Lake Michigan, but previously you never got the feel that you were a driver and wedge from water.

So we had to reimagine the landscape and sort of peel back the cover to make it a dunes golf course. The golf course will be spectacular from an aesthetics standpoint and as a golf experience. It will be very enjoyable for people to play and it will benefit countless servicemen and women by being a place where they can go and rehabilitate.” americandunesgolfclub.com

“In hindsight,” continues Nicklaus, “it was probably the best thing that could have happened to me—to not have won—because my head would have gotten so big I would not be able to reach my ears to scratch them! So it was unfortunate in one way, because an amateur had not won the U.S. Open in years and it would have been something unbelievably special for me. But in the end, for my career, it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I learned a lot from it.”

Nicklaus would take his turn emphatically two years later, claiming his first professional win at the 1962 U.S. Open at Oakmont CC, Pittsburgh, defeating Palmer in an 18-hole playoff when local hero Palmer was supposed to win and where the partisan support was vociferous. “I’ll tell you something,” came Palmer’s portentous and oft-repeated words after Nicklaus had won, “now that the big guy is out of the cage everybody better run for cover”.

On the emergence of Nicklaus, Palmer would later write: “I needed Jack to remind me what my Pap had warned me from the beginning—there was always going to be some talented young guy out there who could beat you 10 ways to Sunday, so you’d better never let your guard down. I think Jack needed me to serve as the high standard he was aiming

There was always going to be some talented young guy out there who could beat you 10 ways to Sunday

On the tee at The Open in 1962 at Troon, [l to r] Sam Snead, Nicklaus, Bob Charles, Palmer

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“We share a golden history and a thousand memories of laughter and tears”

Nicklaus & Palmer in 1963 [left] and Palmer congratulates his young rival at the 1962 U.S. Open [below]

for. If he could beat me, which he ultimately did, he could beat anybody and become the greatest player in the game.”

Then they kept exchanging Green Jackets at Augusta National. Palmer won in ’62 and so helped Nicklaus into his first Green Jacket when he won in ’63. Nicklaus returned the favor when Palmer won it back in ’64. In ’65 the favor was returned for the last time.

And on top of the rivalry came the partnerships, leading to four World Cup victories as a pair and two Ryder Cup points from three matches.

“Arnold was always incredibly kind to me,” adds Nicklaus, “and he sort of took me under his wing early on and gave me a lot of great advice. One bit of advice, which I still use today, is every time I play a golf tournament, I drop the sponsors and the organizers a simple thank you note.

Years later, I see these people and they say, ‘Jack, you were the only player who wrote me a note!’ That is sad to me. So many people do a lot of work to put tournaments on and to have a player be appreciative of that is very important. To me, that was a good lesson from Arnie.

“Most important, I just saw how Arnold handled himself and how he handled people. I learned a lot from being around him.”

And the final words from Palmer, from 1999: “We’re closer now, in some respects, than we have ever been. We share a golden history and a thousand memories of laughter and tears…. The simple truth is, I like Jack and I admire him in more ways than I can probably express.”

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MAJORS British Open

T H E K E N T I S H C O R N E R The Open returns to its southernmost post this summer, to Royal St. George’s in the medieval town of Sandwich, so Robin Barwick headed to the Kent coast to explore its links heritage

The 7th at Royal St. George’s, bordering Sandwich Bay

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here has always been a healthy edge between the English and the Scots. It goes right back through Robert the Bruce, back to the Romans building Hadrian’s Wall.

In more civilised times in the late 19th century, as the “Scottish game” was spreading fast through England and across the Atlantic, England’s emerging golf establishment peered over the border with envy at The Open, which was inaugurated at Prestwick in 1860. The Open was created to establish, on an annual basis, who was the best golfer of them all, regardless of age, profession, nationality or religion, and the first 33 chapters of The Open were all held in Scotland; at Prestwick, then St Andrews, Musselburgh and eventually Muirfield took its turn. It took 30 Opens

for an Englishman to finally win the Claret Jug for the first time—John Ball, from Hoylake, who was also the first amateur to win the title—and the English might not have wanted to own The Open outright, but they certainly wanted their turn to host it.

It was with The Open in mind that William Laidlaw Purves—an acclaimed Scottish surgeon who lived and worked in London and who was a member of both the R&A and the Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers (Muirfield)—climbed the winding stone steps to the top of the tower of the 12th century St. Clements Church in Sandwich. He wanted to survey the coastal landscape for a plot on which a links golf course could be established.

Between the winding River Stour and Sandwich Bay—from where the next stop heading east is Dunkirk—Purves saw the stretch of nobbled, rolling linksland he was after. His search had taken in 200 miles of England’s south coast, and here, finally, so taken was this Scot with the broad expanse in front of him that he was convinced he could create England’s answer to St Andrews.

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Purves laid out a majestic 18 holes—which to this day remains the most spacious of all venues for The Open—which opened in 1887. Named after the patron saint of England, only seven years later Purves’ ambition was fulfilled when Royal St. George’s became the first golf course outside Scotland to stage The Open.

Despite its walking distance from the medieval market town of Sandwich, there is a remoteness and tranquillity about Royal St. George’s which is only really compromised when The Open trundles down the club’s understated, narrow approach between a pair of flat and unremarkable fields, as it will for the 15th time this July (more than any other course south of the border). If you were to take in the eastward view from the tower at St. Clements today it would seem much as it did to Purves more than a century ago. Part of the appeal of St. George’s is the feeling of escape from the modern world—in the traditional clubhouse as well as out on the links—and a sense of timelessness is palpable.

St. George’s is a demanding golf course, with some long carries from tees and a handful of blind tee shots to unnerve those less familiar with its singular charms. Golf balls that land in the centre of its fairways can be led an irregular dance by all its bumps and hollows that are virtually peerless on The Open rota. They bring unpredictable punishment to a round of golf but that is integral to links golf, although not to every golfer’s liking, particularly those to whom driving consistency has been a cornerstone of success. Ahead of the 2011 Open at St. George’s, Gary Player—three times The Open champ but never at this Kentish links—was asked what he thought were the qualities of this mercurial golf course. A straightforward question but Player would utter nothing more than, “Next question please,” through gritted teeth. It was particularly arresting coming from a man who is usually so forthcoming with his views on everything.

“From any tee out here, par is a very good score,” starts Justen Fiddler, club professional at St. George’s, and like Purves, a man who honed his golf much along the shoreline of East Lothian. “You just have to be very patient.

You have to plot your way around the course. Birdies do not come along too often but bogeys do. You don’t have to hit a bad shot to produce a bogey. Par is always a good score.”

When St. George’s played to a full length of 7,211 yards for its last Open in 2011, when Darren Clarke won in terrible weather, St. George’s became the longest par-70 golf course to stage The Open. Like it has done a few times in recent years, for 2020 the R&A is expected to pull back the yardage just slightly, to around 7,204 yards. This golf course is sufficiently difficult as it is.

“At Royal St. George’s the holes never run along in one direction,” adds Fiddler. “All 18 holes are very individual, with cross winds on a majority of holes, so the course does suit someone who can control the flight of his ball, shape his shots, putt well and chip well.”

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It is easy to be intimidated by the tee shot on the 4th at St. George’s [top]; the club’s Smoking Room [above]

Only once has a golfer won The Open at St. George’s with a score that was under par by double digits and that was Greg Norman in 1993, with one of the finest final rounds ever played—a 64, six under par. He finished on 267, 13 under par, to beat Nick Faldo by two after Faldo had set a new course record of 63 in the second round (which was matched by Payne Stewart on the Sunday).

“For Greg Norman to shoot 64 here in the final round in 1993—and he missed a short putt on 17—that was just a great, great round of golf,” recalls Fiddler, who started at Royal St. George’s as an assistant pro in 1997, before taking the club pro job in 2012. “Norman’s round was remarkably good. He drove the ball arrow straight all week. It was an amazing four days of golf at the very highest level.”

IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD Laddie Lucas was a fighter pilot for the Royal Air Force in the Second World War, a wing commander based for a spell at RAF Manston, near Sandwich, who flew Spitfires over the English Channel to fight the German Luftwaffe.

Born in 1915, Lucas grew up on Prince’s at Sandwich, a golf course that his father Percy Lucas had co-founded in 1904 and which sits immediately to the north of Royal St. George’s, the two golf courses separated by a modest wire fence. Laddie Lucas became a golfer of international caliber, the left-hander winning the British Boys Championship in 1933 and later representing Great Britain and Ireland in the Walker Cup. But then came the war and the British Army commandeered the golf course at Princes for mortar practice.

One day in July 1943, returning from a mission over northern France, Lucas’ Spitfire was hit by enemy fire and halfway back across the English Channel, with his cockpit filling with smoke, his engine cut out. Losing altitude and wondering if he could reach the shore, Lucas spotted the Prince’s clubhouse in the distance—where he had been born, in a room overlooking the first tee—and made a bid to land on one of the fairways. Reportedly a wayward driver of the golf ball, Lucas touched down on the fourth tee of the Himalayas nine before coming to rest out of bounds at the northern end of the course. Henry Longhurst, the renowned golf writer and commentator, was close friends with Lucas and promptly dispatched a telegram to him which simply read: “Driven out of bounds again Lucas”.

A Spitfire propeller mounted on a post today marks the spot when Lucas’ plane finally came to a halt, which is near a newly built par-three fourth hole on the Himalayas nine at Prince’s.

As is so often the case around the British coastline, where there is one great links golf course you find a cluster.

Like Royal St. George’s, Prince’s boasts Open heritage, having staged the championship in 1932—won by Gene Sarazen with his newly invented sand wedge—while no more than a mile to the south of St. George’s begins the mighty links of Royal Cinque Ports, which also proudly hosted The Open, in 1909 and 1920.

Prince’s has three nines—Himalayas, Shore and Dunes—and while they overall offer a gentler links test than their neighbors, extensive renovations and improvements of all three nines, under the guidance of course architects and links specialists Mackenzie and Ebert, will be complete this Spring and leave the golf courses looking and playing better than ever. Drainage has been improved and the links nature of the land is being embraced by opening up sand scrapes between holes.

Losing altitude and wondering if he could reach the shore, Lucas spotted the Prince’s clubhouse in the distance A tribute to war hero Laddie Lucas at Prince’s [above] and the Himalayas nine at Prince’s [left]

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“We have been delighted to continue our involvement at Prince’s,” says architect Martin Ebert. “Having the opportunity to provide design input to the Shore and Dunes has led us to enjoy an even greater respect for the quality of the detailed shaping of the greens and green surrounds at Prince’s. The original work of Sir Guy Campbell and John Morrison in restoring Prince’s as a great golf course after the Second World War was fantastic. It has been a great honour to have followed in their footsteps.”

Princes also provides 38 guestrooms in its Lodge, which are ideal for visiting golfers in an area of Kent with limited accommodation options.

Down the beach from Sandwich is Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club by the town of Deal (the club is named after the ancient Confederation of Cinque Ports along this coastline, the five ports being Sandwich, Dover, Hythe, New Romney and Hastings). Golf writer and links connoisseur Donald Steel knows Cinque Ports intimately and while it might seem unkind that he has described this golf course as “more bleak than most”, there is certainly a rawness to its remote setting. “Deal”, as the club is often known, opened five years after St. George’s in 1892 and provides a classic links scenario: there is the beach and the sea on one side, to the east, two nines of golf that run up and back, more or less parallel to each other, in an anti-clockwise order (like the Old Course, St Andrews), while inland from the course the land flattens out into farmland. The inland views from the golf course can be barren and desolate, it is true, yet these ribbons of golf between the farms and the beach provide an incredibly rich seam of sport.

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Deal does not have the space of St. George’s for hosting The Open to its modern-day scale, but the golf course remains of Open caliber from beginning to end. The most famous Open story at Deal in fact occurred off the golf course and in front of the main entrance to the clubhouse, where Walter Hagen had his chauffeur-driven Daimler parked for the 1920 Open. This was the first championship following the end of the First World War, in an era when many traditional golf clubs did not allow professionals into the clubhouse.

International superstar Hagen was insulted, and so changed his shoes in his car in front of the clubhouse in protest. At the end of play, it is said that Hagen’s chauffeur brought drinks for Hagen and his playing partners to the side of the 18th green on a silver tray in a further act of defiance.

For the travelling golfer, this exceptional triumvirate of golf courses can be expanded into a quartet with a 30-mile drive from Deal, following the south-westerly coastline to New Romney and the understated links of Littlestone. Purves, who created Royal St. George’s, laid out the links at Littlestone with professional David Herd just a year after St. George’s and became the club’s inaugural captain in 1888. The course was later improved by Alister MacKenzie, who would go on to collaborate with Bobby Jones at Augusta National.

Like Prince’s, Littlestone offers an excellent links challenge and some memorable holes without reaching the unforgiving demands of St. George’s and Deal. There are less forced carries here and less blind shots but as with any genuine links, its greatest defence is the wind. If the breezes pick-up at Littlestone, the golf course twists and turns so that golfers must re-calculate on virtually every hole, and the course builds to a crescendo with its three outstanding closing holes. While Littlestone has not hosted The Open like its nearby cousins it does have an extensive tournament heritage that dates back to the first Ladies Golf Union Championship back in 1894, and it is set to reach peak condition to host the R&A’s Junior Open in July.

THE BELL, SANDWICH Probably the best hotel as a base for exploring the Kentish links is The Bell in Sandwich, which overlooks the River Stour and has welcomed guests since Tudor times.

In the 17th century it was a busy coaching inn called the OId Bell Inn. Today the hotel offers 37 spacious, traditional guestrooms and its location on the eastern side of Sandwich is ideal for quick transfers to Royal St. George’s, Princes and Royal Cinque Ports. www.bellhotelsandwich.co.uk

Purves did not create a southern equivalent to St Andrews—an impossible task from the outset—but even though Gary Player might disagree, the links of Royal St. George’s is the equal of the Old Course or any other as a golfing challenge, and an exceptional spread of golf awaits between these four Kentish corners.

The stunning par-3 17th at Littlestone

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MAJORS PGA Championship

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Only 22 years ago, TPC Harding Park was such a poor cousin to The Olympic Club that the Harding Park golf course was used as a parking lot when Olympic hosted the U.S. Open. Now however, Harding Park is embarking on a majors heritage of a different kind

M

oney talks and we all know it. That’s why the storied golf course at Harding Park became Harding Parking for a week during the 1998 U.S. Open across the water at The Olympic Club. TPC Harding Park—as it has been known since 2010— has been a muni since it opened in 1925, and when U.S. Open organizers the USGA offered the City of San Francisco $200,000 to use Harding Park and adjoining nine-hole Fleming Golf Course for parking for just one week, the cash was too much to refuse.

Some Harding Park golfers might remember that Lee Janzen won his second U.S. Open title that week, but none of them can forget the ignominy suffered by their beloved golf course. In the spring of 1998 the San Francisco Chronicle reported the “hostile” reception to the idea from Harding Park’s regulars, one describing it as “the dumbest idea we’ve ever heard”.

No matter, 7,000 cars a day parked on Harding Park and Fleming, and if it was a low point for Harding Park, its veteran members will soon revel in the irony when TPC Harding Park hosts its own major championship for the first time, the 102nd PGA Championship, May 14-17. It’s the Cinderella story of San Francisco.

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It is 95 years since Harding Park Golf Club first welcomed golfers to its idyllic perch above Lake Merced, out in the south-western reaches of San Francisco. The golf course was designed by Willie Watson and Sam Whiting, fresh off their celebrated design and construction of both the Ocean and Lake courses at The Olympic Club, across Lake Merced. The duo was reportedly paid $300 to design Harding Park (little more than $4,000 in today’s money), and it must have seemed a bargain to the city, which named its new course after President Warren G. Harding, an avid golfer who’d died from a heart attack, aged 57, in office while visiting San Francisco two years earlier.

Immediately popular, the course—still owned by the City of San Francisco—quickly became a favorite among locals and tournament organisers alike. Harding Park began staging the San Francisco City Championship—known as simply “The City”—in 1925, which is one of the longestrunning municipal tournaments in the world, having started in 1916. In the San Francisco Chronicle, Ron Kroichick once wrote: “Not many sporting events feature a history of bartenders and police officers tangling with doctors and lawyers, but then the San Francisco City Championship is not entirely normal—and that’s a good thing.”

National attention arrived at Harding Park with the 1937 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship and the San Francisco Open in the 1940s (which Byron Nelson handily won in 1944 and 1945). The ensuing decades saw the return of the Amateur Public Links (in ’56) while local kids Ken Venturi, Johnny Miller and Michael Allen honed their games there as juniors. It became a regular stop for the PGA Tour throughout the 1960s with the Lucky International, won by the likes of Gary Player (’61), Gene Littler (’62), Jack Burke, Jr. (’63) and Billy Casper (’68) as well as locals George Archer (’65) and Venturi (’66).

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TPC Harding Park as 1998 U.S. Open parking lot [above], while the tournament was held at The Olympic Club [top-left of picture]; TPC Harding Park’s stunning 18th [bottom left]

MODERN HISTORY The PGA Tour left Harding Park after the 1969 San Francisco Open. There were stories of perfect drives lost in the middle of daisy-covered fairways and a clubhouse that was less than adequate. Owned and maintained by the City of San Francisco, Harding Park has always been subject to city budgets, and for a time it fell by the wayside in terms of priorities. If being 1998 U.S. Open parking lot was the club’s nadir, as with all good stories the hard times didn’t last and in fact, only made the course stronger, a point emphasized by current general manager Tom Smith, when he spoke to Kingdom.

“Without a doubt, ’98 was a low time for the property,” he says. “But it was an eye-opening chapter in the novel, if you will. People realized we were losing a great historical golf course and we learned from it.”

By the turn of the Millennium, after 75 years of golf at Harding Park, many local families cherished memories that were tied to afternoons spent at the golf club with family and friends.

“We hear a lot of ‘I grew up playing here’ stories, of golfers who used to come out and play with their dads, and are now bringing their own kids out to play golf,’” he says.

