Kingdom 22

$20 where sold Issue 22—Spring 2012

morgan freeman The Big Three Olympic London wartime golf

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

Time to Reflect The arrival of 2012 has been a notable one for me for all sorts of reasons. Obviously, in the first instance, I’m looking forward to playing host to many of the world’s leading players at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard here at Bay Hill Club & Lodge during the third week in March.

I believe the course will be in its finest condition ever and hopefully the way we set it up will make for an exciting tournament and produce a worthy winner.

A couple of weeks later I will be teaming up with my old rivals, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, to perform the honorary starting duties at Augusta National at the crack of dawn on the first day of the 76th Masters Tournament. Jack and I have combined before in this role, but it will be the first time for Gary, a winner of nine major championships and a fierce Masters competitor if ever there was one.

I’m sure when the moment arrives, I will be feeling particularly nostalgic because this ceremony will represent the completion of a 50-year cycle since the three of us were first branded as The Big Three. It was a time when golf was really expanding, largely due to the growth of television but also because of some shrewd marketing that had previously been absent from the game.

Looking back, I can scarcely believe that half a century has elapsed since I won my third Masters green jacket and the [British] Open Championship for a second time—especially as my memories of these two accomplishments remain so vivid.

Of course, nearly everything about the major championships these days is different from the way it was 50 years ago. The TV coverage, purses and tented villages have all increased vastly. But given the equipment with which we played back then, the speed and quality of the greens, and the fact that few of us worked out as vigorously as many of today’s young professionals do (Gary was an obvious exception), I think as a group we were still a pretty formidable collection of golfers.

Sure, we didn’t routinely hit our drives 350 yards, but who knows how far guys like Jack, Tom Weiskopf, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson and Sam Snead (even myself) would be hitting the ball if they were in their prime today using modern clubs and balls?

The game’s four majors are an endless source of fascination to me, and it is with considerable pride that I commend to you a publication bearing my name that will be available at news-stands throughout the country from late May onwards—Arnold Palmer’s Guide to the Majors 2012. The first issue of this publication came out last year and was deemed a great success, and I’m sure the 2012 edition will be equally compelling.

In the meantime, the 22nd edition of Kingdom contains a number of stimulating articles—about subjects as varied as the history of Madison Square Garden in New York City to the life story of a young PGA Tour professional, Ryan Moore, who is representing my new apparel brand, Arnie, with such distinction. Time will tell how Ryan’s career will unfold, but he certainly looks the part!

Finally, I hope that all of you, my valued readers, continue to enjoy your golf throughout 2012, and maybe we will run into each other somewhere down the road during the year. I certainly hope so.

Happy golfing,

Arnold Palmer

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Mr Palmer We Presume—The Editors meet up with the King in California Marching Game—How golf played its part during World War II East Coast Swing—Get your golfing kicks on I-95 More Than Freeman—Lovely guy, superb actor, one-handed golfer 1962—The very year The Big Three came into being 18 4th Holes—Kingdom’s fantasy course composed of memorable No.4s Morgan—The quintessential British sportscar for modern drivers Moore is More—A Tour pro who looks the part while looking different Pilots of the Caribbean—Paul and Mary go sailing round the West Indies Above Board—Charter or purchase, these superyachts will float your boat Life in Pics—Iconic photographs of Mr. Palmer at the Masters How the Garden Grows—Madison Square Garden in all its incarnations Rank and Smile—How to become World No.1 without playing very much Hotel Latrobe—The Marriott experience awaiting golfers in Pennsylvania On the House—Golf clubs are not just about golf—they’ve got clubhouses too

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Cocktail Corner—Kru gives vodka drinkers what they’ve always wanted World Market—1stdibs.com opens the world’s treasure boxes Major Dan—American Patriot talks scholarships, golf and F-16 planes London Calling—It’s Olympic year and everyone’s heading for blighty Ultimate Back Deck—The perfect kit for an outside season Kind of Blue—Fashion and accessories on the way to May flowers Mending the Knee—How Fred Funk thwarted career-threatening injury Gift Guide—The ideal presents to give to your favorite golfer Signature Food—Fine fare inspired by iconic courses Links Golf—Donald Trump extols the virtues of golf’s original face Refreshing—Arnold Palmer Design Company reinvents your course Out of the Sand—Tradition Golf Pro Greg VanNatta gets you off the beach Course Directory—A worldwide guide to help you find your game Palmer notches Ace No.20—And he had to pay for everyone’s drinks

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Springtime If you are a golfer and you split your time between the northeastern United States and the UK, spring is a particularly special season. The first sign of proper warmth and fresh air not only signals an escape from the oppression of winter, it also means you can venture onto the course without a snow shovel. Spring signals birth anew, and on that note—on an entirely personal level—my wife, daughter and I were recently overjoyed to welcome a new addition to our family: Sophie Lily.

As Kingdom’s publisher, the chapters of my year are often marked by the magazine’s business.

On my calendar, my second daughter arrived after issue No.21 was printed but fortunately well before this year’s Kingdom Cup at Bay Hill. As ever, I thank Mr. Palmer for being such a gracious host, and I thank all the club’s staff for looking after us so well. Most of all, though, I would like to thank all our clients and advertisers who attended, as between them they raised $70,000 for the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children.

This spring also marks the start of the tenth year we have been producing Kingdom. It has been hard work, but it has been an honor and privilege working with my sporting hero, Arnold Palmer, his family, and his wider circle of friends and businesses. Above all it has been fun, and no one can ask more than that from this field of work.

On the subject of fun: In this issue we take a look at the new Spring Hill Suites by Marriott soon opening in Latrobe in a venture with Mr. Palmer. I urge readers thinking of a summer golf trip to stop in, as by staying at the hotel you can also book a golf package to play Latrobe Country Club—a course that has to feature on the bucket list of any serious golfer, and particularly fans of Arnold Palmer.

Lastly, as we enter this tenth year I would like to thank my colleagues, writers and designers, many of whom have been with us from the start. I would also like to thank all of the clubs, members and advertisers who have supported us and helped us to grow the publication over the years.

As Kingdom enters double figures, I only hope my handicap remains in single ones.

Here’s to the next ten years, and many more!

Matthew Squire—Publisher

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Stay With It Some years ago while I was living in New York City, I was walking through Union Square when I came upon a young man on an exercise bicycle pedaling away furiously, right there on the sidewalk. The bike looked nice enough, set up on a stand near the southeast corner of the square. And the man was dressed in top cycling wear—a professional’s skin-tight Lycra suit, proper shoes and even a helmet. It wasn’t until I saw the open cardboard box in front of him that I understood the situation. Written on it in marker, just above a handful of coins, was the explanation: “Training for the Olympics. Need $$$ to get to qualifying. Thank you! Go USA!” I started noticing the guy at various locations around the city, sometimes on sunny days, sometimes in the rain, always pedaling like he was being chased for hours on end, eyes fixed straight ahead with the box next to him on the ground. And then one day he was gone. I wish I’d gotten his name because I’m curious if he made it to the games. His determination was obvious, and I’d like to think his perseverance paid off.

John D. Rockefeller regarded perseverance as the single most important quality essential to success. “It overcomes almost anything,” he said, “even nature.” In this issue of Kingdom we offer a few examples that bear this out. Victory in WWII, for example, an epic struggle in which golf certainly did its part (p34). Then there’s actor Morgan Freeman, who knows a thing or two about consistent performance. He’s on p52. Arnie, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus—all of whom are incredible examples of perseverance—made the Big Three an institution in 1962, which we look at on p60. An incredible example of sticking to it is found in the exquisitely British Morgan Motor Co. (p78). And lastly, (with a nod to my anonymous cyclist friend) we visit London (p144), site of the 2012 Summer Olympics, and offer golden advice on how best to enjoy the city, .

As for me (and a fair number of the staff here at Kingdom), the fact that I’m still golfing should be all the evidence necessary to show that perseverance is something in which I wholeheartedly believe. Were I to base my participation in the game upon my scores, I would have quit long ago. Here’s hoping that your game comes a bit more naturally, and that you’ll stick with it regardless.

Reade Tilley—Editor

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reade tilley

matthew squire

editor

publisher

paul trow

leon harris

contributing editor

art director

designer

special thanks / contributors

Matthew Halnan

founding contributor Arnold Palmer

special contributors Cori Britt, Doc Giffin, Donald Trump

contributing photographers Jason Brown, Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com, Getty Images, Leon Harris, Arnold Palmer Picture Library, Evan Schiller, Meghan Tilley

vp, operations Joe Velotta

head of advertising sales Jon Edwards

advertising sales Andy Fletcher Jon Wilkinson

executive assistants

'Big Sam' Abdelnour Philip Barker Ray Easler & his great team at Bay Hill Morgan Freeman Mark Garrod Dr. Howdy Giles Neil Grant Jeanine Guilfoyle Phillip Hughes Amy Koehler Sherry Major Stacy McLaughlin Ryan Moore Mark Murphy Chris Rodell Major Dan Rooney Jack Ross Sean Scannel John Strege Joe Sutter Greg VanNatta Martyn Webb Ryan Yakel Toby Zwikel

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enquiry addresses Advertising—ms@tmcusallc.com Editorial—jh@tmcusallc.com Subscriptions—joe@tmcusallc.com

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

published by

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Kingdom: You’ve always been considered a stylish athlete. When you were deciding what to wear on tournament day, were you concerned with style? Or were you more concerned with function?

Arnold Palmer: Both. I tried to be reasonably conservative in my dress and my style and practical as far as the playing ability was concerned. I never wanted my clothing to take away from my business as far as golfing was concerned.

K: 1962 was a big year for golf. That year you won two majors while the others were won by Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player. Looking back, how important a year do you think it was for the game, and for each of you personally?

AP: 1960 and 1961 were good as well, but I agree that 1962 was an exceptional year—both for me and for the game of golf.

K: Was this the real start of the Big Three rivalry?

AP: We were playing against each other before then. I had had my battles with Gary at the Masters and with Jack at the U.S. Open in 1960, but I’d say that’s a good call to identify 1962 as the year that started the Big Three rivalry.

Arnold Palmer was taking his annual winter break at his home at Tradition Golf Club in La Quinta, California when Kingdom editors Reade Tilley and Paul Trow dropped by for a chat and to hear his thoughts and opinions on the sport’s current talking points K: What are your personal memories from each of the four majors that year?

AP: I won the Masters in a playoff against Gary and Dow Finsterwald, so I suppose I redressed the balance after losing to Gary in such an annoying way the year before.

I remember I played really well at Troon in the British Open. Kel Nagle had beaten me at St. Andrews in 1960 by a single shot, but I had gotten a better handle on playing in those British links conditions by then, particularly since I was defending my 1961 Open Championship title, and I ended up beating him by six shots while the guys who tied for third [Brian Huggett and Phil Rodgers] were seven shots behind him. It was very dry at Troon which was very unusual, I felt, for the west coast of Scotland. The humpback fairways posed quite a difficult challenge but I was driving it well that week. On the whole, I got it in the fairways and that gave me a great advantage.

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The U.S. Open in 1962 was at Oakmont, a place I knew well from my younger days. Going into it, I felt I would be able to putt well on this course but that was my downfall—I would say I putted fair to poor over the five days. I had thirteen three-putts that week and Jack had one. That was an incredible achievement at Oakmont over five rounds. I was the hometown boy that week and the fans were rooting for me, but sometimes they came across as rude towards Jack. They were my friends and great fans of the game, but I had to apologize to him.

That said, he was able to block it out and didn’t allow it to distract him at all.

The PGA Championship was at Aronimink, another course in my home state of Pennsylvania. Because of the PGA’s membership rules, I wasn’t eligible to play in the PGA Championship until 1959 even though I joined the tour in 1955. I missed the Ryder Cup once or twice because of that rule also. Then I won the Masters in 1958. That year they changed the rules, but I didn’t get to play in my first PGA Championship until 1959. I finished in the top-20 in 1962 but I was never a threat to Gary, who played well to win his third major.

Kingdom: You’ve always been considered a stylish athlete. When you were deciding what to wear on tournament day, were you concerned with style? Or were you more concerned with function?

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K: There have been a few changes at APDC recently.

Can you explain what the philosophy of the company will be going forward?

AP: It’s very tough out there in the course design business at present but we’ve got a handful of good projects we’re still working on, and a few further prospects. Virtually all of the new construction is international and we’re pushing our refresh program domestically. There is real value in remodeling a golf course to take into consideration maintenance costs and the expense and availability of water.

The refresh of a dated golf course is a real value proposition for the membership and owners, and I believe that is the nearterm future of golf course design work in the United States.

K: Is boxing a sport you have a particular interest in?

If so, who are your favorite fighters?

AP: I’ve always followed boxing. I go back to 1941 when I listened to a radio commentary of the world heavyweight title fight in New York between Billy Conn, who was from Pittsburgh, and Joe Louis. Conn had given up his world light-heavyweight title to fight Louis who was a lot heavier than him but he had the champion well and truly beaten going into the 13th round. Then he changed his style and went for the knock-out only for Louis to knock him out instead. Later, I got to know them both. Joe Louis played a lot of golf and was pretty good but I don’t remember Billy Conn playing much golf.

K: There are several hundred golf courses within a short drive of I-95. Can you imagine how much fun it would be to take a three-week vacation with three pals—to drive its full length and play a round each day?

AP: I’ve been talking for years about doing this as a boat trip rather than driving. We’d take a two-week vacation sailing down through the inland waterways from Maine to Miami.

It would be a lot of fun—sailing and golfing. Every time we knew there was a golf course of some note nearby we’d stop and play. I’m definitely going to do that one day. I once went on a sailing trip from Miami to Key West and stopped at various resorts on the way, but we didn’t take our clubs.

K: Have you played golf much in the Caribbean? If so, which courses do you particularly remember?

AP: Not too much, though I’ve been to Puerto Rico quite a lot—Chi Chi Rodriguez is a good friend of mine. Some of the courses are very good there.

K: How important in the popularization of the game do you believe shows like Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf were?

AP: True to its name, this was a wonderful series and it gave a big boost to golf’s popularity at the time. It brought an audience to the game that might not have watched otherwise.

K: The Golf Channel is now a well-established part of the fabric of American golf. Has its success exceeded your expectations? Also, how close is it today to the original conception behind it?

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Billy Conn (right) catches Joe Louis during their 1941 world heavyweight title bout

“It [golf in the Olympics] is bound to raise awareness of the game in countries that don’t have much of a golfing tradition” AP: The Golf Channel is one of the greatest things that ever happened to the sport. [Cable television entrepreneur] Joe Gibbs and I started it in 1995 when we made a deal with Mark McCormack. In particular, he brought footage of the European Tour to the Golf Channel’s American viewers. It’s made all the best golf action around the world available to a much wider audience.

K: Have you ever attended the Olympic Games and will you be taking a particular interest in the London Olympics? Might you even come over?

AP: I’ve never been to the Olympic Games and I don’t think I will go over this time either, but I follow the action very closely. One of my business partners at Pebble Beach is Peter Ueberroth, who ran the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles—the first Games to make a profit, so they tell me.

K: What sort of impact do you anticipate the inclusion of golf in the Olympics will have on the game worldwide?

AP: It is bound to increase awareness of the game, especially in countries that don’t have much of a golfing tradition. Many of those countries—like China and parts of Asia and South America—will support the game and spend money on golf programs now that it’s in the Olympics. There are a lot of good golfers coming out of Asia now and it’s going to make it even more popular in those countries. Golf’s a bit more established in Russia and other east European countries which have now got a lot of golf courses.

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K: Webb Simpson is the latest star from your alma mater Wake Forest. How good is he? And why has Wake Forest produced so many good players over the years?

AP: He’s obviously a good player and he did very well last season, but he still has a way to go and needs to build on those achievements this year. The Old Town Club, which is the university’s home course, is a great place to learn the game. Of course, I built the range there. It’s one of the most modern you’ll find anywhere in intercollegiate golf and I still do whatever I can to give them encouragement. Wake Forest has produced major champions and a lot of special young guys keep coming along, which is very pleasing.

K: Do you follow any of the other teams at Wake Forest in different sports?

AP: I go there occasionally, but even though I tend not to watch in person I’m always interested to see how their teams are getting on, and not just the golf team. Their football coach, Jim Grobe, is a great guy and has done a really good job with the team.

The beautiful No.7 at Stonewall Resort

K: Tim Finchem has been PGA Tour commissioner now for nearly 18 years. Is he doing a good job?

AP: I think he’s done a great job for the PGA Tour.

Tim is a good friend and a good guy. He’s persuaded Rory McIlroy to come back to play here as a full-time member of the PGA Tour, put some salt on his tail so to speak. The Tour needs its individuals and stars, and the FedExCup needs them. Of course, one thing I have had an issue with in connection with the Tour is that it’s taken some of the historic rights of the players away in terms of accepting invitations to play on other Tours.

Back when I was playing we had to put up with some of that, too, though the leading players now have a much longer period from mid-September to the end of the year to play in other parts of the world.

K: How important to the life of a golf club do you think a clubhouse is? Coupled with that, is architecture important in attracting members and visitors to the club?

AP: It’s vitally important to do a good job with the clubhouse, making it convenient for the players and welcoming, too. Once you have the golf course, this is the intricate part of the job. And plenty of storage space is equally necessary, especially as most clubs average between 60 and 120 golf carts, maybe more.

K: As you know, it is the 10th anniversary of Kingdom magazine this year, but it is also the 10th anniversary of the award-winning Arnold Palmer Signature course at Stonewall Resort in West Virginia. We know that it has always been one of the favourite courses that you have designed, but why?

AP: The setting at Stonewall Resort is perfect for a golf course. It is in one of the most beautiful parts of the country with the rolling terrain and abundance of wildlife. Even if you are not playing golf, it is such a picturesque spot and a good round only enhances your experiences there.”

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“The setting at Stonewall Resort is perfect for a golf course. It is in one of the most beautiful parts of the country” K: Tiger Woods jumped from 52nd to 21st in the world golf rankings as a result of winning his own invitational Chevron World Challenge at the end of last year. Given that only 18 players are invited to play in this event, do you think it is right for so much emphasis to be placed on it in terms of world ranking points?

AP: He is an important player, and you can’t take that away from someone as talented and as young as he is.

Once he rediscovers his determination to play and win, he will be a major factor again. You could argue he had slipped too far down the rankings, but he hasn’t really played a lot these last two years so I suppose that’s why.

He’s now a lot nearer to where he should be, and you can’t win majors if you aren’t in the field. But there are so many good players out there now that he will have his work cut out.

K: Rory McIlroy is shaping up to replace Woods as the hottest property in world golf. You went through a similar experience when Jack Nicklaus came on the scene. Did that change the way you played in tournaments and the relationship you felt you had with the game and the galleries?

AP: The way Rory is playing he seems almost unstoppable, but if he is to be a force in the game for many years to come it depends on his desire. It’s fair to say he has established himself as a great player but he will get his rewards in relation to the effort he puts into it. He certainly has a great golf swing, and he has the right mindset to play the game. He thinks aggressively and that provides him with the ideal foundation.

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President Clinton shows the galleries at the 2012 Humana Challenge that he can hit the ball a long way, though not necessarily in the right direction

“I’ve no doubt yoga would enhance a modern player’s game because flexibility generates clubhead speed every bit as much as brute stregth” K: Do you like to collect antiques? If so, what sort of collectibles are you interested in?

AP: I have collected golf clubs from the day I started playing the game. I keep them in a barn in Latrobe, but I have also given thousands of them away. Recently I’ve given clubs and balls to our troops out in Iraq and Afghanistan. I’ve just given Tradition a couple of my old drivers and a golf bag to have on display in the clubhouse.

K: Have you ever done flexibility exercises like yoga?

What benefits do you think it might have for golfers at all levels of the game?

AP: I do it more than I did, though not yoga. I should do it much more. In my day, we thought we needed to exercise to build strength, but players today realize how important it is to develop flexibility as well as an extra amount of strength. I’ve no doubt yoga would enhance a modern player’s game because flexibility generates clubhead speed every bit as much as brute strength.

K: How adventurous do you think Donald Trump has been with his golf project north of Aberdeen in Scotland? It’s due to open sometime this year—would you like to visit it and have a game there?

AP: I know him—he’s a good friend—but I’ve not been to see the site so I can’t really comment. I’ve not been invited yet.

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K: You once went on the record as saying Bill Clinton was potentially the best golfer of all the Presidents you played with. How good a player do you believe he could become now he’s got plenty of time on his hands?

AP: President Clinton can hit the ball a long way, but his game can be erratic. His involvement in the Humana Challenge [the old Bob Hope Classic] here in the Coachella desert is very welcome. I saw him play earlier in the week here at Tradition and we had lunch together afterwards. In all honesty, I would say he has some work to do on his game.

K: Luke Donald is without question the most consistent player in golf, but to date he hasn’t even come close to winning a major. Do you expect him to put that right some day or is he destined to remain a money-making machine?

AP: He is right at the point in his life when he’s about to take the next step, I would say. He is playing well enough and with enough confidence—it will be his moment soon.

K: Finally, Mr. Palmer, how are preparations going for the forthcoming Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill? Also, how much say do you have in who receives an invitation to play?

AP: Very well indeed, thank you. We’re on schedule with the course preparations and the grandstands are already being put up as we speak. I expect to have another excellent field and another competitive tournament. Obviously, the majority of the players in the field qualify through their status on the PGA Tour or in the world rankings, but we have 20 exemptions based on various pre-defined criteria for issuing invitations to players who we think deserve to be playing, either on the basis of their past records or their future prospects.

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Inspiration is what makes you achieve – in business and in your life.

-Arnold Palmer, Golf Legend & Insperity Client

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Marching Game

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In times of conflict, our sports and recreations sustain us. They provide a distraction from the stress and pain of war while simultaneously helping to keep us fit—potentially important for both soldiers and for civilians working to support our troops. At no time, perhaps, was the importance of sports during war more evident than in the Second World War, and among the many sports that played a role none, perhaps, played as big a role as the sport of golf. It gave its players, its courses, its money and as much of itself as it could. And when the war was over, golf was there waiting for us, helping us to rebuild, to regroup, to forget—and to remember

Lloyd Mangrum went ashore at Normandy on D-Day and Bobby Jones landed the next day

The PeoPle In 1944 a 30-year-old Lloyd Mangrum was training for the D-Day landings. The professional golfer had earned five wins in three years on tour, but left in 1943 to join the Army. Not wanting to prematurely arrest the future Hall of Famer’s burgeoning career, the service offered Mangrum the job of head pro at the Fort Meade golf course—a non-combat position that would have kept him safe at home. But Mangrum declined, and instead headed for the front lines in Europe with General Patton’s Third Army. Before the war was over, Mangrum had earned two Purple Hearts and four battle stars, sustained injury during the Battle of the Bulge and survived to fight in some of the last battles in Czechoslovakia. A risky course of action for a professional athlete with a career ahead of him, but Mangrum was hardly alone.

The day after Mangrum and the rest of the 9th Division stormed Omaha Beach, a 42-year-old Bobby Jones went ashore at Normandy. While his age and celebrity status easily could have found him in an ambassadorial role, Jones was on the ground with a rifle in his hand as part of a mission to secure an airfield 20 miles inland.

Jones, Mangrum, Hall of Famer Tommy Bolt, Masters winner Herman Keiser, Ted Kroll (three Purple Hearts), Ed “Porky” Oliver, 1955 U.S. Open winner Jack Fleck (also a D-Day participant) and top amateur Smiley Quick all served, along with a number of others.

In an article for the online blog Armchair Golf, writer John Coyne counts 11 pros killed in action and three more who died while serving. When the war started, Coyne writes, nearly 900 members of the PGA were veterans of WW1. By the end of WW2, fully 20 percent of the PGA had served in the armed forces and another 15 percent held war production jobs.

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was postponed—as were many games. For the next few years, few people would have time for golf, and of those that did, some might have wished otherwise.

One such person is Royal Air Force pilot Sydney Smith, who was being held as a prisoner of war at Germany’s Stalag Luft III. One day, in a Red Cross parcel, Smith received a single golf club—a woman’s mashie.

It would change the camp. Quickly improvising, Smith made a golf ball from scratch, using wood, string, and cloth, and—improvising holes as well and hitting off small piles of dirt—it was game on. It wasn’t long before others wanted a go with the club, which Smith was happy to share—but he wouldn’t share his ball. Consequently, a kind of industry sprang up, with prisoners improvising all manner of construction methods to create golf balls.

Rubber from shoes, leather from tobacco pouches, parts of air cushions, boot polish and any other materials at hand were employed to make the balls, two examples of which are on display at the USGA Museum in Far Hills, NJ. RAF navigator Ronnie Morgan was also at Stalag Luft III, and shared stories upon his return of fashioning clubs out of wood and balls out of anything. According to Peter Berry, captain of Moseley Golf Club where Ronnie was a member, “a few prisoners, including our own Ronnie, became so skillful at making balls that they were eventually able to produce them to the exact dimensions and weight stipulated by the Royal and Ancient.”

The attack on Pearl Harbor interrupted a weekly Sunday game among the commanders General Eisenhower made time for golf

Of course, pros weren’t the only golfers in the war.

The man who planned D-Day and who later became president was one of the biggest fans of the game who ever wore a uniform, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower spent the days immediately before the war stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, where he enjoyed the excellent Tillinghast-designed course on base (the base’s best feature, according to more than a few who’ve been stationed there). During the war he didn’t have time for leisurely rounds, but he did manage at least a few holes almost daily at Coombe Hill Golf Club in Surrey, just south of London. Eisenhower’s “Telegraph Cottage” retreat was situated just off the 14th tee, and he lived—and golfed—there almost constantly while planning the Normandy invasion.

In his book When War Played Through, author and Golf Digest writer John Strege tells how the attack on Pearl Harbor interrupted a weekly golf outing among Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet; the Army’s Lieutenant General Walter C. Short; and Captain Louis Truman, all of whom were dressed for their Sunday morning game when the Japanese struck. Their game, quite obviously,

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Golf balls made from combat boot rubber and leather by prisoners of war at Stalag Luft III

British RAF pilot Douglas Bader lost his legs in a flying accident prior to WW2 and, though he had metal legs fitted and passed the RAF’s flying test, the military wouldn’t let him back into a fighter. They just couldn’t imagine a legless pilot. So, he went to work in the private sector and took up golf—at which he excelled. Against the advice of his doctors, he even had a special pair of legs made, with one leg shorter than the other. Though his caretakers were concerned for his spine, he reportedly told them golf was worth the risk. In 1939, short of pilots, the RAF let him back in, and the “legless ace” subsequently shot down 22 German planes (and ignored the warrant for his arrest at the time, issued for not appearing in court on a number of speeding tickets).

Thomas Manclark, Scottish son of a golf pro and club maker, managed to find his way onto the golf course at the Gezira Country Club in Cairo while he was stationed there with the British Army in 1942 and 1943. “Almost like home, ain’t it?,” he reportedly said of the clubhouse. There are thousands such stories about golfers in WW2, and not all of them were in uniform. Meteorologist Pauline Austin, for example, discovered the game during a physics doctoral program at MIT as part of a mathematical quandary regarding swing mechanics. She didn’t know anything about golf, asked a classmate she’d seen with some golf clubs, later married him (in 1941) and subsequently became a top golfer.

In addition to other responsibilities, she was a consultant to the Army Air Corps and helped with determining weather conditions conducive to the D-Day Invasion.

Austin, Eisenhower, Mangrum and even members of England’s Home Guard—“Dads Army” volunteers between the ages of 17 and 65 who were too old, too young or otherwise unqualified for service, and who sometimes trained with golf clubs as weapons because there were no munitions with which to arm them—all served and all golfed. But the game didn’t let them fight alone. With the troops, supporting from the rear, golf itself went to war.

The Marching gaMe While the brass in Honolulu were scrambling to get out of their golf clothes and into uniform on December 7, 1941, something else entirely was playing out on the Miami Springs Golf Course. Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead and Clayton Heafner were playing a Sunday exhibition match, and it’s been written that upon hearing news of the attack in Pearl Harbor, they remained absorbed in their game—not through indifference, but because the only thing to do was to play on. This sentiment would be challenged on courses and among tournament directors everywhere for the duration of the war, with people falling on both sides of the issue: Does golf matter with a war on?

In the wake of Pearl Harbor, the USGA met to decide its position. It was a tough call: As Strege has it, the Great Depression had all but wiped out growth of the game, with one in five golfers abandoning the sport in the decade before WW2. Furthermore, the game’s image was in question due to the fact that it was already considered a sport for the privileged class. With the working classes even further down on their luck and war looming, golf wasn’t exactly a priority.

The USGA made the decision to cancel the U.S. Open, immediately drawing the ire of some of the golf press.

Strege quotes golf writer Herb Graffis as saying, “But in gentlemanly Ivy League accents, the USGA silenced criticism by the rebuttal, ‘What to hell, don’t you guys know your country is in a war?’”

The USGA’s decision left the PGA and the tournament directors in a bit of a quandary regarding the professional game: To play or not to play?

At Augusta National, the choice was clear. Following the 1942 Masters, the club closed for the war’s duration.

Additionally, partnering with Bobby Jones, the members paid for a practice range and golf equipment at nearby Camp Gordon, giving it the moniker “The Bobby Jones Driving Range.”

England’s “Dads Army” volunteers trained with— and were ready to use— golf clubs as weapons If the professional game was tightening its belt the recreational game was actually expanding—partially at the government’s urging.

Strege quotes John B. Kelly, an Olympic gold medalist, father to Grace Kelly and the assistant director of civilian defense in charge of physical fitness, as telling the USGA, “Eight million people will be going into the armed forces. My job is to look after the 124 million who won’t or can’t go.

They can keep fit by playing golf.”

At Kelly’s urging, and with an outpouring of local support, golf courses actually began to expand their programs, and occasionally got creative in their efforts to help the troops. Victory gardens were started on unused course land to supplement local food stores. Prizes at local

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enlisTed Fairways

Bob Hope was a terriffic supporter of the troops, appearing at numerous USO shows and other events

tournaments were given in war bonds, or money won was often donated to the war effort. Private clubs suddenly opened their doors to troops for golf or, in some cases, for training. Congressional Country Club in Washington, D.C., was used to train agents for the Office of Strategic Services, and the Philadelphia Country Club allowed the Army to test a kind of camouflage chemical for grass.

And when it came to fund-raising, golf courses were ready. There were shows and celebrity tournaments with the likes of Bing Crosby and the ever-present Bob Hope, which certainly did their part. But it was the private clubs that really came through. According to Strege, nearly 3,000 tournaments at more than 500 private clubs raised money for the Red Cross. In 1942 alone, he wrote, golf raised more than $1 million for war relief agencies, a quarter of it contributed by the PGA. Additionally for that year, he wrote, the National Golf Foundation estimated that the government would collect $30 million in taxes on money spent on golf.

There were issues for golfers at home, of course, the most obvious being a lack of golf balls, which used rubber in their construction—a commodity reserved for the war.

But fans’ enthusiasm for the sport and for the good it was doing overshadowed most problems.

When the war was over, one of the first items of business was to hold the U.S. Open, and in 1946 the USGA did just that. It was won by none other than Lloyd Mangrum, who quipped, “I don’t suppose that any of the pro or amateur golfers who were combat soldiers, Marines or sailors will soon be able to think of a three-putt green as one of the really bad troubles in life.”

Golf gave many of its people to the war, and it gave all it had when it came to the actual game. But it didn’t stop there. In the end golf offered up even its most hallowed ground, it gave the war its courses.

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When looking for wartime airfields, bomb ranges, field hospital sites and camp space for troops, it’s natural that military planners would find golf courses appealing.

With so many newly created military properties, it’s also not surprising that golf courses would become military targets—and so they did. In October of 1944, a V2 rocket hit England’s Royal Norwich Golf Club, damaging 400 homes. In subsequent months it was other courses in Essex and Middlesex that were hit by V2s, and they weren’t alone.

More conventional bombs—no fewer than 25 of them—hit Coombe Hill Golf Club near Telegraph Cottage between September and November of 1940. No.’s 5, 6, and 7 were pounded, No. 13 was destroyed and a 500-pound bomb took out a house behind No.3. Additionally, No.10 was left with a massive crater in front of the tee. Similarly, bombs were dropping on nearby Richmond Golf Club, and also damaged several holes.

But rather than give up their game, members adjusted with seven temporary rules that included such particulars as “A ball moved by enemy action may be replaced, or if lost or destroyed, a ball may be dropped not nearer the hole without penalty.” Tongue-in-cheek or no, they’re evidence of the times, if not the resolute spirit of British golfers.

Prince’s clubhouse and links in Sandwich, Kent in southern England didn’t fare much better. It was requisitioned by the British military and an anti-aircraft battery was installed across two of the holes. Used as a garrison and outpost, by the end of the war it was so severely damaged by bombs that it had to be completely reconstructed. Prince’s, like many golf courses, also functioned as an emergency airfield. Perhaps most notably, it potentially saved the life of Percy Belgrave “Laddie” Lucas, a WW2 ace, Member of Parliament and 1949 Walker Cup captain. Lucas was actually born in Prince’s old clubhouse—a fact that no doubt helped him when his Spitfire was damaged in action over Northern France. In need of an emergency landing site, he remembered the course and headed home, so to speak, safely landing on a fairway. Today the annual “Laddie Lucas Spoon” tournament is held each year at Prince’s.

“I don’t suppose the golfers who were soldiers... will be able to think of a three-putt as one of the really bad troubles in life”

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For the troops stationed on them, the courses held bittersweet memories. In 2010 in an online blog, a then 84-year-old Frank Lintern wrote of spending some time at the Glamorganshire Golf Club in Penarth, Wales, at the end of the war.

“It was a very cold winter with snow on the ground,” Lintern wrote. “We burnt the beds and then the doors of our hut (this was not a good idea) to try and keep warm as we had no coal. After that we were ‘fallen in’ by our officer in the snow and the furious Secretary of the Golf Club stormed up and down the lines trying to identify the culprits who he had seen pulling down a wooden hut on the course, which had now disappeared. He walked up and down the ranks with our Captain, but could not pick anyone out because we all looked the same in our uniforms.

I met a young lady during my two weeks in Penarth, married her in 1948 and have now been (together) with my family for 64 years!”

A “pill box” bunker looks out over holes No. 4 and No. 6 on the Rye Golf Club in Sussex, also in southern England, there’s a Japanese bunker right in the middle of the fairway on the course at Agingan in Saipan, one at the 13th tee of Centennial Park golf course in New Zealand and plenty more on courses around the world, many of which have been forgotten.

“Laddie” Lucas was born at Prince’s golf course and made an emergency landing there in his Spitfire In 2008, a bunker was rediscovered by workers renovating the Old Course at the Marriott St. Pierre Hotel and Country Club near Chepstow, Monmouthshire. The bunker, dug in by the 5th green, was apparently used by a secret army unit called Abraham Patrol.

