TPC Signature: Issue 4

THE PLAYERS

# 4 — s p r i n g 2015

$20 where sold

TPC CARTAGENA MARTIN KAYMER

a

publication

Reade Tilley

Matthew Squire

Robin Barwick

Matthew Halnan

c o n t r i b u t i n g e d i to r

a r t d i r e c to r

e d i to r

publisher

 group art director

Leon Harris junior designer

Kieron Deen Halnan founding contributor

Arnold Palmer special contributors

Cori Britt, Doc Giffin, Donald Trump contributing photographers

Edward Acker, Patrick Drickey & Dan Murphy / stonehousegolf.com, Getty Images, Howdy Giles, Meghan Tilley, USGA vp , operations

Joe Velotta head of advertising sales

Jon Edwards advertising sales

Deric Piper Dean Jacobson Patrick Cadore

special thanks & contributors

Kirsten Andresen Dana Berry Molly Blanton John Boyette Joe Buttitta Tim Cotroneo Tony Dear Ray Easler & his great team at Bay Hill Gina Evans Mike Farese Neil Grant Richard Johnson Martin Kaymer Bryan Lebedevitch Alan Pardew Jeff Randles Alycia Rea Ginny Sanderlin Steven Sporich Joey Sprayberry Victoria Student Paul Trow Kristen Wagner

cov e r i m ag e

richard heathcote , getty images

Martin Kaymer, THE PLAYERS Championship, 2014

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HAIL TO THE

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tpc foreword

The Highest Level

T

he year is off to a fantastic start for the PGA TOUR and TPC Network, as we welcomed both the return of the newly-renovated Stadium Couse at TPC Scottsdale and the opening of the newest course in the TPC Network, TPC at Baha Mar. After an eight month facelift completed in November 2014, the Stadium Course at TPC Scottsdale was ready to be unveiled to the stellar field of TOUR professionals who competed in the 2015 Waste Management Phoenix Open in late January. The buzz could be felt by the fans who came out in droves, breaking the spectator attendance record of 563,008 set in 2014 with a new record of 564,368. It was truly a star-studded event, and the course proved to be well worth the eight-month wait. Congratulations to Brooks Koepka on his first PGA TOUR title!

The New Year also marked the announcement of the newest property in the Network, TPC at Baha Mar, in the beautiful city of Nassau, Bahamas. Part of the spectacular Baha Mar Resort, the Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course is the TPC Network’s first Caribbean golf course, blending beauty, challenge, playability, and memorable aesthetics into a 7,189-yard masterpiece. We’re excited for TPC at Baha Mar to officially open for play in spring 2015 along with a May Grand Opening of both the course and the full resort.

Speaking of spring, it’s certainly a busy and exciting

spring 2015

time of year for the TPC Network, as we host PGA TOUR tournaments at three of our properties in consecutive weeks.

Be sure to tune in for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans at TPC Louisiana (April 20 – 26), the WGC-Cadillac Match Play at TPC Harding Park (April 29 – May 3), and THE PLAYERS Championship (May 5 – 10) at our very own TPC Sawgrass. Take a look inside this issue for an extensive behind-the-scenes look at the tremendous undertaking it takes to host THE PLAYERS Championship as well as all of the people involved, from agronomy to hospitality, that work tirelessly to make it happen.

As we enter the heart of the 2014 – 2015 PGA TOUR season, the TPC Network invites you to experience golf at the highest level. Whether by attending or tuning in to one of the many tournaments we host, or by enjoying a PGA TOUR-approved round of golf at one of our 33 properties, spring looks to be the season of more good golf, and we look forward to having you be a part of it.

Charlie Zink TPC Network

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eNJOY TWO LONG DRIVeS

Hertz celebrates the anniversary of a thirty-year relationship with Arnold Palmer, proudly embracing our role as Executive Car Rental Partner of the Kingdom Cup and Proud Sponsor of the 2015 Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by MasterCard.

速 速 Reg. U.S. Pat. Off. 速 2014 Hertz System, Inc. hertz.com

editor’s

foreword

Illusion T:10.875”

B:11.125”

S:9.5”

D

oug Henning—the mustachioed magician whose greatest trick might have been resurrecting magic’s stage appeal in the 1970s—explained the difficulty in successfully pulling off an illusion, saying that “the hard must become habit, the habit must become easy, the easy must become beautiful.” In the case of Death Valley Scotty, a cowboy and scam artist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it’s tough to know if lying was ever difficult for him, though certainly it was his habit. Much of Scotty’s recorded history was spent pouring untruths into the world, and it’s a wonder he wasn’t shot dead or extensively imprisoned at some point. Still, in Death Valley—a place where fact and fiction are often blurred (p34)—Scotty’s lies, his illusions if you will, became part of the landscape, and in that they became beautiful. So was Scotty someone who brought beauty into the world?

Indirectly, absolutely. But because his intentions were hardly selfless and because beauty wasn’t his goal, he’s left us a puzzle: is Scotty’s Castle, the Death Valley monument built by someone else but which bears his name, a testament to the beauty of dreams or a monument to theft and the seductive dangers of deception? Put another way: if good is created from bad, is the bad ultimately good? It’s a proper conundrum, and one that Martin Kaymer considered this year after giving up a 10-shot Sunday lead and losing in Abu

spring 2015

Dhabi (p46). Kaymer later took the view that it was better to lose that tournament than to win, and we’re not going to question the U.S. Open and Players champion’s logic. Not deceptive, but certainly enigmatic, Seattle has a lot more to offer than just coffee and rain: host to this year’s U.S. Open, it is an amazing city, as we found when we visited (p76). Also impressive, Aston Martin’s new Rapide S (p64), a car that offers no enigma at all: it’s simply incredible.

We do some world traveling with Mr. Palmer (p132) and with our own John Halnan, who recently rediscovered Thailand (p160). And finally, we prove that we can, in fact, stand the heat in the kitchen, with a story on incendiary edibles (p166). That story even teaches you how to mask the heat of a pepper in your mouth—a kind of illusion, I suppose, though hardly as impressive as anything Henning pulled off. Here’s to keeping the deceptions on stage, and to clarity everywhere else—especially on course.

Clearly,

Reade Tilley

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publisher’s foreword

The Bounty of Bay Hill

W

elcome to the fourth edition of TPC Signature. This issue will be launched just in time for the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard at Bay Hill Club & Lodge, the event that for me really signifies that the new season is underway.

TPC Signature is a Kingdom publication, and earlier in the year Bay Hill was also the venue for our very own Kingdom Cup. It was a tremendous event and I would particularly like to thank both the host, Mr. Palmer, and our special guest, Annika Sorenstam, for playing their parts with so much class. You simply could not find two finer ambassadors for our great game. The Kingdom Cup, by the way, has been instrumental in enabling us to raise over $700,000 for the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, an achievement of which we are very proud.

You may recall that Annika featured in our last issue—as one of the most important 50 people to women’s golf in the history of the game—and we have received such an overwhelming response to that feature that we are busy hatching a new and exciting plan. Do stay tuned: more on that later this year.

In this issue we feature two absolutely top drawer TPC properties, one of which, TPC Sawgrass (p20), needs no introduction. Even though I have previously lived on

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property I was still amazed to learn of all the work and preparation that goes into putting on THE PLAYERS Championship. What a tournament that is. While Sawgrass is rightly renowned the world over, TPC Cartagena (p31) is a gem waiting to be discovered. In the 80s and 90s Colombia attracted the worst of headlines but today the country is turning itself around and golf is playing its part.

Cartagena, a city of enormous historical significance and now with a premier TPC course attached, will certainly reward the adventurous traveling golfer with a once-in-alifetime experience.

Lastly, a note in memory of three golfing greats from the second half of the last century, who we have recently lost: Kel Nagle, Charlie Sifford and Billy Casper. All three brought so much to our sport and will be sadly missed.

Best wishes,

Matthew Squire

spring 2015

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Issue 4 Spring 2015

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46

THE PLAYERS

TPC Cartagena

Martin Kaymer

Calm on the surface, behind the scenes it’s a whole different story as TPC Sawgrass readies for tournament

One of the world’s great cities now has one of the world’s great golf courses as TPC comes to Colombia

U.S. Open champ, victor at THE PLAYERS and resilient as can be, the German’s game has never looked better

52 64 70 76 86 90 100 108 115 123

No.13 Our dream course continues with notable 13th holes Aston Martin Being a better man in the new Rapide S Baseball Trading in one stick and ball for another Seattle With the U.S. Open headed its way, this seaside city enchants PacNorthwest Wine Washington State’s greatest pours American Links Defining the links on our shores Coastal Florida Luxurious lounges in sight of water Aviation The best ways to get you into the sky TPC Signature Golf Holes Epic examples of TPC golf Gift Guide Excellent essentials for a blooming season

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Issue 4 Spring 2015

132

166

172

Palmer Abroad

Hot Stuff

Drinks

Supremely talented golfer, Arnold Palmer has the passport to prove he’s also the game’s top ambassador

If you can stand the heat then get into the kitchen with everything you need to know about infernal edibles

Enlivening libations from the expert mixologists at the Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort

138 145 148 152 158 164 178 186 190 194

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Augusta Par 3 Curse, distraction or family-friendly fun? Whatever it is, we love it Star Roses Garden like the pros with these easy-to-grow beauties Decks Build a deck to last with Trex and your backyard will thank you Hertz An epic road trip in epic vehicles Thailand Our own John Halnan smiles back in this beautiful country Trump The importance of branding Fashion Calming fashions for a vibrant Spring MicroPort Top company where the patient comes first Instruction Impossible shots from the sand made easy Last Page A strong future in The Palmer Cup

spring 2015

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spring 2015

It takes a whole year and an army of people to prepare for one of the best weeks in golf; Tim Cotroneo takes a look behind the scenes of THE PLAYERS Championship

D

uring the first week in May, a good night’s sleep becomes a precious thing for Hector Gonzalez. The Director of Food and Beverage at TPC Sawgrass is one of the people responsible for ensuring that spectators at THE PLAYERS Championship get fed—all 180,000 of them.

When asked what one thing kept him up at night in the days leading up to the opening Thursday round, Gonzalez, who since 2007 not only has coordinated clubhouse-area menus but also hires additional tournament staff, could only laugh and reply, “You want just one thing that keeps me from sleeping?”

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For the PGA TOUR and tournament Proud Partner PwC, THE PLAYERS is a premiere chance to celebrate the best in the game with four days of top golf, hospitality and service. Making it all possible isn’t easy, which is why everyone involved in preparing for THE PLAYERS— hospitality staff, administration, groundskeeping, and more— seems to have the May 5 start date tattooed on their psyche.

The TPC Sawgrass agronomy staff, specifically, lives with the deadline quite literally staring them in the face.

A clock on the left-hand side of the group’s website— tpcsawgrassagronomy.com—relentlessly counts down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds left until THE PLAYERS begins. Tom Vlach probably sees that clock in his sleep.

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WELCOME TO GOLF AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL

Hole #16

Welcome to TPC Cartagena, host of the Cartagena de Indias at Karibana Championship.

Located at the luxurious Karibana Club in beautiful Cartagena, Colombia, TPC Cartagena is home to an 18-hole masterpiece Jack Nicklaus-designed course unlike any in Latin America. Members and guests will enjoy championship-quality golf amidst spectacular views of the lush tropical landscape and breathtaking Caribbean sea, along with luxurious accommodations at the 270-room Conrad Hilton hotel, scheduled to open in 2016.

Welcome to golf at the highest level. Welcome to TPC Cartagena.

Book your play & stay vacation and enjoy: - Golf on our Jack Nicklaus-designed course - Luxury accommodations - Access to exclusive, thematic beaches - A variety of dining options - And much more Vacation packages and membership opportunities available.

LEARN MORE: VISIT TPC.COM/CARTAGENA CALL (305) 492-7742

CLOCK THAT NEVER STOPS The Director of Agronomy at TPC Sawgrass, Vlach leads a staff of 90 workers who keep the property’s 415 acres looking TOUR-ready throughout the year.

Though the PGA TOUR is headquartered here, and while a constant stream of TPC members and guests enjoy playing TPC Sawgrass, the agronomy staff’s hard work ultimately is about one thing: “Everything we do here year-round at TPC Sawgrass is geared toward THE PLAYERS,” he says.

To refer to Vlach as a multi-tasker is an understatement of absolutely epic proportions. One day finds him saying “yes” to 80 semi-trucks delivering 180,000 square-feet of vendor tents from an Ohio-based hospitality company.

THE PLAYERS Championship team is like a swan on a lake, calm on the outside but paddling like crazy beneath the water

Tom Vlach (right)

The next day he’s dipping into his landscape budget to order 40,000 flowers for THE PLAYERS week. Each of THE PLAYERS hospitality tents is adorned with its own array of flowers, so “planting” is a constant entry on the agronomy team’s “to do” list.

The week prior to THE PLAYERS is a technology tsunami for Vlach. Prior to the tournament going live for its opening round, he meets with a Who’s Who of sports broadcasting personnel. Television heavyweights like Johnny Miller, Dan Hicks, Bob Costas and Jimmy Roberts meet with Vlach’s team to glean insider highlights on TPC Sawgrass’ architectural design and course condition updates.

SAWGRASS MEETS STAR WARS What the television audience doesn’t see is an element in Vlach’s professional life that could be described as Sawgrass meets Star Wars. The legendary par-3 17th hole alone has 20 concealed microphones planted within earshot of the players. In addition, there are eight standalone cameras on 17, as well as one aerial camera and one camera inserted into a golf ball that sits atop the water next to the island green. This buoyant camera is controlled by a joystick in the production booth. This kind of cutting-edge technology is just another example of innovations at THE PLAYERS, which in 1984 became the first tournament to feature an electronic scoreboard on the golf course grounds.

PADDLING LIKE CRAZY When preparing, organizing, and experiencing a tournament the size of THE PLAYERS, it’s hard to forecast everything that might occur. That doesn’t mean that the TPC Sawgrass staff, vendors from around the world, and 2,000 volunteers don’t try to anticipate what might happen in order to exceed expectations during the days of the tournament.