“There was a lot of passion for the property and so people were willing to go to bat and fight for it.”

The willing fighters included long-time San Francisco attorney (and former USGA President) Sandy Tatum, who

was instrumental in securing a $16 million renovation and redesign in 2002-’03, which led to the course joining the PGA Tour’s TPC Network in 2010.

Today it’s one of the finest golfing destinations on the West Coast, if not in the country, featuring 18 holes of championship golf and a nine-hole course that benefits from a supportive city and from a unique microclimate, often cooler than the rest of the Bay Area, which helps with water retention and accounts for typically green fairways and healthy greens.

Says Smith: “It’s like that quote from Mark Twain: ‘The coldest winter I lived through was a summer in San Francisco.’ I wear a wool sweater in July and August; you go to Oakland and it could be 90 degrees.”

As a city-owned course operated by the TPC Network, the city is responsible for 100 percent of maintenance, yet benefits from PGA Tour agronomist consults, while 100 percent of course profits go back to the city and its municipal golf system.

“Look at the people here, it really is the heartbeat of golf,” says Smith. “You’ll see the guy who just punched a clock showing up in overalls, and in the same group there’s a guy who just came off work at the stock market, in a coat and tie. It’s a great melting pot for golf and for the city.

“Technically it’s a municipal golf course, but we refer to it as a ‘better than municipal’ golf course. It’s a public course that’s [about] to host a major.”

Indeed, tournaments started returning to TPC Harding Park shortly after the renovations, notably beginning with the 2005 WGC-American Express Championship won by Tiger Woods, and then the 2009 President’s Cup—at which Woods went 5-0 for the American hosts—with the President’s Cup set to return in 2025. As he hunts for this 16th major title, Tiger will be delighted to see the PGA Championship arrive in northern California for the first time, at one of his favorite courses. Another contender bringing happy memories back to Harding Park is Rory McIlroy, who took the WGC Cadillac Match Play at Harding Park in 2015, going 7-0 in the headto-head format that week, on the last occasion that Harding Park hosted a tour event.

“It’s a fair test of golf,” says Rory McIlroy, the world No. 1 at the time of writing. “I like big trees that frame holes and you’ve got a lot of definition to work the ball off. I really enjoy the golf course.”

Anyway, Kingdom magazine understands, at the time of going to print, that there are no plans for a reciprocal arrangement that would see The Olympic Club used as a parking lot during the 2020 PGA Championship. If that status changes we’ll let you know.

“You’ll see the guy who just punched a clock showing up in overalls, in the same group as a guy from the stock market”

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Immerse yourself in life

on Virginia’ s Cape.

Bay Creek Palmer Course Hole #5

World class golf by Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus is just the beginning at Bay Creek— a lush, green pathway to the unprecedented lifestyle on Virginia’s glorious Eastern Shore. Two miles of private beach on the pristine Chesapeake Bay complemented by a thoughtful, innovative coastal village design, a newly designated 350-acre nature preserve, all combine for a truly authentic waterfront lifestyle.

Now reemerging as one of most sought-after club communities on the Atlantic Seaboard, Bay Creek is setting the standard of excellence as a near perfectly crafted and curated family legacy destination.

A Preserve Community Homesites from the $70s New Homes from the $400s

Contact us for details of our Discovery Visit Package Toll Free

844.620.2900

info@ BayCreekLife.com

BayCreekLife.com

Obtain the Property Report required by Federal Law and read it before signing anything. No Federal agency has judged the merits or values, if any, of the property. This is not intended to be and does not constitute an offer in any state or jurisdiction where prohibited by law. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Prices and square footages are provided for reference only but are subject to change and not guaranteed. Sales by Bay Creek Realty/Broker. ©2020 Bay Creek. All rights reserved.

TRAVEL Cayman Islands

C aym a n s

A perfect place to point the jet, a luxury oasis, with crystalline water and the kinds of dreams you can only have in Cayman...

S

Set like an iris in a tropical ellipse, the Cayman Islands are south of Cuba, west/northwest of Haiti and Jamaica, northeast of Honduras and east of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, putting them within easy reach of the private jetset and squarely in the sunshine and Tradewinds that make the Caribbean such a compelling destination. And yet among the Caribbean’s many options there’s a special clarity here, an uncluttered relationship between the earth and sea that stills the madness of modern life perhaps better than other places. Days here are timeless and nights limitless in many ways, making it no wonder that the region’s official board of tourism now invites visitors to “Dream in Cayman.” In hopes of helping you do just that, we’ve assembled an array of possibilities should you head south to the warm sands of the Cayman Islands. After all, it takes a bit of planning to make a dream come true.

“The Caymans” as they’re called, consist of three islands: Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman.

The last is aptly named as it is the smallest, primarily known for its diving and wildlife. Likewise, Cayman Brac is a hugely popular destination for SCUBA divers, bird-watchers and adventurers, with beautiful landscapes and dramatic cliffs.

Grand Cayman, as you might have guessed, is the largest island and where most of the action takes place, as it were.

Visitors likely will land here, and it’s here that we’ll put much of our focus for if you spent the entirety of your trip on Grand Cayman you’d still have plenty to discuss when you got home. Epic snorkeling and diving, tropical landscapes, swaying palms, numerous local attractions and activities, a bit of golf and world-class cuisine await for those who possess the swim trunks, sunscreen and sense of adventure, so let’s get started.

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G R A N D C AY M A N As with any journey, the first matter to sort is accommodations, and for golfers there’s only one obvious choice: The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman. Set on one of the island’s greatest assets, the famed “Seven Mile Beach,” the resort offers 144 acres of beachfront beauty, luxurious suites and rooms with picture postcard views, great dining options and a host of amenities, including Camana Bay Golf Course. The course was voted “The World’s Best 9-hole Golf Course” by the World Golf Awards and named as one of the 18 Greatest Golf Courses in the world by the UK’s Golfscape magazine, and it’s reason enough to visit Grand Cayman, but of course there’s more here than just golf.

The Ritz-Carlton enjoys a great location, which makes it a perfect base of operations from which to explore. In terms of island layout, most of what’s readily available is on the west side, while the east side of Grand Cayman tends to be windier and tougher to reach, but possessive of its own charms and attractions. As mentioned earlier, the Ritz-Carlton sits on Seven Mile Beach, and if one did nothing more than to wake, don a swimsuit, and spend each day walking the coral sands, enjoying the crystalline waters, various beach bars and restaurants, parasailing and watersports and more, it would be a great vacation. The beach runs along the west side of Grand Cayman and it holds many of the islands more tony residences, along with waters so shimmeringly clear blue that they appear to be made of glass. Snorkeling at Cemetery Reef is popular, as is sunbathing, kayaking and lounging, making it no wonder that Seven Mile Beach is regularly voted among the world’s best.

Off the beach—nearly 25 miles off the beach—is Stingray City, which offers the chance to snorkel and dive

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For golfers there’s an obvious choice: the Ritz-Carlton and its class-leading course

with southern stingrays. The large grey rays gather here among series of shallow sandbars in the island’s North Sound area and the region has become immensely popular with tourists, which are now served by a variety of tour companies to visit the spot. Closer to the Ritz-Carlton but no further from nature, the Cayman Islands Turtle Center engages visitors with an up-close look at sea turtles, which at one time dominated the islands.

In fact, when the Caymans were discovered by Christopher Columbus on May 10, 1503, the only inhabitants appeared to be turtles and so he called the islands “Las Tortugas.” By the 17th century the turtles had been hunted to near extinction, and so the islands were being referred to as the Caymans, after the crocodiles that lived there, called “caimans” by the Neo-Taino indigenous nations. The Turtle Center offers more than 200,000 visitors each year the chance to get up close and personal with sea turtles, which the center works to protect.

After visiting what might be a slowly paced attraction, travelers could be in need of a little lift, and it is to be found at the southern end of Seven Mile Beach in the capital city of George Town at Cayman Spirits Co. This 5,000-square-foot facility offers tours and tastings of its Seven Fathoms and Governor’s Reserve Rums, its Gun Bay Vodka, and its range of H.H. Hutching’s liqueurs. Each is handcrafted right here on Grand Cayman, and each has been very well received in reviews. If nothing else, this offers an incredible chance to indulge in local tastes, and why not? It’s a vacation, after all.

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Experience The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Grand Cayman at the only Five-Star Hotel in the Cayman Islands.

Named the World’s Best 9-Hole Golf Course by World Golf Awards, discover The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Grand Cayman. Designed by Greg Norman, it offers challenging play amid breathtaking natural beauty.

For more information, visit ritzcarlton.com/grandcayman

EAST

HELL If you visit Grand Cayman, it’s possible to take a quick side trip to Hell. Located in West Bay, “Hell” is a roughly 50-yard patch of black limestone formations that look as foreboding and as uninviting as the name might suggest. Inevitably, what likely was a fun local name became a tourist attraction with a gift shop and post office (so you can send postcards from Hell). Consider that if you stop by here and also visit the neighboring island of Cayman Brac, you can tell friends back home that you’ve been to “Hell ’n’ Brac.” Just sayin’.

On Grand Cayman’s east side, there are some compelling stops as well, and they certainly include the Cayman Crystal Caves. Located just 40 minutes east of the Ritz-Carlton in Grand Cayman’s Northside area, these spectacular caves used to shelter pirates from storms—and they still might hold pirate treasure, buried long ago. There are three caves hidden in the lush tropical forest here, each featuring dramatic stalactite and stalagmite growths. Tours are the best way to see them, and they’re definitely an island highlight.

Just five minutes south of the caves, the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park bears witness both to the fact that the Cayman Islands are an autonomous British Overseas Territory and that they champion preservation of the islands’ flora. The 65-acre park was opened by Queen Elizabeth herself in 1994 and it has become a fixture of Grand Cayman, hosting major flower shows and playing an important part in maintaining the islands’ diverse range of flowers, plants, iguanas and more. If nothing else, the park provides an often cool and meditative escape from the hustle and bustle of a typical vacation.

If you didn’t get enough island greenery and wildlife at the Botanic Park, Grand Cayman’s Mastic Trail offers a hike along a 2.3-mile, 200-year-old gravel path that winds through two million-year-old woodland area. For those so inclined, wear proper footwear, bring plenty of water and try to get there in the early morning; it’s sheltered from the sea breeze and can get hot and humid in the afternoons.

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SUSTENANCE If you’ve hit the Botanic Garden and hiked the trail, you might as well go all the way to the east coast for lunch. The family-owned Big Tree BBQ in Gun Bay is as much a homecooked meal as it is a restaurant, with food served on tables under the big tree in the owner’s front yard. Expect jerk chicken, ribs, BBQ chicken and other local favorites served in a friendly atmosphere. Reviews are tops and it’s one of those distinctively local experiences you’ll remember long after you’ve left the islands.

Back at the Ritz-Carlton, there are six or so options for dining, including Blue, a restaurant from Chef Eric Rippert. The highly regarded French chef is known for his seafood dishes, and his talents are on full display here in an environment that’s as far from Big Tree BBQ as it could be (stylistically and in terms of distance). With an incredible wine list featuring 700 wines from around the world and distinctive tasting menu options that showcase the best of what’s available locally, Blue is not to be missed if you’re in the area.

AND MORE For drinks only, the resort’s Bar Jack makes a legendary Piña Colada, while a top-end rum in the evening makes sense for would-be pirates (or dreamers of treasure, at least). If the beaches and relaxed options aren’t enough, the RitzCarlton’s resort fee includes use of water sports toys such as kayaks, paddle boards, water hammocks and more—and even includes complimentary one-on-one sailing lessons (reservations required). All of that and a trip around Camana Bay Golf Course could lead to sore muscles, and so there’s La Prairie Spa and its massages and Diamond Perfection body treatment, which uses powdered precious diamonds and tourmalines to exfoliate the skin. Why bury the treasure when you can put it to good use, no? And in a place as luxe and as dramatic as the Cayman Islands, such indulgences will only help to fuel your dreams—in Cayman, of course.

Uptown/downtown: jerk chicken by locals and upscale Hamachi by Eric Rippert

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MAKE THE WORLD YOUR OYSTER – fly by Pearl For island travel or travel anywhere, Rolls Royce explains why discerning travelers who demand the best are powered by Rolls-Royce engines The brand-new Rolls-Royce family of Pearl engines powers the world’s best business jets, such as the Bombardier Global 6500 and Gulfstream G700. Both family members—the Pearl® 15 and Pearl® 700—are the product of leading-edge innovations generated by our Advance2 technology program and the longstanding experience of our proven BR700 engine family.

Thanks to digital advances, such as our next-generation engine health monitoring (EHM) system, we’re able to deliver exceptional levels of engine availability. This new system provides advanced remote engine diagnostics, allowing for easy reconfiguration from the ground.

It exemplifies our IntelligentEngine vision, thanks to advancements in digital capability. The results so far have been better performance and enhanced maintenance capabilities, providing peace of mind for our customers.

Plus, our world-leading EHM system—working alongside the most efficient engine core in business aviation, equipped with an ultra-low emissions combustor—helps Pearl engines to operate with maximized efficiency, while minimizing the environmental impact of the aircraft.

In sum, thanks to cutting-edge technology developed at Rolls-Royce, the Pearl engine family is quieter, uses less fuel and produces fewer emissions than their predecessors. And the whole Pearl engine family is supported by CorporateCare® Enhanced, our comprehensive, fixed-cost engine maintenance management program, which offers a 24/7 EHM service.

“We developed our industry-leading CorporateCare® Enhanced program with the mindset of, ‘if we provide it, we cover it,’” said Alan Mangels, Rolls-Royce VP Sales & Marketing— Business Aviation. “Our customers love that. By listening to them, we continuously strive to improve our service solutions, which ultimately raises the bar for the entire industry.”

At Rolls-Royce, we’re determined to continue leading our field so we can keep providing you with the best way to fly.

The Pearl engine family: beautifully designed, brilliantly engineered.

TRAVEL Orlando

M O R E T H A N A M O U S E Contrary to popular belief, the City of Orlando, Florida, was not founded in 1971 with the opening of Walt Disney World, City Hall is not a fairytale castle and the mayor is not a large rodent with a dog and a duck for best friends. There’s a rich history here that includes grand estates, great golf and a relaxed lifestyle that’s endured since long before the mouse came to town.

Of course, that doesn’t mean the city isn’t magical…

Kraft-Azalea Garden

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“T

his was Palm Beach before there was Palm Beach,” says Alan, our Scenic Boat Tours captain. The company has offered the obvious nearly every single day since it was founded in 1938, piloting sightseers through a series of charming canals that connect lakes in Orlando’s Winter Park neighborhood. The tiny enclave long has been home (or winter home, anyway) to sports stars, Hollywood talent and enough med school graduates to ensure that if anyone in Winter Park ever asks, “Is there a doctor in the house?” the answer almost certainly will be “yes.” Alan says they should have called it “Winter Party,” because this is where America’s royalty traditionally danced and drank through the cold months before returning to their New York and New England homes. In fact, they danced all across Orlando—and they still do. Tiger Woods, Paula Creamer, Ian Poulter, Lydia Ko and others live here, and those are just a handful of the golfers who call Orlando home (as Arnold Palmer famously did for so many years). Beyond golf there’s a world of VIPs upholding a tradition of celebrity residents that has been in place nearly since 1885, when the city was founded. Why Orlando? For the answer, one needs to consider Captain Alan’s comment: This was Palm Beach before there was Palm Beach—before there was a railroad to Palm Beach, even. Disney didn’t come to Orlando to make it happen. Disney came to Orlando because Orlando was already happening, and it had been for ages.

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S

ome translate the name as “famous land,” and with 2.5 million residents and 75 million visitors each year, Orlando is certainly that. As with many of America’s popular areas, sadly, Orlando sits on land originally granted to, and then later taken away from, native people. Here it’s the Seminole, many of whom were relocated to Oklahoma following the Seminole Wars of the 19th century. Roughly 300, however, eluded U.S. Army troops and refused to leave the state.

They settled in the inhospitable Everglades, became the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and still refer to themselves as the “Unconquered People.” Today the tribe owns Hard Rock International and most of the lucrative Hard Rock Cafés and Hard Rock Hotel properties in the world, including one of each in the City of Orlando. Unconquered, indeed.

Enjoying a rather nice name, Orlando could have been called “Gatlin,” after the U.S. Army’s Fort Gatlin, built here in 1838 during the Seminole Wars; and for a time the city was named “Jernigan,” after cattlemen Issac and Aaron Jernigan, who settled the area just as Fort Gatlin wound down. The Jernigan name might have endured but for Aaron, who also led an Army militia for a time—and not well, it seems. By 1850 his unsavory hyper-violent behavior had attracted the attention of none other than U.S. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis himself, who offered a stern assessment of Jernigan before relieving him of command. A few years later, the Jernigan Post Office changed its sign and Orlando was born. As for the new moniker’s origin there are a number of stories; most concern men named Orlando but one claims a prominent local settler picked it as he was fond of the Shakespeare comedy As You Like It, in which the male lead is named Orlando. As for which origin story is correct, we say have it as you like it.

Orlando sits in Orange County (itself the benefit of a name change when it was separated from the now nonexistent Mosquito County in 1845) and from 1875 to 1895 the area appropriately was the premiere source of Florida

Was it named after a Shakespeare play?

Believe it as you like it

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Henis necus iurerum sinvelendae simin re pe re aut doluptaepe aces ratur magnienem

citrus. Completion of Florida’s railway system after the Civil War had opened the state to trade, Orlando’s numerous spring-fed lakes, warm climate and rich soil favored fruit, and soon an “Orange Rush” was on. More than six million boxes of fruit per year came out of Florida then, with a fair portion of it contributing to traffic at Orlando’s Church Street Station, a modest but lovely rail station built in 1899.

The station is still in downtown Orlando today and has been redeveloped into a dining and entertainment hub, even as the historic depot continues to function as a train station for the modern SunRail commuter service.