The course manager, Stewart Wood, told the local paper, “We discovered a hole in the ground a few months ago… and did not know where it came from. It’s fascinating to find out that it was a war bunker. I had a look inside, but all you can see are old golf balls.”

Even today the effects of WWII can be felt on golf courses. The Indian Lakes golf course on the Enoch Reserve in Canada qualifies as a UXO (unexploded ordnance) site due to its former role as a bombing range for RAF pilots in training. A similar site made the news in 2002, when a residential golf development in Yuba County, California, realized its course and home sites were slated to be built on a former WW2 test range, “still laden with explosives,” according to an article in the Sacramento Bee. But these reminders are overshadowed by the impact of the game’s contributions to WW2. Its players, its courses and the sport itself all aided the allied victory with inspiration, recreation and a unifying pursuit.

At the end of the day, the game was rewarded for its service with unprecedented growth in the postwar years; a fitting legacy for a job well done.

John Strege’s book, When War Played Through was crucial to this article, as were the other sources listed. Find the book on amazon.com

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(Above) Sea defense outpost on Royal Jersey Golf Club’s course; a bomb crater at North Shore golf course in Blackpool (below left)

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East Coast swing 42

Road trips are as American as apple pie and Elvis, and with so many great highways running from sea to shining sea there’s no excuse for not loading up the car and setting out. But what about the roads running north and south? They’re just as good as the eastwest routes, and if you’re on the right one you could get a little something extra as well. Take I-95 for example: The longest north-south route in the Interstate system, it starts in Maine then cuts through some of the biggest urban areas on the East Coast before terminating in Miami. For golfers this means approximately 1,925 miles of fantastic opportunities. Here, we offer a substantial list of possibilities, most of them within 10 miles of the Interstate.

It’s time to get your kicks on I-95.

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maiNe

New HampsHire

We’ll start our trip in Maine because—no offense to the state—

After leaving Maine, you’ll come into the state that features

we like the idea of ending our excursion with a poolside

the phrase, “Live Free or Die” on its license plates. If

mojito in Miami. Known for lobster and dramatic seascapes,

someone here asks to play through, we suggest you let

there’s plenty of golf here as well. Most of it incorporates the

him. But seriously, this is the state of Robert Frost, where

bold countryside for which the state (part of Massachusetts

two roads diverged in a wood, and where some of the

until 1820) is known, which means golfers should expect to

largest ski mountains on the East Coast ensure the golf

climb some hills and to contend with rocks and deep forest.

Jato highlands golf Course

World Golf hall of Fame

is as dynamic as the spirit of the people who call New Hampshire home.

Lincoln, 10 miles from I-95 Hardwood forests, rolling hills, quaint lakes and bold views of Mt. Katahdin come together to make this course a beautiful way to begin any north-to-south I-95 golf adventure. The narrow, uphill par-5 No.15 will encourage you to be happy with par, and No.16 provides only the shortest of respites before two grueling finishers. JatoHighlands.com

brunsWiCk golf Club Brunswick, 3 miles from I-95 Nearby Bowdin College hosted the likes of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, President Franklin Pierce (our 14th president) and marathon gold medalist Joan Benoit, who still runs on the local streets. One might say Brunswick nearly defines idyllic coastal Maine; accordingly, Brunswick Golf Club is charming.

The front 9 holds three par 5s and a tough No.4 with water along the entire right-hand side, and the back 9 (which dates to 1898) continues the challenge with hills and bunkers.

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” while living in Brunswick. No doubt you’ll find inspiration here as well.

BrunswickGolfClub.com

Portsmouth Country Club Greenland, 1 mile from I-95 This absolutely stunning golf course sits on the southeast coast of Great Bay, not too far from Portsmouth International Airport. A Robert Trent Jones Sr. design, the course is a proper challenge, with several holes playing along the bay and the rest slipping around and over dunes and rolling hills.

Expect plenty of water, wind and fresh air on the way to the elegant clubhouse and Clipper Lounge. PortsmouthCC.net

sagamore-hamPton North Hampton, 3 miles from I-95 Ranked by Golf Digest as one of the “Best Places to Play,” Sagamore-Hampton Golf Course provides a straightforward and enjoyable round of golf, with holes set among former farmland, some of which incorporates local woodlands. As relaxed and pleasant a round as you’re likely to find. SagamoreGolf.com

massacHusetts Home to the Red Sox (and, unfortunately some might say, Red Sox fans—we’re kidding, of course), Massachusetts

the ledges

takes its sports seriously. No wonder, then, that the golf

York, 1 mile from I-95 The Ledges (below) should be a last stop in Maine for anyone traveling I-95 south. In contrast to the gentle woods of the north, strong pine trees frame many of the fairways, which are mostly carved out of hills. You’ll see plenty of wildlife on this course, which only adds to the allure. No.17 also offers views of the three bridges leading to Portsmouth, New Hampshire— your next stop on I-95—while No.18 is widely regarded as one of the toughest finishers in the state. Ranked as one of the “Best Places to Play” by Golf Digest, The Ledges is a true gem.

LedgesGolf.com

is so good. If you decide to swing by Boston, consider staying in the Liberty Hotel. What was once the old Charles Street Jail is now a top luxury destination, and it’s a sight to behold.

Wenham Country Club Wenham, 5 miles from I-95 A proper old-school layout with golf on site since 1899, Wenham Country Club’s course evokes thoughts of Sleepy Hollow and haunted woods. The opening hole has the Wenham Cemetery (out of bounds) along the entire left-hand side, while other holes feature old stone walls, thick stands of trees and formidable slopes. WenhamCountryClub.com

tPC boston Norton, 6 miles from I-95 One of the country’s finest private clubs, TPC Boston is a worthy member of the PGA TOUR’s acclaimed TPC Network of premier clubs. Host to the Deutsche Bank Championship, and designed by Arnold Palmer, the course is as pretty as they come, with a beautiful mix of forest and wetlands. The hills roll gently, the trees stand proudly and the Bentgrass greens positively shimmer in the New England light, making this challenging but rewarding club a must-play for anyone stopping by Massachusetts.

TPCBoston.com

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rHode islaNd

New York

The proper name for this state is The State of Rhode Island

If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. In

and Providence Plantations, but we’ll stick with the usual

fact, I-95 manages to get fairly close to some of the most

moniker for a region that, while small in size, is the second

original golf courses in the country. Where else in America

most densely populated state in the country. The first to

can you ride the subway to play golf, then get back in time

declare independence from British rule, we’re shocked that

for a Broadway show?

the population density isn’t always reflected on course, usually making for a crowd-free and pleasant round of golf.

exeter Country Club Exeter, 8 miles from I-95 New England is dotted with friendly, straightforward golf courses, and Exeter Country Club is one of them. But make no mistake: “Friendly” doesn’t mean “unexceptional.” Golf Digest rated Exeter the No.1 public course in the state, and we’re inclined to agree. Tranquil, green, refined (in a casual sort of way) and family owned/operated, Exeter exemplifies the best parts of the “everyman” game. ExeterCC.com

coNNecticut Connecticut was named for the river that bisects the state, making it understandable that so many area golf courses have serious water features. Additionally, it’s no surprise that locals take their seafood seriously. If you get hungry driving along I-95, stop in at Bill’s Seafood in Westbrook. With picnic tables along the edge of the Patchogue River, piles of lobster and BBQ and live music on the weekends, it’s as friendly a place as you’re likely to find.

great river Milford, 2 miles from I-95 We’d be inclined to skip the golf (right) and head straight for the excellent on-site Monty’s River Grille (if Executive Chef Martin Nargi’s Pan Seared Duck Breast or steaks weren’t enough, Thailand native and Specialty Chef Jane Chanmisri ensures this club has some of the best Thai food in the area), but the Tommy Fazio-designed course is so good that we simply can’t ignore it. The No.2-rated course in the state and No.34 nationally for greatest public course (by Golf Digest), the Great River Club lives up to its name with thick woods and charming play that incorporates seven wooden bridges, a 30-foot waterfall and more than enough bunkers.

With a dozen water holes (six along the Housatonic River) and enough wind to keep things interesting, you’ll almost forget about the Yellow Fin Tuna with Yuzu-infused Avocado, Jumbo Lump Crab and Mango and Orange Caviar on offer at No.19. GreatRiverGolfClub.com

van Cortlandt Bronx, 2 miles from I-95 This is real New York golf, set in the North Bronx close to Yonkers. The oldest public course in the States (opened 1895), Van Cortlandt has hosted the Three Stooges, Babe Ruth, Joe Lewis and more New Yorkers than you could shake a club at. Take the No.1 train from Manhattan and be ready to play fast—it seems like the whole city wants to get on, and the locals don’t suffer slow golfers. GolfInNYC.com

la tourette Staten Island, 10 miles from I-95 With a 170-year-old clubhouse, practice range with Nike training center and 18 holes of challenging golf, La Tourette sets the standard for golf in New York City. If you’re staying in Manhattan, it also offers an excuse to ride the Staten Island Ferry (then grab a quick cab to the course). Golf and a boat ride—who could ask for anything more? GolfInNYC.com

bethPage Farmingdale, 30 miles from I-95 One of the most iconic public golf experiences anywhere, Bethpage State Park offers five 18-hole courses, including the infamous Black Course, which has hosted the U.S. Open.

The park is a product of the Works Progress Administration of the 1930s, making it at least one positive thing that came out of the Great Depression. Today, it’s a national treasure.

BethpageProShop.com

sterling farms Stamford, 1 mile from I-95 New York City residents know all about Sterling Farms, and it’s no wonder: Just 40 minutes outside the city, this early 1970s 18 is everything you need in a day of golf.

Farm buildings, rolling farmland and thick trees frame some seriously challenging par 3s, along with a couple of sincere par 4s and par 5s. For anyone traveling along I-95, this is a great stop as it offers both great golf and reasonably priced accommodations compared with the Big Apple just down the road. SterlingFarmsGC.com

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peNNsYlvaNia Home to Arnold Palmer, Grace Kelly and Andrew Carnegie, among many others, Pennsylvania gets just enough of I-95 to offer a chance at a couple of great golf outings. Grab a cheesesteak and get ready to play.

golf Course at glen mills

New JerseY Despite its often disparaged reputation, New Jersey is called the Garden State for good reasons, many of which can be found on one of the state’s beautiful golf courses.

Crank up the Springsteen and let ’er rip.

riverWinds golf & tennis Club West Deptford, 10 miles from I-95 There’s a lot happening at RiverWinds, which offers tennis along with a nice pub and plenty of ongoing golf tournaments and qualifiers. The course is a qualifying site for the Amateur Public Links Championship, but casual rounds are welcome as well. Featuring a great view of the Delaware River and a strong opening par 5, the course may not be the most intricate in the state, but it’s certainly worth a stop. RiverWindsGolfAndTennis.com

harbor Pines Egg Harbor Township, 2 miles from I-95 A hallmark of New Jersey golf, Harbor Pines gives you everything you want from a Garden State course: 17 acres of water, large greens, tree-lined fairways and a few surprises.

The bunker on No.17 is 170 feet long—and the bunker on No.7 has its own name, “Sand Creek,” and is traversed via a wooden bridge. Conditions and maintenance are fantastic, and the views are stunning. Rated four stars by Golf Digest, Harbor Pines is well worth a stop. HarborPines.com

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Concordville, 7 miles from I-95 As much a service as it is a golf course, The Golf Course at Glen Mills (left) provides life-skills training and accommodations for troubled youths. Kids in residence receive training in turf management and golf house operations, and net proceeds from the course go to help a scholarship fund. The course’s mission doesn’t distract from conditions, however. In fact, it’s a beautiful tract with deep woods, rolling countryside and plenty of challenges for golfers at all levels. GlenMillsGolf.com

doWningtoWn Country Club Downingtown, 4 miles from I-95 A former inn and resort, this club understands hospitality and quality like few others in the state. The George Faziodesigned course, which is fantastically maintained, features subtle greens, dramatic bunkers, and rolling fairways.

Straightforward and challenging, it’s a Philly-area classic.

GolfDowningTown.com

delaware Small enough to hold only three counties, Delaware nonetheless delivers when it comes to golf. Here’s one great spot along I-95.

roCk manor golf Course Wilmington, 7 miles from I-95 Like many northeastern courses, Rock Manor has hosted golf for a long time. Established in 1921, it received the update of a lifetime in 2009 that lengthened and modernized it, turning it into a proper modern gem. Added bonus: a state-of-the-art irrigation system that gives it better and more consistent conditions and a longer playable season than many of its neighbors. RockManorGolf.com

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Maryland Lovers of crab cakes, yachting and duck hunting flock to this state, which offers both Baltimore and Chesapeake Bay to visitors. It’s only a matter of time before golfers come to love it as well. For some of the state’s iconic crab offerings, try the Silver Moon diner just outside of Baltimore.

Mountain Branch, Joppa, 2 miles from I-95 Split fairways, rolling greens, rock and water features and plenty of views of the stunning, forested countryside are all on offer at Mountain Branch, one of the DC area’s “must play” courses, according to Washington Golf Monthly, the Washington Times and Mid-Atlantic Golfer. In addition to a beautiful course, the on-site Mountain Branch Grille & Pub is an award-winning eatery, great for lunch or nighttime entertainment.

MountainBranch.com

Worthington Manor Urbana, 6 miles from I-95 Broad fairways mark this Mid-Atlantic gem (below), which frequently hosts U.S. Open Qualifying tournaments and local USGA events. In fact, the course has hosted 11 USGA events, and it’s no wonder. With a slope rating from 116 to 144 and immaculately kept conditions, Worthington Manor is one of the area’s premiere places to play.

WorthingtonManor.com

Virginia Now we’re on a road trip. Virginia sits on the line between

North

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South,

and

the

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appropriate mix of urban-minded manicured courses and relaxed Southern charmers. For a place to rest your head, try the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, a stunning bit of architecture that was originally scheduled to

the gauntlet Fredericksburg, 3 miles from I-95 Framed around a large lake in Fredericksburg’s Curtis Memorial Park, The Gauntlet (above) will get hold of you and not let go. A P.B. Dye design featuring zoysia fairways and bent grass greens, the course was named among Golf Digest’s “Top 10 New Course to Play in the U.S.” when it opened in 1995, and the accolades keep coming. Playing through wetlands among the front 9 and more forested bits on the back, large greens and plenty of rough will ensure a challenging and lovely round for those comfortable with their clubs. GolfGauntlet.com

BelMont golf course Henrico, 2 miles from I-95 Home to the 1949 PGA Championship (won by Sam Snead), Belmont Golf Course (not to be confused with the Belmont Country Club course in nearby Ashburn) is a proper piece of history. Designed in 1916 by A.W. Tillinghast, the course benefitted from a Donald Ross redesign in 1927. The course was purchased by Henrico County in 1976, and it’s been run as a solid place for the public to golf ever since.

Co.Henrico.va.us

open November 1, 1895. However, as it was then considered

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on a Friday, the owners opened the hotel the night before— on Halloween.

north Carolina I-95 doesn’t get all the way to the North Carolina coast, but the courses along the Interstate let you know that you’re not far away. And if you were wondering how far south you need to be to actually be in “The South,” stop off at Candy-Sue’s Soul Food restaurant in Lumberton. They’ll let you know where you are.

cypress lakes, Hope Mills, 3 miles from I-95 Cypress Lakes benefits from a great ownership group that’s spent ten years building a championship-quality tract. Locals like it for its risk/reward factor, which allows golfers to play it as aggressively—or as safe—as they like, accommodating both. The on-site development is situated well back from the golf itself, meaning the views and play are relatively unspoiled. With Cypress trees rising out of course lakes, lush wetland areas and plenty of opportunities for birdies for the bold, this should be a rest stop on any I-95 traveler’s map. CypressLakesNC.com

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kings grant golf & Country Club Fayetteville, 3 miles from I-95 This semi-private club course is everything you could want from a North Carolina tract: Serious elevation changes, two Cypress lakes, bent grass greens and narrow fairways that demand accuracy. The par 3 No.4 is deceptive in that it at first appears to be a straightforward 195-yard shot, but miss the green and you’re in for a world of hurt. Absolutely easy to add a few strokes here.

Likewise, the par 4 No.10 features a 40-yard vertical drop off the tee past a lake to an elevated and sloping green. This is not a course for the power mad/precisionchallenged set. KingsGrantLife.com

PineCrest Country Club Lumberton, 3 miles from I-95 Not to be confused with the relatively close Pinehurst, you won’t find a website for this Donald Ross-designed course, and that might be because the locals and members like to keep it to themselves. Opened in 1940, it’s classic Ross: elevated and crowned greens, tree-lined fairways and a proper challenge for golfers at every level. It’s hosted its share of tournaments, is consistently well reviewed by visitors and locals alike, and it’s easy enough to get to for anyone traveling on I-95. Call (901) 738-6541 for info

georgia It’s all here: Spanish moss, thick oak trees and lazy Southern days on course. Any I-95 road trip is likely to slow down a bit going through Georgia, and for good

soutH caroliNa

reason. Stop off at the Marshall House bed and breakfast in Savannah for a look at the city’s oldest hotel. Most of the

One of the great states in which to play golf, South

doors, windows, railing, mouldings, and claw-foot tubs are

Carolina conveniently put a few of its best courses near the

19th century originals. Thankfully, a tremendous renovation

Interstate. Now that’s Southern hospitality!

means that the beds, plumbing and other bits that should

CresCent Pointe golf Club Bluffton, 10 miles from I-95 This brilliant Arnold Palmer-designed course is just off of I-95 and not too far from the bridge leaving Hilton Head Island. It’s the only public-access Arnold Palmer Signature Course in the area, and it’s a stunner. Generous fairways and challenging approaches to the elevated, undulating greens highlight the best of the Lowcountry (as the area is called). Century-old oaks frame the wetlands and lush fairways of this proper island gem, while plenty of thick pines and magnolias let you know that you’re down South.

Birdie opportunities on all three par 5s are offered only to the bold, with water carries required for the lower scores, while the five par 3s here will surprise and delight both aesthetically and in terms of creativity. Regularly lauded as one of the best anywhere, for good reason.

CrescentPointeGolf.com

oakdale Country Club Florence, 5 miles from I-95 Open since 1962, Oakdale Country Club sits on Lake Oakdale and, along with its golf, features tennis, pool facilities and a nice clubhouse. Though it’s a members’ club, it is open to the public, meaning visitors traveling along I-95 can enjoy this elegant tract, which plays around the lake at its center. Look for old-growth oaks, pines and plenty of Southern charm. OakdaleCountryClub.com

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be modern are just that.

lost Plantation Rincon, 8 miles from I-95 If you’ve traveled through the area before, you might have known this course as “Willopeg.” Renamed Lost Plantation, the course at the center of this club is a fairly tough haul, kicking off both the front and back 9 with wicked par 5s backed by difficult holes. The proximity to Savannah makes it a beautiful day trip, while the tight greens and proper maintenance mean you’re in for a good day on course. LostPlantationGolfClub.com

the landings Savannah, 5 miles from I-95 The Landings (above) is a resident-owned community that loves its golf. There are six courses here, including an Arnold Palmer design, and all of them are fairly fantastic.

Located on the 6,500-acre Skidaway Island, residents share the property with a state park and the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography. In addition to the Palmer course, courses

by Fazio, Byrd and Hills join four clubhouse restaurants, two marinas, 34 tennis courts, 40 miles of trails and 48,000 square-foot fitness center. It’s a private community, but those interested in memberships should contact the club about discovery packages, which provide a fantastic introduction to what life on a private Southern island is all about. TheLandings.com

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Florida Throw a golf ball out the window while driving along the Florida’s stretch of the I-95, and it will probably hit a golf course. With so many great courses to choose from, here are just a few of our favorites:

hidden hills and mill Cove Jacksonville, within 10 miles of I-95 At the north end of Florida sit two lovely courses, both designed by Arnold Palmer: the courses at Hidden Hills Country Club and at Mill Cove Golf Club. Both are classic Palmer designs, with creative shaping, intriguing curves and rolling fairways. The private Hidden Hills boasts one of the higher points of elevation in the area, and it’s put to good use. In contrast, the public Mill Cove offers plenty of chances to rip it, but the fast greens will challenge you to keep things in check. MillCoveGolfCourse.com and HiddenHillsCC.com

World golf village St. Augustine, FL, 7 miles from I-95 Any trip to Florida isn’t complete without a visit to the World Golf Village and a round on one of the great courses there.

We like King & Bear, a design by both Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus that culminated in an impressive and perhaps surprisingly harmonious result. Also on site, the World Golf Hall of Fame Museum is an absolute “must see” for any true fan. Permanent exhibits offer a reproduction of the Swilcan Bridge (on which you can have a photo taken!) and a Member Locker Room that holds more than 2,000 personal items from Hall of Fame members. A number of the exhibits are hands-on—try a hickory-shafted putter—while others offer recordings from Hall members. Additionally, the museum offers temporary, featured exhibits. For example, “Bob Hope: Shanks for the Memory” is currently on display and features the largest collection of Hope memorabilia ever available on public display. Check the website for current displays, and be sure to make this a stop on your road trip. GolfWGV.com and WorldGolfHallOfFame.org

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harmony golf Preserve Harmony, FL, 23 miles from I-95 The Harmony (pictured above and below), is a rather special case when it comes to Florida golf. When it was being designed, the first priority was to make sure it functioned as a fully protected environmental preserve— golf came second, but you wouldn’t know it from the world-class 7,417-yard, 18-hole signature course. Stunning and as natural as you can imagine, the track is free of forced curves and arrayed carefully with bunkers, hazards and manicured Bermuda greens. As a certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary, it’s no wonder that you’ll be seeing some wildlife. And as the only Johnny Miller-designed golf course in Central Florida, there’s no question you’ll have a great game. Managed by Troon Golf® and just 30 minutes off the I-95, the Preserve is also within easy strolling distance of great accommodation. Additionally, Harmony Town Square is nearby and holds an 18,000-squarefoot clubhouse, a fully stocked pro shop, men’s and ladies’ locker rooms, Graze restaurant and a full-service banquet facility. Great golf, great food and a unique stop on golf’s super highway. HarmonyGolfPreserve.com

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the breakers

doral golf resort

Palm Beach, FL, 4 miles from I-95 Moving down the Florida coast, The Breakers (pictured above) is yet another amazing place to golf in the Sunshine State. With two courses—the Rees Jones Course and the Ocean Course—this iconic property is a “can’t miss” for any fan of the game. The Ocean Course is our favorite here.

The oldest 18-hole course in Florida (an Alexander Findley design opened 1896, redesigned in 2000 by Brian Silva), it plays to its setting along the Atlantic Ocean with plenty of sand, curious hazards and creative shot options. Old school fun that rewards careful placement over power, and a state treasure to be sure. TheBreakers.com

Miami, FL, 5 miles from I-95 Sitting at the southern tip of I-95, the storied Doral Resort holds one of the best challenges in golf—and a fitting end to any epic golf vacation: The Blue Monster. Among the five courses on site, the TPC Blue Monster at Doral has hosted some of the most prestigious PGA TOUR events over the last 45 years, and it’s long been known as one of the pros’ favorite stops.

Long fairways, tough greens, insane hazards and the iconic No.18 with its fountain (rated one of GOLF Magazine’s Top 100 Holes in the World) are all part of the experience, which is a dream-come-true round for visitors from all over the world.

Play the course, stay a few days, return the rental car and go home. Your I-95 golfing road trip couldn’t have a better finish.

DoralResort.com

Pga national resort Palm Beach Gardens, FL, 3 miles from I-95 When it comes to great golf Florida doesn’t relent, and one stop at the PGA National Resort (right) will give you enough of the game to keep you going for a long time.

Five courses—five!—offer challenges and personalities aplenty for hardcore fans of the game. Designs from Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom and George Fazio, and Karl Litten all provide some of the best rounds you could hope to play. PGA National Resort. Host to the Honda Classic and numerous other competitions, this is one stop along I-95 that can’t be missed for anyone with clubs in the trunk.

PGAResort.com

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What a voice! What an actor! What a great guy to play alongside in a fund-raising golf tournament! From Nelson Mandela to a colony of South Pole penguins to the Almighty himself, Morgan Freeman has been the go-to man for the movie industry for the best part of a quarter of a century. The go-to man for everything, come to think of it, including golf.

Now aged 74, the obvious question to ask is, “where was he when he was in his prime?” Well, of course, he’s very much in his prime right now, if not necessarily the first flush of youth. As they say in Hollywood, “it takes a lifetime to become an overnight sensation.”

In his case, though, it didn’t take anything like a lifetime and he isn’t an overnight sensation. He’s appeared in films with pretty much all the A-listers of our time—Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Tim Robbins, Jack Nicholson and Matt Damon, to name but a few. He’s even been in the same corner as Clint Eastwood and Hilary Swank (in Million Dollar Baby), and the same car as Jessica Tandy (in Driving Miss Daisy).

Charming, urbane and endlessly polite, despite living in the fast lane in more senses than one, Freeman, who was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the son of a teacher and a barber, and raised predominantly in Chicago, is the movie industry’s gold standard, its comfort zone, its omniscient, everyman narrator.

Indeed, he has the most distinctive voice of anyone performing right now in any medium, more so even than President Barack Obama. So much so, in fact, that an impersonator has made a fortune for himself providing the soundtrack to an advertisement for an online insurance comparison site in the UK called “More Than” (or More Th>n, as they like to style themselves). “I’m More Than Freeman” has become a mantra for British channel hoppers, convinced they’re listening to the great man himself, even though the voice belongs to a 37-year-old white man called Josh Robert Thompson, formerly from Cleveland, Ohio, now a resident of Los Angeles.

By coincidence, Los Angeles is the city that inevitably commands most of the real Morgan Freeman’s attention as well. Do Morgan and Josh meet up occasionally for voice checks and cocktails? Don’t even ask. All we know is that during his week down in the Coachella Valley in January, the real Morgan Freeman, who also has homes in Charleston, Mississippi, and in New York City, kept hopping back and forth to Los Angeles on business, by helicopter or plane, often at short notice.

Specially for the 2012 Humana Challenge in January, which supported the William J. Cli nton Foundation to promote healthy living, Kingdom’s editor and his trusty sidekick (the perpetrator of this article, no less) came calling. Earlier that week, Freeman had just picked up the Cecil B. DeMille award at the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards for his outstanding contribution to the world of entertainment. He was filming at

More Than Morgan The Shawshank Redemption, Million Dollar Baby, Driving Miss Daisy, Se7en, March of the Penguins, Invictus, Deep Impact, Bruce Almighty, Street Smart—the list could go on and on; after all, it’s as good as endless, and as good as it gets. Morgan Freeman is one of the first names any Hollywood director pencils in for a potential blockbuster. He’s also the first name President Bill Clinton penciled in for the Humana Challenge pro-celebrity golf tournament down in La Quinta, California, this January

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From Nelson Mandela to narrating a colony of South Pole penguins to playing the Almighty himself, Freeman has been the go-to man

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majors Arnold Palmer’s Guide to the 2012

“Capturing the drama of the Majors, celebrating their history and honoring the players who have held center stage, this publication is the definitive guide to the world’s greatest golf championships”

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Freeman has won a Golden Globe and an Oscar, among other awards

the time as well, yet he still managed to squeeze in some golf— to entertain the fans, to honor President Clinton and support his charity, and to fulfill his commitment to a tournament that was, on this occasion, surprisingly denuded of its usual parade of big-name supporters.

All this while only able to play one-handed! Pardon, one-handed? Yes, one-handed. This dates back to a high-speed automobile accident that Freeman, a natural left-hander, had near Ruleville, Mississippi, in August 2008 when he suffered severe injuries to his left arm. He required four hours of surgery to repair nerve damage and to this day he often wears a compression glove to protect against blood pooling due to non-movement.

“I suffered nerve damage and it hasn’t gotten better,” Freeman says. “I can’t move it. If you don’t move your hand, it will swell up. Do you know you move your hand about a million times a day? But did you know, despite my injury I can still drive the ball 180 yards?”

He still has problems with the injury, and when he does he plays golf one-handed—right-handed, that is. But what a spectacle this is! On the first two days of the Humana Challenge, Freeman defied his injury because he wanted to engage the galleries and give value to the tournament. Even though he didn’t improve his professional partner’s score very much, he still managed a sensational bunker shot to within a few feet from an awkwardly positioned trap beside the 18th green on the Palmer Private Course on day one.

He was doing his very best, and respecting the game of golf, which was of the utmost importance to him, and to everyone else following his progress.

Golf is a good metaphor for one’s life. It’s something you always have to work at; you don’t get perfect at golf, it’s a never-ending quest

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Freeman admits he took the game up late in life, almost as late as the memorable films he’s made, but his philosophical words summarize his commitment to the game. “Golf marks a major turning point for me, because I felt like I needed a change. But I never expected golf to be its own religion, a kind of spiritual journey. When you’re aiming at the golf ball, it’s the only thing in the universe of any importance. You’re totally alone on the green. Yet it’s not a lonely experience, because the game of golf is a journey that you take with your friends.

“The bigger point here is that golf is a good metaphor for one’s life. The challenge of golf for me is trying to learn new rules. It’s something you always have to work at. You don’t get perfect at golf, it’s a never-ending quest for betterment.

“I don’t think there’s anyone in the world who would claim to have really mastered golf, or life. They’re both constantly changing on you. One day, you think you’ve got it all working. But the next day, it can all fall apart. Watching the pros—Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson— can be encouraging, because the game frustrates them in the same ways as it frustrates the rest of us. Though, lucky for them, they’re not frustrated nearly as often.”

Freeman’s self-proclaimed, lifelong golfing ambition is to improve his handicap. “There are many things I want to do before I die, top of my list right now is getting my golf score down to anything below what it is. It’s about 103 now.

One time I shot 114 and that was terrible.”

Freeman also insists he has no intention of quitting Hollywood, despite his advancing years, because of the joy acting brings him. “I don’t have to work,” he says. “I could stop and never have to worry about paying the rent again.

I’m working for the joy of doing it.

“As you mature in your career and your life, you realize that you’re still in the game. But the game becomes different. I’m not aware of ageing in Hollywood. I’m mostly aware of movement. I’m moving on.”

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“There are still challenging roles coming my way. I’m sometimes typecast to play father figures, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The people I admired when I was coming up in the business were typecast, too—Gary Cooper, Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart, Sidney Poitier.

“To transition into this new chapter in my life, I figured it would be best for me to decide the kind of game I wanted to play. My business partner, Bill Luckett, suggested golf. I travel a lot, and that’s hours of sitting in one position; I was no longer engaging in enough exercise.

“I worried about blood clots in my legs. After a few games, I quickly became a bona fide addict. I’ve lost many pounds since I started golfing. I get fresh air and I walk in wide open spaces.

“The thing I continue to learn is that you should really do what makes you happy. As a kid, I had always been interested in flying. I graduated from high school and entered the Air Force. I lost interest in flying when I didn’t become a fighter pilot. But I think now is a good time, a point of reflection for me, to go back and rediscover missed opportunities and different experiences.

“Recently, I started learning how to fly. Now I’m a licensed jet pilot. It’s hunky-dory. I can fly wherever I need to go. I have a new airplane on order that will even allow me to fly to Europe. It’s not a big airplane. It’s actually small.

But it goes on long legs—and that’s all you really need in life.”

Since acquiring his pilot’s license, aged 65, Freeman has owned at least three private aircraft, including a Cessna Citation 501 jet and a Cessna 414 twin-engine prop.

In 2007, he purchased an Emivest SJ30 long-range private jet, and took delivery in December 2009. Emivest’s assets are now owned by SyberJet and Freeman will shortly receive the first of the company’s upgraded SJ30s.

“As far as my career goes, I’ve learned to find things that interest and challenge me. You want a script that holds your attention. When you’re reading it, it should be like a good book. I’ve always had an inkling that, one day, somebody would ask me to play God. At the same time, you have to be careful: Christopher Reeve played Superman, and he could never escape from the role. I’ve played God in Bruce Almighty and now the sequel, Evan Almighty, because both movies are comedies. We take the work seriously, but we’re not taking ourselves too seriously.

It’s also another example of the kind of new games that you can play as you become wiser with age.”

Freeman’s wisdom led him to a Golden Globe best actor award in 1990 for Driving Miss Daisy and a best supporting actor Oscar for Million Dollar Baby. He was nominated for Invictus and The Shawshank Redemption, but the gongs on both occasions proved elusive.

It’s a little-known fact that when Robert Redford was casting The Legend of Bagger Vance, he was going to cast himself and Freeman in the main roles, but in the end opted for the much younger Matt Damon and Will Smith.

Talking of Redford, it might be possible to trace Freeman’s emergence as a film star from a small part the great actor-director gave him in the 1980s prison movie Brubaker—a dummy run, so to speak, for his jailbird tour de force in The Shawshank Redemption.

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In reality, Freeman has been acting all his life. He made his debut on stage at the age of nine in a school play, won a state-wide drama competition when he was 12, performed on a Nashville radio show while still in high school, danced at the 1964 World’s Fair and first appeared on screen in 1965 as an extra in The Pawnbroker.

Freeman golfs onehanded but still manages a respectable game

I think now is a good time, a point of reflection for me, to go back and rediscover missed opportunities Freeman co-owns and operates Madidi, a fine dining restaurant, and Ground Zero, a blues club, in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He’s an unashamed supporter of President Obama, and had his patriotism on full display in December 2010, when he flew to Switzerland to support President Clinton and leading U.S. soccer player Landon Donovan when they presented the United States’ bid to stage the 2022 FIFA World Cup. He’s also a huge fan of the movies. He sees everything and has an opinion on every film, regardless of whether he’s involved or not. “Have you seen Anonymous?” he asked one interviewer recently. “Don’t miss that one. Do. Not. Miss. Anonymous.”

So, how does a man, who seemingly never stops working, find the time for so many extramural interests in his seventies, let alone his day job? And while we’re on the subject, how much longer does Morgan Freeman feel he has as one of the stellar lights in the movie industry?

“I’m getting a lot of end-of-career awards, that lifetime achievement stuff,” he says. “I’m beginning to feel like I’m being told, ‘OK, time to hang up your cleats and sit down.’

You have to get up when they give these things to you and say, ‘Now, wait a minute; I don’t consider myself done yet.’”

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Anyone who loves golf should be glued to a TV screen when the dawn chorus strikes up at Augusta National on the morning of Thursday 5 April.

On the face of it, there might seem nothing special about three elderly gentlemen wafting their golf balls from the 1st tee and then strolling back to the clubhouse for a leisurely southern breakfast.

But appearances can be deceptive, and certainly will be on this occasion.

The three gentlemen in question— Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player—collected 13 green jackets between them in the space of 28 years (from 1958-86). Without their historic exploits over the hallowed turf ‘consecrated’ in the early 1930s by the late, great Bobby Jones and his attendant ‘angel,’ Dr Alister MacKenzie, it is safe to say that the four major championships would not enjoy today’s exalted status.