THE PLAYERS 2015 team is like a swan on a lake, calm on the outside but paddling like crazy beneath the surface of the water. Karen Davidson, Director of Tournament Services for THE PLAYERS, explains how it works:

spring 2015

23

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“We have a joke in the office about retrieving emails from our boss at 3 a.m. and the fact that we’re actually still awake to answer them,” she says. “That’s when you know the heat has been turned up a notch at tournament time.

“The unexpected happening usually isn’t what you’d imagine. Last year, at THE PLAYERS Championship 2014, we ran out of table linens. A team member needed to drive out to the nearest Bed Bath & Beyond to rescue more linens.”

Tournament week menus offer numerous options

Tomato Bisque

utons

Blue Cheese, Focaccia Cro

Salad Station

Feta Cheese, Cucumbers, mata Olives, Red Onions, Hearts of Romaine with Kala aigrette Vin me Thy Pepperoncinis and Lemon ed Maytag Blue Cheese and mbl Cru ns, Peca dy Can s, Pear Mixed Baby Lettuce with Balsamic Vinaigrette Green Farro Salad Cilantro s, Garbanzo Beans, Onions, atoe Tom ers, umb Cuc

Basket of Artisan Breads with

Toaster, Peanut Butter and

Jams

om Sandwich Bar

Chef Attended TPC Cust

Featured Italian Panini e, Sopressata Capicola, Salami, Provolon and Angus Roast Beef , Ham ey Hon st, Smoked Turkey Brea les etab Grilled Veg Wrap Choice of Wheat or Spinach ch, & Horseradish Whip Ran o, May n & Spicy) Deli Mustards (Cracked, Dijo , Half Sour Pickles Onion, Banana Peppers, Tofu Leaf Lettuce, Sliced Tomato, ese Che e olon Prov Swiss, Cheddar, and

Display Station

Citrus Glazed Salmon f Peppered Strip Loin of Bee s oms and Roasted Tomatoe shro Mu lo obel Port with Grilled Asparagus Platters

Desserts

TPC Gourmet Cookies Kilwin’s Ice Cream ding with Bourbon Glaze Commissioner's Bread Pud Teas and Soft Drinks o Taz ee, Coff s Starbuck

FEEDING THE BEAST Atop those linens, an army’s worth of food and drink is laid out, and it’s no surprise that the tournament’s menus are constant works in progress. The culinary staff attending to this mega-event is constantly adjusting food and drink selections based on feedback from spectators, corporate sponsors, and even players themselves, doing their best to ensure everyone is satisfied.

For the golfers, specifically, the menus have become quite health conscious. The PGA TOUR players’ food choices for 2015 are starch-free, for example, and with today’s golfers always looking for a competitive edge, the menu now offers consistent protein in order to maximize muscle strength.

“The proteins stay the same each day during the tournament,” Gonzalez explains. “Our menus will feature salads, fresh herbs, and no deep frying. Eating healthy means the players feel lighter and more athletic.”

THE PLAYERS was one of the first to incorporate local restaurant fare as part of the experience, as well. No fewer than 22 Jacksonville-area restaurants and food trucks are strategically positioned on both nines. In addition to working with top culinary talent, officials also selectively tap into the expertise of tournament wizards from outside Florida’s borders.

St. Paul-based Prom Catering annually shares its food and beverage know-how at 40 PGA TOUR, Champions Tour, and LPGA events. Prom’s Brenda McFadden has been a fixture at THE PLAYERS for the past decade. She begins meeting with vendors and TPC Sawgrass personnel months prior to the first round in May, and when tournament time finally arrives, she unleashes a legion of Prom foot soldiers to assist in putting out concession fires and making things right.

“Prom has 20 people working the corporate areas, as well as 15 working concessions, 10 in culinary, and 12 in staffing, operations, and sales. We’re here to make sure service is good, and service is prompt. The presentation must be right and the quality must be excellent. Most of all, we want people to be happy,” McFadden says.

25

UNSUNG HEROES

THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

12 Fun Facts

The glue holding this massive golf event together is the 2,000 volunteers who work tirelessly from dawn to dusk for these four days in May. Rounding up, training, and encouraging this army of volunteers is no small undertaking.

Last year, volunteers arrived from 38 states and four countries to do their part at the event. The planning that goes into making sure the players, spectators, and facilities have ample numbers of trained volunteers is a year-round process.

Michele McManamon, the Volunteer First Vice Chair of THE PLAYERS 2015, has worked as a volunteer since 2004. McManamon was asked what drives her to contribute at THE PLAYERS: “I believe this is one of the greatest experiences you could ever have,” she says. “It’s extremely satisfying to be a part of generating $7.5 million in charitable funds like we did last year. On a more personal level, I’ve met so many amazing people. It’s like being a part of a huge family while experiencing an event that is very exciting.”

First Winner Jack Nicklaus 1974 - Winner’s check $50,000 First Place Winner’s Check in 2015 $1.8 Million First Year at TPC Sawgrass 1982 Number of Volunteers in 2015 2000 Amount Raised for Charity in 2014 $7.5 Million Most Wins Jack Nicklaus (3)

JUST ANOTHER MANIC MONDAY When the final round of THE PLAYERS draws to a close, Vlach’s agronomy team can take a breath after running what feels like a 365-day marathon. “We view the day after the tournament with both relief and a bit of sadness,” he says. “The reality is, we need to go into course-cleanup mode and get ready to start over again.”

On the Monday after the winner’s name is inscribed on THE PLAYERS crystal trophy, the calculator on the TPC Sawgrass agronomy website will read 364 days and counting. Vlach, Gonzalez, the volunteers, and everyone else in operations, food and beverage know that this is THE PLAYERS Championship way of life—a whole year preparing for a single week in May at TPC Sawgrass, the golf course that never sleeps. tpc.com/tpc-sawgrass tpc.com/sawgrass-the-players-championship

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Most Starts Jay Haas (29) Lowest 72 Hole Score Greg Norman 264 in 1994 Course Architect Pete Dye (below) Most Golf Balls in Water on 17th Hole 93 in 2007

Kaymer hits to the 18th green during the final round of THE PLAYERS 2014

Oldest Winner Fred Funk 48 years old in 2005 Youngest Winner Adam Scott 23 years old in 2004

spring 2015

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TPC Cartagena A top course in one of the world’s most beautiful beachfront cities joins the TPC Network

L

ong a legendary destination for lovers of great beaches, great food, great culture, great people and great music (not necessarily in that order), the dynamic city of Cartagena, Colombia, recently added great TPC golf to its list of attractions. TPC Cartagena at Karibana opened at the end of last year and, like the city in which it sits, the first-ever TPC in the region is turning heads.

“Karibana is our crown jewel,” says Joseph Mildenberg, Marketing and Sales Director for the property, which also includes a beach club and spa. “Cartagena itself is one of the nicest cities on the coast, one of the nicest in the entire Caribbean. This property was always planned as an amazing destination, and it’s even more incredible than we could have imagined.”

There are a number of amenities at TPC Cartagena, but first and foremost of interest to golfing tourists is the golf course. Designed

by Jack Nicklaus Design, it is perhaps the finest course in the region, and certainly it is one of the most beautiful anywhere. The course is divided into two distinct environments, two distinct personalities if you will. The front nine is laid down through a spectacular stretch of natural forest, a ribbon of impeccably manicured fairways bordered by Colombia’s lush native beauty. Six artificial lakes come into play here, adding visual respite from the formidable rough

30

and reminding golfers that water is ever at hand—a fact that becomes fantastically obvious after the turn. Coming out of the forest and onto the back nine, the sea breeze hits your face and the ocean immediately defines your new setting.

The back nine holds two holes that play along the beach itself, and all nine feature ocean views.

“It’s one of a kind,” Mildenberg says about the course at TPC Cartagena. “These are the first beachfront holes in the entire country, and they’re beautiful.”

The entire course is beautiful, which shouldn’t come as a surprise given that TPC Cartagena is situated on one of the most amazing stretches of beach in Colombia. Golfers reap the full benefit of the location, with striking views and a Nicklaus design that makes the most of the surroundings.

Hole 16 in particular is jaw-dropping—as much for its beauty as for its challenge. A 500-yard par-4, it runs along the beach and offers views of the Cartagena skyline along with a setting that hasn’t changed much since the days of Francis Drake and

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The 16th hole (above) is a 500-yard par-4 and one of the country’s first beachside holes

It’s our crown jewel, and it’s even more incredible than we could have imagined

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the Spanish colonialists. The fairway is wide enough but the right-hand side is beachfront and the left holds all kinds of rough. Both are issues for golfers of all skill levels due to the wind off the water, which is hardly gentle at times.

“I don’t know if it’s iconic because it’s so difficult,” says Mildenberg, laughing. “But the scenery is just beautiful, and the beach is an amazing feature. I call it Colombia’s largest bunker.”

Likewise, he says, the par-3 17th hole plays at 120 yards but is more complicated than it would first appear.

If the views don’t distract you—and they will, as the hole plays along the beach as well, with the ocean on your right-hand side—the sand cutting through the fairway in front of the green will pose big problems if the wind catches your ball. Tricky sailing indeed.

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Ending with an equally breathtaking 18th hole, which offers a lake along with its timeless setting, the Nicklaus course here could certainly be the new treasure that encourages legions of modern explorers to discover Cartagena’s elegant shores. Not surprisingly, its beauty and location played a key role in the property being named the host of the Cartagena de Indias at Karibana Championship. A Web.com Tour event, the Cartagena de Indias at Karibana Championship was held in March as part of the Tour’s early-season launch in Latin America.

Featuring a 144-player field and a purse of $700,000, the tournament showcased the excellent golf and leisure opportunities in the area, as well as the club’s desire to play an important role in helping to grow the game here in Colombia. For its part, the TOUR is thrilled to welcome TPC Cartagena to its Network of TPC properties.

“The PGA TOUR is delighted to have our first South American TPC located in such an iconic destination city and magnificent golf course development,” said Charlie Zink, PGA TOUR Co-Chief Operating Officer. “We look forward to continuing to host a Web.com Tour tournament in Cartagena and creating TPC memories for our members and guests.”

With so much happening here it’s likely that some visitors will want to stick around, and TPC Cartagena certainly offers compelling opportunities to stay.

In addition to the historic hotels in Cartagena proper, construction recently began on a 5-star hotel on site to be managed by Conrad, Hilton’s luxury brand, that will include 270 rooms, a convention center, pools, restaurants and more.

Already in place are 224 condominiums, which range from 1,400 sq. ft. to 4,000 sq. ft., and there are another 526 planned. All condominium owners will automatically become members at Karibana, which features the golf course and club, a spa and a beach club.

The upscale clubhouse is a sight to behold, a tropically inspired structure that would look right at home in your greatest island fantasy. In contrast but complementary, the modern structures on site remind you that you’re in a Colombia of the 21st century.

“This really is the first high-end resort in the country,” said Mildenberg. “We’ve put in all the bells and whistles.”

He explained that the locker rooms, steam rooms,

This is the first high-end resort in the country; we’ve put in all the bells and whistles gym and other amenities in the clubhouse are all top notch, and that the 19th hole features billiards tables, poker nights and other activities, in addition to functioning as a full-service sports bar for members and guests. The on-site beach club, as well, ticks all the boxes in terms of modern amenities but also takes great care to include Colombia’s beautiful natural habitat.

“Our beach club has nearly a mile of beachfront,” explains Mildenberg. “There are tennis courts at the club and other activities, and we offer ecological walks. There

The course and beach club are tremendous amenities, providing top luxury and golf in Cartagena

are all kinds of birds here, fish, kayak paths through a river, mangroves and different trees… Colombia is known for its diversity in animals, and it’s beautiful.”

If Karibana sounds like a modern paradise, that’s because it is. For TPC members and golf enthusiasts, TPC Cartagena at Karibana doesn’t just represent a big milestone for the TPC Network and its movement into South America; it represents a brilliant expansion of the game itself. More than that, adding a TPC to Cartagena has taught us that you really can make an already legendary destination even better.

Find out more at tpc.com/cartagena

spring 2015

Please drink responsibly. Belvedere Vodka 40% ALC./VOL. (80 PROOF) 100% neutral spirits distilled from rye grain. ©2015 Imported by Moët Hennessy USA, Inc., New York, NY. The PGA Championship name, logos, and marks are a trademark of The Professional Golfers’ Association of America.

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n June of 1854, three wagons pulled out of Salt Lake City headed for California, but they would never make it. Led by a stalwart 38-year-old named Joseph Kimball, the four men, six women, two children and one infant girl of the Kimball Party lasted less than three weeks after taking the ill-informed (some later said ill-intentioned) advice of a friend and attempting a shortcut through Death Valley. The infant died first, withering on her mother’s breast in the heat, and the children went two days later, tongues swollen in their mouths. Joseph’s brother Eli simply disappeared one night, wandering off in a fit of madness or desperation. Same with Eli’s wife, Miriam, who some suspect was taken by natives, though that seems far-fetched. What is certain is that when the party was found, four months after they left Utah and less than a mile from a freshwater spring that might have saved their lives, all that remained were scattered bones bleached by the sun and the horses’ leather harnesses, laid out in front of the empty wagons as if being readied for departure. The Kimball story might be one of the West’s worst tragedies, except that it never happened. I’ve just now made it up, and that should tell you something about whatever you think you know about Death Valley.

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“The human imagination… seems unable to cope with anything smaller than twice life-size,” said legendary BBC foreign correspondent Ian McDougall in a 1976 dispatch.

McDougall, who died this year (not in Death Valley) was discussing how stories tend to grow after being reported: “I don’t remember being seriously frightened on a story I was actually covering,” he said, “but I was often terrified when I read other people’s reports of it afterwards.”

For more than a century and a half, terror-hungry readers have needed to travel no further than Death Valley’s name, which suggests the perfect stage for the worst kind of tragedy—and so it has been. Indian raids, lost expeditions, miners driven stark raving mad by the sun… They’ve all been heavily reported, whether or not they happened, most making use of the phrase “bleached bones” at some point.

Indeed, versions of the fictional story that began this article were so widely reported in late 19th and early 20th century newspapers and books that attempts to set the record straight by people who knew better, by people who’d actually been to Death Valley, mostly fell on deaf ears. The public at large wanted and perhaps needed to believe in the place, even as an idea. If it’s the case that the less color on the canvas the more the mind can paint, then the seemingly empty, vast Death Valley has been everyone’s masterpiece, and few have been willing to let it go, even today. Thankfully, there are a few truths to which we can cling.