The juice would have kept flowing gold, but just after the Christmas of 1894 a devastating freeze wiped out the state’s citrus crop. Temperatures hit 18˚F, oranges turned black on the trees and financial mayhem ensued.

A medium.com article on the freeze by Florida writer Robin Peroldo uncovered a boyhood memory from a man named Karl Abbott, whose parents owned Orlando’s San Juan Hotel at the time: “By 2pm the San Juan was in an uproar. Prices had dropped to ‘no sale,’ commission merchants were frantically trying to get out of options, and heated debates and fistfights started in the lobby. About 9 that night, a fine looking grey-haired

man in a black frock coat and Stetson hat walked up the street in front of the hotel and looked at the thermometer, groaned, ‘Oh, my God!’ and shot himself through the head. For three days icy winds blew over a dead world. The gloom in the San Juan was something you could touch and feel.”

Things went from bad to worse when another freeze hit in February. This time, more than killing the crop, the freeze destroyed the trees themselves and completely wiped out the state’s industry. From a high of six million boxes of fruit per year, Florida’s production numbers dropped below 100,000, and what followed was a sad tale of land barons picking through the ashes, grabbing homesteads and farms for pennies on the dollar from banks or desperate families who in some cases simply abandoned their debt-ridden groves.

Still, just as the trains had carried citrus north, so did they bring tourists and “snowbird” winter residents south, and many of them came looking to spend. With the opening of Florida via rail, many wealthy industrialists and socialites from the Northeast had discovered that Orlando’s combination of crystal clear lakes, verdant forests and moderate winter temperatures offered a high-quality coldseason escape at a relative bargain—one that was too good to resist. As citrus failed, a development boom ensued, and soon the city was, as the captain had it, Palm Beach before there was Palm Beach (that city was developed in the early 1900s).

Most of the action was in Winter Park, a city northeast of downtown that saw such luminaries as William Charles Comstock, president of the Chicago Board of Trade, move here as early as 1883. Prominent surgeons, artists, athletes and more followed, and as the area developed the well-heeled built elaborate mansions on the shores of Winter Park’s lakes, consistently outdoing each other in an architectural dance of sorts that continues today. Some of these spectacular homes (and a few of questionable taste) are visible via a trip with the aforementioned Scenic Boat Tours, which travels 19th century canals built by the lumber industry to float logs from Orlando forests to sawmills. On an hour-long journey through the canals and three of Winter Park’s five main lakes, we learned that a 28,000 square-foot house that has been the area’s largest is about to lose its title to a 41,000 square-foot house currently under development.

Likewise, Alan pointed out an empty lot that used to hold a $4 million mansion, purchased and then razed to make way for something larger. And so it goes. Still, many of the historic homes remain, including several 19th century mansions. One notable brick residence was the home of Fred “Mister” Rogers, purchased for him by his parents while he was a student at the local Rollins College, which itself was founded in 1885. Sculptor Albin Polasek’s house can be seen as well, now a museum and sculpture garden

[Opposite] Winter Park canal with Scenic Boat Tours; [Above] Church St. Station area; lakeside estate

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featuring some of the late Czech master’s works. Beyond the homes, evidence of Orlando’s former forests can still be seen along the canals, including a massive oak more than 300 years old and a Cypress more than 500. One of the more serene spots on the tour, also accessible by car, is the Kraft Azalea Garden on Lake Maitland, with its dramatic Cypress trees and elegant exedra, unsurprisingly the site of many weddings. Nearby, the Leu Gardens offer more beauty and Orlando’s oldest home, which dates to 1858 and which has housed Orlando settlers the Mizell family and New Yorker Duncan Pell and his silent film star wife, Helen Gardner, among others. Usually open to the public, the home was damaged by Hurricane Irma and currently under repair.

As wealthy northerners brought mansions and high life to Orlando, they also brought golf. One of the area’s first courses was designed by John Dunn of Scotland and sat adjacent to Rollins College. It was replaced in 1914 by the nearby Winter Park Golf Course, which underwent a well-publicized renovation in 2016 and is again open for play, locally known as “the Winter Park 9.” Dubsdread is another early track that’s open today, a 1924 design built by developer Carl Dann who had a disagreement with the Orlando Country Club and decided to sort his own course.

Dubsdread went on to host the Orlando Open from 1945 to 1947 and saw rounds from such luminaries as Patty Berg, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and Babe Zaharias, among others.

While the “roaring 20s” were good to Orlando, they weren’t to last. Just as a freeze killed the Orlando citrus boom, a series of hurricanes ended the city’s land and housing rush. Specifically 1926 was a bad year, with six major hurricanes ripping into the state, causing millions in damages, killing people and cooling Florida’s appeal for a while. These storms were followed by the Great Depression, and so Orlando growth slowed as the city headed toward the modern era. But by the 1950s Orlando was back, an established city with a vibrant business community and strong aerospace and defense industries, home to a Lockheed Martin plant (then Martin Marietta) and several important military bases, including McCoy AFB, which later became Orlando International Airport. Writer Jack Kerouac lived here from 1957-1958, the year his seminal work On The Road was published. The little house in the College Park neighborhood in which Kerouac typed the original manuscript for Dharma Bums now offers a writer-inresidence program and is available to tour by appointment.

It wasn’t long after Kerouac left that ground was broken on Bay Hill golf course, established in 1960. The land on which it sits was a former citrus grove, owned by a Dr. Phillips, for which the neighborhood around Bay Hill is named. The golf course opened in 1961 with a Dick Wilson design, Arnold Palmer visited it in 1965 and fell in love with the place, later going on to claim it as his winter headquarters—but of course that wasn’t the biggest news of

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The College Park house in which Jack Kerouac lived, and early days at Mission Inn GC near Orlando, est.1917

Once known for citrus and as an upscale winter getaway, Orlando’s modern identity is firmly tied to a mouse the year in Orlando. Rather, after 80 years of dramatic ups and downs, with its rich history of being known for citrus and as an elegant getaway for the country’s most successful personalities, Orlando was about to be known for something else. Tampa and Miami both had been considered, but in 1965 Walt Disney announced Orlando as the site of his new theme park, a bigger version of his California property that would redefine Central Florida. It did just that, forever joining Orlando’s identity to that of a very large mouse who is not the mayor and a castle that is not City Hall, no matter what people might wish upon a star.

Teague Crotty Folds of Honor Scholarship Recipient Legacy of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Crotty

Folds of Honor is excited to announce an official partnership with the PGA Reach Foundation for 2020. Patriot Golf Day and PGA Hope are grassroots golf fundraisers that help change the lives of our military families through the game of golf. By both missions coming together, we are supporting both the veteran and their family. Join us over Memorial Day Weekend to help raise money for the less than 1% who answer the call to duty to serve and defend our great nation. Learn more at patriotgolfday.org.

Honor Their Sacrifice. Educate Their Legacy.

TRAVEL Myanmar

T H R E E T H O U S A N D T E M P L E S,

Words & Pictures by TEE MEDIA CO.

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O N E G O L F C O U R S E

“Hazard, water, one-seven-four,” intoned my caddy on the 12th. But it wasn’t the possibility of splashing water that filled my gut with dread.

I swung. The rental set was flex; I need unbendable stiff. “Swoosh.”

The ball took off on a straight flight path and successfully climbed to altitude. For a few seconds it looked

fairway-splittingly perfect, but then the inevitable late fade order came in from flight control and seemingly under laser guidance my ball arrowed right, speeding up for impact. Crack-boing! Oh Jeez, I’d cleared the water but driven the 13th century Pagoda just off the fairway right. Bless me.

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125TH ANNIVERSARY

W

hen the New Course opened at the Home of Golf in 1895 it did so unaware of the unenviable shadow its illustrious neighbour, the Old Course, would cast over it.

Born of function rather than form, the primary purpose of the New Course was to facilitate the rising demands for golf in St Andrews.

Now 125 years on, it is not the younger sibling of the Old Course but an important piece of golf history in its own right, a timeless test of Links golf that exists on its own merits and offers so much to any golfing experience at the Home of Golf.

standrews.com

I

was mortified. My Caddy didn’t even blink. I guess that is what happens when you grow up surrounded by 3,000 temples: the ubiquitous becomes valueless.

Talking of ubiquitous, at Kingdom we get to play plenty of great golf courses, and to be candid Bagan’s only golf course, built in 1998, doesn’t get in my top 1,000 for it’s design, layout or condition, but where else in the world can you play with 13th century architecture littered liberally around the landscape?

Bagan, in Myanmar (formerly Burma), is not the easiest place in the world to access for a golfing weekend.

It’s an 18-hour flight to Bangkok, an hour-long transfer to Mandalay and then a choice of six hours on the train, a 4-hour taxi ride or a leisurely 12-hour boat trip up the Irawaddy river—humming tunes from The Jungle Book or Apocalypse Now, depending on your outlook.

Not only is Myanmar far from America, it is far from being a developed nation. Once the jewel in the crown of the British Empire and entitled Asia’s “Rice Bowl,” following World War II the country stagnated and now lags

A Buddha statue (above), Bagan’s 15th Tee Box (left)

far behind its neighbors. It was subject to the oddest of leadership takeovers in 1961, when General Ne Win staged a communist military coup and, despite the recent rise of the democratically-minded Aung Son Suu Kyi, the country remains more or less under military control.

For tourists, lack of development cuts both ways.

Western-style facilities and services often are basic or non-existent, but my father, who fought in the war against the Japanese and remained in-country for a couple of years afterwards, loved Myanmar. He first re-visited in the ’90s and returned several times, declaring with nostalgic delight that “nothing has changed since I was last here [in the 1940s]”.

Such developmental fluctuations appear a mere modern whim when set in comparison to the Temples of Bagan. The surviving 3,000 edifices come in all shapes and sizes and are located in an area of a mere 40 square miles. Today a Unesco heritage site, Bagan was founded in the second century, but the period from the 11th to 13th century was when it hit its cultural and political height as capital of the Bagan Empire, attracting Buddhist scholars and devotees from as far south as Sri Lanka and as far east as Cambodia.

As with many parts of the world it was the rise of Mongols that ended that period of Bagan’s power and importance, but not before its creative subjects had constructed over an estimated 10,000 religious monuments—often competing to outdo one another.

“Nothing has changed since I was last here”— [in the 1940s]

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From the 14th century onwards Bagan continued as a minor city; construction and ostentation slowed as its power and wealth receded. The old capital remained a pilgrimage destination but visits were focused solely on the most prominent temples, with the majority slipping into disrepair over time. Endurance is not helped by the fact that Bagan is in an earthquake zone.

In 2016 a major quake struck causing severe damage.

Many minor buildings completely collapsed and even the mighty Sulamani and Myauk Guni temples suffered significant damage. Local architectural reconstruction efforts are still ongoing with the help of UNESCO experts.

The options to visit the temples are varied; it is possible to take guided tours by taxi, minibus or even horse and cart. The principle temples are Ananda, Shwesandaw, Thatbyunnyu, Dahammayangyt and the Shwezigon Pagoda; none should be missed. As well as joining an organized tour or having a guide it is also possible to walk freely around by yourself, cycle or rent electric scooters. We opted for the latter and happily spent two days quietly whizzing nearrandomly from temple to temple, enjoying the large and famous with others but also enjoying the calm and serene isolation of smaller deserted temples off the beaten track.

At some point in the future it is inevitable that Bagan will become modernized and better protected. For historical preservation reasons that can only be a good thing. And yet, with so much of the world controlled and sanitized to its last inch, to wander free all alone along a dirt path, passing the occasional buffalo, and into an unswept, unkempt architectural gem of a 12th century temple is an experience to savor. For me at least, it provided a truer connection through time than rigidly proceeding in one direction behind the ubiquitous red velvet rope

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E-bike and aerial options, a balloon’seye view of Dhamma Yazaka Pagoda

To wander alone into an unswept, unkempt 12th century temple is an experience to savor while ambivalent workers in security uniforms gaze disinterestedly back at you and closed circuit cameras record every second of the boredom.

Arguably the best way to see Bagan in its splendid entirety, and certainly in the most unforgettable fashion, is to enter the basket and take a hot air balloon trip. To glide high in Asia’s dawn light over the Bagan plain and gaze upon the litany of temples is to marvel over life, time, and this planet. Three separate companies run flights from October to April leaving at dawn and floating gracefully across the plains for 45 minutes to an hour during sunrise. The price is high but the experience is life-memorable, and as you rise you pass over the Bagan golf club allowing you to plot a course for a late morning round—hopefully avoiding the architectural hazards you have come all this way to treasure.

WHERE YOU CAN MAKE YOUR DREAMS A REALITY

Wake up to a world of breathtaking possibilities. See how Belgard paves the way to your own personal sanctuary. Belgard.com/dream

DRINK Highballs

W H I S KY S OC I A L Sometime around 1892, Tommy Dewar walked into a New York bar, scoffed at the tiny glass put before him, and forever changed the way the world enjoys whisky.

Welcome to the perfect drink

T

he newspaper story was written in 1905, but the idea—nay, the inspired genius—had come some 14 years prior, when Scotsman and whisky distiller Tommy Dewar was thirsty in New York City.

Walking along Broadway with friends, a “ball” was suggested, “ball” then being the nomenclature for a glass of whisky. It sounded like a good idea to Dewar, and so he and a friend entered a bar and placed their order. When two small glasses were placed before them, however, the pair was unimpressed. “Beastly small glasses,” Dewar’s friend was said to have remarked, and Dewar agreed. The solution: serve the ball in a “high” glass, today better known as a Collins glass. Dewar made the request, the bartender assented, took the small glasses away, returned with the high glasses, poured in the whisky, and the highball was born.

“It made whisky-drinking social,” says Gareth Howells, National Whisky Ambassador for John Dewar & Sons and the Dewar’s range of Scotch whiskies. “Adding soda water and lemon made it something people could drink at social occasions, even something refreshing at parties outside during the day. It took whisky out of the dark.”

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The small glasses were beastly, and so Tommy Dewar asked for something taller

Tommy (technically Thomas, 1st Baron Dewar) was full of good ideas. Founded by their Father, his brother John ran the family distillery and perfected the brand’s masterful double-aged blends, but it was Tommy who put the brand on the map— literally. In 1892 Tommy visited 26 countries and wrote a book, A Ramble Around the Globe. Everywhere he went he made sure that people knew about the high quality of Dewar’s whisky, and so a community was born.

Tommy’s global spirit persists in the Dewar’s distillery at Aberfeldy, Scotland, today, evidenced in its fine range of premium smooth whiskies that take inspiration from both the olde world and the new. The attention to detail is absolutely classic across the range, in the White Label, Dewar’s 12, Dewar’s 15 and Dewar’s 18 whiskies. But Tommy’s spirit is also found in innovations like Dewar’s Caribbean Smooth, a blend of up to 40 single malts and grain whiskies that lay in casks for at least 8 years. Double-aged and finished in a Caribbean rum cask, the blend is just one example of how Dewar’s continues to make whisky-drinking more social. On the next few pages, we offer highballs old and new, wonderful cocktails made with Dewar’s range of premium whiskies. Eschew the beastly small glass, grab a lemon and soda and go for something taller. With help from Gareth Howells, here are perfect cocktails, courtesy of Tommy Dewar.

ORIGINAL HIGHBALL + 1 ½ PT DEWAR’S W HITE LAB E L + GINGER ALE OR S ODA WATE R + GARNISHED W IT H EXPR E S S E D LEM ON PEEL

Built:

Served over ice in a highball

Original story, featured in The World, 1905

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Elderflower Highball 1.5pt Dewar’s 15 | 1/2pt St Germain | Soda Water | Garnished with expressed lemon peel & Mint sprig | Built – served over ice in a highball/Collins glass

BAD G R A N D PA Fedrico Avila | Bar Belly, NYC

Coconut Highball 1.5pt Caribbean Smooth | 3/4pt Lemon Juice | 3/4pt Monin coconut syrup | Soda Water | Mint sprig and lemon wheel garnish | Built - served over ice in a highball/Collins glass Classic Highball – The Highball – Kristina Magro | Lone Wolf, Chicago 1.5pt Dewar’s White Label | 1/4pt Ginger Syrup | 1/4pt Amontillado sherry | Bitter lemon tonic | Expressed lemon peel garnish | Built - served over ice in a Collins/highball glass

+ 2 PT DEWAR’S 12 + ¾PT FINO SHERRY + ½PT YUZ U CHAM OM ILE S YR UP + 2 DA SHES SALINE + S ODA WAT ER + EXPRESSED LEM ON PEEL GAR N IS H

Built:

Served over ice in a highball/Collins glass Bad Grandpa – Fedrico Avila | Bar Belly, NYC 2pt Dewar’s 12 | 3/4pt Fino Sherry | 1/2pt Yuzu Chamomile Syrup | 2 Dashes Saline | Soda Water | Expressed lemon peel garnish | Built - served over ice in a Collins/highball glass

E R F L OW E R D L E IGHBAL L H + 1 ½ P T D E WA R ’ S 1 5 + ½P T ST G E R M A I N + S O DA WAT E R + G A R N I S H E D W I T H E X P R E S S ED LEMON PEEL & MINT SPRIG

Built:

Served over ice in a highball/Collins glass

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K R I S T I N A’ S HIGHBALL Kristina Magro | Lone Wolf, Chicago

+ 1 ½ PT DEWAR’S W HIT E LAB E L + ¼PT GINGER SYRU P + ¼PT AM ONT ILLAD O SHE R R Y + BIT T ER LEM ON TONIC + EXPRESSED LEM ON PEEL G AR N IS H

Built:

Served over ice in a highball/Collins glass

COCONUT HIGHBALL + 1 ½ PT DE WA R ’ S C A R I B B E A N S M O OT H + ¾P T L E M O N J U I C E + ¾P T M O N I N C O C O N U T S YR U P + S O DA WAT E R + MIN T S P R I G & LE M O N W H E E L G A RNISH

Built:

Served over ice in a highball/Collins glass

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PRECISION PERFECT

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[L to r] Pete Lockett and Simon Cooper of Precision Golf

Some things in golf are beyond debate: such as a golfer must be custom-fitted for clubs to find the best set-up for their game.