After a sequence of curtain-raising tournaments in the sunshine of California, Arizona, Florida and Texas, the Masters provides the fanfare that ensures the golf season grabs the sporting public’s full attention, a process very much the legacy of that halcyon era when Messrs.

Palmer, Nicklaus and Player were in the ascendancy.

Nowadays, Georgia in early April is on everyone’s mind. TV crews descend upon the former nursery to pay homage to the kaleidoscope of golfing skills and floral colors on display. And they are rewarded with action that is never less than thrilling—how can it be when a treacherous stretch of holes like Amen Corner lies in wait to separate the claims of the pretenders from the contenders?

The excitement is almost routine nowadays, but it’s a routine that was honed half a century ago when the aforementioned triumvirate, teamed together as honorary Masters’ starters for the first time in 2012, were attracting rather more attention for the way they finished tournaments than started them.

Half a century ago, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player shared all four major championships.

Branded thereafter as the Big Three, they became lifelong friends while remaining ferocious rivals. In April, though long retired from the cut and thrust of tournament golf, they will reunite as joint honorary starters at the 2012 Masters. Paul Trow looks back at the year when they changed the game forever

Arnold Palmer sends a birdie putt towards the cup on his way to a third Masters green jacket

Back then, the concept of the modern ‘grand slam’ of major championships was taking

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hold. The idea was that the Masters would tee up the four-month program and propel it with gathering momentum through the U.S. Open, [British] Open and PGA Championships.

Perhaps the principal reason why the idea captured the imagination so swiftly, and so permanently, was the way in which these four great championships unfolded in 1962. Each one was a collector’s item and once the dust had settled on the season the four prestigious titles were duly shared between Palmer, Nicklaus and Player.

With the dark cloud of the Cuban Missile Crisis looming throughout the year over the American way of life, people needed an escape from their political fears—and these golfing greats played a far from insignificant part in providing some much-needed relief.

Never slow off the mark, sports agent Mark McCormack rebranded the illustrious trio as the ‘Big Three,’ set them up with a series of made-for-TV matches, and along the way created a golfing dynasty, the likes of which has never really been replicated.

So what was all the fuss about?

To put the 1962 majors’ season into context, our story should begin with the Masters 12 months earlier, a tournament remembered mainly for Palmer’s doublebogey 6 at the 72nd hole that handed a one-stroke victory to Player. Player led Palmer, the defending champion, by four shots after three rounds but was going in decidedly the wrong direction on the final-day back nine. However, a momentary distraction, followed by a sand-trap catastrophe beside the 18th green, was all that was required to send Palmer through the trap door and into a tie for second place behind the diminutive South African.

Fast forward a year and Palmer arrived at Augusta still steaming about his costly lapse in concentration, hell-bent on setting the record straight.

“Doggedly determined to make up for my embarrassing collapse at 18 the year prior, I played superb golf for three rounds,” Palmer, who had already won twice during the early part of that season, recalls in his autobiography A Golfer’s Life.

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Arnold and Winnie Palmer start making plans to buy another wardrobe following the 1962 Masters

Scores of 70, 66 and 69 gave Palmer a four-shot lead over Player (the exact reverse of 1961) going into the final round, but fellow American Dow Finsterward, with a 54-hole total of 207, was sandwiched between them in second place just two back. A closing 75 from Palmer, 73 from

Finsterwald and 71 from Player meant that all three players finished the regulation 72 holes tied on 280, eight under par.

After a modest start to the tournament’s first three-way playoff which saw him trailing at the turn, Palmer reeled off a blistering back nine of 31 for a 68 that sealed his third green jacket, and thus tied Sam Snead and Jimmy Demaret for the then record number of Masters victories. Player finished the playoff on 71 while Finsterwald, clearly flagging, limped in on 77.

Ironically, Demaret had unwittingly played a crucial role in the about-turn of Palmer’s

crumbling final-round fortunes during regulation play. After dropping five shots over the first 15 holes, Palmer was trailing both Player and Finsterwald when he heard Demaret, in his capacity as a radio commentator, telling listeners that he faced an “impossible” chip on 16. No doubt fired up by this observation, Palmer duly rolled the ball into the cup for a 2, birdied 17 from 20ft and narrowly missed a putt from a similar distance on the home green to win the title outright.

At his press conference following his belated triumph, Palmer famously told the assembled reporters that after so many tense, tight finishes he yearned for the day when he could walk up the 18th fairway with a handsome lead and celebrate the moment with the galleries. He finally got his wish in 1964 when he won his fourth and final Masters by six shots from Nicklaus and Dave Marr.

In 1962, Nicklaus, who was playing in his first Masters as a professional, finished off the pace in a tie for 15th.

But the pedigree of the upper echelons of the leaderboard was borne out by the fact that all of the major winners in 1961 finished in the top five—Palmer ([British] Open champion, winner), Player (Masters champion, joint runner-up), Gene Littler (U.S. Open champion, fourth) and Jerry Barber (PGA champion, tied fifth).

Two months later, Palmer found himself in another playoff—this time for the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club, a course, on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that he knew like the back of his hand.

After three rounds, he shared the lead with Bobby Nichols on 212, one stroke ahead of Phil Rodgers and Bob Rosburg, and two clear of Player and Nicklaus, who at that stage had still not won since joining the paid ranks. Rosburg blew up with a 79 in the final round which plummeted him to 13th place. Player also struggled, closing with 74 for a tie for sixth, but Rodgers and Nichols acquitted themselves creditably, turning in 72 and 73 respectively to tie for third.

However, Nicklaus, who had finished second and fourth as an amateur in the two previous U.S. Opens, was made of sterner stuff.

His final round of 69 meant

Palmer told reporters how one day he’d love to walk up the 18th fairway at Augusta with a handsome lead

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that Palmer’s level-par 71, which on most occasions would have been more than enough to secure the title, only earned him a place in an 18-hole playoff with his 22-year-old rival.

The atmosphere when the championship entered extra time was electric. Palmer, who missed a 10ft birdie putt on the 72nd green to win outright, enjoyed vociferous partisan support from his local galleries whereas Nicklaus, seen as a brash and unwelcome threat to the King’s crown, was jeered unmercifully.

Not for the last time, though, the ‘Golden Bear’ displayed a fortitude that refused to allow the catcalls to undermine his concentration, and after six holes of the playoff he held a four-stroke lead. Palmer, naturally, rallied with some birdies of his own, but in the end capitulated by three strokes, 71-74.

Admiringly, Palmer noted that the crowd hadn’t fazed Nicklaus one bit. But, as a staunch advocate of fair play under all circumstances, he was bothered by the abuse. Another thing that bothered him—although he never used it as an excuse—was a deep cut on a finger that had required stitches only a few days before the championship.

One difference between himself and Nicklaus that Palmer did rue, publicly, was the number of three-putts they had on Oakmont’s slick, treacherous greens.

Whilst Palmer three-stabbed 13 times across 90 holes, Nicklaus only took more than two putts once.

Palmer also uttered a sentence that would resonate, prophetically, down three and a half decades of championship golf: “Now the big guy is out of the cage, everybody better run for cover.”

Nicklaus was the youngest U.S. Open winner since Jones in 1923 and the first, since Jones in 1930, to hold both the U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur Championship trophies simultaneously. To say the least, his cover was well and truly blown.

For Palmer, Oakmont began a frustrating streak of four second-place finishes in the U.S. Open inside six years, during which time he lost two further playoffs—in 1963 (to Julius Boros) and 1966 (to Billy Casper).

Head start: Jack Nicklaus won the U.S. Open by going 90 holes at Oakmont without a three-putt

When Palmer made his [British] Open debut in 1960 at St. Andrews, the ‘off message’ Australian Kel Nagle beat him by a stroke. At the 1962 Open at Troon on the west coast of Scotland, it was a case of role-reversal, with Palmer finishing first (his sixth major win) and Nagle second. This time, though, it wasn’t remotely close. Palmer led Nagle by five going into the final round, and finished with a six-stroke victory. To underline the extent of the King’s superiority that week, Nagle was a further seven shots ahead of the third-placed golfers, Phil Rodgers and combative Welshman Brian Huggett.

At Troon, Palmer beat Nagle by six shots while the pair who tied for third, Brian Huggett and Phil Rodgers, were a further seven back

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It was Palmer’s second straight win in the game’s oldest championship, and his popularity that week with the spectators was such that the R&A were forced to introduce stricter crowd control measures.

The roping-off of fairways and the fencing of course boundaries began a year later, at the 1963 Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes, mainly because of the volume of support that Palmer had attracted at Troon.

Palmer’s four rounds at Troon— 71-69-67-69 for a total of 276 (the R&A didn’t declare a par for Open courses in those days)—tied Ben Hogan’s then low score in a major, in the 1948 U.S. Open at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California.

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Yet despite his margin of victory, Palmer recalls it wasn’t all plain sailing.

At the halfway stage, he was frustrated by his putting (echoes of Oakmont?). His wife Winnie then told him she thought he was moving his head when he putted. He worked on the tip overnight and the result was nine one-putts in round three.

Strangely, Palmer never finished higher than seventh in a [British] Open after this, and he won just one more major—the 1964 Masters. Of the other competitors strutting their stuff that week, 50-year-old Sam Snead, who only played in the championship five times, winning in 1946, tied for sixth with Peter Thomson, Nicklaus tied for 34th and Player, uncharacteristically, missed the cut.

Less than a week later, the Black Knight was back on his charger and setting the record straight. In those days, the PGA Championship was the very next event on the schedule after the [British] Open, hardly giving participants much time to pause for breath, let alone regroup, but it was long enough for Player to sort out whatever had gone wrong at Troon.

The 1962 PGA Championship— Pennsylvania’s second major of the year— was held at Aronimink Country Club, Donald Ross’s masterpiece in Newtown Square near Philadelphia that even in those days measured well in excess of 7,000 yards. And it proved a fitting stage for Player’s third major victory, and the sixth of his PGA Tour career.

Trailing by one to Doug Ford at the halfway stage, Player edged ahead with a third-round 69 and went on to hold off fastfinishing Bob Goalby by a single shot with a closing 70 for a 72-hole total of 278, two under

Palmer, Player and Nicklaus are the living evidence of the symbolic heritage that the four major championships embody

par. George Bayer, who trailed Player by two after 54 holes, tied for third on 281 with Nicklaus who surged through the field with a final round of 67, while Palmer, who won a total of nine times in 1962, was never really a factor, tying ultimately for 17th on 288.

Fifty years later, Palmer, Player and Nicklaus—now aged 82, 76 and 72 respectively—are the living evidence of the symbolic heritage that the four major championships embody. It is a heritage that stretches back beyond Hogan, Snead and Jones to the very origins of the game, a heritage that safeguards for generations to come the principles and conventions held sacrosanct by all who love the game.

A significant landmark in this heritage was established half a century ago when the Big Three bestrode the golfing world.

To revisit Memory Lane, not to mention Magnolia Drive, mark Thursday, April 5th (sunrise) in your diary. You might not be able to join them for breakfast afterwards, but be sure to tune in for starters.

Gary Player rebounded from the disappointment of missing the cut in the [British] Open by winning his first PGA Championship a week later at Aronimink

The Big Three’s finishes in The 1962 majors Golfer Arnold Palmer Jack Nicklaus Gary Player

Masters 1st* Tied 15th 2nd*

U.S. Open 2nd* 1st* Tied 6th

[British] Open 1st Tied 34th Missed Cut

PGA Championship Tied 17th Tied 3rd 1st *= After a playoff

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Continuing our series of fantasy 18-hole layouts drawn together from the world’s great golf courses, Kingdom has selected this combination of No.4s to capture the imagination and stimulate grill-room debate.

The 4th hole on any course is usually the time when a player has an inkling of what sort of day lies ahead. Sometimes it can be a green signal to go on the attack and take the tiger line. For others, though, it is a time to consolidate or regroup after a shaky start.

Either way, the designer’s job is to create temptation and see how the golfers respond

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Hole No.2

Par-4, 438 yards The Olympic Club (Lakes), San Francisco, California

Par-3, 240 yards Augusta National, Georgia

Founded in what is now downtown San Francisco in 1860, Olympic is the oldest athletic club in the United States. The Lakes Course, where this year’s U.S. Open will take place (the fifth to be held at Olympic), poses a tough playing challenge at the best of times, let alone when it’s staging the national championship. This fact is epitomized by the 4th, a right-to-left dogleg par-4 that is rated the hardest hole on the scorecard. The fairway angles downhill and to the right—in the opposite direction to the one the player wants to go. A couple of bunkers are positioned either side of the fairway about 20-30 yards short of a green that slopes slightly off to the right and is also guarded by a false front that throws any approach coming up slightly short back off the fringe or even into collars of rough.

Now for something really tricky—a hole that fully tests shot-making skills! Flowering Crab Apple, as this tough, downhill par-3 is known, always leaves a sour taste if it hijacks a promising start. Depending on the tee, it can measure anywhere between 190 yards and its full length of 240. The green, guarded by a pair of deep bunkers (one on each side), slopes from back to front and to the left. The ideal shot, either with a long-iron or hybrid, must fly far enough and have a touch of fade to ensure a soft landing.

Club selection is crucial due to the deceptive, swirling breezes around the tall trees that flank this hole, especially as airmailing the green usually results in a vicious bounce off the downslope into the bushes at the back. Jeff Sluman made the only Masters hole-in-one here in 1992.

Hole No.3

Par-4, 365 yards Spyglass Hill, Monterey Peninsula, California This hole represents links golf, and designer Robert Trent Jones Sr., at their very finest. Proving length isn’t everything when fashioning sandy terrain speckled with brush and sea oats, Jones has created the ultimate right-to-left, downhill dogleg. On a fair day, the Pacific views are stunning and when the mists drift in from the ocean the experience is even more exhilarating. The safe play from the tee is down the right side of the fairway, especially when the pin is located toward the back of an extremely long, narrow green. But when it’s near the front, the tiger line is down the left to avoid the intrusive bunker protecting the front right of the putting surface. But with this line comes the risk of catching the treacherous ice plant that lines the left side of the fairway and continues down the hole to form a necklace round the back of the green.

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Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

Hole No.1

Hole No.5

Par-5, 609 yards Oakmont Country Club, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The Church Pews between the 3rd and 4th fairways, a series of eight grass-covered ridges separated and surrounded by sand, is one of the most revered, and feared, hazards in the whole of golf. In the case of the long, leftto-right 4th, they line the left edge of the fairway on the elbow of the dogleg. Not only will anyone contemplating a run at the green in two shots be praying they keep out of the Church Pews off the tee (very often a shot backwards is the only escape), but they must avoid the five bunkers tight to the right crook of the fairway that are every bit as threatening. Compounding the difficulty, a further 11 bunkers guard the 100 yards or so leading up to a front right-to-back-left diagonal green—four around the putting surface, a line of four ‘mini-pews’ front right and three more traps in the right rough around lay-up distance.

Hole No.6

Par-4, 418 yards Royal Dornoch (Championship), Sutherland, Scotland

This Highland town’s place in golf history is assured, both by a beguiling stretch of linksland that hugs the white sandy beaches of Dornoch Firth and the exploits of native son Donald Ross, arguably the game’s finest ever course designer. Ross, who moved to America in 1899, would have been mightily impressed by the evolution of his home

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town links, originally laid out by ‘Old’ Tom Morris, into one of the world’s great courses. The fairway on the 4th, an ample target from a raised tee though sometimes difficult to find in a crosswind, slopes right, away from the thicket of dense gorse that lines the entire left side of the hole.

Further right there’s a steep fall of 10 feet to a lone trap and occasionally thick rough. A plateau green undulating sharply right toward the sea is guarded by two bunkers on the left and two more on the right at the foot of an upslope.

Hole No.7

Par-5, 534 yards Royal Melbourne (West), Victoria, Australia

The drive here is fired over a trio of bunkers on the crest of a hill into the jaws of a left-to-right dogleg. Big hitters can carry their second shots to the green, over a cluster of bunkers that guard the entrance. However, accuracy is of paramount importance because any tangling with the traps—short, right and left—could lead to disruptive bogey. For those laying up, the greatest problem is on the right where a pair of wonderful Alister MacKenzie fairway bunkers loom just a sand wedge short of the green. As the Presidents Cup last fall demonstrated, even players who get up in two tend to face a tough challenge to two-putt on a putting surface that has more than its fair share of undulations and awkward pin placements. Believe it or not, the scorecard rates this as the 18th handicap hole on the course—but nothing could be further from the truth.

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Hole No.4

This magnificent layout, snaking through 190 acres of forested countryside and original Omaha farmland, is the state of Nebraska’s leading championship golf course. Honoring the spirit and integrity of the original layout and the 1951 redesign by Perry Maxwell, architect Keith Foster was commissioned in 2005 to restore its traditional appearance and character. With sweeping views of mature vegetation and rolling terrain, each hole at Omaha Country Club is a tribute to the land’s natural beauty—none more so than the 4th, a left-to-right dogleg par-4 where a bunker sits on the left elbow and encourages a push or block from the tee. Once the fairway has been safely found, the approach is to a front-right-to-back-left sloping diagonal green protected by two bunkers eating into the front left with a screen of trees all down the right and uphill slopes either side of the fairway.

Hole No.8

Par-4, 495 yards Royal St George’s, Kent, England

Played as a par-5 in 2003, this gargantuan hole invariably provokes controversy whenever the [British] Open visits these bleak, windswept links on the southeast England coastline. Depending where the tee is positioned (470 is the usual back-tee yardage for mere mortals), the drive might need to carry 250 yards simply to clear the huge, sleepered ‘Himalayas’ bunker guarding the mid-right of the fairway which then doglegs about 30 degrees to the left.

Find the right side of the fairway (the Elysian Fields as it’s known to members) and you’ll face an uphill second shot with a long-iron or fairway-wood to a slightly raised green, with the caveat that out-of-bounds (and a row of houses) threatens beyond the back. Anything left off the tee will flirt with a bunker at driver range while another bunker lurks around 50 yards short of the green to catch any pulled recovery shot from the rough.

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Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

Par-4, 419 yards Omaha Country Club, Nebraska

Hole No.9

Hole No.10

From a raised tee above the 3rd green, the 4th hole at Lytham, host course for this year’s [British] Open, turns back into the prevailing wind and gives a taste of what is usually in store on the inward half. Threading its doglegged route through a wilderness of hummocks (first right to left at driving distance, then left to right approaching the green), it favors a tee shot placed down the right half of the fairway, wide enough to provide a view of a green that is ringed by five bunkers. Two bunkers guard the left elbow of the dogleg while a bank of thick rough awaits anything hit too far right. If the tee shot goes too far left, there is virtually no sight of the target for the approach. A straight drive, however, should set up a short-iron approach to a small though ingeniously sloped green that is banked at the back.

Scottish exile Tom Bendelow laid out the No.3 course at Medinah, one of Chicago’s premier golf clubs, in the early 1920s. It was lengthened after Harry ‘Lighthorse’ Cooper brought it to its knees in 1930 with a closing 63 to win the Medinah Open, the club’s first significant championship.

Further re-designs by Roger Packard in 1986 and Rees Jones, prior to the 2006 PGA Championship, have resulted in a very different layout to Bendelow’s creation. Fortunately, the 4th—a long, straight par-4 with a fairway tightly squeezed by thick lines of trees—retains most of its original features.

A plateau about 200 yards out is the ideal position off the tee—longer will result in a downhill lie. The second shot, usually with a mid-to-long-iron, plays to a raised, contoured and well-bunkered green that slopes from back-to-front, thus posing a challenge to players who generate a lot of backspin.

Par-4, 391 yards Royal Lytham & St Annes, Lancashire, England

Par-4, 463 yards Medinah (No.3), Chicago, Illinois

Hole No.11

Par-3, 194 yards Baltusrol (Lower), Springfield, New Jersey In preparation for the 1954 U.S. Open, the Lower Course was modernized by Trent Jones Sr. without detriment to A.J. Tillinghast’s initial design. The most significant changes came at the ‘Famous Fourth’ which was lengthened by nearly 70 yards and toughened by reshaping the bunkers behind a terraced green. Jones’s alterations created a full carry over Tillinghast’s original pond in front of the green and replaced the wooden façade between green and hazard with a distinctive rock wall. Now the 4th is viewed as Baltusrol’s signature hole, but the members weren’t always so pleased with it. After criticism that he’d made the hole too difficult, Jones said: “Let’s go play it and see if anything needs to be done.” After head pro Johnny Farrell and two prominent members had all hit the green, Jones stepped onto the tee and had a hole-in-one. “Gentlemen, I think the hole is eminently fair,” he quipped.

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Hole No.12

Par-5, 567 yards Four Seasons, Anahita, Mauritius

Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

This Ernie Els-designed gem on the east coast of Mauritius opened in 2008. The signature 4th hole provides a birdie opportunity for longer hitters, although the distraction of thrashing a drive and metal-wood toward a green that appears perched on a platform out in the Indian Ocean must be resisted. “The wide fairway gives you a chance to get out the ‘big stick’,” writes Els in the course planner; but in truth, while the fairway’s width is indeed generous, the prevailing wind against can exaggerate any spin on the ball. Disaster, in the form of impenetrable jungle, awaits a slice, while a cluster of three bunkers and a scattering of small trees threaten a hook, though not with such dire consequences. The approach is tighter and should be shaped left to right into a raised, undulating green guarded by a front bunker. Two further traps behind provide a modicum of protection from the ocean for anything overhit.

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Hole No.13

Hole No.14

Par-3, 176 yards Quarry Oaks, Ashland, Nebraska

Par-4, 384 yards TPC Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra, Florida

This slightly uphill short hole has a unique and highly emotive link with the past in that there is a graveyard immediately to the right of the tee box where four children who died of typhoid in the 1860s are buried. Their parents had been traveling west in search of a better life when the children succumbed to the illness. When designer John LaFoy laid out the course in 1996, great care was taken to protect the graves and headstones. The two-tier green, which is shaped like an upside-down ‘L,’ is protected at the front by bunkers and at the back by a sharp downhill slope—and getting up and down from either position is far from easy. There are, generally speaking, three potential pin placements on the putting surface—on the front tongue, in the middle at the base of the tier and, most awkwardly, in the back right corner.

Home in May to the annual Players Championship, the unofficial fifth ‘major,’ this Pete Dye masterpiece tests the game’s finest players every step of the way. At the 4th, a relatively short par-4, most players will take a fairway wood or long iron off the tee. Accuracy is crucial due to the presence of a deep, long fairway bunker that zigzags right of the landing area and rough-covered knolls on the left.

The approach, typically no more than a wedge, crosses a water hazard that divides the fairway from a two-tier green where, remarkably, the multiplicity of slopes can feed balls that were seemingly lost causes toward some of the hole locations. It was here in 1993 that Nick Price, en route to victory, played “probably under the circumstances the greatest shot I’ve ever hit,” over the pond from deep rough with a sand-wedge to within three feet of the cup.

Hole No.15

Par-4, 458 yards Kiawah Island (Ocean), South Carolina

Larry Lambrecht

With carries over two saltwater marshes to be navigated, this is probably the hardest hole on the front nine of the course that will stage the 2012 PGA Championship in August. On a good day, players can see a wide landing area from the raised tee with the Atlantic Ocean glistening beyond. Then, depending on wind conditions, the second shot to a large, front-left-to-back-right diagonal green may require as little as an 8-iron. Against the wind, though, players often bail out left of the green and try to salvage par with a chip or even a long putt from the extended collar. Designed by Pete Dye, this course has staged a Ryder Cup (in 1991, the year it opened) and two World Cups. In 2002, Dye widened the left side of the fairway and added three pot bunkers down the right (thus ensuring a more left-to-right feel and giving players a better angle into the pin).

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Hole No.16

Par-5, 535 yards Valderrama, Costa del Sol, Spain We enter the finishing straight of our notional round with a breathtaking risk-reward challenge from southern Spain.

Designed by Trent Jones, Sr., Valderrama is perhaps Europe’s toughest course. For many years it staged the seasonending Volvo Masters and in 1997 it hosted the Ryder Cup. It’s also a tale of two par-5s—one (the 4th) an unquestionably great hole, the other (the Seve Ballesteros-remodeled 17th) endlessly controversial. From its elevated tee to its raised, two-tier green, protected by a cascade at the front, a lake to the right and more water at the rear, the 4th is a creature of great beauty. “It’s probably the best of all my par-5s”, Trent Jones said. Even with the Levante blowing in your favor, a full drive flirting with the left-hand bunker followed by a long, accurate second shot through an oak-lined vista are required to reach the green in two. Otherwise, the best line for a lay-up is the right half of the fairway.

Hole No.17

Hole No.18

The brainchild of pioneering course architect Charles Blair Macdonald, this shrine to golf’s early days celebrated its centenary last year. Macdonald, a tireless student of the early designs, fashioned several replica holes across this rustic Long Island links. St. Andrews, where he had lived during the 1870s, echoes prominently, but perhaps his most faithful imitation is the short 4th, a homage to the often-copied Redan at North Berwick. The key to this hole is the right-to-left diagonal green featuring a drop from the high point (front right) to the low point (back left) of more than five feet. From an elevated tee, players must plot their line of attack with care. A huge sand pit protects the front of the green while another deep bunker lies in wait off the left edge for anything rolling down the slope of the putting surface at pace. For good measure, three other traps to the right cut down the bail-out options.

The oldest of the three courses at Firestone, dating back to 1929, the South came to prominence during the 1960s as the venue for the made-for-TV World Series contests between the reigning major champions. Feared for its prodigious length following redesigns by Trent Jones, Sr. in 1960 and

by Jack Nicklaus in 1986, it has been gradually reined in by the leading Tour pros over the past decade or so thanks to the rapid advances in equipment technology. None the less, its abiding characteristic remains the number of long par-4s on its card, and the hardest is unquestionably the 4th. Here par still rates as quite an achievement, resulting we hope in plenty of drama on our closing 18th. Like so many difficult holes, its appearance is deceptive from the tee. However, a long, accurate drive is required to hold the right-to-left sloping fairway while the second shot needs to be flighted in high enough to hold the elevated green.

Par-3, 195 yards National Golf Links of America, Long Island, New York

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Par-4, 471 yards Firestone Country Club (South), Akron, Ohio

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In the 1950s and 60s, it was good to be British. The Americans had invented rock ‘n’ roll, but the best bands were coming out of England. So were the best fashions, and so were the best cars.

Aston Martin’s elegant DB5, the charming Triumphs and MGs, Bentley, Rolls Royce, the iconic Jaguar E-Type. And there were more: Allard, Healy, Triumph, Austin, Gilbern, Lanchester, Jensen, Humber, Riley, Jowett, Sunbeam, Morris, TVR...

Only the United States was building more automobiles.

Today, of course, things are different.

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Most of the old English marques are gone or foreignowned. But for all of the distinctly British badges sold off or garaged for good, one of the old guard is still building cars under a British flag: the Morgan Motor Company. Morgan’s resilience is due to a few factors, not least its relatively small size and the fact that it is still family owned. But beyond its manageable scale of operations and the estimable loyalty it inspires in its home community of Malvern, Morgan’s staying power might be attributed to the fact that it is, perhaps, the purest example of a form. When one envisions thundering through the English countryside in a classic open-top roadster, scarf flying in the wind, the sky in the dream is impossibly sunny and the car is invariably a Morgan.

When a marque becomes part of a cultural identity (Coca Cola and Harley Davidson come to mind) it is sure to endure, and that’s certainly the case with Morgan. But here there’s a twist, because Morgan isn’t just some kind of living argument for tweed coats and flat caps. In fact, while it seems to have largely coasted through the last decades not fixing what wasn’t broken, today’s Morgan has revived another aspect of traditional British motoring—namely, raising the bar.

“This is right up there with the best,” says Morgan archivist and museum curator Martyn Webb, standing in front of a new Morgan Aero SuperSports. He’s not exaggerating. The car’s sumptuous curves cover a nicely tuned 4.8L BMW V8, which makes 367hp and produces a roar that, if expected, is still supremely satisfying. But it’s the roughly 2,600lb dry weight that lets the car run, the

Morgan has revived another aspect of traditional British motoring —namely, raising the bar

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lightweight bonded aluminum chassis and superformed aluminum body helping the Aero get from 0-60 in just over 4 seconds on its way to a 170mph top speed. These are supercar numbers, and a far cry from the picture Morgans have traditionally painted, at least in recent decades.

Credit adaptability and solid decision-making by the company and by Executive Director Charles Morgan in particular, whose grandfather Harry “H.F.S.” Morgan built the first Morgan in 1909.

“They were quite receptive, actually,” says Matthew Humphries, Morgan’s 28-year-old chief designer. Humphries was still a design student at England’s Coventry University when he sent some sketches to Morgan and subsequently landed an internship (a “work experience,” in UK parlance).

They found some space for him to work, and he started drawing Morgans as he saw them, which was absolutely in line with where Charles and his team wanted to go.

“Morgan didn’t have a design department per se,” he says. “They were just making adjustments in the shop to the designs that they’d always had. I think I was able to show them what was possible, perhaps, and help bring it forward into the 21st century.”

Humphries certainly did that—the AeroMax was based on sketches he did during his internship, and the newer four-seat EvaGT is his design. “But what about tradition?” a few stalwarts might ask, looking at the sweeping fenders and dramatic lines of the newer Morgans. Though we feel detractors will be in the minority, those whose upper lips are perhaps a bit stiffer need not worry. Morgan still makes the venerable 4/4 which, aside from a slight facelift in the 1950s and appropriate engine modernizations, hasn’t really changed since it was first introduced in 1936. It’s the oldest car in continuous production from any maker.

Furthermore, even the SuperSports is mostly built the way Morgan has always built their cars: that is, by hand.

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“I think you’ll find that we use the most advanced computer in the world here, and that’s the one between the ears”

ConstruCtion “I could be sarcastic about some of my colleagues, but in truth you won’t see any robots here,” says Robert Dance, a tour guide at the Morgan Motor Company, which offers factory visits by appointment. “We don’t put a piece of metal into a big tunnel and out comes a car. No. That said, I think you’ll find that we use the most advanced computer in the world here—and that’s the one between the ears.”

Morgans are built in the town of Malvern in a factory on Pickersleigh Road that was first established in 1914, after demand compelled founder Harry “H.F.S.” Morgan to expand beyond a smaller garage on Worcester Road. Today’s classically styled Morgans get a modern galvanized steel chassis with a live rear axle and rear leaf springs—“The quintessential, traditional British sports car,” Webb correctly notes. A variety of Ford engines and trims are available, and a number of aspects can be customized.

The Aero cars, including a new +8, get a bonded aluminum chassis and a superformed aluminum body. In a process more common to the airline industry, aluminum is heated and blown into shape, yielding the lush curves on the Aero cars. Both styles of Morgans get handmade ash wood frames to which the aluminum body panels are affixed.

In the case of the classic Morgans, aluminum sheets are “folded, hammered, trimmed with tin snips and shaped to fit the individual car, all of it by hand,” Webb explains. The body fitters are artisans indeed, as are the frame builders.

“You won’t see a shop like this at any other car manufacturer in the world,” he says of Morgan’s frame workshop. Racks of ash wood planks and strips line the walls, with frames in various states of construction sitting nearby, clamped and drying. There are 90 pieces of ash in each frame, some of them bent in jigs that have been in the factory for as long as anyone can remember.

“It’s often thought that the wood is steam-bent,” says Webb, “but it’s not the case. We have no idea how old the jigs are. They should be in the museum, but they won’t let me have them.”

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The wood frames and light aluminum bodies deserve some credit for Morgans’ high performance, but they also get a nod for safety and environmental concerns.

Following testing, it’s been found that the frame’s flexibility helps tremendously in the event of a collision, absorbing much of the impact and in some cases outperforming steel-framed vehicles. As for environmental friendliness, “There’s virtually no plastic in a Morgan,” says Webb.

“Aluminum and wood, it’s about as environmentally sound as you can get.”

Each body frame is built by only one craftsman.

Likewise, the body panels are formed and fitted by one individual per car. Morgan keeps records of who worked on what, and thus a Morgan owner could find out who, exactly, built his car. Once it’s basically assembled, the car is pushed down to the paint shop. The doors, hood, and other panels are removed and painted separately from the rest of the body, which remains on the chassis. There are more than 100 shades of leather available for the seats, which are made and fitted by hand, and near 40,000 colors of paint for the exterior. Bring in your favorite limegreen driving tuxedo and they’ll match it. It’s all part of the Morgan experience, which ultimately is about creating an individual’s dream vehicle. They’re good at it, and they should be—they’ve been doing it for more than 100 years.

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(Above from left) a row of classic Morgans, including the rare +4+; aluminum body panels hand-fitted to a handbuilt wood frame

Fast Forward

(Above right) the iconic Morgan 4/4; (right) grill of an unfinished, limited edition +4 Super Sports

An engineer by training, “H.F.S.” was originally planning to build a motorcycle when, at the last minute, he changed his mind and instead used the 7hp Peugeot engine he’d purchased to make a three-wheeled “cyclecar.” It was 1909.

The car was simple—a tiller for steering, no real bodywork— but it featured a rather sophisticated front suspension of his own design. (A variation of the suspension is still used on the more classic of Morgan’s offerings today.) Local people liked his car, and soon started wanting one of their own. So in 1910, he began building. His father, vicar of the nearby community of Stoke Lacy, put up the money to get a factory started and, according to a book co-written

by Charles Morgan, instilled a crucial value that would serve the company well: “Finance everything out of your own pocket, never borrow.” Within a year “H.F.S.” was exhibiting his cars at shows, and within two years he was building a two-seater that proved incredibly popular. So popular, in fact, that it was sold by the luminary London retailer Harrods—the only car ever to appear in the store’s windows. Racing and exhibiting the cars became integral to Morgan’s success, and “H.F.S.” earned numerous gold medals, race victories and speed records in his creations, which were steadfastly three-wheeled. It wasn’t until 1936 that Morgan decided to put a fourth wheel on the ground, and the result (the aforementioned 4/4) was an immediate hit. It sold so well overseas that demand was nearly impossible to meet, while at home it enjoyed tremendous support as well, essentially establishing the foundation for the company’s future. Based on the basic platform of the 4/4, the next several decades saw a series of variations and innovations; a more powerful +4 was introduced in 1950, a fibreglass-bodied +4+ was built in 1963 (only 26 models

were made, but it attracted serious attention) and the first +8 (eight cylinders) rolled out of Malvern in 1968. That year’s Morgan was a half-second quicker to 60mph than the Jaguar E Type, according to Webb, putting it at the top of the market. Indeed, for the next 30 years and beyond, Morgan continued to fare well in racing, regularly placing in the top of the group or winning its class at all manner of events. So durable were the cars, in fact, that racers Chris Lawrence and Richard Shepherd-Barron not only drove their Morgan to the 1962 Le Mans 24-hour race, they won the 2-liter class and then drove the car back to England after the race. In the 1950s company leadership had transfered to Peter, son of “H.F.S.” Eventually it transfered again to Peter’s son Charles (the current director), though Peter was actively involved right up to his death in 2003.