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yea though i wa l k Sensitive readers be warned: the following contains a rather graphic and heartbreaking tale of a family expedition in the Old West.

We understand if you need to turn away‌

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Death Valley’s skies are among the darkest on the planet, and the stars here are beautiful One of the certainties of Death Valley is its size, nearly 3.4 million square miles, which makes it the largest national park in the lower 48, covering parts of California and Nevada and including sand dunes, part of the Mojave Desert, salt pans, several mountain ranges, loads of minerals, springs and more. Also certain: Death Valley’s skies are among the darkest in the world, hence its “gold tier” International Dark Sky Park status, granted by the International Dark-Sky Association. The sky here is essentially free of light pollution, which allows sky-gazing visitors to see things typically not visible elsewhere. Honestly, stargazing here is a bucket list experience.

More truths: Death Valley is the hottest place on earth. It’s not exactly a valley. It contains a luxurious Spanish castle. It’s home to more than 1,000 species of plants, a large number of birds, bighorn sheep, foxes, rats and rabbits. And then there are the scuba divers. They’re here to count the fish.

But let’s get back to that name.

In the winter of 1849, a party of pioneers became lost in the valley and figured they were done for (this story is true, by the way). Two members of the party, William Lewis Manly and John Rogers, climbed out, found help for the others and returned. Though most were rescued, one member of the party died. Perhaps due to that or to the fact that all had despaired for their lives, someone supposedly turned around as they were leaving and said, “Goodbye, Death Valley.” Could have been Manly, could have been

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Rogers, could have been someone else. We’ll never know.

The party became known as The Lost ’49ers, and after a Los Angeles Star article used the name “Death Valley” some years later, the place became a legend—even if it’s not exactly a valley. Not precisely. Technically it’s a graben, defined by Merriam-Webster as “a depressed segment of the crust of the earth… bounded on at least two sides by faults.” This is sometimes described as a “rift valley,” and so Death Valley’s name isn’t 100 percent inaccurate, either, but then the area as a whole could also be called a basin. Of course “Yea though I walk through the basin of death” fails to inspire the same emotional reaction, and so it’s “valley.”

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n the years that followed Death Valley’s “discovery” by The Lost ’49ers, other parts of the valley received their own dire monikers: Last Chance Mountain, Coffin Peak, Badwater Basin, Funeral Mountain and Hells Gate, just to name a few. Some were contributed from people working for the Borax mining industry, which thrived here for years and which contributed the iconic “20 mule team” image forever associated with both Borax and with Death Valley. But some came later, like “Devil’s Golf Course,” for example, an unholy field of mineral deposits on which “only the devil could play golf,” according to a 1934 park service guide book. Death Valley was designated a National Monument in 1933, and greatly expanded as a National Park in 1994. In addition to the devil’s track, there’s a real golf course here: Furnace Creek Golf Course, which is the lowest elevation golf course in the world. The course sits at 214 feet below sea level, just above the valley’s Badwater Basin which is, at 282 feet below sea level, the lowest place in North America.

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The pro on site reckons shots lose 20 percent of their distance due to the low elevation, frustrating long drivers and heavy hitters. Otherwise, it’s a really nice course—even if it’s a little wetter than one might imagine. The course has almost too much water, in fact, as it catches the overflow from the spring-fed swimming pools at Furnace Creek Resort, which are constantly being naturally refreshed. It’s been that way since the course opened in 1931, just four years after the resort (see “Inn at Furnace Creek” sidebar).

For years the course would close in summer and be leased out to a cattle rancher. Then in winter the cows would be removed and a flock of sheep would come out to keep the fairways mowed down. In 1997 Perry Dye (Pete’s eldest son) remodeled the place and today it’s a blast, a friendly track where you’re as likely to see a coyote lazily sunning himself on a green as you are to see a flock of birds enjoying the water hazards, which come into play on nine of the course’s 18 holes. In the rest of the valley, things aren’t quite so tropical, of course.

Hottest, finally

The Furnace Creek area in Death Valley used to be optimistically named Greenland Ranch, and in 1913 a temperature of 134˚F was recorded here. A few years later, on September 13, 1922, a reading of 136.4˚F was taken in Al Aziziyah, Libya, and the Libyans suddenly claimed they had the hottest place on earth. Death Valley fans weren’t buying it and continued to insist the real heat was in the American west. Years of supposedly tall tales and bogus claims were vindicated in 2013 following a year-long investigation by the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization,

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Scotty’s Castle

Furnace Creek Golf Course is 214 feet below sea level

which threw out the Libyan reading as inaccurate and unlikely anyway, and then reinstated Death Valley as the closest to hell one could get on planet Earth. The official distinction was announced on September 11 of 2013, with the news buried under reports on that day’s attack on the U.S. embassy—in Libya, of all places. Other news from the valley regularly made front pages, although some of it was more fiction than fact. Case in point: Scotty’s Castle.

You’ve heard the story before: Rich guy gets duped by con artist, but after several ironies and slapstick moments they end up becoming friends. Movies like Down and Out in Beverly Hills and myriad novels have sold the plot over and over again, and it usually plays well with audiences.

Death Valley has such a tale and it’s played incredibly well over the years, at one point captivating national audiences with regular updates in major dailies. Containing gunfights, gold mines, Buffalo Bill and a man with a limp, the story of Scotty’s Castle also happens to be true, even if it starts with fiction. The rich guy in the drama was millionaire Albert Mussey Johnson, a Chicago resident and president of the National Life Insurance Company, who suffered debilitating injuries in a horrible train crash shortly after marrying his wife, Bessie, which left him walking with a limp and unable to father children. The con man was Walter Scott, aka “Death Valley Scotty,” a charismatic cowboy and one-time bit player in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show who craved the spotlight but never got it, and eventually turned to odd jobs and wild scams to support himself. As the story has it, round about 1900 Scotty convinced a handful of East Coast businessmen to fund development of a gold mine he claimed to have discovered in Death Valley. Gold had been found in the area, and the incredibly charming cowboy had no trouble painting vivid pictures of the Wild West in the minds of the urban Easterners, ultimately convincing them to part with their money. Over the next few years, however, when no return showed on the investment, the businessmen became skeptical and demanded to see the mine. So in 1906

The Inn at Furnace Creek Built in 1927 by the Pacific Borax Company, the Inn at Furnace Creek is as much a part of Death Valley’s story as Scotty’s Castle and the well-known sand dunes. Today the inn is a AAA Four-Diamond resort, a bit of living history with a timeless aesthetic and modern amenities. Featuring a classic Spanish Mission style design, with red tile roofs, stucco exteriors and a tower, the inn is a veritable oasis in the desert, set in a grove of palms and surrounded with water features, not least of which is the stunning spring-fed swimming pool. Rooms are the finest in the region, offering desert luxury and stunning views of the Panamint Mountains and surrounding deserts.

The on-site restaurant and bar are great places to catch up with other guests or to reflect on a day of desert exploration, while the pool area is the perfect answer to Death Valley’s sunny days. During our stay, staff went above and beyond expectations to ensure that we were satisfied, and other guests spoke of similar experiences. Remote but well located in the park, beautiful and offering all the connections one needs for a top Death Valley getaway, The Inn at Furnace Creek is an absolute desert treasure, and well worth a visit. furnacecreekresort.com

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a group of them—including Johnson—traveled to Death Valley and were met by Scotty, who proceeded to take them into Death Valley’s remote Wingate Pass on horseback en route to his “secret” (and probably nonexistent) mine. After traveling a short distance the party was suddenly ambushed in a hail of gunfire by pistol-wielding “outlaws,” who were actually friends of Scotty hired to stage a gun battle in hopes of scaring off the city folks. Instead, the “Battle of Wingate Pass,” as it became known, was a fiasco: Scotty’s brother was accidentally shot in the groin and nearly killed, causing Scotty to call off the ruse immediately so they could get some help. The businessmen, furious that they’d been duped, dropped their support of Scotty and cut their losses—all except for one, that is. For whatever reason, Johnson was charmed by the whole affair and, whether or not he believed that gold really had been found, he continued to support Scotty.

Johnson also found that the desert was good for his health and so he started visiting Death Valley regularly, nearly every winter for the next ten years. The frequent visits eventually prompted his wife to suggest they build a winter home there, and in 1922 they did just that, starting work on a mansion to sit on 1,500 acres they’d purchased in Death Valley’s northern Grapevine Canyon. Johnson and Scotty had become good (if unlikely) friends, and the blowhard cowboy was only too thrilled to be associated with the large-scale endeavor, a Spanish Colonial/Mission-Revival style villa with numerous bedrooms, state-of-the-art cooling and electrical systems and more. It’s safe to say that nothing like the home had ever

Scotty’s Castle is a showcase of European arts and Mission Revivalstyle design

been seen in the area. European artisans were brought in to handle the tile, stone and woodwork, tapestries and fine carpets were purchased abroad and moved across the world to fill the grand spaces of “Death Valley Ranch,” as it was named, and no expense was spared as the Johnsons sought to create one of the finest examples of what serious money could build in the middle of nowhere. Sadly, as they found mid-way through construction, the initial survey for the home had been incorrect and they’d been building their home on government land. The discovery prompted a work stoppage, and by the time it was sorted out the stock market crash of 1929 had happened. Suddenly it was tough for the Johnsons to finish the house, the cost of which is estimated to have been as high as $2.5 million, and so it was never quite completed (though what remains to be done is minimal). Meanwhile, over the course of the project, as artisans and antiquities poured into Death Valley to work on the home, and as the walls started to rise, Scotty was busy sowing tales of his striking it rich with a huge gold find. With local people

The fake gun battle was only meant to scare the city folks, but it went wrong

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Fish in the desert

Receiving roughly 1.5 inches of rainfall annually, with some years recording almost no rain at all, Death Valley is the driest spot in North America and one of the driest in the world.

(The driest is the Atacama Desert in South America.) But it wasn’t always that way. Roughly 22,000 years ago the valley was filled by a lake, in modern times called Lake Manly after original Lost ’49er William Manley. Via evaporation over the centuries, water levels fell and so land emerged, effectively dividing the lake into smaller individual bodies of water.

Consequently, fish in the lake became isolated into separate pools and there they stayed, some dying out as their body of water disappeared and Death Valley was revealed, others retreating ever further downward and evolving within their respective environments much like the tortoises and finches living on separate islands of the Galapagos. Today, five or so species of these fish remain alive. Called Death Valley pupfish, perhaps the most amazing examples live in Devil’s Hole, which is a fissure that opened up nearly 60,000 years ago. A simply incredible window on the planet, the fissure contains a limestone cavern filled with water, and it is in here that the Devil’s Hole Pupfish have survived in the darkness for perhaps tens of thousands of years. Comparing genetics, some scientists believe these fish were introduced to the

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hole by Native Americans, who were known to eat pupfish, while others insist the fish been here all along. However they arrived, their adaptations have been amazing. The fish are less than an inch long, have large heads, big eyes, tiny bodies and no pelvic fins, making them unique among the pupfish in the valley. Moreover, the water in Devil’s Hole sits at roughly 93˚F, is highly salinated and contains concentrations of oxygen considered near-lethal, making the Devil’s Hole Pupfish’s survival that much more incredible. The water itself is part of an aquifer system that holds water from the Pleistocene ice age, which feeds hundreds of springs in Death Valley, many of which are still undiscovered. Each of the springs, including the better-known Death Valley attractions like Panamint Springs and Saratoga Springs (named for the New York city), is said to contain its own little ecosystem, with location-specific flora and fauna, and the mysteries they hold will take ages to discover. The mysteries at Devil’s Hole are constantly being studied, and in recent years the news isn’t great for the endangered pupfish. As the PBS show Nature reported, once a year a team of scuba divers suits up and enters the hole, descending to a depth of 100 feet before slowly rising to the surface in pairs and counting each and every fish they see. In 2011 they counted 123.

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Olin Feuerbacher

connecting dots that didn’t necessarily exist, it wasn’t long before everyone started referring to the house as “Scotty’s Castle,” and so it remains today. Scotty lived nearby, and he had a room in the house, but the home was certainly for the Johnsons and their guests, which included Hollywood celebrities, Will Rogers, President Herber Hoover (with whom Bessie had attended Stanford) and even the Prince of Wales. At one point, to help with costs, the Johnsons gave tours of the home to tourists, and Scotty’s role was to sit and regale the crowds with stories, which he loved doing.

The Johnsons left the house to a charity they created with the caveat that Scotty be looked after as long as he was alive. The charlatan cowboy is buried on a hill nearby with a beloved dog, and the house is currently the property of the park service, which offers daily tours featuring park rangers in 1930’s-style clothing. One of the highlights is the music room, which was built to be the ultimate showcase of 1920’s high entertainment. Accordingly, it was outfitted with a German-made mechanical Welte-Mignon theater pipe organ, purchased to accompany silent films. The amazing piece of engineering arrived in 1928, just as film/ sound synchronization was being perfected, and it sounds immense, belting out a full orchestra of sounds from its 1,121 pipes, pumped through wall-length baffles and fed by score rolls inserted into its sophisticated mechanical play system. The experience of hearing the organ is alone worth the reasonable price of admission.

No one really needs to be here, but people continue to challenge themselves in Death Valley

In 2013 they found 35 but later estimated there could be as many as 65, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife service. More than affecting just the pupfish, development and increased water usage in the region could have impacts currently beyond comprehension. The aquifer that feeds Devil’s Hole stretches across parts of California, Nevada and Utah and is at least 400 feet deep. For years scientists have been studying a connection between it and distant events, with earthquakes as far afield as Indonesia, Japan, El Salvador and Mexico causing waves in the aquifier that splash as high as two meters up the walls. With further study of both the aquifer and the pupfish, who knows what we’ll learn.