To take this fact a step further: a golfer can’t find the absolute best equipment for them unless they get fitted without brand bias.

The truth is that achieving this is easier said than done as most retailers, on a golf course or in a retail park, operate with ties to particular brands. So we sent two of our own, Matthew Squire and Robin Barwick—two golfers in need of an [equipment] upgrade— to find the ultimate custom-fit Pictures: T O M M I L E S

“We are all built differently,” starts Simon Cooper, director of Precision Golf near London. This is where tour pros and amateurs alike head for a fitting service that a pro shop or golf store simply can’t match, because of the technology, the expertise and because all the major brands are available.

“You wouldn’t go and buy a pair of shoes that was two sizes too big and walk around wearing five pairs of socks to make them fit. It would be uncomfortable and you’d get blisters. Just like you would only buy clothes that fit you.

“We are fitting clubs to the way you move, and ultimately that gives the golfer control over the golf ball and allows the golfer to get the best out of their game.”

Okay, sold. So Kingdom publisher Matthew Squire—a six handicap who has never been shy in replenishing his golf bag—and managing editor Robin Barwick—a 22 handicap who regularly forgets where his golf bag lives (“It’s because I work so hard,” he claims)—set off to Precision Golf to put the theory to the test.

All in the name of research you understand, all for the sake of keeping the Kingdom readership up to date with golf’s latest technology. It’s a burden we must carry.

Precision Golf is some place. To the golf tech geek it might be heaven. Even the coffee machine is high tech, latest spec, humming beneath a picture of Colin Montgomerie,

signed with a personal message of thanks to the Precision Golf team. When Monty’s in town he likes to hang out here and chat about lofts and lies, putter shafts and tell a few tales from the tour.

The first floor is a compact driving range with three spacious driving bays, each equipped with a Trackman radar system, a pair of large TV screens and a work bench where shaft frequencies, lofts, lies and weights can be measured.

Behind the bays and along the wall are racks of endless shafts, lined up like a mammoth barcode, and below them are display cases decorated with the latest clubheads from all the main brands and a few more besides. Upstairs is the putting studio, a pair of teaching bays and the fitness suite, while next door is the workshop—every order for new clubs taken by Precision Golf is assembled on site.

“There are very few sites that can offer our experience, our range of options and also the ability to build the clubs properly,” explains Cooper, a former tour pro on the European developmental circuits. “A good build on top of the good fitting is absolutely vital. We build every single club for our clients and then we take full ownership of the club’s performance. That way we can also know if there is a slight problem with one component or another and we can get that rectified. We are in total control of the entire process, from fitting the golfer to providing a fully built set of clubs.”

Much of the specialist equipment here is supplied by Scottsdale-based company Cool Clubs, such as the fitting software, loft-and-lie machines, frequency machines (for measuring shaft flex) and club-building machinery.

Mark Timms is founder and CEO of Cool Clubs and he tells us: “What separates businesses like Precision Golf from others is firstly, their professional experience—this is what they do all day, every day—and then our equipment has set the industry standard.”

Radar on, laces tied, glove fastened. This is how it went for Matthew and Robin at Precision Golf…

THE PROCESS Explains Simon Cooper: “We start by taking down the specs of the golfer’s current clubs including lofts, lies, lengths and swing weights, and get it all into a spreadsheet. We chat about their game, any injuries and get the background.

“The golfer then hits a series of six-irons and we can explain why shots are coming out a certain way. We use Trackman radar to produce immediate shot data on-screen in the driving bay.

“That sets a baseline for the golfer’s game. We can zone in quite quickly on what changes will benefit an individual golfer and we test different clubhead and shaft combinations until we find the optimum result. We start with the 6-iron, then go to driver, fairways, hybrids and wedges.”

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MATTHEW’S IRONS

Walked in with

Titleist 7 18 AP2 Matt loved his Titleist 718 AP2s and was not looking to change them, but although he struck the ball well, Simon saw that the shafts were slightly too heavy. By switching to Oban CT100 steel shafts—losing 5g of weight—it helped Matthew get the clubhead further in front of him in the downswing, squaring the clubface better at impact. Matthew’s spin rate was also a bit low with his old clubs, and the lower centre of gravity of the T100 S clubheads boosted the spin on his irons shots for improved accuracy and control.

On order

Titleist T100 S clubheads & Oban CT100 shafts

ROBIN’S IRONS

Walked in with

Ping i15 & steel shafts Working with PGA pro Pete Lockett and club-fitter Tom Brewster, Robin’s fitting was more of a new-build compared to Matthew’s more cultured upgrade. Robin loved his Ping i15 irons but he had been fitted for them a full decade ago— and without radar technology—and a decade in golf club technology is a different generation altogether.

The steel shafts on Robin’s Pings were too long for his swing and too heavy, and Robin was regularly striking the ground before the ball. (There are some instructional issues here and Pete worked with Robin on his take-away, he shortened Robin’s backswing and more...) To cut a reasonably long story short, taking a quarter of an inch off the shaft length, dropping 25g off the shaft weight and moving to Accra 80i shafts with a stiffer tip section, and Robin started to strike the golf ball literally better than he had ever done in his life.

There was improvement with the Ping i210 clubheads, even more with the Callaway Apex Forged, more again with the TaylorMade P790, and then they went out to leftfield and plucked the New Level forged 1031 off the shelf.

Electricity was discovered: sweetness of strike, consistency of strike. New Level is a niche, Scottsdale company producing beautifully forged irons in small batches. The 1031 clubheads added 7g of weight compared to Robin’s old Pings, and with a generous sole width, thin topline, deep cavity and low center of gravity, Robin was adding 30 yards to his six-iron shot distance. Repeat: 30 yards, sometimes more.

On order

New Level 1031 Forged with Accra 80i shafts

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MATTHEW’S DRIVER

Walked in with

Titleist TS2 10.5 degree Again, Matthew was no slouch with his Titleist driver, but like with his irons, shot analysis showed that the clubhead was getting slightly stuck behind at impact. Switching to the Graphite Design Tour AD-IZ 5 shaft, which is no more than 5g lighter, helped Matthew swing best and keep better control. Whilst Matthew had great consistency with the Titleist TS2 clubhead, he was able to squeeze out an extra 2mph of clubhead speed with the TaylorMade SIM Max to boost ball speed off the clubface, and therefore shot distance. The SIM Max has a deep weight balance which felt right and boosted Matthew’s launch angle.

On order

TaylorMade SIM Max 10.5 degree & Graphite Design Tour AD-IZ 5 shaft

ROBIN’S DRIVER

Walked in with

Ping G15 10.5 degree Robin respected his Ping G15 driver although golfer and driver didn’t always gel. A tempestuous liaison. Pete established that the 10.5-degree loft was too high and Robin was generating too much spin: 3,500 rpm. As with Robin’s irons, a shorter shaft was key to gaining a more consistent strike in the middle of the clubface. Having experimented with the latest, impressive offering from XXIO, Robin found his match with the Callaway Epic Flash, 9-degree clubhead and a Project X shaft with a playing length of 44.75 inches (compared to 45.5 inches on his old Ping), bringing spin rate down to around 2,000 rpm and increasing distance.

On order

Callaway Epic Flash 9 degree with Project X Hzdus Smoke 63g shaft

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KODAK Sun Lenses bring clear, sharp KODAK Sun Lenses bring clear, sharp contrast to the course, allowing you to contrast to the course, allowing you to better visualize your game strategy. better visualize your game strategy.

Learn more more about about KODAK KODAK Lenses Lenses Learn at www.KodakLens.com www.KodakLens.com at

The Kodak trademark, logo and trade dress are used under license from Kodak by Signet Armorlite, Inc. Š2019 Signet Armorlite, Inc. The Kodak trademark, logo and trade dress are used under license from Kodak by Signet Armorlite, Inc. Š2019 Signet Armorlite, Inc.

MATTHEW’S WOODS

Walked in with

PXG 0341 5 & 7 woods Matthew was very content with his PXGs, but by now the TaylorMade SIM Max series had made its mark. The low center of gravity with the SIM Max driver that works for Matthew extends through the fairway woods, and Matthew found they improved performance from off-center strikes and helped him edge up his shot yardages.

On order

TaylorMade SIM Max 5 & 7 woods

ROBIN’S WOODS & HYBRID

Walked in with

Ping i15 3 & 5 woods & hybrid The Ping i15 3 and 5 woods have served as cornerstones of Robin’s erratic game over the past decade, but after the euphoria of discovering New Level irons coupled with Accra graphite shafts—seriously, it was euphoric—he struggled to find consistency with his woods and 23-degree hybrid in front of the Trackman, so the baseline for comparison was a bit haphazard. In fact, Robin hit the New Level 6-iron further than his existing woods and hybrid, and only when he turned to the 19-degree Callaway Epic Flash hybrid, with a shorter and lighter shaft, did he find a club to fill the gap between the new irons and driver. Shorter, lighter shafts were key to Robin’s fitting.

On order

Callaway Epic Flash 19-degree with Accra 50i

MATTHEW’S WEDGES

Walked in with

Miura Y Grind, 51, 56 & 60 degrees Matthew was emotionally resistant to this. He’d long played sleek, beautifully-crafted Miuras, loved their feel and they had got Matthew out of some sticky binds, stuck by him in bad times, but Matthew knew he was not getting the grip he wanted from wet lies and rough. And Trackman and Simon don’t compute sentiment. Matthew’s Nippon 1050GH shafts were fine for full swings but a bit light for shorter swings with high lofts. The KBS Hi-Rev 2.0 115g boosted Matthew’s timing and was ideal for the 56 and 60 degree wedges.

Matthew tried the Titleist Vokey SM8 clubheads and found the spin he had been missing. Matthew’s Miura’s went to age elegantly in the corner while Matthew and Simon worked through Vokey’s extensive grind and loft options to ensure Matthew has versatility for various conditions.

On order

Titleist Vokey SM8 50/08F, 56/10S & 60/04L

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C H A M P I O N S E RV I C E

A DAY OF REVELATIONS You don’t have to be an experienced golfer to appreciate the benefits of custom-fitting, but for Robin to go through this scientific process with the Trackman analysis and Pete’s expertise for the first time was a revelation. He thought he was hitting his existing irons okay, but once he had the correct shafts in his hands, coupled with the latest New Level and Callaway clubheads, the instant performance improvement was staggering. And for a golfer who had become accustomed to under-performing and kind of resigned to it, the fitting process was the strongest motivational boost Robin has had for years.

Matthew came to the fitting from a different level. He is familiar with the minutiae of his golf game and equipment, he was already accustomed to the benefits of radar analysis and his equipment going into the session was reasonably up to date, with the exception of his old-school wedges. Despite this, there was improvement to be gained throughout Matthew’s bag. The only club he could not improve on was his trusty Titleist 818H1 hybrid.

“Custom-fitting allows a golfer to achieve their potential, rather than constantly battling against your clubs,” says Simon Cooper. “The game is hard enough without golfers having to battle their clubs as well as their opponents and the golf course.”

We hear you brother, loud and clear.

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Precision Golf has a single London location but at Club Champion’s 70 fitting studios across the United States, over 100,000 fitting appointments were carried out in 2019. Club Champion fittings utilise Trackman launch monitors and SAM PuttLab ultrasound systems. A broad range of shafts and clubheads are on site, allowing over 35,000 different shaft/clubhead combinations.

Dual Radar Technology used in every fitting means motion of the clubhead and ball can be tracked in precise detail. The clubhead path, face angle and strike point can be measured from every swing, while ball flight is followed from launch to landing to measure launch angle, shot distance, spin rate and curvature.

The SAM PuttLab computes 28 putting parameters.

Club Champion builds every club it fits to ensure golfers take home clubs built precisely to fitted specifications, using digital loft, lie and swing weight machines, while all shafts are PUREd. More Club Champion studios are lined up for 2020. clubchampiongolf.com

In the Summer issue of Kingdom, Matthew returns to Precision Golf to roll some putts in the bespoke studio. (Arnold Palmer was one of few people, worldwide, to own more putters than Matthew, so he’s bound to come out with something new, we just know it.) And where should Matthew and Robin put their new clubs to the test? The answer will also appear in the Summer issue.

If it’s not Tour-quality, it’s not worth it.

T O U R

F I T

T O U R

B U I L D

B E T T E R

R E S U LT S

Custom fitting for every golfer All fitters are not equal. If you are going to invest in your game, get fitted by the best.

Club Champion is America’s leading club fitter and builder providing the most effective, detail-oriented, personalized service with single-minded focus. Every customer who walks through our doors experiences a Tour-level fitting using our 35,000+ head and shaft combinations.

Unlike most other fitters, we build your clubs in-house so every detail matches that of your fitting. The result — only Club Champion gives you an additional 22 yards off the tee and takes three strokes off your score on average.

Schedule your fitting by calling (888) 340-7820 or visiting clubchampiongolf.com.

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CLUB

PA C I F I C GOLF Dramatic backdrop, inspiring environment or fearsome water hazard, however one views the Pacific Ocean, it’s impossible to argue that it doesn’t make for some of the world’s most beautiful courses

LANA‘I Hawaii

O

ne of Hawaii’s most charming islands, Lana’i is the landscape that enters the mind when tropical vacations are mentioned.

At the crescent-shaped Manele Bay, which holds a wonderful Four Seasons resort, one can swim with bottlenose dolphins, relax on warm sands or golf an exquisite Nicklaus design that features three holes on cliff outcroppings and more photo opportunities than a family day at Disney. It’s a quick connecting hop from Maui by plane or a memorable hour on water; and however the putts drop, the Mai Tais at the 19th make this a perfect warm-weather escape.

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TWIN DOLPHIN Mexico

T

here are a lot of reasons to go to Los Cabos in Mexico; some of them fuel late night conversations with good friends, some of them give you something to talk about in those conversations. Twin Dolphin Club is the latter, a fantastic Fred Couples design that seems more discovered than built, emerging from the storied landscape along the Baja coast. Look for dramatic arroyos, stunning views of the Sea of Cortez and plenty of opportunities to create the kinds of memories that are best shared with friends after the round and for years to come.

Photo: Evan Schiller | golfshots.com

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CAPE KIDNAPPERS New Zealand

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I

f you are anywhere in New Zealand, then you are no fewer than 80 miles from the sea. The country’s elongated main islands feature 9,400 miles of coastline, which are gilded by some of the world’s most picture-worthy courses. Case in point: Cape Kidnappers. Poised on the east coast of the Bay of Plenty, halfway down the North Island, the course offers luxe lodges and a spa, complementing its sister property further north, Kauri Cliffs. If time is short, a helicopter can be booked for transfer. Beyond these, “the land of the long white cloud” has more than 400 courses—more per capita than anywhere else in the world—making it a dream destination for anyone who has clubs, will travel.

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CLUB Multi Club

M E M B E R S Photography by EVA N S C H I LLE R / GOLFS H OT S.C O M

Golfers still want to join the club, yet they are becoming more discerning and expect a greater return on investment ArborLinks [main picture], and [l to r] Ballyhack, Victoria National and the Dormie Club

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O N

A

rnold Palmer looked back to the future when he laid out ArborLinks in Nebraska City two decades ago, before it opened in 2002. The rolling prairie lay as nature had intended and the beauty of establishing a golf course there was that hardly any earth needed shifting.

This course on the Great Plains was a throwback to 19th century Scotland, when Old Tom Morris would survey a tract of linksland, locate the greens, work backwards to the tees, clear some foliage in-between (but usually not very much) and, more or less, that was it. The creation of ArborLinks was Old World golf during an era when so many developers were busily carving out golfing drama at the expense of the indigenous character of a property, punching in over-sized, high-maintenance bunkering and forcing rude relocations on wildlife with no means of protest or resistance.

T H E

Palmer eschewed such convention, and this more natural design approach is now in vogue as development has become more environmentally responsible. It meant that ArborLinks looked old when it was new, and was the golf challenge compromised by leaving out the bulldozers?

Not for a single shot.

The Arnold Palmer Signature design was just the beginning of the innovation at ArborLinks, as it became the inaugural club in the now acclaimed Dormie Network, which charges members dues for a single country club membership, yet offers full membership to an impressive half-dozen clubs. All six clubs offer not only first-class golf like ArborLinks, but beautifully finished accommodation, hospitality and concierge service to create a network of exceptional all-encompassing destinations.

The six clubs are wholly owned by the Dormie Network—a company which is also debt-free.

M O V E

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When the world needs to know about a course;

let it speak for itself.

3rd hole Ozarks National Golf Club Ridgedale, Missouri Š2019 Evan Schiller Photography

(914) 589-6045 golfshots@earthlink.net www.golfshots.com

SIX FOR THE PRICE OF ONE The Dormie Network comprises six golf properties: ArborLinks Nebraska City, NE Joined Winter 2015

Dormie Club Pinehurst, N.C. Joined Fall 2017

Ballyhack GC Roanoke, VA Joined Summer 2016

Victoria National Newburgh, IN Joined Summer 2018

Briggs Ranch GC San Antonio, TX Joined Summer 2017

Hidden Creek GC Egg Harbor Township, NJ Joined Winter 2019

“We don’t want members waiting to play or to feel pressured by the group behind”

“Our model is that members do not join an individual club but they join the network. You are full members at each club,” explains David Plaster, Chief Marketing Officer at Dormie Network. “We want to maintain a level of expectation across our membership, and we want our national members to turn up to a property and receive the same quality of experience as the members who live around the corner and play there more regularly.

“We limit play at every club to 72 golfers a day. We have 15-minute tee time intervals because when our members are out on the golf course we want them to feel like it is all theirs. We don’t want our members to be waiting to take their shots or to feel pressured by the group behind them. It is a very relaxed atmosphere on all of our properties. When our members stay on property we want them to enjoy the best experience they possibly can.”