Both Peter and Charles steered the company into its modern era, which you might say properly began in the late 1990s with production of the first bonded aluminum Aero chassis. Like many Morgan innovations, the inspiration came from racing. With Charles driving the high

After being driven to the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1962 and winning its class, the Morgan was driven back to England

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performance project forward, and a solid team of people around him pushing to expand the company’s traditionally narrow comfort zone, a host of new technologies were introduced at Morgan. CAD (computer assisted design) equipment was brought in, along with a modern paint shop, a sophisticated new wheel design and—in the most significant change to the company’s machine shop since WWII—a computer-controlled lathe was installed. (The wartime manual Ward lathes are still running strong.)

In 1999 a 4/4/ Four-seater was unveiled by Morgan’s consumer division, and in 2002 the company’s specialist racing division (Morgan Aero Racing) debuted the Aero 8 GTN at the Autosport International Show in Birmingham, England. It was an important step. With the classic Morgans still in production and at the heart of the company’s identity, the Aero division is what has allowed Morgan to

Rolling on 3 Wheels In 1953, the Morgan Motor Company lost a part of its family, you might say, in that it ceased production of its iconic three-wheeler. The vehicle that started it all was retired due to a lack of consumer interest at home and a lack of enthusiasm in the export market, where its status as a “cycle” held no advantage in terms of tax benefits.

How happy, then, were Morgan fans when a brand new version of the form rolled out of the Malvern factory last year. Dubbed simply the “3 Wheeler,” the modern car matches a 115hp V-twin engine from S&S with a gearbox from a Mazda MX5 in a tubular frame over which sits a tremendously customizable body. The total package comes in near 1,000lb and makes 0-60 in about 4.5 seconds, with a top speed of approximately 115mph.

“We couldn’t have brought it out five or six years ago,” says Morgan’s chief designer Matthew Humphries.

“People would have seen us as living in the past.”

Appearing on the heels of Morgan’s stunning Aero vehicles, no such judgements are likely to be leveled at the 3 Wheeler, which is, above all, tremendous fun. With

With its foot firmly on the accelerator in terms of performance and design, today’s Morgan Motor Company is anything but stuck in the past drive forward, pushing not only itself but the industry as a whole. With a team that eventually included Humphries, the Aero 8 became the lush AeroMax, an elegant and powerful touring machine with a distinctive rear (inspired by the beautiful Bugatti Atlantic of the late 1930s) that raised as many heartbeats as it did eyebrows when it first appeared. Limited to just 100 examples produced, the design eventually yielded the current Aero SuperSports, which added a targa roof with panels that can be removed and stored in the trunk. The company is playing with an electric, the +E, and it’s already demonstrated a lack of fear when it comes to forward thinking with its LIFECar,

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a hand-built wood frame like all Morgans (courtesy of “Dave,” who builds all of the 3 Wheeler frames), body details can be completely determined by customers and can include Spitfire-like graphics, pin-up girls, shark’s teeth or just about anything one could imagine.

“The best British brands do not take themselves too seriously,” says Humphries. “It’s the biggest toy you could possibly have.” morgan3wheeler.co.uk

a Hydrogen fuel cell vehicle with radical technology and styling. Soon to appear on U.S. roads is the new +8, basically an Aero with a traditionally styled body, and the EvaGT. The latest incarnation of the Aero line, with four seats and all the luxury and performance you could want shaped into a beautiful work of automotive art, the latter is yet another example that Morgan—the quintessential, traditional British car maker—is anything but a throwback.

“We’re offering a 21st century coach-built experience,” says Humphries. “We’re building high-performance modern cars, but we want to show that there’s still romance here.”

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(Above) The classically styled, new 3 Wheeler; (left) the imposing and lovely EvaGT

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The PGA Tour, like any walk of life, has its fair share of stereotypes—clean-cut veterans grinding toward their 50th birthday and that pot of gold otherwise known as the Champions Tour; pumped-up gym addicts with muscles bursting hulk-like from their pastel-colored polo shirts; walking cash machines who seem almost in a trance when it comes to the process of completing a golf stroke; and born-again Christians wearing their faith on a sleeve. But it also has Ryan Moore.

In this case, Moore is definitely more, not less. Now in his eighth season on Tour, he has a well-established reputation for doing his own thing regardless of what might be in vogue. He has certainly never been one of the herd, and his choice of dress has always reflected this fact.

So much so, that on many occasions he could easily have been in Vogue.

While the stereotypes paraded their on-course skills wrapped from head to toe in sponsored gear, Moore tended to steer clear of any arrangement that would see him attired in a way with which he was not comfortable.

The preppy cardigans, pencil-slim ties and logo-less caps he used to wear while going about his business, still likes to wear from time to time, are definitely not the first thing you’ll see on the rack when you run by the pro shop at your local country club.

But after teasing the apparel industry the whole time he’s been on Tour, Moore, who has turned down endorsement deals worth potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to retain his independence, has at last come in from the cold. After holding out for so long, he now has a sponsor, the sponsor of his dreams, and he couldn’t be happier.

Moore is More

The Arnie collection enjoyed a successful launch to the golf trade at the recent PGA Merchandise Show. At the heart of this stylish array of apparel, blending the nostalgia of Mr. Palmer’s halcyon days as the game’s most charismatic player with state-of-the-art technology and textiles, is a young Tour professional who has always cut a dash as well as a mean fade. Paul Trow reports

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Ryan Moore is the official face of Arnie, a golfing apparel range developed in tandem by Mr. Palmer and his daughter Amy Saunders with cutting-edge Canadian company Quagmire.

“I can still wear cardigans and ties if I want to,” the 29-year-old from Puyallup in Washington state, told me when I caught up with him on the range at the PGA West club in California’s Coachella Valley. “But I love the Arnie line—it is both fashionable and timeless. They [Geoff Tait and Bobby Pasternak of Quagmire] approached my agent, sent me their catalog and we met up in Las Vegas last fall [during the PGA Expo show at the Venetian hotel]. The concept and style that they were offering me was exactly what I was looking for. And the other amazing thing about them is I might give them an idea and within 24 hours they’ve turned it round and produced a garment. Those guys, they’re so professional.”

In some respects, Moore is a bit of an experiment for Mr. Palmer and Quagmire, a leap of faith into the unknown, if you will. He’s certainly a fixture on the PGA Tour, in it for the long haul as his money-list finishes through the previous seven seasons—113th, 81st, 59th, 88th, 31st, 32nd, 42nd—suggest; and he’s young enough, at 29, to have a dazzling future ahead of him. In truth, most of the game’s star players don’t remotely fulfill their potential till they’re past 30 (Moore’s big day doesn’t arrive until December 5). Indeed, Mr. Palmer didn’t win his first major—the 1958 Masters—until he was 28.

“My strength on the course is on the mental side. My short game and putting are pretty solid, and I pride myself on course management”

Moore’s biggest wins to date are the Wyndham Championship in 2009 (above) and the 2004 U.S. Amateur Championship (below)

“This is my eighth season on Tour and I feel I’m due to win again soon,” Moore says. “I’ve only won the one title on the PGA Tour [the 2009 Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina]. I think I was something like seven shots back with nine holes to play in the final round, but I had a good charge going and one or two of the guys ahead of me on the leader-board, Sergio Garcia in particular, started leaking shots. In the end I won the title in a three-way playoff [against Jason Bohn and Kevin Stadler].

“I would say my strength out on the course is on the mental side. My short game and putting are pretty solid, and I pride myself on my course management. My USGA record would suggest that I tend to play well on the tougher courses.”

His USGA record definitely proves he can play well on the tough courses, invariably set up by the game’s governing body to play at their very toughest whenever a big championship comes calling. And his high, controlled, stock-in-trade fade has clearly been a factor in helping him stay on the short grass over the years.

In the summer of 2004, Moore held five of the game’s most prominent amateur titles: the U.S. Amateur, U.S. Public Links, NCAA Championship, Western Amateur and World Amateur. This record, indicative of the talent Moore possesses, means there are parallels to be drawn between him and, say, Matt Kuchar, who enjoyed a similarly impressive career prior to turning pro. In contrast, Kuchar then took nearly a decade to start fulfilling his talent in his early 30s. This gilded period in Moore’s life was even more memorable for him because of his experiences at the 2004 Masters. “I actually played with Mr. Palmer a couple of times at Augusta National that year—I got in because I was public links champion. We played together in the par-3 tournament and also in practice before the tournament. It was a fantastic experience that I shall always cherish.”

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Mr. Palmer, for one, is mightily impressed with his young protégé. “He’s my kind of guy,” he says. “I like him a lot and I think he’s going to do really well with this brand.”

The main thrust of the Arnie range has been to reflect Mr. Palmer’s classic look from the 1950s through the 1970s.

“Mr. Palmer is among my all-time idols as a golfer and a person, so competing in these clothes and being so closely associated with his style legacy—it’s a dream come true,” Moore continues. “The research that went into each piece is really evident and when you combine those timeless elements with advanced technical fabrics you’ve got something great.”

The collection was developed in part by going through Mr. Palmer’s personal library of photographs. It is currently being distributed to retail outlets in three styles—the 1950s (fitted pants and tops, small collars and shorter sleeves); the 1960s (wider pant legs and collars); and the 1970s (slightly wider collars, with gray as the signature color).

Recently ranked one of ‘The 25 Coolest Athletes of All Time’ by GQ, which previously named him one of the ‘50 Most Stylish Men of the Past 50 Years,’ Mr. Palmer has also been honored as one of ‘The 75 Best Dressed Men of All Time’ by Esquire.

Tait, creative director for Arnie and Quagmire, says Moore was always top of his list to wear the clothes. “He truly gets our vision and is a dapper guy who’s always moving mainstream menswear trends onto the fairways.”

Apart from a low-key association with Oakley at the beginning of his time on the PGA Tour, it wasn’t until last year that Moore signed any sponsorship deals—with Adams Golf to play their clubs and TRUE linkswear to wear their golf shoes.

However, there’s a lot more to Moore than the clothes that maketh this particular man. Even though his residence is in Las Vegas—he studied communications and public relations at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and plays most of his recreational golf at TPC Summerlin or TPC Las Vegas—he remains a huge supporter of his home community near Tacoma.

Cementing that association, he has partnered with friends and family to form Ryan Moore Golf Course Management, LLC (RMG Club). Designed to combat Puget Sound’s sagging golf economy, the RMG Club took over the ownership and day-to-day affairs of three local golf courses—the Classic Country Club in Spanaway, McCormick Woods in Port Orchard and Oakbrook G&CC in Lakewood.

“We want this to be a product that appeals to everyone,” Moore, who learned the game from his father “as soon as I could walk,” said. “We want people to have great facilities they can go play at a reasonable rate.”

With three levels of unlimited golf memberships available, the RMG Club is designed to attract players of all skill levels and people who pay the membership fees can play all three courses. “Our vision is simple; we believe all golfers should have the opportunity to belong to a world-class golf club,” Moore explains. Memberships start at an extremely generous $49 per month with no money down for unlimited twilight golf. For only $99 per month, members are granted unlimited golf at the RMG home course of choice, significant discounts at all other facilities and many more perks.

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“Our vision is simple; we believe all golfers should have the opportunity to belong to a world-class golf club” Moore, who has two brothers—Jeremy and sometime caddie Jason—and one sister, Alyssa, also serves as host of the annual BMW Northwest Charity Skins Game at Chambers Bay—the Robert Trent Jones Jr. course in Washington State that will host the 2015 U.S. Open.

But his focus going forward is on taking his own golf game up a peg or two. “I finished 37th on the FedEx Cup points table last year,” he says. “I was on the fringes of Presidents Cup qualification for a lot of the season, but I didn’t have that big finish towards the end which was what I’d have needed to make the team. Obviously making the Ryder Cup team this year is a big goal for me this year. I’d love to be on the team but I’m going to have to up my game because I’ve never got close to it before.”

Moore’s campaign to up his game has resulted in the appointment of a new and monumentally experienced caddie, Tony Navarro, whose most famous previous employers were Raymond Floyd and Greg Norman. “He’s a great guy with a ton of experience,” Moore confides. “I thought that could really help me take that next jump in my career and start winning a little bit more, so I’m excited to have him on the bag and excited for this year.”

Personally, I think I might have had some influence on this ‘next jump’ as well. Moore and I conversed after his level-par first round of 72 at the Humana Challenge and he went straight out the next morning and shot 61. Coincidence?

I don’t think so! And he looked quite smart, too.

The Arnie collection originates from Mr. Palmer’s library of photographs

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The calypso islands of the West Indies are emerging as a major destination for traveling golfers in search of sun, sea and sand (beaches rather than bunkers). Paul Trow island-hops to sample some of the courses on offer while Mary Novakovich puts her feet up and relishes the lifestyle

aruba This hospitable island, barely 20 miles off the coast of South America, is a beguiling mix of cultures and landscapes.

About 80 different nationalities live harmoniously in this former Dutch colony, where the Atlantic trade winds protect the island from extreme temperatures. The cuisine combines Aruban creole spices with the succulent flavors of freshly caught lobster and giant shrimps. There are even Dutch favorites such as creamy Gouda and Edam cheese.

Inviting beaches of shimmering white sand are found along the coast, but head inland to explore the desert-like lands of the Arikok National Park and its unusual flora and fauna.

Aruba’s first proper golf course, Tierra del Sol, was designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr. and opened in 1995.

Located near San Nicolas on the northwest tip, just a 5-10-minute taxi ride from the major resorts, it is the island’s only 18-hole course. You will need your long-iron game, though, as the wind is often blowing despite the predominantly sunny, dry weather.

bahamas Colors of the Caribbean: from the beach huts on Turks & Caicos (above left) to the coral sea surrounding the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas (below left) and the idyllic setting of Temenos golf course on Anguilla (above)

anguilla It’s only 16 miles by three miles, but this tiny [Leeward] island manages to pack 33 of the world’s most beautiful beaches along its white-sand coast. It is also home to some of the smartest resorts in the Caribbean, including Sandy Ground and West End. Nature lovers come to Anguilla’s bays to be captivated by the sight of sea turtles nesting in the sands from April to November. Every July, the whole island buzzes as the summer festival takes over with dancing, parades, boat races and one of the Caribbean’s biggest beach parties. A former British colony (apart from a brief period during the 17th century when it was ruled by the French), Anguilla declared its independence in 1967 only to revert to British rule four years later. To this day it remains a dependency of the United Kingdom.

The main golf entertainment on Anguilla is provided by the CuisinArt Resort & Spa at Temenos on the island’s southwest coast, an 18-hole Greg Norman design that originally opened in 2009. Billed somewhat immodestly but not totally inaccurately as the Caribbean’s answer to Pebble Beach, this beautiful course offers dramatic changes in elevation and water features on 13 holes. Scrubland, ponds, dunes, marshes and mangrove are used as natural defenses, and the up-and-down nature of the terrain places a premium on careful club selection as well as accuracy.

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People haven’t stopped coming to the Bahamas since Christopher Columbus reportedly landed in San Salvador in 1492. This archipelago of some 2,000 islands near the Florida coast played a major part in the development of the slave trade and plantation economy. Nowadays there’s the pull of pink sandy beaches, kiteboarding, diving and some of the biggest resorts in the region. Laidback islands such as Eleuthera invite lazy days on pristine beaches, while the chic boutiques of Harbour Island can give your credit cards a horrendous bashing. Paradise Island is the setting for Atlantis, an enormous and spectacular resort that really is from another world.

Our Lucaya on Grand Bahama has two courses, originally designed by Dick Wilson but contemporized by Trent Jones, Jr. At Our Lucaya, the 18-hole Reef Course became part of Grand Bahama’s landscape in December 2000 when the links-style redesign kicked in. A good short game goes a long way on this breathtaking course.

The wide fairways may be a little forgiving but the huge bunkers protecting the greens are not. The large, level greens may please the eye but their speed will harm your scorecard. Add that to an unpredictable ocean wind, water in play on 13 holes and you have a formidable opponent.

Meanwhile, Wilson’s Lucayan Course tests your precision rather than distance, with doglegs, elevated greens and thick tropical foliage. Bring plenty of balls, even though the tall trees provide protection from other players on the course as well as shade.

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barbados

cayman islands

Centuries of British rule have left many marks on this bustling island in the eastern Caribbean. So along with brightly painted colonial plantation houses you’ll find people playing cricket and driving their cars on the left side of the road. But much of Barbados is strictly Caribbean: 70 miles of sweeping beaches, colorful carnivals and tours of rum factories. Seafood connoisseurs head to Oistins for the Friday fish fry, where the catch of the day is barbequed in a party atmosphere. Harrison’s Cave is one of the island’s natural wonders, where you can tour the dramatic limestone caverns, underground rivers and waterfalls.

The island has three main golf courses. Apes Hill, with generous fairways, strategically placed bunkers and spectacular views of the Caribbean, requires accuracy with its moderately-sized, contoured greens and multiple tees that allow for shorter carries and different routes around the hazards. Sandy Lane, an extraordinary place owned

by Irish multi-millionaire investors Dermot Desmond and J.P. McManus, has two Tom Fazio-designed courses—the Country Club and the highly exclusive Green Monkey that zigzags across a tabletop landscape and charges a green fee of $500. Then, a few miles south, there’s Royal Westmoreland, a great track that meanders naturally, and pleasingly, through a disused quarry.

Divers have plenty to entice them to these three low-lying islands south of Cuba. While pine trees and mangroves give Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman a luxuriant look, underwater corals, canyons and shipwrecks make the islands one of the world’s top diving destinations.

The marine life is spectacular, especially the tame stingrays that swim alongside snorkelers and divers at Stingray City.

Boatswain’s Beach in Grand Cayman is a unique marine theme park with a turtle farm and inviting saltwater lagoons. Life in this British overseas territory is agreeably slow and relaxed, particularly in Little Cayman and Cayman Brac.

The two top courses in Grand Cayman are Hyatt Britannia and North Sound. Hyatt Britannia consists of a nine-hole championship course and an 18-hole executive layout. North Sound (previously the Links at Safehaven), a 6,605-yard course designed in 1994 by Florida-based Roy Case, is close to the famous Seven-Mile Beach waters and set against the North Sound, making for both interesting play and panoramic views of the Caribbean. A combination of the natural Caymanian terrain and prevailing ocean breezes mean that North Sound’s narrow fairways and abundant water and sand make for a tough golfing challenge.

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Tame stingrays swim alonside snorkelers off the Cayman Islands

dominican republic Home to the Caribbean’s highest mountain and the New World’s oldest cathedral, the Dominican Republic is much more than a collection of all-inclusive resorts. Hikers and mountain bikers make the trek to the 10,164ft peak of Pico Duarte, while wildlife lovers and birdwatchers head to the salt-water Lake Enriquillo, the Caribbean’s lowest point and largest lake. Five centuries of Spanish history echo throughout the colonial buildings, shaded plazas and cobblestone streets of the buzzing capital, Santo Domingo.

But sun worshippers aren’t left out: beautiful sandy beaches are strung along the palm-lined Costa del Coco, including the luxurious resort at Punta Cana.

The Dominican Republic is by far the Caribbean’s busiest golf destination with more than 20 courses. Starting at Punta Cana, water is the dominant aspect of the P.B. Dye-designed La Cana course with ocean views on 14 holes while the other four are all positioned next to the beach.

Meanwhile, Dye’s father, Pete, designed all three layouts at the 5-star Casa de Campo resort, including the evocatively named and hauntingly beautiful Teeth of the Dog, which has more than its fair share of devilish doglegs, elevated greens and trick-of-the-eye trees. Also recommended are Guavaberry, a 7,156-yard, par-72 that borders a tropical forest and nature preserve at the Coral Costa Caribe Resort & Casino, and Punta Espada, a 7,396-yard monster perched on a limestone cliff at Cap Cana.

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Jamaica is abundant in natural beauty: the majestic Blue Mountains, the cascading Reach Falls and YS Falls, the quiet fishing villages along Treasure Beach, the deep waters of the Blue Lagoon. The capital, Kingston, hums with bustle and the sounds of reggae, and has a museum devoted to the island’s favorite son, Bob Marley. Lush hills cradle the coastline of Montego Bay, the site of some of the island’s most popular beaches. Hedonists head west to Negril, where white sandy beaches are backed by imposing limestone cliffs.

Cruise ships dock at Ocho Rios, giving passengers a taste of sweeping beaches and luxuriant botanical gardens.

Montego Bay is as near to a golfing Mecca as the Caribbean gets, with four superb courses separated by an hour’s drive strung out on the northwest coastline. Leading the way is the classical Robert Trent Jones, Sr. design at Half Moon, one-time home of James Bond creator Ian Fleming, that dates back to 1961. Next door is a 5-star Wyndham hotel and Cinnamon Hill, a course formerly named Three Palms, after the trees under which local legend Annee Palmer is supposed to have buried the three husbands she murdered. Play this course if only to take on the 8th hole, a glorious par-3 with tee and green on promontories and nothing but the Caribbean in between.

Across the road, and a major feat of engineering, is White Witch. No expense was spared to blast this beautiful course, where 16 of the 18 holes offer a sea view, out of rugged hillside with no topsoil. The other side of Montego Bay is the wind-exposed Tryall, carved in 1958 from an old sugar plantation by designer Ralph Plummer and surrounded by a gated community that was originally the brainchild of the film actor Errol Flynn.

puerto rico This small American territory still manages to retain centuries of Spanish colonial history. It’s a fascinating mixture of old and new, which you can see in the island’s capital, San Juan. Cobblestone streets are lined with restored 17th and 18th-century buildings painted in vivid colors, with Modernist and Art Deco structures in the modern urban center. Lush tropical rainforests cover the mountainous interior, but the coasts are fringed with glorious beaches in shades of sand ranging from bright white to volcanic black.

Some of the most beautiful beaches can be found on two tiny pretty offshore islands, Culebra and Vieques.

Hyatt Dorado Beach, built as a millionaires’ playground in the 1950s by the Rockefeller family and home to two Trent Jones, Sr. courses, East and West, staged the 1994 World Cup of Golf. Westin Rio Mar Beach also has two courses—the River and the Ocean—as does Trump International, located at Rio Grande, a half-hour drive from San Juan. The International and Championship courses at Trump International, designed by former U.S. Open champion Tom Kite, are spread across more than 1,000 acres of fertile Atlantic coastline.

The Green Monkey on Barbados (far left) and Punta Espada on the Dominican Republic (left) are two of the Caribbean’s finest courses

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Compared to other parts of the Caribbean, tourism is taking its time coming to St. Kitts and Nevis. St. Kitts is the larger of these two small islands in the eastern Caribbean, and much of it is taken up with wild volcanic peaks and dense tropical forests. The most developed area on St. Kitts is Frigate Bay, a sliver of land in the south of the island with major hotel chains and lively beach bars.

Cone-shaped Nevis is only two miles away across the Narrows Channel, but it’s more laid back. Many of the old sugar plantation houses have been turned into low-key yet luxurious accommodation.

The Trent Jones, Jr. course at the Four Seasons Nevis resort, dating from 1991, offers splendid views of St. Kitts. Across the water, Royal St. Kitts, designed by Thomas McBroom, is about to be joined by two important new cliff-top courses later this year—Tom Fazio’s creation at Christophe Harbour and Ian Woosnam’s layout at Kittitian Hill.

The 18-hole Robert Trent Jones, Jr. design at the Four Seasons Nevis resort offers splendid views across the island of St. Kitts

t rinidad Trinidad is one of the most vibrant islands in the Caribbean, where the cuisine and music—especially calypso—have a far wider influence than would be expected of such a small country. A cosmopolitan population mixes African with East Indian, Chinese, European and even Syrian. Its winter carnival is legendary in an area renowned for colorful festivals. The capital, Port of Spain, buzzes with lively and exuberant nightlife and excellent restaurants. Yet many of its beaches are unspoiled and pristine, with numerous quiet coves and bays to explore. Most of the tourism development has been taking place on Trinidad’s smaller sister island, Tobago.

St. Andrew’s Golf Club (also known as Moka) is Trinidad’s main course and was once home to Stephen Ames, the best golfer from the West Indies since the emergence of the colorful Chi Chi Rodriguez from Puerto Rico back in the early 1960s. One of the bastions of Caribbean golf, though, is Mount Irvine Bay in Tobago, laid out in 1968 by Commander John D. Harris in the grounds of an old coconut plantation with a view of the sea from every hole.

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Much of the focus on this archipelago south of the Bahamas is below sea level. The underwater coral gardens and shipwrecks attract divers and snorkelers, not to mention teeming marine life that is protected by the West Caicos Marine National Park. Dolphins and whales make an enchanting spectacle as they migrate through the Turks Passage in the wake of boats. Many of the hotels in this British territory cluster beside the 12 miles of white sands along Grace Bay on the isle of Providenciales. The islands’ capital, Cockburn Town, is tucked away on sleepy Grand Turk, where the historic streets take visitors right back to the 19th century.

Providenciales, better known as Provo, is home to the Turks & Caicos Islands’ main airport, the world’s only

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conch farm and, perhaps most importantly, the main golf course. Provo Golf & Country Club, an 18-hole Karl Litten design, wends its way through limestone outcrops and even though it has a total of just 16 bunkers, they are all big and deep, and strung out in a ‘desert’ style setting.

More worryingly for golfers with a nervous disposition are the 15 lakes and more than 3,500 palm trees, but the wide selection of native birds, like white egrets and pink flamingoes, should at least provide some welcome distraction.

u.s. virgin islands The United States of America bought the Virgin Islands from their former colonial masters Denmark in 1916, but there are still many echoes of the islands’ colorful Danish past. Distinctive pastel-colored houses with red roofs are to be found in the charming historic towns on the islands of St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix, as well as numerous Danish street names. About two-thirds of St. John is taken up with the Virgin Islands National Park, where the mountain trails are a great favorite with hikers of all levels of fitness. White sandy beaches fringe all three islands, where turquoise bays are backed by rainforest-covered hills.

Mahogany Run, constructed by George and Tom Fazio in 1979 on the north coast of St. Thomas, is considered one of the Caribbean’s most beautiful layouts.

Despite its friendly length of just over 6,000 yards, it’s a cunning challenge that rises and falls over a gentle valley between 80 and 200 feet above sea level. On most days, a steady Caribbean trade wind prevails, playing into the claws of the “Devil” lying in wait at holes 13, 14 and 15— the infamous Devil’s Triangle, populated largely by pelicans and iguanas. Meanwhile, the Trent Jones, Sr. design dating from 1966 at Carambola, the centerpiece of a luxury resort on the northwest side of St. Croix, winds enchantingly through a lush, tropical valley.

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above board It’s said that the two happiest days in a man’s life are the day he buys his boat and the day he sells his boat. When the boats in question cost upwards of $100 million we’re not sure where the happiness begins or ends—but who cares when they’re this beautiful?

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SAILING YACHTS

Perini Navi “Maltese Falcon”

Old-school yachtsmen like the wind at their backs and white sails unfurled overhead. Whether you’re sitting on deck with a cocktail and a good book or standing at the wheel with the salt spray flying, this is classic yachting at its best.

only slightly smaller than athena at 88 meters (289 feet), the Maltese Falcon is an altogether different sort of beast. built by Italian shipyard Perini Navi for another software developer and venture capitalist, Tom Perkins, the Falcon is more modern in appearance than athena and boasts a few substantial innovations. Chief among them is its “dynaship” concept build, based on a 1960s innovation meant to minimize the number of crewmembers necessary to control a vessel. as part of the concept, the Falcon uses a “dynarig” for sail control. rather than utilizing standard large sails, the Falcon has 15 square sails (five per mast). The sails are stored within the carbon fiber masts, which themselves are freestanding and can rotate. When the sails are deployed along the yards (which are already cambered at 12%), there are no gaps, meaning each mast effectively operates a single, large sail. The lack of rigging and ability of the masts to rotate means increased aerodynamics, which translates into more efficiency and thus more power. It’s been reported that the Maltese Falcon can make nearly 20 knots under sail alone. and while the permanent crew of 18 handles operations on the yacht, it is possible for a single person to control her. Her high-tech sail system is reflected below deck as well, in an interior that one magazine described as “like a spaceship with a lot of wood.” appointments are what you’d expect from a superyacht, including a gym, media lounge, etc., and along with luxury modern touches include two 32-foot tenders (with water skis), dive gear for six, four small sailboats, a 14-foot jet tender and a two-man submarine. Perkins, who has admitted to enjoying designing and building yachts more than sailing the final product, sold Maltese Falcon to IKoS hedge fund superstar elena ambrosiadou a couple of years ago, and the yacht is now available to charter.

Royal Huisman “Athena” among sailing yachts, athena is one of the best—and the biggest. built in 2004 by a team led by builders royal Huisman for software developer James Clark, the yacht is the largest private three-masted schooner, coming in at 90 meters (295 feet). approximately 2,500 square meters (almost 27,000 sq ft) of sail is available to move her forward at nearly 18 knots in a big wind, and all of it is managed via a sophisticated system that handles in-boom furling, lightening-fast tacks under full sail and quick stowage with the press of a button. as royal Huisman’s website has it, athena is “a resurrection of the spirited golden age of sail,” and in fact, at first appearance she does appear like something out of an old painting. Words like “stately” and “presidential” come to mind courtesy of a nostalgic silhouette and old world interior appointments trimmed with a variety of woods. There’s a media lounge, of course, a library, and plenty of other places to relax. The nearby main dining room seats 10 around a rich, oval, burl wood table.

When it’s time to retire, guests won’t mind ascending the stairs (complemented by sweeping, carved rails) to their staterooms, all of which are as lovely as you might imagine.

The owner’s suite is furthest aft and, like the rest of the yacht, awash in beautiful wood. The master bath features a whirlpool bathtub that seems as if it was made from a single block of marble, while the etched glass mirrors in the master bath keep things as old world as possible.

Guest rooms are similarly, if more modestly, appointed. and while the whole of athena seems to have sailed out of a beautiful past, it should come as no surprise that a superyacht commissioned by a software developer has all of the latest and greatest electronics. athena can be chartered in both the Caribbean and the Pacific.

Just don’t forget your white suit and your manners— this yacht is something special. RoyalHuisman.com

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Photo: Carlo borlenghi / Giuliano Sargentini

You can buy a luxury yacht and be captain of your own ship, or you can charter someone else’s yacht and leave the deck-swabbing to others. Whichever way you go, why not go big? Here, we look at some of the finest superyachts available from some of the best builders in the business. Whether you choose to charter one of their craft or to purchase one, we’re sure you’ll have happy days indeed. and feel free to invite us along.

VT Shipbuilding “Mirabella V”

MoTor YACHTS

Unlike her two superyacht sisters above, Mirabella v is a single-masted sailing yacht, the largest in the world in fact, at 75 meters (247 feet). despite her size and single-mast build she was designed to exceed 20 knots under sail, and she does it. The mast reaches nearly 300 feet, offering 36,500 square feet of sail area to move a vessel that’s as efficient as she is impressive. She doesn’t skimp on luxury, either. recesses where tenders are stored can be converted into a 20-person Jacuzzi and a dip pool (complete with in-area sound system). Up to 20 guests can dine in the elegant dining room or, if preferred, at an on-deck barbeque in the lounge, which also features a large projection screen “under the stars.” another media lounge takes care of the star-averse, while other areas accommodate guests looking for a quiet moment alone or together. Toys and service bits include two Waverunners, four small sailboats, windsurfers, diving equipment for six, kayak, trampoline and two tenders. With a crew of 14 and plenty of room, Mirabella v makes a fantastic charter, wherever you might want to find her. and if all of that weren’t enough, she also includes two remote-control models of herself. Fun! She can be chartered through Morley Yachts.

It’s tough to land a helicopter on a sailboat, and you’ll need power to push the weight that serious luxury adds to a yacht. Good thing there are companies making big engines—and luxury yachts worth pushing.

MorleyYachts.com

Nobiskrug “Sycara V” German shipbuilder Nobiskrug was founded in 1905 with just 18 people. Today part of yacht-building powerhouse abu dhabi Mar, the shipyard builds a wide array of naval and commercial vessels, focusing, since 2000, on “megayachts.” With several builds currently underway, some of the company’s best work is undoubtedly reflected in Sycara v. Measuring just over 220 feet (68m) in length, the steel-hulled yacht has a top speed of 17 knots and cruises at 14 knots. australian designer Craig beale handled both exterior and interior duties, and managed to create an environment more reflective of a modern home than of any sea-going vessel. Tasteful use of wood and marble is evident throughout in accents on sleeping quarters, baths and offices, while living spaces also benefit from soft marine tones and furnishings that are as comfortable as they are functional. The usual appointments are here—plenty of televisions, a piano, lovely dining areas—along with accommodations for 14 or so of your closest friends and 17 crew to keep things running. an eight-person hot tub and large barbeque area will make for great parties, and a glassed-in gym and massage area will make for relaxing after-party fitness. The yacht has two garages, with plenty of space for two tenders up to 33 feet long, Jet Skis, toys and a rescue tender as well. at water level there’s a bathing platform and lounging area, complete with bar and shower.

No wonder Sycara v won the World Superyacht award in 2011 for “best displacement Motor Yacht of 60m-84m.”

Look for upcoming surprises from Nobiskrug, including the Ice Class “explorer” and the rather futuristic “Conqueror,” the flagship of the company’s Messerschmitt Yacht division, styled as aggressively as its name and division suggest.

Nobiskrug.com

All photos are of the incredible, award-winning Sycara V

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Palmer Johnson “World”

Heesen 65

What began as a builder of wooden fishing boats more than 90 years ago is today one of the world’s premier yacht companies. With shipyards in its home country of Norway and the State of Wisconsin, and a customer list that includes luminaries such as the King of Spain (for whom it built the yacht “Fortune”), Palmer Johnson’s catalogue includes an array of stunning superyachts that boast aggressive performance, meticulous engineering and cutting-edge design. Yachts in the firm’s “Sport” series are offered in a variety of lengths and trims, culminating in the largest-in-series 210. Measuring just under 210 feet in length, she can move at 30 knots courtesy of twin engines that make 4,611 bhp each. With a huge master suite, room for 12 guests and 14 crew members, and a bevvy of amenities including a foredeck swimming pool, media center and several dining spaces, she’s eclipsed in luxury capabilities only by the company’s own “World” yacht.

Differing from the Sport series and built in partnership with Rolls Royce Marine, the PJ World is for those inclined to explore—comfortably. Measuring 267 feet in length, the World is an “Ice Class” superyacht, meaning she’s not relegated to cruising the Mediterranean. In fact, there are few oceanic places the World can’t go. She features both a helideck and a hangar/refueling station for the helicopter, so your bird won’t get thirsty or go for a swim in rough seas.

