TPC Signature: Issue 1

#1— SPRING 2014

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editor

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publisher

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special thanks

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tpc foreword

All Year Long

W

elcome to the pages of the first-ever TPC Signature, the new official publication of the PGA TOUR’s TPC Network. We are excited to partner with Kingdom magazine in bringing you this luxury publication throughout the year, and hope you enjoy the stories brought to you with each issue. They are, after all, your stories.

Though many of our TPCs host some of the world’s greatest players and tournaments for one week a year, the other 51 weeks tell the equally memorable and headline-worthy stories of golfers who come to experience golf at the highest level for themselves. From humble beginnings in 1980 with the opening of TPC Sawgrass, Home of THE PLAYERS, to a now expanding, international Network of more than thirty golf courses that bear the TPC name, you’ve helped us achieve our mission to bring the magic of the game and PGA TOUR to life. And we look forward to continuing to do so.

The 2013-2014 PGA TOUR season is already off to an exciting start, and TPC properties have played a pivotal role in that. The Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin and other fall events were added to the official FedExCup points system, and the Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale proved once again to be the greatest (and greenest) show on grass. This year, TPCs will host 18 events across the PGA TOUR, Champions Tour and Web.com Tour.

Additionally in 2014, thanks to the generosity of our players, members, guests, partners and staff who have enthusiastically embraced our charitable commitment, the PGA TOUR went “Beyond $2 Billion”, surpassing $2 billion in all-time charitable giving, which has directly impacted organizations in the communities where we host tournaments and have TPC properties.

It truly is the year for more good golf, and on behalf of the PGA TOUR’s TPC Network, I’d like to thank you, our TPC family, for being a part of it.

David Pillsbury

spring 2014

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ENJOY TWO LONG DRIVES

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a r n o l d pa l m e r f o r e wo r d

Palmer Welcome

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here can be no doubt that this past winter will go down as one of the worst in recent times, weather-wise. Of course golf, as an outdoor sport, has been affected badly across most of the Northern Hemisphere but wherever your home club, in this first especially customized issue of Kingdom, I would like to extend a warm welcome to any new reader who is a member or guest of a TPC Network course. I myself am a member at a number of TPC Courses and am particularly proud of our four respective Tournament Player Course Designs in Boston, Charlotte, Cincinatti, and Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Down here at my Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, thankfully, we have been shielded from the worst of the climatic upheaval while putting the final touches to our PGA TOUR event, the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard.

Still, one must adapt. Mother Nature is unpredictable, and we must be prepared for whatever she throws at us. We think about this a lot when we’re designing golf courses, especially in dynamic environments like that of Southern South America where we recently unveiled our new golf course at Las Piedras near Punta del Este, Uruguay. It’s a long way from home, but the rolling farmland and green hills reminded me of a few places in America. Rather than do battle with Mother Nature here, we left well enough alone, designing the golf course around as many of the native features as possible, incorporating trees, rock outcroppings, and wetlands into the strategy of the golf course. Only the greens, tees and a few bunkers were sculpted into the land allowing the beauty of the site to take center stage. If you ever get down that way, I encourage you to visit it. It’s a great course to play.

Back in Florida, I understand that most of you will be reading this edition of Kingdom after the conclusion of my tournament even though I am writing this in the lead-up to it, but I have been paying particular attention to the early-season events out on the PGA TOUR. Bubba Watson’s win in the Northern Trust Open at Riviera, with a pair of 64s on the weekend, is the stand-out performance for me to date, though the consistency shown by the two Johnsons, Dustin and Zach, has also been impressive.

I’d also like to extend a word of congratulation to young Cheyenne Woods on her maiden victory as a professional in the Australian Ladies Masters in February. Regular readers of Kingdom will know that we featured an interview-profile with Cheyenne in the last issue—not just because she has a rather famous uncle but also because she is a fine golfer and a Wake Forest graduate.

In April, I’ll be heading to Georgia once again to team up with Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player as honorary starters for the Masters. It’s a marvelous gathering there at Augusta National, one I look forward to with enthusiasm each year. It’s always great fun taking part in the Par-3 Contest on the Wednesday and a true honor to start the Masters the following morning. This year marks the 80th anniversary of this most prestigious championship, and I shall forever be grateful to be able to play a small part in it.

Not too long after Augusta, I’ll be returning back to Latrobe, PA, my summer home, and home to the course where my father taught me to play. We have a new hotel in Latrobe now, and with the course open to play as part of select packages perhaps I will have the pleasure of seeing some of you on Latrobe’s fairways this summer.

In the meantime, it gives me great pleasure to wish all of you a happy and memorable year, both on and off the course, in 2014.

spring 2014

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editor’s foreword

Rainy Sunday

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n her book Anger in the Sky, novelist Susan Ertz observed that “Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.” It’s an incredible irony that’s born out in so many examples of people who concern themselves with extending life, not living it. In contrast, consider sculptor Bruce Wolfe, who recently completed a statue of Arnold Palmer for Wake Forest University. Wolfe has spent a lifetime pursuing expressions of form, and the indirect result is that he’s achieved immortality through his work, which will stand long after he stops sculpting.

Likewise, Palmer concentrated on becoming a better golfer and person, and then on being the best.

His legacy—both tangible in the measurable effects he’s had on sport, and intangible in the millions of people he’s inspired to better themselves—transcends the span of a single individual’s lifetime. It’s the same with former TOUR Commissioner Deane Beman, who’s list of contributions to golf and to the world at large is long indeed. The impact of TPC Sawgrass alone would constitute a lifetime’s worth of good work.

The men around luminaries like Beman and Palmer are often luminaries in their own right, and it’s not surprising: excellence attracts excellence, and above the clouds everything is in the sun.

In this issue of TPC Signature we look at these men, and more. The story of TPC Sawgrass can be found on page 20, and the story of the Palmer statue can be found on page 184. We look at the sport of horse racing and the personalities who live in relentless, daily pursuit of victory on page 34, and we speak with a few people who are pushing new vehicle technology forward on page 86.

At the end of it all, we’re always happy to celebrate integrity and the persistence of excellence, which can be found nearly everywhere if you know where to look. Here’s hoping you’re living, not just alive, and that your rainy Sundays aren’t wasted.

Reade Tilley—Editor

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Issue 1 Spring 2014

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20 20 30 34 44 50 60 68 74 80 88 92 96 104 110 115

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TPC SAWGRASS The story of a sporting center of excellence TPC NETWORK How golf’s flagship collection of courses originated HORSES RUN An out-of-the-gate look at the sport of kings DON FELDER The Eagles’ guitarist on wielding a club 9TH HOLES The next installment of our feature on greatest holes MARTIN LAIRD What next for the Great Scot BEFORE THEY WERE ROCK STARS Evolution of the touring professional NORMANDY Anniversary of one of the greatest military battles in history SALT FLY Is it the epitome of fly fishing or just an impossible task?

CURRENTLY AUTOMOTIVE Electric cars and hybrids quietly moving forward FORMULA E FIA’s new series sends a volt through racing PAR-3 COURSES Short and sweet places to swing a club 80TH MASTERS An appreciative look back at an enduring tournament CLUB FITTING A skeptical writer is wowed by Callaway’s expert TPC SIGNATURE GOLF HOLES A lot beauty and a touch of beast

spring 2014

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Issue 1 Spring 2014

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123 132 136 144 148 154 156 162 168 172 180 184 190 194

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SPRING GIFT GUIDE Best bits to put some spring in your step WEB.COM TOUR Kingdom chats with the man building the future of golf LAKESIDE GOLF Courses for those who aren’t afraid of a little water GOLF TRAVEL HUMOR Travel mix-ups and quick remedies PALMER CUP College golf’s greatest tournament DONALD TRUMP The art of reinvention FASHION A marriage of velocity and sound SOUTHERN FOOD Nothin’ wrong with fried chicken and cornbread BOURBON Oak, maple, vanilla and other beautiful flavors for Southern nights COFFEE Everything you didn’t know about your morning cup HEALTH The process of innovation at Cleveland Clinic PALMER STATUE Honorable men honoring an honorable man APDC Around the world with the Palmer Design Company LAST PAGE Golf Channel documentary on The King

spring 2014

LIKE NOWHERE ELSE

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spring 2014

The Spanish moss hangs thick here, dressing the branches of the live oak and cypress and helping to create the shade so coveted in the hotter months. Ponte Vedra Beach wasn’t always one of Florida’s obvious beauties when it came to golden sand and lush landscaping; it was a mix of scattered dunes, palmettos and swamps. Businesses and tourists came later, after the dreamers had found the place, after the hard work, and after TPC Sawgrass was built

T

he crown jewel in the TPC Network was raised from the marsh in 1982—or rather, the marsh was pushed back and TPC Sawgrass emerged.

Today the headquarters of the PGA TOUR and Home of THE PLAYERS Championship, it’s also home to many top TOUR professionals. It’s where they eat, where they relax, where they practice and, when they’re out and about, it’s where they live among their fans. Roughly 850 people work here every day to ensure TPC Sawgrass is the best, and millions have come to play it or simply to appreciate it—and to see what is likely the best-known hole in golf: THE PLAYERS Stadium Course’s Hole 17, with its island green. That hole, the site of so many triumphs and tragedies, is just another reminder that TPC Sawgrass is like no place else in golf.

“There really wasn’t anything here before,” says Bill Hughes, General Manager of TPC Sawgrass and Regional Director of TPC Operations at the PGA TOUR. “It was a 416-acre piece of North Florida swampland. But Deane Beman—who was 20 years our leader here—had a vision and a dream.”

A former TOUR player, Beman served as the PGA TOUR’s commissioner from 1974 to 1994. His legacy makes for a long list of major accomplishments, including stadium course architecture, the current models for PGA TOUR television coverage and merchandising, and the creation of what are now the Champions and Web.com Tours, among others.

But it’s TPC Sawgrass that stands as the most readily experienced testament to Beman’s tenure, and it’s all because he decided his tournament needed a home.

“The whole genesis of this property is THE PLAYERS Championship,” Hughes says. “In 1974, when Deane founded the tournament—which was to be and is the PGA TOUR’s own premier championship—his idea was to have a tournament for the players and by the players. The U.S. Open is owned by the USGA, Augusta’s tournament is run by its membership, the Open Championship is owned

by The R & A in Scotland, and then you’ve got the PGA Championship, which is owned and operated by the PGA of America. In Deane’s mind, he wanted to create a

spring 2014

When Deane Beman bought this land, the Fletcher brothers came out, the mayor, other dignitaries. Deane was to hit a ceremonial drive before they did anything with the land. His first ball went into the brush on the right, he caught it wrong. The crowd said, ‘Come on Deane! Tee up another one!’ So he hit another one 260 yards, straight into the marsh. Everyone clapped. Later, the Fletchers got to thinking. They spent hours a day for weeks in their waders out in the marsh, and they eventually found the ball. It had been chewed by some animal, but they put it on a tee and made this little trophy: The first mulligan ever shot on the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course. It’s in the clubhouse today.

championship that the TOUR owned and operated for the benefit of the players.”

With that goal in mind, THE PLAYERS Championship debuted in 1974 at the Atlanta Country Club in Marietta, Georgia, and Jack Nicklaus won it. Subsequent years saw it held at the Colonial Country Club in Ft. Worth, Texas, and Inverrary in Florida. And then Beman played a course in Ponte Vedra Beach.

During a tournament called the Greater Jacksonville Open, Beman and his son were looking to grab a quick nine holes somewhere for some fun.

“One of the head guys from this tournament, he said, ‘Well, there’s this little golf course over there, brand spanking new, called Sawgrass Country Club’,” says Hughes. “‘You’ve gotta drive down this way and this way, there’s a two-lane dirt road and then you’re there.’

“Beman played nine holes there, he got so excited that he stopped his golf and ran back, and I think that day the vision was born to have a permanent site for THE PLAYERS Championship.”

In fact, THE PLAYERS moved to Sawgrass Country Club and its Ed Seay-designed course for the next five years, and it might have stayed longer. But when plans to purchase the property and to transform it into a semi-private club didn’t work out, Beman decided to press forward with his idea to build a new top-end facility for the players and for the fans. He didn’t have to go far.

The Fletcher family, an institution in North Florida, owned most of the swampland around Sawgrass Country Club, and they were considering using it for commercial flower

21

Scott Massey had two boys, 13 and 15, who played with him and a friend. On Hole 3, dad and friend hit from the back tees, 13-year-old hit from the whites. Pin was on the back of the green. The 13-year-old got excited after he hit and said, “Dad, that came awful close!” So they drove around and sure enough, hole-in-one! They were headed to the next hole when the 15-year-old said, “Dad, I never hit my tee shot.” So they went back, the 15-year-old hit from the whites and yep, he nailed it. Hole-in-one. Same day, same hole, same brothers. Their names are on a plaque in the clubhouse: Hanks and Davis Massey, July 10, 2008. farming. In the mid to late 1970s, at a time when the PGA TOUR had something like 30 employees and when the banking industry was having its first shakeup, it was the Fletchers who stepped in to make Beman’s vision possible.

“They approached Deane and said, ‘We hear what you want to do, we buy into the vision, we love the PGA TOUR in North Florida, we love the event,’” says Hughes. “‘We’ve got thousands of acres of swampland here, right across the street from the golf course you currently play on. I’ll donate you 416 acres for a dollar.’ And that’s what happened. If Deane and the TOUR had had to find the money to buy the land, they probably wouldn’t have done it.”

After acquiring the land, Beman hired noted golf course architect Pete Dye and the two set out to build the finest golf course in existence. The task was immense.

Complicating matters was Beman’s new idea for a “stadium” design. At some point the commissioner had read a New York Times editorial ridiculing the fact that periscopes were the top-selling accessory at golf tournaments. With most golf courses relatively flat, fans needed the devices, essentially a cardboard tube with two mirrors, to see over the crowds. Beman insisted that his new course be built with large berms surrounding key areas, upon which fans could stand and watch the action. With the highest point on the coastal property somewhere near three feet above sea level, such hills needed to be created from sand and dirt, and there wasn’t much available in the swamp. So material was hauled in: something close to 500,000 cubic yards of topsoil appeared, and a seven-mile-long convoy of trucks brought in sand. That, combined with a few sand deposits found on the course, allowed Beman and Dye’s Stadium Course to be built.

spring 2014

“Every hole on the Stadium Course has water on it, not because they wanted to put water there but because they dug out the holes, used the sand, and then let them fill with water,” explains Jim Kleck, one of TPC Sawgrass’ “Storytellers.”

The all-volunteer Storytellers are another part of what makes TPC Sawgrass so special, keeping alive the history and dynamism of the place by giving free tours and recounting the stories that have made the venue so great.

One of the most famous holes to “fill with water” is certainly the 137-yard 17th with its island green, though the design didn’t begin that way.

Pete Dye initially designed it as a simple par-3 with a lake, but when large volumes of sand were found in the area they were removed to help shape the rest of the course, leaving a large crater around the green. Pete’s wife Alice suggested he simply let the crater fill in with water, and Hole 17’s island green was born—though it’s technically a peninsula. That hole (see sidebar, “Hole 17”) is just one of the Stadium Course’s challenges; there are many, which is why many golfers today might not believe that the course used to be even more difficult.

TPC Sawgrass opened in 1980, but the first year THE PLAYERS Championship was held here was in 1982.

Though it had been designed for the players, the players, unfortunately, were not impressed.

“It’s Star Wars golf, designed by Darth Vader,” said Ben Crenshaw. Golfer J.C. Snead was even less kind, and when asked if the new track suited his playing style, Jack Nicklaus quipped, “No, I’ve never been very good at stopping a 5-iron on the hood of a car.”

In THE PLAYERS Stadium Course’s debut, five key players failed to make the cut: Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Hal Sutton, Johnny Miller and Lee Trevino. It’s fair to say that this was not an easy course.

Even eventual winner Jerry Pate wasn’t thrilled. When a cameraman approached him as the golfer was walking down Hole 18 on the final day leading by three strokes, and asked his opinion on the new course, Kleck recounts that Pate said he didn’t like the course at all: too much water, the rough is unbelievable, too tough. He even opined that whoever designed the course should go for a swim in it—a comment that the commentators in the TV booth loved.

When Pate eventually won, he walked out onto the 18th green where both Dye and Beman were standing and, true to his word, he tossed them both in the greenside lake— then quickly jumped in himself to celebrate his victory.

23

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“It was really good TV,” Kleck says, “because the cameras kept panning back and forth between the guys in the water and this six-foot alligator that was sunning himself 100 yards away.”

Dye duly made a few adjustments for the next year’s event, and the course has been a legend ever since (Crenshaw praised the course in 1983). Today THE PLAYERS Stadium Course is a bucket-list item for many golfers, with friends saving up for years to make the trip and to play in the footsteps of champions. It’s fair to say that finding an equivalent experience in another sport would be difficult: it’s not like your office softball team is ever going to play at Yankee Stadium, and it’s unlikely Madison Square Garden would give a handful of amateurs a few hours on the basketball court. Filling out the golf experience is Dye’s Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass, which opened in 1987 and will host its second Web.com Tour Championship in the fall.

CLUBHOUSE If the golf at TPC Sawgrass is legendary, so is the current clubhouse, which replaced the original in 2007. Built in just 13 months at a cost of $32 million by crews working round-the-clock, the 77,000-square-foot Mediterranean revival-style building is a marvel, harkening to early Florida architecture and complementing the World Golf Hall of Fame’s design, not too far away in St. Augustine.

In addition to holding the administrative offices for TPC Sawgrass, the clubhouse holds a vast array of treasures from both the PGA TOUR and THE PLAYERS.

spring 2014

The check for $1 made out to the Fletcher brothers hangs here, never cashed, as does a $100 bill from the good-natured crew at Sawgrass Country Club, who’d bet that Beman would never finish his “course in the swamp.”

Covering the walls are photos, flags and bits of memorabilia from past champions, and there are numerous other touches as well. Notable among the clubhouse’s art collection are the grand paintings in the lobby, which depict famous PLAYERS moments, including Tiger Woods’ “better than most” putt and Pate’s diving celebration in 1982. There’s a painting of Steve Elkington, the only person to win the tournament on the last day by making birdie on 18 (in 1991), and one of two-time PLAYERS winner Fred Couples making an eagle on 16 on the way to his incredible 1996 win.

The artwork, The Presidents Cup and FedExCup trophies (both housed here) and many other mind-blowing golf-related gems fill the rooms here, but one of the most impressive aspects of the clubhouse is its layout, which is decidedly player-friendly.

Unlike most clubhouses at host venues, this one has the pros in mind from the entrances to the exits. Year-round, an entire section of the clubhouse is players-only. They have their own bar, dining room and other facilities to help deal with well-intentioned but seemingly omnipresent autograph seekers, while outside they have their own practice area (the far end of the standard practice area). In addition to common amenities like personal lockers and the like, there are a few small touches, one of which is a barber’s chair that used to be installed at Sawgrass Country Club.

25

It’s also where numerous weddings and The old clubhouse that we tore down had pale-wood lockers in it. Terry Bradshaw, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, was here. Joe, the locker room attendant, said to Bradshaw, “I wish Jim Furyk was here. meaningful events are held each year.

He’s a big Steelers fan.” Bradshaw replied, “Joe, you go and get a pen and I’ll leave Jim a note.” So Joe From the players’ area, one can went and got a pen, then went back to work. Terry showered, got dressed, and left. So Joe’s walking also reach the “Tunnel of Champions,” back through the locker room, and right across the front of Furyk’s locker is written “Go Steelers!” a 151-foot 4-inch-long passage that signed, Terry Bradshaw, right there across the whole door in this ink. Joe just about had a fit. When players use to walk from the clubhouse Furyk returned, Joe told him, “I’ve got bad news: your locker was defaced while you were gone.” Furyk to the course. The hall is lined with can’t believe it: “What do you mean, ‘defaced’?” And so Joe explained. “But don’t worry, I got a guy pictures of past champions, and it’s a coming in to sand the door down and refinish it.” Jim thought for a minute and said, “No: you’re taking daunting, emotionally charging march that door off, I’m taking it home, and you’re getting me a new door!” So somewhere in Jim Furyk’s from one end to the other. house is a locker door signed by Terry Bradshaw.

Above that on the main level, there’s a display that bears testament to another of the PGA TOUR’s and HOLE 17 TPC Sawgrass’ great missions: charity.

The Stadium Course sees 40,000 rounds of golf per year, and The Storytellers, many of them each year divers pull between 110,000 and 120,000 balls from the retired professionals who volunteer to introduce visitors to lake around Hole 17 (which also borders Hole 16). The balls are the wonders of TPC Sawgrass simply for the joy of doing so, reconditioned and donated to The First Tee. The first ball ever to go in often receive tips. They pool them together and, at the end of during competition was hit by Dave Thore at exactly 8:59a.m. during each year, donate them, usually to a military-related charity. the first round of THE PLAYERS 1982—his was not the last to get wet Last year Kleck says the Storytellers donated $12,000—just that day. At least a few balls appear to have been intentionally thrown from tips! The PGA TOUR as a whole surpassed $2 billion in as an offering to the lake, as one TOUR employee explained. She in charitable donations last year, an astounding number to said she once saw a man approach the tee box, then suddenly walk which TPC Sawgrass contributed, in addition to hosting over and toss three balls in. “A sacrifice,” he explained, before teeing numerous charity functions throughout the year. More than off. (He reportedly not only made the green on his shot, but also a peripheral activity, Hughes says, charity is at the core of made birdie, so take that for what it’s worth.) the PGA TOUR’s mission.

Fred Couples made a hole-in-one here during the final round “I believe it’s the glue that holds all of us as employees of THE PLAYERS 1997. Two years later, he hit his tee shot in the and all of the golf community together,” he says. “I sleep water, then teed it up again for what would be his third shot—which really well at night knowing that every challenge that I’ve he hit directly into the cup. In fact, the ball didn’t even touch the green, faced today, every obstacle that I have to encounter, every it just flew in and wedged between the edge of the cup and the flag, hour that I have to put in here that I’d rather be with my giving him par. family, I know that it’s going to a good cause.”

The most famous putt here likely was Tiger Woods’ in 2001 The charitable efforts are just part of what makes during the third round of THE PLAYERS. It started nearly 60 feet TPC Sawgrass so special. The hospitality, the ease with from the hole on the fringe on the back of the green, broke left, which players can move about, the exquisite facilities caught the top of a ridge, then broke hard right and eventually rolled and top-notch experience offered during THE PLAYERS into the hole. Besides being one of the most famous putts in history, Championship, all of it comes together to create one of it also put NBC Sports broadcaster Gary Koch’s name in the news golf’s ultimate destinations. As Hughes puts it so well: with his increasingly excited “better than most” commentary.

“The club here is special to the TOUR because it represents their brand so well. It represents their brand in its quest for excellence. It represents the brand in its ability to create a magical experience, and it also creates a golf experience for avid golfers from around the world.

“In the last three weeks I’ve had private jets fly in here to St. Augustine and executives get off and come play golf, and I’ve had a group of four guys out of Des Moines, Iowa, who took over two years to save enough money to come here, truck drivers. I see everything here.

And to create magical experiences and memorable things for these kinds of people, a demographic that is literally international in scope and from every socioeconomic background you could have with no bias to gender, it’s unbelievable, it’s totally unbelievable.”

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©2014 Callaway Golf Company. Callaway, the Chevron Device, Big Bertha and Big Bertha Alpha are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Callaway Golf Company. Matteo Manassero plays Big Bertha in competition. *Results vary per player. Yardage claim for total distance gains based upon consumer testing of amateur players with varying swing speeds and a wide range of handicaps and multiple driver brands, using the new Big Bertha Driver, adjusted to fit each player, and tested against each consumer’s current driver.

TPC Network A network of top quality courses, each built to host a professional tournament, each designed with fans and players in mind and maintained to the highest standard with facilities and amenities to match their top-tier status. Sound like a dream?

It is, but it’s also a reality with the TPC Network Deane Beman

T

oday, the internationally-expanding TPC Network of more than 30 golf courses offers professionals and fans alike the chance to play fantastic golf in some of the country’s most beautiful locations. The Network hosts some of golf’s biggest tournaments, houses some of the game’s biggest personalities and is responsible for more than a few iconic moments in the game’s history. But it’s the day-to-day high quality of life at TPC properties that stands as an enduring testament to the Network’s beginnings, all starting with visionary PGA TOUR Commissioner Deane Beman. At the helm from 1974 to 1994, Beman’s impact on golf is tough to calculate: his legacy is comprised of a wide variety of major achievements that stretch from golf-specific innovations to redefining the character of entire regions, as he did in the case of the area around Jacksonville, Florida. But one of the greatest testaments to his tenure is certainly the TPC Network, and it all started with his masterpiece, TPC Sawgrass.

The Stadium Course, which opened in 1980 and which first hosted THE PLAYERS Championship in 1982, precluded development of other TPC tracks. The rest, as they say, is history.

Following the debut of TPC Sawgrass, others started dreaming of having a TPC in their own backyards. The first to approach Beman was Bob Kirby, Westinghouse chairman and member of the PGA TOUR Policy Board. Kirby presented a proposal for a second TPC in Coral Springs, Florida—the first of many proposals to hit Beman’s desk. It wasn’t long before Phoenix, Arizona; Houston, Texas; and Hartford, Connecticut all came to the table with plans for TPC golf courses, and it was no wonder.

On the tournament side, as outlined in the book Deane Beman: Golf’s Driving Force, the TOUR waived rental fees for tournaments held at TPCs. This meant a savings of as much as $300,000 in some cases, money that went straight to the tourneys’ bottom lines. In addition, the first $100,000 of net revenue from the Club went to the tournament organizing committee, an incentive that resulted in more revenue from television as the formula for splitting the TV

spring 2014

fund was a function of purse size. For charities, that meant the tournament had another $50,000 available for donation.

The tournament incentives complemented developer goals as developers were assured their new courses would host an event, an obvious plus for a course that was inevitable anyway in the case of a planned track for a hotel, real estate project or municipality.

From the book: “For developers, the annual tournament exposure was an irresistible sales tool as was the comfort of knowing the TOUR would ensure course conditions were maintained at tournament level.” To date, TPCs have hosted nearly 400 professional golf tournaments across the PGA TOUR, Champions Tour and Web.com Tour.

Additionally, while all TPC courses were modelled on Pete Dye’s design ethos, Beman wanted each to have its own character, a goal that largely was accomplished. Writing for Golf Digest in a survey of TPC golf courses, Ron Whitten wrote that “[TPC] layouts each had their own personality, but all were unmistakably children sired within the same clan.”

From a business standpoint, the TPC Network has been great for the TOUR. More than three decades after the debut of TPC Sawgrass, revenue from operations, royalties and licensing fees, management fees and membership have continued to grow. And as the TOUR owns or has an ownership stake in the majority of the clubs, the TPC Network continues to be a stable revenue source for the TOUR, which maintains them at a level that benefits golfers and fans.

As Beman said of the Network, “It comforts me to know that long after I’m gone, players, fans, audiences around the world will still be enjoying these clubs. That’s immensely satisfying.”

The TPC Network also wholeheartedly embraces the PGA TOUR’s “Together, anything’s possible” charitable mission by hosting numerous events throughout the year benefitting local, regional and national charities and causes.

For a list of TPC clubs and courses, visit tpc.com/find

31

TPC Deere Run opens. The site of the annual John Deere Classic, this course in Silvis, Illinois, winds along the wooded ravines of the Rock River, making it as picturesque as it is challenging.

TPC Sawgrass hosts its first PLAYERS Championship, launching the TPC Network and a new era of top-quality “stadium” golf.

1982

1987

The Phoenix Open moves to TPC Scottsdale. Established in 1932 and now known as the Waste Management Phoenix Open, this tournament is the PGA TOUR’s largest attended event. Dubbed “The Greatest Show on Grass,” week-long attendance is usually near 500,000, contributing the mayhem which reaches fever pitch on Hole 16. When Tiger Woods hit a hole-in-one there in 1997, the gallery went crazy, throwing cups and chairs and screaming at what has been called “golf’s most hollered ground.”

1991

2000 TPC Tampa Bay is built. During the surveying process for the new course, architect Bobby Weed chose to ride a horse around the property rather than use an all-terrain vehicle. The course has since been voted one of the top tracks in Florida.

TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas is designed by architect Bobby Weed, who’s working on TPC Tampa Bay at the same time. The course is the host of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open and is regarded as one of the best courses in the Las Vegas area.

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spring 2014

The Old White TPC at Greenbrier joins the TPC Network. Host to the PGA TOUR’s Greenbrier Classic, the White Sulphur Springs, W.Virginia club’s Old White TPC Course was designed by Charles Blair Macdonald in 1914 and named for The Old White Hotel, which stood on the grounds from 1858 to 1922. One of the first golfers to play here was President Woodrow Wilson, who visited in April of 1914. In 2010, Stuart Appleby shot a 59 here to win the inaugural Classic, adding another bit of history and setting a high standard for a storied club.

TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas, is established. Host of the 2012 Web.com Tour Championship, the private course outside of Dallas features a Tom Weiskopf design and an extensive practice facility.

2004

2010

2011

TPC Harding Park joins the Network. The course, designed in 1925 by Willie Watson and Sam Whiting (both of Olympic Club fame), has a history as dynamic as the City of San Francisco, in which it sits. It was an instant celebrity when it opened and grew to host a number of tournaments like the 1937 and 1956 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championships. It was also a development course for TOUR members like Ken Venturi and Johnny Miller, who played there in their junior days. While it was a frequent PGA TOUR stop in the 1960s, it deteriorated in the 1970s and 80s, with the low point coming during the 1998 U.S. Open at Olympic Club when it was used as a parking lot. Following a major renovation that began in 2002, the newly revitalized course once again joined the top ranks of golf, hosting the 2005 WGC-American Express Championship, which Tiger Woods won in thrilling fashion, and the The Presidents Cup 2009, with Tiger again impressing with a perfect 5–0 match record. In 2010 it joined the TPC Network and today it’s one of the finest courses in the Bay Area.

spring 2014

2012

TPC Cancun joins the Network.

Currently the only international TPC destination, it features 36 holes of golf designed by Tom Fazio and Nick Price. The club has been lauded for its commitment to the environment, using native plants and grasses, preserving habitat for the numerous examples of local wildlife, and working hard to minimize fresh water consumption and to protect the surrounding area.

33

horses run

They had to stand on hillsides to watch the races; huge crowds with no grandstands. And the rules were different, what rules there were, so the turns were murder: bodies flying, no stirrups or saddles, as many as 50 horses driving for the inside line at once. It didn’t matter if the jockey stayed on or even if he lived, riderless horses that crossed the line were honored, too. But that was 648 B.C. in Greece, and while horse racing might have been the most prestigious event in the Olympics, it wasn’t the most considered

’ m thinking about that this morning, mostly about riderless horses wanting to win, and watching Thoroughbreds and riders move out onto the track at Santa Anita Park for exercise. In silhouette against the pre-dawn California sky, a rider and his horse look like a single animal, and I wonder how connected they really are. I arrived just after 6 and am on my first cup of coffee, but the trainers, exercise staff and others are already well into their workdays. Many get here at 4:30 or so, essentially every morning of the week. The horses, you see, like to get moving.

“Today? Oh man, you waited so long. I gave it away yesterday. I’d rather ride yours if I’d have known. [Pause] I’ll try. Let me see what I can do.” Scotty hangs up his phone and turns back to me. “Sorry ’bout that. Some days this thing rings like crazy, other times it just sits there.”

A jockey agent since he was 17, Scott McClellan— “Scotty” within seconds of meeting him—has been at Santa Anita for more than 40 years. He went to high school near the track, and used to come out in the mornings before class.

“My father was a jockey and an agent, that’s how I started,” he says. “I’d go to school from 11 to 2, then I’d run back here to the races.”

As a jockey agent, Scotty is responsible for putting his jockey—currently a sharp 24-year-old named Joseph Talamo— on horses. Specifically, he’s tasked with getting Joe on good horses, ones that have a chance to win. To do that, Scotty networks with trainers and owners, navigating a political field of knowing which hands to shake and which rides to take. A two-time Kentucky Derby winner (with Chris McCarron on Go for Gin in 1994 and on Alysheba in 1987), he knows the game.