Finally

Seemingly empty, Death Valley continues to reveal mysteries, even in modern times, and despite inspiring so many fictions, it occasionally reminds us that it is a capable host of true horror. The valley’s Barker Ranch was the last hideout of Charles Manson and his “family,” for example, after the Tate-LaBianca murders. And as recently as 2014, the valley took another life when beloved “Harry Potter” actor David Legeno died of heatstroke in a remote area. Of the park’s 1 million annual visitors, roughly a dozen have died over the last 15 years, mostly due to heat-related issues. The valley’s mortality rate since 1849 is something close to one

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death per year, which, while unfortunate, perhaps seems low in light of the area’s infamous reputation. Whatever Death Valley’s truths, we remain in awe of its terrible potential—even as we continue to travel here on family vacations. No one really needs to be in Death Valley, but for money or adventure humans have been coming to the hottest place on Earth for as long as they’ve known about it, challenging themselves to unlock secrets that more likely lay within their own heads and hearts and not within the desert, exactly. It reminds me of a story: In the summer of 1987, five men stood at the lowest point in Death Valley, 282 feet below sea level, and challenged each other to race to the summit of nearby Mt. Whitney, at 14,505 feet. The course stretched 146 miles, and with temperatures exceeding 120˚F the men had to run on the white lines painted on the road so their shoes wouldn’t melt. It took some nearly 60 hours to finish, and one of them used cross-country skies in an attempted shortcut across the salt flats, but finish they did. News of their exploit proved so popular that the race became an annual event, attracting runners from around the world who even today willingly suffer the 146-mile hell for bragging rights, personal satisfaction and the prize given to all finishers: a belt buckle. Such a race would be one of the West’s greatest fictions, except that it’s real.

I didn’t make it up, and that should tell you something about whatever you think you know about Death Valley.

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When Kaymer came of age Little known in the United States when he won the 2010 PGA Championship, and not much more familiar when he reached world No.1 six months later, Martin Kaymer was on his way. Then his light dimmed, his form dipped and he disappeared into the shadows.

As Robin Barwick reports, it was all part of the process of becoming a champion

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epositing a check for $1.8 million does not always produce the life-changing outcomes some might imagine. It’s not always caviar served with a silver spoon and Cuban cigars lit with a golden lighter. It’s not always travel via private jets either.

On May 12, 2014, the day after Martin Kaymer had won the biggest paycheck of his career—$1.8 million for winning the 2014 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass —the German golfer was blighted by what tour golfers hate more than anything other than missed cuts: a flight delay.

Kaymer, 29, had already missed his Sunday night flight because of the ceremonial and media merry-go-round that accompanies winning the PGA TOUR’s flagship event, and on the Monday his next flight remained grounded in Jacksonville because of bad weather in Dallas, where Kaymer was heading for the Byron Nelson Championship.

More like a travelling student than a millionaire golfer, Kaymer disembarked and sat on the floor by a pillar in the

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departure lounge at Jacksonville, where he could recharge his phone and reply to some of his many congratulatory text messages. It was a sight some fellow travellers could not resist, and pictures of a cross-legged Kaymer sitting on the floor went viral. American journalist Stephanie Wei’s picture of Kaymer was re-tweeted 715 times, and was published online by NBC Sports.

“I needed to charge my phone and I don’t mind sitting on the floor,” said Kaymer afterwards. “I’m not a king or anything.

A few people were kind of bending their phone, taking pictures, thinking I don’t see it, but there is not much you can do, and I don’t care. My dad saw a picture of me sitting at the airport on CNN in Germany. It comes with the job.”

Kaymer certainly didn’t receive royal treatment that day: he had to stay another night in Jacksonville before he could get his flight into Dallas. But this is Martin Kaymer.

He is not a golfer who likes a fuss, even if his previous week’s work had seen three years of toil and struggle on tour finally come to dramatic fruition.

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Everyone can talk and think positively, but you have to put it into action

With the U.S. Open trophy

Opting for the rocky road

Spanning a three-year long haul before his victory at TPC Sawgrass, Kaymer stripped back his game with long-time coach Gunter Kessler, not so much to fix this right-hander’s natural fade, but to make sure he could draw the ball from right to left when occasion called for it, such as a number of tee shots at Augusta National (think of holes two, five, nine, 10 and 13—all begging for a draw).

Stardom had arrived rapidly for Kaymer, perhaps before he was ready, when he won the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits. By the spring of 2011 he had reached a World Ranking of No.1. Kaymer’s first major as top gun was the 2011 Masters, but rather than stamp his authority at Augusta, he missed the cut for the fourth time in four Masters appearances.

“It was the expectation that changed once I won the PGA Championship,” recalls Kaymer in an exclusive interview with Kingdom. “All of a sudden I had won a major and reached No.1 and it was a strange feeling. They were career goals and I had reached them at the age of 25.

It was a positive thing but it was not that easy and I had to set myself new goals. I was not really prepared.

“At the Masters the spotlight was on me but I missed the cut again. I was in the car going back to Atlanta with my coach and I was so disappointed, and I said to him, ‘How can I be number one in the world if I can not even hit a draw, and I cannot play that golf course?’”

In the understated yet brutally frank manner that typifies Kaymer and Kessler’s partnership, Kessler just looked at him and said, “Yeah.” No sugarcoating, no commiseration. Then Kessler said: “You can improve

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though, and you can become a more complete player.”

From that point, Kaymer’s career was set on a new course.

“It was not that I changed my swing, but I improved certain parts of my game,” explains Kaymer. “I just wanted to play Augusta the way it is supposed to be played, and to make it a bit easier for me. Before, I always had to play a long iron into the 10th green because I could not hit my drive down the left side, and it was impossible for me to reach the green on the par-5 13th in two because I could not draw the ball around that corner.”

From that point it was a rocky road for Kaymer, and it was not until the end of March last year, practicing with Kessler at TPC Scottsdale near Kaymer’s U.S. base in Phoenix, Arizona, that Kaymer felt he was ready to take his tournament performances to a new level.

“At Scottsdale I hit five drives at every hole,” recalls Kaymer, whose primary home is in the town where he grew up, Mettmann, near Dusseldorf in Germany’s west. “Two draws, two fades and then a straight one, and afterwards we sat down and realized I hardly missed any shots out there.

There were one or two, but there was proof for me right there that I could hit any shot I needed. It is just a matter of being brave. Everyone can talk positively, and think positively, but you have to put it into action, and you can only really put that to the test in tournaments. When you play the right shots in tournaments, in difficult situations, that is when the confidence develops, and you gain from that immensely.

“I knew in Scottsdale that everything was there, and I knew it would just be a matter of time.”

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A new dawn at Sawgrass

Frustrations dominated Kaymer’s early season in 2014. A into the world’s top 10, and when he birdied three of the pair of missed cuts on the PGA Tour gave little clue of what final round’s first four holes, he held a 10-shot lead with 14 would unfold in May, and only the slightest glimmer of to play. hope appeared at the Masters, where a result tied for 31st For those of a nervous disposition, look away now. was hardly the stuff of Kaymer’s dreams, but it was at least A bogey five at the sixth seemed to deflate Kaymer’s his best result at Augusta in seven attempts. challenge, and a double bogey six at the ninth wrung alarm Then in the first round of the Players Championship at bells. A triple bogey seven at the 13th turned fears into TPC Sawgrass, all the work, soul searching and perseverance reality, as a bewildered Kaymer slumped to a 75, three paid off with a sudden burst of golfing perfection. Kaymer over par, to finish two shots behind Frenchman Gary Stal, started at the 10th that day and began tidily, with two gratefully receiving the first win of his career. birdies and no dropped shots to turn in 34, two under par, and then he found a different zone as he walked onto the first tee, Kaymer’s 10th. He birdied the first, and the second, and seven out of nine holes to become the first golfer to card a nine-hole score of 29, seven under par, in the history of the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass. Kaymer’s lead would endure to the end, and amid darkening skies on a storm-interrupted final round, the German holed out from 30 feet across the shadows on the infamous island green on the par-three 17th at Sawgrass, to bury rumblings of a late collapse. He would hold on to defeat Jim Furyk by a shot.

With that triumph, Kaymer confirmed his return as a serious force in world golf, and a month later he Kaymer gave away a 10-shot Sunday lead in Abu Dhabi, losing to Gary Stal reinforced the message emphatically in the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. Pinehurst No. 2 was baked and Kaymer’s putter burned, as a pair of 65s in the first two rounds took the Ryder Cup star to 10 under par, and scorched a path from which he would win by eight clear shots.

Kaymer takes the disappointment in his stride: “Of “You want to win majors in your career, but if you course I would have loved to win, and I hope I have another can win more than one, it means so much more,” reflects chance in the future to win that golf tournament.

Kaymer. “Some people called me the ‘one hit wonder,’ so it’s “I don’t want to call it a bad experience because it is not quite nice proof, and it’s quite satisfying to have two majors a bad experience. It creates a bad result on your scorecard under my belt. And I’m only 30 years old, so I hope I have but also [reveals] a lot of truth about yourself; that we are another few years ahead of me.” not machines, that the German engineering doesn’t always The early signs in 2015 are that Kaymer is ready to work! It does work, usually, but once in a while it sticks, too. strike again, and he should have done already at one of “In fact, this year, it was more important to lose. It was the European Tour’s biggest winter stops, the Abu Dhabi more important for my future to lose, in order to help me HSBC Championship, where Kaymer has won three times to win more. It was like a life lesson, not only a golf lesson. already. The German set out at Abu Dhabi Golf Club in Actually, I am very glad that it happened.” much the same way as he had done at Pinehurst last year: It might not just be Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth and rounds of 64-67-65 laid the foundations for another wire- Bubba Watson who challenge Rory McIlroy at the summit to-wire victory, which would have delivered Kaymer back of the world game in 2015. Kaymer will have his say.

“It was more important for my future to lose, in order to help me to win more”

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L U C K Y F O R S O M E In the latest round of Kingdom’s worldwide, whirlwind golf tours, we have created a layout comprising 18 of the world’s finest 13th holes. Unlucky for some, glorious for others, we are not convinced there are golfers alive who could break par on this track. We didn’t set out to build a monster, but once you get going, it’s hard to stop.

We think we know a little bit how Victor Frankenstein must have felt. Please, come this way to impending doom…

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1

Salem CC, Massachusetts PAR 4, 342 YARDS

This jet-pack journey around the globe begins at Salem, which sits amid a rich line of grand old clubs in Massachusetts. The club was founded back in 1895—two centuries after the famous Salem Witch Trials that inspired the jocund club motif of a witch on a broomstick—although the golf club didn’t find its existing home in the Peabody countryside until 30 years later, where a Donald Ross design has provided sufficient golfing magic to ensure no further relocations were required. A longstanding alliance with the USGA has seen Salem host a variety of national-level championships, and next up is the 2017 U.S. Senior Open.

Salem’s 13th is its signature hole. It does not look like much on the card—just 342 yards from the back and 297 from the men’s tee—and a bowl shaped fairway could not be more inviting for the first strike on our scorecard, with a long iron or fairway wood. But don’t be fooled— this hole had the highest stroke average on the course in the 1984 U.S. Women’s Open. Golfers need to be well placed from the tee, as the fairway doglegs to the right and leads up to a three-tiered green that is well protected by a trio of bunkers.

spring 2015

Dan Murphy / stonehousegolf.com

2

Oak Hill CC (East), Rochester, New York PAR 5, 598 YARDS

Over the past half century, Oak Hill has become established as one of the great major venues of American golf. The club has staged three U.S. Opens and three PGA Championships, most recently being the 2013 PGA when Jason Dufner notched his first major title. Boasting a pair of Donald Ross courses, East and West, that opened in 1926 (after the club had been founded on a different, smaller site in 1901), Oak Hill remains the only club to have hosted all of the following: U.S. Open, PGA Championship, Ryder Cup (1995), the U.S. Amateur, the U.S. Senior Open and the Senior PGA Championship.

The 13th hole of Oak Hill’s East Course—our second stop—is a mighty par-5 known as “The Hill of Fame.” Not only is this hole long, at 598 yards from the back or 563 from the White tee, but it poses an uphill challenge that steepens towards the green. A creek crosses the fairway at the 300-yard mark (from the back tee) so driver is not the automatic selection for many players off the tee.

Well protected by bunkering and a stunning selection of the club’s famous oaks, this is a birdie hole only for four immaculate strikes.

The Hill of Fame is embellished by brass plaques on selected trees, placed in honor of some of golf’s most notables, including Arnold Palmer, Bobby Jones, Dwight Eisenhower, Jack Nicklaus and Babe Didrikson Zaharias.

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3

Crooked Stick Golf Club, Indiana PAR 3, 182 YARDS

Crooked Stick has held one major, the 1991 PGA Championship, which might be the greatest Cinderella story the game has seen. John Daly, 25 years old at the time and a rookie struggling to make cuts or money, was the ninth alternate for that PGA field. Daly drove through the night to reach Crooked Stick in time for the first round, and teed up having never before set eyes on the course. He had a caddie he had never met, too, Jeff “Squeaky” Medlin, who struggled to pick clubs for Daly because the young slinger hit the ball further than Medlin had ever seen.

On this treacherous Pete Dye course, which Jack Nicklaus described in 1991 as the hardest set-up he had ever played, the fairway defenses ran out on each par-4 and par-5 by about 280 yards, while Daly bombed the ball over 300 yards.

The tree-lined 13th is the shortest hole on the course, but long on demands. The green slips away at the back so club selection is critical. While many golfers in that ’91 PGA took six iron, Daly smashed eight irons in all four rounds, and a birdie here in the final round opened up an insurmountable five-shot lead.

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4

Leopard Creek CC, Mpumalanga, South Africa PAR 5, 550 YARDS

The fourth tee of our amalgamated golf course delivers us deep into the southern hemisphere, to the edge of the famous Kruger National Park, in South Africa’s northeast.

Leopard Creek Country Club represents South African golf at its best, bordered by the National Park and the Crocodile River, with bushveld koppies (hills that are typical of the African bush landscape) dominating the backdrop. Streams and watering holes help to define the Leopard Creek course, with resident crocodiles, hippo, antelope, buffalo and elephants occasionally spectating.

The 13th hole of this Gary Player design is among its most memorable. It is a 550-yard par five that gently bends from right to left, with its green sitting on the edge of Crocodile River, but 32 meters above the water, thereby affording golfers panoramic views into the National Park.

With a stream cutting across the hole, short of the ideal landing area for drives, only two of the finest strikes will deliver golfers to the green in two.