An in-hull garage holds a six-man Discovery submarine, entered via a James Bond-esque hatch. Thermal imaging, forward-scanning sonar, and an array of water cannons ensure those relaxing in the onboard spa’s Hammam will remain worry-free in terms of security. Likewise, the fully equipped gym, cinema, piano foyer, offices, and first-ofits-kind on-vessel “beach house,” which looks onto the pool deck, mean guests can stay busy and comfortable.

Though the crew of 27 (separate gym, mess and lounges of course) and guests are certainly looked after, the owner gets the grand prize when it comes to accommodations: The primary apartment covers the fourth, fifth and sixth decks, and includes a bedroom suite, walk-in dressing room, separate business and luxury lounges, office and a Jacuzzi sundeck with 360-degree views.

While the World won’t be compared to a Toyota Prius anytime soon, Palmer Johnson’s engineers did their best to make the vessel as environmentally responsible as an 82-meter superyacht can be. The Rolls Royce hull was specially optimized to the Diesel-Electric Azipull Propulsion system, increasing forward efficiency, and a host of other innovations were put in place to reduce overall running costs, harmful gas emissions and environmental impacts.

For example, a sophisticated station-keeping system allows the yacht to be “moored” without dropping an anchor on running lines, preserving the environmental integrity of sensitive seafloor areas. With interior design from Italian firm Nuvolari-Lenard, accommodations for all of your friends, the ability to go almost anywhere on the ocean and enough bells and whistles to keep any superspy, Hollywood director or king happy for years, Palmer Johnson’s World delivers exactly that.

While most yachts 200 feet in length respectably move along at speeds in the neighborhood of 13-15 knots, the Heesen 65 stands alone for its astounding get-up-and-go: a top speed of 27 knots with a cruising speed of 20 knots and a range of 4,200 nautical miles. The 65 (as in 65 meters, or 213 feet in length) achieves this remarkable performance via a fantastically engineered aluminum Fast Displacement Hull Form that Heesen claim improves hull efficiency by 30 percent, resulting in a 20 percent decrease in necessary power across its performance spectrum, which means less fuel needed, and so on. The yacht ticks all the boxes when it comes to looks as well, resembling what a young royal might draw in his notebook while daydreaming at school. A touch-and-go helideck sits forward of six guest cabins, a master cabin, upper-deck VIP suite, and all of the amenities one would call standard on a luxury superyacht, including a sauna, Hammam, fully equipped bar, and a glass-bottom swimming pool on the main deck (which allows natural light to shimmer through to the bar below).

Five gyro stabilizers mean things stay as comfortable as possible for guests relaxing in the already-plush interior or on the 20-meter (215 sq ft) sundeck, while those who want to get away from the crowd can grab one of the tenders that sit under gull-wing doors in the front, or escape to the water-level “beach club” at the stern.

HeesenYachts.nl

Photo: Dick Holthuis

A Heesen yacht’s aluminum hull under construction

PalmerJohnson.com

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life in pictures arnold palmer 1958, 1960, 1962 & 1964 Masters Champion

part 22

Clockwise: Clifford Roberts (in the white cap), Ken Venturi, Lloyd Mangrum and Arnold Palmer playing cards during the 1959 Masters at Augusta National

Mr. Palmer Arnold Palmer watches his ball carefully on the selects a blade to match the cut of his crease way to his second Masters victory in 1960

Making an adjustment while practicing at the 1962 Masters

In action on Sunday at Augusta National, 1962

Arnold Palmer rolls a long putt close to the pin on the 16th green during the third round of the 1962 Masters

A bespectacled Arnold Palmer watches another well-struck iron shot seek out a pin during the 1975 Masters

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It’s where Muhammad Ali’s undefeated record came to an end, where one of the country’s most iconic presidents was serenaded by one of the world’s most beloved women, and where animals that some consider to be mere pets are held up as champions. As anyone who works in front of an audience knows, you haven’t made it until you’ve played Madison Square Garden

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It was a terrible building. The old passenger depot for the New York and Harlem Railroad had seating for 10,000 but no roof, which made for a lot of sweaty people in New York City’s summers—and a lot of chattering teeth in winter. Still, the first Madison Square Garden had its charms. P.T. Barnum saw the potential in the “patched-up grimy, drafty, combustible, old shell” (as Harper’s Weekly called the building) and in the late 1800s opened “Barnum’s Monster Classical and Geological Hippodrome” on the corner of East 26th Street and Madison Avenue. The “Madison Square Garden” moniker came later, along with several reincarnations and an eventual move away from Madison Avenue. Today’s Madison Square Garden (“The Garden” to locals and “Garden IV” to historians) occupies the blocks along 8th Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets. About the only thing it has in common with the first Garden is the train station connection, as the current venue sits atop Penn Station. Like its predecessors, today’s Garden has its problems. But as the premiere performance space of one of the world’s premiere cities, it remains the ultimate proving ground for any kind of performance or competition.

Tileston, who next signed the lease. He expanded the venue to host sporting events such as tennis and horse riding, and built one of the country’s first indoor ice rinks on site. Tileston also boosted boxing, which had first come in under Gilmore and which was quite popular despite being illegal at the time.

New York was the first state to legalize competitive boxing, in 1896. Prior to that, matches were staged as “exhibitions” in which fighters were presented as “professors” who gave “illustrated lectures on pugilism.” It was a ridiculous pretense but it satisfied the authorities, many of whom were attending the “lectures” themselves no doubt.

When the Commodore died in 1877, his grandson William Vanderbilt took over and two years later made a lasting contribution by renaming the venue “Madison Square Garden.” William also added track and field meets, the National Horse Show, a cycling velodrome and more boxing. The boxing included bouts with the legendary pugilist John L. Sullivan, who regularly sold out exhibitions during a four-year stint at the Garden that began in 1882.

Barnum was still around as well, regularly exhibiting “Jumbo” the elephant, which he’d acquired from the London Zoo. Though a formidable venue, the lack of a roof eventually did it in with the public, and the first Garden was demolished in 1889.

Garden II

Joe Frazier corners Muhammad Ali during the ‘Fight of the Century’ in March 1971 (left). Above: A horse show from the 1890s in Garden I

Garden I The building used for the first Madison Square Garden, as mentioned before, was a bit of a wreck. Still, the former railway depot occupied a nice piece of real estate adjacent to Madison Square Park, which itself was named for a cottage that had been built there in honor of President James Madison. Owner Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt leased the depot to Barnum, who converted it into an arena where he staged Classical Roman chariot races, circuses and other spectacles. In 1876 the lease passed to Patrick Gilmore, a bandleader who renamed the building “Gilmore’s Garden” and then used it for all manner of events, including concerts, religious meetings, beauty pageants and flower shows. Under Gilmore’s tenure, the building also hosted the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, an event that would become a Garden staple. It was a dog show official, W.M.

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The following year, the second Madison Square Garden opened on the same site. Final costs exceeded the thenfantastic sum of $3 million, but the price didn’t bother the new ownership group, which included the likes of J.P. Morgan, W.W. Astor, and Andrew Carnegie. For their money they got a modern Beaux-Arts gem with a strong Moorish influence. The Garden’s bell tower was modeled after the “Giralda,” the bell tower at the cathedral in Seville, Spain, that had been converted from the minaret of a mosque originally built on the cathedral’s site.

In addition to putting the exclamation point on the building’s character, the tower was also New York’s secondtallest building, at 32 stories. The main hall was the largest in the world at 350 feet by 200 feet, and the structure’s several theaters, concert halls, and main restaurant—the largest in New York, with seating for 1,500—meant it was one of the world’s premiere event spaces. Standing proudly atop Garden II was a statue of the goddess Diana sculpted by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who also created Central Park’s sculpture of William Sherman and the “double eagle” U.S. $20 gold coin, still considered one of the most beautiful coins ever minted.

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1920 fight, and hosting a full 32 world championship bouts between 1925 and 1945. In cycling (still massively popular at the time), the Garden saw a team track cycling event named for its first incarnation, “Madison.” Madison events are still held, and have been a regular fixture of the Summer Olympics since 2000. Despite appearing in a film (1924’s “Great White Way”) and its place at the forefront of New York’s social and performance scene, the beautiful Garden II was demolished in 1925 to make way for the New York Life Insurance Company’s new headquarters. It was the end of Garden II, but not the end of Madison Square Garden.

Garden II in 1911 (left), but its end was nigh by the time New York governor Alfred E. Smith failed to win the 1924 Democratic presidential nomination (right)

Diana was popular—people even started referring to Madison Square Park as “Diana’s little park”—but, unfortunately, she was also huge: 18 feet tall and 1,800 pounds in weight. The fact that she was meant to spin with the wind didn’t help in terms of strength, and after her cloth cape was ripped off in a particularly strong breeze the statue was removed and installed atop a building in Chicago. Her luck didn’t get better, as Diana’s bottom half was subsequently destroyed in a fire, and the top half was eventually lost. A hollow (lighter) and smaller version replaced the original in 1893, and that statue now sits in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, with a smaller example on display in the current Madison Square Garden.

Architect Stanford White designed Garden II and ultimately met his end there, shot down by millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw while enjoying a performance in the rooftop cabaret. Both men were notorious womanizers, and the shooting was related to Thaw’s wife (and White’s former lover), the actress Evelyn Nesbitt. Somewhat ironically, Thaw waited until the cabaret’s final song, “I Could Love A Million Girls,” then produced a pistol and shot White three times. It was just one more story added to the Garden’s lore, which also included the annual French Ball (a lavish event at the time), the 1924 Democratic Convention, and the first-ever indoor American-style football match. Boxing at the Garden continued as well, with the new facility seeing Jack Dempsey’s famous knockout of Bill Brennan in the 12th round of a

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Garden III Madison Square Garden left Madison Avenue in 1925 and moved to the corner of 8th Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets. From the start, Garden III was a bit of a bust. It was designed by Thomas Lamb, a respected theater architect, which seems surprising as most considered the building unattractive to look at and unpleasant to visit. It looked like a big, plain box, with none of the style or grandeur of Garden II. Interior sight lines were terrible, with views all but blocked for anyone seated behind the first row of the upper deck.

Also, poor ventilation—combined with the then-popular and fashionable pursuit of smoking heavily—meant that anyone in the upper decks was also sitting in a brown cloud. Some of the building’s issues might be attributed to its rapid construction: 249 days from groundbreaking to opening. The man behind Garden III was boxing promoter Tex Rickard, who also has the distinction of naming the Garden’s hockey team, the New York Rangers. He enjoyed the play on words: “Tex’s Rangers”—get it? In any case, despite its many issues, Garden III carried New York from 1925 to 1968, and was the setting for many of the city’s (and country’s) storied moments.

Boxing, of course, factored into the Garden’s lineup, with the venue’s first bout happening a week before the official opening, and one of its most lauded battles occurring in 1941, when the then-record crowd of 23,190 people watched Fritzie Zivic beat Henry Armstrong. As mentioned, the New York

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Rangers started here and eventually won three Stanley Cups in the building, which they shared with the New York Americans, another hockey team, which suspended operations when America entered WWII. Following the war, efforts by Rickard and his partners ensured the Americans never re-formed.

Garden III also hosted the first-ever professional basketball game in 1925, between the Original Celtics and the Washington Palace Five (Celtics won, 35-31). The New York Knicks debuted here in 1946 but were hardly the headliners they are today, having to move their games to a nearby armory if an important college game wanted the Garden.

In 1937, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia spoke at a large “Boycott Nazi Germany” rally at the Garden. Two years later it was the Nazis’ turn, and the pro-Nazi “German American Bund” held its event, bringing a crowd of 20,000 to the Garden’s auditorium. (The group was outlawed two years later.) Evangelist Billy Graham held a rally here that ran every night for 16 weeks, Gene Autry hosted a rodeo here attended by 13,000, and in 1957 Marilyn Monroe appeared at the Garden riding an elephant for a party celebrating the film Around the World in 80 Days. Five years later she would make history at President John F. Kennedy’s Garden birthday party by serenading the President with a titillating version of “Happy Birthday to You,” the same year the final scene in The Manchurian Candidate was filmed here. Due, as ever, to revenue issues, in 1968 Garden III was torn down and the modern incarnation began.

MadIson square Garden Opened in 1968, the fourth Garden has survived longer than any of the others though, like the others, it’s no stranger to controversy. To make room for the massive structure New York’s Penn Station was torn down, destroying perhaps the city’s finest example of Beaux-Arts architecture and prompting the creation of the Landmarks Preservation ‘Happy Birthday, Mr. President,’ sings Marilyn Monroe in 1962

The Knicks overcome the Lakers to win the 1970 NBA Championship

Commission. Where the original Penn Station was heralded as a grand cathedral that served as many people’s first vision of New York, the current Penn Station—underneath Madison Square Garden—is mostly reviled for its cramped hallways, low ceilings and lack of aesthetics. As for the Garden itself, like its immediate predecessor it’s more functional than fashionable, and “functional” only begins to describe it. The Garden hosts more than 320 events per year, is the home of the Rangers, the Knicks and the WNBA’s New York Liberty, and still manages to provide a stage for some of the biggest political and sporting events in the world. Barnum would be happy to know that his circus still makes appearances, and the Westminster Kennel Club’s Dog Show is still here. Boxing fans revere the Garden as the site of the first Frazier–Ali bout (and many other legendary fights), basketball fans remember when the Knicks were on top, taking the 1970 championship here, and New York’s hockey fans were thrilled when the Rangers took their first championship here in what seemed like forever, in 1994.

For music, few venues on the planet have hosted more, or better, shows than the Garden. George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh, John Lennon’s final concert appearance, and The Concert for New York City (after the 9/11 attacks) were all here. Elton John has played the Garden 62 times, and declared it “my favorite venue in the whole world,” while Billy Joel played 12 performances in a row here in 2006 and announced that “Madison Square Garden is the center of the universe as far as I’m concerned.”

The Garden has been featured in far too many films to list; it’s hosted most of the world’s greatest performers and held many of the country’s premiere sports events. All of that said, it might follow suit with Gardens past and change locations at some point. Despite an $850-million renovation that’s underway (Phase I was just completed), current Garden leadership has said that it’s committed to a plan to relocate across the street, potentially utilizing property currently occupied by the James Farley Post Office. That building, which dates to 1912, is on the National Register of Historic Places, so the Garden might be staying put for a while. But wherever it is, Madison Square Garden is New York’s place to see and to be seen.

If you can make it here, you really can make it anywhere.

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est.1920

nestled at the foothills of the allegheny mountains in western pennsylvania lies one of golf’s genuine american treasures.

Latrobe Country Club is much more than 18 wonderful holes of golf...

This is where Arnold Palmer and his love of golf was born.

Stay in one of our guest houses for an experience unlike any other in golf...

Arnold Palmer plays here and you can, too.

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Love them or loathe them, the official world golf rankings are here to stay. They have sparked controversy on more than one occasion during the past 26 years, and have undergone several twists and tweaks along the way. However, as Mark Garrod reports, there are few, if any, obvious areas where they might be improved in the foreseeable future

Greg Norman and Tiger Woods have been No.1 a total of 954 weeks

There is one main reason why the 1986 Masters Tournament will always be remembered in golfing history.

It was the week, of course, that Jack Nicklaus— without a major win in the previous five seasons and, at 46, considerably older than any previous champion at Augusta National—roared through the back nine in a mere 30 strokes, overtook the formidable sextet of Seve Ballesteros, Greg Norman, Tom Kite, Tom Watson, Nick Price and Bernhard Langer, and claimed not only a record sixth green jacket, but also his 18th (and final, it was to prove) victory in one of golf’s premier championships.

There is another reason, though, to recall what many regard as one of golf’s greatest-ever tournaments. It was also the week that saw the launch of the official world golf rankings.

Not many words were devoted to the fact that, thanks to his spectacular victory, the ‘Golden Bear’ moved up from 33rd to 19th. His performance rather transcended such a trifling consideration. But during the course of the 26 years since then, the rankings have assumed an ever-increasing importance—not just in helping to settle arguments about who is top dog, but also for determining entry now into the most prestigious events.

The complexities of a system that rates performances all around the world inevitably lead to fierce debate at times, but the bottom line is that all governing bodies accept and use it, while the players know what is at stake

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whenever they play. And also, it should be pointed out, whenever they don’t play.

Take the case of Spain’s Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano.

A debut in this year’s Masters Tournament awaited him if he could finish 2011 in the world’s top 50, but when his last event—the Dubai World Championship—ended on December 11 he was 52nd.

All was not lost, though. Because positions are determined by a points’ average rather than a points’ total over a two-year period, he did not have to hit another shot to move above Jim Furyk, Ryo Ishikawa and Gary Woodland by the end of the year and, as a consequence, he will be teeing it up at Augusta for the first time in 2012.

Constant tinkering has taken place over the quarter of a century since the launch. This was originally prompted by the Royal & Ancient Golf Club’s realization that a proper framework was needed to justify the invitations it issued to the Open Championship, especially as more top players were dividing their time between different Tours.

From 1968 to 1985, Mark McCormack’s annual publication, World of Professional Golf, ranked players unofficially, so the template had long been established when the first official list was released, on April 6th, 1986.

It was headed by Langer, the defending Masters champion, Ballesteros and the 1985 Open winner Sandy Lyle, although any accusations of a European bias were countered by the fact that there were 14 Americans in the top 20 and 31 in the leading 50. At first, the calculations were made over a three-year period, with points gained in the most recent year multiplied by three and the previous year by two. Majors were naturally awarded the most points and it was a straightforward total that determined positions.

Langer’s reign lasted only three weeks with Ballesteros taking over when he was runner-up to Howard Clark in the Madrid Open. Over the following three years the No.1 spot bounced backwards and forwards between the charismatic Spaniard and Greg Norman.

The rankings had been going for only nine months, though, before it was decided to give greater value to form in the current year, so at the start of 1989 the points’ total system was changed to one determined by points’ average.

McCormack’s International Management Group (IMG) operated the rankings during the early years and he remained chairman of the governing board until his death in 2004, after which Sir Michael Bonallack—a former secretary of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club—took over the chairmanship and a newly-incorporated Official World Golf Ranking company was formed following an acquisition from IMG. The switch was made from a three-year system to a two-year one in 1996, while current form is also given more

weight by gradually decreasing the points earned as time passes. For instance, with 100 points initially awarded for each major victory, Keegan Bradley’s PGA Championship win last August was worth 92.39 points at the end of 2011 compared to the 16.3 that Phil Mickelson was still credited with, entering 2012, for his 2010 Masters victory.

Other events around the world are graded and then adjusted depending on the strength of the field. K.J. Choi earned 80 points at the Players Championship last June, while the 2011 World Golf Championships victories by Luke Donald, Adam Scott, Nick Watney and Martin Kaymer were worth 76, 76, 74 and 62 points respectively at the time.

It is also important to note that a player’s average is often not a straightforward calculation of points earned divided by tournaments entered. If that was the case, those who played more than most would be unduly punished, while it would also be possible for a newcomer to the paid ranks, or a player who had been sidelined by injury, to leap to the top of the tree with an early success.

Most players play between 45 and 55 events over a two-year period, so to create what the governing board consider to be the fairest and most balanced system, minimum and maximum divisors of 40 and 52 are used.

When England’s Tom Lewis won on only his third start as a professional, for example, he earned 34 points. If that had been divided by three rather than 40 he would instantly have been installed as world No.1.

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Tiger Woods is also currently on the minimum divisor following his injury lay-off last season and the time he spent out of the game for personal reasons before that.

It explained his rise all the way from 52nd to 21st when he finally got back to winning ways at the Chevron World Challenge last December.

Some believe that limited-field tournaments like that—Woods had only 17 other players to beat—should not carry world ranking points. But, it was decided in 2004 to include such events provided they were Tour-sanctioned and all the players qualified rather than merely received invitations, and on the basis of this criteria the Chevron World Challenge was added to that list in 2009. However, from this season onwards it has been agreed that the number of points on offer at such events will be reduced.

Every system has its knockers, but at least the scenario that nearly came to pass in men’s tennis last summer cannot be replicated in golf. Rafael Nadal was world No.1 going into Wimbledon, but even if he had beaten Novak Djokovic in the final, rather than lost to him, the Serb would have taken over at the top. And that a month after the Spaniard had won the French Open. Work that one out if you can!

At the time of writing, 15 players have been world No.1 in men’s golf—and six have held the position at the pinnacle of the women’s game since their ranking system, under the sponsorship of Rolex, was introduced in 2006.

Careers are still remembered mostly for performances in majors, but there is an argument that topping the rankings is the greater achievement. After all, there are no one-hit wonders on the roll-call of No.1s.

That said, many question a system that has crowned five players—Ian Woosnam, Fred Couples, David Duval, Lee Westwood and Luke Donald—before they had won a major. But consistency is the key—so much so that it is theoretically possible to reach No.1 without winning any titles at all. However, Woosnam, Couples and Duval all

Luke Donald (below) is the 15th player to top the world rankings

subsequently became major champions and many pundits believe it is only a matter of time before at least one of the English pair follows suit.

Donald dethroned Westwood by beating him in a playoff for the European Tour’s flagship BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth last May, and then revealed how much the achievement meant to him. “It’s something that will be a great story when I’m an old man, telling my grandkids that I was once the best player in the world at golf,” he enthused. “It’s obviously a special accomplishment, something that I’ll remember forever. It’s a little surreal and hard to believe in a certain way, but I’m not going to lie—being No.1 feels fantastic.”

Phil Mickelson, for one, would love to know what it feels like. He was in second place for well over 250 weeks while Woods dominated the game, but when his great rival started sliding he was not able to take advantage.

At least he has three Masters titles and a PGA Championship under his belt. Colin Montgomerie, Steve Stricker and Sergio Garcia are among the others who got to No.2 but never No.1—and none of them has managed even one major. Time is still on Garcia’s side, and Stricker could yet do a “Darren Clarke” in the twilight of his career.

But Montgomerie, eight times European No.1, runner-up in five majors and Ryder Cup performer par excellence for a decade and a half, will be 49 in June, so it is probably fair to say his days as a major contender are behind him.

He may well curse the consistency that saw him occupy the top-10 in the world rankings for so long during an era when most of the majors seemed to be carved up either by Woods or flash-in-the-pan journeymen having the week of their lives—but he should in reality regard it as a more-than-worthy consolation prize. We keep hearing that class is permanent while form is temporary—surely the history of the official world golf rankings proves this point to a tee.

For the record Fifteen players have occupied the No.1 spot in the World Golf Rankings since their introduction nearly 26 years ago. This is the roll call with the number of weeks each player spent at the top in brackets: 1986 1986-89 1986-98 1990-94 1991-92 1992 1994-95 1997 1997-2010 1997-98 1999 2004-05 2010-11 2011 2011-12

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Bernhard Langer (3 weeks) Seve Ballesteros (61) Greg Norman (331) Nick Faldo (97) Ian Woosnam (50) Fred Couples (16) Nick Price (44) Tom Lehman (1) Tiger Woods (623) Ernie Els (9) David Duval (15) Vijay Singh (32) Lee Westwood (22) Martin Kaymer (8) Luke Donald (40 as of 2/27/12)

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Plastic surgeons are less careful suturing scars on supermodels than Arnold Palmer is when signing an autograph. He appreciates many will be framed and mounted in conspicuous places for multitudes to admire. Chris Rodell reports on Latrobe’s latest development But a truly concrete example of just how meticulous he can be with his signature will be visible to just a handful of maintenance workers who venture into a room that few people even know exists.

It’s the sprinkler room in the bowels of the new $8.5 million SpringHill Suites by Marriott on Arnold Palmer Drive about a half-mile from Latrobe Country Club. The nearly two-foot long signature isn’t as precise as more conventional signings, but no one can argue he was rushed.

It took him an hour to complete the signature and, like the final round drive on No. 1 at the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills, the man really nailed it.

“He climbed down in a hole so the floor was about waist high,” says Brad Thomas, senior project manager for Continental Building Systems of Columbus, Ohio. “He took a two-inch nail and scratched his name in the wet concrete.

He was unhappy with how it looked so he grabbed a trowel and erased it. He came back an hour later when the concrete was a little more set. It’s beautiful and will be there long after me and the men who built the building are gone.”

While one of Mr. Palmer’s most offbeat autographs will go unseen, the rest of the hotel—set to open in June—is pure Palmer. A replica of the Masters trophy and Palmer portraits will anchor the lobby. Historic score cards, memorabilia and admiring letters from Presidents will enjoy prominent display.

Each of the three lodging floors will be themed to remind guests of marquee courses pivotal to the Palmer legend (Augusta National, Oakmont and St. Andrews are being considered as honorees). The hotel is the realization of a dream of a man whose dreams, like the man himself, are always larger than life.

“I don’t remember him being more actively involved in any project in the 24 years I’ve been associated with Arnold Palmer,” says Bob Demangone, Mr. Palmer’s advisor and direct representative on the project. “We’ve for more than 10 years been interested in building a Latrobe hotel that would be beneficial to the community and give golfers an opportunity to enjoy historic Latrobe Country Club.

“Using Bay Hill as the model, we wanted a high quality lodging place where guests could come and enjoy golf and the club facilities and enjoy all the Laurel Highlands have to offer. And with Concord Hospitality Enterprises, we found a developer who, along with SpringHill Suites by Marriott, brought exactly the brand quality we were seeking.”

For Marriott, linking their name to Palmer’s is the most felicitous meeting since peanut butter joined jelly.

“It’s unique to have one person, even a legend like Mr. Palmer, used as the brand for a single hotel,” says Kevin McAteer, vice-president of marketing and sales for the Raleigh-based Concord group. “The only other person I can think of whose name will be as closely associated with

The new Marriott is located about a half-mile from Latrobe Country Club

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a single hotel is Steve Wynn in Las Vegas. For us, I can’t think of a better name with whom to be associated.”

Selling hotel rooms in the current economy takes a lot of work. That might be why those tasked with filling the new Palmer hotel sound as if they’ve just slipped into a jacuzzi when talking about selling any of the 109 rooms at Latrobe’s newest hotel.

“I had people six months before the hotel was even set to open contacting me about staying there,” says sales director Tiffany Price. “Usually, it’s the other way around.”

Andrew Shaw is the hotel’s regional director of sales and marketing. He said room and golf packages will start at $169 and will include golf and cart. In addition, guests will enjoy the opportunity to have lunch or dinner in the club’s elegant dining room where the walls, too, are festooned with unique Palmer memorabilia.

“This is a great hotel for people who will be in Latrobe on business, or are there to enjoy the Pittsburgh Steelers summer training camp at St. Vincent College,” says Shaw. “But for people who golf or grew up idolizing Arnold Palmer it’s a dream hotel. It’s going to be ideal for golfers from in and around the western Pennsylvania market who’ll want to get a group together for a getaway weekend of golf at the home course of the most famous name in the game.”

Demangone says he along with Roy and Amy Saunders are being diligent in balancing the welcome influx of guests with the sensitivities of their first priority: Latrobe Country Club members. “We’re confident we’ll be able to entertain all the hotel guests who want to enjoy the club without infringing on our membership,” he says. “They will always be our priority, and we think they’ll come to see this as a win-win for everyone.”

If they do as good a job pleasing the various interests as Thomas has done with the construction crew building the hotel, they’ll all be satisfied.

The hotel builder is a man who wears many hats, most of them hard. Besides supervising construction projects coast-to-coast, he and his girlfriend own a Nashville saloon (Losers Last Chance II) and race quarter horses in Colorado.

More to Latrobe than Arnold Palmer Many of the golfers who fly into the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport and take the courtesy shuttle to the Arnold Palmer SpringHill Suites

by Marriott on Arnold Palmer Drive may be surprised to learn that there’s more to Latrobe than Arnold Palmer.

Who could blame them? Well, multitudes of Pittsburgh Steeler fans, for starters. For them, Latrobe’s St. Vincent College has for 46 years been the summer camp of the six-time world champion NFL team.

The scenic 200-acre-campus of this top-rated liberal arts and sciences college is towered over by the magnificent Saint Vincent Basilica and boasts two LEED silver certified green buildings—the Fred M. Rogers Center and the recently-opened $39 million Sis and Herman Dupré Science Pavilion which features an architecturally-impressive threestory glass-walled atrium with solar paneled roof. An historic working gristmill and coffeehouse are also a popular stop for visitors. The campus is also home to the sylvan splendors of the Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve. It was opened in 2007, and named after Arnold’s late wife who had fought hard to preserve the land from development for the community. Its centerpiece is a beautifully restored 19th-century barn, but it is the nature and serenity of the land that really inspire.

Watching him interact with the crew—something Palmer and Demangone did at least once a week—must have been like watching Gen. George S. Patton preparing his troops for battle. He is fluent in profanity, suffers no fools, and talks about the man he calls “The Big A” the way pretty little girls do when they think they’re in love.

“I’ve worked construction for owners all across the country and most of them look at guys like me like we’re tools, not people,” he says. “Not him. Hell, if that man asked me to build him a Taco Bell in Nova Scotia in winter, I’d start packing my parka.

“I never thought I’d meet a man I could admire as much as I admire my own father, but The Big A comes close. We took a lot of pride in building this place because we knew we were doing it for him. And he’s not a man anyone would ever want to disappoint.”

The beautiful Latrobe Country Club

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Arnold PAlmer’s neighbors

b

enedictine monks from bavaria came to latrobe, Pennsylvania to begin their first educational foundation in the United states in 1846. From humble beginnings, saint Vincent has grown into one of the premiere educational institutions in the United states. sponsored by saint Vincent Archabbey, a liberal arts and sciences college offers undergraduate and graduate education of the highest quality and a seminary offers preparation for the priesthood and graduate studies in theology. located adjacent to Arnold Palmer’s latrobe Country Club, Arnold Palmer regional Airport and the springhill suites by marriott, saint Vincent welcomes students and visitors from all over the world to its scenic campus and outstanding educational, cultural and recreational facilities including the Fred m. rogers Center, Winnie Palmer nature reserve and the sis and herman duprÊ science Pavilion. Plan a campus visit whenever you are in the neighborhood!

archabbey | college | seminary latrobe, Pennsylvania, Usa | 724.532.6600 | www.stvincent.edu

There is so much ThaT can

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arnold Palmer Designers of Arnold Palmer Signature courses and architects of Palmer Refresh www.arnoldpalmerdesign.com | (407) 876–1068

An easy smile and a wicked swing A true sportsman’s style and sophistication A genuine approachability A trendsetter and a traditionalist A man of his word The gentleman athlete The father and the friend Host of the API presented by MasterCard The pilot and the businessman The Icon

The King.

On The House The history of golf-course design is well-documented and has been studied assiduously for well over 100 years. But it is often overlooked that even the humblest public layout has a building where players can change, shower and socialize over refreshments.

The architectural variety of these constructions, at all levels of the game, often matches the design skills in evidence out on the course.

Jack Ross charts the rise of the clubhouse as an art form from its earliest years in mid-19th century Scotland to the present day

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The R&A clubhouse at St. Andrews (left) dates back to 1854.

Its iconic U.S. equivalent is arguably to be found at Winged Foot (below)

Even though golf was taking root in Scotland as long ago as the 1400s, it was not until much later that the concept of the golf club emerged.

One of the oldest surviving golf clubs, The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, was founded in 1754 as a response to the need for a gathering place for golfers.

When the members of the R&A constructed their current stately, stone clubhouse in 1854, they gave birth to a movement that has evolved in leaps and bounds over the past century.

In his classic book about clubhouses, The 19th Hole, architect Richard Diedrich observed: “The clubhouse is so highly regarded in the game of golf that it is considered an extension of the game itself.” His nephew, Mark Diedrich, a principal at the design firm of Kuo Diedrich, elaborated on that theme in stating that “the club is a brand for the community. It’s the front door to the golf experience.”

Moreover, as the golf experience has changed radically from the first swipes at a gutta percha ball on the Scottish links, so too has the clubhouse.

The clubhouse serves as the focal point of the golf community. Virtually all clubhouses share core common features: a lobby, which serves as the welcoming place for visitors and a gathering place for members; a pro shop, which serves as a golf check-in and retail store; locker rooms, which can vary from Spartan facilities to elaborate areas complete with lounges and attendants; and food and beverage services, ranging from casual grill rooms to formal dining and banqueting areas. But a clubhouse’s size, style, degree of formality and general amenities vary greatly, reflecting the evolution of the social and economic dimensions of the game of golf.

Over the next few pages, we reflect on the roots and complex evolutionary processes that characterize the art (and science) of clubhouse design.

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The ClassiCs Starting at the beginning, the R&A clubhouse sits prominently above the 1st tee of the famed Old Course.

Designed by George Rae in a neo-classical style, this imposing building has been expanded eight times since 1854 to accommodate the growth of the club, but with great care to retain a visual unity. The famous balcony overlooking the 1st tee and 18th green of the Old Course was added in 1899, and the clubhouse as a whole is no doubt the most enduring architectural symbol of golf.

The clubhouses at the other courses that regularly host The [British] Open Championship are far from the first flush of youth. This is indeed the case with the red-brick, Victorian structure, dating back to 1898, that presides over Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club on the northwest coast of England, where this year’s Open will take place from July 19-22. It is also famous for its “dormy” houses, quaint outbuildings where visitors may lodge.

As golf began to flourish in the United States at elite private clubs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, clubhouses took on a distinctively American look and feel that reflected the demographics, cultures and values of the members. In contrast to many of the early Scottish clubs (the R&A being a notable exception), where the casual, almost ramshackle style of many clubhouses reflected a more inclusive approach to golf, the first generation of United States clubhouses was typified by large, stately buildings, formal dining rooms, private grill rooms and elaborate locker rooms.

Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York, is a classic example. The architect, Clifford Charles Wendehack, used stone removed from the site to construct the imposing, neo-classical clubhouse in an effort to achieve harmony with the surroundings. Richard Diedrich commented that “in the United States, there is arguably no other clubhouse that is so iconic to the game of golf.”

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The clubhouse designer must always be sensitive to the environs and the local vernacular. Stanford White, who designed Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York, selected a shingle style typical of the Long Island coast that harmonized with the striking links-course setting. Shinnecock Hills, which opened in 1893, is recognized as the first clubhouse built specifically for golf in the United States. Diedrich described Shinnecock Hills as “the quintessential clubhouse serving only golf,” and observed that “the natural feel of the roof and wall shingles, weathered to a silvery grey, is set off by the white painted classic details, fluted columns and Palladian windows.”

Medinah Country Club, venue for the 2012 Ryder Cup in September, boasts a unique clubhouse built in a Byzantine style. Richard Gustav Schmid, who was already well-known for designing facilities for the Shriners, created a domed central structure flanked by a campanile and a lighthouse. Brick textures and tiles add complexity to the façade. The interior, featuring the impressive dome room with columns and ornate painted ceilings, is perhaps more reminiscent of a church than a golf clubhouse, while terraces covered by awnings overlook the course.