“If it’s between two horses and [Joe’s] ridden them both, I’ll go to him and say ‘what about these two?’ If the horses are very close [in ability], maybe this client we ride a lot for, we’ve won a lot for, and the other guy we ride one for, I’ll say let’s go with the guy who puts us on a lot of horses. But big trainers and big owners, those guys don’t take it so well when you don’t ride their horse. If it’s close, you’re leaning their way most of the time. If it’s not close, you’re going to go with the best horse.”

With something like 10 races a day, eight horses or so per race and a crowd of jockeys trying to get rides, it’s a rough gig, especially considering that top jockeys ride in numerous races per day, taking a good share of the work.

35

“It’s very competitive. There are 40 guys like me, and they have other jocks and they’re trying to get under me, trying to get on my horse,” says Scotty.

Talamo, who’s listed as one of the country’s “star jocks” on Santa Anita’s website, shares the Southern California spotlight with top jockey Rafael Bejarano and Mike Smith, a National Museum and Racing Hall of Fame inductee who’s won more Breeders’ Cup races than anyone.

(The Breeders’ Cup is a prestigious annual series of top-tier races that’s hosted at a different track each year.)

“Often, [trainers and owners] are going to go with Bejarano because he’s got the name and he wins,” says Scotty.

“Smith doesn’t ride ’em unless they’re going to win. Trainers aren’t going to waste his time putting him on a lesser horse.

We get on good horses, but we also ride a lot of what you might call lesser horses; they might be 20 or 30-to-1.”

Julio

“When you buy a two-year-old or a yearling, they don’t know anything,” says Julio Canani, a three-time Breeders’ Cup winner who’s something of a local legend at Santa

A native of Peru, his accent is strong even after 50 years in America, and he peppers his speech with colorful words that he uses almost like punctuation. Not surprisingly, he inspired a TV character: Turo Escalante in the short-lived HBO show “Luck” was based on Canani.

“I came out to America in 1963. I wanted to land in Florida but I took a wrong plane and I ended up in Hartford, Connecticut or $&#*,” he remembers. “In Peru I didn’t like school so I ran away from my house and I went to the racetrack when I was 13 years old. I used to walk horses.”

After working as a gardener and then as a dishwasher, Canani, a Puerto Rican boxer and a waiter from El Salvador all moved to California together.

“The waiter got a job in the Beverly Hilton and I got a job in a gas station. I wanted to be a movie star and *%#^ but nobody discovered me—oh *&%!”

One night at a club, Canani says he met a woman who turned out to be a millionaire in the middle of a divorce.

“She had a beautiful house, and I ended up moving in with her. She said, ‘I don’t want you to work or nothing.’

She bought me a car and everything. For three years I’m like

Scott McClellan (above); Julio Canani (right)

Anita. “Like a kid who goes to school and they don’t know how to write, how to read, nothing.”

Canani built his reputation by seeing potential where others didn’t and training it up. In one case, he purchased a horse in France (Silic) for $30,000 that went on to win the mile race in the 1999 Breeders’ Cup, held at Gulfstream Park in Florida, and that’s just one story.

36

spring 2014

a pimp, then I got tired of that &^%$ and I said I didn’t come to this country for this. I want to go back to horses and be a trainer. She said ‘No! If you work, that’s it.’ So I packed my things, she drove me up here to Baldwin (Avenue, in front of Santa Anita Park), and she dropped me with my suitcase, and that’s it. I came to the racetrack.”

Among the many, many winner’s circle pictures on his office walls, there’s one of Canani 40 years ago in a thick coat, sunglasses on, looking good. Now 77, he says most of the owners he used to train for are dead, including Terrence Lanni, former CEO of MGM Mirage, with whom Canani won numerous times. The trainer’s barn is still buzzing though, and he recently got a new horse he thinks could go far. When an exercise boy— one of the guys who exercises horses— rides by at the end of a morning session and asks, “Like it, no like it?” Canani smiles and nods his head.

“Yeah, me too,” says the rider.

Joe

Surface

old, he was the first apprentice jockey to win a riding title at New Orleans’ Fair Grounds Race Course, and his list of victories since then is impressive. The 5’ 3” jockey, who keeps his weight around 105lbs, is well liked around the track and respected for his strong work ethic, clean lifestyle and genial personality, not to mention his smarts on a horse.

“When I was 7, my dad took me out to the track and I fell in love with it,” he says. “My favorite car was a Chevy Corvette, and I saw one sitting there. My dad said, ‘Oh, jockeys always drive them.’ I’m like, oh that’s what I’m gonna be. Gonna get a Corvette!

“From the time I was 8 or 9, that’s all I really thought about and really worked toward. I never knew if I was going to be 5' 10", 140lbs. I’m lucky, very lucky.”

“This guy is very clean cut,” says Vladimir Cerin, a Breeders’ Cup-winning trainer. “I have a 5-year-old who thinks that Joe walks on water. He thinks he’s gonna be a jock, too. He’s gonna be 6' 5".”

The dream of any jockey, Joe’s been to the big show— the Kentucky Derby, in which he ran in 2010 on a horse named Sidney’s Candy. The year before, he was set to make his Derby debut on I Want Revenge, the favorite, but the horse scratched (bowed out) the morning of the race due to injury. Joe took the news in stride, telling several journalists that “you’re not in the Derby ’til the gates open.”

The track at Santa Anita measures one mile, with many races run over one and one-eighth miles in less than two minutes.

Like Churchill Downs, site of the Kentucky Derby, and the tracks that host the Belmont Stakes and the Preakness, which together make racing’s Triple Crown, Santa Anita is dirt. Some tracks opt for a synthetic or “poly” surface, which is a mix of rubber, polymers and other materials.

Where dirt tends to kick up from a horse’s hooves, creating divots, material on poly tracks seems to settle back down.

Logically, there are horses for courses, with some preferring one over the other.

But track surface is only one variable. Others, like the horse’s training regimen, diet, maintenance and care, and a million other things all conspire to help a horse win or lose, and most of that is on the trainer.

“I must make 25, 30, 50 decisions a day, and I just hope half of them are right,” says James Cassidy, named 2010 Top Trainer in California by California Breeders. “You gotta do a lot of gut stuff.”

The native New Yorker left the Bronx and moved to California in 1980, and aside from his ubiquitous Yankees cap he hasn’t looked back. He acknowledges that when the training is done and the horse is in the gate, winning or losing is down to the horse and the jockey on it—and luck.

“That’s actually where I’m probably most relaxed, right when you get in the gate,” says Joe. “That’s from doing it so long.”

Talamo was born in Marrero, Louisiana, just outside of New Orleans, and he’s been on a horse since he was in diapers (he has the photo to prove it). In 2006, just 16 years

I must make 25, 30, 50 decisions a day, and I just hope half of them are right

spring 2014

37

Strategy

Getting a good break—coming out of the gate well—is important, Joe says, but if your horse is one that likes to come from behind late in a race, you don’t want him coming out of the gate too strong because then you have to drag him back.

As for positioning, no one wants to be “on the rail,” with the inside lane, because it’s easy to get trapped.

“That’s very important for certain horses,” says Joe. “Most of the time you don’t want the ‘one hole,’ especially if you’re on a speed horse because you have no choice but to gun your horse outta there and go to the front. If you’re on the outside you have the option to go to the front and go over, or you can sit on him. If you’re on the inside you’re at a pretty big disadvantage unless you’re faster.”

During a race, Joe watches the other jockeys closely.

“I’m not going to say names, but a lot of guys do a lot of things over again,” he says. “Certain jockeys move a little earlier than others so you’ll know that horse might come back [because it tires]. Some jockeys wait too long, so you don’t want to be behind them because by the time they go your horse has lost a little momentum.”

A more immediate sign of how things are going in a race are a horse’s ears, which are a sort of engine light that lets a jockey know how a horse is running.

“A lot of times when a horse’s ears are straight up that’s when they’re relaxed,” Joe says. “If they’re pinned all the way back, they’re giving you everything they have. So if I’m in front and their ears are straight up, that means they’re real relaxed and I still have a lot of horse left. As a jockey that’s a good sign. But then a lot of times I’ll come to a horse, I’m all alone, my horse’s ears are back and I’ll see that the other horse’s ears are up and I’ll think, ‘I’m screwed.’ Not all the time, but most of the time it’s a pretty good indication.”

Horse or Jockey?

“They’re doing most of the work,” says Joe. “To me, you mostly stay out of their way, let ’em do their own thing.”

Cerin basically agrees, but says it’s not always true.

“The last race you won for us, you won the race,” he says to Joe. “You had a good horse, but you perfectly timed the run.”

Turning back to me, he explains: “You can’t move too early. You move too early you got nothing left, and in the last 50 yards the whole world caves in on you. Joe’s become very, very good at saving the right amount of energy.

“Some of the horses, Joe’s on for the first time. But he’s become so good at adapting to the individual that he might never have seen the horse before, never been introduced, but he looks at videos, picks up the horse’s running style, looks at the other horses in the race, what their running style is, and tries to adjust his horse to that.”

Smiling big after Cerin’s comments, Joe exclaims, “I’m buying you dinner tonight, Vladimir!”

38

Joe is great at adapting. With some horses, the first time he’s on them is in a race So when it comes to which part of the team is most responsible for the win, can a good jockey win on a mediocre horse and can a bad jockey screw up a winner?

“I know a bad jockey can screw it up for sure,” says Joe. “As for a good one on a mediocre horse, I think so, to a certain degree. I try and watch replays and see if a horse is running second or third a lot of times, maybe see if the jockey is doing something wrong, moving too late, too early, keeping the horse too close or maybe too far back.

“In that degree maybe a better jockey can make the horse win. But in my opinion it’s 80 to 90 percent the horse and the rest is us.”

spring 2014

The Horse

All modern Thoroughbreds can be traced back to three horses imported to England from the Middle East in the 17th and 18th centuries: The Byerley Turk, the Darley Arabian and the Godolphin Arabian. According to an oft-quoted genetic study, 95 percent of modern Thoroughbreds are descended from the Darley Arabian, which was purchased in Syria in 1704. Thoroughbreds, essentially hybrids of Middle Eastern stallions and European mares, are quite literally bred to race, and the best thing you can do, according to

the trainers with whom I spoke, is to stay out of their way.

“You don’t want to teach them anything,” says Cassidy.

“That’s in them. You don’t want to take it out. They race to beat other horses. Watch a herd: There’s always one or two in front.”

“They’re bred for it, they’re highly competitive,” says Cerin. “Ninety percent of them, if you load them in with no riders, they’ll race to the wire.

“I had one horse, we bet all our money on him, the rider fell off [early in the race]. The horse pulls into the turn three wide, running seventh. He stays there in his position, gets on the backside, starts moving up, circles the field and wins by 10.”

Unlike in the Ancient Greek Olympics, riderless horses can’t win today—running without the weight of a jockey is too great an advantage—but it does speak to the horses’ instincts.

“They like to run, even in morning workouts they compete,” Cerin says. “They want to get to the wire first.

They know where the wire is after a while, and they know it’s important.”

spring 2014

Saturday

In the fourth race, Joe’s on a horse named Nashoba’s Gold.

They’re racing on turf (a grass course, which sits just inside the dirt course) and it’s a Maiden race, meaning none of the field has ever won.

Each year, close to 40,000 Thoroughbreds are born, with roughly half of those going on to become racehorses.

Of that group, only 20 will make it to the Kentucky Derby, giving some idea of the odds of becoming a champion.

All of them start with a Maiden win, and today’s is restricted to three-year-old fillies [a young female horse]. Joe’s horse is half-sister to a horse named Nashoba’s Key, a fantastic winner that died in a freak accident in 2008 when she kicked through the wall of her pen and fractured her hind leg.

Alyce and Warren Williamson, the owners, were reportedly devastated at the loss—“when that happens, it’s like losing your kid,” says Scotty—and so for them today’s race has a strong emotional component to it.

I’m sitting with Scotty in a boxed area of the stands. We have a video monitor in front of us, and Scotty has his binoculars.

The gate opens and they’re off.

Just over a minute and 48 seconds later it’s over, and I realize that, although I was calm and even a little tired at the beginning of the race, now I’m shaking with excitement. Joe drew the rail but Nashoba’s Gold broke quickly and Joe was able to get her clear. With eight horses running, she came from second-to-last down the backside and started going, “leveling off nicely when able to lengthen her stride,” according to an account in the Thoroughbred Daily News, published after the race.

In the end, Joe and Nashoba’s Gold reeled in a horse named Star Act right in front of the grandstands, then won by half a length, sending Scotty to his feet with me not far behind. We rush down the stairs from the stands to meet Joe in the winner’s circle, with Scotty so excited he almost pulls me into the post-race picture.

Alyce Williamson is in tears, and as we move around her she turns to Scotty and says, “Oh! This was so special, because… well, you know,” clearly thinking of Nashoba’s Key. Joe stays on Nashoba’s Gold for the picture, casts a quick glance skyward, then dismounts. Alyce hugs him, then hugs him again. The Williamson family is crying and smiling, then everyone clears the circle and the track readies for the fifth race.

39

“I hate to say it,” Joe offers, “but one of the funnest days recently, the closing day of Hollywood.”

Cerin: “I won the last race.”

Joe: “You beat me! How fun and electric. It felt almost like a Breeders’ Cup day. Oh! I mean, the crowd…”

Cerin: “They ran out of programs, they let everybody in for free. It was the biggest crowd at Hollywood in 20 years.”

Joe: “Unbelievable. But I won two races that day, and when you came back everybody was cheering, hollering, I mean, it was… Oh man!”

Cerin: “But it used to be like that on a Thursday afternoon here. Thursday was a big day.”

Circles

Joe Talamo on Nashoba's Gold about to beat Star Act by half a length

Things Have Changed

“A lot worse,” says Canani, when asked how horse racing is doing. Cassidy sings a similar tune, pointing to people not understanding the sport like they used to, and to technology being a problem, even if it’s helped in some ways.

“We tried to tell [race organizers] back [when races started being televised and run online], that this was going to cannibalize the business, and that’s exactly what happened. People don’t come out anymore; they can watch it on TV and bet at home.”

“We missed a whole generation of players, guys [in their 20s to early 40s],” says Cerin. “There are very few of them here. We didn’t teach them how to gamble, and really, if you like wagering, this is the intelligent person’s form of wagering.

A football game is just flipping a coin. This takes a little bit of studying, but that’s what intelligent people like to do.

“But you can bet at home, you can bet on your phone, you can bet on your iPad... You don’t have to come here. When people stopped coming, the atmosphere is not as electric as it was. We used to average 32,000, 40,000, 40-45,000 every Saturday and Sunday. It would take you an hour to get out of the parking lot. Now it takes you five minutes.

Joe: “Yeah, you’re lucky to get 30 on a huge day.”

Cerin: “Oh on a huge day, on the biggest days we don’t get 30, and that was our average: 32,000 in 1983.”

One recent indicator of changes in racing is the closing of Hollywood Park, a track that shut its doors at the end of last season. The venue ran for 75 years and used to attract the likes of Fred Astaire, Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant and others. Closing day in December drew a large crowd as fans turned up to say goodbye. Joe and Cerin were both there.

40

Lotta Beach is an exercise rider and former show jumper who arrives at 4:30a.m. nearly every day of the week at Santa Anita to work with horses.

“I’m very emotional,” she says, telling me that she often grows quite close to the animals with which she works. One, specifically, has a special place in her heart: Calidoscopio. Near and dear to fans as well, Calidoscopio capped his career at the age of 10 with an astounding comefrom-behind performance at the 2013 Brooklyn Handicap at Belmont, making up 22 lengths in the last half mile of the muddy race to win. The feat made ESPN’s daily Top Ten and was followed quickly by a well-deserved retirement to his owners’ farm in South America.

“I was there at 1:30 in the morning to put him in the van,” Beach says. “That one was special.”

Asked whether horse racing is exploitive, as some animal rights groups and others believe, Beach appears perplexed.

“You have to respect the horse,” she says. “Having them stand around is not respecting them, not taking care of them. They want to do something, whether it’s herding cows or show jumping or racing.”

The degree to which the next generation of potential racing fans is able to embrace that perspective will depend on a host of factors, shaped in part by media and in part by their generation’s personality. After all, we’re living in a time when there’s mainstream talk of abolishing football for safety reasons, something that would have seemed ridiculous not too many years ago.

Whatever the future holds for racing, however it is regarded, for as long as possible it will continue to deliver its straightforward and compelling realities, just as it has for centuries: a rider and horse working together, victory and defeat, and even life and death. Whether or not the next generation can handle that, much less appreciate or celebrate it, only time will tell. At least some in the racing world aren’t worried.

Thomas Proctor—the son of a storied trainer and an accomplished trainer in his own right—puts it simply: “People change,” he tells me. “But we still run in a circle.”

spring 2014

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Don Felder grew up in Florida with Stephen Stills, Tom Petty and a host of other talented musicians, then switched coasts to become a rock icon himself. Now he’s playing tons of golf, touring with his new band and looking forward to meeting Arnold Palmer again.

Consider Paul Trow his latest groupie…

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here’s only one place to meet Don Felder for the first time: That’s right... a hotel. But the hotel on this occasion was nowhere near California, his natural habitat. Mind you, the erstwhile frontman, songwriter and lead guitarist of The Eagles wasn’t complaining. Far from it, he was completely at home—at the Home of Golf.

As we chatted like old friends in the somewhat po-faced foyer of the luxurious Old Course Hotel at St Andrews, I yearned for a jukebox to belt out his most famous composition, Hotel California. Despite the ambiguity of the song’s meaning and mood, and the fact that the hotel in question was far removed from our sybaritic setting, it’s undeniably feelgood music... and Felder is very much a feelgood guy.

He’s also a pretty keen golfer, hence the crossing of our paths a mere stone’s throw from the infamous Road Hole.

The occasion was his annual pilgrimage to the east coast of Scotland to play in the Dunhill Links

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Championship, arguably the world’s outstanding pro-am tournament.

His first remark when we sat down was an unusual invitation to a reporter: “Misquote me if necessary!”

What he actually said was, “I’m happy as long as you edit it to make me sound articulate and remotely intelligent!” Did I hear right? After a lifetime of grappling with incoherent streams of (un)consciousness under severe instructions not to change a word, this was definitely a breath of fresh air. But it wasn’t necessary; Felder was both articulate and intelligent, and neither attribute needed any massaging by this humble scribe.

Naturally, the first question to ask a man who has packed stadiums all over the world for four decades was how he managed to find the time, and the nerve, to take up a game that is devilishly difficult to learn and which still is seen in many circles as a bastion of unhip conservatism?

“I first got involved in golf in Miami when I was on tour with The Eagles around 1975-76,” he recalls. “We went there a lot. One week we chartered a boat and the sea was

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so rough that one of the guys went green around the gills.

So we said, ‘let’s do something different, let’s go play golf.’

“Three of us went out, rented clubs, wore jeans and sneakers, took a load of alcohol with us, and we had a wonderful time. We had so much fun we did it again the next weekend. After going home to LA we carried on playing, and Bill Szymczyk [who was producing The Eagles’ albums at the time] started hitting the ball further than 200 yards. So I started taking lessons because I certainly wasn’t going to be outdriven by him.

“As time went by, I fell in love with the game—and I got quite good at it at one point. It’s a game that suits people who are individuals. You have to rely on your own skills and talents. Musicians are like that. You can relate to it and you need coordination.

“My lowest handicap was 6.5, back in 2002-03, but I’m off 15 now because I don’t get to play so much because of work.”

The debonair Felder, now 66 though far from a bald Eagle, performs up to 75 shows a year with his current combo, the Don Felder Band. Towards the end of 2012 they released the album, Road to Forever, the lead single from which, Fall from the Grace of Love, reached No.4 in the Classic Rock chart. “It’s definitely classic rock, Eagles-style,” he says, “and we’ll soon be going on a long tour worldwide, including the UK, Canada and many other countries.”

The story of Felder’s Eagles-style can be traced to his infancy in Gainesville, Florida, the city of his birth.

Entranced by watching Elvis Presley perform live on The Ed Sullivan Show, he acquired a guitar when he was just 10 years old. Aged 15, he started his first band, The

Felder sizes up a yardage with his caddie on the Old Course

Continentals, with, among others, a college drop-out named Stephen Stills. Bernie Leadon, later a founding member of The Eagles, eventually replaced Stills, and in Gainesville High School’s 1966 yearbook the band is pictured next to a fellow student’s outfit: Tom Petty and The Epics.

Felder joined The Eagles and moved to the West Coast in 1974 only for Leadon to leave less than a year later.

Mind you, the replacement wasn’t a bad draft pick—Joe Walsh—and thus was spawned one of rock’s most successful lead guitar duos. After Felder split with the band in 1980, he went on to enjoy a successful solo and session career.

But when he regrouped with his old buddies for a one-off concert in 1994, in the blink of an eye he was lured back into the nest for a further seven years.

Alas, the experience ended unhappily and it’s well documented that Felder fell out spectacularly with fellow band members Don Henley and Glenn Frey. Indeed, he really only purged himself of the residual ill-feeling through the 2008 publication of his side of the story, Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974–2001).

Whilst he wouldn’t necessarily credit golf with restoring his sanity as much as the love and support of his second wife, Kathrin, it was at least a means of letting off steam. Famously for another rock idol of similar vintage—Alice Cooper—finding golf is generally acknowledged to have made the difference between the healthy, enduring life he lives today and the premature, chemically-induced demise that otherwise awaited him the best part of 30 years ago.

“Three of us went out, rented clubs, wore jeans and sneakers, took a load of alcohol with us, and we had a wonderful time”

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Don Felder teaming up with Arnold Palmer at a celebrity golf tournament (above, left) and giving his Gibson guitar a workout on stage (above, right)

“I’ve played a lot with Alice Cooper over the years,” Felder says. “He might go to watch a movie or go to a mall once in a while, but he plays golf every day. He was close to a 3-handicap when I last played with him and he turns up with a different set of antique clubs every time. Huey Lewis is another luminary of our industry who I’ve spent a fair of amount of time with golfing.

“I worked hard on golf when I was on the road with The Eagles, but I’ve also taken lessons for many years from a pro called Coleman Gibson who is now based at Westlake Golf Center [a short drive west of Los Angeles].

“My home course is Lakeside in LA, a club for scoundrels if you ask me. W.C. Fields and Frank Sinatra were members once upon a time. You see [Sylvester] Stallone, [Joe] Pesci and [Samuel L.] Jackson there as well, but the guy I play the most with is Don Johnson. He was the villain in Tin Cup, as I keep reminding him. It’s right across the street from Warner Brothers and Universal Studios. I love it, it’s a pretention-free environment. I live about 30 minutes’ drive from there.

“I have four sons from my previous marriage [he was married to Susan for 29 years until 2000], one’s an investment advisor, another’s in insurance. They play golf, it’s a great family sport. You can’t do better in California than play golf.” But then again maybe you can, especially as he’s just played his favorite course of all, one that inspires awe and affection in almost equal measures.

“I’ve played countless times in front of 100,000 people with a Gibson guitar in my hands [usually either a Les Paul or EDS-1275] and never felt nervous,” he says. “But put me on the 1st tee of the Old Course and my hands start shaking.

Typically, though, you get used to it after a while.

“The first year I came here [St Andrews], I didn’t come as an invited guest of Dunhill. Harold Riley [the celebrated artist and protégé of ‘Matchstick Man’ L.S. Lowry] asked me to come because a cricketer had pulled out at short

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notice. I played in a 4-ball with Lee Westwood—it was the year he won [2003]—and he holed his second shot for an albatross [on the 9th at Kingsbarns]. Lee was partnering his manager Chubby Chandler while my professional partner was an English guy called Anthony Wall. It couldn’t get any better than that!

“My ambition the first time was to play the Old Course for all 18 holes without going in a bunker. I think Tiger did that for all 72 holes in the 2000 [British] Open. I thought I’d achieved that, for sure. Then I got to the Road Hole and messed up. But I’ve been coming here when I can ever since.

The people I’ve met at this tournament have been fantastic, and not just the pros. It’s a delightful experience and now it feels like a family reunion. I look forward to it every year, like Christmas in September.

“Even though I play a lot of charity and showbiz events, it’s still a dream come true—it’s the Home of Golf right here.

Of all the things I do during the year this is the week I block out in my diary; you can’t book me for anything else.

“I’ve played in Scotland a lot and some of the golf scenery here is truly sensational. Back in the ’70s, when I was a beginner at golf, we stayed just outside Glasgow at Turnberry and in the morning I opened the curtains of my hotel room and what did I see? It was that incredible island out in the sea [the Ailsa Craig]. Wow!” Another Wow! factor in Felder’s golfing life has been his acquaintance with Arnold Palmer in their mutual pursuit of one of life’s genuinely good causes. “I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Palmer loads of times, usually at LA prostate cancer events.

“One of my proudest possessions is a photograph I have of him standing on the stage holding my guitar. Of course, I asked him to hold it so I could take the picture, though I’m not sure he knew that was my intention at the time.”

And thus it was that a King accepted an offer he couldn’t refuse from a Don.

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Air your tunes

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he midway point in our fantasy round is nigh and the 9th hole invariably offers an opportunity for salvation, albeit of the riskreward variety. The temptation, nay the need, to attack might be paramount for those who have fallen by the wayside over the first eight holes, while those who have made a solid or even stellar start to the round will be faced with a choice—keep going for broke or start pulling in the horns. The majority of the 9th holes from around the world showcased in this article will lead the player back to the clubhouse, and perhaps some much-needed refreshments. A few though are located at the farthest extremity of the course with no immediate respite. However, there is no question that playing the 9th hole is a landmark moment in any round of golf. Readers—enjoy!

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Par-4, 361 yards

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Par-4, 460 yards

Blackwolf Run (River), Kohler, Wisconsin

Augusta National, Augusta, Georgia

This might appear an innocuous start, but appearances can be deceptive—especially as the architect in question is the infamous Pete Dye, who laid out Blackwolf Run for Herb Kohler’s American Club back in 1988. In general, the extraordinary and seductive 9th hole on the River Course, known as Cathedral Spires, commands the utmost reverence.

Faced with a lengthy carry across a thin strip of land flanked by water, most players will aim a long-iron or fairway metal from the tee to the left of a prominent thicket of trees and short of the well-positioned fairway bunkers that guard the approach to the green. Anyone who decides to go for the green, though, must aim over the trees and through a narrow gap between two large traps. This requires about 300 yards of carry, but anything pushed into or right of the green could fall foul of its front-to-back, left-to-right gradient that slithers inexorably toward the river.

Known as Carolina Cherry, for a small, native, evergreen tree that bears prolific clusters of white flowers in April followed by black berries popular with birds, this hole’s trademark is a green that slopes treacherously from back to front. With the hole stretching gradually in length over the years, players at the Masters make an increasing point of trying to drive down the right side of the downhill fairway as anything ‘hooked’ will likely result in a ‘stymie’ behind a tree. The line from the right is also desirable because it takes the two wide bunkers that eat into the front left of the green out of play. Nowadays, the longer hitters manage to propel their tee shots all the way to the pedestrian walkway at around 350 yards. The green has a prodigious false front and anything short of the top of the slope will invariably trickle back down the fairway, often, in the case of a pitch shot, to the player’s feet.

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Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

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Par-5, 636 yards

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Par-3, 236 yards

Congressional Country Club (Blue), Bethesda, Maryland

Merion (East), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Blue Course, scene of Rory McIlroy’s eight-shot triumph in the 2011 U.S. Open, has staged four Majors since it opened in 1924. The original design by Devereux Emmet has since been updated by both Robert Trent Jones, Sr., and his son Rees Jones. Known for its rolling terrain, tree-lined fairways, wide greens and ubiquitous water hazards, it has been the home club of seven Presidents, including Dwight D. Eisenhower, and such luminaries of the American way of life as J.C. Penney, Harvey Firestone, Walter Chrysler, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and William Randolph Hearst. The 9th hole on the Blue is scenic, tough, and almost never should be attempted in two shots. It has a straight, flat fairway and the bunkers on both sides are nearly 300 yards from the tee. Second shots should finish near the end of the fairway, leaving a pitch of 100 yards or so across a giant ravine to a three-tier green surrounded by five bunkers.

Hugh Wilson’s masterpiece in a northwest suburb of Philadelphia hosted its fifth U.S. Open last year and, despite its lack of length, served up a memorable championship and a searching examination of the skills of the world’s best players. Certainly, Justin Rose’s one-over-par winning total of 281 reflected the degree of difficulty that the field faced at virtually every hole on the East Course at Merion. Typically, the 9th, a downhill par-3, offers a multitude of challenges depending on the tee placement, the location of the hole and the wind direction. Most players will hit a long-iron if the pin is at the front, a deceptively tough shot due to the water hazard that sits in front and to the right of the green.

Meanwhile, hybrids are required more often than not to carry the left bunker if the pin is positioned at the back of this angled green. Whatever, there are always far more bogeys than birdies here.

Par-3, 199 yards

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Royal Dar-es-Salaam (Red), Rabat, Morocco

Robert Trent Jones, Sr., was commissioned by King Hassan II to build North Africa’s premier course back in 1971, and he did not disappoint his autocratic client. The Red at Royal Dar-es-Salaam has hosted numerous European Tour events since then and remains a popular stopover. The highlight of this outstanding layout is the 9th, a daunting par-3 that measures nearly 200 yards and requires a long-iron or rescue club into an island green across water that is teeming with ducks, geese, flamingos and water lilies. A semi-circle of cork trees and other eye-catching flora frames a green that slants gently from left to right and from back to front. Caddies are recommended on the Red Course and nowhere are they more likely to prove useful than on the 9th tee, where subtle breezes can play havoc with club selection, and on the 9th green, where the breaks and grain invariably need to be interpreted with extreme care.

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Par-4, 380 yards

Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

Innsbruck Resort & Golf Club, Helen, Georgia Laid out by Bill Watts, the golf course at Innsbruck in the Blue Ridge Mountains of northeast Georgia opened in 1987. The town of Helen is a replica of the retreats often found in the Alps of southern Germany and the scenery surrounding the course is appropriately atmospheric and colorful. The line off the tee at the par-4 9th is Mount Yonah, the scenic centerpiece of Chattahoochee National Forest in the middle distance. The ideal landing area is either the center or left half of the fairway in order to keep the pond that encroaches from the right out of play. From the fairway, it’s important to check the wind and your yardage because approaches to a shallow green need to be precise. If you miss, then you must miss to the right because a sizeable lake comes into play on the left. The green is also protected by a wide bunker front-left and is overlooked by a delightful Bavarian-style clubhouse.

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Par-4, 486 yards

Royal County Down (Championship Links), Newcastle, Northern Ireland With a gorse-ridden graveyard lurking in front of the tee and both the seaside town of Newcastle and the Mountains of Mourne providing the backdrop, this is, unsurprisingly, one of golf’s most photographed scenes. But its breathtaking setting should not detract from its towering strengths as a golf hole. A par-4 despite its length, the 9th is played from beside a huge mound down to a fairway some 60 feet below.

Ideally, the tee shot, mainly blind, needs to hug the large dune on the left of the fairway to set up the best approach to the green. There is more room to the right for the shorter hitters, although this is not the best line for the second shot with two well-placed cross-bunkers some 50 yards short of the green augmented by a greenside trap on the right and two pot bunkers on the left. The sharply undulating green also requires particular care on putts from back to front.

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Par-4, 414 yards

Royal Birkdale, Southport, Lancashire, England This demanding links was the scene of Arnold Palmer’s first victory in the [British] Open back in 1961. The 9th hole, another left-to-right dogleg, is a classic example of how tough the course can play. The tee shot, which is blind, needs to find the left half of the fairway and, ideally, run out to about 270 yards. The wind often comes from the right and can blow the ball too far left into some nasty rough. Before changes were made prior to the 2008 Open, many players used to take the elbow on.

But now, in all probability, they will be gobbled up by the new mounding and it will be hard for them to reach the green. The putting surface is slightly elevated, almost a plateau, thus placing a premium on club selection. Anything short is likely to be gathered by one of the two bunkers at the front but there’s also plenty of trouble, in the shape of deep rough, over the back.