5

Royal Liverpool GC, The Wirral, England PAR 3, 161 YARDS

The fifth hole of our string of number 13s takes us to one of the oldest golf courses in the world, Royal Liverpool, or “Hoylake” as it is often known, after its hometown.

A [British] Open venue 12 times, most recently last year, Hoylake is the second-oldest links golf course in England, having been established in 1869, after Royal North Devon GC had come into being five years earlier. Bobby Jones won the Open at Hoylake in 1930, Tiger Woods in 2006, and Rory McIlroy in 2014.

The thing about Opens at Hoylake is that they knock the scorecard along two notches, so what the members know as the first hole becomes the third for the Open, and the 13th that we are visiting—called “Rushes”—acts as the 15th in the Open. Playing 161 yards from the very back, and 148 from the men’s tee, this is the shortest hole on the course, but the green is a narrow target with a quintet of testy pot bunkers offering merciless, cold-blooded protection. The raised tees offer golfers far-reaching views over the Dee estuary, but any sense of serenity will be drowned if you don’t find the green. If you have to miss, go long.

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6

TPC Las Vegas, Nevada PAR 4, 439 YARDS

TPC Las Vegas is a twilight zone between the rugged Nevada landscape and the buzzing neon strip of Vegas, with views of both Red Rock Canyon and the Vegas Skyline providing striking backdrops to this course. A former venue on both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour (and previously known as TPC Canyons), the par-71 golf course was designed by Bobby Weed and Raymond Floyd and opened in 1996 to become a modern classic of the American west.

While the challenging 13th hole at TPC Las Vegas— our 6th hole—plays to a modern-day Tour yardage of 439 from the TPC tee, a choice of five tees ensure this is a hole that can be enjoyed by all, and regular men’s yardage of 364 yards keep it an accessible two-shoter with birdie potential.

The hole is aptly called “Death Valley” as golfers have to clear a rocky, unforgiving arroyo to reach the fairway, which leans to the right. With the arroyo flanking the fairway on that right side, the tee shot demands that golfers choose how much of no man’s land they want to take on.

A sliced tee shot for the right-hander will drive home this hole’s ominous name.

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The Golf House Club, Elie, Fife, Scotland PAR 4, 380 YARDS

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Dunes Golf & Beach Club, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina PAR 5, 640 YARDS

From St Andrews, on Scotland’s east coast, if you were to follow the Fife coastline south towards Edinburgh—the scenic route—you go through Kingsbarns before the coast turns inland towards the capital at the mouth of the Firth of Forth. Through Crail and Anstruther and not much further, you come into Elie, where the town’s ancient links has been golfed more or less as long as it has been in St Andrews itself, and certainly back to the 16th century. Pure and unadulterated, Elie should not be missed on a links pilgrimage, and this is where a young James Braid—who went on to become a five-time Open champion—from neighboring village Earlsferry, honed his game in the late 19th century.

Braid claimed the 13th at Elie—“Croupie” (the old Scottish name for the haunting ravens that patrol the nearby cliffs)—was the “Finest in all the country”; rose-tinted for sure but who’s to argue? The 380-yard par four has a hint of Kingsbarns about it, with the Firth of Forth lapping in from the left and the cliffs standing immovable to the right, and while it looks straightforward on the card, golfers need to avoid a pot bunker in the center of the fairway, and then approaches to the raised green will gather into a hollow if they are left short.

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The Dunes Club is one of the gems of Myrtle Beach, with a golf course defined by the beguiling sand dunes of this idyllic stretch of Atlantic coastline. The course was originally laid out by Robert Trent Jones Snr back in 1949, when a simple wooden cabin served as a clubhouse, in which air conditioning was but a dream. Rees Jones, the son of Robert and renowned in his own right, has latterly updated the course (while the old cabin has long been replaced by a lavish upgrade), and the signature hole of this course remains the same today as it did over 60 years ago, the par-five 13th—our 8th hole—called “Waterloo.”

Waterloo is a classic Trent Jones risk-and-reward challenge. Now reaching 640 yards from the back tee, but with four more tees offering golfers varying degrees of respite, the fairway doglegs around Lake Singleton, daring golfers to put faith in their long game to cut the corner. As if the water did not offer sufficient defense to this ribbon of a fairway, a raised green is well protected by three bunkers.

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Valhalla Golf Club, Louisvillle, Kentucky PAR 4, 355 YARDS

Valhalla—which in Norse mythology is the great hall in which the souls of slain Vikings celebrate with the gods— was the brainchild of Kentucky businessman Dwight Gahm, although the club is now owned outright by the PGA of America. The club opened in 1986 to immediate acclaim, with the scale of the golf course particularly striking; the 18-hole course, clubhouse and immaculate facilities occupy an enormous 486-acre plot of rolling, partly wooded Kentucky countryside.

PGA backing fast-tracked Valhalla into the spotlight, and the relatively young course has already hosted three PGA Championships—most recently in 2014, when Rory McIlroy fended off Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson and Jason

10

Nefyn & District GC, Lleyn Peninsula, Wales PAR 4, 405 YARDS

Next stop is one of the most underrated golf courses in Europe, Nefyn and District. If it were in Ireland or Scotland it would be world renowned, but Nefyn sits quietly on the Lleyn Peninsula of north Wales, upon a cliff-top perch overlooking the Irish Sea. Nefyn is Wales’ answer to Ireland’s Head of Kinsale or Pebble Beach, just without the million-dollar development—all the more appealing, then.

Nefyn’s Old Course was laid out by James Braid, and its 13th travels to the tip of a rocky headland that points northward to the Isle of Anglesey. A full 405 yards from its tip, yet only 7 yards shorter from the regular men’s tee, a rocky demise awaits shots hooking left, while the stretch of blessed fairway is 200 yards away. Golfers can bail to the right, before the approach is played downhill and straight towards the sea, to a green enclosed by craggy outcrops.

Played into the wind, this is a very long hole, but if it is too much, don’t worry: the club’s founders would congregate in the Ty Coch Inn by the 16th, and golfers can still pause and do the same today.

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Day to claim his fourth major title—and also the last Ryder Cup to be won by the United States, when Paul Azinger masterminded the irresistible American force in 2008.

Valhalla boasts memorable holes at every turn, but none more so than its 13th, which is one of the finest and most attractive short par-4s you can find. Measuring only 355 yards from the back and downhill all the way, the fairway veers to the left, with a network of bunkers protecting the left flank, before golfers must negotiate a raised green that is virtually an island, with water reaching around the front and both sides. It is only a wedge for most golfers, but the fringe is hardly sympathetic, and too much spin will plummet the ball to a watery grave.

11

Tralee GC, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland PAR 3, 159 YARDS

Tralee dates back to the 19th century, although its existing links in West Barrow represent Arnold Palmer’s much heralded European debut in course design, and opened in 1984. Like many of the greatest links golf courses, the layout of much of Tralee did not require bulldozing or shaping, so naturally does this landscape facing out to the Atlantic Ocean lend itself to golf. The game was born from such stretches of linksland.

Nestled amid the most dramatic dunes of this pocket of Irish shoreline, Tralee’s 13th is known as Brock’s Hollow, with a “brock” being an old West Irish nickname for the badger. Golfers will regret sending their ball down into the brocks’ domain, as the deep, unkempt hollow of this hole comes between the tee on one side, and the narrow green on the other. The tee shot should be a short to mid iron for many golfers, but if the breeze picks up off the Atlantic and dumps the ball short into the hollow, the ball may well be destined to stay there—added to the brocks’ already extensive collection.

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Dan Murphy / stonehousegolf.com

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13 12

Sunningdale GC (Old), Berkshire, England PAR 3, 185 YARDS

The Old Course at Sunningdale, where we head for our 12th hole, is perhaps the most sacred of inland courses in the United Kingdom. The course was designed by Willie Park Jnr., the [British] Open champion of 1887 and 1889, and it opened in 1901. Sunningdale’s Old Course offers the epitome of heathland golf, with plentiful gorse, heather and pine trees providing stunning definition on virtually every hole, while also contributing significantly to the hazards golfers must avoid. While the R&A will not take its Open Championship to Sunningdale as it is not a links course, the Old Course has a rich heritage in tournament golf, hosting the Women’s British Open and the Senior Open among other events.

The 13th on the Old Course is a classic par-3—not overly long at 185 yards from the back, and downhill too—yet a broad bunker protects the front of the green, so tee shots lacking the yardage are unlikely to fare very well.

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Close House (Colt), Northumberland, England PAR 4, 462 YARDS

It is a journey of almost 300 miles from the green of our 12th hole at Sunningdale to the tee of our 13th; up at Close House in Northumberland, which is so far north it is almost in Scotland. In fact, the Close House estate is a stone’s throw from Hadrian’s Wall—hence the address at “Heddon on the Wall”—which is a wall made from stone and turf that originally stretched from west coast to east to separate Roman England from Scotland’s “barbarians.” That was the best part of 2,000 years ago, and border controls between the two countries have softened a little since.

Close House boasts two golf courses, the Fily and the newer Colt, which was designed in tribute to great English architect of the 20th century, Harry Colt, and was opened by the resort’s touring professional Lee Westwood in 2011.

Remains of a Roman fort flank the Colt’s 11th hole, but the signature hole is the par-4 13th, which offers panoramic views of Northumberland from its elevated tee. Although the hole is long from the back at 462 yards, the regular men’s yardage of 388 and a downhill trip to the green makes this a birdie hole for golfers who can keep it straight and know their short iron yardages. Friendly advice from Westwood is to “watch out for the stream to the right of the green. This is the biggest green on the course so play the percentages.”

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14

Champions GC, Houston, Texas PAR 5, 540 YARDS

Champions Golf Club is one of Texan golf’s precious gems.

It was built by two Texan friends and legends of tour golf, Jimmy Demaret from Houston and Jack Burke Jr, from Fort Worth, who earned five major titles between them in the 1940s and 1950s, with Demaret becoming the first golfer to win the Masters three times, in 1950.

The two golfers built Champions Golf Club in 1956 to immediate acclaim, and the club has become one of the most storied venues in the history of the PGA Tour. The club’s tournament course, Cypress Creek—designed by Ralph Plummer, a close friend of Demaret’s—was only 10 years old when it hosted the 1967 Ryder Cup, when the United States inflicted the heaviest defeat in the history of the competition, beating Europe 23½—8½. The U.S. team was captained by another close friend of Demaret’s (Demaret being one of the most charismatic and popular men on tour), and his polar opposite in personality, Ben Hogan, who famously threatened to leave Arnold Palmer out of the American line-up. Ultimately, Palmer played in four out of the five series, delivering a point from each.

One of the great holes on the Cypress Creek course is its 13th, which is 14 in our order; a par-five of 540 yards from the back, or 486 from the regular men’s tee. When the Ryder Cup and 1969 U.S. Open were played here, this hole was a true three-shotter, and even today, with a quartet of bunkers protecting the front of the green, only two of the finest strikes from the world’s best players will reach the green in two.

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Laguna National, Singapore PAR 4, 417 YARDS

Laguna National is a 36-hole resort that opened in 1993 in Singapore, and has become one of the best-loved golf destinations in the Far East. Its Masters Course gained international acclaim as venue for the European Tour’s Singapore Masters from 2002 to 2007, although it is to the resort’s World Classic Course that we turn for our next 13th hole, to a layout designed by Andy Dye, son of Pete.

This stunning par-four is quite distinct, as golfers are required to drive over a broad canal, and then over a dramatic stretch of mounding that winds around a snake of a bunker that slithers for 200 yards. Beyond the mounding the fairway heads off to the right, with the canal, bunker and mounding making for a three-lane Highway to Hell.

Golfers who clear the mounding and safely find the fairway will find this one of the most rewarding tee shots in golf.

16

Augusta National GC, Georgia PAR 5, 510 YARDS

The par-5 Azalea might be the most famous hole in golf, because it is probably the most attractive and exciting.

Green Jackets have been won and lost here, and careers defined. Phil Mickelson’s most famous shot is a six-iron from pine straw, branches over-hanging, which found the green on his way to victory in 2010. Bernhard Langer’s most cherished shot was a three-iron from the fairway in 1993.

It is a tributary to Rae’s Creek that causes golfers the most trouble, as it quietly trickles along to the left— passing 1,600 azaleas as it goes—before ominously crossing in front of the green. Golfers have a fair chance at reaching the green on two from the center of the fairway, but the way Bubba Watson achieved it in the final round of the 2014 Masters is not recommended. The left-hander slung one of his wilder cuts deep over the woodland on the wrong side of the creek, but so prodigious is Watson’s power, that his ball just managed to find the fairway—366 yards from the tee—as the hole lent around to the left in front of the green.

From there it was just a wedge to the green.

“I thought it was out-of-bounds,” said Watson’s playing partner, Jordan Spieth, “yet it turned out to be perfect.”

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The Honourable Co. of Edinburgh Golfers PAR 3, 193 YARDS

It is hard to rate one [British] Open Championship venue over another, and apart from those sitting on the R&A’s Championship Committee, perhaps there is little need to do so. But nonetheless, put it this way: when considering the quality and variety of links holes, course condition and the natural landscape, it is very difficult to place any golf course above Muirfield. St Andrews has the ancient history, Birkdale has the most dramatic dunes and Turnberry has the most striking sea view, but really, The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers has it all. Its original holes were even laid out by Old Tom Morris—and put into play for the first time in 1891—just to emphasize its pedigree, while today’s layout is largely the work of Harry Colt in the 1920s. A strong indication of the R&A’s ranking of Muirfield, by the way, comes in the fact that while the Old Course at St Andrews has hosted 28 Open Championships, Muirfield is second in line of current Open venues with 16 Opens, dating between 1892 and 2013 (Prestwick held the Open 24 times, including the first 10, but its last was in 1925).

The par-3 13th at Muirfield, our penultimate hole, plays to 193 yards from the championship tee and 156 from the regular men’s tee, but as it plays uphill from tee to green, it plays at least a club longer. Framed by rising dunes on either side, the narrow green is jealously guarded by five pot bunkers and the green only reaches 15 paces at its widest point. Golfers can’t afford to find the sand, while tee shots landing short of the green will roll back down the apron to leave a delicate chip up to the putting surface.