Oakmont Country Club, which has hosted eight U.S. Open championships and will do so again in 2016, features a Tudor style clubhouse, constructed in 1904, that has a twin-gabled roof almost as famous as the sprawling “Church Pews” bunkers between the 3rd and 4th holes.

The clubhouse was intended as a retreat for steel tycoon H.C. Fownes and his friends in the days when it was a train ride from downtown Pittsburgh to the Oakmont stop.

Once on site, a horse-drawn carriage was there to meet and transport passengers about a mile up the hill to the club.

A comfortable country home is the atmosphere Fownes set out to achieve at Oakmont. The generations that followed worked hard to maintain that feel.

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OakmOnT hiTs The ROOf When it became necessary to replace the roof on Oakmont’s Tudor-style clubhouse in 2002, the club turned to TAMKO. The firm’s METALWORKS steel shingles provide a classic, historic look and complement the existing metal roof. The project encompassed approximately 215 squares of shingles, which were selected personally by the general contractor, who is a member of the club. The shingles feature a highly effective four-way locking system that provides longlasting protection from demanding weather conditions.

The clubhouses at Medinah (below) and Oakmont (above)

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mOdeRn TRends

Courtesy of CCI Club Design

Courtesy of Evan Schiller

The University of Texas clubhouse (below) was designed by CCI to appeal to the golf club’s younger membership

The modern clubhouse, to be effective, must respond to the process of change. Ryan Yakel, executive vice-president and chief operating officer of CCI Club Design, explained that private clubs now face competition from high-end resort courses, which have upgraded their standards. “The clubs must respond,” he said. “We’re seeing more bar/ lounges and informal, casual dining. The days of coatand-tie service and tableside flambé service are dying.”

A good example is The University of Texas Golf Club.

The club, which is in a residential, gated development, is owned by two alumni and includes a training facility for the university golf teams. The average age of a member is 45 and there are 600-700 children. CCI used stone construction with heavy timber beams and trusses, limestone walls, and vaulted ceilings. The casual look and feel of the bar and lounge area appeals to the younger membership.

“Many say the age of the large clubhouse is gone—that there’s no room for large clubhouses with formal amenities like banqueting areas and ballrooms. I disagree 100%,” commented S. Vic Jones, Jr., principal with Clubhouse Architects and Interiors.

Proof of that contention may be found in the CCI-designed clubhouse at the Country Club of Orlando, which adheres to a standard of formality typical of classic clubhouses, including a 20-foot tall grand ballroom with crystal chandeliers and antique gold wall sconces. “This was a total rebuild,” observed Yakel. CCI created a SpanishMediterranean style clubhouse with a rich stucco finish, cast stone trim and custom roofing tile. The clubhouse has a grill with French doors opening to a covered patio that, in Yakel’s words, “brings the course into the clubhouse.”

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Courtesy of CCI Club Design

The ultimate in modernity is The Bridge in Bridgehampton, New York. The striking design is sustainable through the use of materials and day lighting, but also features a finely detailed naturally-finished wood wall and metal-framed canopy. Glass and metal walls predominate, and the lockers feature frosted glass.

Jeffrey Fossum, principal with Z Design Group, explained that “a clubhouse cannot be designed in a box and dropped into a site—design flows from the natural environment.” The Entrada at Snow Canyon Country Club in St. George, Utah, is a good example of meshing clubhouse design with the natural environment. The club is located in a canyon in the mystical red sandstone region of southern Utah, surrounded by red mesas.

Richard Diedrich says “the clubhouse appears to be an extension of the very cliffs, rock outcroppings and red earth in which it is embedded.” The interior employs abundant natural light which creates an expansive sense of space.

Similarly, the Palmer Clubhouse at the Westin La Cantera Resort in San Antonio, Texas achieves a symbiosis between design and the environment. The stone and rough-hewn wood structure blends into the native limestone, and was designed to capture views of the surroundings. “There needs to be transparency between the inside and the outside,” noted Fossum, whose firm designed the building.

In contrast to the traditional private club model, resort facilities present different challenges for designers, typically requiring more amenities and larger pro shops.

Some years ago, the owners of the Lansdowne Resort and Conference Center overlooking the Potomac River decided to add a golf clubhouse that would have a separate identity from the hotel. Yakel explained that the clubhouse was conceived and designed to convey a “members’ club” feeling. Accordingly, CCI steered clear of the more traditional, Georgian brick and white column look, and designed the clubhouse in a Virginia country house style.

Given that most of the recent developments in clubhouse design are taking place overseas, notably the Middle East, the Els Club in Dubai illustrates the adaptation of the clubhouse to the Middle East culture and environment. The clubhouse was inspired by Andalusian influences and includes a dramatic arrival court and central atrium.

The CCI-designed Country Club of Orlando (above) and the ultra-modern Bridge at Bridgehampton (below)

There are also a number of firms capitalizing on the golf boom in China. The Nine Dragons Golf Resort in Shanghai features a dramatic 83,000 square foot clubhouse in the tradition of an Italian countryside hill village with details such as a grand waterfall cascading through the central glass atrium, a two-story rotunda, and a clock tower.

From its origins at St. Andrews, through the classic genre typified by Winged Foot and Oakmont, to modern variations on the theme at the likes of The University of Texas Golf Club and Entrada at Snow Canyon, and finally to radically different approaches in foreign venues, the clubhouse has proven to be an adaptable structure on the ever-changing golf landscape. One can only speculate how creative architects will confront the task of designing a clubhouse if man ever succeeds in colonizing the moon or other planets.

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CLeAr CHOiCe As crystalline as vodka appears, its story is a bit muddled. The spirit was first distilled in either Russia or Poland, sometime between the 11th and 14th centuries, and it essentially stayed in Europe until the 1950s.

It didn’t really gain popularity in the United States until the 1970s, but boy did it take off then, even outpacing bourbon in terms of sales. Today, as perhaps the most adaptable and mixable spirit ever, vodka is also one of the most popular spirits on the planet. Here, we offer three examples of cocktails that have their origins in gin, but which are arguably more popular when mixed with vodka, the clear solution to any cocktail conundrum.

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Kru Martini The first Martini was mixed in San Francisco—or was it New York? Wherever the drink started, there’s no doubting what led to its popularity: Prohibition.

The proliferation of bathtub gin, the lack of available options, and the relatively simple ease of preparation made the Martini the drink of choice for speakeasy patrons. Years later someone had the bright idea to mix one with vodka, and the rest is history. H.L. Mencken called the drink “the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet,” and when the Martini is made with Kru Vodka we wholeheartedly agree.

• 1½ oz Kru Vodka • ¾ oz Dry Vermouth • Olives for garnish Pour the Kru Vodka and the Vermouth into an ice-filled cocktail glass and stir for approximately 30 seconds. Strain into a chilled Martini glass and garnish with an olive.

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French 76

Elderflower Collins

This is a vodka-based variation on the more common French 75, which is itself a variation of a cognac-based drink first created in 1915 at the storied Harry’s New York Bar in Paris (then called just the New York Bar).

That drink, called a Soixante Quinze (“75”), supposedly hit as hard as a French 75mm artillery shell. You’ll find our version is much smoother.

Lacking portable radios, television, the Internet and other basic modern diversions, people in the late 1800s took great delight in large-scale practical jokes. One of the most famous in the United States was the “Tom Collins Hoax,” which gained popularity in 1874. Basically, a stranger would approach you on the street and say, “Hey! You’re that guy Tom Collins was talking about!”

When you replied that you didn’t know anyone named Tom Collins, the stranger would say, “He’s saying some bad stuff about you! I just saw him—he’s around the corner in that bar over there!” At which point you would angrily dash around the corner to find Tom Collins, who of course didn’t exist. Whatever its merits as entertainment (songs were written about the hoax and numerous newspapers ran “sightings” of the fictional Tom Collins), it was turned into a drink in 1876 by Jerry Thomas, who has been called the father of American mixology. Our version uses Kru vodka and adds elderflower liqueur for a bit of floral sweetness to offset the acid in the lemon.

• ¾ oz Kru Vodka • 2 tsp superfine sugar • ¼ oz lemon juice • 4 oz Moët & Chandon Champagne Vigorously stir Kru Vodka, sugar and lemon juice in an ice-filled shaker and strain into a champagne flute. Fill with Moët & Chandon and serve. *Add a dash of grenadine if you like.

• 1½ oz Kru Vodka • ¾ oz Elderflower liqueur • Juice from ½ a lemon • Soda water Shake Kru Vodka, elderflower liqueur and lemon juice and strain into an ice-filled Collins glass. Top with soda water, then garnish with lemon slice or drop a cherry in the glass.

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Les Puces in Paris—“The Fleas”—is one of the world’s great shopping experiences. Covering more than 17 acres of ground at Porte de Clingancourt, the market’s dealers present a vast selection of antiques, collectibles and furnishings. Approximately 200,000 shoppers peruse the offerings at Clingancourt each weekend, but the market has millions of customers because one need not visit Paris to shop there. In fact, shoppers can visit The Fleas— and similar markets in other top cities around the world—from the comfort of their own beds if they like, thanks to 1stdibs.com.

The website is the brainchild of entrepreneur Michael Bruno, who invested a lot of thought and sweat equity into delivering the world’s best to people’s homes. Bruno and his team have spent years becoming the best resource for antiques and vintage design, building a network of dealers that offer furniture, jewelry, fashion, art and, more recently, fine homes. The result is that decorators, aficionados and novice collectors alike have near-instant access to an unparalleled collection of luxury offerings that otherwise would have remained hidden treasure, buried in galleries and with dealers around the world.

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Time to browse: Rolex watches are among more than 100,000 items of inventory on offer each year from 1stdibs.com

InformatIon

SelectIon

While many of the 2 million visits 1stdibs.com receives each month are from connoisseurs, collectors and high-profile design professionals, the site offers a particularly special opportunity for those without any serious knowledge of fine art, jewelry or antiques. Those curious perhaps to pick up a special something or to get involved in serious acquisitions can peruse markets at leisure without the potential stress or intimidation of an intimate showroom with an expert nearby. (Not to mention, exposure to 1stdibs.com’s selection would entail a lifetime of traveling the globe.)

Browsers can spend hours (or days) examining what’s on offer and researching designers, artisans and companies that heretofore might have been unknown to them. Then, when they’re ready, customers can use 1stdibs.com to deal directly with the dealers. The website vets all of the dealers it works with, visiting each dealer’s shop before signing them on to ensure the integrity and viability of services.

Consequently, customers can be confident that the items they’re seeing are the real deal, whether it’s a Louis Comfort Tiffany stained-glass window for $2.6 million, a Louis XVI chair from the royal collections of Versailles for $124,000 or a 1980s Ann Klein dress for $795. It’s an absolutely privileged way to access an unparalleled—and constantly changing—selection of the world’s finest goods.

Today, with 1,200 dealers in 21 of the largest U.S. markets and more in Canada, Paris, London and Mexico City, 1stdibs.com has more than 100,000 pieces of inventory— valued at more than half-a-billion dollars—flowing through its systems each year. It organizes this formidable array by item type (furniture, fine art, etc.) and then allows consumers to further refine their searches with a number of categories. Fine art can be searched by medium, artist, period, gallery or by any number of sub-categories.

Likewise, furnishings, lighting, fine jewelry and fashion are all sorted accordingly, facilitating quick searches for specific items or broad-based browsing of general categories. Once an item of interest is located all relevant info is given, including a full description of the piece and contact information for the dealer, including specific representatives’ names and direct contact details where appropriate. The secure and easy-to-use interface is a serious time-eater, captivating even busy celebrities.

“I have spent hours on 1stdibs.com looking at furniture,” Jennifer Aniston told T: The New York Times Style Magazine, in 2008. Noted interior designer Celerie Kemble has said that the website is “a daily search— information, aspiration, inspiration. I can find it every time on 1stdibs.” And the list goes on: Diane von Furstenberg, Courtney Cox, Gwyneth Paltrow and numerous other luminaries use the site on a regular basis.

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Fine Homes

This stylish sailors’ cocktail-shaker set features six glasses

HIStory When Michael Bruno moved to Paris in 1999, he had a name for an online business, but he didn’t know exactly what form the business would take.

“Within minutes of getting out of the taxi and walking through the Clingancourt (Paris Flea Market) stalls I knew that that was it: I was going to put the Paris Flea Market online and make it available to the world, 24/7,” Bruno said in the website’s magazine, Introspective. “Although I didn’t speak French, I charged ahead thinking, ‘how hard could it be?’”

In fact, it all came together rather quickly. Bruno hired a young French programmer who spoke English, and 1stdibs.com got underway. Initial challenges included convincing the “intensely private—and skeptical” French dealers to allow Bruno to photograph and to list their offerings online. Once he’d overcome that hurdle, Bruno needed to convince them that the website would help their sales—which he did by becoming the first customer. In fact, he purchased a lot of goods through his own site with the dealers none the wiser (or maybe ambivalent) about the fact that he was the only customer for the first six months.

A June 2001 story in the New York Times changed that, and the site was finally off to the races.

“Thank God,” Bruno said, “because my apartment was brimming with all my Flea Market finds.”

The site continued to build, even in the wake of 9/11.

In fact, with world markets in decline following the attacks, 1stdibs.com was, for many dealers, a salvation. “Bruno changed everything,” said legendary antiques dealer Roger Prigent. “Bruno saved the Flea Market.”

The site’s saving graces didn’t stop there. Years later, after a 2002 expansion into the United States, 1stdibs.com was a lifeline for New Orleans dealers suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“If we hadn’t been there for them, they would no longer be in business,” Bruno said. “Being able to help people has been the greatest reward of building the business.”

Along with being the best resource for antiques and vintage design, offering furniture, art, fashion and jewelry, 1stdibs.com recently became the gateway for fine homes as well. Working with The Corcoran Group and Coldwell Banker Previews International, 1stdibs.com is opening the doors on some of the world’s finest properties.

Perhaps it’s not surprising, considering that the website’s founder, Michael Bruno, started life as a real estate agent.

In fact, real estate’s multiple listing service served as the model for 1stdibs.com, and those familiar with real estate searches will find the new Fine Homes section on 1stdibs.com a bit familiar, if not an improvement.

Applying the same concise information and ease-of-use employed in navigating the rest of 1stdibs.com, the Fine Homes section of the website reveals stunning properties in the United States, France and Monaco including, as of press time, the most expensive listing Miami has ever seen, an elegant apartment near the Arc de Triumph in Paris, a charming ski chalet near Mont Blanc and a lovely property on New York’s Fifth Avenue.

“1stdibs has a big following among the world’s most affluent consumers—who buy big ticket items on a regular basis—and among designers and architects, who are all secretly real estate junkies like me,” explained Bruno. “This search brings those elements together, giving designers a pipeline to hot new properties on the market and enticing 1stdibs visitors to buy a house they didn’t even know they were looking for.”

Visit 1stdibs.com for the best the world has to offer.

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Dan Rooney is a PGA professional, a fighter pilot, Iraq war veteran, golf-course proprietor and an inspiration to millions. Paul Trow met Major Dan to hear about his Patriots’ Day golf initiative and to learn how the Folds of Honor Foundation he established is marching on There’s a bell in the musical state of Oklahoma that’s ringing the changes in America’s hearts and minds.

At 13.00 hours precisely each day, seven days a week, with Old Glory fluttering proudly in the breeze atop the Folds of Honor Foundation headquarters in Owassu, just outside Tulsa, 13 solemn strikes chime from the building’s 70-foot bell tower.

Everyone in the vicinity—workers, staff, golfers on the adjacent Patriot course, even passers-by—immediately pauses to reflect in silence. This contemplative process lasts around two-and-a-half minutes, then they continue on their way and about their business.

A very local ceremony on the face of it, but it’s one with a national purpose and one that’s beginning to resound across the country, from coast to coast.

Major Dan Rooney, the Iraq war veteran and Oklahoma Air National Guard pilot who established the foundation and founded the Patriot course, explains its significance. “The 13 rings of the bell represent the 13 folds of the official flag of the United States when it is folded into the triangle shape,” he says. “When the bell tolls, people stand still, stop what they’re doing, take their hats off and show respect.

“They’re acknowledging the fact that freedom is not free and they’re honoring all those who have served and are currently serving. We all need to reflect on the huge personal sacrifices that have made us free and to pray for those who are still in harm’s way.”

At 39 years of age and after three tours of duty in Iraq (2002, 2005 and 2008), Major Dan has settled back into civilian life in nearby Broken Arrow with his wife Jacqy and their four young daughters—Victoria, Tatum, Mia and Reese. But he believes he is now on his life’s ultimate mission—more pressing perhaps, more important even, than any he undertook over the battlefields of Iraq.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs, more than a million people are direct dependents of fallen or disabled service members yet 87 percent of them do not qualify to receive any form of federal education assistance.

Righting this glaring wrong, in a nutshell, is the mission.

The love of Major Dan’s life, apart from his family and the military of course, is golf. He has been a professional since 1996—“before I joined the military, in fact, but I didn’t get my PGA card until 2005”—so he decided to use his connections within the game to address the scale of this enormity. And in 2007, he set up Folds of Honor Foundation.

“The foundation provides post-secondary scholarships to spouses and/or children of service members disabled or killed while serving the United States,” he says. “To date, most of the scholarships we’ve awarded have been post-secondary. But we also have a children’s scholarship program that offers primary and secondary educational

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scholarships to the offspring of those who have been killed, or 90-100 percent disabled, while deployed in a combat zone in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam.

“We have a good relationship with the colleges out there, but we apply strict standards. Before securing a place for a student, we ask ourselves, ‘is this where we would like to go to school?’”

In its five years, the foundation has raised just under $13m and funded more than 2,600 scholarships. Over $1m was raised in year one by the simple expedient of adding $1 to green fee charges on Labor Day weekend at 3,200 golf facilities across the country.

“We just asked them to give at least a dollar to a cause,” said Major Dan. “That resonated with people. As patriots, we all want to do more but we just haven’t really been asked.”

Since then the Patriots Golf Day, with the support of the PGA of America and USGA, has mushroomed with last year alone yielding almost $4m from more than 4,500 courses. Folds of Honor Foundation has certainly come a long way in a short time, but when any project is propelled by a driving force like Major Dan, who is as thrusting as the F-16 fighter planes he used to fly, there is only one way to go—into the stratosphere at twice the speed of sound and in complete defiance of gravitational constraint.

Freedom is not free, and we all need to reflect on the personal sacrifices that have made us free and pray for those in harm’s way The turning-point in Major Dan’s life came in June 2006 as a passenger on a commercial flight to Michigan.

“It will be forever burned in my soul,” he said. “I didn’t realize it at the time but my life was going to change.

“After landing, the captain announced that the remains of Brock Bucklin, a 28-year-old corporal who had been killed in Iraq, were on the plane. His twin brother Corporal Brad Bucklin was in first class, having brought his brother home. The captain asked that everyone remained seated as a mark of respect while his grieving family collected his casket.

“As we honored the sacrifice that Brock had made for the next 35 or 40 minutes, I watched the Bucklin family on the darkest night of their life as Brock came home.

“That hits you in a real way. As an F-16 pilot, I’ve seen combat, I know what happens over there, but I’d never seen this side, this intimate side of war.

“I wondered there and then, ‘what if the tide of war ever turned on my family?’ When I got off the plane,

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I called my wife and told her, ‘I have a mission in life.’

I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I was going to help that family I just saw.”

Following the creation of Folds of Honor Foundation, and the completion of the inaugural Patriots Golf Day, the very first scholarship went to Brock Bucklin’s six-year-old son, Jacob.

Fundamentally, Major Dan presides over three projects, each as important as the other in the overall matrix to which he is now dedicating his life. It is generally accepted that to run a successful charitable project you need three things—a day-to-day base (the Patriot Golf Club), a flagship marketing campaign (the Patriots Golf Day over Labor Day weekend) and a higher calling (the educational programs that Folds of Honor Foundation exists to deliver).

The Patriot Golf Club, a Robert Trent Jones, Jr. design that opened on Memorial weekend at the end of May 2010 in the heart of the ongoing Stone Canyon residential development, is the apple of his eye. “My dream was to build a course that represents the core values of both the country and the game of golf. The Patriot’s mission is to become a living, breathing embodiment of golf’s relationship with Folds of Honor.

“It’s a center of excellence and each hole bears the name of a great patriot. You could say it’s where the History Channel and Golf Channel meet each other.

“The Patriot is a gathering of like-minded men and women who honor those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms. It’s a private club and we currently have 215 members with a goal of 400. To become a member of our band of brothers, we require a $5,000 donation to the foundation and a $5,000 initiation free. That sum alone will fund one scholarship for a spouse or child.

“Each one of our members has the option to be paired up with a

specific family in need and contribute to their scholarship fund. Thereafter, club membership costs $200 a month.

“We’re holding our third Memorial Day weekend event, the Patriot Cup, at the Patriot Club from May 26-28—the time when we as a nation will pay respect to the memory of those who died in combat while defending our freedoms throughout our history.

“The Patriot Cup brings in some of the world’s best players—Rickie Fowler, Peter Jacobsen, Hunter Mahan, Corey Pavin, Tom Lehman, Brad Faxon, Craig Stadler and Loren Roberts to name but a few. We get a lot of celebrities too, like Vince Gill, who’s from Oklahoma and won a trophy in each of the first two years, Bill Self, head basketball coach at the University of Kansas, and Rich Lerner from the Golf Channel. This year Rascal Flatts, one of the best country bands ever, will give a free concert.”

The Patriot Cup brings pro golfers, celebrities and families together to benefit Folds of Honor Foundation The inaugural, two-day Patriot Cup was held in 2010, the weekend the course opened. In a short time, though, the scramble-formatted tournament has become a favorite among Tour players, PGA professionals, military golfers and celebrities. Folds of Honor scholarship recipients serve as honorary caddies for both days.

On the evening of Memorial Day, Patriot Cup participants, spouses and guests attend a black-tie gala at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa, at which Major Dan presents the Corporal Brock Bucklin Patriot Award to an individual who has served the nation’s heroes in an outstanding way. In 2010 the initial award was presented to President George H.W. Bush and last year it went to former U.S.

Major Dan with President George W. Bush

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Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin. Additionally, a scholarship recipient shares his/her personal story to honor the special hero he/she cherishes. Following the gala, guests will transfer to “The Joint” at the Hard Rock for the Rascal Flatts concert. The two previous headline acts were Vince Gill in 2010 and Darius Rucker, former lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish, in 2011.

“Budweiser sponsors the incredibly patriotic weekend,” Major Dan says. “And the Golf Channel will air the Patriot Cup over Veterans Day weekend in mid-November. In its short life, this event has really taken off.”

Photo: Tommy Campbell

I played in the U.S. Amateur Championship in 1995 where the winner was Tiger Woods The civilian career of Major Dan has really taken off as well, and his autobiography A Patriot’s Calling… Living Life Between Fear and Faith is due out next month.

For his work with Folds of Honor Foundation, he received the White House’s Presidential Volunteer Service Award, the Air National Guard’s Distinguished Service Medal, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and the PGA of America’s Inaugural Patriot Award. As a military pilot, he was twice named “Top Gun” and took the “Spirit of Attack” award following his F-16 training. For the uninitiated, Major Dan describes the F-16 as a “nimble, lightweight, single-seat, single-engine, multi-role aircraft that can reach speeds of up to 1,500mph. One F-16 has more horsepower than the starting grid at the Indy 500 and can reach 50,000 feet in less than 60 seconds.”

He was 25 when he joined the military, after a year or two of playing golf professionally. “It was before 9-11. I was in for almost 13 years. I’m on inactive reserve now and I stopped flying in October 2010. As the only PGA Professional and fighter pilot combo my call-sign, Noonan, was inspired by the character Danny Noonan in the film Caddyshack.”

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Golf has been an integral part of his life as far back as he can remember. “I was raised in Stillwater, the home of Oklahoma State University, where my father John, who now works in the golf industry, was a professor. I learned my golf at Stillwater Country Club, got down to a scratch handicap and played on the college golf team at the University of Kansas where I graduated in liberal arts and sports psychology.

“I made an appearance in the U.S. Amateur Championship, in 1995 at Newport Country Club, Rhode Island where the winner was someone called Tiger Woods.

I’m now a PGA member. I played a Nationwide Tour event last year but didn’t do great. I look forward to playing more competitively in the future.

“I like to think that I give lessons in golf and in life. I do a lot of speaking—after-dinner, corporate, inspirational— so I travel a lot. It’s the only way to get the message out.”

Today, he is in almost constant demand as a speaker and his motivational skills were famously employed by Pavin during the 2010 Ryder Cup in Wales. “I shall always treasure the nine days I spent at Celtic Manor. The standard of golf was incredible and I was so proud of our guys—they came so close to pulling it off. I was really appreciative of the invitation I received from Corey to join up and spend time with the team.”

For the time being, it seems that golf is the medium through which he will work his fund-raising magic. He is comfortable in a golfing environment and in the company of golfing folk, and the rapport is certainly reciprocated.

The foundation remains the focus, but golf at present is the facilitator. “We want to give people who love the game the opportunity to be a part of this, to do the right thing and help fund an education; 99% of this country are free courtesy of the 1% who defend our nation. We all have a debt to repay.”

Meanwhile, that bell in Oklahoma keeps tolling its daily reminder about why this really matters.

FoldsOfHonor.org / ThePatriotCup.com / PatriotGolfClub.com

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The capital of the United Kingdom has a multiplicity of historic sites, memorable attractions and entertaining diversions. Forget the exchange rate and cash-guzzling black taxis, if you’ve never been then 2012 is the year to visit Europe’s largest and most diverse city. The highlights of the year will be Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee and the XXX Summer Olympic Games. Philip Barker outlines London’s Olympic past, present and future while Paul Trow guides you ’round the middle of town

Images from 1908: Left, the Great Stadium; above right, Wyndham Halswelle wins the 400m on his own; below right, Dorando Pietri helped across the Marathon finishing line

They sent out the invitations to London’s big Olympic party with a fanfare of trumpets in Trafalgar Square. London won the Games in 2005 from Paris, Madrid, Moscow and New York to become the first city to stage the modern Olympic Games three times. “The athletes will be competing in state-of-the-art facilities in the home of fair play,” said International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge on a visit to Britain. He might have added that many of the sports are also coming home. The British can claim a greater Olympic heritage than any other nation, even perhaps Greece.

Never mind 2012, there were “Olimpick” Games in England in 1612. Organized by landowner Robert Dover, they took place on a meadow above the village of Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire. Wrestling, shin kicking and stick fighting were all included. They were interrupted by the [English] Civil War but restored under the “Merry Monarch” Charles II and continued into the 19th century when drunken behavior and disorder forced their closure.

In the 1950s, they were revived once again and continue to this day. A special 400th anniversary celebration takes place on Friday 1st June 2012.

A month later, in the Shropshire village of Much Wenlock, they’ll celebrate the Olympian Games. These were begun in 1850 by local doctor William Penny Brookes with the aim “to promote the moral, physical and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants of the town and neighborhood of Wenlock.”

The fame of the “Olympian contests” soon reached Greece where similar events were also being organized.

Back in England, Brookes was busy again with the National Olympian Games, held in 1866 in the London district of St. Pancras. Visitors heading to the Olympic Park via St. Pancras station can walk past this historic building, the first purpose-built gymnasium in England.

In the years that followed, a young Frenchman called Pierre de Coubertin was inspired by these developments.

He visited Much Wenlock and acknowledged his debt to Brookes when he set about reviving the Olympics. The first modern Games were held in Athens in 1896, followed at four-year intervals by Paris and St. Louis, Missouri.

London staged them in 1908, but the British capital was not first choice. Rome had been designated hosts, but Mount Vesuvius erupted, causing devastation in the Bay of Naples.

The British had less than two years to prepare, but thanks to the influence of British Olympic Association chairman Lord Desborough, they did so with a flourish. It helped that they did not have to pay a cent for the Olympic Stadium. All costs were covered by the Franco-Britannic Exhibition held in London that summer in return for a generous proportion of the gate receipts. The “Great Stadium” hosted athletics, cycling, wrestling and swimming in an open-air pool in the middle of the stadium. King Edward VII performed the ceremonial opening of the Games in July. By then, many gold medals had already been decided. The Games had begun in April with rackets at Queen’s Club. Ice skating made its first Olympic appearance, alongside polo, motor boating, rugby and even tug of war, won by the City of London Police, but golf, contested in 1900 and 1904, was dropped from the program and will only be readmitted in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.

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Controversy erupted in the 400 meters final. When the British runner Wyndham Halswelle was jostled by John Carpenter of the United States, the judges disqualified Carpenter and ordered a re-run. The only other athletes in the race were Americans and they withdrew in protest.

Halswelle ran a solo lap to claim the gold. It was one of the strangest episodes in Olympic history. The British judges were accused of bias and the organizing committee was forced to publish a pamphlet, In Reply to Certain Criticisms, as a war of words erupted in the newspapers.

There was further drama in the marathon, run from Windsor Castle to the Stadium over a distance of 26 miles and 385 yards. An Italian pastry cook called Dorando Pietri, arrived at the stadium in a state of exhaustion. He staggered about on a fateful final lap and was eventually hoisted to his feet and helped across the line by officials.

Inevitably, he was disqualified. The next man was an American, John Hayes, who was awarded the gold medal and the huge trophy which accompanied it. Both men did

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well out of the race. They took part in lucrative races in the U.S. the following year and Irving Berlin’s first hit song, Dorando, told the tale of Pietri.

Controversy or not, the events in London put the Olympics on the map. The Games themselves did not finish until the last day of October. Small wonder, then, that nearly four decades elapsed before London bid again.

The city was chosen for the 1944 Olympics but war meant these never took place. When peace came, London was elected by postal ballot for 1948. Once again, organizers had only two years to prepare. No new facilities were built but the boss of Wembley, Sir Arthur Elvin, put his stadium at the disposal of the Games. The main village for competitors was at a Royal Air Force camp in nearby Uxbridge while others were accommodated at hostels and schools. The U.S. team arrived by ocean liner and brought with them gifts of food, gratefully received in a land where petrol and commodities were still rationed.

The Games opened on a blazing hot day. It fell to George VI to make the King’s Speech. “I proclaim open the Olympic Games of London, celebrating the XIV Olympiad of the modern era.”

Fanny Blankers-Koen of the Netherlands won four gold medals in track and field and was the star of the Games, while the U.S. dominated men’s track and field. Harrison Dillard blasted his way to the 100 meters gold and Mel Patton won the 200 meters. Barney Ewell claimed the silver in each race. Bob Mathias, at 19, wrote his name in the history books with the first of two gold medals in the decathlon.

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Next door the Empire Pool was the setting for swimming and diving. When the water sports were completed, they simply stretched a canvas over the swimming pool to form a boxing ring. One boxer who lost in the first round had a famous son who would later win Olympic gold. The son’s name? Andre Agassi.

London 1948 ended on a sunlit evening. Once again the city had stepped into the breach and helped secure the future of the Olympics.

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Images of 2012.

Clockwise from above: the velodrome, the main stadium, the Orbit sculpture and the aquatics center

The East End of London provides the hub of the 2012 Games which will run from July 25th to August 12th.

Visitors who arrive on the Olympic Park through the new Westfield shopping mall will be greeted by a stunning aquatics center. Designed by the acclaimed architect, Zaha Hadid, it features a spectacular, wave-like roof, 160 meters long. Spectators will watch the action from temporary wing stands that will be removed after the Games. It will be a fitting venue for the incomparable Michael Phelps. He won eight gold medals at the Beijing Games to eclipse the magnificent seven won by Mark Spitz in 1972.

Anish Kapoor’s controversial Orbit sculpture looms over the Olympic Stadium, centerpiece of the 2012 Games and surrounded by waterways on three sides. The setting for the opening and closing ceremonies, it will hold 80,000 during the Games. The final of the men’s 100 meters on Sunday 5th August is sure to be the hottest ticket.

Jamaica’s Usain Bolt did the sprint double four years ago in Beijing, but his shock disqualification at the 2011 World Championships certainly increases the voltage.

Organizers are still hoping that soccer team West Ham United will move into the stadium after the Games but the track will remain because London is due to stage the 2017 IAAF track and field world championships.

Basketball’s “Dream Team” won’t have far to go as their venue is the nearest to the athletes’ village. It is a 1,000-tonne, steel-frame temporary structure complete with elevators. The final stages of the tournament will take place at the O2 Centre, or North Greenwich Arena in “Olympic-speak.” When the basketball players move out, the handballers move in, followed by wheelchair basketball and rugby during the Paralympic Games that will follow from August 29th to September 9th.

Field hockey fans had better pack their sunglasses as they head to the Olympic Park. For the first time, the pitches will be bright blue and the surroundings are shocking pink. In contrast, grass is the surface of choice for the tennis tournament and that presents one of the biggest challenges. The Championships at Wimbledon finish only three weeks before the Olympics begin so a special, quickgrowing grass seed will be installed to perfect the surface in time for the start of Rafael Nadal’s defense of his Olympic title. Roger Federer will be there too. He met his wife to be, Mirka, at the Sydney Games in 2000 so gold in London would give his Olympic adventure a romantic symmetry.

At Lord’s Cricket Ground, the elegant Victorian pavilion will offer a magnificent backdrop for archery, the first individual sport scheduled in London 2012. The “Brady Wave” trademark of flamboyant American archer Brady Ellison should be in evidence here. He won the test event held on the ground last October. For beach volleyball, head to Horse Guards Parade, sandwiched between Whitehall and The Mall and only a few yards from Downing Street, so convenient for Prime Minister David Cameron. They’ll work overtime to bring in over 2,000 tonnes of sand to transform it into an arena fit for volleyball. This is also where the Queen’s traditional birthday parade takes place each year, and it will be one of the focal points during the diamond jubilee celebrations from 2nd-5th June.

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Two of the newer Olympic events take place in Hyde Park, a short walk from Kensington Palace where Wills and Kate (the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge) have their London residence. The triathlon has been a big hit since half a million thronged the streets of Sydney to watch its debut and a similar turn-out is expected in London.

The long distance swim will take place in the Serpentine, where enthusiasts (masochists?) break the ice for a dip on Christmas Day. At Greenwich, another Royal park stages the equestrian competitions in the shadow of the Royal Observatory, somewhat to the chagrin of local residents who fear the damage that the horses may cause to their historic pleasureground. Also in the park will be modern pentathlon, a sport that was devised by Coubertin and comprises fencing, swimming, riding, running and shooting.

It made its Olympic bow exactly 100 years ago and should provide a fitting finale to the third London Games.

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A TAle of one CiTy With apologies to Charles Dickens, it is the best of towns and the worst of towns. It towers over Europe like a colossus and is a melting-pot for every culture and race. Welcome to London, where the streets echo with a thousand years of tradition while reverberating to the trends of tomorrow. Most visitors know about such landmark sights as Westminster Abbey (scene for last year’s high-profile wedding) along with the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, Marble Arch and Royal Albert Hall. These institutions are cultural icons as well as symbols of the advance of western civilization, yet they only scratch the surface of this remarkable metropolis.