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Par-5, 564 yards

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Par-5, 501 yards

Gleneagles Hotel (PGA Centenary), Perthshire, Scotland

The Jeremy Golf & Country Club, Park City, Utah

Currently under preparation to stage the 40th Ryder Cup matches in September, the Jack Nicklaus-designed PGA Centenary Course at Gleneagles in the heart of Scotland’s whisky belt first opened two decades ago. The resort also has two much older courses on site, the King’s and Queen’s, and dates back originally to the mid-1920s. The surrounding countryside is spectacular, the Grampians in the distance blending hauntingly with the purple-clad slopes of Ben Vorlich and the Trossachs. Known as Crook O’ Moss, the long 9th is an opportunity for players to steal a march on their opponents or perhaps claw back a hole.

The drive should bisect the fairway between the attendant ponds and bunkers, but the carry to the green is still long and dangerous with further water lurking down the right.

Most will aim the second shot left to leave an easy pitch up the length of a long, narrow green that falls away to the left.

Ever since this Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay design opened in 1981, golfers have fallen in love with its charm. No matter what handicap they play to, players of all abilities tend to agree on one thing: The Jeremy enjoys one of the game’s most beautiful settings, in the high foothills of the Wasatch Mountains. Using the meandering East Canyon Creek as a companion and, occasionally, as an adversary, this gently rolling layout offers a diverse challenge. The 9th, a relatively short par-5 by today’s standards, is perhaps the finest risk-reward hole on the entire property. The drive needs to be both accurate and long to cross the creek and avoid a pair of sentinel bunkers both right and left. The hole then doglegs almost 90 degrees to the right.

Going for the green in two involves not only clearing water once again but also judging the distance correctly in order to hold the putting surface rather than skip toward two further traps just through the back.

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Par-3, 190 yards

Par-4, 410 yards

Pinehurst Resort (No.2), Pinehurst, North Carolina

Shadow Glen, Olathe, Kansas

Donald Ross’s pride and joy, Pinehurst No.2 is the centerpiece of one of the world’s biggest and most historic golf resorts. Later this year, it will become the first layout to serve as host to the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open in consecutive weeks. Opened in 1907, No.2 was conceived, and constantly updated over the next four decades, by Ross who called it “the fairest test of championship golf I have ever designed.” No.2 is best known for the strategic choices Ross presents with his core design and also for its crowned, undulating green complexes. In 2010, Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore were engaged to restore the essence of his original vision. The 9th is the shortest hole on the course but nonetheless can cause problems. Club selection is essential, since most of the trouble, in the form of scrubland and sand, lies to the left and behind the putting surface. The two-tiered green, sloping from left to right, is wide and shallow.

Designed by Tom Watson, Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish, Shadow Glen opened in 1989 and was named Best New Private Course in America the following year by Golf Digest. Flowing gracefully along rocky ridges and through tree-lined valleys, it is part of the gated community of Cedar Creek in the fast-growing Midwest town of Olathe. Shadow Glen was conceived to meet the highest golfing standards whilst capturing and preserving the innate beauty of the locality’s rolling, wooded terrain. In a nutshell, this alluring layout wraps itself around hills and bluffs as though it has always been here. The fairway on the downhill par-4 9th should yield significant distance to a well-struck tee shot, though there is a danger that bunkers to the left and right will snaffle anything partially misdirected. The approach shot is the key to the hole as it must carry a creek and avoid the lake left and greenside bunkers short, right and beyond.

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Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

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Par-4, 364 yards

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Par-3, 148 yards

Castle Stuart Golf Links, Inverness, Scotland

Ocean Dunes, Phan Thiet, Vietnam

Created by Gil Hanse, currently working on the 2016 Olympic Games course in Rio de Janeiro, Castle Stuart is less than five years old even though it looks as if it has hugged the Moray Firth coastline for centuries. It has already staged three Scottish Opens, the most recent won

by Phil Mickelson, and entertains ambitions to host the [British] Open. There’s no doubting the quality of this fledgling layout or the exciting challenge it poses. The 9th is a genuine risk-reward hole—drivable for many players downwind—but the line must be down the right where the fairway contours plus a right-to-left ball flight can lead to the back portion of the green. Less solid strikes that leave the ball in the fairway hollow short and right of the green result in awkward, blind pitches to an unreceptive green.

Left of the green is an open sandy area, so the safe tee shot is a lay-up into the wide part of the fairway.

This Nick Faldo design was sculpted in 1996 from the dunes that run alongside Vietnam’s southeast seaboard, about 125 miles east of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). The coastal breezes determine how this open, links-like course will play each day, but it is generally an engaging experience for players of all standards. The 9th is by common consent Ocean Dunes’ outstanding moment—indeed, it has been rated one of the best 500 golf holes in the world by Golf Magazine. A short par-3, it provides a stirring finish to the front nine. With the resort’s private beach visible to the right and a gentle, refreshing wind whistling through the attendant casuarina evergreens, it’s easy to lose concentration. The shallow, elevated, back-to-front sloping green is partially hidden by a dune and trees to the right and a grassy mound to the left, so the tee shot in effect must be threaded blind through a narrow slot to reach its target.

Par-4, 447 yards Courtesy of Golf Club Images

TPC River’s Bend, Maineville, Ohio Arnold Palmer was once asked what his choice would be for the signature hole at this course, and he replied that River’s Bend might well have 18 such holes. While TPC River’s Bend, about 25 miles northeast of Cincinnati, has many trademark Palmer features, it also has so many undulations that the course itself has an almost Scottish feel. But if there’s one hole that could be classified as extra special, it is the 9th. This hole feeds to the right round a large bunker on the elbow of the dogleg and is somewhat reminiscent of the 18th hole on the Championship Course at Bay Hill with a large lake guarding the front right of a wide but shallow green. And it can be just as destructive to a scorecard. In the 2002 Kroger Senior Classic, Palmer recorded a nine on this hole. “I don’t swear,” Palmer told a reporter as he came off the green. “But I exhaled all right.”

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Par-4, 481 yards

Pebble Beach Golf Links, Monterrey Peninsula, California There can be few stretches of holes more majestic or intimidating than the run from 7-10 at Pebble Beach. Following the dramas of the cliff-top, ocean-defying 8th, the 9th is just as difficult, if not more so, though perhaps a little more conventional in construction. From the tee, the ideal line is left center of the fairway, just inside the bunker that sits approximately 245 yards out. Certainly anything left of the trap will be in trouble—consigned to an extremely awkward lie, probably in thick rough. Side-hill fairway lies are the norm for the second shot, which might be executed either with a long-iron or fairway metal, so beware the mighty Pacific to the right. That said, there’s a deep, bunkered gully left and short of the green that will punish a timid approach. And the green, only 24 yards deep and sloping from back left to front right toward the ocean, is not exactly the biggest target on the course.

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Par-4, 485 yards

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Par-5, 725 yards

Laurel Valley, Ligonier, Pennsylvania

The Gallery at Dove Mountain (North), Marana, Arizona

Built in 1959 by Dick Wilson and redesigned by Arnold Palmer in 1988, Laurel Valley staged the 1965 PGA Championship (won by Dave Marr) and the 1975 Ryder Cup when Palmer led the U.S. to a resounding victory over GB & Ireland. The 9th, a long, uphill par-4 played into the prevailing wind with the clubhouse overlooking beyond, is consistently the toughest hole on the course. Even though the fairway is relatively wide and straight (the purist’s line is slightly right), the elevation makes it difficult to see the green when playing the second shot. About 100 yards out the small stream that runs down the right side of the hole cuts across and can easily come into play. In addition, some big pines nearer the green, also on the right, should be given a wide berth. The difficulties don’t end there because the green has two tiers and three putts are a distinct possibility for anyone on the wrong level.

Now for our grandstand finish—one of the world’s longest holes! Jointly designed by Tom Lehman and John Fought, the North Course offers sweeping views of the surrounding Sonoran desert as it meanders through two rugged canyons.

Given that the ball flies further at altitude, Lehman was determined the 9th should be an authentic three-shotter while remaining a birdie opportunity. The tee shot is downhill to a generous landing area devoid of trouble apart from one fairway bunker on the right. The second shot, again downhill, offers several options since there’s a matrix of five bunkers spread across the fairway and a lake encroaching from the right. Playing safe down the right center of the fairway leaves a long third shot so, to finish closer to the green, longer hitters flirt with the bunker left and perhaps pull level with the lake on the right. A waste area crosses the fairway 40 yards short of the green while three more bunkers guard the entrance.

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Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

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SCOT 00

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Martin Laird is now in his seventh full season on the PGA TOUR and already he has a string of titles and high finishes to his name, not least his victory at the 2011 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard.

Three years on, he reflects on a satisfying but slightly up-and-down career with Paul Trow

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part from Tommy Armour and Sandy Lyle, the names don’t exactly trip off the tongue.

The list, comprising multiple winners on the PGA TOUR from Scotland, stretches back to antiquity—Macdonald Smith, Willie Macfarlane, Bobby Cruickshank, Jock Hutchison, Clarence Hackney and Willie Hunter. Leaving aside James Braid and the Tom Morrises, “Old” and “Young,” as their exploits comfortably pre-dated the advent of the PGA TOUR, the next highest-achiever from the Home of Golf on the world’s premier professional circuit has been Martin Laird.

The tall (6ft 2in), rangy Scot came of age when he won the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard at Bay Hill Club & Lodge in 2011; and last year he notched up his third PGA TOUR victory with a stunning final-round 63 in the Valero Texas Open at TPC San Antonio—a feat that earned him the last available spot in the following week’s Masters.

He’s only 31 and has already amassed almost $11.5 million in official prize money, yet his best years, surely, lie ahead of him. At the moment, though, there are a few minor details to attend to, like returning to form and improving his world ranking. Two years after our first meeting—on the practice range for the Palmer Private Course at PGA WEST in California’s Coachella Valley during the week of the Humana Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation—we sat down for a chat in the clubhouse at TPC Scottsdale just prior to the 2014 Waste Management Phoenix Open.

“I switched coaches from Mark McCann to Randy Smith in September 2012,” he said. “Part of the reason was that I wanted a variation on my predominant [shot] shape

spring 2014

which is left-to-right. I needed to have a right-to-left shot in my bag and be able to hit more draws if I wanted to.

“It didn’t go as well as planned—I drew a blank over the latter part of last season after winning in Texas—so I’ve gone back this year to left-to-right. But I have more shots now than before. My wedge play, which has always been a weakness, is definitely better and I’m more confident now about playing different shots in different conditions.

“My short game is getting better as well, more consistent. I’m a streaky putter and when I have a good week on the greens I’m in contention, as I was in the Valero Texas Open. The trouble is I don’t have enough weeks like that. With the impending [anchored putters] rule change in mind, I changed to a shorter putter earlier this year. It’s now 40 inches, six inches shorter than before though still longer than standard but not belly length any more. My putting last year wasn’t very good. Hopefully this will help me become more consistent.

“When I first came here [to America], I used to have a strong grip and hit everything low with a trap draw—a typical Scot I suppose. My home club, Hilton Park in a suburb northwest of Glasgow, has two courses. But even though they’re parkland layouts, not links, the wind would still blow there more often than not.

“I came out to America in 2000, on a golf scholarship at Colorado State University, so altitude was always going to be a factor. There was no run on the courses, no bumpand-run at all, so I suffered distance-wise. I quickly realized that I had to learn to hit it high by setting up much more behind the ball. If you do that in Scotland you’re going to struggle in strong wind. In some respects it was like learning a different game.”

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‘Getting you back in the game’

But Laird, who is now one of the longest hitters on the PGA TOUR, is nothing if not adventurous and adaptable, as one would expect of someone who was prepared to travel halfway across the world to start a new life at the tender age of 17. Soon after arriving at college he met local girl Meagan Franks and has never looked back since.

“Once I’d completed my studies with a degree in marketing in 2004, it seemed logical to stay in America and make my way as a golfer here. Meagan and I got married in July 2011. Luckily, her dad [Hank Franks] is a PGA professional [in Littleton, CO] so she understands fully Mr. and Mrs. Laird are expecting big things in 2014

what my job involves. We’re expecting our first child—a boy—in early March which means I might not be able to play at Bay Hill. If he arrives early, then I could be OK, but the birth of a baby is always going to be special, and very much a priority.”

Another priority, if his form picks up, will be attempting to qualify for the European team for the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles in his native Scotland. The odds are stacked against him, not least because he plays infrequently in Europe, so his main hope appears to be via world ranking points. “I’m an affiliate member of the European Tour so I collect all the Ryder Cup points available to me. Playing in the Ryder Cup any year would be a huge deal for me but this year I’m especially motivated because it’s never been to Scotland in my lifetime, though strangely I’ve never played the actual course at Gleneagles [the Jack Nicklaus-designed PGA Centenary].

“I’m planning to play in the Scottish Open at Castle Stuart and the [British] Open at Royal Liverpool. If I have a hot summer and I’m playing well and pushing to make the team, then I’ll adjust my schedule and, who knows, maybe I’ll get in.

“But making the European team these days, with so many great players in contention, is no bargain. I can’t believe golf in Europe has ever been stronger, not even during that era when Seve, Faldo, Woosie, Lyle and Langer ruled the roost. The overall standard now is immense and that is reflected in the number of players Europe has in the world top-50, alone.

“My world ranking is a problem— I’m not qualified for a lot of big events, as of yet” “I could have a great year, win another tournament, have a string of top-10 finishes, and still not make the team.

We’ve all got to realize—the contenders for places, that is— that it’s no disgrace not to get into the team. The standards are so high, the competition so fierce and the margins between success and failure so narrow. There are at least 20 outstanding candidates, but there are only 12 places. And all that’s before unexpected people start coming to the fore and throwing their hats into the ring.

“My world ranking is a problem—I’m not qualified for a lot of big events, as of yet. I’m a long way outside the top-50, my worst ranking since 2010, so obviously I need to get back in; but that can be achieved with one or two very good weeks. It’s torture watching yourself dropping down the rankings. It’s a very volatile system in that you can drop 20 spots in a month.”

Certainly, if Laird were to make the team, he would

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Laird’s approach to victory on 18 during the final round of the Valero Texas Open

bring the sort of grit and nerve that have characterized coverage of the tournaments back in Glasgow,” he admits.

Europe’s wins in five of the last six matches. In 2007 he “I was enchanted by how pristine the courses looked and how earned his PGA TOUR card by finishing third in what is brilliant all the players were. To be playing alongside these now the Web.com Tour Championship and in 2008 he guys now—it’s a dream come true—and the prize money holed out from eight feet on the final green at the season- on offer here makes it impossible for me to contemplate ending Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Classic in playing any other TOUR on a regular basis, especially since Orlando to take the 125th spot on the money list and the arrival of the FedExCup. secure his playing rights for the following season. In 2009, “I’ve played well on TOUR for the past few years, and he broke into the winners’ circle for the first time when he I’ve become more familiar with the courses and the lifestyle. prevailed in a three-man playoff at the Shriners Hospitals I lived life on the edge a little during my first couple of for Children Open at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas; and seasons, so it’s nice to have an exemption and to plan a in 2010 he found himself in another playoff at the same schedule that provides opportunities for relaxation and tournament only to succumb to a Jonathan Byrd hole- sensible breaks.” in-one on the fourth extra hole.

Those breaks rotate around two locations—his winter With two of his three victories and many other fine home in Scottsdale and his summer home just north of displays coming at TPC courses, Laird acknowledges an Charlotte. “Through the winter, I play at the [Tom Fazioaffinity. “I do seem to have a good record on TPC courses. designed] Estancia Club here in Scottsdale, which is at the TPC San Antonio is one of the toughest we play on TOUR. I heart of a nicely landscaped community. But in the summer finished third here [in Scottsdale] one year [2011]. Also, I’ve it’s too hot here. I practice here [TPC Scottsdale] a lot had a second and fifth at TPC Sawgrass, so in many respects because it’s only five minutes from where I live, the facilities they suit me and set up well for my strengths—ball striking, are superb and they’ve got a really good range. solid driving and mid-irons.”

“When I’m in Arizona I let off steam and keep fit by Clearly, Bay Hill also sets up well for Laird, and to this mountain biking. The trails are 10-12 miles and take me day he believes that 2011 victory was his finest hour. “To win about an hour and a half to complete. They’re certainly a tournament like that was the highlight of my career to date. not flat. Some of the elevation changes around here can be I’d never met Mr. Palmer before, so walking off the 18th green quite pronounced. having claimed the most important victory of my life and to “During the summer in North Carolina, my interests see this wonderful old gentleman waiting to greet me—well, it are mainly water sports—lake boating and jet skis, though doesn’t get any better than that for someone who plays golf.

I’ll try anything. When I’m practicing, I play Trump “It’s so humbling for people like me to know that a National Charlotte at The Point. It’s a Greg Norman course great champion, who’s won every honor in the game, is and measures 7,800 yards from the back tees. You could say happy to stand there and salute the next generation of it’s a true test for a TOUR player!” winners in such style.”

So with almost half his life spent on this side of the In truth, he’d seen Palmer performing this duty long Atlantic, the obvious question is whether he now feels more before he ever ventured Stateside. “I first decided I wanted American than Scottish. His answer is typically patriotic. to play on the PGA TOUR from my days as a goggle-eyed “America is where I live and work, but Scotland will always teenager watching the Saturday and Sunday night TV be my home.”

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Before They Were Rock Stars Henry Cotton in humbler times

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Pennsylvania’s 84 Lumber Classic tournament fell on a bad date in 2004—one week after the Ryder Cup (held in Michigan) and one week before the American Express Championship, in Ireland. To help attract top golfers, the tournament’s sponsors hit on a great idea: they chartered two 747s customized with first-class-only seating and offered direct transport from Western Pennsylvania to Ireland for all the players and their families. It’s a flight Walter Hagen would have enjoyed.

In Hagen’s day, professional golfers weren’t even allowed into clubhouses during tournaments, a fact of life that greatly irked the flamboyant pro. Today, of course, touring pros are treated well, often enjoying their own clubhouse entrances, use of private members’ lockers during tournaments and numerous other perks ranging from basic niceties like free dry cleaning to luxury pluses like the aforementioned flights. My, how times have changed.

U

ntil the end of the 19th century, competitive golf was played exclusively by amateurs.

The first professional golfers—those who tried to make a living by playing in various tournaments—were former caddies, greens keepers and club pros, and were not considered to be the social equals of the amateur golfers who belonged to private clubs.

Because purses were so small, these players had to supplement their income by giving lessons, crafting clubs and even caddying. Mostly blue-collar players, they were constantly on the road bouncing from tournament to tournament, trying to manage their travel, food and lodging expenses. If they didn’t make a cut, they didn’t collect a paycheck, putting their ability to make it to the next tournament in question. And even if they did make it to the match, they weren’t allowed to enter the clubhouse at the private courses where they competed.

One of the men who changed that was Walter Hagen.

Born in 1892 in Rochester, New York, Hagen came from a working-class background with a blacksmith for a father.

Dubbed “Sir Walter” by his business manager (former newspaperman Robert Harlow), Hagen skipped a tryout for baseball’s Philadelphia Phillies to play in the 1914 U.S. Open, which he won by defeating the likes of amateur greats Francis Ouimet and Chick Evans.

Hagen hired a Pierce-Arrow car and parked it in front of the clubhouse, where it served as his personal changing room spring 2014

His continued on-course performance is welldocumented—including his 11 major championships, just behind Jack Nicklaus (18) and Tiger Woods (14), four [British] Open victories and five PGA Championships, to name a few—and thanks to Harlow he developed a reputation off course as a partier who could drink and dance all night then show up the next day ready to play.

But there was another, more serious aspect to Hagen, and it came to the fore in 1920 at the [British] Open in Deal, Kent.

Finally fed up with not being able to enter the clubhouse, Hagen hired a Pierce-Arrow car and chauffeur and had the auto parked in front of the clubhouse, where it served as his personal changing room—and where it raised eyebrows. He wasn’t the only pro to pull that stunt (Henry Cotton and others often changed in their cars as well at the time), but Hagen’s profile and the stature of the event ensured it was noticed.

Back home in the States, things were getting a bit better, albeit slowly. As early as 1914, historian Herb Graffis held that Hagen reportedly led a number of pros into the clubhouse at Midlothian during the U.S. Open, though they were hardly welcomed with open arms. The first truly open doors for the pros came in 1920 at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. When Inverness was chosen to host the 1920 U.S. Open, club co-founder and golf industry heavyweight Sylvanus P. Jermain decided it was time for a shift. A player, club designer, golf innovator (the Ryder Cup was partly his idea) and entrepreneur, Jermain convinced the membership to open the doors to the touring pros. Going the extra mile, Inverness members sourced accommodations for players and even provided cars for their use—a complete about-face

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“You stop this nonsense, or I’ll take the ‘Royal’ out of St. George’s,” said the Prince of Wales upon being told pros weren’t welcome from the way things had been done. When the U.S. Open returned to Inverness in 1931, Hagen led the other players in collecting enough money to purchase a clock as a token of thanks for the hospitality in 1920. The clock still stands in the clubhouse lobby today. Sadly, Inverness was the exception; and in England, especially, the clubs were still holding fast to tradition.

At Royal Troon in 1923, having been denied access to the clubhouse during the tournament, Hagen later refused to enter it to accept his runner’s-up trophy. Additionally, he arranged for a picnic on the front lawn and celebrated the day in full view of the members. Similar treatment persisted all over the country and reached the very heights of the game, as showcased by Michael K. Bohn, author of Heroes & Ballyhoo: How the Golden Age of the 1920s Transformed American Sports. In his book, Bohn mentions a 1928 lunch at Royal St. George’s, which indicated attitudes were changing even if customs were not: “When [Hagen] and Gene Sarazen sat down for lunch with the Prince of Wales, their presence ruffled the club’s staff.

‘Golfing professionals are not allowed in the dining room,’ they whispered to the prince. ‘You stop this nonsense,’ the prince retorted, ‘or I’ll take the “Royal” out of St. George’s.’”

Despite shifting opinions among the likes of the Prince (who later became King Edward VIII) change was slow to come, as Cotton recounted to the Associated Press in 1977.

“For many of those early years, the professional was looked upon as little more than a lackey and held in disdain by the club members,” he said. “We weren’t allowed in the clubhouse. We had to change clothes in the caddie shop, hanging them on nails and laying them out on benches.

They were always on the floor when we got back. We had to eat in the kitchen.

“I’ll never forget 1930 when [Bobby] Jones came to Hoylake in pursuit of his Grand Slam. He was accompanied

by Leo Diegel, a professional. After a practice round, Jones was swept into the upstairs trophy room by exuberant admirers. He looked around and said, ‘Where’s Leo?’ ‘Sorry, Mr. Jones,’ he was told. ‘Professionals are not allowed in here.’ So Jones took his drink plus one for Diegel and the two sat on the front steps to finish them.”

Lobbying efforts by the likes of Hagen and Cotton, the opinion of luminaries like the future King of England and bold moves from clubs like Inverness eventually tipped the balance toward the pros, and the dominoes, as they say, began to fall.

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The clock at Inverness Club in Ohio, a gift from thankful pros

But even as golf entered the era of Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson and the like, and professionals began to enjoy enhanced social status, purses were slow to grow and so the life of a pro continued to be difficult. Hogan kept a day job as an assistant pro at Century Country Club in New York (and later as head pro at Hershey Country Club in Pennsylvania) even when he was climbing the money list as a professional golfer. Likewise, many of the other touring pros took work on the side to supplement life on tour.

The next shift in the evolution of the touring professional wouldn’t come until after WWII, but this time it wasn’t a person like Hagen leading the charge for change, it was a device: television.

Lew Worsham won the first golf tournament to be nationally televised, 1947’s Tam O’Shanter World Championship of Golf, which was also the sport’s first $100,000 tournament. Worsham holed a wedge from 104 yards for an eagle-2 to take victory from Chandler Harper by one shot, and a sizeable ABC audience saw it happen.

It was just the beginning. Televisions became cheaper (and thus more popular), and when color models hit the shelves in the late 1950s they were just in time to catch golf’s newest superstar: Arnold Palmer. Like Hagen, Palmer was a bluecollar champ who won over the masses with good looks and a fearsome game. Helped by TV, Palmer’s fame eventually resulted in larger television audiences, more sponsors and richer purses. Still, the money wasn’t exactly great, and it wasn’t uncommon for young pros like Gary Player to sleep in bunkers at night as they tried to make ends meet.

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But when it changed—and boy, did it change—it’s as if tournaments used to end on Friday, when we’d play 36 the money appeared overnight. According to Forbes, in 1970 holes, and we’d then drive home through the night. Today, the total purse for the PGA TOUR was $5.5 million. Four not only is the money colossal but the whole atmosphere decades later, in 2012, it was nearly $280 million. The biggest seems a little impersonal. Still, good luck to them. The upswing came following 1996, which not coincidentally was modern players are terrific ambassadors for the game and the year Tiger Woods made his PGA TOUR debut. the golf they play is way beyond my comprehension.”

Tiger’s impact on the game has been huge in terms And it’s tough to argue with the money, which is of both performance and marketing, and as purses and benefitting some of the old guard as well as the newer players. endorsements grew to stratospheric levels in the wake of his Palmer, who first topped the money list in 1958 with earnings appearance, the touring pro’s social status shifted yet again: of $42,607, made more than $36 million from the game What had started as a hierarchy with club members at the in 2012, putting him at the No.3 spot in terms of earnings top and pros on the bottom, and then achieved a kind of (only Phil Mickelson and Woods ranked higher). Player and level in the mid 20th century, was now tipped firmly to the Nicklaus were also in the Top 10, and though this money is side of the pros in terms of money and benefits. Today, rather clearly from off-course endorsements and their own business than turning them away, clubs and tournaments compete for prowess, it’s indicative of the massive shift for pros. professionals’ attentions and the top players on TOUR earn The changes in the game since the days of Hagen the sort of reward their TV ratings merit. The money means and Cotton have been tremendous, and whatever one’s top players can free up time as they fly by private jet directly perspective on the current luxuries enjoyed by pros it’s from home to tournament, or tournament to tournament. obvious that they’re far better off than they were at the But for as much as the pros have gained, there are those professional game’s outset, and much of that is down to who believe something might have been lost as well. “In the Hagen. At a 1969 dinner honoring him, Arnold Palmer early days, we often hitch-hiked to tournaments,” said Doug raised his glass and offered a toast: “If it were not for you, Sanders, the man who agonizingly lost the 1970 [British] Walter, this dinner would be downstairs in the pro shop and Open at St Andrews with a missed short putt. “There was not in the ballroom.” not much money on offer but we were all friends. Today all Better than that: it wasn’t in the parking lot. the top players fly to tournaments in private jets, in their own little bubble, but they live in a smaller world than the one we John H. Houvouras contributed to this editorial. occupied. They can never have the fun we had.

“In those days, our main aim was friendship. I’m from the South and when I was playing on Tour I’d walk down the street sometimes and I’d always be stopped by someone who wanted to talk about what I’d been doing. I didn’t mind at all—in fact I loved it. It was always friendly and no hassle at all. I’m not sure the modern players would put up with that. When I was on TOUR we Tiger Woods and television have had a tremendous impact on money in the game knew everyone straight away and we travelled by car from tournament to tournament, maybe three to a car.”

Tony Jacklin, 1969 [British] Open champion and 1970 U.S. Open champion, has similar memories.

“Of course, everything was so different back in the mid-1960s when I first went out on the European Tour.

I was an assistant at Potters Bar [a golf club just north of London] and had to take time off to play in tournaments,” he said. “But I had a good boss, Bill Shankland, who indulged me because, I suppose, he thought I had talent.

Whatever happened on Tour, though, I had to be back in the pro shop by the weekend without fail. The

“Good luck to them. The modern players are terrific ambassadors for the game and the golf they play is way beyond my comprehension”

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Heroes in the Sand It is now 70 years since the decisive action of brave American and Allied troops triggered the final course of World War II. But, as Steve Killick discovers, the Normandy invasions on D-Day went anything but to plan and led to a catastrophic loss of life, especially on a beach called Omaha Photography by Leon Harris

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70 years apart, but still essentially the same: Omaha Beach secured on D-Day (left) and overlooked by limestone cliffs in February 2014 (above)

The long, gently curving stretch of Normandy coastline is quiet now. Gulls cry, a few walkers stroll peacefully with their dogs and small children run, laughing, along the sands.

Behind them are gently sloping, grassy hillsides that are slowly eroding and sliding down toward the shore as the wind and rain batter them during winter months.

But these golden sands are what became known as “Bloody Omaha.” Here, 70 years ago on the morning of June 6th, 2,400 men lay dead, dying or wounded and the sea ran black with blood.

As we stand here, facing the four and a half miles of golden sand, we are flanked by two rocky, limestone outcrops on our far left and right. The Allied Commanders chose the beach they called “Omaha” because it linked with beaches to the east, which British forces were attacking.

Tanks and all the rest of the landing craft would be able to take the four roads, between the outcrops, that run from the track along the top of the sea wall to link up with the rest of the massive task force before moving inland to release France from German occupation.

Operations on the five landing beaches of Normandy were tightly synchronized. D-Day would commence at 06:30 hours thus providing the liberating army with the maximum hours of daylight and a high tide so that vehicles did not get bogged down. Tragically, on Omaha, things did not go at all according to plan.

On the morning of June

6th the weather was appalling, with high seas and gale-force winds. Some 34,000 men were approaching Omaha Beach, with heavily laden engineers set to be first in. They were supposed to clear the mines and blast their way through the huge number of obstacles the occupying troops had been planting since General Rommel was put in charge of coastal fortifications in 1943.

Once the engineers had done their work and marked navigation corridors, they would be supported by amphibious tanks to blast away at the pillboxes that lay hidden on top of the crumbling hillsides.

The plan was to first take out German defenses by a heavy aerial bombardment on the hilltops thus allowing a clear path through. However, due to poor visibility, most of the bombs landed behind the enemy lines and even managed to kill a local bakery employee and the baker’s baby in the village of Vierville-sur-Mer. But far worse was to come.

The beach was divided into four alphabetical sections: Charlie, Dog, Easy and Fox. The first wave of 1,500 men was to overpower what intelligence had reliably said was a weak and thinly-manned German defense.

Commanders of the landing craft carrying the tanks opened the gates while still nearly two miles from the beach in “force four” gales. Of the 29 Sherman tanks, all but two were swamped. Once they started to sink there was nothing that could be done to save them or their

Of 29 Sherman tanks, all but two were swamped. Nothing could be done to save them

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crews. But it also meant that the men already on the beach had no supporting fire as they tried to cross 400 yards of sand from the water’s edge to the cover of the seawall, all the while under assault from machine-guns and a strong German unit, which had been strengthened by 1,200 battlehardened infantrymen who had been posted onto coastal defense duties some three months earlier. Allied intelligence apparently had blundered catastrophically.

By 09:30 the scenes on the beach and offshore had hardly improved. Bodies were washing up in the surf; overloaded men spilling from rolling, overcrowded landing craft were trying to get through the swell, soaking rifles and radio equipment alike. Many were so heavily laden that they simply sunk and drowned. And those few who did make it to the hillsides encountered numerous un-cleared mines.

There was still no way to the four roads out.

General George Taylor, trying to rally his troops, made his famous remark: “There are two kinds of people who are staying on this beach: those who are dead and those who are going to die. Now let’s get the hell out of here.”

U.S. Naval destroyers moved closer and closer to the shore—closer than any of the amphibious landing craft had done and used their guns to annihilate the nests of enemy fire. The surviving engineers forgot the roads and blew paths in the hillsides instead while creating corridors through the minefields. By the time night fell, well over 12 hours later, U.S. troops were on top of the hillside and the Germans had lost the battle. And while 2,400 soldiers had died, over 30,000 finally landed and “Bloody Omaha” had become an American legend.

And so we 21st century visitors must turn away from the quiet beach and head inland, like those brave survivors of 70 years ago, for there are many more scenes of heroic sacrifice and courage where we should pay our respects. We first take a short drive to the huge American cemetery that

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Above left: U.S. troops wading from landing craft towards Omaha Beach on D-Day. Above: The graves in the American cemetery

is the final resting place for the many farm boys, laborers, mechanics and city slickers who never made it home.