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Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

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18

Pine Valley GC, Pine Valley, New Jersey PAR 4, 450 YARDS

Pine Valley Golf Club, some 20 miles outside of Philadelphia, is to many the Holy Grail of golf courses. Or there was late British writer Peter Dobereiner, who likened the course to a “chamber of horrors.” The course was created by hotelier George Crump, who enlisted Harry Colt to help with the design (a name that is always recurrent amid Kingdom’s fantasy golf courses), while another course designer of considerable renown, A.W. Tillinghast, had a hand in the final shape of Pine Valley’s forbidding 13th.

The 13th hole at Pine Valley is perhaps the mightiest and most fearsome of par fours on this most uncompromising of golf courses. Really, it is cruel to finish our track of 13th holes with this one, but no-one ever (truthfully) said life was fair.

As with every hole at Pine Valley, the punishment for veering off line from the 13th tee is punitive, as the fairway is flanked by rocky wasteland in which most lies are unplayable, or thick, unyielding woodland. Golfers must drive uphill to the crown of the fairway, and only once they reach the top will they be able to survey this hole in its full glory, with one of the most challenging, nervejangling second shots in golf. Lying like an upturned saucer, the green is placed to the left of this crescent fairway, with the wasteland encroaching from the left to capture any approaches slightly resembling the right-handed hook.

The saving grace of this hole is a generous bail-out area to the right of the green, so golfers are not forced into attempting the heroic. Like the 17th on the Old Course at St Andrews, this is a confirmed “par 4½.”

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From England With Love In our last moments together, as I stood with one hand resting lightly on her body and felt the heat come off her as she slept for the first time in days, I confess I was beset by madness: Just go! Make a break for it!

Where didn’t matter. We’d make it work somehow, live on the road together… I paused to consider the ways I couldn’t take care of her, how it was never going to work. When I lifted my hand, it immediately felt cold.

I awkwardly put it in my pocket, turned around, and walked away.

My two days with the 2015 Aston Martin Rapide S were over

T

he sublime four-door from England’s legendary marque falls somewhere between the Queen’s coronation and Lauren Bacall’s smirk in terms of poise, and there’s as much substance as style here, making the Rapide S more than just pricey eye candy. But fans of Aston Martin expect this kind of power/looks combination anyway, along with meticulous attention to details and the cachet of ownership—all of which the car delivers in copious amounts from the first glint off its iconic, massive grille to final curve of its elegantly shaped rear end. The real surprise with the Rapide S comes when one starts the enormous V12 engine, pulls away from the curb and immediately forgets the extra two doors. If that’s unbelievable (and it is when you think about it), the rest of the car is simply exceptional.

Imagining an epic sports car isn’t difficult; so many textbook margins are filled with young boys’ sketches of fantasy vehicles that would bring down any concours were they to be realized. Elevating that kind of vision to include sophistication is more difficult, however, and then there’s actually building the thing. But adding rear seats while

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keeping the adrenaline rush and blush intact? We’d say it’s impossible, but then Elizabeth Taylor had children before she starred in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and so there are cases in which addition does not mean subtraction. Here, the back seats mean that the thrill can be shared, and the car is better for them. The longer wheelbase accommodating those seats also means more stability at speed, which likely reassured the driver who first took the Rapide S to 203mph—2mph faster than the company’s much-lauded Vanquish can manage. If James Bond ever met any of the children he might have sired, the Rapide S is how he would take them to school. Likewise, if Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg ever wanted to double date, this would be a good choice of vehicles (although we won’t speculate on who’d get to drive).

Under the broad, carved hood there’s the latest generation of Aston Martin’s AM29 V12 engine, a quad-cam 6.0-litre that makes 552hp and produces 465 lb-ft of torque.

It gets the Rapide S from 0 to 60 in 4.2 seconds on the way to its incredible top speed and is beautifully complemented by the new ZF-developed Touchtronic III transmission.

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Automatic by default, it can be overridden by the driver at any point via column-mounted paddle shifters, which are perfectly placed so as not to interfere with turn signals or other controls (a pet peeve of ours when manufacturers get this wrong) and which stay put during cornering (as opposed to tilting with wheel rotation, which we also do not like). The Touchtronic III shifts faster than you can (in as quick as 130 milliseconds) and has eight gears on offer, with the low-revving upper two delivering a relaxed and near-silent driving experience once cruising at speed.

In fact, aside from the audible growl of the 12 cylinders under acceleration (it’s a proper roar when the car is in “Sport” mode), being in the Rapide S is a fairly quiet affair.

All the better to hear the excellent Beosound audio system from Bang & Olufsen, which is as pretty as it is clear and balanced. The nicely designed tweeters, specifically, offer a refined bit of fun in that they rise slowly from the top of the dash when the system is engaged, then disappear when the system is switched off.

Likewise, the navigation screen only reveals itself when direction (by Garmin) is desired or when the car is in reverse, at which point the screen flips up to function as a display for the rear camera. Notably, the screen is crisp and not at all distracting when deployed, and completely hidden when closed. I wasn’t a huge fan of the manner in which vehicle settings menus are navigated, via a wheel/button kind of thing, but that was a small issue and subjective in any case. Anyway, more buttons would get in the way of

Stunning design is everywhere, and includes the excellent Bang & OIufsen audio system

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the interior design, which is stunning. All four passengers get beautiful and supportive race-inspired seats that have been understandably likened to fighter jet seating, albeit from a luxury fighter jet with taut, hand-stitched leather and superlative fittings. With its luxe cockpit feel and sophisticated array of interior controls—individual climate controls for each passenger, optional rear-seat entertainment system with headphones, heated and cooled memory seats, and more—if it could fly and fight crime, the Rapide S would be the perfect choice for a stylish Fantastic Four. Ensuring that it stays firmly on the ground, however (though still attractive to superheroes), an enhanced suspension fights dive, squat and lift while keeping the ride pleasant enough for a cross-country trip—no easy feat.

Seating position is low, befitting a sports car (and it is that), but not uncomfortably so, and the view from the driver’s seat is suitably invigorating. The aforementioned suspension and its Adaptive Damping System seemed to anticipate our every move in all three modes—Normal, Sport and Track—with changes between modes immediately noticeable, not least for the increased engine note as we left Aston Martin’s already-thrilling version of “Normal”

The Rapide S goes from calm James Bond to angry James Bond with the press of a button—a good thing behind and moved into Sport. The simple press of a button engages Sport, which holds gears a bit longer, opens things up and genuinely changes the mood of the Rapide S from calm James Bond to angry James Bond (a good thing in terms of driving experience). Likewise, another button just to the right firms up the suspension and provides a noticeably tighter ride, though, again, not uncomfortable.

The handling, which really is amazing and which immediately seemed to be in perfect concert with our input and driving style, benefits greatly from the positioning of the mighty all-alloy V12, which sits eight-tenths of an inch lower than last year’s model. The majority of the engine’s cylinders are behind the front wheel, which is a big contribution to the near 50/50 weight distribution of the Rapide S. In fact, the ratio is 48 percent to the front and 52 percent to the rear, an absolutely fantastic feat of engineering in a sedan of this size (197.6 inches long).

Further helping us keep the epic paint unblemished (it takes 50 man-hours to hand-paint each Rapide S), the traction control never felt intrusive, even under hard driving, and so we found no reason to turn it off (not least because we

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Details in Old World craftsmanship and high techology abound

were borrowing the car). And when it came time to bring things to a halt, the formidable brakes and complementary braking system were more than up to the task, providing a controlled stop in an array of conditions that included rain and gravel. If that wasn’t enough, we found the rear cargo area sufficient for four weekend bags, which means the Rapide S is ultimately as accommodating as its seating arrangement would suggest.

So… Great going, great stopping, great sound, engaging interior, plenty of options for customizations and personalizations… All of this won’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows Aston Martin, but top performance, epic luxury and incredible attention to details are only part of the story. There’s an emotional character to the brand that transcends the abilities of any sharp marketing or Bond appearances (though those help). Perhaps it’s down to the fact that, as opposed to machines, humans build Aston Martins, that each car is inspected and signed off by an individual whose name appears under the hood, that a group of people work hundreds of hours to produce the absolute best manifestation of our motoring potential. And in that the car stands as an example of respect, for motoring in general and for ourselves and what we can achieve.

There, perhaps, is the compelling twist: that in being the best example of a car, unlike any other sports car available, an Aston Martin compels its driver to be a better man.

As ridiculous as it might seem, after two days with the Rapide S, I feel that I am.

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An Aston Martin compels its driver to be a better man

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Sparky Anderson

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PITCH & PUTT He’s stood on the mound, he’s sat in the booth and he’s been to more games than the most ardent fan (which he is). Veteran sports journalist and current teaching pro Joe Buttitta serves up a column on golf and retired athletes—especially those used to hitting balls with sticks

I

n 30 years as a sports journalist and another 24 as a teaching pro, there are a few things I’ve learned.

One of them is that golf doesn’t discriminate between saint and sinner when it comes to frustrations. It can make a typically ebullient Tim Tebow mad as heck, yet it can force a smile out of a perceived grouch like Patriots coach Bill Belichick (who’s smiling a bit more these days, anyway).

Another thing I’ve learned is that both Tebow and Belichick can’t give it up, just like the rest of us. For any kind of athlete golf’s charms are pretty attractive, including the constant competition with yourself and with others, and the chance to win! And of course there’s the fact that you’ll never master it. For pros, that’s both infuriating and captivating. The game seems mystical when you discover that you’ve somehow lost the swing you had yesterday, and all you did between rounds was get a good night’s sleep. Conversely, the horrible swing you had yesterday is suddenly magic today.

Why? No one, not even the finest golf teacher, can tell you why. That kind of stuff is far beyond mystical. It’s downright scary.

It’s golf!

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So, why would anyone choose to play?

It is clearly the most difficult, frustrating game known to man. But among athletes who’ve hung up their cleats, it can also fill a competitive void. If competition is an athlete’s high, then golf is a kind of catnip. After years out of the limelight, the ex-pro, no matter the sport, still feels that electric charge re-ignite in his belly when a four-way wager is proposed on the first tee.

“A-ha!” they think. “There’s my reason for getting out of bed today! I can take these guys.” FORE right!

Baseball supplies golf courses with a large number of customers, guys who’ve left the diamond but who are comfortable swinging at something round. Of course in golf that little dimpled ball just sits on the ground …dead still …daring you to make a productive swing.

After a career of having a ball hurled at them at blistering speeds, baseball players can find that dead-still ball almost too much to resist. “Why won’t the damn thing just GO!” they fume, swinging like they want to crush it over the fence, which of course is the wrong thing to do. And yet so many try.

Among the professional athletes I’ve had the privilege to know, and sometimes teach, are Sparky Anderson, Billy Consolo, Mike Scioscia, Ed Farmer, Rick Dempsey and veteran sportscaster Dick Enberg.

Golfers all, except for one, it was the infectious Sparky Anderson who captured most of the attention in his later years, when he was holding a club instead of a bat and when umpires were nowhere in sight.

Sparky lived right next to the Cal Lutheran University campus in Southern California and would take his daily walk around the baseball field like a Dutch Uncle mentoring players, correcting something that needed his attention, all under the watchful eye of coach Marty Slimak, another golfer from the world of balls and strikes.

Casual acquaintances called him by his birth name, George. We all knew him as Sparky, still the only big league manager to

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win the World Series in each league. He won two consecutive world titles in Cincinnati in 1975 and 1976 with The Big Red Machine, and one in Detroit in 1984. But, boy, how he loved his golf! To be honest, he wasn’t very good at it. But this just contributed to his charm. I write a golf instructional column for the local paper, and whenever Sparky spotted me at one of those charity events he’d grab my arm and tell everyone within earshot that my last tip in the paper really worked. He seemed genuinely excited when he would announce that, “this guy’s column taught me how to play golf.” He could really tell a story. Often he would exaggerate!

“I try hard, but I know I can’t play,” Sparky would lament. “But this is the toughest game I ever tried. Tougher than hitting the curve ball. So I decided long ago that I can still enjoy golf, but I’m in it to give something back.”

Billy Consolo was a teammate of Sparky’s at Dorsey High School in Southern California. They were highly regarded by big league scouts who deemed them the finest keystone combination of that era. Billy also adored golf, but was far and away the most valuable storyteller in big league ball.

Consolo was an 18-year-old Bonus Baby for the Boston Red Sox and toiled a few years with the old Washington Senators. He spent 13 seasons as a coach for the Detroit Tigers under Sparky, his lifelong buddy.

Consolo and his two brothers Horace and Bobby were all enthusiastic golfers. The threesome would show up at Westlake Golf Course near LA nearly every day for putting contests—serious putting contests. At times, very serious. And at other times, extremely serious. Retired all, they still craved the competition. Their egos were on fire.

The three brothers loved each other dearly, but on that putting surface it was “every man for himself.” Distractions were part of the strategy, from a well-timed cough to jingling pocket change to loudly sipping coffee. Anything they could concoct.

Billy had a raspy voice that sounded like a pregnant foghorn. No doubt several decades of bench jockeying in the majors prepped him for that putting green at Westlake.

Trash talk? You bet. After all, they were brothers. “Italian brothers,” Billy reminded.

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The incomparable Ted Williams (left); 1983 World Series MVP Rick Dempsey (above)

Billy was agog over his former Boston teammate Ted Williams. Absolutely idolized Ted’s immense talent and knowledge of hitting. If anyone brought up the name of the “Splendid Splinter” Billy would stop putting and do 10 minutes on Williams’ exploits. He told the story differently every time, but the decibel level was always the same.

Ed Farmer (White Sox) and Rick Dempsey (Orioles) are two former major leaguers who can’t get enough golf in their doddering years. They make sure they get their fairway fix at least once a week.

“After my baseball career ended golf helped fill the competitive void I felt, “ said the 6-foot-4 Farmer, a pitcher who has hands as big as a first-baseman’s mitt. “I had the real pleasure of meeting Sandy Koufax early in my career and learned how to throw a great curve ball.

Sandy’s hands were bigger than mine, so he taught me to throw the curve sort of like he did.” Farmer became a scratch golfer due to his 300-yard drives and a short game that kills.

“I was able to do things with my 56-degree wedge that most pros couldn’t do,” he said, smiling and politely refusing

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to demonstrate when asked. “I’m still competitive with some baseball buddies of mine like Ron Reed [Phillies] and Donnie Hill [Angels], so that remains a secret!”