And the numbers might surprise you: the one-off initiation fee to join the Dormie Network is $10,000, with annual dues of $6,000 or $500 a month. After that, members do not pay for green fees or cart hire and there is no minimum spend on food and beverage to worry about. In fact, the Dormie Network model is built around minimizing members’ worries altogether as the concierge service ensures hassle-free visits for all members and guests, whether visiting with family, friends or clients.

With a healthy geographic spread of clubs across the United States, each of the properties in the Dormie Network is being developed with a view to offering first-class stayand-play options through four-bedroom cottages.

“We are looking to add cottages to all of our facilities,” adds Plaster. “The goal is to have 60 beds on every property and the theme for us this year is really building and renovating accommodations.”

Cottages at ArborLinks [above] and private dining in the club’s wine cellar [right]

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A CLUB WITHOUT WALLS

Taking multi-club membership to a different scale is Palmer Advantage, which does not own golf properties outright like the Dormie Network, but offers its members special access and preferred rates at around 1,000 great golf properties worldwide.

“Within North America we have over 300 championship private country clubs and public golf clubs, with another 650 golf courses across 40 countries worldwide,” states George Gdovin, Senior Director at Palmer Advantage. “We are close to having 1,000 properties around the world.”

The Palmer Advantage program is only available to members of affiliate private clubs, of which there are around 80 in the United States, with a total Palmer Advantage membership of approximately 15,000 golfers.

To members of the affiliate clubs, Palmer Advantage membership only adds $15 a month to a golfer’s dues,

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yet the return is tee time access to hundreds of private clubs in the U.S. and incredible golf experiences around the world.

“Palmer Advantage delivers additional value to private club members that individually opt in to participate, and offers a strong membership retention tool for our individual clubs,” adds Gdovin. “As golfers start to use their new benefits it usually only takes one experience for them to receive a very strong return on what is only a marginal investment, so it is a powerful incentive.

“Our research has shown over the last year that our members really value, first and foremost, the reciprocal private club access. The second most valued benefit is our concierge travel service and the third category is lifestyle benefits which includes sports and entertainment experiences such as if our members want to go to the Ryder Cup, the British Open or the Super Bowl, those types of

Photo provided by Palmer Advantage

An estimated 2.6 million people played golf for the first time in the US in 2018, matching the record mark set in 2017

Photo by Steve Carr / © Le Golf National

PGA West, Stadium Course [left]; Anthem Country Club [above], and Ryder Cup venue Le Golf National [below]

bucket-list sports experiences. Those are the membership benefits that resonate most with our membership.

“If a member wants to play Le Golf National in Paris, where the last Ryder Cup was played, our concierge can book the tee time, flights, accommodation and transfers. It’s a one-stop shop and members can also book online.”

Palmer Advantage can grant members special access to famous golf clubs and resorts such as Arnold Palmer’s own Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, PGA West in La Quinta, Anthem Country Club near Las Vegas, The Club at Wynstone near Chicago, Palm Valley Country Club in Palm Desert and many others, so it is easy to appreciate how such a modest subscription fee for golfers converts into a fantastic return.

This new decade, the Twenties, could become a strong era for multi-club golf memberships. Other multi-club programmes include ClubCorp and Golfpass, while National Golf Foundation research shows that US golf numbers have stabilized (24 million on-course golfers in the US in 2018). An estimated 2.6 million people played golf for the first time in the US in 2018, matching the record mark set in 2017, so golf’s numbers are looking strong, with new golfers considering membership options that are much more diverse today than they were a generation ago, while the game’s demographic is shifting towards the mainstream.

“Participation in Palmer Advantage is by invitation only.

Once approved, there is no cost for a private club to participate in Palmer Advantage,” adds Gdovin. “Our most active members are golfers that like to travel and who enjoy golf and travel lifestyle benefits for themselves and family members.”

Says Dormie Network’s Plaster: “We can see the Dormie Network growing to between 10 and 15 properties.

If we continue to have success then perhaps we could continue beyond that but the sweetspot for our business model is probably between 10 and 15.”

Palmer Advantage continues to grow too.

“We have grown every year since we started, 10 years ago, in terms of both membership and the number of reciprocal clubs,” states Gdovin. “An individually operated private club cannot offer its membership these kinds of benefits, all of which provide a participating private club a competitive advantage and world-class benefits when club members are away from their home club.

“We believe this concept of a network, like a virtual membership—a club without walls—is a trend for the future and it matches a more mobile lifestyle.”

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CLUB Corporate Courses

THE COMPANY CARD It sounds too good to be true, but a century ago or more it was not uncommon for a company to build a golf course for its employees. Could it happen again? Tony Dear investigates

“W

hat’s good for the company’s employees is good for the company,” said Harvey Firestone, founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in 1900.

At the turn of the 20th century, American companies were beginning to discover the benefits of offering their employees recreational facilities: bowling alleys, baseball diamonds, tennis courts, picnic areas, boating lakes and, for those with the resources, golf courses.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average working week in America during the 1870s was 53 hours—a figure that workers’ rights activists and market forces would whittle down to 40 over the course of the next century. Increasingly, people sought ways to fill those extra non-working hours while corporate bosses were discovering that engaged, healthy workers were considerably more valuable than those prone to apathy, sickness and infirmity.

The first corporately-owned and operated golf course in America is thought to be Oneida GC, now the Oneida Community Golf Club, which opened in 1898 and was built solely for employees and guests of the Stainless Steel and silver-plated tableware and cutlery manufacturer in Sherrill, New York.

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Through the ages at Oneida GC, in 1928 [left] and post-war boomin’ [below]

A handful of other courses followed but only a few major corporations actually committed to the costly development of an 18-hole facility. Donald Ross designed a course in Beverly, Massachusetts for the United Shoe Company, and the native Scotsman built 18 holes for chemical giant DuPont in 1924 (two more DuPont courses followed in 1937 and ’49). Five years later, Harvey Firestone opened the first course at his eponymously-named country club where Bert Way designed the original South Course (redesigned by Robert Trent Jones 31 years later). There, Firestone built a $350,000 clubhouse and charged employees a nominal amount for playing privileges, while he also built a public course in Akron to provide employment and an opportunity for Depression-hit people to take their mind off their worsening prospects.

Thomas Watson instituted IBM’s policy of “Paternalism”—treating your employees right—during the Depression and built his first course for workers in 1937 in Endicott, New York, where George F. Johnson of powerhouse shoe manufacturer Endicott-Johnson had already built a course for his employees, En-Joie GC, where the benevolent Johnson charged just 25 cents a round. IBM opened two more courses: at Poughkeepsie, N.Y. in 1944 and at Sands Point, N.Y. in 1953, and had plans for courses in the West, though they were never built.

General Electric employees built nine holes in Erie, Pennsylvania in 1921, and the company added nine more in 1942 (now Lawrence Park GC). GE also had Devereaux Emmet build 18 holes at the Edison Club in Rexford, N.Y. in 1926. Milton Hershey commissioned Maurice McCarthy to design the West Course at Hershey CC for his chocolate factory workers, in 1930.

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“It might as well have been a walking stick and nosegay of gardenias in that rugged atmosphere” During that decade, however, most working people in America that played golf did so on public courses as part of work leagues such as those organized by the Factory Golf Federation of Flint, Michigan, where the number of automobile workers that took up the game, during the 1920s in particular, rose astonishingly quickly.

In a 1933 editorial, American Golfer wrote about Flint’s industrial golf scene and how it had begun, literally with one man. The article says that as he punched in one spring morning in 1925, Fred Evans’s co-workers laughed raucously as their colleague carried his dinner pail in one hand and a bag of golf clubs in the other. “It might as well have been a walking stick and nose-gay of gardenias in that rugged atmosphere,” the author wrote.

But Evans, who operated a huge hammer that shaped forged steel parts and who appears in a photograph with a blackened face wearing thick, elbow-length gloves and filthy overalls, had the “resolution of his trip-hammer, and pursued his game in the face of jeers”. He eventually

was prohibitive, meaning the IMA wouldn’t have its own course until it purchased Brookwood GC, six miles east of Downtown, in 1963.

By then, the Depression and second terrible edition of world war were just bad memories, and corporate golf in the USA was in full swing. In addition to the handful of 18-hole industrial courses built during the first half of the 20th Century, dozens more came on board during the second. “By the mid-1950s, at least 76 companies had constructed golf facilities,” Professor George Kirsch wrote in his 2009 book Golf in America. By the mid-‘70s, that number was 125.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT

Hershey Country Club, Pa. [above]; Sands Point Country Club, N.Y.

persuaded three co-workers to join him, and by the end of the season, that first threesome had grown to 40 skepticsturned-golfers. By 1927, there were so many golfers the Factory Golf Foundation was formed to organize them all, and by the time the American Golfer article was published the number had risen to an astonishing 3,000.

The city’s Industrial Mutual Association (formed in 1922 when the Flint Vehicle Factories Mutual Benefit Association merged with the Industrial Fellowship League) had plans to build an 18-hole course to cater to Flint’s ever-growing number of factory golfers but the expense

Firestone, Watson, Johnson, Hershey and all the other employee-friendly industrialists that built quality golf courses for the sole use of their executives and factory hands were keenly aware of how the courses benefited their companies.

Maintaining a golf course (or two) was certainly a costly business—a 1974 Golf Digest article titled “Should Your Company Have a Golf Course?” reported that DuPont’s annual bill for its extensive golf course operations was $2.5m—but having an invigorated, motivated workforce was truly invaluable.

“The value of our golf/recreational programs shows up in our financial statements,” Donald Garretson, VP of 3M—which built an employee course at Tartan Park in St. Paul, Minnesota—said in the Golf Digest article. “It shows up directly in the quality of employees we attract, train, and retain. It shows up in the productivity of our workers and in the attitude of our work force.”

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FORD OF THE AMAZON

IBM’s country club at Sands Point. N.Y.

It worked beautifully for decades. The company got happy, productive workers and those workers paid a fraction of their salary/wages to become members at some very fine establishments.

Tom Buggy, whose father worked for IBM and played the company course at Poughkeepsie, remembers the annual fee for family membership in the early 1960s was $10. “For the most part, the facilities were available for member-use without charge,” he adds. “There was no initiation fee or monthly dues, just a few modest activity-related fees like golf green fees.” The weekend green fee at Poughkeepsie in 1962 was a modest $3.

IBM, in return, asked only that the worker-member measure up to the company’s ideals for the model employee.

“We have very high ideals, but they are very simple,” said Thomas Watson (IBM President from 1956 to ’71) in addressing workers gathered for the dedication of the Poughkeepsie course on July 15, 1944. “They are based on character, good manners, decent living and the desire and willingness to cooperate with one another.”

Not surprisingly, the atmosphere at corporate courses was very different to that of prestigious country clubs where the dues were high and the entrance criteria demanding.

“Poughkeepsie felt more like an IBM social club,” says Buggy.

It was a similar story at Firestone CC in Akron, Ohio, where Dick Robbins remembers there being great interaction between people who worked in entirely different departments. “There was a sense of ‘family’,” he says. “You had tire builders playing right alongside executives.”

Robbins, who has been at Firestone for 45 years, now works as the club’s Member Services Manager, and says his father, a Firestone employee who worked in the Real Estate Department, usually played three times a week. “When he joined in 1965 the initiation fee was $100,” he says. “And the cost of family membership was $480 a year.”

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Henry Ford was bold, for sure. The success of the Ford Motor Company was built on Ford’s vision to build his Model T cars via an assembly line at the turn of the last century. Ford did it first and produced cars much faster than any other manufacturer and the Model T became a global icon.

But by the 1920s Ford had become frustrated by the cost of Sri Lankan rubber, which was pushing up the costs of his latest Model A cars. He was also frustrated by a failure to establish a manufacturing city in Alabama, and so he turned to northern Brazil and the Amazon rainforest, where the rubber plant was indigenous, and where he bought a 5,000-square mile plot.

As well as generating his own rubber, Ford harbored ambitions for “Fordlandia” to become a kind of capitalist utopia, where everyone had a job, all kids went to school, where the hospital always had free beds, the market had enough food and where residents enjoyed dancing on Saturday nights and where sporting pursuits featured the Winding Brook Golf Club.

Fordlandia opened its gates to residents in 1929 but development was far from Ford’s idealism. One row between two workers led to a riot in the town, and by the time Fordlandia was handed over to the US military in the Second World War, Sri Lankan rubber prices had dropped and Ford’s health was suffering.

After the war, Ford’s grandson Henry Ford II sold the land back to Brazil and the golf course was reclaimed by the Amazon.

Photo: Aerial Agents | aerialagents.com

Firestone members, like the IBM members at Poughkeepsie, were immensely proud of their club and knew how good they had it. “I definitely think the opportunity to belong to Firestone CC was much appreciated by all employees,” says Robbins. “I know my father always loved it there.”

Sadly, the model was just too good to last forever.

The economics of operating costly golf facilities stopped making sense, and virtually every corporation that owned an employee-only course eventually bailed, selling to other corporations, or opening the club up to outside members.

IBM, experiencing severe financial woes in the 1990s, sold the Poughkeepsie course to Ginsburg Development Company, which now operates it as a private club called Casperkill GC, while Firestone sold out in 1981 to Club Corporation of America (now ClubCorp), which immediately instigated a corporate membership policy and informed Firestone employees their memberships had been terminated, sending a shockwave through the club, company, and even the City of Akron. “There was a real sense of sadness that lingered for years,” says Robbins.

For 50 years or more, a portion of the American workforce labored happily building fax/copy machines; brewing industrial chemicals; selling insurance (Kemper, Sentry); or making shoes, chocolate, light bulbs, cutlery, and tires, knowing that as soon as the workday was over they could hustle to the golf course. At weekends they could take the whole family.

Times changed and, with boards of directors ever mindful of shareholders’ opinions, corporate courses fell out of fashion—but history repeats, and with Millennial

Firestone Country Club today [top], and Arnold Palmer visiting in 1970

tastes now driving one of the largest “wellness” industries in history, it’s possible that corporate golf facilities could make a comeback. Consider that when Google acquired a lease on Moffett Field in Mountain View, California, not only did they keep the 18-hole golf course there, but they improved it. The course, which opened in 1959, is open to the public but with its location in the Google universe we’d like to believe that it’s as much an indication of things to come as the company that it serves. After all, if any company in the world can figure out how to merge a time card and a scorecard, it’s Google.

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WGJ Kelly Grier

Looking Ahead One of EY’s top executives, Kelly Grier plans for success

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A

s many corporate communities shift with cultural tides, it is heartening to see examples of those that hold their course.

One such example is found in EY and in Kelly Grier, who leads key divisions in the Americas—its largest area—at the global powerhouse professional services firm, safeguarding and expanding EY’s team-minded culture of acceptance while also helping it to realize great success in business. Here, in a chat with our Women’s Golf Journal team, Grier looks to the future of the employee/employer relationship in terms of impact, and considers how her schedule affects her golf game…

Kelly Grier’s full title is EY U.S. Chair and Managing Partner and Americas Managing Partner, which is as important as its length would suggest. Grier commands a team of more than 75,000 people across 31 different countries, a group responsible for an annual revenue of $16.7 billion. Over 28 years at EY she has embraced the firm’s “high-performance teaming” culture to great effect during postings around the world while balancing her role in her family, which includes golfing with her husband and son. While her game might shift with her professional schedule, the success she and her teams have realized in the workplace has been consistent, she says, and a large part of that has to do with listening. Not only does EY invite diverse perspectives from its workforce, it sees them as critical to success, which is why the firm has taken a future-minded view to ensuring long-term diversity in its offices. For anyone—and specifically for women— this is a great place to work.

“It’s intentional,” Grier says, “really being faithful to our cultural mandate around inclusion and, specifically, belonging. We do look out many, many years; it even starts in some cases before women graduate from high school and matriculate into college. We focus on ensuring that the careers in professional services that EY has to offer are understood as women are going into college and joining business schools and understanding what the options are in front of them. We spend a lot of time on campus telling that story.”

That story includes EY’s belief that cultural diversity is more than just a catchphrase, it’s a strategy that believes the best solution to a problem is the one that takes a 360˚ view of the issues at stake. A greater number of informed perspectives, then, offers the best chance at a best solution—perhaps especially for the challenges met daily by a firm that operates across more than 150 countries.

Key to EY’s success is pairing its staff members with mentors who can realize an individual’s greatest potential, something key for women in the workplace, Grier says.

“We’re very focused the moment that everyone walks in the door,” she explains, “but certainly with an eye to ensuring that the women who join us are given opportunities to be successful. This means ensuring equity in the clients they serve, exposure to those who can help sponsor and facilitate their success, as well as fair access to the most meaningful opportunities.”

At least one of those opportunities is EY’s Women Athletes Business Network, a forward-thinking effort that sees EY helping women athletes to transition into the world of business.

“A lot of value from the experience and DNA of an athlete has applications in our world as well,” Grier says.

“They’re incredibly disciplined and laser focused on the objectives at hand and they put in the hard work to achieve those objectives. They also recognize the inextricable link between personal excellence and team achievement—a big part of helping a team succeed is by contributing your very best to the team’s efforts. We conducted our own research and there are outsized success rates for women who have played sports, who have been athletes, either coming up in high school and college or elite athletes such as Olympians. We will continue to be part of the ecosystem that helps to matriculate those athletes into business beyond sports. We have found it to be very successful and impactful in our business and in service to our clients.”

Other EY efforts include the firm’s Entrepreneurial Winning Women program, which champions women who have built profitable small companies; its Women. Fast Forward initiative, a global push for gender equality; and other programs, which Grier says EY continues to strengthen. As the world outside of business has shifted and changed over the years, EY’s commitment to such programs and to its values has remained steadfast, she says, and this consistently has had a unifying effect among staff, leading to greater retention and performance.

“We’re in a market that has the lowest unemployment in 50 years,” she says, “and so we have to have a compelling proposition to attract and to retain talent.