Of the many other outstanding sights that will be celebrated and remembered equally this June 6th, we should move north and seek out another scene of immense skill, daring and bravery at Pegasus Bridge, like Omaha Beach, a place that once had no name but is now immortalized for the winged horse insignia sported in the red berets of the Airborne Regiment.

Their task: To land on the night of June 5th, on the left flank and most easterly end of the five beaches, south of Ouistreham, and undertake a number of key roles. Critically, they had to take and hold the bridges at the Caen canal at Benouville and at Ranville across the River Orne as the British and Canadian forces arriving from Sword Beach would need to be able to cross the waterways.

Piper Millin later admitted to running across the bridge with his bagpipes tucked under his arm spring 2014

down that night by the canal side—the equivalent, almost, of landing on a handkerchief. Ranville also goes down in history as the first French town to be liberated during World War II. Visiting these sights is fascinating but can also be emotionally draining. So as a diversion from the scenes of battle we should rejoice, not only in the heroism of all those who landed in Normandy 70 years ago, but also the present joys of fine old towns, beautiful countryside and wonderful cuisine. We should raise a glass of Calvados, that splendid apple brandy of the region, and toast the men whose sacrifices made it possible for us to be free to enjoy ourselves today.

BUNKER RETREATS Above: The strategists’ masterplan of how to secure the Allies’ footing in Normandy

Landing in darkness by gliders, and led by Major John Howard, both bridges fell within a matter of minutes despite being guarded by German machine-gun positions.

Having secured their foothold, Howard and his men were instructed to hold until relieved, a scene made famous in the classic war film, The Longest Day. In the film, Lord Lovat’s 1st Special Services Brigade battled their way through to Ranville and were serenaded across the bridge

by Lovat’s personal piper, Billy Millin, playing Blue Bonnets over the Border.

Not all of the bunkers on the Normandy coast are former strategic placements occupied by Germans. Along with the emotionally moving sites of the D-Day landings, there are some terrific golf courses in the area to enjoy as well.

“The problem for many overseas visitors,” says Nicholas Montreuil, director of Golf at Omaha Beach Golf Club, just a five-minute drive east of the historic landing area, “is that often they are travelling in large organized groups and rarely have time to set aside three hours for a round of golf, even though so many tell me that they would have loved to play here had they only known about it.”

This is particularly true for members of Arnold Palmer Golf Management’s portfolio of clubs where their Palmer Advantage Platinum members receive a 50 percent reduction in greens fees at the club (and even complimentary green fees at some other courses in Europe) through an affiliation of French clubs known as Le Club Golf.

Mr. Palmer and his late wife, Winnie, both have suites named after them in the clubhouse here, following their visit in 1999, and there’s a letter from the King framed on the wall marking how much he enjoyed his time here.

Architect Guy Dupont built the original course on former farmland in 1986, with two nines looping back to the clubhouse. The front nine was called “La Mer,” as it swept down to the coast, and the back nine “Les Bocages,” after the dense hedgerows that once surrounded the fields— and which had to be cleared of snipers as the liberating Allied Forces fought their way inland on the way to Paris and beyond.

Now the scene is one of lush-green tranquility on what has become a 36-hole course, with an additional 18 known as Le Manoir. Each hole on today’s 18, known simply as La Mer, is named after a famous Second World War hero. The signature hole is the 6th, and it’s named for General Omar Bradley, the U.S. Army field commander in North Africa

Now, the scene is one of lush-green tranquility on what has become a golf course. Each hole is named after a famous Second World War hero The reality is somewhat different. While Lovat, with his great sense of occasion, did shake hands with Howard and state that they had made history that day, Howard and his men had been relieved somewhat earlier by the curiously named Colonel Geoffrey Pine-Coffin’s parachute regiment.

And Piper Millin later admitted to running across the bridge with his bagpipes tucked firmly under his arm. [Note: The Colonel’s surname came from the 18th century union of the Pine and Coffin families in England. The original version of the name was Pine-Bennett-Coffin, but the Bennett disappeared, prompting his men to nickname him “Wooden Box”—not optimistic, as the Pine-Coffin family had a long and distinguished history of military service, to which Col. Geoffrey certainly added.]

There is now a splendid museum to enjoy with a replica of the gliders that landed so that we can marvel at the skill of the two pilots that managed to get their craft

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The sea frames the raised green of the 6th hole on the La Mer course

and Europe who had command of all the American ground forces invading Germany from the West—some 43 divisions and 1.3 million men. And what a hole it is: a sweeping, left-to-right dogleg of 445 yards with two big bunkers at the elbow and a green protected by no fewer than eight traps. Behind the green, looking down over the charming little harbor of Port-en-Bessin, lies a monument to British Commandos who scaled the cliff face here on D-Day to silence the enemy guns.

La Mer’s front nine is a precipitous climb, with probably the most dramatic and challenging holes on the course, although the back nine flattens out and allows us to get our breath back before we return for some excellent Normandy cuisine prepared in the spacious clubhouse overlooking the 9th green.

A spectacular test of both golf and stamina would be to combine the front nine of La Mer with the front nine of Le Manoir, which has two hugely testing holes, 8 and 9, where water runs the entire length of both fairways on the left. If you hook, prepare to get wet!

Heading north along the coast after our tour of the

battlefields, two more Normandy courses are well worth our attention. The first being Etratat on the chalky clifftops over Dieppe, scene of a daring Allied attack in 1942 that went disastrously wrong and taught many lessons for the 1944 invasion. A regular on “Top-25” golf lists in France, this is a terrific test of seaside golf that can be nigh unplayable when the wind blows hard.

The other is in the historic resort of Deauville, and designed in 1929 by an Englishman, Tom Simpson, who created Sunningdale along with many other fine European courses. Deauville is similar to the delightful St. Pierre course near Chepstow in South Wales, in that it is not remarkably long and sweeps gently around a hillside. It also requires consummate precision to plot out a respectable score.

A spectacular test of golf and stamina would be to combine the front nine of La Mer with the front nine of Le Manoir. If you hook, prepare to get wet!

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Offering sweeping views across Deauville and the English Channel, golfers of the quality of Fred Couples, Craig Stadler, Corey Pavin and Ian Baker-Finch have all played here, and their photographs hang on the walls of the warm and friendly clubhouse where club manager David Raguet and his staff all seem determined to ensure visitors leave happy, regardless of how badly their round has gone.

Again, both Etratat and Deauville are members of Le Club Golf, so a half-price green fee is there for the taking for those that qualify. Clubs can be hired at all three courses, so all we need to remember is to pack our golf shoes, and bring an umbrella!

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S A L T dorado

bonefish

tarpon

A River Runs Through It, this is not. Forget pastoral scenes of men in waders fishing in the cool shadows of tall trees in a stream that gently meanders through verdant green hills. Saltwater fly fishing is exposed, stark and seriously challenging

F permit

L sail fish

It might also be the most satisfying fishing you’ll ever attempt. The rods are longer, the drag on the reels is stronger, the line is longer, the flies are often bigger and, not surprisingly, so are the fish. Huge, in fact, if that’s what you want. But even a smallish 15-lb dorado would put many river fish to shame, meaning saltwater fly fishermen need to be fighters, because these fish don’t spend all day resting under logs—and they don’t like to be caught.

“Saltwater fly fishing really is the pinnacle of the fly-fishing game,” says Capt. Scott Swartz, who operates the Florida Fly Fishing School in St. James, not far from Fort Myers. A certified master casting instructor and a man who’s caught world records “on the salt,” Swartz knows his stuff. Like many saltwater fly fishermen, Swartz started in fresh water but said that the additional challenges of salt made it irresistible.

“Inland waters usually have a sea breeze, which makes casting a little more difficult. Also, saltwater fish are usually on the move; they don’t just sit still in a pocket. And many times you’re fishing from a flats boat, which is often being moved around by tides and wind. So you’re moving, and you’re trying to hit a moving target in the wind.”

The cast is similar to freshwater casting but demands more focus and skill because, unlike trying to coax a rather stationary trout out from under a log, you’re trying to anticipate the location of a fast-moving fish and cast in front of it.

“When you’re fishing mountain trout,” says Swartz, “you get in a lie, you don’t have to make long, heroic casts.”

There are other differences: a stronger drag on the reel to handle the increased size of the fish, longer line to

Y marlin

account for longer runs and different knots to account for the sometimes larger and different flies, making it more of a “next step” from freshwater fly fishing rather than a completely different game. And the flies themselves are different, naturally.

“It’s so much more simple [in salt water],” explains Swartz. “In freshwater fishing you’ll turn rocks over and look at what kind of larvae, mayflies, stone flies, whatever, and you’re trying to match the hatch. It’s all so complex.

In saltwater fly fishing it’s going to be a baitfish, shrimp or crab imitation… If you have something that looks crabby or shrimpy or fishy, you’re in the game.” (See sidebar: “Flies”) Of course, the challenge wouldn’t be worth it if the prizes weren’t as good.

“Without a doubt, the biggest difference and greatest attraction is the fish,” Swartz says. “They’re stronger and faster than freshwater fish. There are very few stocking programs, so they haven’t been raised in concrete troughs and driven by a truck. They’ve learned the ‘fight or flight’ mechanism to survive, and so they’re generally more of a battle in the catch.”

Fish from river restocking programs, which were raised in captivity, are often easier to catch than wild fish as they lack the “wildness” of their naturally bred counterparts. Additionally, many river trout, for example, will spend their entire lives in a single area, meaning any number of fly fishermen can target them, catch them and then release them for another angler to pursue. Not so in salt water, where fish are constantly on the move and nearly always wild. As for the targets, there are many.

“Saltwater fly fishing really is the pinnacle of the fly-fishing game”

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“The ‘glamour’ species, when they think of saltwater fly fishing and warmer waters, would be bonefish, tarpon and permit—it’s the big money fish that cause most people to jump on an airplane,” says Swartz. “But truly, inshore fishing around so much of the southern coastal U.S. is great and includes redfish, spotted sea trout and snook, for example.”

In the northeast, he says, people go for striped bass, bluefish and the like, but the truth of it is that the most popular saltwater fly fishing comes with a lot of sun and sand—and the stakes are only getting bigger.

“Fishermen are starting to venture into blue water and chase sailfish and marlin, and there’s an operation in California going after mako sharks. It’s starting to become a bit of an extreme sport.

“I’ve been down to Guatemala and caught sailfish over 100lbs, and here in Southwest Florida we’re chasing monster tarpon, 150lb on a fly rod. I think right now the world record [tarpon] on a fly is 202lbs.”

As compelling as the big catches might be, Swartz says the deepwater game is not his favorite saltwater fly fishing.

“The real ideal is to be in a shallow water environment wading or being pulled along on a flat skiff, scanning and searching to spot the fish and then make the cast to it. That really is the height of the game.

“At the end of the day when you’re back at the lodge, there’s a lot of ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda’ stories, but that is what makes the sport so great. If it always worked out it wouldn’t be as much fun.”

Scott Swartz runs fly fishing schools in Florida and Atlanta, and provides guide services for locations all over the world.

For more info, visit floridaflyfishingschools.com

Find the Fish Marls of Abaco Bahamas Located approximately 165 miles due east of West Palm Beach, Florida, the Abacos offer some of the best boating and fishing in the Bahamas. Among the many great local fishing spots, a 300-square-mile area of shallow, swampy wetlands known as “The Marls” provides a labyrinth of twisted mangroves, small creeks, random cuts and seemingly endless flats—perfect bonefish habitat.

Stay: Abaco Lodge. It sits right on the flats, meaning all you have to do is step into a skiff with your guide and you’re five minutes from the action. Featured on ESPN, it’s hosted the likes of Tom Brokaw and Michael Keaton, among others. Abacolodge.com

Christmas Island Kiribati Noted by the Spanish in 1537 and visited by Captain James Cook on Christmas Eve, 1777, the island, known locally as Kiritimati (“ti” is pronounced like “s” in the local Gilbertese language), sits in the world’s farthest-forward time zone (GMT+14), making it one of the first places on Earth to celebrate New Year. Approximately 300 miles south of Java, it’s been used variously as a shipping stop, a battleground and a nuclear test base. Today the island’s roughly 250 square miles of prime bonefish and trevally flats provide an ideal (if exotic) year-round fishing getaway.

Stay: Captain Cook Hotel. The original and oldest lodge on the island, it’s also the best. Great accommodations and food, and plenty of room for you to tell fish stories in the evening. Kiribatitourism.gov.ki

Dry Tortugas Florida Ponce de Leon named the salt flats 65 miles west of Key West Las Tortugas, “The Turtles,” likely due to sea turtles in the area. Not long after, the “Dry” was added to let mariners know there wasn’t a drop of fresh water to be had here. It’s stark and hot—crazy hot—but the array of fish swimming among the four-foot depths of this 100-square-mile national park is unbelievable. Black and red grouper, mutton snapper, yellowtail, tarpon and what’s now called a “goliath grouper” (formerly a “jewfish,” which can reach more than 700 lbs) are all to be had, along with numerous others. The fish here are big, serious and clever, and coral along the sandy bottom gives them plenty of line-snapping opportunities, but if you’re sharp and you bring your game, it’s tough to beat the fishing here.

Also: enjoy a quick visit to historic Fort Jefferson.

Stay: On your charter fishing boat. The distance from Key West is such that you’ll want to overnight it on the water to maximize your fishing. Before embarking, we like the Marquesa in Key West. It’s historic, nicely restored, clean, serves great food and like most of Key West, isn’t far from a cold drink. Marquesa.com

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East Cape Baja, California

GEAR

Inshore, offshore, doesn’t matter. There are so many fish here the only decision you’ll have to make is which kind you want to target. Roosterfish, tuna, bonita, amberjack, dorado, wahoo and cabrilla are just a few of the serious fighters you’ll find. Roughly two hours from Cabo San Lucas, and there’s easy access from San Jose Del Cabo airport.

Stay: Hotel Buena Vista. Rooms have an old world rustic look to them, beach cabanas and a beautiful pool make for a nice scene outside, and there are hammocks strung between palms all over the property, making this a proper place to siesta. Hotelbuenavista.com

Saltwater fly fishing requires gear that is similar to, but different from, freshwater fly fishing. Here’s a breakdown:

Turneffe Atoll Belize Fly fishermen come here because it’s beautiful and because it’s one of the rare places where you have a real shot at what the local tourism group bills as a “Flats Grand Slam,” which basically means catching permit, tarpon and bonefish in one day. The atoll is stunning, with waves breaking over a reef for miles in all directions, the fishing is great, and Belize itself is a wonderful place to escape for a while. For a quick getaway with great fishing, Belize could be your answer.

Stay: Turneffe Flats. Billed as an “eco lodge” but offering air conditioned cabanas on the beach, this place is right on top of the action. Other bonus: it promotes itself as fly-fishing focused. Tflats.com

Los Roques Venezuela In 1987, the first licensed anglers fly fished Los Roques National Park 85 miles offshore from Venezuela, and it’s been a popular spot ever since. One of the best places to wade for bonefish, there are more than 350 cays in the area to explore, all of them collectively creating a watery labyrinth that fish love. Commercial fishing here is prohibited and access is limited, so it’ll just be you and your guide and plenty of fish.

Stay: Accommodations are limited but nice, with both the Posada Malibu and Posada Caracol offering clean and modern comfort. To learn about available options, visit flyfishinglosroques.com

Rod Saltwater fly rods tend to be longer and stronger. Longer because they have to cast farther to put a fly into shallows or across a wide expanse of flats in front of a fish, and stronger because the fish you’re catching are—hopefully—much bigger than anything you’d find in a tranquil Vermont stream.

Reel Saltwater fly fishermen need more line to accommodate both the longer casts and the substantial runs that big saltwater fish will make.

They often use a wire leader as well, thwarting escape attempts by barracuda and other toothy prey.

FLIES Capt. Scott Swartz runs fly fishing schools in both Atlanta and Florida, and his expertise “on the salt” is unquestioned. An IGFA record holder and certified master casting instructor, here he offers just a taste of the kinds of tricks one must use to catch saltwater fish, explaining three common saltwater fly types (photos of Orvis flies): 1. Baitfish “A baitfish will try to outrun a predator fish, so you make your cast and make the fish think he’s stumbled upon something good. You make the fly flee, but not so quickly that it can’t get caught.”

2. Crab “A crab is totally different than a baitfish. He’s about defense, so when there’s a predator fish around the crab will dive to the bottom and try to bury himself and hide. I make a presentation of a crab in front of a redfish or bonefish, then bump it along—but you don’t want to have it running away. You need to let it drop to the bottom and sit. It takes a lot of patience.”

3. Shrimp “A shrimp might kick its tail and try to flee, but not like a baitfish.

It’s more of a little jerky or flutter motion a little bit. Some shrimp stay closer to the surface, others don’t. It comes with experience.”

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spring 2014

“Where are the flying cars?” This question occasionally pops up in columns bemoaning the slow march of technology and the state of the modern world, which doesn’t much resemble The Jetsons or the future some feel we were promised. In truth, flying cars would be a disaster with many of today’s drivers, and the idea of robot maids with an attitude seems more discomforting than helpful.

But some frustrations are understandable. The Toyota Prius 1. made its Japanese debut in 1997, the same year Google launched and the “vibrate” function first appeared on a mobile phone. And while Google and mobile technologies have visibly progressed over the last 17 years,

and polymers to 60mph in 15 seconds, and its styling was definitely function over form. Still, it seemed that consumers were ready to make a few sacrifices for fewer trips to the pump and the feeling that they were doing something good for planet Earth.

There are more options these days: the plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt 4. (which can travel 40 miles on its batteries alone) and hybridized versions of common brands like the Volkswagen Jetta and Cadillac Escalade 5. . But one could argue that nothing as revolutionary as the Prius has come along in the mass market in quite some time. That’s not necessarily true, Cheeseman suggests, it’s just that most of the innovations are taking place under the hood, so to speak. Driving the market forward is a combination of consumer demand for lowercost-to-operate vehicles and global governmental goals to lower emissions.

The key to technology’s role in meeting these demands, Cheeseman says, isn’t necessarily that cars as we know them will suddenly transform into something unrecognizable. Rather, it’s that cars across the board—including fully electric vehicles, a variety of hybrid types, internal combustion engines and a host of other new-technology vehicles, like fuel cell vehicles—will all see some integration of electric and hybrid technology, improving efficiency and performance.

“You’ll see more turbocharged engines, more downsized engines, but electrification is playing its role,” he says. “Levels of electrification are creeping into cars, and I think that’s where innovation in the hybrid area still has its part to play.”

Developing fully electric cars, he says, is tough due to a number of factors, some more obvious than others.

“It’s always range, that is the big one,” he says.

“Now there are various ways in which you can help to keep range up on a vehicle, make it very efficient, make it very lightweight, and the bit that consumers like the least is restricting the performance of the vehicle. If you give it less power you give it less energy; consumers are least willing to compromise on this.”

Another issue is making a car feel like a car; that is, ensuring consumers feel at home in the vehicle. One of the ways engineers accomplish that, Cheeseman explains, is by creating software that makes sure everything between pressing the gas pedal and the actual moving is familiar to the driver.

“Most vehicles have what we would call a torque arbitration module,” he says. “It turns the driver demand for the car to go forward into a torque request to all the systems. It could be argued that the system doesn’t matter [e.g., combustion, hybrid or electric], that device defines the character of the car.”

AUTOMOTIVE

1. © Toyota 2. © Nissan 3. Tesla Motors 4. © General Motors 5. © GM Corp

If you think the world of hybrid vehicle development stalled with the Prius, think again the highways aren’t exactly covered in new-tech vehicles silently gliding between charging stations. In fact, there aren’t many charging stations outside of early-adopter regions like California and Hawaii, making fully electric vehicles like the new Nissan Leaf 2. or well-reviewed but pricey Tesla Model S 3. impractical for most Americans.

Of the hybrids that are driven nationwide, mileage figures are still hovering in the 40-50mpg range—not bad, but not all that different from the 2000 Prius, the first to go on sale globally. So where are the flying cars?

It turns out that some very smart people are working on that, and much of the work is being done not in the car-crazed States, but in the home of Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Jaguar.

“If you look at mainstream hybrid vehicles, they really started to come into being at around about year 2000,” says Neil Cheeseman, Engineering Program Manager at Zytek Automotive in Lichfield, England, which has been developing hybrid and electric vehicle technology since 1993. “We’re talking about the Honda Insight, the Prius of course, the General Motors Parallel Hybrid Truck, which we had something to do with. At that time they were really technological learning vehicles; they were packed with tech but the business case for them wasn’t really there at the time.

Technology really has to stand on its own two feet, and we’re getting to a time when it can.”

The original Prius, the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle, was a marvel in its time, promising 42mpg and near silent running. But its 57bhp 1.5L four-cylinder engine struggled to get the 3,340-lb wedge of batteries

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“Software that runs on that torque arbitration module is key to defining the character of the car, which is why vehicle manufacturers keep control of the software: it helps define car ‘A’ as coming from manufacturer ‘A.’” In terms of comparable top speeds among electrics or hybrids and combustion engines, the days of the sluggish 2000 Prius seem to be largely behind us, certainly in terms of potential.

“We’re already fast, already way beyond what consumers can use on a general everyday basis,” Cheeseman says. “And the amount of time they spend at maximum vehicle speed is almost nothing, so can electric vehicles be as fast as other vehicles? Yes absolutely, and you’ll see that now.

“But performance can be defined a number of ways.

It can mean acceleration, top speed… It can mean other things: when you step on the gas, how quickly does your car react? Electrics and hybrids can be really good at taking that demand from the gas pedal and turning it into acceleration really quickly. A turbocharged engine, you press the gas pedal and one second later it accelerates. Electrics and hybrids accelerate instantly.”

One company that recently put that advantage to good use is McLaren, another English firm. McLaren is behind some of the most impressive cars ever built, including the F1, which redefined consumer motoring back in 1992. Last year, they produced something amazing: the McLaren P1, which is essentially the world’s first hybrid supercar.

TECH PARTNERS “In town it’s as eco-friendly as a health food shop, on the motorway it’s comfortable and produces no more carbon dioxide than a family saloon, and on a track it can rip a hole through time.” So exclaimed car expert and Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson after driving the P1 in a Top Gear episode this year, and Clarkson is notoriously skeptical of hybrid vehicles.

Using a combination of a 3.8L twin-turbo V8 and electric motors, the P1 makes 903bhp and gets to 186mph in roughly the same amount of time it took the original Prius to reach 60—16.5 seconds. Zero-60 is reached in a neck-straightening 2.8 seconds, thanks in part to the kind of technology partnership Cheeseman described, in which the electric components manage acceleration and the combustion engine handles speed.

“For years cars have all been basically the same,” Clarkson continued in the show. “But this really isn’t. It’s a game-changer, a genuinely new chapter in the history of motoring.”

For its part, McLaren offered that the goal wasn’t about trying to create a fast hybrid, per se, but more about pushing technology as a whole.

“The main objective with the P1 was to design and develop the ultimate driver’s car on road and track,” said Paul MacKenzie, project director for the P1. “We believe

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For years cars have been basically the same, but this really isn’t. It’s a game-changer that the result achieves this and is the most exciting, capable, technologically advanced and most dynamically accomplished supercar ever made.”

The electric component actually enhances the gasoline engine’s performance, as it harnesses the advantages of electric motors and applies them to the overall power delivery.

“The solution… utilizes the electric motor’s ability to provide instant torque and throttle response, and provide greater performance potential,” explained MacKenzie.

“The… powertrain includes the battery pack and the electric motor, which does increase weight, but efforts were made to keep these to a minimum. However, the performance levels offered by the use of a lightweight motor and a battery pack which offers greater continuous power density than any other car battery pack on sale today means

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that the performance of the P1 is improved for having these technologies fitted.”

In essence, McLaren says they used hybrid tech because it made their car go faster and perform better—and no one’s arguing. The 375 planned units sold out last year, purchased by Jay Leno and 374 other people who reportedly paid near $1.5 million each for the opportunity to drive a hybrid with a top speed of 217mph (electronically limited).

Left: McLaren P1; below, the Morgan Plus E, which Zytek Automotive helped to develop

ON TRACK If McLaren is demonstrating that hybrid vehicles can offer race-car-like performance (and they’re soon to be joined

by BMW, Porsche and the like), the racing world is already on board. This year marks the debut of Formula E, a new racing series under FIA, the world’s governing body for auto sports. Ten teams will race through city streets around the world with two cars each. The cars are fully electric and will be limited to a top speed near 150mph to extend both range and race time (see p92 for more info). Without question, the appearance of Formula E is a sign that hybrid and new vehicle technologies are moving forward.

“The concept for Formula E comes from the FIA who felt the time was right to launch a fully-electric championship and to do it now,” says Alejandro Agag, CEO of Formula E Holdings, the firm promoting the series.

“Motorsport has changed significantly over recent years to embrace new technology and to make it more relevant. Take the Le Mans 24 Hours for instance, you now have hybrid

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and diesel powered cars dominating the podium. So the time is certainly right to take that next step and go fully electric.”

The drivers comprise a cast from F1, GP, Indy racing and other series, and while Agag says their skills will easily translate to Formula E, he points out that there will be differences.

“The main element they will have to get used to is the torque and how instant the power is. The other two areas will be learning to manage the battery—just like a driver manages his/her tires in other motorsports—and simply learning the tracks as drivers will not be able to test beforehand, so that first practice session will be their first time driving the circuit.”

Like McLaren, which paid close attention to ensuring that the P1 sounded like a supercar, Agag says the visceral experience of Formula E will be there.

“For us, the sound is one of the most unique and exciting aspects of the championship,” he says. “People have likened it to that of a jet engine.

It’s a very futuristic sound. At full speed one car produces around 80 decibels, that’s more than a road car driving along the highway at 70mph… now imagine 20 of them!”

More than just great racing, those associated with Formula E hope that it will influence the consumer market, much as racing has always done.

“The whole concept of the FIA’s Formula E series is to promote the electric car industry but to also accelerate the technology within it,” Agag explains. “Through competition we want to break through the barriers which are currently causing people to ‘ignore’ EVs as a pragmatic option, such as concerns over battery life and costs. We want this new technology to then filter its way down into everyday electric cars so that one day in the near future buying an electric will be the norm.”

That’s a shift that engineering firms like Zytek would embrace. Cheeseman and others feel the potential for breakthroughs in vehicle technology are tremendous, but it will take consumer acceptance and adoption to drive the market.

“A lot of people in my position are hugely enthusiastic, as the future going forward is almost unlimited,” he says. “In a good year 70 million vehicles are sold, so the opportunity is almost unlimited. There’s an increasing level of takeup, an increasing level of acceptance. Whilst we do understand that consumers love combustion engines, levels of electrification will increase in the car of the future. Electric vehicles will play a small part; it may be a very small part for a very long time to come, but it’s an important small part.”

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FORMULA E FORMAT Qualifying One car, fastest time over four laps: two timed plus out and in laps. Full power (270bhp) will be available throughout.

Race Standing start, roughly one-hour duration with two mandatory pit stops in order to change cars (two cars per team). Engines restricted to 180bhp during the race with a predetermined number of “push-to-pass” power increases to 270bhp allowed to aid in overtaking.

SCHEDULE Pit Stops Two mandatory stops, during which cars will be changed. The switch must occur in the team’s box and under the supervision of an FIA steward. Tire changes are not allowed unless there’s a puncture.

Championship Both driver and team championships will be awarded at the season’s end, based on best results from all races.

Beijing, China 13 September Putrajaya, Malaysia 18 October Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 15 November Punta Del Este, Uruguay 13 December Buenos Aires, Argentina 10 January 2015 Los Angeles, Calif. 14 February, 2015 Miami, Florida 14 March, 2015 Monte Carlo, Monaco 9 May, 2015 Berlin, Germany 30 May, 2015 London, England 27 June 2015

CHASSIS

TIRES Drivers will receive three sets of custom-built 18” treaded Michelin tires for use per race day in both wet and dry

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The monocoque chassis, built from carbon fiber and aluminum by Italian firm Dallara, complies with 2014 FIA crash tests, the same used to regulate F1

COMMUNICATION Renault will ensure all systems can communicate, thanks to tech derived from its F1 programs

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The air will be a little clearer and the sound of the engines won’t be the same, but when the all-electric FIA Formula E racing series kicks off this year, racing will change forever.

With ten teams of two drivers each and events scheduled in ten cities worldwide, Formula E is the newest FIA single-seater championship race series— and the world’s first to be fully electric.

Each team has two cars, both of which will be used in any given race as, rather than refuel (recharge, in this case), drivers will switch cars during pit stops.

Technically Formula E operates as an “open championship” series, meaning car manufacturers are free to showcase electrical energy innovations in equipment, as long as the designs fall within FIA guidelines. In any case, the McLaren-designed racers won’t be mistaken for a Prius anytime soon:

0-62mph times are estimated at 3 seconds, while max speed is FIA-limited to a still-fun 140mph, courtesy of max 200kw power limitation, which is equal to roughly 270bhp.

If the cars are impressive, so is the roster of drivers willing to race.

A Formula E Driver’s Club began last year as a list of drivers who’d declared themselves supportive and willing to drive in Formula E. Among them is a host of proven names from F1, Indy and Le Mans, including Marco Andretti, Bruno Senna (Ayerton’s nephew) and J.R. Hildebrand, just to name a few.

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is a believer. Last December, he joined Venturi Automobiles as a partner to enter the tenth and final Formula E team for the inaugural season.

“The future of our planet depends on our ability to embrace

BATTERY The batteries from Williams Advanced Engineering make 200kw, the equivalent of 270bhp

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fuel-efficient, clean-energy vehicles,” DiCaprio said. “Venturi Grand Prix has shown tremendous foresight in their decision to create an environmentally friendly racing team, and I am happy to be a part of this effort.”

This year Venturi will join Americans Andretti Autosport and Dragon Racing; Britain’s Virgin Racing and Drayson Racing; Japan’s Super Aguri Formula E team; Germany’s Audi Sport ABT; E.Dams from France; India’s Mahindra Racing; and China Racing, to round-out a truly international field. As technologies improve, battery weight lessens (and range extends) and endeavors to improve air quality and safety intensify, Formula E may one day be considered the beginning of a seismic shift in all racing. Only time will tell, but we wouldn’t bet against it.

THE CAR POWERTRAIN & ELECTRONICS McLaren Electronic Systems is supplying the electronics and the powertrain

Spark Racing Technology from France will build 42 SRT_01E cars for the first season of Formula E

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S SHORT Purists look down their noses at par-3 courses because they wrongly assume they’re just for kids and beginners.

But as Paul Trow finds out, even though they mostly render the driver redundant, some are still a true test of golf and better value for time and money than many full-scale models

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o what do par-3 courses have going for them? Surely they’re only testing a small part of one’s game, not the sacrosanct ability to blast the ball 300 yards uphill against the wind which, as we all know, is what golf is really all about. Isn’t it?

Leaving aside the obvious answer to this statement, the first point to make is it shouldn’t take as long to play a par-3 course as a fullsized version. And time is perhaps the most precious commodity in our modern era of conflicting demands, pressures and commitments. Without question, golf can be a thief of time and, with today’s increasingly hectic world, this tendency can lead to loss of participants.

Some people simply can’t afford to spend an entire day on one round.

Granted, traveling to the course, going to the range, having something to eat and drink before and/or after playing is all part of the pleasureable package.

But when sandwiched between is a round stretching beyond five and a half hours then serious questions have to be asked about how the game can speed itself up—and, at a time of significant green fees and membership subscriptions, make itself more accessible financially.

Another obstruction to beginners sticking with the game—and some experienced players too, if truth be told—is the predominance of courses with a yardage well in excess of 7,000.

They might stage championships, show up in glossy publications and feature in subjective top-100 rosters, but many are too tough for all but the best players to handle and tend to overly intimidate beginners and intermediates.

From a maintenance perspective, “full” courses sprawl over a minimum of 180 acres that need perpetual fertilization, mowing, aeration, irrigation and maintenance. Most are meticulously manicured no matter the number of rounds they host, spending an awful lot of money on appearances.