The West End and the City are twin magnets that draw much of the world’s wealth to London, the former via tourism, shopping and commerce, the latter via banking, insurance and fund management. Between them is a buffer zone, known to local realtors as Mid-Town, which for centuries has absorbed immigrants, Huguenots, non-conformists, refugees, bohemians and students. The City, or Square Mile as it’s known to the financial community, dates back to medieval times with its livery halls and pageantry, and Mid-Town is not far behind in terms of longevity. The West End, though, is much younger, shaped by architecture and parks dating back mainly to the 17th and 18th centuries.

Ironically, it is in the City where most of the striking new buildings changing the face of London’s skyline can be found.

All three precincts line the northern bank of the River Thames, along with the office developments to the east in the reclaimed docklands. South of the river, many architectural sights also abut the waterfront—from modern constructions like the London Eye at Waterloo, the soon-to-be completed Shard beside London Bridge station and the O2 Centre, formerly known as the Millennium Dome, to restorations like the Tate Modern gallery and Globe Theatre, to the historic grandeur of the park and observatory at Greenwich.

Throughout this mesmerizing kaleidoscope of human endeavor is a jigsaw of quaint conduits and mews, ancient structures and monuments, teeming pubs and restaurants.

No wonder Dr. Samuel Johnson proclaimed that “he who is tired of London is tired of life.” Not surprisingly, unique talents like Dickens and Shakespeare, Marx and Lenin, Caxton and Wren, Hogarth and Turner, flourished here.

Gallery of DeliGhts Central London is also blessed with many galleries and museums, with pride of place going to the British Museum in Bloomsbury. At the south side of the pedestrian-only Millennium Bridge across the Thames at Blackfriars is the Tate Modern, on the site of a former power station. The building itself is as aesthetic as much of the modern and contemporary art displayed on its walls—works by Matisse, Picasso, Rothko, etc. Nearby is the Clink prison museum, halfway between London Bridge and Southwark Bridge.

Dating back to the 12th century, this macabre establishment gave its name to the slang term ‘in the clink.’ Within its dark cellar are torture devices and restraints while a skeleton hangs outside in a cage above the entrance. Next door to the Tate Modern is the Globe Theatre, established by

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St. Paul’s Cathedral is a mighty presence overlooking central London

William Shakespeare in 1599, then rebuilt in 1613 following a fire only to be torn down in 1644. The modern Globe, built according to the original plan, was the brainchild of American actor and director Sam Wanamaker, who instigated its resurrection a quarter of a century ago.

WininG anD DininG London offers fine dining and refreshments to suit all palates.

These include Bleeding Heart just off Hatton Garden in the heart of the jewelry quarter near Farringdon metro station, and Rule’s in Maiden Lane, a stone’s throw from the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. El Vino’s, a wine bar in Fleet Street which opened in 1870, is traditionally a haunt for journalists, though it’s now a regular watering hole for legal eagles thanks to an impressive wine list. Meanwhile, Dickens used to visit Simpson’s in The Strand to talk politics, play chess, sip coffee and smoke cigars. In 1848, the eponymous caterer, John Simpson, carved joints of meat at the table. His original trolley, 160 years old, is still in use.

time Gentlemen Please!

Does London have more churches or pubs? Whatever the answer, there are thousands of both. The Olde Mitre Tavern, built in 1546, is hidden down an alley between 8 and 9 Hatton Garden, and most people who work in the area are unaware it exists. The Citie of Yorke on High Holborn is another ancient English pub behind a mock-Tudor façade.

The bar to the rear is popular with lawyers and has a highpitched roof and large oak wine vats near the entrance.

Where to stay?

The Russell Hotel is one of London’s most impressive red-brick edifices. Built in 1898, it is within walking distance of Covent Garden, Oxford Street and The Strand. For those in pursuit of the ultimate in hospitality, the Fairmont-managed Savoy Hotel, a luxury icon since 1889 that seamlessly blends Edwardian and Art Deco interiors, sparkles with timeless elegance and glamor. Located between The Strand and the Thames, the Savoy is a must-visit—if not to stay a night or two, then at least to have a drink in the American Bar. See: london2012.com and thediamondjubilee.org

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VISIBILITY IS PERFECT AT 40,000 FEET. EXCEPT FOR THOSE STILL BLINDED BY THEIR JET CARDS.

Unity Jets soars above the competition as the only boutique private jet firm dedicated to the elimination of high hourly rates, outrageous fuel surcharges and annoying travel restrictions. All while ensuring the level of service you’ve come to expect.

Discover how you can save up to 30% on the same flight you’ve been booking with your jet card. For more information or to discuss a future trip call 888.758.JETS or visit unityjets.com

When the view out your back window starts to have a bit more green in it, when the clouds turn from grey to white and you find that you’re leaving your jacket at home more often, it’s time to sweep off the patio and take the cover off the pool. Spring is here, and though the evenings might be cool and a drop of rain or two might fall, we’re headed for warmer weather—which means the great outdoors are no longer off-limits. Why not refresh your outdoor space with a new look or some new toys? Here, we offer ways to enhance and improve the place in which you’ll be spending a lot of time over the next few months. Welcome to your ultimate patio.

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KitchenAid You probably have a grill already. Maybe it’s a freestanding model, maybe it’s built-in to an outdoor kitchen.

Whatever the case, it could be time to re-think ol’ smokey. Nothing invigorates spring entertaining like a refurbished outdoor entertainment space, and that starts with the food and the fixins. KitchenAid, maker of iconic home appliances, also makes superlative outdoor kitchen appliances and accessories. Whether you create an entire gourmet kitchen on your patio using the company’s outdoor grills, refrigerators, warmers and other offerings or whether you simply replace your old grill with an advanced free-standing model, KitchenAid has your second kitchen covered.

Kitchenaid.com

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SodaStream

AR.Drone

Spring is a vibrant time, and so adding a few bubbles to the party only makes sense. A splash of soda adds some life to a simple iced tea, adds a little kick to cocktails and is a refreshing glass of water all by itself. SodaStream makes having a splash or a glass of soda quite easy, facilitating sparkling water and home-made soft drinks with products like the Penguin and the Crystal soda makers. Both utilize glass carafes and fantastic design to help you create great-tasting, fresh, fizzy beverages with no bottles, cans, electricity or clean-up. Stylish, useful and even fun, SodaStream soda makers should be a fixture on your outdoor bar or kitchen table.

Forget high-tech unmanned military aircraft, you can have aerial video in your own backyard courtesy of the AR.Drone. The drone, which looks like something from a sci-fi movie, hovers quite nicely due to four propellers that allow it to float, reverse, fly forward or indeed in any direction at all. Control is from your iPhone, iPad or Android phone, and is easier to master than one might think. With two video cameras (one forward-facing, one facing down) and live video monitoring from your phone or iPad, you can pilot the drone around your yard—or around your house, even—recording the video the whole time. Great fun.

Sodastreamusa.com

ardrone.parrot.com

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Sunbrella Fabrics Sunbrella fabrics are the world’s leading choice for luxurious outdoor décor. From deep seating to decorative pillows, chaise cushions, outdoor draperies and more, Sunbrella fabrics provide beautiful durability for years to come. They’re available in a wide array of styles, textures and colors, from traditional to leading edge, sure to complement any home. A new line of Sunbrella fabrics made from 50% recycled content are ideal for indoor and outdoor upholstery. Aptly named “Heritage,” the fabric is available in more than 10 colors. Sunbrella® fabrics combine exceptional performance with beautiful styling, opening up opportunities for creating seamless décor from inside your home to outdoor living spaces. The range of Sunbrella fabrics makes them ideal for furniture, inside and out, as well as for awnings, market umbrellas and window treatments. From indoor and outdoor furniture to window treatments, rugs and shade structures, Sunbrella fabrics offer the ideal blend of style, comfort, durability and easy care.

sunbrella.com

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SunBrite TV No need to leave the viewing indoors thanks to SunBriteTV. Their 4660HD is a True Outdoor All-Weather 46” LCD TV that delivers full 1080p HD entertainment and is resistant to rain, snow, dust, insects, and extreme heat and cold.

Available at the incredibly low price of $2995, it’s sure to enliven your patio, whether you’re curled up with a special someone watching an evening movie or throwing a full-on party while the game’s on.

Sunbritetv.com

Outdoor Audio It’s the music that makes the party—but dragging your audio system into the yard could be hazardous to your speakers’ health (not to mention an inconvenient operation). Bowers & Wilkins solves the problem and delivers astounding audio to boot with outdoor speakers that sound as good as they hold up. With tweeters based on the company’s exquisite Nautilus and full weather protection, your backyard never sounded so good.

bowers-wilkins.com

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Kind of Blue April showers getting you down? We offer a better way to wear your blues. These looks and accessories should have you singin’ in the rain while you wait for May flowers to appear Photography M e g h a n T i l l e y

Mon arT Firenze

T h e M e n ’ s sTo r e B lo o M i n g da l e s

Orange Boat Propeller Cufflinks

Linen Bow Tie $50

$65

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a n T h o n y P e To

Paper Straw Hat $135

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Marc By Marc JacoBs

r ay B a n

Leather Coin Purse

Wayfarer Sunglasses

$88

$160

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Mending the Knee With far more people undergoing knee-replacement surgery than a decade ago, Kingdom hears how one company has pioneered the revolutionary treatment that helped save the tournament career of Fred Funk They are forever young. Today’s “baby boomers” are not slowing down. In fact, they are more active than ever.

Typically, the “Silver Tsunami,” as they’re also known, consists of highly active folk who refuse to stop moving and want what they want when they want it.

But this active lifestyle means that they could be wearing out their joints more rapidly than any previous generation. These days, chances are you know someone who has undergone joint replacement surgery. That’s because more than twice as many men and women aged 45–64 underwent knee-replacement surgery in 2009 than in 1997.

In fact, knee replacement was the 14th most common inpatient procedure in 2009, according to figures from the Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ).

At the same time, these “boomers” are working longer and harder, and are more stressed and overweight than earlier generations—all of which means packed schedules for orthopedic surgeons.

Consider the rabid amateur golfer. Determined to hit the ball as far as possible, often wanting to walk the course, and perhaps with a bit of a paunch, he (or she) may not realize that being just 10 pounds overweight increases the force on his (or her) knee by 30-60 pounds with each step.

As one of the fittest players on the Champions Tour, and perennial favorite with the galleries, weight is not an issue for Fred Funk. Yet, that didn’t prevent his right knee from deteriorating and eventually impacting his ability to compete at a professional level.

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Not Your GraNdma’s KNee

Despite continuing to rack up the titles on the Champions Tour, Fred Funk found the pain in his right knee was becoming unbearable

Like many people, Funk had been suffering with knee pain for several years. After training and physical therapy failed to alleviate the problem, he underwent surgeries to repair torn cartilage in his right knee. “I was pretty limited,” Funk said of his time suffering from knee pain. “I couldn’t do routine things, like take my dog for a walk, without constantly thinking of my knee. I couldn’t sleep or relax because the knee pain was always on my mind. It wasn’t just on the golf course, it affected my entire life.”

Around the time he turned 50, Funk began to experience more serious pain caused by ligament damage in his right knee. At the time, he was getting ready to join the Champions Tour and expectations of his performance were high, but no one had higher expectations than he had of himself.

So, what did he do? Like a true boomer, he pushed on and played through the pain.

In 2008, while working on a season full of promise, Funk had to have his knee drained of excess fluid 18 times—just to remain on Tour. “My doctors warned me that I was playing Russian Roulette with those needles, but it was keeping me going, keeping me playing.”

Until it wasn’t.

The 16th needle inserted into Funk’s knee caused a dreaded staph infection. “The 16th needle got me,” said Funk.

“Worse thing I’ve ever experienced. I’d never been that sick.”

While the subject of knee replacement had been broached, Funk still wasn’t sure he was ready to replace his knee and become a bionic boomer. Instead, he recovered from the staph infection and kept playing on his deteriorating knee.

In 2009, after becoming the oldest player to qualify for the U.S. Open, a feat he repeated in 2011, Funk went on to win the U.S. Senior Open and realized he’d had enough.

“By the end of the season, I was pretty much shot because I was limping around. I had weakness in my knee and my game deteriorated. I couldn’t stay competitive anymore.

That’s when I decided to have my knee replaced.”

Funk underwent total knee replacement with Stryker’s Triathlon® Knee System in November of 2009.

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First performed in the late 1960s, total knee replacement surgery has come a long way since those early days.

Advancements in materials and operative techniques have provided orthopedic surgeons with new treatment options, allowing them to tailor their approach to patients’ needs.

Just as you have your choice of golf balls or golf clubs, you also have your choice of knee replacement. And you should know that not all knee replacements are the same.

It is imperative that anyone considering joint replacement surgery do their research. Stryker, the company that designed and manufactured Funk’s new knee, is one of the leaders in the development of joint replacement technology. Stryker’s knee replacements are different than traditional knee replacements because they are designed to work with the body to promote easier motion. Indeed, a study has shown a more rapid return to functional activities after surgery. This is due to the single radius design of the knee implant.

Why is this single radius concept important? The concept can be compared to the simplicity of a circle.

Historically, knee implants have been oval, but research has shown that as your knee flexes and extends the radius remains the same, similar to a circle, or even a golf ball.

Because your knee motion is round like a circle, so is Stryker’s Triathlon knee implant.

In addition to wanting the “round” knee, Funk was also curious about how long his new replacement part would last. Factors like weight and activity play a big role—as do the design and materials of the implant. Stryker knees are designed to resist wear and help avoid excessive stress in any one spot; and they’re the only one to feature a high-tech plastic called X3 Advanced Bearing Technology.

Laboratory studies show that X3 reduced wear by 96% over competitive premium bearing technologies, which may extend the life of the implant.

GettING BacK to Golf Physical therapy and rehabilitation were a major commitment as Funk recovered from his knee replacement surgery. “The great thing was that with each session I saw the difference I was making and the improvements in my function. The more I committed, the better it was,” said Funk.

Why such a commitment?

“I wanted to have a chance to have my lifestyle back, and my lifestyle is playing competitive golf,” said Funk. “I would be the first guy at the level I was playing at to have a knee replacement and come back.”

And after a three-month recovery, Funk was back on the Champions Tour playing a full tournament schedule and having a stellar season—a season that culminated with a win at the 2010 JELD-WEN Tradition. With that win, Funk became the first player ever to win a PGA Tour-sanctioned event after undergoing total knee replacement surgery.

“To this day I am just so glad with the decision I made to have my knee replaced. It was a fantastic decision. Probably one of the smartest ones I’ve ever made,” said Funk.

Now a spokesperson for Stryker, Funk helps to educate current and prospective knee-replacement patients around the country, drawing upon his own personal experience and recovery process.

Fully recovered and splitting his time between the PGA and Champions Tour, we’ll be seeing a lot more of Funk and his Triathlon knee this year—only time will tell how many more wins he can rack up.

coNsIderING KNee replacemeNt?

Funk enjoyed an outstanding season in 2010, the year after his knee replacement, culminating in his JELD-WEN Tradition victory

It’s Your KNee, Your BodY You’re familiar with custom-fit golf clubs, right? But did you know there are also custom-fit knees? A Stryker Custom Fit Knee with ShapeMatch Technology allows surgeons to perform knee procedures with customized guides that are designed to provide a fit more closely matching patients’ unique anatomies.

How does it work? This 3D technology is designed to customize the knee-replacement procedure to each patient through the use of 3D imaging software that creates a customized pre-operative surgical plan for each patient.

Upon surgeon review and approval of the plan, single-use ShapeMatch Cutting Guides are developed for each patient based on the patient’s MRI or CT scans.

For a knee replacement patient, all that’s needed is a specific type of MRI.

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The following questions provide a way to discuss your knee pain with your doctor or specialist, and whether you’re a joint-replacement candidate. By all means make sure to ask any additional questions you may have to address your concerns: • Are there any other pain relief options for me that could work as well as knee replacement?

• If I have knee replacement, how much will it relieve my pain?

• How is the procedure done?

• What do you do to manage the pain after the surgery?

• What are the risks or complications of knee replacement?

• How long will I be in the hospital, and how soon after having the procedure can I get back to my normal daily activities?

It is important to understand that individual results may vary. Not all patients will have the same post-operative recovery and activity level. See your orthopedic surgeon to discuss your own potential benefits and risks.

For more information on knee replacement and to find a surgeon familiar with Stryker products in your area, visit getaroundknee.com

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C HAMPIONHILLS.COM

Exceptional Location

Exceptional Community

Exceptional Golf

Exceptional Lifestyle

Secluded, but not isolated, just minutes from Asheville and Hendersonville with easy access to two interstate highways as well as regional and international airports Tom Fazio’s “Mountain Masterpiece,” consistently ranked in the top 10 in North Carolina

Exceptional People

A debt-free community with capital reserves and a variety of living options in a spectacular mountain setting, from $400,000 to $3 million A member-owned club with first-class amenities, just minutes from a wide array of recreational, dining, cultural and entertainment options

300 resident families from all parts of the country with an amazing variety of interests and hobbies

Exceptional Opportunity

Champion Hills residents are inviting a limited number of members from other clubs to experience the Champion Hills lifestyle for a weekend as our guests this summer. If you’re interested in seeing firsthand what it’s like to live and play at Champion Hills, please call us for details.

For more information about our community or special guest weekends, please call 800.633.5122 or e-mail us at CHills@PruLifestyleRealty.com.

Champion Hills Club is a private, member-owned country club. Admission is member-sponsored and requires approval by the Board of Governors.

Great Stuff As winter falls away and you’re getting back in the sun, these products are sure to put a little spring in your step Bowers & wilkins

dyson fan

The MT-60D Mini Theatre twins M-1 speakers with the stunning power and control of a PV1D subwoofer to create immersive surround sound. Available in Matte Black and Matte White finishes. The M-1, the heart of Bowers & Wilkins’ Mini Theater package, is one of the world’s major home-audio success stories.

Since launching six years ago, the M-1 has garnered glowing reviews, won numerous awards and achieved top-selling status. The new M-1 ultra-compact loudspeaker takes performance to a whole new level. It has five speakers in a surround setup and a cleverly designed table-top stand lets the center speaker sit horizontally. But it’s also a great stereo solution: As an upgrade from the outgoing M-1, this speaker offers a full-range stereo performance.

James Dyson is renowned for reinventing the obvious, most notably the vacuum cleaner. Not long ago he trained his sights on fans, telling NPR that he’d hated the standard design ever since he was a child. “All that buffeting!,” he exclaimed. His blade-less “Air Multipliers,” as he calls them, solve that, increase airflow and look good as well.

AM01 12-inch Desk Fan (pictured).

bowers-wilkins.com

dyson.com

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Glencairn

GlenmoranGie artein Glenmorangie introduces Artein, the latest limited edition release from its award-winning Private Edition Range. Artein means ‘stone’ in Scots Gaelic and its creation was inspired by the Tarlogie Spring, Glenmorangie’s mineral rich water source as well as the 8th century Cadboll Stone which stands on the grounds near the Distillery.

An intriguing, hand-selected 15-year-old Glenmorangie that has been aged in ex-bourbon oak casks and then extra matured in casks from the world’s most famous “Super Tuscan” wine producer—Artein is sure to impress any whisky enthusiast.

Glencairn Crystal, named in May 2009 as Barclays Scottish Family Business of the Year, specialize in the most extensive range of engraved and highly decorated products, be it oneoff special presentations or high-volume decanter and glass production. They are also Winners of the Queens Award for developing The Glencairn Glass the official whisky glass.

“As a family company we put the emphasis on excellent customer service—everything else, the quality finish and use of quality products and materials come as result of our drive for the best in customer service”.

glencairn.co.uk

glenmorangie.com

COACH BRIEFCASE Self described ‘Leather Artisans’, Coach have been producing fine leather products in New York since 1941. Probably best known for their stylish but amazingly durable handbags, many of them design classics, Coach also have a men’s range of quality. We particularly like this case, superb for carrying a laptop and multiple heavy magazines, like Kingdom.

A great American brand.

coach.com

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kitchenaid wine cellar KitchenAid’s under-counter appliances are stylish and versatile, provide refrigeration options that reconfigure the kitchen and turn virtually any area of your home into an entertaining zone. The Wine Cellar (on the left, the ice maker is on the right) represents a stylish way to store your favorite beverages close at hand. The undercounter beverage center combines the convenience of a refrigerator with the elegance of a wine cellar.

This unit is designed for built-in or freestanding applications and features a left-hand door swing. Temperature and lighting are critical to preserving wine. Our wine cellars feature true dual temperature zones, allowing you to store red and white wines at different temperatures. A UV-resistant thermal glass door filters out harmful UV rays to help maintain temperatures.

kitchenaid.com

rocky Patel Rocky Patel worked for over four years perfecting the blend of a cigar to celebrate his 50th birthday. Featuring tobaccos that have been aged for eight years, the Rocky Patel Fifty feature Ecuadorian wrappers hand selected from the tobacco plant and two distinct binders that both enhance and engage with flavors. Medium- to full-bodied with complex flavors of white pepper, dark chocolate, and espresso with a lingering sweet spice that stimulates the palate. Each limited edition box is numbered 1/2000 and features over 500 brilliant orange crystals. To get things going, use a limited-edition vintage dual flame lighter: Elegantly designed in high gloss lacquer and 18-carat gold finish, available in Ivory, Red or Black.

rockypatel.com

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caddytrek

musty Putters

Caddytrek is a smart and compact robotic golf caddy that follows you faithfully around the golf course—at your chosen pace. When you go faster, it goes faster. When you slow down, it slows down. And when you stop, it stops. Dual motors and tough wheels can handle all terrain, while a lithium ion battery gets you across 27 holes and beyond. It can also be remotely controlled, meaning you can send it to the next tee or recall it from afar. Caddytrek is lightweight, folds and unfolds easily, and there’s no assembly required.

Calling from the earliest days of golf—but using the latest technology and design in creation— David Musty has reinvented the wood putter for the modern era. By raising the entire weighting system to the midpoint of the golf ball, backspin and face hop have been eliminated. Additionally, the center of the putter head, a super-light beater bar with aiming line, ensures that off-center putts roll straight and the same distance as putts hit dead center. As for feel, nothing has quite the touch of wood, immediately evident when you swing a Musty Putter. Additionally, Musty can tailor a putter to your individual taste and needs, meaning Musty Putters are not only beautiful, they’re bespoke.

caddytrek.com

mustyputters.net

tour sticks Is this the perfect way to speed up play? No more searching in vain, or staring at your ball without being able to retrieve it from a hazard. The Tour Sticks Golf Ball Grabber, 10-foot long with a silicone head and friction grip, extends to stand in the golf bag and collapses to just 16 inches to fit in a bag pocket. Available in seven colors: clear, red, yellow, green, blue, black and orange. And if you’re seeking help with your golf swing, Tour Sticks’ innovative fiberglass rods, now available in 10 crazy patterns, provide a versatile, portable, multifunctional training tool and a superb teaching aid.

toursticks.com

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Golf GameBook aPP The GameBook iPhone app combines golf with the latest smartphone technology.

GameBook, used for real-time scoring in this year’s Kingdom Cup hosted by Arnold Palmer at Bay Hill Club & Lodge, brings together friends and a beloved hobby. The Kingdom Cup players were completely taken by its ease of use, the added excitement of live leaderboards and the opportunity for teams to ”trash talk” live, all made possible by GameBook. GameBook has been developed with help from several PGA professionals, including Stewart Cink, and social media experts. GameBook has managed to create an outstanding application to make golf even more fun, exciting and sociable. You can download the Golf GameBook for free from the App Store and invite your golfing friends to enjoy golf more than ever. Play. Share. Enjoy.

golfgamebook.com

callaway Callaway sets a new standard with its first adjustable driver and a new ball.

The RAZR Fit Driver features an OptiFit Hosel that allows players to adjust the face angle for improved accuracy and trajectory, while the OptiFIT Weights (12g and 2g) can be adjusted to promote either draw or neutral ball flights. The Forged Composite material in the crown is lighter and stronger than titanium and helps to create an optimum center of gravity and high MOI, while the Speed Frame Face Technology creates a large sweet spot and high ball speeds across the titanium face. Also new to the Callaway catalog is the HEX Black Tour Golf Ball, which is highly engineered to provide optimized Tour performance on every shot and with more durability throughout the round.

callawaygolf.com

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a Patriot’s callinG Major Dan “Noonan” Rooney has flown his F-16 on three tours of duty in Iraq. He is retired but remains on Inactive Ready Reserve in the Air National Guard. He is a PGA golf professional, motivational speaker, founder of The Patriot Golf Club, and the founder and President of the Folds of Honor Foundation. The Folds of Honor has raised millions and awarded over 2,600 educational scholarships for the families of fallen and disabled veterans. He has been awarded the Air National Guard’s Distinguished Service Medal, Air Force Combat Air Medal, Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and PGA of America’s first Patriot Award. He was given the Call to Service award by President George W. Bush and was named one of People magazine’s Heroes of the Year and ABC World News’s Persons of the Year. In A Patriot’s Calling, he inspires us to discover our essence and give back to America.

kindle touch 3G This e-reader has free 3G wireless. Easy to use, there’s no hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots, no annual contracts or monthly fees. 3G wireless works globally, download books anytime, anywhere. Reads like real paper, even in bright sunlight, no eye strain or glare. Holds 3,000 books, take your library wherever you go. Up to 2 months battery life on a single charge. Only e-reader with text-to-speech, audiobooks and mp3 support. Amazon Prime members choose from over 100,000 books to borrow for free.

amazon.com

Golf’s unfoldinG drama Renowned golf course photographer Evan Schiller has a new book, and it’s as beautiful as it is portable. Golf’s Unfolding Drama is available as a digital download via Apple’s iBooks or iTunes stores, and it’s specially designed for iPad viewing.

Some of Evan’s best work is featured in this dramatic journey across four continents, all of it rich and engaging. The experience is further enhanced via a story accompanying each picture, allowing you to share the moment with the photographer—whether he’s shooting from a helicopter or the top of an 80-foot sand dune.

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SubScribe to

Kingdom

Kingdom magazine has always been available on a complimentary basis, as a gift from the King himself, to the private members of Arnold Palmer designed and managed courses. Now the magazine is also available, on a subscription basis, to all Arnold Palmer fans and golfers with a taste for fine living. If you would like to subscribe, or are a member 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 equally between the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies in Orlando.

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

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Electronic scorecard | Live on-course scoring between multiple groups| Save results, stats and photos | Trash talk| All popular game formats | Share golf experience live with friends | Contests | www.golfgamebook.com

SigNAtuRe tAble From Hawaii to the Deep South, clubhouse chefs at some of golf’s finest venues are proving that it’s possible to eat well even if you’re not playing well. Whether it’s Augusta National’s legendary peach cobbler or the excellent dry-rubbed beef at Pinehurst’s Carolina Room, courses’ dining rooms are becoming as memorable as the fairways and greens. Here, we offer alternative takes on some of our favorite specialty offerings from a handful of top clubs. You might not get the views, but the flavors should be enough to transport you back to any number of top post-round meals.

Wherever you find your inspiration, enjoy.

Dishes inspired by clubhouse fare at some of the country’s best courses

Appetizer

Tuna Poké

Inspiration: 21 Degrees N Turtle Bay, Oahu For anyone who likes a bit of seafood, there are few starters as enjoyable as a fresh tuna tartar. After playing a round on the excellent Palmer Course, guests at Oahu’s turtle bay Resort often clean up and head for 21 Degrees N, one of the resort’s top restaurants. there’s plenty of fish on the menu, and it starts with the appetizers. the resort’s tuna tartar is absolutely fantastic, and there’s no reason you can’t enjoy a version of it at your next dinner party. in a bit of a twist, we offer this recipe for Poké (pronounced pokeeh), a native Hawaiian dish that adds a bit of spice and charm to an always-good idea.

• 8oz sashimi-grade ahi tuna (alternately, use salmon or yellowtail) • ½ tsp sesame oil • ¼ jalapeno (seeded and diced) • ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro • ¼ cup finely diced red onion • juice from 1 fresh lime • sea salt and fresh-ground pepper to taste Dice the tuna into small, bite-sized strips or ¼-inch cubes, then combine with the other ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. it should look a bit messy and incredibly fresh. go with a half a jalapeno if you don’t like spice. Keep this starter on ice, then present it in a large bowl with taro chips or fried wonton crips.

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MAin

Carolina Dry Rub Barbeque Inspiration: Carolina Room Pinehurst Resort, North Carolina

if there’s one thing that gets barbeque aficionados fired up, it’s the debate over wet vs. dry—that is: is it better to cover your grill meat in a sauce or marinate it in a mix of dry spices? While North Carolina is divided on the issue, the Carolina Room at Pinehurst Resort favors a dry rub for their legendary steaks. there are a million variations on dry rubs, with most of them including some combination of salt, sugar, pepper and chili powder. the version we present should make enough rub to cover a large roast, steaks for four, chicken, lamb, or whatever else you want to grill. Simply rub this mix into your fare of choice and marinate overnight. When the meat’s come off the fire, your guests will be wowed, Southern style.

• 2 tbsp salt • 2 tbsp sugar • 2 tbsp brown sugar • 2 tbsp ground cumin • 2 tbsp chili powder • 2 tbsp freshly ground black pepper • 1 tbsp cayenne pepper • ¼ cup paprika Combine everything in a bowl and mix.

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Dessert

Grilled Sea Scallops

Peach Cobbler

While the sunny beaches of Southern California bring bikinis and burgers to mind, the rocky coastline up north inspires visions of cold water and warm chowder.

At the Stillwater bar and grill, just one of the great restaurants at Pebble beach, shellfish is certainly on the menu, and you could do a lot worse than to tuck into a plate of the eatery’s scallops. While some believe it takes a top chef to do scallops right, they’re actually quite manageable—as long as you keep things simple.

Here’s a take on grilled scallops that favors both the tastebuds and the skills-challenged.

When you think of dessert in georgia, you think of peach cobbler. And when you think of peach cobbler, inevitably you think of Augusta National golf Club. the clubhouse has been serving its definitive peach cobbler for years to Masters competitors and the fortunate few who regularly visit the course. While we won’t pretend that our recipe approaches the legendary sweet at Augusta, it should be good enough to satisfy guests at any masterful home dinner party. georgia, sweet georgia.

Inspiration: Stillwater Bar & Grill Pebble Beach, California

• 12 large sea scallops • 1 tbsp olive oil • 1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary • sea salt and fresh-ground pepper • Cayenne pepper (optional) • paprika Mix the scallops, oil, and chopped rosemary in a bowl with a pinch each of salt, pepper, paprika and Cayenne pepper (optional), then cover and chill the whole mix for at least a half hour. With a grill at medium-high heat, grill each scallop no longer than two or three minutes per side and remove. Serve with roasted peppers, rice, salad or just fresh off the grill on a plate.

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Inspiration: Augusta National Golf Club, Georgia

• 4 cups peaches (peeled and sliced) • 2 cups of sugar (divided) • ½ cup water • 8 tbsp butter • 1 ½ cups self-raising flour • 1 ½ cups milk • ground cinnamon While the oven is preheating to 350 degrees, mix the peaches, 1 cup of sugar and the water in a saucepan. bring to a boil, simmer for 10 minutes then remove from the heat. Melt the butter in a 3-quart baking dish in the oven.

Mix the other cup of sugar, the flour and milk—slowly. Pour this over the melted butter. Spoon the peaches on top while gently adding the syrup. if you’d like a bit of cinnamon, sprinkle some on top at this point. bake for roughly 40 minutes, then serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

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pure links

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Links courses have a special place in golf, as they are the game’s original fields of play, dating to golf’s earliest beginnings in Scotland. The word “links” comes from hlinc— meaning “rising ground”—and indeed the first links courses were established on the rolling hills of the Scottish coast.

Today’s links courses are similar, often being sited on or near coastlines and usually offering copious sand dunes and few trees. Along with challenging landscapes, links courses also feature formidable winds. And while these winds add both difficulty and character to a course, they can also be credited (or blamed) with the invention of the bunker. Bunkers were originally natural depressions that were further dug out by animals seeking shelter from strong coastal winds. Sand would collect in them, creating a natural hazard that is today an integral part of golf course design.

The British Golf Museums depicts “links” as being coastal strips of land between beaches and the inland areas. The seaside area in Aberdeen, Scotland, where Trump International Golf Links was built, is a perfect example of a links course in its purest form.

There is still some confusion as to what exactly a links course is, and I discovered that in the U.S., where we are less familiar with links courses than someone from the UK would be, it’s a common misconception that a links course is any course that doesn’t have many or any trees, but it’s much more complicated than that. The detail work that goes into designing a links course makes it truly a work of art. I worked with Sir Martin Hawtree on my course and it was a labor of love—but the labor part was definitely there.

Geomorphologists were brought in to study the Great Dunes of Scotland to make sure they were adequately protected, and we did years of environmental studies to make sure the wildlife and land were also protected. It’s an absolutely spectacular course, and I can say without hesitation that it’s the greatest golf course in the world. We open on July 1, 2012, and I hope you’ll come to see it yourself.

Donald J. Trump

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Photo Š Joanne Dost

Some golf courses seem to have been golf courses forever.

Places like Augusta National, Pinehurst No.2, Pebble Beach and, of course, the Old Course at St. Andrews are not only redolent with history, full of stories of magnificent shots, heroic champions and tragic collapses, but also possess the stamp of permanence. It is as if they are meant to be as they are, where they are, born at the dawn of time as golf courses. Any other use of the land is simply unthinkable

So how did these courses, which before the advent of golf were simple parcels of wilderness, farm or common land, achieve immortality? One would assume by clinging to their original layout and steadfastly resisting change. In fact, the exact opposite is the case. They have survived, prospered and achieved iconic status, in part, as a result of brilliant original design and, in part, by a process of regular change. While remaining faithful to their original design ideals, they have all been comprehensively refreshed over time. As recently as 2009, Pebble Beach commissioned Arnold Palmer Design Company to work on a number of their holes prior to the 2010 U.S. Open.

If the process of regular updating can benefit the world’s greatest golfing theaters, then consider how much it would apply to humbler, more ordinary courses. Advances in equipment technology have required the repositioning of tees, hazards, greens, rough, and even fairways, but it is nature (rather than man) that often changes the most. Golf courses are far from static; they are organic environments that shift, alter and evolve over time. Trees grow, trees fall; bunkers, however well maintained, have a shelf life; and tee repositioning often leaves hazards redundant. Green committees make successive piecemeal adjustments, often

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on their members’ whims and in an environment where the loudest voice or last word is the decisive one. However well-intentioned, these types of changes often mean that layouts stray far from their original configuration or the architect’s original intent. Commonplace these problems may be, but they all can diminish a course’s playability, its aesthetic qualities and, as a consequence, the enjoyment it offers. Good round or bad, a wellproportioned course should leave a golfer with a warm glow of satisfaction after experiencing 18 holes, regardless of score.