Increasingly an important part of that is alignment of values and concept of purpose. The fact of the matter is that the values we extol, and our purpose for building a better working world, really transcend all the political undercurrents that are existing outside of EY. Our fundamental commitment

The DNA of an athlete has applications in the world of business, too— the discipline, team mentality and more

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to values of respect, trust, teaming, integrity and honesty really transcend political lines as well. This devotion to inclusion and belonging means that everybody bears their own stripes, political or cultural or religious, but as long as you commit to living these values that are agnostic to those political ties and those individual differences, then you’re welcome at our firm, you belong here. It’s actually a very unifying transcendent set of values and it allows us to overcome the complex social and political environment that exists outside of the firm. That doesn’t mean we don’t run into complexities and that ideological differences don’t exist in our population. It’s an increasingly complex world, but what connects us is this purpose and commitment to those values and to belonging. I hear that and feel that, that I know when I walk in the door I belong here.”

Underlining EY’s commitment to values and to belonging at the board level, the firm issued a board diversity statement roughly 18 months ago that included a 5-year plan, and it’s having an effect. Grier explains that the ambitious timeline manifests as accountability, making the statement an active strategy as opposed to just a statement.

“Within the Americas we’ve established a board commitment to accelerating execution in a lot of our programs,” she says, “and to our focus on elevating women to the partnership level, ensuring we’re ethnically diverse, as well as elevating people of all differences… We’re already seeing fruits of those labors: a higher rate of diversity in our promotion class this year, and it looks equally rich for next year.

“The team that I have at the U.S. level and the Americas level is actually comprised of nearly 40 percent of women at the U.S. level and 37 percent at the Americas level… I have a higher proportion of women who sit around my table at the U.S. executive level and Americas table for two reasons: One, they’re incredibly talented; but for another reason as well: to demonstrate to all of the other women who look around and want to know that there is a path for them, that there is an ability to ascend to the highest ranks in the firm. Being able to demonstrate the opportunities of our women in the firm is a really important thing for any leader to undertake. If you sort things from the bottom up and the top down, then that middle threshold becomes much easier to facilitate. Starting at the top, you build conditions of opportunity for those who are joining, then when it comes time to make leadership appointments or client assignments at that kind of mid-manager level, it’s a much more natural process to undertake because you’ve got the tone and the foundation. Almost all of what I described has been part of how we have run the firm for a number of years—That’s the way we build for the future.”

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EY IN NUMBERS % of women promoted to Partner, Principal, Executive Director and Director (PPEDD)

In the US, women PP promotes were 33%

In the Americas, women PP promotes were 31% In the US, women PPEDD promotes were 37%

In the Americas, women PPEDD promotes were 35%

% women in leadership in the US

25% 28% 39% OF OUR PPs

OF OUR PPEDDs

OF OUR US EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP TEAM

31%

OF OUR US EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

The presence of women in top executive positions increased from 0% to more than 30% since starting our gender equity journey.

17% of major accounts are led by women in the Americas and 19% in the US (as of 9/30/2019) .

Women made up 43% of the firm’s US experienced hires and 49% of campus hires in FY19.

15 years ago, turnover for women was 15% higher than men. At the close of our last fiscal year, June 30, 2019, the difference was 1.7%.

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HOME OF THE PURE SILK CHAMPIONSHIP | MAY 18-24, 2020

WGJ Maria Fassi

A New Force As Maria Fassi makes strides in her first full season on the LPGA Tour, the Mexican golfer could not hope for a better mentor, her compatriot Lorena Ochoa

M

aria Fassi first met Lorena Ochoa when Fassi was nine years old, when Ochoa visited Club de Golf in Pachuca, about an hour’s drive north from Mexico City. It was 2007 and Ochoa, 25 at the time, was in her playing prime and taking the world of golf by storm. The Mexican had succeeded legendary Swede Annika Sorenstam at the top of the Rolex Rankings early during a season in which she would ultimately win eight times on the LPGA Tour, including her first major triumph in the Women’s Open on the Old Course at St Andrews. She would end 2007 with her second Rolex Player of the Year award, all while being probably the most courteous golfer on tour.

Growing up, not many Mexican girls thought about becoming a golfer, until the irrepressible rise of Ochoa.

“I started playing golf when I was seven and that was when Lorena was reaching her best,” remembers Fassi, the Mexican golfer who turns 22 on March 25, and who joined the LPGA Tour last summer. “Lorena was winning a lot of tournaments so very early on for me as a golfer, Lorena was someone I admired and looked up to.

“Lorena came to do a clinic at my home course. She was at the club for two or three hours with a bunch of the members and then she spent a lot of time with the younger kids. I was one of them. It was very special. I remember that

OLD GAME, NEW ERA Maria Fassi [left] starred in the inaugural Augusta Women’s Amateur Championship in 2019, finishing runner-up. It was the first women’s tournament ever played at Augusta National and is one among a long list of famous women’s tournaments supported by Rolex. Others include the Solheim Cup and all five women’s majors; the ANA Inspiration in April, the U.S. Women’s Open and KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in June, The Evian Championhship in July and lastly the AIG Women’s British Open in August.

Lorena was supposed to leave at a certain time but she said, ‘No, no, I want to stay and talk to these guys,’ so she actually went off her schedule just for us. That says so much about her as a person. She answered all our questions and she was just there for us.

“I was not a very good golfer at the time but I was already very passionate about the game and I knew I wanted to become a professional golfer and follow in her footsteps.”

Ochoa, a big soccer fan, got to know Fassi’s father Andres, who is a vice president for the local team, CF Pachuca, and so Fassi got the chance to play golf with Ochoa and become friends.

“I was very fortunate to be able to get to know Lorena very well at a young age,” says Fassi. “As I improved as a golfer as I grew up, Lorena gave me a lot of encouragement over the years.

“So I have got to know Lorena as not just an unbelievable golfer but also as a person. She is a great golfer but an even better person and that is one of the things I admire and respect the most about her.

“With the fame and everything Lorena had going for her as a golfer, she never changed as a person. She is always very humble, she has always kept her family very close to her and she always has time for pictures with her fans and time to talk to kids. That is very special and we are lucky to have Lorena as a role model and as a fellow Mexican.”

And it didn’t take very long for Fassi to start out-driving Ochoa in their friendly games. Ochoa has a relaxed, easy tempo on the tee, one of those swings of deceptive power.

Ochoa would reach an average driving distance of 270 yards when she was number one in the Rolex Rankings, whereas Fassi has a swing full of drama. She unleashes the club into the ball with ferocious speed, fuelled by an extremely strong core and quicksilver hip turn. At the time of writing she leads the 2020 LPGA Tour with an average driving distance of 292.7 yards.

“When I was about 14 or 15, I remember playing with Lorena, and by then she had retired or was very close to retiring, and so she was not playing as much,” recalls Fassi, who is a Rolex Testimonee, like Ochoa. “But I remember hitting the ball about 10 or 15 yards passed hers on the first hole and she joked, ‘Okay, this is the last time we play together! I can’t handle this! I don’t like this any more!’ That was pretty cool and funny and a special moment for me.

“Lorena told me that she had not seen a golf swing like mine before. For my speed and power, I swing the club with everything I’ve got, I don’t hold back.”

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BIG NEWS FROM LITTLE ROCK Maria Fassi is maintaining close ties with her American “home” of Arkansas, boosted by becoming a brand ambassador for renowned financial services company Stephens Inc., based in Little Rock, Ark. “Stephens has been very supportive of many professional golfers that hail from the University of Arkansas and I’m honored, and also very excited, to have partnered with them as one of their global brand ambassadors,” says Fassi. “Stephens is everything I look for in a new sponsor as we share many goals and values. Golf is a game of integrity and trust, key components to Stephens’ business philosophy.

I’m thrilled to be part of the team and look forward to a long and successful partnership.”

Stephens.com

RISE OF THE RAZORBACK

Fassi was Mexican Amateur champion in 2015 and 2016 and took up a scholarship at the University of Arkansas. She thought she would stay for a year or two before turning pro, but loved it so much she stayed for four years and graduated in 2019. And Fassi didn’t leave without the NCAA Division 1 Individual title in her bag, having won at the Razorbacks’ home course, Blessings GC in Fayetteville.

“Winning the National Championship at home and finishing my college career like that was very special,” says Fassi. “I really enjoyed every second I had playing for Arkansas and I could not have hoped for a better ending.”

Fassi will never forget 2019. As well as winning the NCAA title, she played in the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship and finished runner-up to her friend and rival Jennifer Kupcho. Then she made her professional debut at the U.S. Women’s Open at the Country Club of Charleston and finished tied for 12th. Fassi also played in the first Spirit Charity Challenge at Whispering Pines in Texas in October, in a team of pro women captained by fellow Razorback Stacy Lewis. “It is always great to play for something other than yourself,” says Fassi.

This year sees Fassi embark on her first full season on

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Fassi [top left] at the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio in January; Hall of Famer Lorena Ochoa [left, Picture by Chris Turvey, courtesy of Rolex]

the LPGA Tour. There is no question that she has the talent to succeed at this highest level, and she has some sage words from Ochoa to help her along.

“Over the years Lorena has given me so much great advice,” says Fassi, “but something I really like, especially now that I am on tour, is that she says: ‘Don’t be looking around, just do what you do. Forget about the others and forget about what they might think about your game. Just be you, because that is what has gotten you to where you are now. Don’t forget that, have fun and trust your game’.

“I think that is very valuable advice, especially for me as a rookie. It is tempting to look around and see what the other players are doing but I just need to do what works for me and be okay with that.”

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B AY C R E E K Coastal living at its absolute best in one of the most beautiful spots ever on Virgnia’s Cape

W

hen Arnold Palmer finished building the golf course at Bay Creek in Cape Charles, Virginia, he looked around and said, “I don’t know if you could pick a better spot, better terrain, for a golf course than this. It’s remarkable to be out here… I could play this golf course every day and love it…it’s just perfect.”

The Arnold Palmer Design Company (APDC) course is 18 holes of the golf here. Another 9 were designed by Jack Nicklaus, and his are easy on the eye and satisfying to play as well. But as beautiful as Bay Creek is, it got a whole lot better recently. That’s because its new owners, Preserve Properties,

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took a long hard look at the natural landscape around them and decided that it, more than anything, was rather the point.

“Virginia’s Cape is one of the most beautiful and dynamic beachfront regions in the country,” said Dan Collins, Founding Partner and Chief Marketing Officer of IMI Worldwide Properties, which is supporting Preserve Properties in shaping Bay Creek as the premiere living and vacation community on Virginia’s Cape.

The transformation (well underway) is in line with Preserve Properties’ standard of creating purposeful developments focused on enhancing quality of life. At Bay Creek that means ensuring the natural landscape is preserved

and integrated into the everyday living possibilities for residents and visitors. Year-round outdoor activities, such as kayaking, paddleboarding, nature and hiking trails and more will join state-of-the-art amenities in this multi-generational community that is, as Collins puts it, “anything but cookiecutter.” With award-winning golf from two legends of the game, one of the most beautiful settings possible on Virginia’s Cape, and a responsible, engaged team shaping the community, this is one of the most exciting projects we’ve seen in ages. Absolutely a “must see” in our book for anyone considering a new address—forever, seasonally, or just for a getaway. Find out more at baycreek.net

Beautiful setting, beautiful living in this engaged, multigenerational community

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LEGACY Seniors

The PGA Tour Champions celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2020 and Doc Giffin—who was personal assistant to Arnold Palmer for more than 50 years— recalls the events surrounding the tour’s origins in 1980

Shaping the Seniors Palmer after winning the 1980 US PGA Senior Championship at the Turnberry Isle Resort

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W

hen Arnold Palmer won the PGA Seniors Championship 40 years ago, he lit the wick on a figurative firecracker that exploded into what quickly became one of the best new ventures in all of sports—its first senior golf tour. Just five years later, what was then known as the Senior PGA Tour was sporting a year-long, 28-tournament schedule and showcasing the aging star players of that era in many destinations never visited in their years on the regular PGA Tour. Before long, similar tours sprang up in Europe, Japan and Australia, solidifying senior golf throughout the world.

The prequel to the Senior PGA Tour and Palmer’s victory as a 51-year-old was an astonishing playoff the previous year in a made-for-television team event created

by Fred Raphael and appropriately called The Legends of Golf.

After 56-year-old Roberto De Vicenzo birdied the 17th hole and his 59-year-old partner Julius Boros the 18th, to forge a final-round tie with 55-year-old Art Wall and 61-year-old Tommy Bolt, those four seniors set out on a playoff that dazzled all who watched it, live and on TV. A barrage of 11 birdies with nary a tap-in followed before De Vicenzo holed his fifth in a row on the sixth extra hole to end the extravaganza.

“America has discovered the senior golfers,” crowed the announcer.

Until then, the competitive life of tournament golfers usually ended, akin to most other professional sports, when they were passing through their 40s. Few had realized that the talents of top golfers barely erode when they reach middle age. Those pros knew it though and prompted by the popularity of The Legends, a group of them—Sam Snead, Julius Boros, Bob Goalby, Don January, Gardner Dickinson and Dan Sikes, all prominent players—huddled with Tour Commissioner Deane Beman in early 1980, settled a few differences and created a Senior Tour that launched a brief season with a June tournament in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

At that point, Palmer was sitting on the periphery, busy with his business life and still playing a fairly-full schedule on the regular tour. “I felt I still had some unfinished business left (there), mainly the PGA Championship [his missing link to a majors Grand Slam],” he explained in his autobiography, A Golfer’s Life. “(But) it was generally agreed that the fledgling tour needed another marquee name or two to help sell the idea of an over-50 tournament circuit to the public and, most critical, to attract potential sponsors. Since my friends organizing the new tour asked me to lend the clout of my name and presence, and considering all the things the PGA

and PGA Tour had done for me over the years, I felt morally obliged to help out.”

He did so in more ways than one. Firstly Palmer and management company IMG—to whom Palmer was a client created the World Seniors Invitational in that founding year.

The idea received backing from friends and golf-minded leaders in Charlotte, North Carolina, who were anxious to replace the Kemper Open on the main tour, which Beman had moved away from Charlotte to Washington D.C. in 1979 (for a few years The World Seniors operated independently, with its own qualification format, before becoming an official Senior Tour event in 1984).

Then that December came Palmer’s victory at Turnberry Isle Resort in the PGA Senior Championship, an event that had been given little recognition during its many previous years of existence. “The excitement and sudden interest in the new tour that win created across the business world, I suppose, proved incalculable,” Palmer reflected in his book.

“Considering the things the PGA & PGA Tour had done for me I felt obliged to help out”

LIFE STARTS AT 50

Arnold gave senior golf another big boost the following season. Back in 1980 the United States Golf Association boarded the bandwagon with the establishment of a U.S. Senior Open Championship and booked it at the renowned Winged Foot Club in metropolitan New York.

However, following its guideline for its Senior Amateur, the USGA set the eligibility age at 55. That ruled out the likes of Palmer, Billy Casper, Gene Littler, January and a host of other top tour players in their early 50s. The event, won by De Vicenzo, was not much of a draw and the USGA quickly and wisely changed the age minimum to 50 for the 1981 championship at Detroit’s famed Oakland Hills. The result was immediately rewarding: A thrilling tournament that Palmer won in his frequent come-from-behind style in an 18-hole playoff against Casper and little-known Bob Stone. From there the Senior Open became established as the cornerstone of the Senior Tour.

Over the tour’s first 40 years, the game’s best players, with few exceptions, have extended their careers into their sixties. Many enjoyed greater success in senior golf that they had in their earlier careers. The roster of winners is topped by Hall-of-Famers, starting with Hale Irwin with 45, Bernhard Langer with 40 and Lee Trevino with 29, but on the other side of the coin are three men who never won on the regular tour—Jim Dent with 12 senior wins and Allan Doyle and Dana Quigley with 11. Bruce Fleisher and Orville Moody, who each won just once in their earlier careers, rang up 18 and 11 victories apiece in over-fifties golf.

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The tour’s star power has waxed and waned over time, but the immediate prospects shine brightly.

“It’s amazing to think of 2020 as the 40th year of PGA Tour Champions as we continue expanding globally with annual tournaments in Morocco, Japan, the United Kingdom and Canada,” observed its president, Miller Brady.

“I am confident our tour is poised to continue its success for years to come. 2020 will be an exciting season on the (rookie) front with names like Ernie Els, Jim Furyk and Mike Weir joining our tour.”

The season’s first tournament—the Mitsubishi Electric Championship—seemingly verified Brady’s prediction.

Eleven Hall-of-Famers teed it up in Hawaii and at one point coming down the stretch in the final round four of them— Langer, Fred Couples, Retief Goosen and Els—were tied for the lead before entertaining Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez outlasted them all to win in a two-hole playoff.

The excitement will be elevated even more if Phil Mickelson, as of the start of the season non-committal, decides to throw his lot in with the circuit after he turns 50 in mid-June. Don’t overlook several other Hall-of-Famers either. Vijay Singh, whose career earnings of more than $88-million is exceeded only by Tiger Woods, Mickelson and Els, already had four Champions Tour wins though only playing sporadically in 2017-18. Davis Love III, the two-time Ryder Cup captain, PGA champion and 21-times winner on the regular tour, has been dipping his toe in senior golf and Colin Montgomerie already numbers three senior majors and 10 other tournaments among his 54 world-wide wins while playing regularly on the Champions and Europe’s senior Staysure Tour.

Clearly, with its 20-year financial support of the Charles Schwab organization extending to 2035 and a strong cast of name players in or coming into the fields, the PGA Tour Champions is in fine shape for its next 40 years.

AUGUSTA INAUGURATION

You have to dig deep into the archives for this one, but the first ever professional senior tournament was held in 1937 at a fledgling golf course in Georgia, Augusta National.

Augusta National opened in 1932 and the inaugural Masters was held in 1934, establishing its peerless reputation remarkably fast, and it was in 1937 that Augusta National members began wearing their Green Jackets.

Co-founder Bobby Jones was taken by the idea of staging a tournament for the great golfers who were too old to compete in the Masters, yet who had been Jones’ own role models as he grew up. As Jones told the PGA, Augusta National was, “Glad… to make a gesture of appreciation to those members of your association who have contributed much to golf in this country”.