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The Par-3 Contest on the Wednesday that precedes each Masters attracts massive galleries as well as the players’ friends and family members

Thus, the bottom line is obvious: they cost loads to tend to be popular with beginners, families with children build and operate, and not a little bit to play—which is fine, and short hitters—a bit like the golfing equivalent of but there is room in the golfing landscape for other options. “bunny” slopes in skiing. But the concept is also attractive Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had more courses that to experienced golfers seeking to practice, teachers giving don’t present such hurdles, both to players and to course on-course instruction and people with a disability. Such managers? Just as one model for all car buyers is impossible layouts often occupy unused land and are maintained with in today’s market, so one kind of golf course cannot suit little extra equipment and personnel. Usually, no additional all golfers and situations. In short, other models are needed buildings or parking areas are required. In essence, it’s a apart from the full-scale championship experience. little like adding an extra room or porch to your house.

True, many par-3 courses have been built over the So, step forward the par-3 course—golf’s pint-sized, years to accompany a full-sized, 18-hole version. They invariably picturesque extension.

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erhaps the world’s best-known par-3 course is the 9-hole, 1,060-yard layout at Augusta National that plays host to a selection of players and honorees, along with assorted friends and family, on the Wednesday afternoon prior to the start of the Masters. Laid out seductively to the left of the clubhouse behind some of the property’s taller trees and around two seriously intrusive water hazards (DeSoto Springs Pond and Ike’s Pond), this ‘Tom Thumb’ course opened in 1958 to a George Cobb design, amended by Tom Fazio in 1987.

The original project was conceived and overseen by club chairman Clifford Roberts and the inaugural Par-3 Contest (won by Sam Snead) was held in 1960. To date, the event has witnessed 75 holes-in-one, including a record five in 2002, and is now televised. Famously, no winner of the Par-3 Contest has ever gone on to win the Masters in the same year.

In terms of quality, the 10-hole short course at Pine Valley, in Clementon, New Jersey, takes some beating. Eight holes eerily replicate approach shots on the main course, and their attendant flora, while the remaining two holes were designed by Pine Valley member Fazio, who oversaw the project, and long-time club president Ernie Ransome, who passed away last year.

Ransome, who wanted members to practice approach shots they would find on the course, argued: “I always said I’d never build a second course at Pine Valley to compete with the original, but I thought it would be nice to duplicate some of the original holes. Tom took it from there and did a wonderful job.” Worthy either as a warm-up or an additional round on the day, Pine Valley’s short course opened in 1992, has its own dedicated superintendent and is always immaculately presented.

Another championship setup with an impressive par-3 course is The Olympic Club in San Francisco. Set on bluffs above the Pacific Ocean, the challenging 9-hole, 1,800yard Cliffs layout was designed by Jay Morrish and Tom Weiskopf in 1994. For views, it outstrips the club’s two 18-hole courses and, as the name implies, it’s right above the water with the wind howling in off the coastline.

A couple of hours down the west coast of California, we find the 9-hole Peter Hay par-3 course at Pebble Beach Golf Links. This public track, named after a long-time Pebble Beach professional, opened in October 1957. Laid out by Hay and Samuel F. B. Morse on a 10-acre parcel of hillside between the Golf Links and the main equestrian center on the Monterey Peninsula, it hosts professional and celebrity shoot-outs before the AT&T Pebble Beach

The Fairmont Southampton Princess, overlooking the Atlantic on the south side of Bermuda, has one of the world’s ‘must play’ 18-hole par-3 layouts

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Larry Lambrecht

Not too many par-3 courses stretch to 18 holes, but those that do are invariably a superb test Two par-3 delights can be found at Hamilton Farm (above) and Terrenea (below)

National Pro-Am and also the annual Peter Hay tournament for boys and girls.

The practice of marrying up a smaller, complementary layout with a championship venue is just as prevalent in other parts of the world, most notably Scotland. Three iconic destinations—Turnberry, Gleneagles and North Berwick—are all justly proud of their par-3 offerings. And it should be pointed out that none is remotely modern.

North Berwick, a short distance from Muirfield, opened its 9-hole Children’s Course as a Ladies’ Links in 1888. The original 9-hole Wee Course at Gleneagles, venue for this year’s Ryder Cup, was constructed during the summer of 1928, just four years after the resort opened.

It was subsumed into the Prince’s Course when it opened in 1974, but was later reinstated. Meanwhile, the 12-hole pitch-and-putt at the foot of the Turnberry Hotel, across the road from the 18th green on the Ailsa Course, is at least a hundred years old. It’s undeniably a little gem, no longer than 600 yards from head to toe, but a popular port of call for guests and, especially, their children.

Perhaps the most celebrated par-3 layout south of the

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border in England is the 9-hole Cromwell course at Nailcote Hall Hotel, Golf & Country Club. Home to the annual Farmfoods British Par-3 Championship, in which European Ryder Cup captains Tony Jacklin, Sam Torrance and Ian Woosnam are all enthusiastic and regular participants, it makes up for its lack of length with a plethora of hazards, including ditches, ponds, elevated greens and no fewer than 23 bunkers.

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ot too many par-3 courses stretch to 18 holes, but one that does, laid out in the grounds of the luxurious Fairmont Southampton Princess Hotel in Bermuda, is this year celebrating the 50th anniversary of its original design by Theodore G. Robinson. This hilly 2,684-yard, par-54 layout plays much longer than most par-3 courses due to the Atlantic breezes to which it is exposed. But the glorious ocean and inland views more than compensate for this, and with holes ranging in distance from the 110-yard 6th to the 216-yard 14th, every club in the bag is needed. One word of warning, though: the hotel advertises an average playing time of two hours, yet, with many guests firmly in the ‘rabbits’ category, rounds can, infuriatingly, take twice as long.

Another well-established, full-length par-3 layout is Geoffrey Cornish’s 1962 design at the Blue Rock Resort in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. Stretching to almost 3,000 yards, its holes range from 103 to 255 yards, but the signature is the 169-yard 9th where a healthy poke over water is required to a kidney-shaped green.

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Beach par-3 course on the South Ocean Boulevard strip, with its swaying palm trees and views of the Atlantic on one side and the Intracoastal Waterway on the other, takes some beating. And if that isn’t enough of a water hazard, there’s also a lake snaking down the middle of the course. Designed by Dick Wilson in 1961, it recently received a facelift from Raymond Floyd.

Up the coast, in Myrtle Beach on South Carolina’s Grand Strand, Midway Par-3 is home to 27 floodlit holes, divided into three separate nines.

On 18 of the holes, the tee-box lies include downhill, uphill and side-hill, waste or grass bunkers and even hardpan for a bump-and-run. Other par-3 layouts worth visiting in Myrtle Beach are the 18-hole Cane Patch, also floodlit, and the 9-hole Golf Hill.

On the other side of the country, Todd Eckenrode’s 2009 design at Links at Terranea in Rancho Palos Verdes benefits from breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean. This 9-hole track, 25 minutes’ drive south of Los Angeles International Airport, has invitingly open approaches to challenging greens with names like Boomerang, where the putting surface wraps around a bunker, The floodlit Cloud 9 design at Angel Park in Las Vegas hits the jackpot with golfing punters Portuguese Bend and Punchbowl. Then there’s the Challenge at Monarch The 18-hole Hickory course Dunes, a 12-hole Damian Pascuzzo/Steve Pate collaboration at Hamilton Farm in Gladstone, at Nipomo on California’s Central Coast, halfway between New Jersey, is particularly revered. San Jose and Los Angeles. Offering nearly as much shotCarved by Dana Fry from a pristine making variety as most 7,000-yard layouts, it comes with hardwood forest on a rolling intriguingly contoured greens and tall, fescue-topped mounds country estate, there isn’t a weak that lend a links-like ambience. Not far from these gems are hole on this elegant layout. In a the courses that comprise the annual, 12-event Par-3 Tour similar setting, though the trees in California, east and south of Los Angeles, in the triangle are much taller, is the family-run between San Bernadino, Temecula and Newport Beach, all of Meridian Par-3 in South Surrey, which are busy, cheerful and, no doubt, thoroughly testing.

British Columbia. Opened in 1959 More than 1,000 miles up the Pacific coastline, the on land once occupied by a hazelnut par-3 Preserve course at prominent Oregon golf destination farm, it is the epitome of tranquility Bandon Dunes comprises 13 holes, but those who get where all 18 holes are framed by to play it are certainly the lucky ones. Crafted by Ben towering trees, the most prominent Crenshaw and Bill Coore around a deep ravine and between of which are giant cedars that lend towering sand dunes, this ‘baker’s dozen,’ with its halfboth a majestic beauty, and aromatic hidden, outrageously-contoured greens, tumbles and rises fragrance, to the effect. like the ocean that frames it. Aptly, it was described by one As a spectacle, mind you, writer as “not a trifle but a truffle… a delicacy to be savored the 18-hole, publicly-owned Palm for its rarity and its pleasures.”

“Not a trifle but a truffle... a delicacy to be savored for its rarity and its pleasures”

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held during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Cypress Point (15th), Hong Kong (2nd) and Joondalup (3rd) in Western Australia.

Subtler replication is in evidence at another Asian location—on the 18-hole par-3 Zhang course at Mission Hills Shenzhen where Brian Curley helped China’s leading Tour pro, Zhang Lian-wei, create green complexes that pay homage to many of golf’s best-known putting surfaces.

The burgeoning multiplicity of par-3 courses across Asia and Europe as well as North America demonstrates that this is a phenomenon with a more than healthy future.

Arnold Palmer, during interviews over the years, has often stressed the importance of speeding up the game and creating courses that use up less land. To date, he has had a hand in two 9-hole par-3 layouts—at Forsgate Country Club in Monroe Township, New Jersey (an aperitif to the full-sized Palmer Course) and at Tradition Golf Club in La Quinta, California—but there are high hopes that more will follow.

Hopefully, we’ve nailed the myth of the par-3 course as “the red-headed stepchild of golf layouts” for good.

Indeed, with land availability continuing to shrink in the developed world many pundits feel this model should be prioritized as the 21st century unfolds. So, does that mean they do have something going for them after all?

G. Velotta

One of the 13 holes on the Preserve par-3 layout at Bandon Dunes in Oregon (above).

Left: an attractive scene from the Arnold Palmerdesigned short course at Tradition in California

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Wood Sabold

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ne of the game’s most admired 9-hole par-3 courses can be found at Treetops Resort, near Gaylord, Michigan, famous for its ski slopes, spa facilities and 72 holes of ‘big boys’ golf. Two lots of 18 holes were created by Robert Trent Jones, Sr., and Tom Fazio, and the other two by leading instructor Rick Smith who heads the group of investors that owns the property.

But Smith’s work on Threetops, Treetops’ short course which opened in 1992, has really garnered the plaudits.

Attractive bunker framing and dramatic elevation changes against a spectacular hardwood backdrop have made this a popular host for the ESPN Par-3 Shootout.

When it comes to shaping a residential community around golf, a par-3 layout seems to work just as well as something a lot longer. A classic example is Medalist Village at Hobe Sound just north of Jupiter on Florida’s Treasure Coast, where 119 properties wrap around a 12-hole Greg Norman design. Measuring a maximum of 2,094 yards, with distances ranging from 53 to 212 yards, there are many ways to tackle this course. Each hole offers five different tee placements and thus, in theory, five entirely different playing strategies.

Another 12-holer, floodlit for night play, is Bob Cupp and John Fought’s Cloud 9 design at Angel Park in Las Vegas. In keeping with Sin City’s tradition of faking some of the world’s great buildings, this 20-year-old layout boasts several replicas of famous par-3s, including a Postage Stamp and an island green.

Perhaps the king of the replica par-3 courses is at Bangkok Golf Club in Thailand where the holes honor the likes of Augusta National (12th), the Old Course at St Andrews (11th), Royal Troon (the aforementioned Postage Stamp 8th), Pebble Beach (the tiny downhill 7th), Olympic (8th), Kasumigaseki (4th) where the golf tournament will be

For Ever Green rnold Palmer and Tiger Woods have each won it four times, Jack Nicklaus an incredible six. The three-time winners are Phil Mickelson, Sir Nick Faldo, Sam Snead, Gary Player and Jimmy Demaret. Completing this virtual Who’s Who? of golf, those that doubled up are Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Tom Watson, Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Jose Maria Olazabal and Horton Smith (the inaugural champion). As we prepare for the 78th edition of golf’s most seductive and alluring championship, these 15 players account for well over half the victories—43 to be precise. Who says the cream doesn’t rise to the top?

Two years were lost to World War II, so the 80th anniversary of the Masters is almost upon us. Messrs.

Palmer, Nicklaus and Player, the honorary starters and erstwhile Big Three, are already planning their ceremonial opening shots. And as they go through the motions, the rest of us will put our feet up and pray our TV sets don’t go

on the blink any time between April 10 and 13. No doubt we’ll wallow in the thrills and spills round Amen Corner and down the stretch as this capricious golf course coughs up eagles and double-bogeys in almost equal measures; and whatever the outcome on Sunday night, it’s a given that the gamut of our emotions will have been truly run. Year after year, ’twas ever thus!

This story for the ages begins about four years prior to the First Annual Invitational Tournament, as the Masters was originally named, in 1934. The greatest golfer of his era had just stepped aside from competition and, truth be told, he was seeking a golf project to pursue. Between 1923 and 1930, Bobby Jones won four U.S. Opens and three [British] Opens—as an amateur. He also won the U.S. Amateur Championship five times and the [British] Amateur Championship once, during his annus mirabilis—1930. That year, he simultaneously annexed all four of golf’s leading trophies—an “impregnable quadrilateral,” according to the golf writer O.B. Keeler. Subsequently, his achievement was dubbed the only genuine Grand Slam the game has seen.

Jones promptly retired from championship play. The time had come to pay attention to his law practice in Atlanta. He was also weary of the attention he attracted from spectators even when he teed up for a casual game with friends. But a notion persisted at the back of his mind:

Golf fans have long been dazzled by the arboreal variety that defines Augusta National. On the eve of the 80th anniversary of the Masters, Paul Trow marvels at how the former nursery in Georgia that hosts the year’s first Major continues to flourish

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Jones retired from championship play, but one notion persisted at the back of his mind: to create his own personal golf club Bobby Jones (R) plays his tee shot on the first hole during the 1935 Masters

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MASTERS TIMELINE 1934

1935

1939 1949 1952 1955 1956 1958 1960

1961

1962 1963 1964 1965

1968

1971 1977 1978 1979 1982 1987 1996 1997 2003 2012

2013

Three months after Mackenzie’s death, the First Annual Invitational Tournament takes place. It was an invitation no one could refuse—not Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen or even the host himself. Horton Smith won, earning $1,500.

The tournament’s coming of age, thanks to the “shot heard round the world.” Sarazen, trailing Craig Wood by a country mile, holed his second shot at the par-5 15th with a brassie and won the ensuing 36-hole playoff.

After resisting for several years, Jones gives in to Roberts and agrees to change the tournament’s name to the Masters.

The first Green Jacket is awarded to Snead.

The Champions’ Dinner on the Tuesday of tournament week is inaugurated by Hogan.

Palmer ties for 10th in his first Masters appearance.

CBS televise the tournament for the first time.

Palmer’s first Masters victory; the Augusta National Par-3 course opens.

Palmer’s second Masters victory; Snead wins the first Wednesday afternoon Par-3 Contest—to date no winner has claimed the Green Jacket in the same year.

Player becomes the first non-American winner following a final-hole collapse by Palmer; the current silver Masters trophy depicting the clubhouse is introduced.

Palmer makes amends by beating Player and Dow Finsterwald in an 18-hole playoff.

Nicklaus wins the first of his six Masters titles Palmer’s fourth and final Masters victory; Butler Cabin is built.

Nicklaus wins his second Masters with a record aggregate of 271. Jones says “Mr. Nicklaus plays a game with which I am not familiar.”

Bob Goalby wins by one shot after Roberto de Vicenzo signs for a 4 at 17 in the final round when millions of viewers saw him make a 3. That extra stroke cost him a place in a playoff. “Oh, what a stupid I am,” said the noble Argentinian.

Jones passes away following a long degenerative illness.

Roberts, terminally ill, commits suicide on the Par-3 course.

Aged 42, Player shoots 64 to win his third Masters.

Fuzzy Zoeller wins in the first sudden-death playoff.

The rule is relaxed requiring players to employ the services of one of the club’s caddies.

Larry Mize, an Augusta native, chips in from 45 yards on the 11th to win a playoff against Greg Norman and Seve Ballesteros.

Faldo wins by five shots after trailing Norman by six going into the final round.

Tiger Woods, aged 21, wins the first of his four Masters titles by 12 shots with a record aggregate of 270, 18 under par.

Canada’s Mike Weir becomes the first left-handed winner; Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson follow in subsequent years.

Bubba Watson plays a miracle shot from the trees on the 10th to win a playoff against Louis Oosthuizen; Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore become the club’s first female members.

Adam Scott becomes the first Australian to win the title.

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Before the Masters, there was Fruitlands Nurseries

to create his own personal golf club, a dream course but also somewhere he could find peace. This idea resonated with his friend Clifford Roberts, who, at the time, was a Wall Street financier.

Jones and Roberts had mutual connections in Augusta, an inland port founded in 1735 on the Savannah River and named after the mother of King George III. Located 150 miles east of Jones’ home city of Atlanta, it was the ideal retreat for winter golf—at Augusta Country Club and Forest Hills Golf Club, where Jones had previously won the Southeastern Open. Adjoining Augusta Country Club was the 400-acre Fruitlands Nurseries, a former indigo plantation owned by a Belgian, Baron Louis Berckmans, and overlooked by a 14-room manor house—the first building in the South constructed from what came to be known as concrete.

Jones visited the disused site in 1931 with Roberts and knew instantly this was where he wanted to build his club. He wrote later: “The long lane of magnolias through which we approached was beautiful. The old manor house with its cupola and walls of masonry two feet thick was charming. The rare trees and shrubs of the old nursery were enchanting. But when I walked out on the grass terrace under the big trees behind the house and looked down over the property, the experience was unforgettable. It seemed that this land had been lying here for years waiting for someone to lay a golf course upon it. The broad expanse of the main body of the property lay at my feet then just as it does now. It looked as though it were already a golf course.”

Jones knew just the man to help him create his vision.

“When I walked out on the grass terrace under the big trees and looked down, the experience was unforgettable”

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Tiger under a now-fallen tree

TRUNK CALL TO IKE

Dappled light at Augusta

In the 1929 U.S. Amateur Championship at Pebble Beach, he lost in the first round but remained on the Monterey Peninsula for the rest of the week. During that time, he played the not-yet opened Cypress Point and met the architect, Dr. Alister Mackenzie. Having studied the Old Course at St Andrews, which Jones hated at first before falling in love, he knew Mackenzie shared his design philosophy.

“Our overall aim at Augusta National was to provide a golf course of considerable natural beauty, enjoyable for the average golfer and at the same time testing for the expert player striving to better par,” Jones wrote. “We want to make the bogeys easy, if frankly sought, pars readily obtainable by standard good play, and birdies, except on par-fives, dearly bought.”

The fairways would be wide and the rough light, so as not to spoil the members’ fun, but during a tournament the greens would be fast and the hole locations would test the best players. Both Mackenzie and Jones were interested in strategy and Jones hit hundreds of balls to specific locations as the course evolved. Despite the Depression, the course was ready by December 1932 and Augusta National Golf Club—Jones wanted members from overseas as well as around the country—officially opened the following month.

The rest, as they say, is history.

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Earlier this year, America’s second-most famous tree toppled the way of its first, albeit across a canyon of three and a half centuries. The common thread, though, is the Presidency.

And in both cases the Commander-in-Chief was not exactly in yellow-ribbon mode.

Back in the early 18th century, a young gentleman called George Washington experimented, as juveniles do, with a new hatchet. Many decades before he won the War of Independence that led to his coronation as the first President, the child that became the founding father successfully executed a hated cherry tree and then reportedly owned up to this dreadful deed to his distraught father. And in 1956, towards the end of his first term as the 34th President, Dwight D. Eisenhower insisted on the decapitation of a sprawling, beanpole of a loblolly pine that he found equally offensive—down the left side of the 17th fairway at Augusta National Golf Club, around 200 yards from the tee.

The response extended to Washington was one of admiration from a father impressed by his son’s honesty.

The response extended to Eisenhower was one of horror and indignation from his friend, confidante and club chairman, Clifford Roberts, who promptly ruled the President out of order and adjourned the committee meeting at which this proposal was floated.

While the cherry tree was beyond restoration, “Ike’s Tree” survived for many more years. Nearly 58, as it turned out, until the middle of February this year when a particularly severe, and unseasonal, ice storm unearthed it and brought it terminally to its knees. It could be said that Mother Nature, finally, bent to the will of the President.

“The loss of the Eisenhower Tree is difficult news to accept,” said Billy Payne, chairman of Augusta National, though he was relieved the rest of the course had suffered no significant damage. He agreed the planting of a replacement tree was entirely possible, as indeed was the installation of a plaque.

It’s now nearly 45 years since President Eisenhower, who was a personal friend of Arnold Palmer, passed away, but his memory will surely outlast the lifespan of his tree!

spring 2014

BUCKET LIST PAC K AGE

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Fit

A part-time golfer—but full-time skeptical writer—gets properly fitted for clubs by a Callaway expert, and the results surprise him in a very, very good way Callaway Tour Fitting Manager John Degen

I

wasn’t expecting much. I’d had friends supposedly get fitted for clubs by a guy at a store or at our local course, and none of them had returned from the experience with anything more than a credit card bill. So when I pulled into the Ely Callaway Performance Center at Callaway Golf Company’s headquarters in Carlsbad, California, I was skeptical to say the least. Two hours later, consider me converted. By the time I left the fitting, Tour Fitting Manager John Degen had completely changed my notion of what I thought I needed in a set of clubs—and he’d added 15 yards to my drive.

Fifteen yards! If you read no further, that should be all the information you need to convince you that a proper fitting from Callaway is time well spent.

Skill level isn’t important. Not really, not when it comes to improvement. No matter the level of your game, it turns out that a proper fitting—that is, one done by a professional, not just a guy at a shop—will help. In fact, it might even be an important step in helping you to avoid training into the wrong equipment, developing bad habits and frustrations along the way. The fitting itself was painless: I spent a couple

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of hours at Callaway’s beautiful Ely Callaway Performance Center in Carlsbad, drinking in the sunshine and cool breeze and hitting balls. John would watch me swing, give me a club to try, he’d chart my performance using a TrackMan computer system, then swap out my club for another. After a while, he had a shaft and club combination he liked and we’d move on to a different club type. By the end of my day with John, I was hitting farther and straighter, and I didn’t feel like I was fighting the gear I was using. In fact, he’d eliminated a “problem” club from my bag, which I’d long dreaded using as I never seemed to be able to hit it well.

There are Callaway Performance Centers, Fitting Studios and authorized fitting locations all over the United States, and any of them should be able to help fit you into the new range of clubs, which are excellent. For my part, I learned three things during my fitting session. All together, they represent the reason I went into my fitting thinking I had little to learn and emerged a better and more informed (and more appropriately equipped) player. If nothing else, each of the following is a strong argument for visiting with a Callaway fitting expert.

spring 2014

1.

THE EQUIPMENT YOU THINK YOU NEED MIGHT NOT BE THE EQUIPMENT YOU NEED.

“People will come out here for a fitting, and the data will show that they’re hitting longer and better with a certain model or range of our clubs, but they’ll still insist on buying what they consider to be the top-of-the-line, pro level stuff,” John says. “I tell them, OK. Keep on losing your money on the weekends.”

If you’re the kind of guy who’s going to go to the store and purchase the most expensive clubs a manufacturer makes regardless of how you play with them, then a fitting is only going to help you so much. By the end of my fitting, John had selected for me a hybrid from one range, a fairway wood from another, a top-end driver (which he originally thought wouldn’t work well for me) and a mid-range set of irons, all with appropriate shafts. There’s no way I could have put together a bag like this without him. He watched my swing, evaluated my strengths and weaknesses, and selected individual clubs from across the entire quiver of Callaway offerings to match me at various points. After looking at my swing data I was convinced to give up a couple of low irons, which I thought I’d always hit well. Turns out I did better with one of Callaway’s new hybrids—and for whatever reason, I’ve never been able to hit hybrids well. With this one I couldn’t miss. I never would have picked up the club without John handing it to me, and it both added distance and fostered more consistency than my old irons.

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2.

MODERN TECHNOLOGY CAN’T COMPLETELY FIX YOUR SWING, BUT IT CAN HELP.

No two swings are identical, but until recently almost everyone had to adjust himself or herself to swing what were essentially the same clubs. Partly this makes sense: technically speaking, there’s a proper way to swing a golf club and so, executed properly, a swing will produce the desired result no matter the golfer. Accordingly, a bad swing will produce a bad result, no matter the club. But in fact each of us has slight variations in our swings that produce sometimes startlingly different results, and thus we would each benefit from clubs that were custom fit to our individual needs, offsetting some of the negative aspects of our swing if not exactly correcting them.

Now, for those of you hoping for radical technological advancements that would allow you to swing for the pond but hit the green, I have bad news: that’s not happening.

But rather than creating magical solutions, the range of adjustments and technologies in Callaway’s new clubs can ever-so-slightly offset propensities toward bad habits, and that’s usually more than enough to turn bogeys into pars— or in my case, double bogeys into single ones. For example: I tend to come at the ball quite steeply and not get my hands around in time, leaving the face open at impact. While John’s adjustments didn’t fix my bad fundamentals they did help mitigate the problem, especially on those occasions when I almost nailed the shot correctly, so the ball would be just off line instead of way off course. As I continue to work on my swing and improve, the weights can be periodically adjusted until I’m consistently hitting it straight.

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Performance is evaluated using a number of tools

spring 2014

3.

Small adjustments yield big changes

YOU NEED A PRO TO FIT YOU.

The range of allowable adjustments with Callaway’s latest equipment, the mind-boggling number of possible combinations of club heads, shafts, weight positions, hosel adjustments and more, is just too big to think of tackling alone. In the case of the Big Bertha Alpha Driver, for example, there are numerous shaft and loft variations available, and that’s without even touching the adjustable weight system or the revolutionary Gravity Core, a pin that sits vertically in the driver and which can be moved to adjust the center of gravity. John ended up adjusting the Gravity Core in a Big Bertha Alpha that I tried and managed to cut my spin rate by almost 20 percent without affecting launch angle at all. He also utilized the adjustable hosel to optimize my launch angle, then, as mentioned earlier, he shifted a few screw-in weights around to help with my propensity toward a slight slice. But the weights we’re talking about here are in grams—each adjustment is relatively miniscule, but the changes are big—and knowing how much weight to put where is a professional’s job. The clubs have the capacity to help you in fantastic ways, but like a carburetor on a vintage motorcycle, it’s too easy for a ham-fisted amateur to screw things up. By letting John dial in the settings I needed, and because of the range of possibilities inherent in Callaway’s new products, he essentially was able to create a custom driver for me right there on the spot using off-the-shelf gear.

To find out more about Callaway’s new products or to find a location where you can have a Callaway custom fitting, visit Callawaygolf.com

spring 2014

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TPC S I G N AT U R E HOLES TPC properties open a whole world of fantastic lifestyle possibilities for their members and guests, and chief among them is good golf. With courses and clubs that are among the best anywhere, there are sites to fit every personal taste and style of play. Here, we look at just a few signature holes from the TPC landscape. As it turns out, in the TPC Network inspiration is everywhere.

TPC SNOQUALMIE RIDGE

TPC BOSTON

TPC RIVER HIGHLANDS

TPC TWIN CITIES

TPC JASNA POLANA TPC DEERE RUN

TPC MICHIGAN

TPC POTOMAC

TPC STONEBRAE TPC SUMMERLIN TPC HARDING PARK TPC VALENCIA

TPC LAS VEGAS TPC SCOTTSDALE

TPC STADIUM COURSE AT PGA WEST

THE OLD WHITE TPC AT THE GREENBRIER

TPC RIVER’S BEND

TPC WAKEFIELD PLANTATION TPC PIPER GLEN

TPC SOUTHWIND

TPC MYRTLE BEACH

TPC CRAIG RANCH TPC SUGARLOAF TPC FOUR SEASONS TPC SAN ANTONIO

TPC SAWGRASS

TPC LOUISIANA

TPC TAMPA BAY TPC PRESTANCIA

RESORT/DAILY FEE PROPERTIES PRIVATE CLUBS

spring 2014

Cancun

TPC EAGLE TRACE

TPC TREVISO BAY

TPC CANCUN

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spring 2014

TPC Las Vegas HOLE 16

Host to numerous tournaments over the years, including the Las Vegas Senior Classic, TPC Las Vegas provides some of the best off-strip action in the area, a fact born out in numerous rave reviews by the likes of Condé Nast Traveler, which ranked it among the “Top Ten Best Golf Resorts in the USA.”

spring 2014

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TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm HOLE 2

With a 2008 renovation and a resumé of hosting fantastic PGA TOUR events (Kemper Open, FBR Capital Open and Booz Allen Classic, to name a few), this Maryland club is just 20 miles from our nation’s capital—but a world away from any stress.

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spring 2014

TPC Summerlin HOLE 15

Home of the Shriners Hospital for Children Open, this club and its championship golf course have seen some great golf—including Tiger Woods’ first professional victory at the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational. As with TPC Las Vegas, it offers a fantastic experience away from the lights and madness of the strip.

spring 2014

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KIDS ARE CURIOUS. no one’s better at keeping them that way.

From stitches to surgery, we’re the most preferred children’s hospital in Central Florida. arnoldpalmerhospital.com

Healthier Kids, Stronger Families.

Golfer’s Treats Kingdom samples luxury gifts for the winter season

WH I S KE Y S H AV I N G KIT Some might say a tipple before an early morning meeting isn’t great advice but this shaving kit can have you looking sharp as well as adding a touch of rustic elegance to your morning routine. Handcrafted from reclaimed whiskey barrel wood, the stand, brush and razor handle combines the classic style and elegance of wet shaving with modern blade technology. The shave brush is crafted of pure badger bristle, relied on for hundreds of years for its ability to soak up water, lather and transfer softly to your face. Razor accepts easy-to-find Mach 3 blades and the brush handle can be personalized with initials, for a proprietary touch.  heritage-handcrafted.com

G LE N M O R A N G I E CO M PA NTA In 2012 we recommended the Artein, last year we praised the Eelanta, both are sold out and have become highly collectable.

This year the clever folks at Glenmorangie launched their 5th private edition named Companta, Scots Gaelic for friendship.

The whisky is rich and full bodied but carries a luscious, luxurious berry-like flavor that comes from Glenmorangie’s master distiller, Dr. Bill Lumsden finishing the whisky in French casks from the renowned Clos de Tart and Rasteau vineyards. The marriage of Scotch and French is a Jacobean alliance that even this English writer can appreciate.  glenmorangie.com

spring 2014

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CH R I STI A N M ACLEO D A world of luxury, elegance and innovation, Christian MacLeod presents unique and inimitable leather accessories that capture the extraordinary iconic signature vision.

With timeless strength, Christian MacLeod belts are presented in SETH, BRYA and CZAJA leathers with the brilliantly embellished CM initials. Every belt resonates with a rare aesthetic showcasing exceptional finishes of intricate detail and refined quality, for the ultimate in timeless luxury. Visit the world of Christian MacLeod.  christianmacleod.com

G R E E N G LO RY This is a unique volume among the many works that have been published about golf and the courses upon which the game is played. Featured here are the game’s preeminent battlefields, where the best players are tested against the wiles of both nature and the foremost course designers. Through the paintings of artist Linda Hartough and the photographic images of Patrick Drickey (whose glorious photos are often used in Kingdom), the reader is taken on a visual tour of venues forever linked to the names of athletes, past and present, whose skills have been tested in golf’s supreme events.