From the business viewpoint, any decline in the character and quality of a golf course ultimately leads to fewer rounds being played and a lower-value experience.

Fewer rounds played means less spend in the bar and pro-shop, and a lower-value experience means members seek out other courses that offer better value and daily-fee players golf once and simply don’t return. With less income, costs and maintenance are cut back; and so it is that clubs spiral into seemingly unstoppable decline.

There are other issues relating to cost and course management that ultimately affect a club’s bottom line.

When a course was first constructed, water may have

been inexpensive to source and readily available, but now it can be scarcer and considerably more expensive. Modern irrigation systems may significantly reduce water cost and improve turf condition. Likewise, turf reduction can, if handled properly, add to the challenges of a course for the player while significantly reducing maintenance costs.

In short, any course that is over 10 years old should take a fresh, unfettered look at its entire setup in terms of overall course design, playability, value, marketability, maintenance and management costs.

Fortunately, legendary professional Arnold Palmer’s help is at hand in the form of APDC’s Refresh Program.

This program provides a comprehensive approach to addressing the needs of existing and/or ageing golf course facilities. It focuses on environmentally responsible, historically sensitive, maintenance-conscious and economically viable solutions to help clients become more efficient and sustainable going forward.

The APDC Refresh Program aims to restore and upgrade a facility by providing a guide so a club can make appropriate and effective modifications that will improve playability and strategy, turf conditions and environmental sustainability, maintenance efficiency and economic viability.

Process outline

hing Pebble Beach’s iconic 6th was remodeled by aPDc in 2009

Pebble beach®, Pebble beach Golf links® and distinctive imaGes of the course are trademarks, service marks and trade dress of Pebble beach comPany. used by Permission.

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APDC can conduct a thorough analysis of the existing conditions and assess the individual needs of a facility from the viewpoint of technical deficiencies (drainage, shade, poor turf conditions, water circulation, etc), playability, strategic conditions and aesthetic opportunities.

Then APDC will discuss its findings with the club stakeholders and together will develop an appropriate master plan and timetable of work that addresses the immediate and long-term needs of the facility. Integral to this process, APDC will establish an ongoing relationship with the club and be their “architect of choice” going forward. They personally manage and oversee the proposed work to ensure a collective vision is implemented properly, and in a way that accommodates budgets over the longer term.

The nature of the program is highly scalable, and is limited not just to existing Arnold Palmer-designed courses that might need some slight adjustments or bunker maintenance, but is available to every golf course. Indeed, the program in some instances can be so comprehensive that after work has finished the redesign is sufficiently extensive to merit the course gaining Arnold Palmer Design or Signature status.

Program elements Bunkers—Bunkers are invariably regarded as the face and personality of a golf course. Their look and placement are of paramount importance in the quest for an acceptable blend of visual elegance and sound strategy.

Routine maintenance, changes in technology, previous committee projects, shifts in aesthetic attitudes, chronic drainage issues and even excessive tree growth can have the effect of diminishing, over time, the original intent or integrity of a golf course’s bunkers.

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Bunkers also monopolize a large portion of the maintenance budget in terms of man hours as well as financial outlay. APDC has experienced considerable success in evaluating the current state of a club’s bunkers and proposing a bunker renovation program that tackles the heart of a club’s issues while enhancing the golf course’s aesthetic and strategic stature. In some instances, we have been able to reduce significantly the bunkers’ square footage and, in turn, reduce maintenance costs.

Greens—USGA Greens have an expected lifespan of 15-30 years. Older clubs may have issues with drainage, shade, irrigation coverage, a loss of pin locations due to regressive sloping or maintenance in relation to grass types.

APDC has considerable experience with facilities that are fun to play and of an appropriate standard for the average golfer, while simultaneously having the ability to be set up for professional tournament play at the highest level. This means that when APDC reviews your property, it can pinpoint the major issues or areas in need of improvement and propose viable solutions that appeal to your club’s target market.

Reduce/Minimize Maintenance practices— Facilities need to be sustainable, both environmentally and economically. Retooling your club to maximize each dollar spent on maintenance is key to sustaining financial success.

Turf and Water Reduction—This is one way to reduce maintenance costs, control water consumption and at the same time enhance the aesthetic qualities of a golf course. Reducing the amount of maintained turf will reduce man hours, chemical expenditure and water usage.

By replacing the turf with native or more natural plants and materials, a significant reduction in resources can be realized while enhancing the experience of the player.

cost Benefits The cost benefits of an APDC refresh program will obviously vary, depending on the nature of the project. However, the basic tenet of the program is that an enhanced course leads to higher income through higher value golf, more rounds played and a boost in member and guest numbers.

Ray Easler, general manager at Bay Hill Club & Lodge, is in no doubt that the facelift the tournament layout received in advance of the 2010 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard was a masterpiece in APDC excellence, and can serve as a template for other courses.

“The excitement surrounding the renovation resulted in an 18% increase in rounds in the quarter following the reopening of the course. In particular, guest rounds were especially up as club members desired to share their ‘new course’ with friends and family,” he commented. “While the specific design layout of our course which features enlarged bunkers has not brought about a reduction in overall maintenance costs, it has reduced the amount of time our crew spends fly mowing and repairing washouts in the bunkers. The time saved on these labor-intensive tasks can now be better spent in other areas.”

The potential maintenance savings from modern irrigation systems, reduced turf management and bunkering can be immediate and are easily measurable.

Hardest to quantify but perhaps most critical of all is how

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much a club can lose through decline if issues of playability and decreasing golf quality are not addressed. The greatest courses maintain their greatness by never falling into the downward spiral that leads to declining revenues.

“With today’s big hitters and equipment changes, if you don’t strengthen you can easily become obsolete,” says R.J. Harper, Senior Vice President Golf, Pebble Beach Company.

“Our ethos is one of continual improvement. The work Arnold and his design team did ultimately strengthened Pebble Beach but did so by reinvigorating the original design intent.

“By intelligent positioning of new bunkers, Arnold and his design team have brought the ocean back into play. Whatever the weather conditions, Pebble Beach remains a true golf challenge with shot-making reward tempered by ocean risk.”

marketing Intrinsic to the success of refreshing a golf course is also refreshing and uplifting its image. The most powerful marketing, of course, is the “word of mouth” testimony of golfers, but being able to communicate the energy and positive qualities that come with an Arnold Palmer redesign or refresh program can also dramatically increase membership, rounds played and the price of playing.

Moreover, the better the golf experience the longer golfers spend in the clubhouse and the greater their overall spend.

An APDC refresh allows clubs to communicate in a positive way with their members and visitors. And if the program includes a sufficiently comprehensive redesign, it also allows the club to market itself as an Arnold Palmer Design course. Attaching the Arnold Palmer name to a course brings instant status, unparalleled marketing opportunities and one-of-a-kind brand distinction. Golf courses designed by APDC, grow in value, are often listed in the ‘Top’ lists that golf magazines like to publish and are regularly sought after as tournament venues.

In addition to the overwhelming strength of the name, APDC can coordinate publicity and press releases, and the trademark can be used on all communication and marketing materials. If desired, a full range of graphic design services are available, including both print and electronic advertising, and communication materials.

Editorial will be placed in media owned by Arnold Palmer, including arnoldpalmer.com and, of course, on these very pages— in Kingdom.

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Bay Hill’s bunkers (above) and 18th green were reconstructed under Palmer’s watchful eye (below right). the remodeled 17th at Wexford Plantation (left)

HOW LONG SHOULD GOLF COURSE ELEMENTS LAST?

“I think it’s brilliant. The shaping is different. The bigger bunkers have edges that flow. I think it’s very well designed.”

item

Years

Greens Bunker Sand Irrigation System Irrigation Control System PVC Pipe (under pressure) H.D.P.E. Pipe Pump Station Cart Paths—Asphalt (2) Cart Paths—Concrete Practice Range Tees Tees Corrugated Metal Pipes Bunker Drainage Pipes (3) Mulch

15-30 5-7 10-30 10-15 10-15 40-60 15-20 5-10 15-30 5-10 15-20 15-30 5-10 1-3

ernie els

After winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational in 2010

“I thought it was terrific.

Everything that was changed was for the better. I really enjoyed playing the golf course.” phil mickelson

As an indication, with their permission we have reproduced the ASGCA’s Course Component Life Cycle Chart:

(figures from ASGCA)

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Out Of the sand Our instruction tutor in this edition of Kingdom is Greg VanNatta, the Director of Golf at the Arnold Palmer-designed Tradition Golf Club in La Quinta, California for the past eight years.

Paul Trow (words) and Reade Tilley (photographs) caught up with him at this desert paradise to hear in his own words about the finer points of playing successfully out of sand

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Greg VanNatta is a man who has golf hard-wired into his soul, yet he’s always struggling to find the time to play his favorite game.

Prior to taking up his position, and myriad responsibilities, as the Director of Golf at the Arnold Palmerdesigned Tradition Golf Club in La Quinta, Greg spent six years in the same position at nearby Bermuda Dunes Country Club. “I first met Mr. Palmer when the old Bob Hope Classic was staged there,” he reveals. “My father worked in the government when I was growing up, therefore I was brought up all over the place. I started off as a pro at two smallish clubs in Montana before coming down to this part of the world. But working here is as good as it gets. If you’re a PGA professional in this part of the world, I think you’d have to say that either Scottsdale in Arizona or here [the Coachella Valley] are the places to live and work.

“As you know, it can get really hot down here in the summer so the residents tend not to stay once the temperatures start going crazy. Most of them have retired or moved down here from cities in the north or perhaps Los Angeles, and they will typically go back to their primary residences. Those that stay, though, or visit to play golf tend to tee off early in the morning before the sun really starts to boil.

“Here at Tradition, we’re closed from mid-September to November 10 each year so we can crack on with all the routine course maintenance work we invariably have to tackle in preparation for the winter season. Much of our membership comes back out especially for the opening of the course for the winter season [November 10] and then we may not see them again until mid-January when they come back around the time of the tournament [the Humana Challenge, formerly known as the Bob Hope Desert Classic].

“Our 80-plus bunkers cover 6.7 acres of the golf course and the sand in them, which we know as Augusta White, is made from crushed marble. We source it from a nearby mining project about 60 miles from here and replace the sand every fall as part of our annual maintenance. In fact, that’s probably the biggest job we undertake during this maintenance process.

“Once we start to get the bunkers ready for play, we aim for two inches of depth on the sides, and four inches in the middle of the bunkers throughout the course. We’ve got a lot of young maintenance workers on the staff and they put the new sand back in just the same way as they found it—it’s a tough job but they do it very well.

“We do get some strong breezes here in the valley from time to time [the day after this shoot, play at the Humana Challenge nearby was abandoned because the wind whipped up uncontrollably], so we need sand that doesn’t blow away too much.

“That said, we’re in a unique place here—the golf courses are better maintained than almost anywhere else in the world. And it’s incumbent on players and members to respect that process. We always advocate that when bunkers are smoothed out after a shot, the sand should be raked from the edges toward the middle. The all-important principle, of course, is always to leave the bunker as you found it.”

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Are bunkers really hazards?

“Even though the pros on Tour make it look ridiculously easy, I firmly believe that sand bunkers are supposed to be hazards regardless of how well they’ve been maintained and manicured. After all, there should be some punishment for hitting a crooked golf shot.

“It’s interesting that Jack Nicklaus recently introduced old-fashioned rakes to smooth out his bunkers for the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village, leaving grooves in the sand that the ball could easily roll into. All he was doing was reverting to the way things used to be.

“We don’t do that here—I don’t think the members would appreciate that!”

The Augusta White sand in Tradition’s bunkers is crushed marble

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1

So what’s the correct approach to hitting a routine bunker shot?

2

Line up the feet to the left of the target

“For these bunker shots, I’m going to use a 60-degree wedge with plenty of loft. I’ve chosen this bunker that bites into the front left side of one of the deeper greens here at Tradition. The green is above me and the pin is located at the far side of an extremely swift putting surface.

“You will notice that my ball is down in the base of the sand and that I have quite a high lip to get over, yet at the same time I have a reasonable amount of green to play with so the shot can run out naturally. None the less, I have to lift the ball into the air and make more of an effort to get it to check as it is still bound to roll out a bit.

“For nearly every greenside bunker shot, I set the line of my feet to the left of the target, perhaps by as much as 30 degrees while the sole of my club remains pointed toward the target. I visualize a circle with about an inch radius around my ball and that is what I work with when I try to determine how I’d like to play the shot.

“If I want to take more a splash, land the ball short and let it roll out down toward the pin then I splash through the sand roughly an inch behind the ball. If however, I want to give it a bit more flight and stop it quicker, I concentrate on entering the sand no more than half an inch behind the ball, and almost pinching the shot out of the bunker.”

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A quick break of the wrists helps with a plugged lie

But not every lie in a bunker is good.

How would you play a ball from a plugged lie?

“Playing a bunker shot out of a plugged lie is an extremely difficult shot—for professionals as well as amateurs because the degree of control over the shot is inevitably reduced.

Also, the chances are that you’ve short-sided yourself as well because the plugged lie will be the result either of a high wedge shot aimed at a sucker pin or a longer shot that might have buried itself into an upslope.

“Extricating a plugged ball from the sand always results in top spin but there are several schools of thought about how the shot should be played—and in this respect the type of sand involved is clearly a factor.

“Here, in our crushed marble, I would open the face as usual and blast the ball and allow almost the length of the green for it to run out. Another method, when the sand is damp and slightly compacted, is to hood the face and force the ball out. Obviously this approach doesn’t deliver a lot of control but it is nevertheless surprisingly effective, and usually the ball finishes somewhere on the green.”

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3

4

Aim to strike the sand an inch to an inch-and-a half behind the ball

5

Maintain the follow-through to throw the ball up onto the green

4

3

5

Sometimes a slightly hooded face helps to squeeze the ball out

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185

course directory Courses around the world designed by the Arnold Palmer Design Company KEY: + Remodel

@ Certified Audubon Sanctuary @* Certified Audubon Signature Sanctuary

The Classic Club

Palm Desert, California

www.classicclubgolf.com

ALABAMA Craft Farms

Cotton Creek and Cypress Bend Gulf Shores, Alabama

Empire Lake Golf Course

Rancho Cucamonga, California

www.empirelakes.com

Hiddenbrooke Golf Club

www.craftfarms.com

Vallejo, California

ARIZONA

Indian Ridge Country Club

www.hiddenbrookegolf.com

Rancho Murieta Country Club

Rancho Murieta, California

www.ranchomurietacc.com

Rolling Hills Golf Club

Palos Verdes Estates, California

www.rollinghillscc.com

SilverRock Resort

La Quinta, California

www.silverrock.org

The Tradition Golf Club

La Quinta, California

Glendale, Arizona

Arroyo and Grove Courses Palm Desert, California

www.traditiongolfclub.net

www.arrowheadccaz.com

www.indianridgecc.com

COLORADO

Mesa del Sol

Mission Hills Country Club

Yuma, Arizona

The Arnold Palmer Course Rancho Mirage, California

Bear Creek Golf Course www.bearcreekgolfclub.net

Mountain View Country Club

Englewood, Colorado

Arrowhead Country Club

www.mesadelsolgolf.com

Starfire at Scottsdale Country Club

Scottsdale, Arizona

www.starfiregolfclub.com

Starr Pass Resort

Tucson, Arizona

www.jwmarriottstarrpass.com

Wildfire at Desert Ridge

Phoenix, Arizona

www.wildfiregolf.com

CALIFORNIA Aviara at Park Hyatt Resort

Carlsbad, California

www.parkaviara.hyatt.com

mountain view, ca, hole 10

www.missionhills.com

Denver, Colorado

Cherry Hills Country Club +

La Quinta, California

www.chcc.com

Pebble Beach Golf Links +

Eagle, Colorado

www.mountainviewatlaquinta.com

Eagle Ranch Golf Course @

Monterey, California

www.eagleranchgolf.com

PGA West

Littleton, Colorado

www.pebblebeach.com

Lone Tree Golf Club

The Palmer Private Course La Quinta, California

www.golfcolorado.com/lonetree

www.pgawest.com

CONNECTICUT

The Presidio Golf Course +@

Gillette Ridge Golf Club

San Francisco, California

www.presidiogolfclub.com

Bloomfield, Connecticut

www.gilletteridgegolf.com

FLORIDA Adios Golf Club

Coconut Creek, Florida

www.adiosgolfclub.org

Bay Hill Club and Lodge +

Orlando, Florida

www.bayhill.com

Boca West #1 and Boca West #3

Boca Raton, Florida

www.bocawestcc.org

Deering Bay Yacht and Country Club

Coral Gables, Florida

www.dbycc.com

Frenchman's Reserve

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

www.frenchmansreserve.com

The Golf Club at North Hampton

Fernandina Beach, Florida

www.northhampton.com/golfclub.asp

Hidden Hills Country Club +

Jacksonville, Florida www.hiddenhillscc.com

Isleworth Golf and Country Club

Windermere, Florida www.isleworth.com

The King and The Bear

St. Augustine, Florida

www.kingandbear.com

Lakewood Ranch Golf & Country Club

Cypress Links and King's Dunes Bradenton, Florida

www.lakewoodranchgolf.com

Legacy Golf Club

Bradenton, Florida

www.legacygolfclub.com

Legends at Orange Lake

Kissimmee, Florida

www.orangelake.com

angel park golf club, nv

Lost Key Golf Course @*

Perdido Key, Florida

The Plantation at Ponte Vedra

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

www.lostkey.com

www.theplantationpv.com

Majors Golf Club at Palm Bay

Ponte Vedra Golf & Country Club at Sawgrass +

Palm Bay, Florida

www.majorsgolfclub.com

Marsh Landing Country Club

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

www.marshlandingcc.com

Matanzas Woods, Palm Coast Resort

Palm Coast, Florida

www.palmcoastresort.com

Mill Cove Golf Club

Jacksonville, Florida

www.millcovegolfcourse.com

Mizner Golf and Country Club @

Delray Beach, Florida

www.miznercountryclub.com

Monarch Country Club

Palm City, Florida

www.monarchclub.com

Naples Lakes Country Club @

Naples, Florida

www.napleslakesfl.com

Orchid Island Golf Club

Vero Beach, Florida

www.orchidislandgolfandbeachclub.com

Palmer Legends Country Club

The Villages, Florida www.thevillages.com

Pasadena Yacht and Country Club +

St. Petersburg, Florida

www.pyccgolf.com

PGA National

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

www.pgaresort.com

Pine Lakes at Palm Coast Resort

Palm Coast, Florida

www.palmcoastresort.com/golf.html

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

www.pontevedragolfandcc.com

Reunion Resort & Club

The Legacy Course Orlando, Florida

www.reunionresort.com

Saddlebrook Resort

Wesley Chapel, Florida www.saddlebrook.com

Sawgrass Country Club +

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

www.sawgrasscountryclub.com

Spessard Holland Golf Park

Melbourne, Florida

www.golfspessardholland.com

St. Andrews Country Club +

Boca Raton, Florida

www.standrewscc.com

Suntree Country Club

Melbourne, Florida

www.suntree.com

Tesoro—The Palmer Course

Port St. Lucie, Florida

www.tesoroclub.com

Wildcat Run Country Club @

Estero, Florida

www.wildcatruncc.com

GEORGIA Augusta First Tee

Augusta, Georgia

www.thefirstteeaugusta.org

Champions Retreat

Augusta, Georgia

www.championsretreat.net

Cherokee Run Golf Club

Hawthorn Woods Country Club

Conyers, Georgia

Hawthorn Township, Illinois

Manitou Passage Golf Club

Cedar, Michigan

www.cherokeerungolfclub.com

www.hwccgolf.com

www.manitoupassagegolfclub.com

Eagle Watch

Spencer T. Olin Community Golf Course

Northville, Michigan

Woodstock, Georgia

www.eaglewatchgolf.com

Forest Hills Golf Club +

Augusta, Georgia

www.theforesthillsgolfcourse.com

Landings on Skidaway Island @

Magnolia Course Savannah, Georgia

www.thelandings.com

Stouffers Pine Isle +

Lake Lanier Islands, Georgia Whitewater Country Club

Fayetteville, Georgia

www.whitewatercc.com

HAwAII

Alton, Illinois

www.spencertolingolf.com

White Eagle Golf Club

Northville Hills Country Club @ www.northvillehills.com

Ravines Golf Club

Saugatuck, Michigan

Naperville, Illinois

www.ravinesgolfclub.com

IOwA

Deacon's Lodge

www.whiteeaglegc.com

Tournament Club of Iowa

MINNESOTA Nisswa, Minnesota

Polk City, Iowa

www.deaconslodge.com

KENTUCKY

Bloomington, Minnesota

Lake Forest Country Club

TPC of the Twin Cities @

www.tcofiowa.com

Louisville, Kentucky

www.lakeforestgolf.com

Minnesota Valley Golf Club +@

Blaine, Minnesota

www.tpctwincities.com

The Hapuna Golf Course

LOUISIANA

MISSISSIPPI

Kamuela, Hawaii

The Bluffs on Thompson Creek

The Bridges Golf Club at Hollywood Casino @*

www.princeresortshawaii.com

Hawaii Prince Golf Club

Ewa Beach, Hawaii

www.princeresortshawaii.com

Kapalua Golf Club @

The Bay Course Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii

www.hawaiigolfacademy.com

Turtle Bay Resort

The Palmer Course Kakuku, Hawaii

www.turtlebayresort.com

ILLINOIS The Den at Fox Creek Golf Club @

Bloomington, Illinois

www.thedengc.com

St. Francesville, Louisiana

www.thebluffs.com

MARYLAND Country Club at Woodmore

Mitchellville, Maryland

www.ccwoodmore.com

MASSACHUSETTS TPC of Boston at Great Woods

Norton, Massachusetts

www.tpcboston.com

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

www.hollywoodcasinobsl.com/golf

MISSOURI Big Cedar

Arnold Palmer Practice Facility* Ridgedale, Missouri www.big-cedar.com

Osage National Golf Club

Lake Ozark, Missouri

www.osagenational.com

MICHIGAN

MONTANA

Coyote Preserve Golf Club

Big Sky Golf Club

Fenton, Michigan

www.coyotepreserve.com

The Legend at Shanty Creek

Bellaire, Michigan

www.shantycreek.com/golf

Big Sky, Montana

www.bigskyresort.com

NEBRASKA

NORTH CAROLINA

Arbor Links Golf Course

Balsam Mountain Preserve

Nebraska City, Nebraska

www.arborlinks.com

The Players Club at Deer Creek

Omaha, Nebraska

Sylva, North Carolina

www.balsammountain.com

Birkdale Golf Club

Huntersville, North Carolina

www.playersclubomaha.com

www.birkdale.com

NEVADA

Brier Creek Country Club @

Angel Park Golf Club

Palm Course and Mountain Course Las Vegas, Nevada

www.angelparkgolfclub.com

ArrowCreek Country Club

The Legend Course Reno, Nevada

Raleigh, North Carolina

www.briercreekcountryclub.com

The Carolina Golf Club

Tryon, North Carolina www.whiteoaktryon.com

NORTH DAKOTA King’s Walk Golf Course

Grand Forks, North Dakota

www.kingswalk.org

Cullasaja Club

Loveland, Ohio

Highlands, North Carolina

Dayton Valley Country Club

Mid South Club

Southern Pines, North Carolina

www.daytonvalley.com

www.talamore.com

Oasis Golf Club

NCSU—Lonnie Poole Golf Course

www.theoasisgolfclub.com

White Oak Golf & Equestrian Community

OHIO

www.cullasajaclub.org

Mesquite, Nevada

www.woodlakecc.com

Pinehurst, North Carolina

www.thecarolina.com

www.arrowcreekcc.com

Dayton, Nevada

Woodlake Resort & Golf Club

Vass, North Carolina

Raleigh, North Carolina

www.lonniepoolegolfcourse.com

Oasis Golf Club www.oasisclub.com

TPC River’s Bend

Cincinnati, Ohio

www.tpcatriversbend.com

Tartan Fields Golf Club

Dublin, Ohio

www.tartanfields.com

Oak Valley Golf Club

OREGON

Advance, North Carolina

Running Y Ranch Resort @

www.redrockcountryclub.com

TPC at Piper Glen @

www.runningy.com

NEw HAMPSHIRE

www.tpcpiperglen.com

Golf Club of New England

Quail Hollow Country Club +

Red Rock Country Club

Arroyo Course and Mountain Course Las Vegas, Nevada

Greenland, New Hampshire

www.golfclubne.com

NEw JERSEY Laurel Creek Country Club @

Mt. Laurel, New Jersey

www.laurelcreekcc.org

Regency at Monroe

Freehold, New Jersey

www.regencyatmonroe.com

www.oakvalleygolfclub.com

Charlotte, North Carolina

Charlotte, North Carolina Rivers Edge Golf Club

Shallotte, North Carolina

www.river18.com

Scotch Hall Preserve

Merry Hill, North Carolina

www.scotchhallpreserve.com

Klamath Falls, Oregon

PENNSYLVANIA Blue Bell Country Club

Blue Bell, Pennsylvania

www.bluebellcc.com

The Club at Blackthorne

Penn Township, Pennsylvania

www.theclubatblackthorne.com

Commonwealth National Golf Club @

Horsham, Pennsylvania

www.commonwealthgolfclub.com

Laurel Valley Golf Club +

Ligonier, Pennsylvania Oakmont Country Club +

Oakmont, Pennsylvania

www.oakmont-countryclub.org

Treesdale Golf and Country Club @

Gibsonia, Pennsylvania

www.treesdalegolf.com

dominion valley, va, hole 5

SOUTH CAROLINA Crescent Pointe Golf Club

Bluffton, South Carolina

Twin Creeks Golf Course

Kingsmill on the James @

Allen, Texas

The Plantation Course Williamsburg, Virginia

www.twincreeksgolf.com

www.crescentpointegolf.com

The Golf Club at Fossil Creek

Musgrove Mill Golf Club

www.thegolfclubatfossilcreek.com

Clinton, South Carolina

Fort Worth, Texas

www.musgrovemill.com

Lakecliff on Lake Travis

Myrtle Beach National

www.lakecliff.net

King’s North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

www.mbn.com

Old Tabby Links @

Spicewood, Texas Newport Dunes

Port Aransas, Texas

www.newportdunesgolf.com

www.springisland-sc.com

La Cantera Resort @ The Palmer Course

The Reserve at Lake Keowee

www.lacanteragolfclub.com

Okatie, South Carolina

Sunset, South Carolina

www.reserveatlakekeowee.com

RiverTowne Country Club

Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina

San Antonio, Texas

The Woodlands

The Palmer Course The Woodlands, Texas

www.kingsmill.com

Signature at West Neck

Virginia Beach, Virginia

www.signatureatwestneck.com

wASHINGTON Seattle Golf Club + Seattle, Washington

www.seattlegolfclub.com

Semiahmoo Golf and Country Club @

Blaine, Washington

www.semiahmoo.com

Suncadia Resort The Prospector Course

Roslyn, Washington

www.suncadia.com

www.thewoodlands.com

wEST VIRGINIA

Wexford Golf Club

UTAH

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

Jeremy Golf and Country Club

Speidel Golf Club Palmer Course

www.rivertownecountryclub.com

www.wexfordhiltonhead.com

SOUTH DAKOTA

Park City, Utah

www.thejeremy.com

Dakota Dunes Country Club

VIRGINIA

Dakota Dunes, South Dakota

Bay Creek Golf Club @*

www.dakotadunescountryclub.com

TENNESSEE The Governors Golf Club

Brentwood, Tennessee

www.thegovernorsclub.com

King’s Creek

Spring Hill, Tennessee

Cape Charles, Virginia

www.baycreekgolfclub.com

Belmont Country Club @

Ashburn, Virginia

www.belmontcountryclub.com

Dominion Valley Country Club and Executive Course

Haymarket, Virginia

www.kingscreekgolf.com

www.dominionvalley.com

Ridgeway Country Club

Fawn Lake @

Colliersville, Tennessee

Spotsylvania, Virginia

www.ridgewaycountryclub.com

www.fawnlakevirginia.com

TEXAS

Keswick Golf Club @

Barton Creek Resort @

Palmer Lakeside Course Spicewood, Texas

www.bartoncreek.com

Keswick, Virginia

www.keswickclub.com

Wheeling, West Virginia

www.oglebay-resort.com/golf/index.cfm

Stonewall Jackson Lake Resort

Walkersville, West Virginia www.stonewallresort.com

wISCONSIN The Bog

Saukville, Wisconsin

www.golfthebog.com

Geneva National Golf Club

The Palmer Course Lake Geneva, Wisconsin

www.genevanationalresort.com

wYOMING Teton Pines Resort and Country Club @

Jackson, Wyoming www.tetonpines.com

international

AUSTRALIA Sanctuary Cove Pines Golf Course

Sanctuary Cove, Queensland

www.sanctuarycove.com

BAHAMAS Ginn Sur Mer (formerly West End)

West End, Grand Bahama Island

CANADA

FRANCE

ITALY

Crecy Golf Club (Domain de la Brie)

Ca’della Nave Golf Club

Crecy–la–Chapelle

www.cadellanave.com

GERMANY

Castello di Tolcinasco Golf and Country Club

Rethmar Golf Links

www.golftolcinasco.it

Sporting Club Berlin

Prato

www.rethmar-golf-links.de

Bad Saarow

www.sporting-club-berlin.de

GUAM

Ridge Course and Canal Course Cloverdale, British Columbia

LeoPalace Resort The Palmer Course

Whistler Golf Club

Whistler, British Columbia www.whistlergolf.com

CHINA Beijing Cascades Golf Course

Beijing

www.cascadesgolf.cn/index_2.html

Chung Shan Hot Springs Golf Course

Guangdong Province

www.cshsgc.com.cn

Pure Scene Golf Club & Resort

Kunming

COSTA RICA Four Seasons Resort Peninsula Papagayo

Papagayo, Guanacaste

www.fourseasons.com/costarica/golf/

tralee, ireland, hole 3

Milano

Hannover

Northview Golf and Country Club

www.northviewgolf.com

Martellago

www.domainedelabrie.com

Yona

Golf Club Le Pavoniere www.golfclublepavoniere.com

JAPAN Adonis Garden Club

Gifu Prefecture Ajigasawa Kogen Golf Course

www.leopalaceresort.com

Aomori Prefecture

INDIA

Asahi Miki

DLF Golf Club

Osaka

New Delhi

Aso Prince Hotel Golf Course

www.dlfgolfresort.com

Kumamoto Prefecture

INDONESIA

Hyogo Prefecture

Emeralda Golf and Country Club

Desa Tapos, Cimanggis (Jakarta)

www.emeraldagolfclub.com

IRELAND Kildare Hotel & Country Club

The Palmer Course & Smurfit Course Straffan, County Kildare www.kclub.ie

Tralee Golf Club

Ardfert, County Kerry www.traleegolfclub.com

Forest Miki Golf Club Fuji Excellent Ono Club

Hyogo Prefecture Furano Golf Course

The King & Palmer Courses Hokkaido Prefecture Japan Classic Country Club

Iga Ueno Kanegasaki Golf Course

Iwate Prefecture

Manago Country Club

Tochigi Prefecture Minakami-Kogen Golf Course

PHILIPPINES

SOUTH KOREA

Caliraya Springs Golf & Country Club

Eunhwasam Country Club

Gunma Prefecture

www.calirayasprings.com

Barangay Cavinti, Laguna

Seoul

Misawa Adonis Golf Club

Gifu Prefecture

Imperial Golf & Country Club (formerly Cebu Mactan)

Muju-Gun

Niseko Golf Course

www.theorchardgolf.com

SINGAPORE

Evercrest Golf Club and Resort

The Legends Fort Canning Park

Hokkaido Prefecture Shimotsuke Country Club

Tochigi Prefecture Shin-Foresta Country Club

Cebu

Nasugbu, Batangas

www.legendsfortcanning.com

Forest Hills Golf & Country Club

SPAIN

Antipolo, Luzon

Shin-Yubari Golf Club

Orchard Golf and Country Club The Legacy

Tsugaru Kogen Golf Course

Aomori Prefecture Wakasa Country Club Suigetsuko Course

Fukui Prefecture Wakasa Country Club Hyugako Course

Dasmarinas, Cavite

www.theorchardgolf.com

Sun Valley

Kingsville Sun Valley Golf Course

Antipolo City, Luzon

www.sunvalleyphilippines.com

Kukui Prefecture

PORTUGAL

MALAYSIA

Oceanico Victoria

Damai Golf & Country Club

Sarawak

www.damaigolf.com

The Legends Golf & Country Resort

Sedenak, Johor

www.legends-resort.com

www.mujuresort.com

www.evercrestgolfclubresort.com

Mie Prefecture Hokkaido Prefecture

Muju Resort

La Manga Club Resort

Cartagena, Murcia

www.lamangaclub.com

TAIwAN Formosa First Country Club

Taoyuan County Formosa Yangmei Country Club

Taoyuan County

THAILAND Bangpoo Country Club

Bangkok

Vilamoura

www.bangpoogolf.com

REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN

Las Piedras

www.oceanicogolf.com

Zhailjau Golf Resort

Almaty

www.zgr.kz

URUGUAY Punte del Este

Palmer Notches Ace No. 20

Jason Brown/GolfClubImages.com

Arnold Palmer added to his list of golf achievements late last year when he scored the 20th hole-in-one of his illustrious career while playing an afternoon round at Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Florida

This most recent ace, on Tuesday, November 8th, 2011, came on the 163-yard 7th hole of the Charger Course at the Palmer-owned resort. At the time, Mr. Palmer was playing his first round with a brand new set of Callaway RAZR XF irons, and accomplished the feat using a 5-iron and a Callaway Tour i(z) ball.

“It was into a cross-wind from the left. The ball landed 10 feet short of the pin and politely rolled up into the hole,” Mr. Palmer said. “That was the first time I used the new irons and I made a hole-in-one, so it was quite a surprise. It cost me quite a lot of money [at Bay Hill’s 19th hole], but I didn’t mind one bit.”

Mr. Palmer, who was playing alongside his friends Dick Ferris, Bill Damron, Bruce Walters and Will Carey, went on to card a 79 to beat his age by three shots.

Of his 20 lifetime aces, Mr. Palmer made three in PGA Tour events, four on the Champions Tour and one in Japan. The longest was from 243 yards with a 1-iron during an exhibition match in New England while his 19th came eight years ago, also at Bay Hill.

“That was on the 17th hole of the Champion course,” he recalled. “The pin was on the right side of the green and I hit a high draw into the hole with a 5-wood.

“My first one came on a short par-3 at Latrobe Country Club when I was in high school. I’ve made four of the 20 on that same hole. In the early days I was hitting wedges there, and now I’m hitting 8-irons.”

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