A field of 37 turned out for the first PGA Seniors’ Championship (the name would change to the “Senior PGA” later) at the end of November, 1937, and Augusta National founding investor Alfred S. Bourne provided a magnificent 40-inch-tall trophy which remains the prize for the Senior PGA Championship to this day.

Jock Hutchison, a 54-year-old Scot who won the PGA Championship in 1920 and The Open at St Andrews in 1921, won the inaugural PGA Seniors, with Fred McLeod winning the following year. After that the tournament moved to Florida for warmer winter weather, while Hutchison and McLeod would become the first honorary starters of the Masters in 1963.

Ernie Els [left] and Fred Couples during the final round of the 2020 Mitsubishi Electric Championship

Fred Mcleod [left] and Jock Hutchison were the original honorary starters at the Masters

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GIFT GUIDE Spring

Spring in Step It’s a green season—time for a new outlook, new adventures, and new tools and toys to use throughout the year. Here, a fresh assortment of cool accessories to get you into (and through) the warm seasons

L.E.N Lifestyle

Montblanc

L.E.N has dedicated 35 years to adding the finishing touches to the finishing touch. Understanding the need for self-expression, every exceptional belt crafted by L.E.N uses ultra fine leathers sourced from around the globe and come in a range of handsome colors. Featured here, and styled in Rum, is the 40 millimeter Nile Crocodile with solid brass hardware in a satin finish. The belt is designed for today’s five pocket slacks as well as your favorite jeans—wider belt loops demand wider belts.

A new Kingdom favorite.

This tribute is in Burgundy to reference JFK’s Ivy League style and features three goldcoated cap rings to honor his three brothers, a handcrafted 585 gold nib engraved with the lunar module that landed on the moon in 1969, carrying the dreams of a nation, and his initials engraved on the gold-coated fittings clip. This is a masterfully crafted, perfectly balanced instrument from one of the world’s most storied pen suppliers, fit for legendary correspondence or quiet reflections.

lenlifestyle.com

montblanc.com

T W O T O N E N I L E C R O C O D I L E B E LT

J O H N F. K E N N E D Y F O U N TA I N P E N

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GIFT GUIDE Spring

Dr Harris

S A N DA LW O O D C O L O G N E

This is a direct and dramatic fragrance for men of distinction.

Made primarily from the essence of Sandalwood but with notes of Eucalyptus, Camphor, Clove, Bergamot, Neroli, Ylang Ylang, Patchouli and Rosemary Oil. A particular scent for those looking to stand out, mixed by leading English perfumiers, Dr Harris, no prescription required.

Vocier

AVA N T C A R R Y - O N L U G G AG E 2 . 0

Vocier’s Avant Carry-On is perhaps the most awarded luggage, offering a patented wrinkle-free suit system, expedited security checks thanks to a Fast Pass™ pocket, a lightweight magnesium handle, modular system of accessories and true jetsetter styling. The best carry-on ever? It very well may be. vocier.com

Havaianas

M E N ’ S E S PA D R I L L E S

Boat, beach, barbecue or boardwalk, Havaianas’ take on one of the most comfortable footwear styles utilizes the same legendary sole as its coveted flip flops— ensuring you’ll soar through sunny climes wellheeled, comfortably ready for your next Coconut Highball or palm-hung hammock in the shade. us.havaianas.com

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drharris.co.uk

GIFT GUIDE Spring

Persol

6 49 S E R I E S

Marcello Mastroianni wore the 649 Series in the classic film Divorce, Italian Style, and they’ve long symbolized both classic style and cutting-edge perspective. Built of the highest quality and based on the legendary brand’s original acetate frames, today’s 649 Series is offered in a range of colors but only one temperature: seriously cool. persol.com

Master & Dynamic

Rolex

Master & Dynamic builds headphones for rock stars—and for people who think like them. Premium leather and anodized aluminum make for beautiful, durable wireless headphones while dual microphones make for crystal clear phone calls. The Bluetooth range is three times the industry standard, they bring up to 24 hours of battery life (get up to 12 hours after a 15-minute charge) and they are available in a range of color options. With 40mm Beryllim drivers and top-quality sound delivery, audiophiles only need apply.

The King of watches, Rolex’s relationship with Arnold Palmer dates back to the 1960s and Rolex was always the King’s watch of choice. Featured here is the iconic Datejust 41 with a champagne color dial, a new generation 3235 movement and the Jubilee Bracelet that was first designed and made especially for the launch of the Oyster Perpetual Datejust in 1945. A classic, winning timepiece.

NOISE-CANCELING HEADPHONES

DAT E J U S T 41

rolex.com

masterdynamic.com

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PUMA Golf

P U M A x A R N O L D PA L M E R

It began with Rickie Fowler honoring Arnold Palmer after Palmer’s death in 2016, wearing a limited-edition PUMA Golf shoe at Bay Hill and then donating it for auction to benefit the Arnold & Winnie Palmer Foundation. Now, there are The IGNITE PROADAPT Palmer Shoes for all of us, with design nods to Palmer’s Citation X aircraft, including Arnie’s N1AP tail number branding and more. Around the time of Arnold Palmer Invitational, there will be limited number of other pieces including the API CAMO P110 Snapback Cap that will be available to purchase online and at select retailers. Later this year, look for the first co-branded PUMA x Arnold Palmer collection of apparel, footwear and accessories designed to honor Arnold’s legacy for years to come. pumagolf.com

The Arnold Palmer Buckle D R U H B E LT S

The folks at Druh have come up with the perfect belt for all golfers and Palmer fans in particular. Confidently featuring Arnie’s timeless umbrella logo, the belt is constructed in high-quality full-grain leather and comes in gray to complement most shades of pants.

All Druh Belt’s buckles are interchangeable, so options for the collector abound. druhbeltsandbuckles.com

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GIFT GUIDE Spring

St Andrews Collection T O U R B AG

From the Home of Golf, Â this black synthetic leather tour bag features a classic celtic design. Highly versatile, the bag has 6 storage pockets, a five way top divider and comes with a St Andrews Collection bag tag and removable carry strap.

Guarantee of winning The [British] Open sadly not included. standrews.com

BubbaWhips

ALIGNMENT STICKS

BubbaWhips was founded in the cold Minnesota winter of 2017 at a clubhouse bar. Visually inspired by archery arrows of bygone eras and using genuine hickory, like the original golf club shafts, these alignments sticks are hand-painted and finished in Minnesota with painstaking care and attention. Why use ugly metal rods when you can practice with a training aid of rare beauty and craftsmanship. bubbawhips.com

XXIO

X IRONS

Looking for greater distance and consistency from your irons, but want a lighter weight of club? Then XXIO provides an answer. Forged for soft but superbly responsive feel, the X irons feature a Milled Speed Groove on the backside of their faceplate. This channel around the perimeter flexes at impact, rebounding added energy into the ball for increased distance, while weights in the butt-end of each club help to find the ideal top-of-swing position and boosts a smoother and easier swing. xxiousa.com

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Golf Pride MCC TEAMS

Golf Pride’s MCC Team grips are ready to be decorated in the team colors of your choice, to bring out your loyalties on the golf course. No matter what colors golfers choose, the MCC Team grips boast all-weather control through the exclusive brushed cotton cord in the upper hand section. The grips also wick away moisture, while the Pebble texture and sign patterns create increased coverage with a view to maximising control. golfpride.com

Titleist

P R O V 1 & P R O V 1x

2UNDR

SWING SHIFT RYDER CUP E D I T I O N B OX E R B R I E F

To be brief about briefs, 2UNDR make the most comfortable, performance briefs on the market. Featuring the innovative patented Joey Pouch®, which elevates and separates a man’s most valuable assets, the briefs’ signature modal fabric caresses the skin. Featured here are the Swing Shift Ryder Cup, particularly appropriate this year, with 2UNDR being the exclusive supplier of underwear to the 2020 USA Ryder cup team at Whistling Straits in September.

2undr.com

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Titleist promises “More precision, more consistency, more speed” with the latest iteration of its market-leading Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf balls for 2020. Titleist promises the best of both worlds with its Pro V1 and Pro V1x; the balls have thinner covers by 17 percent and Titleist testing shows that the balls brings increased speed off the clubface, along with less spin in the long game, for greater shot distance, while also enhancing feel and control around the greens.

The Pro V1 should offer softer feel and lower ball flight than the Pro V1x, which is geared for higher ball flight and greater spin. titleist.com

GIFT GUIDE Spring

Titleist

SM8 WEDGES

Bob Vokey has designed the new SM8 wedges to improve distance control and shot versatility. The centre of gravity in the clubheads has been pushed forward from the previous SM6 and SM7 versions, to produce higher MOI (moment of inertia) which should result in improved feel. SM8 grooves offer maximum conforming grip, while the clubfaces are finished with a heat treatment to lengthen groove durability. A variety of six sole grinds emphasizes the importance of golfers being custom-fitted for their wedges. vokey.com

New Level

1031 FORGED IRONS

There is an art to creating great irons, to working with steel to draw out its performance potential and ultimately it requires a level of attention to detail and hand-finishing that can’t be mass produced. So Scottsdale-based New Level doesn’t. It forges all its clubheads in small batches and the 1031 is a perfect example of uncompromised craftsmanship leading to optimum ball striking.

Short of marketing gimmickry, with the concentration on sleek, unfussy performance, the 1031 comes with a generous sole width and low centre of gravity, while a thin top-line and deep cavity boost forgiveness and promote a powerful trajectory. newlevelgolf.com

Callaway

EPIC FLASH HYBRID

Golf balls are on a jailbreak and it’s all Callaway’s fault. Callaway’s Jailbreak Technology is genuinely significant in the performance of longer clubs and the Epic Flash hybrid is a prime example. Two internal, vertical bars behind the clubface connect the clubhead crown to the sole to stiffen the structure and focus impact resopnse on the clubface for faster ball speed.

Tungsten weighting combined with a lighter crown lowers the centre of gravity for exceptional power and forgiveness. callawaygolf.com

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LEGACY Kazakhstan

PALMER’S GLOBAL REACH A man who never set a limit on what he could achieve, who boldly blazed a trail into new territories, Arnold Palmer was a pioneer of international golf course design in every sense, writes Clive Agran

A

merica, from sea to shining sea, was never going to contain Arnold Palmer for long. As a golfer, businessman and course designer, his ambitions lay beyond conventional boundaries.

Palmer-designed golf courses exist not only throughout the established golf-rich continents of North America and Europe but as far east as Asia’s Guam, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, and Thailand. Palmer even designed the first-ever golf course built in post-Revolutionary mainland China. That, by the way, is the original 18 at Chung Shan Hot Spring GC near Chungshan City in the Guangdong province in Southern China, which opened in 1984 and was built by manual labour—“They had no equipment,” Palmer told Kingdom magazine years later. “No bulldozers, trucks, tractors or loaders… This project was built by men and women using shovels and rakes.”

Palmer also pressed forward the evolution of golf in Kazakhstan, a country unfamiliar to many Westerners, yet it is the ninth-largest country in the world, bigger than the whole of Western Europe. With its vast oil and mineral resources,

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Kazakhstan also boasts the largest and best-performing economy in Central Asia. Since securing independence from the Soviet Union at the end of 1991 Kazakhstan has flourished.

Its economy has grown around eight percent a year, and it was the first former Soviet republic to repay all of its debt to the International Monetary Fund.

On the outskirts of Almaty—the former Kazakh capital and the biggest Kazakh city with a population of two million—Palmer designed the championship course at the Zhailjau Golf Resort, which is one of only six courses in the country. That’s one for every 170,000 square miles— only one course per area the size of California. Zhailjau is a stunning retreat from the city, with a backdrop of the Tian Shan mountains and their snow caps at 16,000 feet.

The clubhouse is vast—particularly for a club membership numbering a select 250—and the first-class facilities include a Tour-level practice ground.

The course, which opened in 2006, brings a formidable yardage of 7,200 yards off the tips and takes golfers on an imaginative and varied journey through generous treelined fairways. The greens make for large targets yet their

In Kazakhstan there’s one golf course per area the size of California undulations will send a golf ball on a merry dance if a ball is off-target or a line is poorly chosen. A series of appealing water hazards bring a sense of Floridian drama to the Kazakh hills, while plenty of bunkers ensure this beautifully presented course poses a fair, challenging test.

The country’s premier course, Zhailjau is particularly impressive when you consider only an estimated 1,000 Kazakhs actually play golf (although the Kazakhstan Golf Federation assures Kingdom the number is rising fast).

Zhailjau has hosted the Kazakhstan Open on the European Challenge Tour—the country’s first foray into tour golf— past winners of which include English Ryder Cup star Tommy Fleetwood.

To the far-flung corners of the globe, Arnold Palmer’s legacy continues to thrive.

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LEGACY APDC

Tropics & Desert Hand-picked by a legend to carry on his legacy, the visionary team at the Arnold Palmer Design Company (APDC) has been busy in the 21st century, with course openings and more work underway as they design the future of the game in desert climes and tropical towns alike.

Let’s tee it up…

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J

ust one year after Lakewood National Golf Club’s Commander golf course opened in 2017, the APDC design was chosen to host the debut of the Korn Ferry Tour’s Suncoast Classic golf tournament—which it did to great acclaim. Sited in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, in a community from premiere residential developer Lennar Homes, the course represented a completely new approach to traditional development golf, a huge step forward for the genre, and now Lakewood has another. The Piper recently joined The Commander, and its debut couldn’t have been better.

Like its sibling, the newer 18-hole championship course is named for aircraft owned by Palmer, an avid aviator who logged nearly 20,000 hours as a pilot. Also like The Commander, The Piper features short par fours with rolling fairways and narrow approaches to greens that require precision shots. For all that it has in common with Lakewood’s first 18, there are differences.

“In contrast to the bold slopes on the first course, the client wanted a more subtle golf experience that was still creative and fun to play,” says Brandon Johnson, vice president and senior golf course architect at APDC. “Playability and enjoyment for the membership were phrases we talked about frequently with Lennar.”

To ensure those goals were met while maintaining APDC’s high standards for strategic design, innovation met tradition, yielding some great experiences that should provide challenges and joy for years to come.

“At the 15th, a dividing spine meanders down the length of this long, wide hole, terminating at a bunkerless square green whose inspiration was drawn from the ‘double plateau’ template hole,” Johnson explains. “Holes 16 and 17 run through the lowest portions of the site. The large oak and pine trees in the bordering preserve provide a feeling of enclosure on this portion of the course. The on-grade subtlycontoured 16th green is one I’m excited to putt on when fully grown in. The reachable par-five 17th has one of the tighter tee shots on the course, which opens to an oversized second landing area. Large oak trees guard the left-hand approach while a spine from the right helps guide players to a green with a singular small pot bunker tucked against the wetland.”

Ensuring an epic finish was especially important, considering how well The Commander’s finishing holes are regarded. Johnson wanted the experience to be as satisfying, but didn’t try to mimic the other design.

“There is a big contrast to how the two courses finish,” he says. “The first course ends on a big, bold, visually stimulating par 5. Sweeping contours and large bunkers create a heroic finish. The second course, in its own heroic style, ends with a short, reachable par 4. Meaningful width was created by placing a select number of small yet strategically-placed bunkers that set up various angles of approach into the small and subtly-tilted green.”

Johnson says working with the developer and management team at Lakewood has been great, and the love was reciprocated, as evidenced in a statement from ICON Management, which oversees the Lakewood courses.

“For me it has been a great experience operating the original Commander course and now being a part of another key piece of the puzzle for our community, the new

Tradition GC (left); Layton and Johnson

second 18, the Piper course,” said James McCrosky, Regional Superintendent for ICON Management. “Certainly it’s been a career highlight working with Arnold Palmer Design on the construction and maturation of these two golf courses. And so far The Piper course has been very well received by the community and membership at Lakewood National.”

He’s not kidding: one 5-star review on Golfadvisor offered that “you won’t be disappointed if you worship golf”—a heavenly review if ever there was one. The Piper still features that new course smell and it’s beginning to grow in nicely, so stop by and get on it as soon as you can.

AVIARA

Going west from Lakewood National—almost 3,000 miles west—you’ll eventually reach the Park Hyatt Aviara Golf Club & Resort in Carlsbad, California. This Pacific Coast stunner is a Palmer original from 30 years ago and it’s been named by Golf Digest and by Golf magazine as one of the best resort courses in America. With 7,007 yards of Southern California terrain—rolling hillsides, inspiring native wildflowers and that incomparable sunshine—Aviara Golf Club is a “must play” beauty attached to a top-class resort, and it’s all about to get better. At the end of last year, the 200-acre property announced that it had begun a $50+ million renovation. Guest rooms and public areas are being reimagined, meeting and event spaces are receiving big upgrades, the spa, fitness center and two pools are all being enhanced and (most appealing to us) the golf course is getting substantive attention.

“It’s a large-scale renovation,” says Johnson. “A complete bunker renovation, we’re blending contours and reconsidering areas across much of the course to maximize strategic interest, recapturing square footage on the greens that had been lost and, while the course is receiving a new irrigation system, we’re also working to reduce the amount of irrigated turf. This is an incredible property, and the Park Hyatt Aviara team is taking it to the next level with a respectful modernization that will enhance its playability and sustainability for years and years to come.

“It’s going to be amazing,” he assures us, and we’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this one.

OTHER

Not terribly far from Aviara, in La Quinta, APDC is completing some planning work at Tradition Golf Club, where Palmer himself maintained a home. Thad Layton, a vice president and senior golf course architect at APDC, is working on this with Johnson, who says considerations include bunker and turf reduction and a shift in focus to the desert landscape. Layton is also working on a master plan at Seattle Golf Club and at Teton Pines—two more projects we’ll be watching as the APDC team stays hard at work making the game better, one blade of grass at a time.