Green Glory is a “must-have” for players and fans everywhere, particularly as a portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book goes to support the work of The First Tee.  stonehousegolf.com

R X PUT TE RS BY V E R ITA S When the RX Putter line debuted at this year’s PGA Merchandise show, it was swiftly declared the “Belle of the Ball,” being named by PGA.com among the best new products. Since then, it’s been put in the hands of pros and amateurs alike—to great success. Co-invented by former PGA TOUR Commissioner Deane Beman, who made his living on the course as a great putter and off the course as a great innovator, the RX1 and RX2 are completely customizable and have enormous sweet spots. Personalize the lie angle, the weighting and even shaft length with just the turn of a few screws. A cure for putting woes, we say try them for yourselves and join the RX revolution.  cureputters.com

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spring 2014

STITCH G O LF Founded in 2012 by sportswear designer Steve Pena and PGA professional Charlie Burgwyn, Stitch Golf has swiftly become a preferred supplier of highquality golf accessories to more than 600 country clubs and resorts across the United States. Stitch products are also available internationally, and are especially popular in Japan, Korea, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Canada. All Stitch Golf products— predominantly head covers and shoe bags—are made by hand in North Carolina using the finest leather and detailed, state-of-the-art construction techniques.  stitchgolf.com

spring 2014

B I G B E RTH A D R I V E R

C A LL AWAY SU N G L A SS ES

The new Big Bertha Driver from Callaway Golf is so revolutionary, it deserves to carry the most legendary name in golf. It’s faster to swing and more robust, and benefits from Callaway Golf’s new adjustable perimeter weighting for maximum distance from a total performance driver. This new club has already found its way into the bag of multi-Major champion Gary Player. And when it comes to propelling the ball from the tee with to-die-for hang time, what’s good enough for the Black Knight should be good enough for most of us.  callawaygolf.com/big-bertha

The Callaway Tour Series features Transitions Adaptive Lenses, high-grade Magnesium/Aluminum alloy frames and spring-hinge temples. Using technology specifically designed for golfers and other sports enthusiasts, the popular photochromic lenses adjust automatically to the slightest changes in light conditions to provide optimum clarity and depth perception. The lightweight carbon-fiber frame is ultra strong and crafted in a sophisticated aviator design. Its woven texture and spring-hinge temple pieces ensure a secure, comfortable, non-slip fit.  callawayfootwear.com

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KITCH E N A I D B LE N D E R The KitchenAid Diamond Blender, with its exclusive diamond blending system, provides the ultimate blending performance to stir, chop, mix, puree and liquefy. With Pulse 1-5 settings that give you plenty of speed and power options, there is also a crush ice mode. A robust motor, unique one-piece, BPA-free diamond pitcher, stainless steel blades and electronic controls combine to create a powerful vortex that is fast and thorough for exceptional blending results.

Additionally, Intelli-Speed Motor Control senses contents and maintains optimal speed to power through all ingredients.  kitchenaid.com

H E N CKE L S B O B KR A M E R KN I V ES Akin to judging a book by its cover, from looks alone it is difficult to distinguish between a high-quality chef’s knife and a poor one because the essential characteristics are revealed only in regular use. Founded in Germany in 1731, and with offices in New York since 1883, Zwilling J.A. Henckels though is one of the sharper and more reliable names in the kitchen utensils business. Specialists in stainless steel, the company produces a wide range of highly functional scissors, gadgets and metallic cookware.  zwilling.com

B I G G R E E N EG G The authentic and the best, widely acclaimed as the original Americandesigned ceramic cooker, the Big Green Egg is derived from an ancient clay cooking device known as a “kamado”. Originally a clay vessel with a lid, today’s EGG is a modern ceramic marvel known for producing simply better culinary results. Easy to use and incredibly versatile, the egg can cook practically everything as its easily adjusted cooking temperatures range from ultra-high heat searing to low-and-slow smoking. A permanent porcelain glaze ensures the signature green will neither fade nor discolor under any outdoor conditions. Comes in a variety of sizes. Get cooking!  biggreenegg.com

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spring 2014

CU RTI S AUSTR A LI A S I G N ATU R E PE N

OYSTE R PE R PETUA L YACHT- M A STE R I I Introduced in 2013, this wonderfully engineered timekeeping instrument is dedicated to yachting regattas. A chronograph, the Yacht-Master II features a unique function: a programmable countdown with a mechanical memory that responds ideally to skippers’ needs for precise timing. The rotatable Ring Command bezel, a patented interface for setting the watch, enables simple access to the sophisticated watch functions. A pure example of Rolex expertise in terms of precision, functions and reliability, the new YachtMaster II in steel is the benchmark for all those with a passion for sailing.  rolex.com

With inspiration drawn from the magnificent eagle— the bird that symbolises strength, a free spirit and a connection beyond the skies it effortlessly graces —you’ll feel empowered to create thoughts that soar with this imaginative and original example of the pen maker’s art. Available in sterling silver or solid 18k gold, the pens are hand created by Curtis Craftsmen using the centuries old lost wax casting technique to bring form and feathers to life, scroll work and sinuous leaves to finely carved reality.  curtisaustralia.com

B E NTLE Y A ZU R E FO R M E N Bentley’s new luxury fragrance takes its cue from the classic aromas of the fougère family, with its green citrus top notes and woody base notes.

Powerfully expressive, this complex fragrance has a fresh twist that appeals to sport-loving and style-conscious men. It was created by one of the world’s top perfume creators, Mathilde Bijaoui, with a remit to transport you into a Mediterranean field of blue, in the style that only Bentley can.  bentley-fragrances.com

spring 2014

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ET TI N G E R LUXU RY LE ATH E R G O O DS Established in 1934 by the current CEO’s father, Gerry Ettinger, the luxury leather goods company celebrates its 8oth anniversary this year. Gerry originally worked as a film producer in Italy and Germany, during which time he was fortunate enough to work with Marlene Dietrich. He moved on from the glamour of film to create a range of luxury gifts and leather goods which have become renowned throughout the world for their quality, innovation and design distinction. When you learn that it takes a minimum of five years to fully train an Ettinger craftsperson then you know that you don’t ever have to worry about quality.  ettinger.co.uk

A LTE R A SO CKS — B E YO N D WO O L M A XWE LL SCOT T BAGS The Maxwell Scott Farini is a luxurious luggage piece that works equally well for long-haul flights or weekend trips. Made from quality vegetable-tanned leather and handcrafted in Italy, this elegant bag is backed with a lifetime guarantee. The Farini is available in chestnut tan, dark chocolate and black, and comes with sufficient storage space for a doctor on call and a zipped compartment to organize anybody’s paraphernalia. Classic with a modern twist, the holdall features a buckle to the front and an attachable shoulder strap if you want a more relaxed look.  maxwellscottbags.com

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Whether you are lining up a difficult putt on a cold day in the highlands or teeing off in the desert heat, Altera always has your back—or rather your feet. Their golf socks, made of high-performance alpaca fleece grown in the USA, offer exceptional comfort for up to 5 days.

Alpaca fleece, a renewable resource, has a smooth exterior that is as soft as silk but also a hollow core that wicks moisture, resulting in up to 30% greater insulation than Merino wool in either hot or cold conditions. Naturally antimicrobial, the socks are boosted with Altera’s Silver Infusion process meaning you just need to remove and invert each morning. Then, when your tour or game is over, caring for your Altera socks is easy, they are machine washable and dryer safe. Kingdom, and this writer’s wife, approve!  alteraalpaca.com

spring 2014

SUBSCRIBE TO

TPC Signature magazine is available on a complimentary basis to the private members, players and guests of all the courses in the TPC Network. Now the magazine is also available for subscription to all TPC fans and golfers with a taste for fine living. If you would like to subscribe, or are a member or guest of a TPC Network course and would like to gift a subscription to a friend, then simply tear out and fill in one of the below forms.

25% of all subscription revenue will be donated to The First Tee, the tremendous charity organization that provides educational programs to build character, instill life-enhancing values and promote healthy choices to young people—all through the game of golf.

For faster service, visit arnieskingdom.com/signature or call 888.335.3288

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© 2014 PGA TOUR, Inc. Tiger Woods, Henrik Stenson, Adam Scott, Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy

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Follow the 2013-14 FedExCup Season

SIRIUS208XM93

Bill Pays His Dues

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spring 2014

His career path has led to becoming president of the Web.com Tour, but his feet are firmly planted on the ground. His experiences as a PGA TOUR journeyman, not to mention a financially-enforced career change and a brush with cancer along the way, make him the ideal mentor for the players he represents. Paul Trow talks to Bill Calfee about the past, present and future.

O

ne of professional golf’s recent success stories has been the growth in stature of the Web. com Tour. Since the eponymous internet company attached its name to the PGA TOUR’s satellite circuit in 2012 (on a 10-year deal), the career ladder to the higher echelons has become more clearly signposted. Players striving for a PGA TOUR card today—be they youngsters or veterans, Americans or internationals—have a far better idea of where they are in the pecking order than their counterparts of five years ago.

Much of the credit for this evolution, in the year when the Web.com Tour celebrates its 25th anniversary, must go to its president, Bill Calfee. He worked closely with Commissioner Tim Finchem and the PGA TOUR executive team to restructure the TOUR qualifying system by shifting away from the

His decade on TOUR means he understands players’ aspirations, anxieties and needs traditional, six-round Tour School lottery in December and introducing the Web.com Tour Finals. The fields for this series of four $1 million events in the fall include the top-75 at the conclusion of the Web.com Tour regular season and the players who finished from 126-200 on the PGA TOUR’s FedExCup points list. After the Web.com Tour Championship, over on Dye’s Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass, 50 PGA TOUR cards are awarded—to the top-25 on the season-long money list and the top-25 earners from the Finals.

Calfee has also been intimately involved in the assimilation of PGA TOUR franchises in Canada, Latinoamérica and China as official feeders to the Web.com Tour. And with 11 tournaments being screened on the Golf Channel, in HDTV for the first time, the icing on the cake is that the reach in 2014 will be 93 million households in 192 countries/territories—figures that could only be dreamed of when the Tour was under the aegis of, chronologically, Ben Hogan Golf, Nike Golf, buy.com and Nationwide Insurance.

So who is Bill Calfee, where did he come from, and how does he weave his magic?

spring 2014

He was the archetypal journeyman during his decade on the PGA TOUR and he thus understands the aspirations, anxieties and needs of professionals who plow the lonely tournament furrow. For every Adam Scott or Rory McIlroy or Phil Mickelson, there are a hundred Bill Calfees out there. They are his flock and he is their shepherd. “I feel like they’re my children, almost,” he admits.

Calfee, who was born in Newport News, Virginia, 64 years ago and graduated from the University of Maryland, made 169 PGA TOUR starts, survived the cut on 106 occasions but clocked up just seven top-10s and grossed less than $200,000 in prize money. His playing stats look respectable for a player who called “time” on his TOUR career back in 1985—stroke average 72.61; driving distance 266.5 yards (top 10 percent in those days); driving accuracy 56 percent; greens in regulation 63 percent. Alas, this writer couldn’t track down any putting averages—perhaps that’s where the weakness lay.

Interestingly, his highest finish was a tie for fifth in 1980 (alongside Major winners David Graham and Lanny Wadkins) in the Bay Hill Classic, as the Arnold Palmer Invitational used to be known. His reward was just over $10,000. Were he to tie for fifth today, his remuneration would probably exceed his lifetime winnings.

“I remember it well,” he says. “The weather was awful over the weekend and extremely unusual for Florida. It was very cold and got increasingly windy. Dave Eichelberger won by three shots despite shooting 74 in the final round— you can never win on the PGA TOUR shooting 74, but he did! I got within two of the lead early on the last day, but finished 10 shots back after a 79. Ray Floyd shot 72 [one over par] and said it was one of the best rounds of his life.

“I was on TOUR for 10 years and then I got a job where I could make some money. I finally got my card at my fifth Q-School despite playing well on mini-tours over those years.

I think it’s a much better system [now], though looking back on my career I don’t know if it would have changed anything.

“My only significant win was at the 1983 Zambia Open in Africa. I beat Eamonn Darcy in a playoff, and Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam were playing as well. Later that year I underwent surgery for testicular cancer followed

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by a course of radiation. It was all sorted out and I’ve been fine ever since, but it made me decide to make some changes. I thought I’d better do something else apart from play golf—I’d better get another qualification. So I studied investments and I got my securities’ license. It went well and Jack Nicklaus was one of my first clients. The TOUR then called me in 1991 about putting together retirement plans for players and other benefit packages.

“A few years later, I was playing with the Commissioner [Tim Finchem] and he asked me whether I was going onto the senior tour. I said: ‘Are you trying to tell me something?’

It turned out he wanted me to be executive vice-president of competitions, which put me in charge of all the rules officials and agronomy personnel across all three Tours.

“A few years later I was asked to look after the Nationwide Tour, as it was then. We wanted to grow it and restructure our Q-School procedures. I got the responsibility and I’ve since been completely focused on growing this Tour and raising its stature. I think we’d reached the point where we realized that this was the best way to determine how players got onto the PGA TOUR. “Since becoming the Web.com Tour, we’ve acquired five early-season tournaments in South or Latin America—that’s a great market for us. We’ve got new events this season in Cleveland, Ohio and Pumpkin Ridge near Portland, Oregon, also in Nova Scotia, Canada—we always wanted to get Canada back on our schedule. I’d love to take the Tour to China too and if we’re looking for other early-season venues, New Zealand and Australia could come into the picture.

“Most of what we’ve focused on is identifying new markets but we also want to make sure our existing events get stronger. We certainly don’t like to lose established titles but the schedule evolves every year, with tournaments being added and some leaving through reasons beyond our control.

“On the other hand, for example, the event at Boise, Idaho, has been with us for all of our 25 years and is still going strong [as are the tournaments in Wichita, Kansas; Springfield, Missouri; and Knoxville, Tennessee]. That gives us continuity and longevity. Then there is [TPC] Stonebrae in the San Francisco Bay area—they took last year off to build a new clubhouse but we’re going back to play there this summer.

“We’ve got 25 events on our 2014 schedule—the same as last year—but I’m hoping to get it up to 27. One of the problems we have, though, is that we’ve lost the whole month of October because the new PGA TOUR season begins as soon as the FedExCup Finals are over. The players who’ve won their cards head off to those events while we don’t get our new intake till December—through the Q-School [which now only gives out Web.com Tour cards].

“At the end of the day, we came up with this system and we think it’s a good one. We should give it another year or two before looking at any changes, but right now we’re

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Bill Calfee, David L. Brown and Tim Finchem pose with players who just earned cards

comfortable with the results and I think we should leave it alone for a while and see how it plays out.”

These developments have the support of David L. Brown, chairman, CEO and president of sponsors Web.com, which is based in Jacksonville, just up the road from the TOUR’s Ponte Vedra headquarters. “2013 was a pivotal year for the Web.com Tour as it became the path to the PGA TOUR,” he said.

Married to Heather with two grown-up sons, Calfee lives in Jacksonville and plays his golf mainly on the TPC Sawgrass courses—THE PLAYERS Stadium Course and the aforementioned Dye’s Valley. “I got my amateur status back about 15 years ago so I’ve never played on the Champions

We’re identifying new markets, but we want to strengthen existing events as well Tour. I’m still off scratch and playing reasonably well, but I’m not getting any younger. I play occasionally in the Ponte Vedra inter-club events and hit a lot of balls on the range.

“I still enjoy competing and I’ll play a bit this coming summer. I almost made the U.S. Senior Open last year but I lost a playoff in the sectional qualifying at Daniel Island Club [South Carolina]. That would have been my first ever appearance in a Major. I qualified for the U.S. Open at Oak Hill in 1980 but my son, Taylor, was born while I was on my way there so I withdrew.”

For all he knew, he might have been passing up the chance of a couple of rounds with someone like Arnold Palmer. “I only played with Mr. Palmer twice on TOUR,” he recollects. “I knew him, but not well.”

During the course of 2014, he’ll get to know Mr. Palmer’s grandson Sam Saunders who is currently plying his trade on the Web.com Tour. Hopefully, that will be another success story for Kingdom to report on soon.

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Jim Furyk, Class of 1993 | © 2014 PGA TOUR, Inc.

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Path to the PGA TOUR.

I

n Walden, Thoreau wrote that “a lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.” How many golfers have pondered just that as they stare into the watery abyss, wondering if their ball is alone down there in the darkness, beyond the reach of light, or if it has joined so many others in a jumble of little white spheres half-sunk in the muck, never to be played again. But above the surface of the lake, what joy! Golden sunshine, happy trees, green fairways and plenty of great golf abounds. As long as you stay on the bright side of the water, lakeside golf offers great sport in a setting sure to inspire the poet within you. Here, then, are a few of our favorite lakeside courses around the world. Canoe, campfire and fishing pole optional

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EDGEWOOD Lake Tahoe, Nevada

THE LAKES GOLF CLUB Sydney, Australia

edgewoodtahoe.com Now THIS is lakeside golf. If there’s a decent north wind as you’re coming down the stretch, you’ll get wet from spray off Lake Tahoe, and there’s a better than good chance you’ll do a bit of beachcombing on No.17 if you’ve a tendency to hit right. The Fazio design almost looks as if it was routed through a campsite—on holes like No.12 it wouldn’t surprise us at all to come across a couple in front of a tent cooking lake-caught fish over a campfire—but the experience is as elegant as it is wild. The site of numerous tournaments, including the U.S. Senior Open Championship (the first televised Senior Open was played here) and the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship, Edgewood serves up plenty of fun with its Pendleton-shirt setting on the southern shore of the lake.

Note: Incline Village, overlooking the lake’s north shore, has great golf as well, even into ski season.

thelakesgolfclub.com.au For fans of lakeside golf the only thing better than golfing along one lake is golfing among many. Such fans down under will love The Lakes, which features water everywhere on a beautiful course within the Botany Water Reserve just five minutes from downtown Sydney. As host to numerous tourneys, including the Australian Open and the Chrysler Classic, the course’s challenge is formidable. That said, some will be happy to note that a few changes have lessened the severity of the test. Bring your game, and please refrain from bad attempts of the Australian accent.

Note: The Bavarian Bier Café on Sydney’s Bondi Beach is a great place to cool down after a day on course.

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eastlakegolfclub.com Among America’s many storied courses and clubs, East Lake Golf Club (formerly the Atlanta Athletic Club) stands alone in that it was Bobby Jones’ home club and thus holds special provenance. With the oldest golf course in the city of Atlanta, there’s a stately weight of history about the place that can’t be denied. So much the better, then, that the grounds and course are so lovely and bright. The original Donald Ross design was restored by Rees Jones in 1994, freshening, among other bits, the signature par-3 No.6, which holds what was one of the first island greens in America. Host to numerous tournaments, including the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola and the 1963 Ryder Cup (when Arnold Palmer led the U.S. team to victory as the last playing captain for either side), this lakeside gem is well worth a stop.

Note: The World of Coca-Cola is just 8 miles away and offers VIP tours of one of the world’s most influential companies.

EVIAN RESORT

LAKESIDE GOLF CLUB

Evian-les-Bains, France

Burbank, California

evianresort.com/uk Site of the Evian Championship women’s tournament (formerly the Evian Masters), this course on Lake Geneva offers a truly international experience along with a French accent. A recent renovation added more “ambitious” hazards, as the club has it, increasing the depth of bunkers, fixing up a few greens and increasing on-course lakes by as much as tenfold. Though it traces its roots to a 9-hole track built in 1904, the course is modern in every way, and was recently certified as one of the few “eco sustainable” courses in the world. Vive la golf.

Note: Not an obvious choice for dining, Le Baccara restaurant, tucked inside the resort’s casino, is the real deal for sophisticated gourmands.

lakesidegolfclub.com Among Hollywood’s numerous golf clubs, Lakeside is considered one of the old stalwarts. The 1924 club on Toluca Lake may not boast the current buzz of Bel Air or Riviera, but it’s as solid as ever with members like Jack Nicholson, Justin Timberlake and Ray Romano, just to name a few. Gene Autry and Frank Sinatra were among the old guard, and if it was good enough for them… If you manage to get on, be careful at No.8, which reportedly has a green that’s tough to hold. And don’t forget your sunglasses.

Note: Bob’s Big Boy restaurant in Burbank is the oldest surviving example of the chain; the architecture alone makes it a worthwhile stop, never mind the milkshakes.

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Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

EAST LAKE GOLF CLUB Atlanta, Georgia

MABEL LAKE GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB Enderby, British Columbia mabellakegolf.com Staring down the fairway on the par-5 No.9 finishing hole at Mabel Lake Golf and Country Club, one might be able to shut out the fact that there are people nearby enjoying cocktails and watching to see what happens next. But as captivating as it is, the lake isn’t the dangerous water on the hole; that would be the two small ponds that hem in the green, narrowing the fairway to a suck-in-your-gut width that will test all but the most accurate golfers. As the online course guide has it, “If your ball finds the green before it finds the water, smile and wave to the patrons on the patio.”

If you get wet, we suggest eyes forward and a quick march.

A fun course in a dramatic setting, and not far from another 9-hole: the par-3 Birchdale Golf Course.

Note: Enderby’s Starlight Drive-In Theatre boasts North America’s largest drive-in movie screen, a great option for a nice evening.

THE GOLF CLUB AT HARBOR SHORES Benton Harbor, Michigan harborshoreslife.com Less than two hours from Chicago, this Nicklaus-designed course serves up infamous Great Lakes breezes along with views of Lake Michigan. Site of the 2012 Senior PGA Championship Presented by KitchenAid, Harbor Shores is a study in realized potential: more than 3 million square feet of dilapidated buildings were demolished and over 140,000 tons of waste material removed from the nearby Paw Paw River and throughout various sites on the property to create the project, a pastoral picture that doesn’t even hint at its rough beginnings. In addition to offering great golf, the not-for-profit course uses proceeds to help maintain local parks projects, job training programs and educational and arts initiatives. A tremendous community asset and a fantastic golf course.

Note: If you can handle outside temperatures of 18 degrees and water temperatures of 45 degrees and don’t mind swimming with ice chunks floating by, it’s possible to surf on Lake Michigan in winter. Expect shoulder-high waves and numb everything.

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T WR A      T        ,       . T WR                        .         - ,      --    - GPS . O  T GPS G W           .

LOUGH ERNE GOLF CLUB

Enniskillen, Ireland lougherneresort.com It’s hosted top golfers, VIP guests and the 2013 G8 Summit, among other events, but the Lough Erne Resort in Northern Ireland will happily welcome any golf enthusiast, provided he brings his game. The Faldo Championship Course is what lake resort golf is all about: the Waters of Lough are in play on 11 holes, the views are stunning everywhere, and there’s enough of a challenge to test your golf without leaving you broken. Plenty of awards and accolades from the likes of Rory McIlroy (who called it “A great place to play, a great place to stay”) confirm that this a worthwhile stop during any Emerald Isle visit.

Note: Head Pro Lynn McCool is a particularly good instructor; if you don’t take a lesson here, you’re missing a great opportunity.

MENAGGIO & CADENABBIA GOLF CLUB Lake Como, Italy

TIANJIN BINHAI LAKE GOLF CLUB Tianjin, China

Menaggio.it Celebrating more than 100 years of golf (it was founded in 1907), Menaggio & Cadenabbia Golf Club is a favorite of member George Clooney. We suggest bunking in at the Hotel Parco San Marco, which, in addition to having a fun-to-say name, offers views of Lake Como from elegant rooms. We’re not sure what’s more fun: playing the short, tight course here or drinking wine, eating sublime food and watching beautiful people whooshing by in motor launches on the lake. However you spend your time, your stay here will be surrounded in beauty—and really, isn’t that all you could want in life?

Note: In the Lake Como area, La Carapina gelateria will serve you a dessert so good that you will instantly be able to speak Italian, no lessons required.

tianjingolf.com Set on a peninsula that juts into one section of the city’s massive Huanggang Reservoir, Tianjin Binhai Lake Golf Club is one of the more popular urban tracks in China’s new golf landscape. Roughly two hours southeast of Beijing, the club’s Pete Dye course hosted the Volvo China Open in both 2012 and 2013, while the other on-site course, designed by the team of Lee Schmidt and Brian Curley, is garnering rave reviews. Both are parkland tracks with a bit of links flavor to them, and while they won’t offer a lot of in-country flair in terms of design, they do provide a nice diversion for anyone in the area on business or vacation.

Note: Foodies should head to Nanshi Food Street, where a host of local delicacies can be sampled, including Caoji donkey meat.

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PROVINCE LAKE GOLF CLUB Parsonfield, Maine

BOGLIACO GOLF RESORT Brescia, Italy

provincelakegolf.com A charming local course, the lake is clearly in view from 14 of the 18 holes, and sits just behind the green on the par-3 No.11. The front nine dates to 1918 and was designed by Lawrence Van Etten, who left his mark all along the East Coast at such courses as Wykagyl in New Rochelle, NY, and the course at Deal Country Club in New Jersey. Expect plenty of thick Maine woods bordering the fairways and a tight, water-hazard-filled back 9, which will test all skill levels.

Note: The course was built by Joseph Emery, once president of Lord & Taylor in New York City and a frequent Province Lake visitor.

golfbogliaco.com Italians have a reputation for enjoying life to the fullest, and so it’s hardly surprising that an enterprising imprenditore put a golf course right next to the country’s largest lake. In addition to minimizing the effort required to enjoy numerous recreational opportunities in a single day, Bogliaco Golf Resort, built in 1912, helped entice English and German tourists to Italy’s Lake District, introducing them to the wonders of Lago di Garda along with the country’s third golf course. The lake doesn’t come into play in terms of anything but views, but they certainly are distracting.

Note: The nearby Golf Cà degli Ulivi offers another great experience on Lake Garda.

TRUMP NATIONAL CHARLOTTE Charlotte, North Carolina trumpnationalcharlotte.com Appropriately, Greg Norman designed the course here (on Lake Norman, North Carolina’s largest manmade body of fresh water). Golfers will see plenty of the wet stuff as 13 holes play directly along or over the water, which shows itself at No.5 and essentially remains a factor clear through No.18, which is practically in the lake itself. Long hitters will be rewarded, as will accurate golfers, but risk-takers will likely pay for their boldness unless they’re seriously good. As a Trump property, there’s plenty of good dining and other activities on site. As a North Carolina venue, expect friendly smiles as well.

Note: Numerous NASCAR drivers call Lake Norman home (it’s only 20 miles from Charlotte Motor Speedway) and you’re likely to see them in local shops and restaurants.

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LOCH LOMOND GOLF CLUB Dunbartonshire, Scotland lochlomond.com Notably free of monsters, Loch Lomond Golf Club has everything an Olde Worlde club should: imposing stone manor, stately stag mascot and epic golf, complete with views of the Scottish Highlands. The Weiskopf/Morrish design plays right along the lake in places, is regarded as one of the finest inland courses in the U.K. and is often cited as one of the Top 100 courses in the world. The clubhouse—a 1773 royal residence known as Rossdhu Mansion—will put some stiff in your upper lip and the on-site spa and other amenities will charm you beyond reason. Kilt optional.

Note: If you like lakeside sand, the easier-to-get-on Carrick Golf Course also plays along Loch Lomond and offers 118 bunkers.

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YOU SAY GRENADA, I SAY GRANADA Granada, Spain, in the Sierra Nevada mountain range can get snow in winter. Grenada, in the Caribbean, never does

Globe-trotter Clive Agran tries to unfold his map with a few tales of travel twists and tongue-tied turns

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xpired passport, lost luggage, missed connection, lousy in-flight movie… Airline travel is fraught with perils, some more extreme than others.

Losing one’s clubs or having them arrive damaged would be another, horrible occurrence.

But what about flying to the wrong destination? No one could be that misguided, surely! Sadly, it happens— and it almost happened to me. Seemingly incapable of distinguishing between Alicante and Valencia, both of which are in Spain, I nearly got on the wrong plane but was prevented from boarding just in time. Too late to make the correct flight, I then suffered the ignominy of having to come back through in-bound passport control without ever having left the country. If you’re unlucky enough to repeat that mistake or any of the unfortunate errors recounted below, we offer comfort in the form of suggestions that should at least enable you to salvage some decent golf from the wreckage. Have fun, bring your clubs—and remember to always double-check your ticket!

TROPICAL SPAIN Last October, sipping an in-flight gin and tonic not long after take-off from London’s Gatwick airport, Lamenda Kingdon casually told her seat-mate that she was looking forward to visiting the Alhambra Palace. The stranger looked at her and replied, “Not on this plane, you won’t.” Kingdon, who was working through a bucket-list of must-see locations as she battled breast cancer and a brain tumor, thought she was on a two-hour jaunt from London to Granada, Spain, but instead was stuck on a 10-hour haul to the Caribbean island nation of Grenada. Upon realizing the error, Kingdon was quoted as saying, “Both my breathing and time stopped.

I looked at the ticket and it did indeed say Grenada. I had noticed the departure and arrival times were vastly different, but presumed that had something to do with the time difference.” The good news is she spent the rest of the flight in first class, received a full refund from the apologetic airline and—best of all— subsequently received the all-clear from her cancer doctors.

Near Granada: Club de Golf; mild challenge, lots of hills, friendly. granadaclubdegolf.com Near Grenada: Grenada Golf & Country Club in St. George; 9-hole, sea views, great bar. golfingrenada.com WELSH EMIRATE A travel agent in Manchester, England, was telephoned by a secretary of one of his best business customers and asked for times of trains to Aberdovey. As it was a complicated journey the travel agent asked which station the customer would be travelling from and roughly what time he wanted to arrive. She said she would call back in a few minutes. When she did, he gave her the times and casually remarked that they must have a new customer in Wales.

Not long after hanging up, the secretary rang again and apologetically explained she had misunderstood her boss as it was not “trains to Aberdovey” but “planes to Abu Dhabi” she needed to enquire about.

Near Aberdovey: A wonderfully authentic links course, Aberdovey is ranked No. 3 in Wales. aberdoveygolf.co.uk Near Abu Dhabi: Follow in the footsteps of Tiger, Phil, Rory and the rest by playing the National course at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club, venue of the HSBC Abu Dhabi championship. adgolfclub.com MASTER DISASTER Like most grizzled golf writers, Bob Warters wasn’t the sort to get particularly excited. However, the English journalist couldn’t deny the prospect of a first-ever visit to Augusta National to cover the Masters was one he relished. To walk down Magnolia Lane, admire the azaleas and enjoy the unique Georgia atmosphere of this special major had been

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an ambition ever since he first watched it on TV many years ago. And so it was with an enormous sense of anticipation that he boarded the connecting flight from Charlotte to Augusta and took his seat on the left-hand side of the plane.

After about an hour, gazing wistfully out of the window, he noticed the plane was flying alongside what appeared to be an unbroken stretch of coastline. Although geography had never been one of his favorite subjects at school, he knew enough to be disturbed by this development and summoned a flight attendant, who explained they were indeed flying to Augusta—Augusta, Maine.

Near Augusta, Georgia: Augusta National is a splendid course but can be tricky to get on. Good luck! masters.com Near Augusta, Maine: Augusta Country Club is a lot cheaper than its more famous namesake and the back nine were designed by legendary Donald Ross. augustacountryclub.org

LA VIE EN RHODES Last year, after a lengthy flight—and a connection in Athens—an American woman landed at the airport on the Greek island of Paros and promptly asked for directions to the Eiffel Tower. She undoubtedly discovered that the architecture and nightlife of the small island are somewhat subdued compared to those offered in France’s legendary capital.

Near Paros: The best golf in Greece is currently on the two courses at Troon’s Costa Navarino resort in Messinia, a quick flight from Athens. Costanavarino.com Near Paris: A quick drive from the city center, the Arnold Palmer-designed Crécy Golf near the medieval city of Crécyla-Chapelle is absolument très bon. Crecygolf.com SAINT ELSEWHERE A flight attendant was asked by a passenger, “Can you please confirm where we are going?” The attendant said, “San Diego,” to which the passenger replied, “Good. The gentleman next to me thinks we are going someplace quite different.” She explained to the unfortunate fellow they were flying to San Diego, which is in the USA. He said he was supposed to be going to Santiago, which is in Chile. Apparently, he had booked to go to San Diego and was therefore on the correct flight as far as his ticket was concerned. However, the gentleman, who was from the Far East, had booked the flight in India and something had gotten lost in translation. Thanks to a sympathetic airline, he eventually made it to Santiago, albeit a day late.