Both Farmer and Dempsey are now broadcasters for their respective teams, yet still make time to hone their golf skills.

“I’m a scratch at my club (North Ranch Country Club, personal best of 69), but really what I enjoy about the game

manager Mike Scioscia also uses golf for charitable causes and sponsors his own tournament every November. “I can’t imagine not doing this event,” said the onetime Dodger catcher. “So many active players show up for us, plus the legends who used to play ball. I can’t think of a better way to gather so many friends for a good cause. Golf makes this kind of thing possible. Plus we have a ball.”

is the competition I still seem to need,” said Dempsey, “especially the one-on-one matches. I’m so glad my skills are still such that I can perform and raise funds for the different causes around town. Plus, I still love to entertain the fans.”

During rain delays, Dempsey, a rough and tumble catcher, used to regale fans by running and belly-flopping à la the Slip ’N Slide. Fans ate it up. These days he works with Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer at the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network in Baltimore. California Angels

The pride of Mount Clemens, Michigan, Dick Enberg surprisingly is not a golfer like many of his famous counterparts, including the Dodgers’ Vin Scully. “I’m a tennis player,” said Enberg.

“I just never got into playing golf because I can’t see myself chasing a little white ball into the trees all day.”

However, he does enjoy telling stories, and one in particular about a conversation between Sam Snead and Ted Williams. Williams insisted that hitting a baseball was much tougher than hitting

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a golf ball, to which the Slammer replied, “Maybe so, Ted, but we have to play our foul balls.”

The exchange might have happened after the Cubs’ 1951 season opener against the Reds. Before that game started, and wearing his street clothes, Snead used a 4-iron off home plate to hit a golf ball into the scoreboard—still the only time that board’s been hit from home plate (though Roberto Clemente came close in the second game of a doubleheader in ’59). Snead hit another ball with a 2-iron and put it over the 89-foot-high scoreboard, reportedly leaving players from both teams staring. The Chicago Tribune’s Edward Burns picked up a few reactions: “Look, he didn’t even wiggle,” marveled the Cubs’ Frankie Frisch.

“Yeah, but can he hit a curve ball?” asked Luke Sewell, the Reds’ skipper.

So which is tougher, baseball or golf?

I’ve been a golf pro for 24 years and I played

The USGA museum has a large collection of photos and memorabilia connecting America’s favorite pastime with America’s other favorite pastime. Here are just a few players represented in their archives (from the USGA’s website): The “Georgia Peach,” Ty Cobb, had a postbaseball golf rivalry with Babe Ruth, which reached its crescendo in Cobb’s capturing the “Ruth Cup” in a best of three matches competition.

Cobb prized the trophy and kept it above his fireplace next to his Baseball Hall of Fame plaque.

The disease that shortened Lou Gehrig’s baseball career also robbed him of the opportunity to retire to the links. By 1932, Gehrig had taken up golf under the tutelage of George Hughes, teaching professional at the Green Meadow Country Club in Rye, N.Y.

basketball and baseball in high school before going on to become a wild southpaw hurler at Cal State Northridge. That’s where I met Enberg. Now Dr. Enberg, he’s the lead play-by-play announcer for the San Diego Padres, but he was a baseballer at Central Michigan University before earning his doctorate degree in Health Science from Indiana University. He ended up at Cal State Northridge in 1962, where we got to know each other. As for which sport is the toughest, it’s like I told the LA Times back in 2000, I don’t care what Ted Williams thought, golf is the hardest game in the world. Of course, my old pitching coach might have a different perspective on my golf compared to my ballgame. To this day whenever we meet, Enberg shouts his usual refrain: “If high and outside was a strike, Buttitta would be in the Hall of Fame.” Oh, my!

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Jay Hanna “Dizzy” Dean, star pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals and one of the most colorful ballplayers of the 1930s is shown here in a promotional stunt for the 1937 Miami Biltmore Open. As a means of encouragement for top golf pros looking to capture part of the $10,000 purse, Dean said, “Pick out a tee like this one that holds the most chances!” At the time there were no restrictions on tees.

In 1934, golf champ and Detroit native Walter Hagen donned a Detroit Tigers uniform and worked out with the team at its training camp at Lakeland, FL.

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COME AS

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Some seaside cities are but shapes in the mist, large, quiet shadows darkening the edges of the land on which they sit. Others are lighthouses by design, and shimmer like vast piles of treasure poured along the waves. Among the latter, under its famously grey sky, Seattle shines perhaps brightest of all. The city was built by fishing, logging and shipbuilding—industries that demand resilient, hard-working people. Later, in the 1990s, it produced grunge, the loud, loose genre of rock ’n’ roll that cut

YOU ARE through the commercial sheen of 1980’s pop with honest portraits of working-class angst, and grunge still sounds at home here. But today’s Seattle is known as much for its Seahawks as it is for its seafood, as much for Microsoft and Amazon and Boeing as for flannel shirts and coffee. There’s room for all, provided you don’t get in the way. Like the waves in Elliott Bay, the city’s changes keep coming; you can watch them or ride them, but you can’t stop them

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hange here is a good thing, by the way.

Seattle’s dynamic history is responsible for its rich personality. There’s the aforementioned music, a vibrant visual arts culture, top sports, cutting-edge technology and, of course, coffee, and all of these are well known as Seattle fixtures. But there are a few surprises as well, including the city’s gastronomic scene, which rivals America’s best-known food towns. With the state’s great wines just a short drive away in Woodinville, there’s no shortage of libation either. And this year, in Tacoma, there’s the U.S. Open as well, at Chambers Bay. It’s the tourney’s first visit to the PacNorthwest, and it’s reason enough to visit Seattle. But whether it’s your first trip to the area or one of many, we encourage you to stick around after the golf is done. Loud on stage or quiet in the park, in a bar downtown or under an evergreen, even on the greyest, wettest day of the year, make no doubt about it: Seattle shines.

Music City Seattle’s music scene began long before grunge. The city’s first recorded jazz show was in 1918, when the NAACP held its inaugural “Grand Benefit Ball.” From 1922 to 1966, the likes of Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and vocal great Ernestine Anderson regularly played Jackson Street clubs such as The Rocking Chair and The Black & Tan Club, just two of the city’s legendary jazz spots. Ray Charles called Seattle home from 1948 to 1950 and recorded his first hit here, 1949’s “Confession Blues.” He also met a 14-year-old Quincy Jones here, right about the time city native Bing Crosby was hitting middle age and a young Jimi Hendrix was eyeing his first guitar.

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By 1964 jazz had lost ground to rock ’n’ roll, and it was with great fanfare that The Beatles arrived in Seattle on August 21 of that year. It’s charming now, but at the time the band—fresh off its Ed Sullivan appearance—was often regarded as a hooligan influence with an uncontrollable fan base, and so only one hotel in Seattle would have them: The Edgewater, today a luxury accommodation (see “Edgewater” sidebar). A famous picture of The Beatles fishing from room 272 is but one of the music memories made here (which guests can re-live as “The Beatles Suite” is available at the hotel).

Following The Beatles’ stay, the Edgewater became a favorite of such acts as The Beach Boys, Roy Orbison, The Supremes, The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder and Led Zeppelin, whose two visits to the property became the [unprintable] stuff of rock legend. And there were others. As the 20th century drew to a close, grunge appeared and changed the course of rock ’n’ roll again, with bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and, perhaps the best-known of the bunch, Nirvana, filling clubs and causing record executives to scramble around and sign any flannel-clad kid with a guitar.

Jackson Street’s jazz clubs are gone, but the Columbia City Theater is still going strong (columbiacitytheater.com).

Built in 1917 and once host to the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington, the club’s tone is more contemporary today, but it’s a good night out. There’s still jazz as well: Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley (jazzalley.com) has hosted Branford Marsalis, Tito Puente and others for more than three decades. Numerous “best of” awards and a nice restaurant make it a good bet, while locals dressing smartly for performances underlines it as a class venue.

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Pike Place Market If a history of great music is an unheralded Seattle attribute, the city’s coffee shops—and one in particular—are better known. It’s hard to believe, but once upon a time there was only one Starbucks, a small shop operating in Seattle’s Pike Place Market (pikeplacemarket.org), which is a kind of city hub offering all manner of delicious and wonderful things.

With more than 21,000 stores in 65 countries, Starbucks, which launched in the market in 1971, could hardly be described as “quaint” any longer, but then again it’s now “local” far beyond Seattle. There’s a Starbucks on a Swiss train, a Starbucks at sea aboard Royal Carribbean’s Allure

Not far from Starbucks, Matt’s in the Market (mattsinthemarket.com) avails itself of the market’s fresh seafood, vegetables, meats and other products to deliver five-star food to visitors. The Deviled Eggs are not to be missed, topped with whatever happens to be tickling the chef’s fancy (we had caviar, smoked trout, and other tasty bits on ours). Astoundingly good. The steamed mussels are a sure thing, the Duck Confit Leg is luscious and the Pork Belly Confit “bánh Mi” sandwich is a local favorite. Directly across from Matt’s, Radiator Whiskey (radiatorwhiskey.com) serves up heartier fare like Lamb Neck Sloppy Joes and a Smoked

Beatles at The Edgewater (above left); Pike Place Market (above)

of the Seas, one in a former bank vault in Amsterdam, one at the Louvre, at Disneyland, in CIA headquarters, in a stilloperating funeral home in South Carolina, at the Tower of London, in Ho Chi Minh City and in Beirut’s Sassine Square in Lebanon, just to name a few. There’s still an original Pike Place Market location, but pilgrims headed there should expect long lines on their way to pay homage to “the Siren”—the Starbucks logo, which is based on a Norse woodcut of a twin-tailed mermaid, in honor of Seattle’s maritime history.

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It’s hard to believe, but once upon a time there was only a single Starbucks location

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Half Pig Head, which serves two or three. An unbelievably comprehensive menu of bourbons, ryes and Irish whiskeys is rounded out by the venue’s own moonshine and other selections, but the real treat for true whiskey lovers is the rotating selection of from-the-barrel pours, which, when we visited, included a barrel of Ireland’s Tyrconnell and a barrel of Glenmorangie’s Companta—thank goodness the market is walking distance from The Edgewater.

Back among the market’s fantastic array of smells, sights and sounds, you can watch the fish mongers at Pike Place Fish Co. throwing fish—more for entertainment than for practical purposes—and grab something to cook

Market Theater’s Gum Wall, a peculiar if unhygienic local landmark. People started sticking chewed gum on the wall in 1993, and theater owners eventually gave up scraping it away. Now, parts of the wall are covered in gum wads several inches thick covering an area that measures roughly 15 feet by 50 feet. Beyond that, on the waterfront at Pier 57, Seattle’s Great Wheel offers visitors tremendous views of Elliott Bay and the city (seattlegreatwheel.com), while the nearby Seattle Aquarium (seattleaquarium.org) looks below the surface of Puget Sound, with dramatic and active exhibits, including a large domed underwater room that puts visitors directly beneath the action.

Walrus and the Carpenter and Matt’s in the Market are just two amazing eateries for dinner if you like (pikeplacefish.com). Pick up a jar of top-quality honey in a ridiculously cute glass honey bear at Moon Valley Organics (moonvalleyorganics.com), flip through a fascinating collection of maps—antique, relief, 3D wood charts and more—at Metskers Maps (metskers.com) or visit one of the country’s best used bookstores at BLMF Literary Saloon. It’s been written that owner “J.B.” has his inventory database in his head, and oh what an inventory it is. This hidden cave of a used bookstore (3rd floor underground, there’s no website) holds crowded stacks of impossible-to-find literary works, obscure travel tomes and an eclectic mix of cultural titles and art books. A must-visit for bibliophiles.

Leaving the market and walking down to the waterfront, if you pass through Post Alley you’ll see The

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Other Options Not far from downtown in the city’s artsy Ballard neighborhood, The Walrus and the Carpenter is a gourmand’s dream oyster bar (thewalrusbar.com). An extensive menu of fresh oysters is bolstered by such delicacies as Sea Urchin Profiteroles, Octopus Ceviche, and roasted Medjool Dates with olive oil and salt. The menu rotates constantly, but is guaranteed to thrill. There’s great shopping nearby as well, and the excellent Seattle Zoo isn’t far. Back towards the market, longtime city favorite Etta’s (tomdouglas.com) is known for spice-rubbed salmon and crab cakes, while The Edgewater Hotel’s Six Seven restaurant serves up gourmet versions of Pacific Northwest cuisine made from fresh, organic ingredients (like Cedar Plank Salmon with forager mushrooms, pancetta, truffle cream and blackberry honey).

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The excellent Stoup Brewing is but one of ten breweries in the Ballard neighborhood’s five square miles

The setting there, literally over the waters of Elliott Bay, couldn’t be better.

For drinks beyond downtown, the Triangle Pub is one of Seattle’s oldest (trianglepub.com). Built in 1910, its straightforward signage says it all: “Seattle’s Historic Triangle Pub: Once a brothel, now a landmark.” Join locals at this pre-ballgame watering hole before heading to a Mariners’ game at Safeco Field, one block north, or just sit and watch people blow off steam after work. Alternatively, the Ballard neighborhood features ten breweries in just five square miles. The well-known Redhook Brewery was the first craft operation here, but it has since moved on to Woodinville (see the “Wine Country” feature following this article). No matter as there are plenty of others to take its place. Our favorite was Stoup Brewing, a relative newcomer that opened in 2013. With a comfortable, clean tasting room, the brewery favors full and hoppy beers that are tremendously well balanced and effortlessly drinkable.

We liked the mk Special Bitter, an English-style pour with a touch of hops balanced by caramel and honey, and the Hoppy Harvest Ale, which was somehow floral, hoppy, bitter, malty, sweetish and toasty all at once (stoupbrewing.com).

It would have been too easy to spend the entire afternoon here, just as it would be no problem for us to call Seattle home for an extended period. Rich with culture and good eats, grey skies or no, Seattle enchants. That’s true whether you’re watching the waves of Elliott Bay from a warm fireside seat at The Edgewater, cocktail in hand, or standing at the water’s edge with your hands in your pockets and your face in the wind.