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HOME Backyards

Ultimate Backyard

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It’s a blank canvas, a field of dreams just waiting for your vision. Your backyard can be so much more than just a good lawn and pool. In spaces of nearly any scale, it is possible to have your own private putting or golf facility and an elegant patio and landscape to complement your lovely abode. Make the most of what’s behind your house, add value to your home and to your life by extending your usable square footage with a private playground that’s as exciting, usable and beautiful as you can imagine. Barefoot golf in your bathrobe followed by morning coffee by the firepit?

Why not, when the dream is right outside your back door

INVITING DEFINITION AND BEAUT Y A stunning backyard with a private golf facility is one of every serious golfer’s best dreams, but without wellconsidered quality hardscape that dream is incomplete.

A broad, beautiful patio to hold seating for summer days and quiet evenings, a dedicated area for an outdoor kitchen and BBQ, elegant trim to frame and organize your yard’s features—and, of course, the hardscape components of your putting area or larger golf facility…

All of it is possible with high-quality products from Belgard.

As the company has it, “Belgard Paves the Way,” and they certainly do, offering not just luxury hardscape products but also a range of design services to ensure that your vision—no matter how modest or how elaborate— comes true. Their concrete pavers come in a wide range of patterns and textures, and their design-forward porcelain pavers bring new levels of frost- and skid-resistance while providing incredible durability and ease of maintenance.

Along with the pavers and surfaces, Belgard also offers retaining wall products to complement any environment.

Enhance pool areas with hardscape design elements or create functional guides for landscaping, framing and helping to define your ultimate backyard vision.

For backyard golf facilities, Belgard will work with your designer or existing design to maximize functionality, durability and beauty, ensuring the golf blends seamlessly into your backyard and that it is supremely functional and long-lasting as well. Belgard products are the materials of which top outdoor spaces are made, sincere design elements that enhance and add value to your home while ensuring longterm use.

To keep your project moving, Belgard’s Elements Collection offers pre-built pieces that fit seamlessly into your design with less install time with features such as an outdoor fireplace, kitchen, fire pit, brick oven and more. Add the finishing touch with an elegant curb system and your backyard will be the envy of friends and neighbors, a landscape that adds enjoyment, purpose and value to your home while providing you the space you’ve always dreamed of having.

To help turn your vision into reality, Belgard has a great Design Studio and a network of expert contractors specifically trained on working with and installing Belgard products. If you’re building the ultimate backyard, do it once and do it right—then enjoy it for years to come.

Discover more at belgard.com

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HOME IS WHERE THE GOLF IS At some point, every golfer has dreamed of having the entire golf course or practice area to himself. Now, for anyone with a backyard and a vision, that’s possible. Advanced synthetic turf options and streamlined design/build services have made owning a bespoke golf facility a practical possibility— be it a top-quality putting green, a world-class practice area or even a private course. Among options, Tour Greens offers a comprehensive full-service solution, taking projects from dream stage all the way to club-in-hand enjoyment. The range of services it provides, and its quality products have made Tour Greens the official synthetic turf provider for the Arnold Palmer Design Company (APDC), and the provider of choice for many PGA Tour pros and top-end golf facilities.

No matter the size of your yard, the company can design and install a facility to meet your needs, whether you’re looking for a serious practice area or a purely recreational option.

Tour Greens’ in-house designers are available, and the company also offers exclusive green designs from APDC via its partnership, meaning the architects Palmer himself handpicked to run his company can have a hand in transforming your backyard into a stunning, pro-quality golf environment.

In terms of surfaces, Tour Greens offers many types of artificial turf solutions of only the highest quality. Greens, for example, can be built to simulate characteristics of some of the best golf courses in the world, convincingly approximating the finest natural Bentgrass or Bermuda.

And the greens receive shots as well as any natural grass green. Also, Tour Greens engineers its installations to allow owners to adjust the speed of the greens by simply brushing and rolling them, expanding the experience of the green and enhancing its longterm appeal and utility.

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If you have more space and are looking for something more ambitious, Tour Greens can design and install a more versatile putting and chipping area or even an entire backyard golf course, again with the synthetic turf options behaving like natural grass throughout, offering the look, feel and bite one would find on a natural grass course. Every detail is considered, such as using green infill for the turf to complete a more natural look.

PGA Tour pros like Fred Couples and Abraham Ancer own and love home installations from Tour Greens, while hundreds of commercial property owners choose them for the quality and the fact that Tour Greens installations are virtually maintenance-free. Tour Greens worked with APDC on a fantastic Palmer Park chipping and putting facility at The Village at Penn State; they’ve built private practice areas for the likes of Rich Beem, Steve Flesch, Chris Dimarco and numerous other pros, coaches and top amateurs; and they’ve even designed and built a complete eco-friendly, 9-hole synthetic turf golf course on a private island in the Bahamas.

Tour Greens artificial turf solutions are incredible, chosen by top pros and facilities

Beyond golf, Tour Greens is part of The Recreational Group, which offers a wide range of products and services to accommodate installations for other sports as well—bocce, soccer, basketball, inline hockey, a playground or almost anything else you can imagine can be handled by the firm.

With hundreds of residential and commercial installations for top clients, a partnership with a top course architecture firm, and testimonials from some of the best ever to play the game, Tour Greens can be trusted to deliver the backyard of your dreams, a golf facility that you can share with friends and family or, as you like, keep all to yourself.

Find out more at tourgreens.com

SOMETHING PLEASANT IN THE AIR If you live where temperatures range from “hot” to “volcanic” in summertime, a patio misting system can help.

They work by pressurizing water and forcing it through a small opening in a specially engineered mist nozzle, which creates fine water droplets. When this droplet-dense mist evaporates the resulting cooling effect can be up to 35˚F. Such systems need to be properly installed, but when they are they create a kind of curtain that can mean the difference between enjoying your backyard or just looking at it from inside your house. We like Koolfog as a supplier as they’re able to handle any projects of any scale, from themepark installations to smaller home projects, extending homes’ usable square footage and turning backyards into functional summer spaces. If you’re planning on actually using that amazing backyard and golf facility you just built, their range of misting and fogging solutions is worth investigating. koolfog.com

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FOOD Grills

Wagyu Wagyu - Japanese shorthorn. It is called "Nihon Tankaku Washu" in Japan

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The beef dominating your butcher’s top shelf for the past decade or so costs more than what your granddaddy grilled, but it’s still beef and it still plays nice with fire—even if it’s a little more sensitive. You don’t just toss Wagyu on the grill; there’s more to it than that.

But when you get it right, the rewards are rich indeed, with deep flavor and melt-in-yourmouth tenderness. How do you say “giddy up” in Japanese?

“Wagyu” means simply “Japanese beef” or “Japanese cow,” and is comprised of four different breeds of Japanese beef cattle, only two of which are available outside of Japan (Japanese Black and Japanese Brown). Kobe Beef comes from the Tajima strain of Japanese Black, and if you think you tried it in the United States prior to 2012, you probably didn’t (see sidebar: What’s in a name?). Authentic Kobe Beef is difficult to find and expensive when you do, but don’t fret: non-Kobe versions of Wagyu are more readily available, thanks to the fact that, not only is it imported, but a number of American ranches raise hybrid Japanese cattle and offer high-quality Wagyu.

But before you crank the coals and toss your Wagyu steak on the grill, pause. Wagyu is prized for its elegant tenderness and beautiful marbling—the appearance of the meat has been described as lace laid atop a red-and-white checkered tablecloth—but there’s a liability hidden in there.

The large amount of intramuscular fat known as shimofuri in Japanese (“beautiful snow”) and responsible for the incredible flavors in Wagyu, liquifies at 77˚F, according to Steve Raichlen on thebarbecuebible.com, who points out that “it literally melts in your mouth.” This makes grilling the meat a bit of a trick, but one that’s easily managed with a little planning. Here, from Raichlen and others, are a few tips to ensure you grill steak, not soup. Feel free to do it your way or to ask your local expert, but these could help you not ruin what should be an amazing (and not inexpensive) steak:

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2.

3.

4.

5.

Refrigerate the steak and keep it in the fridge almost until you’re ready to grill it. While you would take a less fatty steak out of the cold an hour or so before it hits the fire, you’ll want this one slightly cool. Take it out maybe 15 minutes before Fresh ground salt and pepper on each side for seasoning; keep it simple—there’s plenty of flavor here already Ensure you’re over hot coals, not flames. With this much fat in the meat, any exposure to flames could result in flare ups and disaster Medium/high heat, 550˚F or so; grill for 2 minutes a side then let the steak rest for at least 5; if you use a meat thermometer, keep the internal temp at 125˚F or less. This beef is best medium rare or rare To help with consistency and to prevent flare-ups, consider cooking your steak in a cast iron pan on top of your grill; if you do this, get the pan to 550˚F or so, cut off a small bit of meat before you put the steak in there and let the fat melt out to coat the pan, then cook as specified above

WHAT’S IN A NAME? The late NBA legend Kobe Bryant was named for Kobe Beef, which his father saw on a menu while traveling.

He liked the word and the fact that it represented something elite, and in that sense it certainly was a fitting name. When it comes to beef from Japan, all Kobe is Wagyu, but not all Wagyu is Kobe. Scarcity and a ban on importing Kobe Beef to the States (due to concerns over a Japanese outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease) meant that the first Kobe wasn’t imported to the U.S. until 2012. Even now it’s tough to find the real stuff—and here’s where it gets tricky: The U.S. doesn’t

recognize the Japanese trademark on “Kobe Beef,” and so anyone can market “Kobe Beef” in the United States even if what they’re selling doesn’t meet Japan’s strict standards to qualify as authentic Kobe Beef.

That said, Japan gave a few Wagyu to the United States some years ago and various U.S. ranches do raise hybrid versions. Better ranches, like Snake River Farm (one of the first to raise Wagyu) honor the Japanese trademark and standards and promote their meats as “Kobe-Style American Beef” or “American Wagyu,” but others aren’t as scrupulous, so do your homework.

If you’re looking for the real thing at retail, we’ll save you some time: It’s not available at retail. Japan licenses real Kobe to individual restaurants only, something like nine of them across the entire U.S. As of 2016 only 400 lbs of real Kobe Beef were coming into the States each month, explaining why the Kobe steaks at New York’s 212 Steakhouse go for $25 per ounce or more, with a 3oz minimum. Want another option? You’ll have to travel; 212 is the only restaurant on the East Coast certified to sell authentic Kobe Beef, and that includes their $400 6oz steak crusted in edible 24K gold.

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HEALTH CBD

What is CBD? It won’t cure baldness if you rub it on your head, it won’t extend your car’s warranty by 20,000 miles, and it won’t get you “high.” What CBD can do, however, is worth investigating—as so many PGA TOUR pros have done.

Calm down, focus, and read on...

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C

BD, MTV, BBC, MSG… If you keep up with sports news, you’ll have noticed “CBD” popping up in stories over the last year or so, including in stories about professional golfers. You might have heard that CBD is an oil, or a gum, or a sports cream, or a gummy bear or something else, and that some pros take it to help them focus or to help their putting or because they have arthritis or just because the other pros are taking it. All of the above might circle the truth, but none of that really explains what CBD does, exactly, or why anyone would want it. In hopes of adding some clarity to the conversation, here’s a look at the latest acronym to take the sports world by storm.* To dispel a few myths you might have heard: CBD (short for cannabidiol) in and of itself will not get you “high,” it is not the same as marijuana, and there’s no research currently to indicate that it is inherently unsafe. Also, according to a report from the World Health Organization quoted in a story by Dr. Peter Grinspoon on Harvard Medical School’s website: “In humans, CBD exhibits no effects indicative of any abuse or dependence potential… To date, there is no evidence of public health related problems associated with the use of pure CBD.” “OK,” you might be thinking. “So what does it do?”

Let’s start with what it won’t do: It will not fix every problem in your life, give you the ability to leap over tall buildings in a single bound or knock 10 strokes off your golf score. To see the way some supposed CBD products are advertised, it’s understandable if this wasn’t clear to you. Its actual effects have been studied for decades by researchers in Israel, Spain and the UK (among others) and its primary medical application has been in the treatment of childhood epilepsy, with proven effectiveness. Its ability to reduce or to eliminate seizures there may be related

to why it is commonly used to treat muscle pain and to help with muscle recovery following workouts or exertion (primarily due to its ability to inhibit spasms, it is believed).

Beyond that, CBD is commonly used to address insomnia, anxiety and various types of chronic pain. A study from the European Journal of Pain showed that, in an animal model, CBD applied on the skin could help with inflammation and pain due to arthritis, while other studies have suggested it can treat a wide variety of pain in humans. It also seems CBD could be effective in managing anxiety, ultimately helping to effect a calmer state of mind and thus help with outlook and focus, both critical to success in golf. While science works on gathering the data, scores of golfers are using CBD now and touting its benefits—and those include many in the pro ranks.

Scott McCarron is a fan, telling ESPN and others that CBD made a big improvement in the quality of his sleep and that many of his fellow PGA TOUR Champions players use it regularly. A 2019 piece on ESPN.com identified McCarron, David Toms, Vaughn Taylor, DJ Trahan, Kenny Perry, Tom Kite and Scott Piercy as fans, among others. Bubba Watson is one of the more outspoken fans of CBD and even entered into a sponsorship agreement with a CBD company last year, although McCarron technically was the first to partner with a firm, Functional Remedies. In accordance with CBD’s believed benefits, pros variously report improved sleep, fewer aches and pains, better focus and outlook and overall generally improved performance on and off course.

So people like it and it appears to have benefits, but how does it work, you might wonder. To understand that, let’s start with the plant from whence it comes: cannabis.

There are three species of cannabis plants, all of which hold numerous cannabinoids, including CBD and THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, associated with the “high” from

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marijuana). Marijuana is a version of the cannabis sativa plant, as is hemp, and while both contain both THC and CBD, hemp plants contain a far higher concentration of CBD relative to THC. Cannabinoids, including CBD, are diverse chemical compounds that interact with the body’s endocannabinoid system. The endocannabinoid system (ECS), according to UCLA Health, maintains bodily homeostasis—biological harmony in response to changes in the environment. The ECS is frequently explained as the traffic signals that regulate the flow of information within our nervous system and organs. If the traffic signals are functioning properly, information is flowing freely, organs

Some supposed CBD products contain very little, in fact; so stick to reputable brands are functioning well and everything is as it should be. If even one signal is mis-firing, traffic will continue to flow but not optimally, hence anxiety, spasms, and so on. From this oversimplified explanation it’s easy to see how individual cannabinoids could be credited with having a wide range of effects, and so they do, linking with receptors in our nervous systems and organs and affecting “traffic,” as it were.

CBD helps to keep things moving along—without the psychotropic effects associated with marijuana. Because what’s currently sold as CBD most likely has been derived from hemp, some firms go so far as to define themselves as “hemp oil companies” as opposed to CBD producers, and technically this is more accurate.

One such firm is Functional Remedies, the company favored by McCarron (functionalremedies.com). Among the highest-quality producers of full-spectrum hemp oil, Functional Remedies offers a full range of ingestibles and topicals to suit a variety of needs. These include oil tinctures and capsules, creams and more.

“For a golfer past his 20s or 30s who wants to be able to move like they used to move, this is something that helps,” says Andrew Campbell, Functional Remedies CEO. Campbell points to McCarron and others as evidence that its products help with pain management and focus (“because the noise of anxiety decreases”) and explains that it’s Functional Remedies’ commitment to purity and quality that ensures effectiveness. As he points out, many products that purport to contain CBD do not, in fact, contain very much at all or contain impurities you would not want to ingest. A CBS News report in September of 2019 backs this up, and for Double Eagle Hemp, another company dedicated to offering quality full-spectrum organic hemp-derived CBD

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products to golfers, the false marketing and “snake oil” products in the market have created a kind of secondary audience for their products (doubleeaglehemp.com).

“There are people who’ve tried something that didn’t work,” says Alex Sadusky, Double Eagle co-founder, “and then they try our products, have a different result, and then become dedicated fans.” Double Eagle Hemp offers a range of products containing proprietary formulations, including oils, creams, gummies and even an athletic performance drink mix. “You can blend it beautifully into any beverage,” Sadusky says. “We wanted to offer a product that could be added to juice or anything, for people who didn’t want to put a true oil directly into their mouth.”

Both Functional Remedies and Double Eagle Hemp voluntarily adhere to top standards in sourcing and creating products, putting them in the top tier of a burgeoning market. For the moment there are no government guidelines on CBD—its legality is contained within a 2018 Farm Bill that legalized hemp, but the government has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to regulating the cannabinoid. Until guidelines are established, consumers will have to rely on the integrity of the producers themselves, those dedicated to “doing it right.” In a suddenly crowded marketplace, choosing which hemp oil-derived CBD product you want to try can be as confusing as understanding why you’d want to try it in the first place, but if many tour pros and other athletes are any indication, CBD might be right for you, on and off course. *Please note that nothing in this article constitutes medical or legal advice; as always, consult your health care provider before making any changes to your diet or health regimen.

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LAST PAGE Latrobe

A Century of Latrobe Country Club Arnold Palmer’s home course turns 100 years old this year

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t was hard work carving through the Western Pennsylvania hill country, but the young Milfred “Deacon” Palmer was strong and driven, and so it got done. He might not have known it at the time, but when he raised an axe and helped to build Latrobe Country Club in the small community in Westmoreland County, Deacon was building not only the golf course where he would be superintendent and eventually club pro, but he was building the training ground for a legend—his son Arnold Palmer. This year Latrobe

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Country Club turns 100. It’s an important milestone for the property, which Arnold eventually purchased. He grew up there, he lived there roughly half of each year, and he was there shortly before he died in 2016. Today LCC is a revered destination for golf fans who come to stay in one of the homes Palmer owned, eat in the same dining rooms he frequented for so many years, and golf on the same course where he learned the game. One of America’s most authentic golf experiences, it is also an American treasure, one sure to be enjoyed for years to come.

Say hello@arnoldpalmer.com to learn what Arnold Palmer Enterprises can do for your business. ©2020 Arnold Palmer Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. Arnold Palmer® the "Signature" and the “Umbrella” Logo® are registered trademarks owned by Arnold Palmer Enterprises, Inc.