Near Santiago: Chile is a fast developing golf nation, and with beautiful lakes and splendid views of the mountains, Santiago International Golf Club is a real treat. sgclub.cl Near San Diego: Just to the north of San Diego, there are two stunning courses and magnificent views over the Pacific at Torrey Pines. torreypines.com SHORT STOP CAPE ESCAPE A woman telephoned a travel agent and asked for a flight to Cape Town. He started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information when she interrupted: “Look,” she said, “I’m not trying to make you look stupid but Cape Town is in Massachusetts.” Without trying to make her look stupid, he calmly explained, “Cape Cod is in Massachusetts, Cape Town is in South Africa.” Her response… Click.

Near Cape Cod: There are two delightful woodland courses at The Captain’s, Cape Cod, appropriately named Port and Starboard. captainsgolfcourse.com Near Cape Town: Enjoy magnificent views of the mountains and lovely old Royal Cape Town Club. royalcapegolf.co.za

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A Southwest Airlines flight from Chicago in January of this year is under investigation after it landed at the wrong airport seven miles from its intended destination. Flight 4013, carrying 124 passengers and five crew, was scheduled to fly from Chicago’s Midway International Airport to Branson Airport, Missouri. But the Boeing 737-700 landed at Taney County Airport instead, on a runway half the size of the one at the correct destination. It was unclear why the flight went to the wrong airport.

Near Branson: The wonderfully named Thousand Hills Golf Resort offers accommodation and good quality golf for all levels of player. If, presumably, not an abundance of level lies. thousandhills.com

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WE’RE UP FOR THE CUP Spring is in the air and preparations are being put in place for the annual Palmer Cup match between teams representing the leading college players from the United States and Europe

©WFU /Ken Bennett

T The Old Course at Walton Heath Golf Club in the south of England will play host to the 2014 Palmer Cup in June

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he 18th annual Palmer Cup will be contested by 10-man teams of college golfers representing the United States and Europe over the Old Course at Walton Heath Golf Club in Surrey, England from June 26-28.

This annual competition, which was first contested in 1997, is named after Arnold Palmer and the teams are selected on the basis of nationality, not according to the location of the players’ universities. Many of the European players attend American universities as sports scholarships are not really a feature of the university system in Europe. Until 2002 the United States played Great Britain & Ireland, and thereafter their opponents have been Europe.

Since the inaugural Palmer Cup at Bay Hill Club & Lodge in 1997, the matches have been played at historic venues like Royal Liverpool, Baltusrol, Ballybunion, Prestwick, Cherry Hills, Royal Portrush, Royal County Down and, most recently, Wilmington Country Club in Delaware.

The roll-call of previous participants is equally impressive and includes Luke Donald, Ben Curtis, Lucas Glover, Graeme McDowell, Bill Haas, Hunter Mahan, Ryan Moore, Dustin Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Nick Watney, Brandt Snedeker, Francesco Molinari, J.J. Henry, Bo Van Pelt, Jeff Overton, Rory Sabbatini, Webb Simpson and Rickie Fowler.

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Originally contested between eight-man teams, the rosters expanded to ten per side in 2013, and the current format consists of five four-ball matches, five foursome matches, and two sets of ten singles matches for 30 points overall.

After a period of early American dominance, Europe won the 2008 tournament at Glasgow Gailes on the west coast of Scotland and successfully retained the trophy in 2009 with a 13–11 victory, at Cherry Hills near Denver, Colorado, the scene of Palmer’s U.S. Open victory in 1960.

The U.S. then won the 2010 tournament at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland—their first win on European soil since their victory at Doonbeg on the west coast of Ireland in 2002.

The 13–11 success at Royal Portrush, where such luminaries as Darren Clarke and McDowell learned to play the game, was a particularly joyous achievement. The U.S. team won again in 2011, 13–11 in Connecticut, and Europe bounced back the following year 13½–10½ at Royal County Down, also in Northern Ireland, by winning seven of the second set of eight singles matches on the final day.

The United States powered into a 9-7-1 lead in the series when they regained the trophy over the South Course at Wilmington Country Club in June 2013 by an emphatic 20½-9½ margin. Cory Whitsett brought Team USA to the

cusp of reclaiming the cup with a 3&2 victory over Scott Fernandez and Bobby Wyatt’s subsequent half with Kevin Phelan completed the job.

University of California head coach Steve Desimone will manage the United States team and Texan Ryan Murphy, recipient of the 2013 Jan Strickland Award presented by TaylorMade-adidas Golf, will serve as his assistant. “I’m honored to be a part of the Palmer Cup as a member of the GCAA and representing the USA,” said Desimone when he learned of his appointment.

“This news definitely has me smiling. I’ve worked with collegiate players for 35 years and I’m looking forward to this opportunity.

I know this is going to be a lot of fun with plenty of great golf and serious competition. All in all, it should be a wonderful experience and… Go USA.” Desimone is halfway through his fourth decade at the helm of the Cal men’s golf team and continues to lead the Golden Bears’ program to sustained success.

University of California won its lone national title in 2004 but the incredibe run his team has put together since the beginning of the 2011-12 campaign is unprecedented not only at Cal but arguably on a national level.

“There’s no bigger test for Europe than to compete against America”

Mr. Palmer chats with European Coach Andrew Coltart (left) and addresses both teams at Wilmington Country Club last year (right)

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Cal has won 21 of 33 stroke-play events since the beginning of the 2011-12 campaign and has been in the top five in all 33, as well as each of its four match-play tournaments during the period. The Bears reached the national semi-finals each of the past two seasons, while sweeping NCAA Regional and Pac-12 Championship crowns.

In 2013, Desimone earned the Dave Williams Award presented by Eaton Golf Pride as the national coach of the year in Division I men’s golf and was also named the Pac-12 coach of the year. The Bears have also qualified for the NCAA Championship each of the past four campaigns and were ranked fourth after winning three of five events and finishing third and fourth in the other two during the 2013 fall season.

Desimone, a member of the Northern California Golf Association’s Class of 2014, was inducted during the California Golf Writers & Broadcasters Association’s 55th annual gala event at The Inn at Spanish Bay during the week of the recent AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Last year, he was presented with the CGWBA’s Jack Lemmon Ambassador of Golf Award at the same event.

Scotland’s Andrew Coltart, who played in the 1999 Ryder Cup match at The Country Club, Brookline, Massachusetts, and Stanford assistant coach Philip Rowe, a Cornishman, will again serve as Europe’s head and assistant coach, respectively, as they did in 2013. Coltart said: “There’s no greater honor as a player than to represent your continent, and for a European no bigger test than to compete against America.”

The Old Course at Walton Heath, 20 miles south of London, was opened for play in May 1904, with an exhibition match between the legendary triumvirate of Harry Vardon, J.H. Taylor and James Braid. Braid had already become the club’s professional and was to remain in that capacity until his death in 1950.

This inland masterpiece was laid out by W. Herbert Fowler who was a novice at the time but went on to become one of the leading designers of his era on both sides of the Atlantic. It is a tribute to his genius that he created one of the finest examples of heathland golf, which so closely resembles the traditional seaside links courses, out of a near jungle of heather, gorse and bracken.

Likewise, it is a testament to his creativity that the Old Course is still, today, ranked as one of the world’s top 100 courses.

The Old Course has hosted nearly 90 major amateur and professional championships in its illustrious history, including the 1981 Ryder Cup, five European Opens and 23 News of the World Matchplay Championships (then only second in status to the [British] Open Championship).

More recently, the club has been the venue for the European Qualifying event for the U.S. Open. It also has the unique distinction of being the only English Club to have had a reigning Monarch as captain, when the Prince of Wales became King during his captaincy in 1935-6.

So where better to stage a match named in honor of a golfing King?

PA L M E R C U P R E S U LT S YEAR WINNER

RESULT

VENUE

LOCATION

2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997

20½–9½ 13½–10½ 13–11 13–11 13–11 14–10 18–6 19½–4½ 14–10 14½–9½ 14–10 15½–8½ 18–6 12½–11½ 17½–6½ 12–12 19–5

Wilmington Country Club Royal County Down Golf Club The Stanwich Club Royal Portrush Golf Club Cherry Hills Country Club Glasgow Golf Club (Gailes Links) Caves Valley Golf Club Prestwick Golf Club Whistling Straits (Irish Course) Ballybunion Golf Club Kiawah Island (Cassique Course) Doonbeg Golf Club Baltusrol Golf Club Royal Liverpool Golf Club The Honors Course St Andrews (Old and New Courses) Bay Hill Club & Lodge

Delaware Northern Ireland Connecticut Northern Ireland Colorado Scotland Maryland Scotland Wisconsin Ireland South Carolina Ireland New Jersey England Tennessee Scotland Florida

United States Europe United States United States Europe Europe United States Europe United States Europe Europe United States United States Great Britain & Ireland United States Tied United States

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Arnold Palmer’s Guide to the 2014

themajorsofgolf

NEW BEGINNINGS People know the Trump brand on an international level at this point.

It’s considered the gold standard and I’ve worked hard to achieve that status. But it didn’t come easily and even today we work every day to maintain as well as expand our interests nationally and internationally

A

lot of people don’t realize that I’ve had my share of ups and downs and there have been times when the going was truly tough. That’s when I experienced the truth that sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war. I also began to become more pragmatic and I’d ask myself “is this a blip or is it a catastrophe?” As a positive thinker, I believe there are always opportunities even when things may have appeared to fall through. That’s where reinvention can come into the equation and result in something truly unique.

Trump International Hotel & Tower at 1 Central Park West in New York City is one of the most acclaimed buildings in the world. It has won all the top awards and so has its famed restaurant, Jean Georges. What people don’t realize is that it was the former Gulf Western/Paramount building which was owned by General Electric. It was an office building, and one of the first tall towers on the West Side of Manhattan. The important fact to know is that it went up in the 1960’s, shortly before new zoning laws in that area prohibited a building that tall.

When I heard it was on the market, I was excited, even though I knew it had a lot of problems. It swayed in the wind and would flex at the top. People were getting “seasick.” It was full of asbestos. It was not well constructed.

But it had a classic structure and high ceilings. Best of all, it was 52 stories high. If it were to be demolished, the new laws would only permit a building of 18 stories. You can see why I might want to get involved.

This was a tremendous opportunity. I would be reinventing this building and providing what would turn out to be the beginning of the renaissance of Columbus Circle and the Upper West Side. It would take a few very long chapters to explain the details to you. It was a tough fight. In fact, at one point, it seemed like I’d lost so many battles that the war was over. Long story short, I remained tenacious and got the job. We kept the steel structure and therefore the right to a 52 story building, and the rest is history. It is one of the most successful buildings ever built in New York.

In fact, it became history for another reason—it was the first time a hotel and condominium had been combined, which resulted in the worldwide use of the mixed-use concept. This innovation was the result of the reinvention necessary to save this building.

I mention this story because it illustrates a point that can be applied personally by all of us. Don’t scrap something that can be saved. Work around your problems, try to visualize possibilities, and when you can, reinvent. It will be worth it.

Donald J. Trump

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Speed of Sound Pedal down, radio blasting or just listening to the sound of the engine and the wind outside.

You can also get caught speeding when you’re standing still. It’s the way you wear your suit, the choices you make, it’s in your attitude. Just remember: Steady cruiser or hellbent for leather, few things sound better than going forward

Car Gazing Whether it’s an early model Corvette steering wheel gifted from Zora Duntov or a glass hood ornament designed by René Lalique, there are few better ways to accelerate the decor of a home or office than auto memorabilia. Find a good auction house and start your engines.  historics.co.uk

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spring 2014

Audibly Tied Artist Alyce Santoro created Sonic Fabric, a blend of 50% polyester thread and 50% audiocassete tape. Turns out it makes rather a nice tie—and one that speaks volumes.

With a modified tape deck, one can actually play the sounds recorded on the tape that went into the tie. Loud fashion never looked so subtle.  sonicfabric.com

spring 2014

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Easy Driver Mike Buchfuhrer says he’s passionate about headcovers, and it shows in his quality work and wide choice of top materials. This motorcycle leather headcover is made from the same stuff that keeps bikers safe from the elements, so it’ll do for your clubs—and then some. Drive straight, but embrace the fact that you were born to be wild.  roseandfire.com

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spring 2014

Full Volume Bowers & Wilkins speakers are the speakers of choice for the famed Abbey Road Studios, and the company brings the same audio excellence to its line of headphones. The top-of-the-line P7 headphones are as immersive as they are comfortable, making them truly an audiophile’s dream.  bowers-wilkins.com

spring 2014

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Quick Getaway Known for its stylish, useful designs and strong fabrics, OGIO is a strong presence in golf. Its rolling Straight Jacket Travel Bag (seen here in “Race Day” print) is straightforward, protective and compact, meaning that getting your sticks safely from A to B is a breeze—not to mention an eye-catching affair.  ogio.com

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spring 2014

Endurance Space The Le Mans money clip from ZClip will keep your pockets light even when you’re loaded. Made from carbon fiber, the clip comes with two separate wallets—one in “race car seat black leather” and the other in ballistic nylon—and holds enough credit cards and cash to handle as many pit stops as you care to make.  zclip.com

spring 2014

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You don’t have to speak with a drawl to enjoy Southern cooking

Heck, you don’t even have to shoot the breeze, be friendly-like or say “sir” and “ma’am,” though all of that helps if you plan on being asked to stick around for seconds—and with dishes like fried chicken, cornbread and BBQ ribs, one helping is rarely enough. At the end of it all, if you’ve been really, really nice, they might even dish you up a double-big serving of fresh peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream—if you still have room, that is. Here are a few of our favorites from south of the Mason-Dixon line, ready to enjoy no matter where you live.

A bib is optional.

For the sauce: RIBS GEORGIA-STYLE Up north they like ’em smoked and served with sweet sauce on the side. In Texas, they’ll take ’em dry and rubbed with spices. But down here we like the meat falling off the bone and slathered in sauce with a little kick. BBQ ribs are the Southern man’s statement, his announcement that he has arrived and is ready to take on all comers. It is upon his BBQ ribs that he is judged, and should he be found lacking his tongs and apron will immediately be confiscated. They don’t get it wrong in Georgia, and neither should you. The sauce is the key.

Peach State BBQ Sauce Recipe: 2 4 2 2 ¼ 2 1 ½ 1 2 ½ ½

of a cup of brown sugar cups of water tablespoons of ground ancho chile powder teaspoons of cayenne pepper tablespoons of paprika cup of strained tomatoes tablespoons of peach puree tablespoon of apple cider vinegar tablespoon of white vinegar teaspoon Worcestershire sauce tablespoons Dijon mustard tablespoon of onion powder tablespoon of garlic powder Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Place all the ingredients in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer. Let the sauce cook for 30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking.

Cook until reduced to a medium consistency.

If the sauce becomes too thick, add water until the desired consistency is acquired.

For the ribs: 1 spare rib section (8-10 ribs) 1 cup of your favorite beer or water 4 handfuls hickory chips – soaked in water for at least 45 minutes Set up your grill for indirect cooking on a medium hot fire.

Place the spare rib section on a piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil, sprinkle with beer and wrap tightly in the foil. Place on the grill with the grill vents open. Cover and cook for 35 minutes.

Spread the hickory chips over the hot coals.

Unwrap the ribs and place on the grill. Cover the grill, partially close the vents and cook for 30 minutes, or until tender. During the last 15 minutes of cooking, continuously baste the ribs with the sauce.

Remove to a carving board, cut into portions and top with remaining sauce to coat before serving.

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SOUTHERN TA B L E SOUTHERN FRIED CHICKEN

Forget your grandma and Col. Harlan Sanders, the people you really should thank for fried chicken are the Scots. Unlike their Olde World English brethren—who boiled their chickens—the Scots were partial to frying their cluckers in fat. When the Scots began to immigrate to the southern areas of what became the U.S., they managed to find room on the boat for their fying pans and so we have fried chicken today, for better or for worse (for better, we’d say). You won’t find this on any marathon-training menu, but there’s no dish more crunchy-hot-satisfyingly Southern than golden fried chicken. To steal a phrase from Col. Sanders: it really is finger lickin’ good.

Ingredients:

Method:

1 (2 to 2.5lb) chicken, cut into four pieces 10 cups peanut oil—or enough to fully submerge the chicken while frying 1 quart buttermilk 1 cup Crystal hot sauce 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon paprika 1 tablespoon garlic powder 1 tablespoon onion powder 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 teaspoon pepper

Mix the buttermilk and hot sauce until well combined and set aside. In another bowl, combine the flour, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper.

Using a thermometer to get an accurate cooking temperature, preheat the oil to 345˚F. Rinse and thoroughly pat dry the chicken pieces. One by one, roll the chicken pieces in the flour mixture, then dip them in the buttermilk mixture, and then back in the flour.

Place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet until ready to fry.

Fry the dark meat pieces for 13 minutes, or until a deep golden brown and cooked through. Remove the cooked pieces to a cooking sheet lined with paper towels, and sprinkle with salt.

Now fry the white meat pieces for 7 minutes, or until deep golden brown and cooked through. Place them on the cooking sheet and sprinkle with salt.

Let the chicken rest for a few minutes before serving.

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CORNBREAD

Dry, crumbly, cardboard-like flavor… Who the heck wants to eat this stuff? Sadly, the majority of what is sold as cornbread comes nowhere near the moist, golden treat that accompanies most Southern meals. Native Americans perfected the recipe over thousands of years, and after diligently learning the natives’ method settlers in the southern United States promptly improved it by adding loads of butter. If you haven’t enjoyed the cornbread you’ve tried, then you haven’t had real cornbread.

Ingredients:

Method:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus butter for baking dish ¾ cup yellow cornmeal ¾ cup all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon sugar 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder ½ teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt 2 large eggs, lightly beaten 1 ½ cups buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 425˚F. Lightly grease an 8-inch baking dish with butter.

In a large bowl, mix together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, buttermilk, and butter. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the cornmeal mixture and fold together until there are no dry spots. The batter will still have lumps, but this is fine. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish.

Bake until the top is golden brown and the tip of a knife inserted into the middle of the corn bread comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Remove the cornbread from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes before serving.

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PEACH COBBLER

Georgia. Peaches. The Masters. Getting the picture? Peach Cobbler is as much a part of the South as kudzu and sweet tea. This cobbler recipe has been adapted from one that appeared in the Augusta Junior League’s 1983 cookbook Tee-Time at the Masters, and who would question those ladies? Not us, no ma’am.

Ingredients:

Method:

2 cups fresh ripe peaches, peeled and sliced ¼ cup sugar squeeze of fresh lemon juice 1 stick butter, melted 1 cup sugar ½ cup milk 1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Mix peaches with ¼ cup sugar and squeeze of lemon juice. Let stand for 30 minutes or until the peaches start to release their juice.

In a separate bowl, mix 1 cup sugar, milk, flour, baking powder and salt to make a batter. Pour the melted butter in a baking dish and pour batter over the butter. Now pour the peaches and their juices on top of batter.

Bake for 30-45 minutes. Let cool slightly and serve with vanilla ice cream.

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UNLEASH YOUR INNER

®/™ ©2014 KitchenAid. All rights reserved.

CHEF

With KitchenAid® appliances, you’re surrounded by stainless sous chefs.

Your refrigerator keeps ingredients fresher longer, your oven and cooktop roast and simmer with accuracy and your dishwasher overpowers sticky, saucy messes so you can take on any culinary creation. Because when your kitchen and ambition have no limits, there’s so much more to make.

Go to kitchenaid.com for more information and culinary inspiration.

I

f there’s a river in the South of Heaven, it runs with bourbon. The lifeblood of Kentucky seems relatively straightforward in creation: grind corn, mix with water, add yeast, ferment, then distill. Place what you get in a newly charred American oak barrel and let it sit. But what comes out in the end is fantastically complex, glorious, the nectar of the Gods, pure gold in a

bottle. Whatever you call it, bourbon is one of America’s great contributions to the world. Sometimes sweet like molasses, sometimes bright like cherries, sometimes as dark and woodsy and mysterious as an abandoned cabin in the Appalachian Mountains, it’s beautiful in a cocktail, nice with ice and reassuringly grand by itself. If you don’t know it already, find time to say hello to bourbon.

Mint Julep If bourbon is the official drink of Kentucky, then it’s only appropriate that the mint julep is the official drink of the Kentucky Derby. We like it with Blanton’s, but any high quality bourbon will do. Simply muddle a few mint leaves and some granulated sugar in a glass with a splash of bourbon, let it stand for a bit, then strain it into a glass (a silver cup, if you have one). Fill the glass with ice, pour in more bourbon and garnish with a mint sprig.

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ton’s Original n a l B The notion of a single-barrel bourbon is a relatively modern concept, and the first one was Blanton’s. In 1984 the Ancient Age Distillery (now Buffalo Trace Distillery) decided to create a premium product. Elmer T. Lee, the distillery’s top man, was given the task, and he returned to his roots for the answer. Lee had apprenticed under Col. Albert Blanton, who favored bourbons aged in the center of the distillery’s Warehouse H. For whatever reason, Blanton felt that specific space in that specific warehouse aged bourbons better, and so he often chose a single barrel from the center for himself. Lee returned to Warehouse H, selected the best barrels, and Blanton’s—the first singlebarrel bourbon for market—was born. The horse-andjockey stopper is a tip of the cap to another famous part of Kentucky’s heritage: horses.

Taste Look for citrus on the sweeter side with plenty of oak, vanilla cream with a kiss of chocolate, a hint of nuts, orange and caramel

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Weller Antique 107 d l O Among the three bourbons we’re featuring, this one is somewhat of a curiosity in that it’s a “wheated” bourbon, meaning wheat was used in place of the more typical rye as the “flavor grain.” Aged for seven years, the “antique” in the name is more of a nod to the history of the Weller name in bourbon, which goes way back. Still, the flavor is old-world as well. At 107 proof, you’ll get some alcohol on the nose here, and no one will blame you if you cut it with some water to bring the flavors forward.

Taste Caramel and rich spices up front with a hint of citrus, oak and vanilla

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Rare 10 year-ol e l g d Ea Eagle Rare is a rare treat indeed, but if you find it it’s well worth a try. There’s a 10-year and a 17-year available, and both are beautifully aged in carefully selected barrels.

Known for a bold nose and lingering finish, Eagle Rare is also closely associated with charity in the form of the Rare Life Award, given to someone who’s made a positive impact in the community. Eagle Rare donates tens of thousands of dollars to the charity of the winner’s choice, with past awards going to organizations that help with veterans’ causes, environmental issues, and children’s health issues, just to name a few. A great bourbon with a big heart.

Taste Oak with hints of nuts, toffee, orange peel, leather and cocoa

spring 2014

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n

A

t ’ s a i h

P CU

wner of South Carolina’s Coffee & Crema cafés, coffee expert Shannon Hudgens looks into the darkness of your morning cup—and offers a path to the light.

Spoiler alert: you could be drinking better coffee

If you really love coffee, and not just the sugary confections that make the bulk of every coffee shop’s profit margin, you should know that the large franchise shops are not for you.

Even if these places wanted to sell you exquisite coffee—and some do—they can’t. There’s just not enough of the good stuff to go around, and certainly not enough to ensure brand consistency in cups from Seattle to Surabaya (that’s in Indonesia, by the way, and yes, there’s a you-know-what there, too, complete with white cups and green logo). With incredibly rare exceptions, top examples of beautiful coffees,

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properly presented with all of their global personalities and distinctive qualities intact, can only be found at independent, local shops staffed by people who truly know (and love) the brew they’re selling. As with most things in life, the quality vs. quantity argument plays out with coffee. Understanding why, and knowing something about the various coffees available, could open up a whole new world of possibilities for you. And if you’re the kind of person who ends your day with a glass of something distinctive, why not be as discerning in the morning?

spring 2014

SUPPLY Coffee is the world’s second most-traded commodity by some measures, so it shouldn’t be surprising that economies of scale play a factor in a company’s purchasing decisions.

The larger the company, the more it can buy and the larger the discount it can negotiate. Small coffee farmers, the backbone of one of the world’s most labor-intensive industries, will always lower their prices a little to secure a larger sale. They make a little more money while their profit margins slip proportionally, leaving little room to improvise with new varieties of coffee or processing techniques in times of bad harvests. No one can afford to experiment too much with the harvests because even a 10 percent drop in harvest can turn a profitable year into a profitless one, engendering a kind of stagnation in coffee quality and prosperity among farmers, who come to rely more and more on quantity over quality. It can also mean corners get cut to fulfill purchase orders. Companies like Maxwell House and Folgers assure farmers an outlet for the bulk of a mediocre crop, but the people mainly benefiting from the process are the purchasers. Neither you the consumer nor the farmer who spent nine months tending the beans that went into your bland morning brew can claim to have been served

spring 2014

The quality vs. quantity argument plays out with coffee well. And don’t even ask why Folgers has the same nutty mellowness that hasn’t changed for decades. You don’t want to know.

Setting aside economic issues on the supply side, companies like [big name coffee franchise] can’t even bring the best coffee back to the States. Just like artisan products anywhere in the world, high quality goods are only available in limited quantities; small farmers can’t grow enough to meet the needs of large specialty coffee purveyors around the world.

Case in point: Coffee grower Aida Batlle. Batlle runs a celebrated, sustainable, ethical coffee operation in El Salvador, but the amount of coffee she produces from each of her farms is small by many standards. Her Finca Kilimanjaro makes close to 30,000 pounds, which sounds like a lot, but if Starbucks, for example, were to buy her entire lot, they would only have enough coffee to send a few pounds to each store.

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But let’s say for the moment that Starbucks really wants this coffee. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz himself tasted it and loves its black tea-and-jasmine sweetness and its snappy acidity. He even likes Batlle personally and is willing to pay what specialty roasters are paying her right now (to its credit, Starbucks pays its suppliers better than many green coffee buyers, if still not specialty coffee prices).

All of this goodwill and cash wouldn’t matter because Batlle doesn’t have enough coffee to sell across all of Schultz’s stores. So what does a guy like him often do? He buys her beans, then he buys up the harvests of numerous farms in the surrounding area—some of which will be of similarly high quality, most lower—then ships it all home as coffee of a single origin. Whatever distinctiveness Batlle’s coffee once had has now disappeared into a mix with 40 other farms’ coffees. Under the best circumstances they will be as similar as a Saviny-les-Beaune is to a PernandVergelesses (we’re talking wine, now) but more than likely all the distinctiveness of whatever Schultz saw in Finca Kilimanjaro is now lost until next season.

CONSISTENCY There’s another thing that makes getting a distinctive cup of coffee from a major chain nearly impossible and, ironically, it’s the same reason many people go there every morning: consistency.

One thing that hurts many independent cafés is that their coffee might taste different from one day to the next.

Larger chains have worked very hard to ensure the coffee they serve tastes the same Monday through Friday, rain or shine, anywhere in the country or even around the world. It really is quite a feat of logistics and training to achieve such consistency, but ask yourself: what is the flavor profile of all the larger coffee chains? The answer: dark roasts.

When you get to be so large that buying small lots is impossible, you naturally buy big lots, then bigger lots and then, pretty soon, there is no single farm large enough to meet your insatiable customer thirst. So you do what you have to and buy two or three different lots to provide the espresso and brewed coffee your sprawling brew empire demands.

But these big lots are as problematic as the smaller ones because they all taste different, and even if they tasted good individually, the widespread consistency your customer craves is in danger of being compromised. What to do? Pull your hair out and downsize your company into smaller regional specialty coffee companies? Roast everything like normal and give up hope of consistency?

Hope the customer won’t notice?

Nope, you do the same thing coffee roasters do when they have a batch of inferior coffee and need to hide its defects: roast dark.

Thirty years ago this was what many roasters did because coffee would often come to them in bad shape.

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Either Mother Nature had screwed things up or the farmer had mishandled the crop or the mill had ruined it or the exporter or importer had made a mistake. There were (and still are) lots of spoons in the cup, so to speak, and many places where things can go wrong. Dark roasting hides some of the problems, but takes away many of the distinctive characteristics of the coffee, both bad and good, leaving a roast-y, creosote-like flavor that, when dolled up with milk and sugar, tastes all right. As a means of salvaging a crop, dark roasting is understandable. As a way to create consistency—by roasting-out various coffees’ distinctive qualities—it solves a problem in today’s global marketplace, but in my book it’s a damn shame.

The good news is that in shops like mine, smallbatch specialty coffees with all of their personality and distinctiveness are still available. We don’t have the resources or the need to purchase in huge quantities, and thus we can be more selective. Subsequently, if you’re the kind of person who appreciates the subtle differences among various wines and spirits, or who enjoys smoking a creamy VegaFina in the morning and a bold Monte Cristo at night, why not bring that level of sophistication to your morning brew?

Wake up a few minutes earlier than usual, walk past the big-name franchise and find a local coffee shop staffed by people who really know their stuff. Chances are they’ll open a whole new world to you, and your mornings will be that much better. And if you’re ever in Greenville, South Carolina, feel free to drop into my place. I’ll fix you a cup of Rwandan Buziraguhindwa you won’t believe.

For more on coffee, visit Coffeeandcrema.com

spring 2014

J AY HAAS

K EN N Y PERRY

B E RN H A RD LANGER

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GROWING REGIONS

ASIA & THE PACIFIC

Coffee shrubs will grow anywhere there isn’t a frost, but the higher the altitude, the brighter and more flavorful the cup.

High altitude without snow means the better coffees are found straddling the equator, encompassing a zone between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Listed below are the general coffee-growing regions and the traditional flavors associated with each. Take the tasting notes with a grain of salt, because modern specialty roasters seem to be most enamored of the odd cup out recently.

Indonesia, Papua New Guinea Indonesian coffees can have bell pepper flavors while coffees from Papua New Guinea can be surprisingly sweet and molasses-like. The source of one of our ways to say coffee (Java), this region has the most rudimentary processing systems in place. Coffees from here are not always labeled organic because of the costs of certification, but they often end up being organic in practice since the local farmers haven’t had access to industrial fertilizers. The growing popularity of these coffees guarantees this will change.

EAST AFRICA Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi Bright and citrusy with a lighter body, Ethiopian coffees, when processed in a particular fashion (dry processed, if you want to know) tend to shift away from citrus and towards dried berry. These are the kinds of coffees that really change people’s perception about how coffee can taste, having been described as “blueberry muffin in a cup.” Coffee was first discovered in Ethiopia, and that country still possesses thousands of varietals awaiting discovery. Kenya, on the other hand, has the best controls and some of the highest quality coffee in the world, so the high-ish price is fair and an indicator of what we should pay for all coffee.

CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA El Salvador, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Mexico Flavors run from bright and tangy to cocoa to stone/fruit to spice to earth. The bulk of the coffee Americans consume comes from here. Brazil is the largest producer but doesn’t have the altitude to compete with East Africa. This entire continent is trying to reproduce the success of El Salvador, which has simultaneously brought up both the price and quality of its coffee. Unfortunately, the entire continent also deals with “coffee rust,” a terribly destructive fungus.

OTHER PLACES

West Africa: These coffees are robusta, a different species from what Americans typically drink. These coffees taste woody or rubbery, contain twice as much caffeine as “normal” coffee and are consumed mostly by Europeans.

Hawaii & Jamaica: Waking up to the sound of waves and wind in the palms, you’re probably going to like your coffee, but coffee from these regions falls into the category of Central & South American coffee—without the variety or distinctiveness, in my opinion.

Subcontinent: If Pakistan produces any coffee, they’re keeping it better hidden than their tourism industry. Bangladesh and India, on the other hand, both produce coffee to some degree. India has the longer history but quality control, logistics and the reputation of coffees like Monsooned Malabar or, worse, Mysore Nuggets, have kept most of this region’s coffee off of American shelves.

Kopi Luwak: Just say no. Kopi Luwak was a cultural oddity that had people drinking coffee made from beans that had been eaten and excreted by civets (a small mammal). Bad and expensive, it now has would-be entrepreneurs stuffing caged civets, foie gras-style, in order to get as much Kopi Luwak as possible out of them. Unethical and unsavory.

