We’re Called
Forethoughts
“SUPER”
Staying for the Second Act
for a Reason
before
after
Nor wind... Nor winterkill...
before
after
Shall keep us from letting you enjoy your round. Here’s to another great year of keeping Colorado golf green!
GCSAA
PHOTOGRAPH BY E.J. CARR
Neither hail...
A FUNNY thing happened on the way to this column. Since it’s ostensibly a travel issue, I’d intended to tease Hawai‘i, Arizona and the other enticing golf destinations that start on page 32. Then a comedian hijacked the plan. That comedian is Sam Adams, one of this publication’s longtime contributors and newest member of the Denver Press Club Hall of Fame. Sam, who has written more than two dozen cover stories for Colorado AvidGolfer since 2002, was inducted at an October 4 banquet at the Denver Athletic Club along with John Sunderland, Tina Griego, Mike Landess and, posthumously, Bob Martin. Sam’s enshrinement has resulted more from his 20-plus years of covering sports for The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News than it has for his 18 years of CAG profiles of John Elway, Kevin Costner, Patrick Roy, Terrell Davis, Paige Spiranac and others. However, we are the only publication for which he still currently writes. He has turned his considerable wit and perspicacity to the world of stand-up comedy—a hobby that became a career after the closure of the Rocky Mountain News in 2009. He’s since won a number of national competitions and brought laughter to audiences all over the country. The premise of one of his routines, “True Color,” is that he, an African-American, is no more “black” than anyone of European descent is “white.” To find the hue that’s truly you, he says, go find a paint swatch and match it to your skin. (My true color, by the way, is a shade called Juicy Passionfruit; his is Chocolate Indulgence.) A video of “True Color,” filmed Dry Bar Comedy in Provo, Utah, generated more than 30 million online views, sending people from as far away as Australia and Vietnam to home-improvement stores to post their findings. It also prompted an invitation for Sam to perform in Harrison, Ark.—the putative “most racist town in America” due to a rise in white supremacist activity over the last few decades. “Concerned” though he was for his safety, last December Sam went to Harrison, where his sold-out, two-hour performance at the Lyric Theater inspired a standing ovation and mutual affection between him and the audience. He returned Labor Day weekend, and again brought down the house. As the show concluded, Harrison’s mayor and the president of its chamber of commerce presented their guest with a customized Harrison license plate declaring it the best small town in America. Over the many repasts and cabernets we’ve shared over recent years, Sam has made it clear he now considers himself an entertainer, not a writer. Fair enough. We graduated years ago from a strictly writer-editor relationship, and I consider him a dear friend. Lucky for me, he’s a friend with benefits: For this issue, he wrote a profile of Broncos’ kicker Brandon McManus, the team’s best golfer, that appears on page 76. While I selfishly hope it’s not the last byline for the Denver Press Club Hall of Famer, it ultimately doesn’t matter. Like Ryder Cup golfer and Emmy nominee David Feherty, Sam has made a successful transition to a gratifying second act, and I couldn’t be happier for him. Alas, not all second acts make everybody happy. Consider Denver’s Park Hill Golf Club (page 80). Developers have purchased the 155-acre property for $24 million, potentially consigning the 88-year-old course to a golf-free, “mixed-use” fate similar to that of other Colorado courses. There’s nothing funny about that, of course. But as we know, plans have a habit of changing. —JON RIZZI
Rocky Mountain Chapter
rmgcsa.org #thankasuperintendent COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | Fall 2019
4
coloradoavidgolfer.com