MEXICO INDONESIA

ETHIOPIA

PAPAU NEW GUINEA

EL SALVADOR RWANDA

KENYA

COLUMBIA BRAZIL

BURUNDI PERU

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BREW METHODS

HOW TO ORDER COFFEE

The idea, as it has been for centuries, is to brew coffee in a way that not only yields the maximum flavor from the coffee grounds, but then separates the grounds from the drink in the cup. To achieve this, numerous methods have been concocted, some less ridiculous than others.

Listed below are a few drinks you might find in your local café.

Order them correctly and make your barista’s day.

POUR OVER Pourover, Chemex, Melitta, Hario V60, Bee House Dripper This category carries a lot of different methods and some will tell you one is better than another, but it mostly comes down to personal preference. The gist of all these methods is you pouring hot water through a bed of ground coffee, which is then filtered through a paper cone (or occasionally muslin) directly into your cup. This is a great method if you like your coffee made fresh, have a steady hand and enough patience to pour 12oz of water over a period of 2-3 minutes.

Otherwise, pay someone to do this for you.

SIPHON Vac Pot, Vacuum Brewer The most intriguing, theatrical and dangerous way of preparing coffee. Siphon coffee is a full-immersion method, meaning the coffee and water are in contact with each other for an extended period. They work by placing water into a carafe and then heating it over an open flame. When the water boils, the carafe is seated by a second chamber, which holds the coffee and filter. The steam creates pressure in the lower chamber, which pushes the water into the upper chamber. The temperature of the water doesn’t cool because the fire under the lower carafe continues to heat the water throughout the entire brewing process and only when it has brewed long enough (45 seconds to four minutes, depending on who you ask) is the heat removed so a vacuum can be created to suck the coffee back down.

FRENCH PRESS Press Pot, Plunge Pot, Liberty Press The oldest surviving brew method in this roundup. Putting coffee grinds and hot water into a chamber, only to filter out the grinds later using a steel mesh, has been so straightforward and elegant a solution that Marie Antoinette, after her infamous statement about letting the people eat cake, added, “And let them wash it down with a nice Our Press of coffee.” Or at least that’s what I heard.

ESPRESSO ’Spro, Nectar of the Gods Two ounces of coffee in 25-30 seconds. It is fundamentally different from “a cup of coffee” in that pressure is used to extract coffee from the dry grinds in a short period of time. The aroma is trapped inside the foam (crema) on top, where it waits for you to enjoy it retronasally, meaning the bubbles pop on your tongue and the smell of the coffee goes into your nose from the inside. Regular brewed coffee has no way of preserving aroma like espresso.

LONG BLACK Italiano A double espresso added to an equal or similar volume of water.

The taste is strong like an espresso but lasts a little longer.

TRADITIONAL CAPPUCCINO Five-Ounce Capp, Capp & Sidecar This is the capp the way the Italians designed it: a single espresso with 4oz of richly frothed milk. This should always be served in ceramic and an Italian would likely yell at you for ordering it past 11a.m. (Don’t worry, Americans don’t mind.) Because of the types of machines they use and the fast pace of service, most shops only pull double espressos. They don’t want to waste the extra shot, which would not normally go into a traditional cappuccino, so instead they buy larger cups and throw in both shots. A more interesting variation is the traditional cappuccino with a sidecar. You will be charged for the “extra” espresso, but in return will be getting a solo espresso on the side in a demitasse—and the admiring looks of the barista.

GIBRALTAR Cortado, Cortadito, Shortcut This is an off-menu drink nearly everywhere that offers it, and it doesn’t seem to have a set recipe. Ordering one might get you a very-lightly frothed 5oz latte or a 5oz latte using half-and-half instead of milk. Some places will add a teaspoon of raw sugar and some places use both raw sugar and half-and-half. Whatever they bring you should be served in a 5oz rocks glass or something similar, and the sweeter and creamier it gets, the more you’ll probably like it.

CLEVER DRIPPER This is a brewing method combining the full-immersion of a French Press with the taste of the various pour-over methods. It looks like a filter cone, and a regular cone filter goes inside, but the water doesn’t drain until the device is set on top of a cup. “Interesting,” you might say. “No, Clever,” I would reply.

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the idea doctor Cleveland Clinic maintains a leadership role in medical innovation by investing resources and human capital to stimulate and develop creative solutions to healthcare’s most pressing needs. Dr. Tom Graham sets the vision and directs medicine’s most successful “think tank.”

What would one of the world’s leading academic medical centers do with one of their doctors who is a master surgeon, a prolific inventor and a serial entrepreneur? The answer for the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic was to make him the Chief Innovation Officer, a concept that is sweeping the international business landscape and has the power to perpetuate America’s entrepreneurial spirit.

When Dr. Thomas Graham returned to his native Ohio after a decade as the Chief of the Congressionally-designated National Hand Center in Baltimore, he not only transported the country’s premier practice for the care of professional athletes’ hand and

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wrist problems, but he got the opportunity to pursue his passion for developing and commercializing the answers to tomorrow’s most pressing healthcare needs. Gaining in popularity in almost all industries, the concept of identifying the most creative thinkers and giving them the resources needed to build a culture of innovation seems natural for healthcare—Cleveland Clinic just thought of it first and does it best.

Kingdom magazine’s editor caught up with Dr. Graham during one of Graham’s visits to his close friend, Arnold Palmer, to get an exclusive look into the doctor’s world and the vision he has for the future of healthcare innovation.

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Paint a picture of what “innovation” means to you.

Basically, “innovation” embodies the concept of reducing creativity to practice; it’s ideas going to work. It’s easy to consider yourself “innovative” if you have unique perspectives or fresh ideas; especially individuals who have introduced a new technique or even been granted a patent would certainly deserve that mantle. I find that our organization is replete with talented colleagues who are consistently generating transcendent thought.

The distinguishing characteristic that allows us to define and operate around the concept of “innovation” is that we have sought to bring disciplined process and metrics to what we call the “virtuous cycle.” Solutions to the most poignant problems in medicine are generated at the bedside or laboratory bench; Cleveland Clinic Innovations (CCI) then nurtures these ideas through the complex innovation ecosystem that returns them to the marketplace and to the hands of those same inventors so they can improve and extend human life.

Why is innovation so critical in today’s healthcare landscape?

Simply put, it’s all about access, quality and cost. Innovation enables optimization of all three of these basic pillars that support the future of healthcare. Medicine used to be a volume-driven model, now we are all focused on delivering value.

I’ve always maintained that “medicine is an art, not a science,” but truthfully there is practically no element of the engagement between the patient and doctor that is not influenced by technology.

I am not diminishing the human element, nor the singular privilege of caring for another human being. However, we have to be practical and leverage all resources available to deliver the best care.

Our effectiveness in increasing life expectancy and quality through innovation results in an expanding population, with the largest growth segment being the elderly—with the health issues appertaining thereto. Almost ironically, as we transition to a “population management” strategy to deliver care to this expanding census, medicine must become more individualized, as we see the advent of “personalized medicine.”

Couple these facts with the reality that the foundational facts underpinning practice are proliferating; the doubling time for medical information is a mere five years. When I started practice, it took two decades to double the medical information in libraries and journals.

What is the source of medical innovation and what fields are growing?

If it influences the patient’s medical journey, from the first experience of symptoms and initial contact with the medical system through the ultimate conclusion of their care, we want to seek contemporary answers and solve challenges. This is reflected in the fact that we consider everyone at Cleveland Clinic a “caregiver,” not just doctors, nurses and researchers, but each one of our 44,000 colleagues can contribute innovation that makes the patient’s experience better.

In general, the domains into which innovation-tocommercialization ideas fall include: medical devices, drug development, healthcare information technologies (HIT) and medical

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delivery solutions. Cleveland Clinic has long been a successful developer of implants like heart valves and Orthopaedic hardware.

In truth, I am just as enthusiastic about the trajectory of our HIT portfolio expanding; we are excited about leading in medical informatics and “big data,” likely powered by our early adoption of electronic medical records.

How did Cleveland Clinic get so good at innovation?

In a word, “culture.” We have over nine decades of thought leadership in techniques and technologies to help people. If you couple that with the entrepreneurial history of our city, you have a great formula.

Cleveland was not only one of the most prosperous industrial cities in America when Cleveland Clinic was founded in 1921 and giants like Rockefeller were here, but the Clinic was a driver behind Cleveland becoming a knowledge-based economy, as it exists today.

We were among the first hospital systems to understand the merit of partnering the individual innovator with the institution to develop intellectual property—this has considerable mutual benefit. For the inventor, critical resources and commercialization expertise can be deployed to bring his or her idea to the market. Conversely, not only can the institution share in the success, being a leader in innovation gives us an advantage to recruit, retain and reward top talent.

Another reason why I have the greatest job in all of healthcare is that our CEO, Dr. Toby Cosgrove, is also one of the Clinic’s most prolific inventors. He deeply understands the

I’VE MAINTAINED THAT MEDICINE IS AN ART, NOT A SCIENCE innovation ecosystem and the merit of maintaining primacy in the ability to take creative thought to the marketplace. Just as Cleveland Clinic strives to optimize all elements of care delivery, we also seek to maintain a “high innovation environment” that stimulates and rewards inventors.

You’ve put together an impressive list of partner institutions around the idea of innovating together. Describe the thinking behind the Healthcare Innovation Alliance and your other premier partnerships.

Innovation happens at the intersection of knowledge domains. It’s no accident that the greatest advances in art, music, architecture, let alone the sciences, came from the port cities around the world— that’s where different cultures could have discourse about their perspectives and ideas.

It is still true. If we are to answer the most important questions facing tomorrow’s healthcare system, I believe we are better off as “collaborators,” not “competitors.” I know that is somewhat surprising talk coming from a physician-executive, but I think Cleveland Clinic is the “best partner in modern healthcare”...with our patients, our own caregivers and referring physicians, with our community and with other members of the academy.

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Because we were pioneers in administering a focused innovation and commercialization program, this became a distinguishing characteristic for Cleveland Clinic. I believed that it was not only scalable and transferable to other institutions, but also I sensed other leaders around the country were struggling with how to grow the same capabilities we have sought to master.

Now you see the logic of taking our core competency and assisting other academic medical centers and research universities to grow their culture of innovation and give their inventors access to a best-in-class innovation ecosystem. It must be recognized that the Clinic also gleans considerable benefit from the synergies created by the Healthcare Innovation Alliance. We have “locks” on our campus that have found “keys” in the bright minds of our Alliance partners and the synergies that have fueled “co-innovation,” truly “lifts all boats.”

How will success be defined for the Alliance?

I think there are two answers to that—a predictable objective one and then an equally-important subjective one.

First, we understand that we need to “keep score”; despite innovation often being thought of as difficult to define, we have always had dashboard indicators we follow, including: number of invention disclosures, patents, spin-out companies created, equity investments and grants and job creation numbers. As the Alliance matures, we expect and welcome judgement on these parameters, even though this is an entirely new concept that has no historical norms.

The other impact that the Alliance generates is harder to measure, but may be just as crucial to our partner institutions, that’s setting the culture of innovation. Engaging all constituents in the practice of thinking creatively, problem-solving and educating them about intellectual property protection and the commercialization process. If a healthcare system or research university embraces innovation, in the way our Alliance has, it can be a margin of difference that distinguishes them in multiple ways and enhances their chance for overall success in the future.

What are the biggest challenges that you face as Cleveland Clinic’s Chief Innovation Officer?

Two things keep me up at night: 1) how do we provide service to our inventors and Alliance partners, and 2) how will we support and sustain our innovation ecosystem?

Regarding the former, a quarter-century of practicing Orthopaedics taught me the value of service. Now, in addition to my patients, I want to bring world-class service to our inventors. Different challenges, but same imperatives—be timely, be honest, be expert, be constructive. Just like it’s tough to tell some patients they have a bad problem, it’s not pleasant to tell an inventor that their idea may not have clinical merit or market viability—you have to be professional in both engagements. Similarly, you need to “bring your A-game” to nurturing people through an arduous process—that’s communication and leveraging all the resources at your disposal.

Maybe the most troubling challenge facing innovation today is securing adequate funding to commercialize the large number of quality ideas we see. A “capital gap” has developed between where

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we reside at the earliest, most organic stage of ideation and where traditional venture investing supports commercialization and company creation. We need to seek a diversified, sustainable mechanism that provides resources for proof-of-concept—admittedly early and considered “risky.” This is where the pipeline of American innovation starts and where tomorrow’s patents and companies begin.

How are you and Cleveland Clinic going to solve these problems?

The answer resides in educating key constituents about from where true innovation actually emanates and how they can insure that it has robust support. The message needs to get to two key groups: industry partners and philanthropists.

We haven’t given up completely on the investment community, but they want predictable returns and eschew risk—that’s the antithesis of our model and where organic ideas need the most resources.

Many investors talk about their support for “early stage” innovation; in reality, they are supporting already established companies, going concerns. Functions like ours in academic medicine and research universities represent the real “early stage.”

I neither seek to discourage nor disparage the traditional venture investor, some of them are coming around to realize that emerging companies will no longer be available as investment targets if raw ideas don’t get the support they need. We are just going to have to “meet each other halfway”. We remove risk and improve the value proposition by aggregating a large portfolio of

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IP through the Alliance relationship. Hopefully, this will satisfy the investor so they will start to support organic ideation.

We are developing some models and mechanisms to engage industry partners and committed philanthropists who recognize how the innovation pipeline gets filled. We also benefit from being in a very “business forward” state; Ohio has been a great partner in assisting us to incubate ideas. All this activity also contributes to community economic development and job creation—a true winning cycle of activity.

of my time to the executive function as Cleveland Clinic’s Chief Innovation Officer. However, we have a motto here, “Patients First.”

When an athlete gets injured and I get the call, I prioritize their care.

I have a great team at CCI that are professional and expert; they can always cover for me when I put my surgeon’s cap on.

You hold over 40 patents—how does your personal history as an innovator influence your role as the Chief Innovation Officer?

I have not only been one who has helped to shape Cleveland Clinic’s innovation identity, I have also been a direct beneficiary: it has stimulated me to think expansively about the unparalleled volume and variety of pathology we see and to identify solutions. So you are correct, I am not only one of the architects of the innovation ecosystem, I am also a “client.”

Having first-hand experience as an innovator has been invaluable for me. I have been exposed to the process, and developed an understanding of the challenges and barriers, but also the numerous benefits that come with inventorship. Frankly, as my experience grew and I was able to influence CCI’s structure and commercialization processes, my history as an inventor afforded me valuable insight. I can put myself in the position of the individual inventor and communicate to our innovators from a mutual perspective. It is satisfying to be an inventor. Instead of being limited to caring for a single patient at a time, something that you may have invented may have helped dozens or hundreds of patients this week—that “multiplication” is the essence of what we can accomplish with innovation.

You hold the Justice Family Chair in Medical Innovation. What does that mean to you and the Institution?

Jim Justice is an American industrialist who understands entrepreneurship. In addition to his extensive coal and agri-business holdings, he owns the world-famous Greenbrier resort in his native West Virginia. There are few more intelligent and authentic philanthropists than Jim and Cathy Justice. First, they understand why our function is both worthy and in need of gifts like their $10m pledge. Their study informed them that building America’s innovation infrastructure by supporting healthcare’s leading commercialization group was logical and impactful.

Their generosity has lead to other benefactors donating funds or intellectual property to CCI. They also expanded our thinking toward developing a platform for “venture philanthropy,” a unique combination of an investment and philanthropy strategy. We can’t thank them enough for their support.

How do you split your time between taking care of all the athletes and running Cleveland Clinic Innovations?

I’ve wanted to be a Hand Surgeon since I was eight years old. For the last 25 years, when my feet hit the floor in the morning, I was an Orthopaedic Surgeon. Now, I wear both hats, dedicating a majority

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Arnie and the Doc at the Kingdom Cup

Can you tell us about your close friendship with Mr. Palmer?

My life has been enriched by my relationship with Arnold. In the ‘60s and ‘70s, growing up in Pittsburgh, he was my hero. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, he was my friend and patient. And in the 2000s he became my partner when we founded the Arnold Palmer SportsHealth Center in Baltimore. I’ve looked up to Mr. Palmer for the way he conducts himself in all endeavors. Arnold didn’t just set an example as an athlete to cheer, but as a human being to emulate.

You recently had a near-death experience; any lessons learned?

What a year we had in 2012-13. Few people practice medicine for decades, then turn around and spend the better part of a year on the other side of the bedrail. True, I almost lost my life to an unusual medical issue, and my survival was not predicted... I had the greatest care in the world at my own hospital, I have the greatest friends and family and I wanted to return to my job.

When you are as sick as a human being can be, you need all the support and prayers available to pull you back up. You need an advocate—my wife and daughters didn’t leave my side for months, because we didn’t know if that day was going to be the last.

Then you need the genuine care of talented professionals working collaboratively—that’s Cleveland Clinic’s signature. I had it all, and things couldn’t have worked out better.

For more information, visit clevelandclinic.org/innovations

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Regarding oneself in the mirror for any length of time is an interesting exercise of sorts.

It allows a person to note details, lines and aspects of a face that others see every day, but which the owner rarely considers. Photographs are even more curious, reflecting not only the photographer’s take on an individual (haphazard or otherwise) but also serving as a kind of time machine: “How my hair has changed!” a person might exclaim, looking at a photo. Or “wow, look at me then,” diving into the water with a younger man’s body or standing tall for a school photo. How peculiar it must be, then, to confront a statue of oneself, a threedimensional representation that captures both physical details and a moment in time, perhaps in a scale that’s larger than life. Imagine how many hours the sculptor must have scrutinized photos of the subject, the details of which the artist must have taken note. Certainly the sculptor looked more closely at the subject, and for longer, than the subject ever looked at himself. It’s a special kind of achievement to warrant such scrutiny, and it reflects the admiration of both the people who created the work and the community that commissioned it.

For Arnold Palmer, it’s nothing new.

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ŠWFU /Ken Bennett

“They’ve just unveiled one of me at Wake Forest “Russ and I met at Yale,” says Dick Polich, laughing.

University, by the practice tee,” said Palmer, speaking to “We were both on scholarships, we didn’t know anyone, Kingdom after the statue was unveiled. “Wake Forest, as and we both had jobs in the cafeteria. We were friends all you know, is dear to my heart. They put one up at Laurel through Yale, and we’ve stayed friends.”

Valley a few years ago [when Palmer turned 80]. I’m “It’s true,” says Meyer. “We worked for a tough ol’ gal flattered that they want to do that, of course. It’s nice to named Janet, and she assigned us to work together.” think that they’ve done that.”

Theirs is the kind of friendship, Meyer says, in which There have been a few sculptures of The King made you might not see one another for five years, but when you over the years, but it’s fair to say that the most recent— get together it’s as if only five minutes have passed. unveiled last October at Wake Forest, Palmer’s alma mater— While Meyer pursued his career in business and is an absolute masterpiece. aviation, Polich took his Yale engineering degree to MIT, The brainchild of Ron Wellman, Wake Forest’s Director where he ended up studying metallurgy and casting. As of Athletics, the statue was championed by longtime Polich told Art in America magazine, “I was working on aviation luminary and Palmer close friend Russ Meyer, a master’s thesis on missile systems, but my real interest sculpted by remarkable artist Bruce Wolfe, cast by genius was in making art castings. It was pretty funny—word foundry owner Dick Polich and made possible by countless eventually got around campus that people were making art hours of hard work from too many talented people to name in building four. Students would just show up and ask, ‘Hey, in a single article. can you cast this in bronze for me?’”

The result Today, Polich and his Polich-Tallix foundry in upstate is a striking New York utilize cutting-edge materials and methods to work of art that manifest some of the greatest living artists’ work. His captures Arnie large network of connections meant that when Meyer in a classic pose: called him, explained the Palmer project and asked for a just finishing recommendation on a sculptor, Polich had a name to offer. his swing and “I looked around for the guy I thought was the best looking forward. figurative sculptor and I picked Bruce,” says Polich. “He As tremendous would’ve been my choice, and that’s who they chose.” as it is, the core Wolfe, sitting at home in Northern California, wasn’t group responsible expecting the call. for its creation is “This guy, Dick Polich, he called me,” Wolfe remembers. as amazing.

“Amazing guy. Made airplane parts for years, always trying More than to figure out different ways to use metal to do technical that, each things. Somehow he got into making a foundry, probably i n d i v i d u a l ’s the best foundry in the world. He’s got the best reputation in dedication to his the world, I think. I’d never talked to this guy; he’s a legend. part of the project “He said to me, ‘We’re thinking about you maybe is a testament doing a 12-foot Arnold Palmer.’ I said yeah? Really? Wow. to integrity and He said, ‘What would you charge?’ And I said, you tell me to appreciation what to charge. I’d like to do the piece. That ended up being of not just Arnold what it was.”

Palmer, but of the As for what, exactly, Wolfe would be doing, no one human spirit. really knew.

“I got a call “We wanted something really significant that wouldn’t from Ron Wellman almost two years ago,” says Meyer, be ignored when people saw it,” says Wellman. “We didn’t former CEO of Cessna Aircraft and a National Aviation know what that meant, exactly, but once we talked to Bruce, Hall of Fame inductee. “Ron asked if I thought Arnie would he told us what his thoughts were and we quickly agreed.” be willing to have a sculpture built and placed at the golf area, and he asked if I would help convince him. I said I would, provided it was a really high quality sculpture.”

Meyer’s oldest son went to Wake Forest, and the former CEO served on the university’s board of trustees for many years. As it happens, one of Meyer’s good friends owns a foundry—arguably the finest foundry in the world.

“Bruce Wolfe: That’s who I would’ve chosen, and that’s who they chose”

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Wolfe at work (left); Polich with a 3D-printed miniature at Polich-Tallix (above)

“I worked on the thing for a year; it really wiped me out” An illustrator as well who designed the MasterCard intersecting balls logo, Wolfe’s sculptures bring an almost unsettling human-ness to static form, pushing attitude, moments of relaxed contemplation or intensity through the medium and placing them directly in front of the viewer.

The work requires hours of observation, often working from hundreds of photos, and a sort of subconscious assemblage of details into a vision, which Wolfe then communicates with his hands. For the statue of Arnie, Wolfe says he initially did a number of drawings, working from pictures he found and experimenting with various poses. Eventually, Arnie himself flew out to meet the artist.

“Arnie came out with his Citation X and I got in that thing and said, ’holy #&*%, I’ve never been in an airplane with so few people in it!’” says Wolfe. “We flew to Latrobe and he said, ‘Let’s get some lunch.’ Took me to his office, I met Doc [Giffin, Palmer’s longtime friend and associate]—I really liked Doc!—and then I got back here and went to work. I worked on the thing for a year; it really wiped me out.”

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Wolfe’s studio is 20-something feet tall, he says, and the finished Palmer statue measures 12’ 9” to the top of the golf club. Completed and assembled, it weighs 1,392 pounds, meaning even its components were a tough haul for Wolfe, who moved pieces around with chains as he worked on the piece. More than 200 hours were spent on the concept and another 50 went into renderings before the clay model was finished. That took eight months, some of which was spent making adjustments.

“Russ was the guy who made sure the statue was right,” says Polich. “He made sure the angle of the club was right, things like that. When Bruce got done, Russ said, ‘Oh, I think Arnie was a little more muscular than that,’ and so Bruce would puff him up a little, and then Russ would say, ‘Oh, this isn’t really right,’ and Bruce would adjust it again.”

“I think I probably drove Bruce crazy,” says Meyer. “I wanted to be sure that I was able to give the kind of direction they needed because I spent so much time with Arnold and Winnie; few people have seen him swing a club more.”

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The main room at Polich-Tallix foundry (above); Bruce Wolfe as hairstylist (below)

Wolfe says that he first built a maquette, an 18- to 20-inch version of the statue, and that he took numerous comments on that from Meyer and others.

“They had comments about the hands, because he has a unique grip that he uses, and they wanted him built up a bit with more muscles—you can see in the photos that he’d really built himself up by the point at which we were catching him,” says Wolfe. “I was glad to be working for him... I really wanted to do the best for this guy.”

When Wolfe finally decided he was done, the statue was transported across the country to Polich’s foundry in upstate New York. A woman named Abina Cronin made the mold for the statue (no easy task) and Polich and his crew spent nine months on the casting and finishing.

Facing south to catch the most light throughout the day, as per Wolfe’s instructions, the finished result was unveiled last October to rave reviews. The most important one, perhaps, came from Palmer himself, who, Wolfe said, told him simply, “I like it.”

More than just a statue of a storied Wake Forest alumnus who designed the university’s practice facility, Wellman says the statue is a monument to achievement itself.

“I want everyone to remember, whether it be recruits or our players coming there every day, the obligation that they have to be great,” he says. “And there is no better person to remind us of greatness than Arnold Palmer.”

“There is no better person to remind us of greatness than Arnold Palmer”

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APDC Update The top team at Arnold Palmer Design Company celebrates a course anniversary, new projects in the sun and a well-deserved pat on the back. As always, Kingdom is there in awe of the work they do...

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et the sunscreen ready because the Caribbean is set to get its first Arnold Palmer course.

The team at APDC are thrilled to announce a new course in the Cayman Islands, part of the new Ironwood development that’s set to revitalize the islands. Currently there are only three courses in the Cayman Islands, one 18 and two 9-hole tracks, one of which is private. So the addition of a top-end 18-hole course is big news. But more than simply a recreational facility, the course is part of an exciting larger development that’s adding jobs and improving the country’s infrastructure.

“If you look at a map of Grand Cayman, most of the infrastructure is on the extreme west end of the island, near Seven Mile Beach,” explains Thad Layton, Senior Golf Course Architect and Vice President at APDC. “The road system in place now won’t allow much development on the east end, but that’s going to change.”

The Ironwood project will add a road that will “turn a 40-minute drive into a 10-minute drive,” says Denise Gower, who works with Ironwood. With planned housing, shopping, markets and more, she says the golf course will be a big part of life on the island once it’s built.

“Having a course of this caliber will develop Cayman in terms of being a golf tourist destination,” she said. “There’ are a lot of people in the area expressing interest in this.”

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The course itself will be a core golf project, says Layton, pushing houses back and being “generous with the golf corridor,” as he puts it.

“The easterly trade wind has to be taken into account for safety and for the golf course,” he adds. “Every hole changes direction and, again, the wind is an issue. We have to make the ones into the wind not as long as the ones downwind because there’s a prevailing wind down there— it’s always blowing, it’s just a matter of to what degree.

“There are some nice trees down there as well, which we’re going to preserve, and there’s a blue iguana reserve to the south, which we’re going to accommodate. There’s only something like 1,000 of these iguanas left in the world and this is one of the few places where they have them, so we’re going to be good neighbors.”

As part of a larger push to help the Cayman Islands move forward, and as the first Palmer design in the Caribbean, it should be a stunning course and we can’t wait to see it.

Heading south (and slightly west), it’s time to break out the birthday candles: the Arnold Palmer-designed course at The Four Seasons Resort at Peninsula Papagayo in Costa Rica is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Palmer himself was on hand for the course’s grand opening back on May 10, 2004, and said the track was an accurate reflection of his style.

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The Palmer-designed Peninsula Papagayo in Costa Rica (above) is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2014

“This course represents my basic design philosophy,” Fazenda Boa Vista joins the Palmer course at Las he said at the time. “It is exciting and enjoyable for all Piedras in Punta del Este, Uruguay, as another example of players and respects and preserves the existing terrain.” how APDC is one of the leaders in the expansion of golf in Elevation changes abound here, and views of both South America. The course at Las Piedras opened last year the rainforest and the sea cliffs will cause even the most and is earning rave reviews, many likely from golfers excited focused golfer to pause mid round and to marvel at the about the sport’s return to the Olympics in 2016 in Rio. beauty of the place. There are no fewer than 14 ocean-view Back home, there’s big news in the Show Me State of holes here—and plenty of white-faced monkeys, making Missouri. Big Cedar Lodge, the exquisite resort owned by Peninsula Papagayo a special treat indeed.

Johnny Morris, Founder and CEO of Bass Pro Shops, is set Further south in Brazil, the crew at APDC are excited to host the first-ever PGA TOUR-sanctioned event to use about Fazenda Boa Vista, a private course roughly 70 miles a par-3 course in competition. The resort, which features outside of São Paulo. They’ve been working on the project an exquisite Palmer-designed practice facility at Top of the for several years, and it’s nearly there. Rolling through Rock, a nature-based heritage preserve, will host a portion farmland along a creek, the front nine is so beautifully of the Big Cedar Lodge Legends of Golf presented by Bass integrated into the landscape that it looks as if it’s been Pro Shops on its Top of the Rock course, an extraordinary there forever. In contrast, the back nine heads into the hills par-3 layout.The property is also famous for its pro shop above the creek and features serious elevation changes. and restaurant, which are housed in a barn from Arnie’s “On the front nine there are 20- to 25-foot elevation hometown of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, which was broken changes, gentle, nothing abrupt,” says Layton. “The rugged down then reassembled at Big Cedar Lodge. bunkers look like they’ve always been there, and the land “The Legends of Golf and Champions Tour both share around them is rolling. It has an aged look to it, even though a history of being innovative and engaging properties, and it’s completely new. The back nine is completely different: it that legacy will certainly continue here at Big Cedar Lodge goes up into the foothills away from the creek and has 80- with the introduction of a par-3 golf course in official to 100-foot elevation changes.” competition,” said PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem.

APDC utilized native grasses and vegetation, and Layton “If there was ever a par-3 course worthy of PGA TOUR says the result is a course that offers great color and texture, tournament play, Top of the Rock is it.” along with being ecologically sensitive and incredibly beautiful.

Morris is thrilled to be hosting the event. “Top of the “The course is going to turn some heads,” Layton added. Rock offers a one-of-a-kind experience, and I’m very proud

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Top of the Rock (above and below) is owned by Johny Morris, founder of Bass Pro Shops

“I’m very proud that I had the opportunity to create something special for golfers everywhere”

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that I had the opportunity to work closely alongside golf legends Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Arnie Palmer and many other talented Ozarks craftsmen to create something special for golfers everywhere,” he said.

In Europe things are rolling along nicely, with more work planned at Ireland’s Tralee. Senior Golf Course Architect and APDC Vice President Brandon Johnson says the firm is committed to a multi-year plan with the club, which involves refining the master plan, reworking aspects of the course and the practice facilities. A land purchase facilitated some expansion, and APDC is making the best use of it.

Lastly, it’s always nice to be rewarded for a job well done, and the team at Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando always does its job very, very well. No stranger to accolades, Arnie and his crew have earned another big pat on the back by being given the highly regarded 2014 Condé Nast Traveler Gold List Award. The authoritative index of the world’s highest ranking hotels, resorts and cruise lines is selected by nearly 70,000 readers of Condé Nast Traveler, who gave Bay Hill a well-deserved 100 percent ranking on service-related criteria.

“We are extraordinarily proud to receive this award and be in the company of such highly respected resort destinations throughout the world,” shared Ray Easler, Vice President Hospitality and Operations. “Our guests consistently rate our amenities and service among the finest in the industry and we are committed to always providing an unforgettable experience. ”

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Good TV Continuing its tradition of telling the best stories in golf, Golf Channel will be closing Masters week with a new documentary film on The King himself. Simply titled “Arnie,” the three-part series will be shown at 10p.m. EST on three consecutive nights, airing from Sunday, April 13, through Tuesday, April 15

“Arnie” aims to be a proper retrospective, and producers spent a full year traveling with Palmer, collecting interviews from more than 75 people, sorting through hundreds of hours of archived film—including hours of neverbefore-seen video from the Palmer family—and shooting all over the world.

“Mr. Palmer is an American Icon, but what makes him so special is that he is absolutely genuine, especially through his ability to truly connect with everyone he meets,” said Mike McCarley, president of Golf Channel. “To truly document the impact of his life and legacy would be virtually impossible, however this project is an ambitious attempt to capture the influence he has had on the game of golf and sports as part of popular culture.”

For fans of Arnold Palmer—which includes nearly everyone—“Arnie” is certainly one to watch.

ARNIE Golf Channel 10p.m. EST April 13, 14 & 15

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