Stay: The Edgewater Hotel Built for the 1962 World’s Fair, the hotel sits atop Pier 67 over Elliott Bay and it’s simply sublime. The city’s only waterfront hotel, many of the 223 rooms look out onto the waters of the bay and offer a feeling of tranquility and luxury that is difficult to describe. All rooms feature gas fireplaces that, with the stone-and-wood “lodge” construction used throughout the hotel, manage to put guests in the mindset of the forested Pacific Northwest while simultaneously delivering the best of urban, modern Seattle. The on-site restaurant and bar are as cutting-edge as a city visitor could want, while drinks served in the spacious, high-ceilinged but warm lobby invite visitors to relax and ponder the city through large windows. With top amenities and accoutrements in the rooms and a staff that goes the extra mile to be courteous and professional, we can’t imagine staying anywhere else in Seattle. No wonder Condé Nast Traveler called The Edgewater “One of the World’s Best Places to Stay.” To that we can only add, “and one of our favorites.” We’ll be back. edgewaterhotel.com

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Focus on your game...

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not on your joint pain.

You can watch it from the couch or you can live it.

MicroPort Orthopedics delivers technology that doesn’t put limits on your ability to enjoy a love-hate relationship with the game.

Get back out there — where greatness awaits. in your area, visit www.ortho.microport.com/patients All orthopedic surgeries carry risks and recovery times and cannot fully replicate the original healthy joint. Speak to your surgeon to see if MicroPort Orthopedic solutions are right for you.

Trademarks and Registered marks of MicroPort Orthopedics Inc. © 2014 MicroPort Orthopedics Inc. All Rights Reserved. 010327

Image photographed at

springcreekranch.org

PacNW Golf Sure it rains—that’s why everything’s so green up here.

And yes, the wind knows how to blow in these parts, but if you can’t play in the wind then you might as well forget Scotland, too. Rugged, rough, difficult, and stunningly beautiful, the Pacific Northwest might not be the first place that comes to mind when you think of golf, but it should be.

Here are four courses to tempt the adventurer in you.

Chambers Bay TA C O M A , WA

The site of this year’s U.S. Open (the first ever to be played in the PacNorthwest) the physical beauty of this true links course can catch players off guard. Used variously as a sand and gravel mine, a lumber yard and a railroad center, the nearly 950 acres along Puget Sound within which the walking-only course sits consists of dramatically shaped fairways, craggy cliffs, sand berms and washes and native grasses. There are no cart paths or houses, and the place looks as natural as the roughest stretch of Washington State coastline. If that wasn’t enough, this Robert Trent Jones II design is open to the public, making it an easy choice for Links magazine’s “No.1 Municipal Course in the United States.” chambersbaygolf.com

Bandon Dunes BANDON, OR

Oft heralded, no PacNorthwest golf list is complete without Bandon Dunes. Another true links course, this design by Scotsman David McLay Kidd is perched atop a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Punishing when the wind’s up (which is nearly always), at least Bandon Dunes is greener than many similarly located tracks. That’s not to say there’s any shortage of sand (it’s in the name, after all) but at least the views will make up for any shots gifted to the sea. Hit the 60-acre practice facility first to work on getting those shots down, and book a room at the Lodge to get the full experience, which culminates with a single malt in the Scottish-style pub on site. bandondunesgolf.com

Running Y Ranch Resort K L A M AT H FA L L S , O R

With meadows and wetlands on the front 9 and Payne Canyon on the back, Running Y Ranch is a proper outback course in Oregon’s beautiful Cascade Mountains. Arnold Palmer called it one of his favorite designs, and it’s no wonder: Arnie’s “leave it as it lies” philosophy is evident here, with the course’s wild personality on full display. Rolling foothills, beautiful forest and the Klamath Lakes come into play, along with breathtaking views. Stay on site and enjoy great food and accommodations as well. runningy.com

Prospector Course, Suncadia Resort C L E E L U M , WA

Another Palmer design, this one in the mountains of Washington State made Golfweek’s “Best Courses You Can Play.” The greens are fast, the fairways roll as much as the sea and the pine and fir forests on the property likely contain a driving range’s worth of lost golf balls. None of the challenges will matter when you’re standing on the signature No.10, looking at the Cascade Mountains and the Cle Elum River valley from the tee box, 120 feet above the fairway. Set within a top resort, the Prospector has it all. suncadiaresort.com

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‘Getting you back in the game’

Washington With the U.S. Open set for Chambers Bay in Tacoma, the Seattle area will see an influx of visitors this summer. The savvy among them will stick around a few days to explore, and the most discerning of those will find their ways to the town of Woodinville and the superlative Willows Lodge.

Just 40 minutes from Seattle, the top resort offers guests a serene escape with gardens, spacious luxury accommodations, an elegant spa and top dining options. As importantly, the lodge sits in the middle of one of Washington State’s best regions: wine country

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ruth be told, most of the state’s wine grapes are grown in the east, in high desert and mountain areas with names like Horse Heaven Hills, Wahluke Slope, Naches Heights and Walla Walla Valley. As those areas are far from the populated coast, a number of wineries have set up tasting rooms in Woodinville, and we certainly thank them for it. Second only to California in terms of U.S. wine production, Washington State sits at a latitude that puts it somewhere between Paris and Madrid—i.e., it has something in common with some fantastic wine regions. And while the state favors Riesling, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah, numerous other varietals are grown here, and there are as many variations of flavor and style as one could imagine. Sampling them all would take years, but with a little help from the sommelier and the concierge at Willows Lodge, we were able to gain a decent enough education over the course of a long weekend. While we encourage anyone to visit and to taste for themselves from among the more than 50 tasting rooms in Woodinville, here are a few of our favorites:

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Wine Country Chateau Ste. Michelle

Mark Ryan Winery

The state’s first winery was founded in Woodinvlle in 1912 to prove that America’s wine country extended beyond California’s borders, and the wines have been a staple on tables across the country ever since. Unlike many of the state’s wineries, Chateau Ste. Michelle’s first vineyards were in Woodinville and, though the winery owns vines in the east as well, the originals are still in production today.

Perhaps best known for its crisp Columbia Valley Sauvignon Blanc, the winery offers a series of complex reds, too. Those who prefer their darker wines a bit jammy will appreciate the 2012 Indian Wells Cabernet Sauvignon, while those who like more spice should try the vineyard’s 2011 Artist Series Meritage, which features a bolder, firmer red in bottles designed by noted artist Bratsa Bonifacho. ste-michelle.com

Like many Woodinville tasting rooms, Mark Ryan’s is in a small strip mall and looks unassuming at first blush.

Step inside and it’s a different, upscale story. Ryan is largely self taught as a winemaker and it took him some time to get his operation off the ground. But we’re glad he stuck with it, because his pours were some of our favorites in the area. Offering as much blackberry and crushed currant as other Washington State reds, Ryan’s 2012 Long Haul balances the fruit with intensely complex layers of slate, cedar, tobacco and spice. Likewise, his 2010 Lost Soul Syrah reminds us of some excellent mid-1990s Syrahs, with plenty of white pepper, bacon, spice and minerals balanced against oak and vanilla. We’re big fans of big reds that feature lots of stone and wood, and Mark Ryan nails it for us. markryan.com

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Novelty Hill/Januik

Columbia Winery

Not far from Chateau Ste. Michelle, the tasting room here couldn’t be more different in terms of architecture— think ultra-modern sharp edges and spare, open space as opposed to ornate French Chateau. In terms of quality, however, it’s another top shelf offering.

Winemaker Mike Januik oversees both the label that bears his name and the Novelty Hill label, and while his touch is evident in offerings from both, there are distinct characters here. Januik’s 2012 Cab Franc is as smooth as it gets, with blueberries and plums riding on vanilla and violet. On the other label, Novelty Hill’s 2011 Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon was a delightfully curious departure for us. After giving it 90pts, Wine Enthusiast described it as containing “lush flavors of lemon drop, orange candy and Key Lime.” We couldn’t have said it better. noveltyhilljanuik.com

Like Chateau Ste. Michelle, Columbia Winery is well known outside of Washington. Unlike the state’s first vineyard, however, Columbia was founded by six University of Washington professors and four of their friends who decided to produce the first Pinot Gris, Syrah and Cabernet Franc wines in Washington. We’re big fans of their 2012 Merlot, which contains roughly 10 percent Syrah and a few other varietals as well. It’s a food wine to be sure, with the oak, mocha and cherry just waiting to be paired with a nice red sauce pasta or beef tenderloin. On the other end of the scale, their 2012 Chardonnay was one of our favorite whites in the state.

Hints of tropical fruits and pear sit nicely atop oak here, and we only wish we’d had some seafood on hand to go with it. columbiawinery.com

Willows Lodge Washington’s wine country is lovely but the experience needs top lodging to be complete. A lodge complete with large lobby fireplace and wood beams arcing across the high ceiling, Willows Lodge is a warm, welcoming retreat that sets the perfect scene for a wine country getaway.

The hospitality begins at check-in, when guests are handed a glass of wine—a tremendous start. During our visit, staff were fantastically sharp: doors were opened before we reached them, needs were anticipated before we voiced them and every service of which we availed ourselves was delivered promptly and professionally. My wife assures me that the massage in the on-site spa was exceptional, and I assured her that the selection and quality at the lobby “Fireside” restaurant and bar were fantastic. We also enjoyed a full tasting menu at the hotel’s Barking Frog restaurant, where the sommelier paired each course with wonderful wines. The

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renowned Herbfarm Restaurant is on site as well, and though we didn’t have time to try their nine-course dinner (one seating per night), the venue’s long list of accolades says it all, including a James Beard Award and a AAA 5-Diamond Award. When we weren’t eating or drinking, we were relaxing in front of the fireplace in our suite or enjoying the room’s luxurious amenities, including its large bath. The grounds feature an herb garden, from which the restaurants’ herbs are sourced (and which contains two adorable pigs in a pen), fountains and wildflowers are here as well, along with examples of native Haida art, and the whole operation is at once a modern resort and a rustic retreat. The hotel can arrange winery tours, golf at area courses and so much more. When it comes to Washington State’s wine country, we wouldn’t stay anywhere else. willowslodge.com

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Links from the

PA S T, PRESENT & FUTURE

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British exports to the United States have a long and colorful heritage, from Aston Martin and The Beatles, to Sherlock Holmes and breakfast tea, but Tony Dear—himself a British export to the U.S., resident in Washington state—asks whether links golf courses, with their fast running fairways, odd bounces and treacherous pot bunkers, have made a genuine transition across the Atlantic

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ive years ago, acclaimed U.S. golf writer George Peper teamed with his equally admired British counterpart Malcolm Campbell to create a book so well researched, so lovingly produced, and just so…good, it became an instant classic. True Links manifested the pair’s devotion to the game and the courses where golf not only got its start but also provided, they said, the best combination of beauty, challenge, variety and entertainment.

Somewhat controversially, Peper and Campbell identified only 246 courses from around the world— the vast majority of them in the British Isles—which they considered authentic, honest-to-goodness links, while omitting a number of layouts people regarded as the genuine article but which somehow failed to satisfy one minor tenet or another.

Because it was on Great Britain’s sandy coastlines that the game as we know it was first played, and because the [British] Open Championship—the game’s oldest and most prestigious tournament (to every non-American golfer at least)—is contested annually on a coastal links course, the word “links” is afforded great significance. And it is certainly a beautiful feather in a club’s cap to own a course designated as such.

But what exactly are links courses, and how do they differ from over 30,000 other courses around the world that had no place on Peper and Campbell’s list?

The first chapter in their book—“Rare, Rugged and Real”—gives a very good indication of what the authors think constitutes the real thing. The point is made that, unlike virtually every course built in the last half-century or more, links courses simply evolved. They were not planned, designed and constructed with fleets of bulldozers and teams of laborers, they emerged from the land; land that has been altered only minimally over time by greenkeepers maintaining turf at certain heights, cutting holes in the greens, and building sod-wall or revetted bunkers—a practice that is thought to have originated in St Andrews around the turn of the last century. The famous links at Tralee in southwest Ireland, shaped by Arnold Palmer, might be a modern exception to this rule, so naturally has the land lent itself to golf. “I may have designed the first nine,” said Palmer of his first European design, which opened in 1984, “but surely God designed the back nine.”

As nature intended: the seventh hole at Tralee

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Golf.com ranks Hole #7 as the 20th Best Hole in the United States

Links Golf in its Purest Form Rated 54th in America's Top 100 Courses by Golf Digest

Ballyneal Golf Club Holyoke, CO We invite Kingdom Magazine readers for a one-time opportunity to experience this avid golfer’s paradise.

To book your trip, please visit www.golfballyneal.com or call (970) 854-5900.

Sandy depths: the pot bunkers of the OId Course, St Andrews have set the example other links follow

Back to basics St Andrews is known as the Home of Golf of course, and the Old Course deemed the original links, though the game could well have been played on dunes elsewhere in Scotland before golfers first appeared on the sandy common ground of the Old Course. Records indicate golfers might actually have first begun swatting projectiles with sticks in Perth before migrating to Stirling, Montrose, Carnoustie and St Andrews. And it is actually the nine holes at Musselburgh Links, seven miles east of Edinburgh, that the Guinness Book of World Records notes as the oldest continuously used golf course in the world.

But let’s assume for the moment the Old Course at St Andrews (it became the Old Course in 1895 when the town added a second layout; the New Course) is our prototype.

How and why is it so very different from a typical Florida course, for instance? Why is it so special?

Where to begin…

Apart from the fact the Old Course is several hundred years old, its situation on a stretch of coastal sand dunes by the North Sea means the sounds and smells you take in during a round contrast utterly with those in Florida. Then there is the ground beneath your feet. It is firm and drains extraordinarily well because it is sand-based. Golf courses away from the coast cannot usually match coastal courses for drainage, particularly those that sit on heavy, impervious

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clay soils. Golf on heavy soils, softer ground and broadbladed turf provides a markedly different playing experience than compressing the ball off more compact, less-yielding links ground.

Golf course designer David McLay Kidd, from Scotland, says the two most important characteristics of a links are sand and cool-season grasses. “It has to lie on sand first and foremost, but the grass is also very important,” he says. “It has to be cool-season turf, specifically fescue mixed perhaps with a little bent, and beachgrass or marram-grass that survives in cool climates.”

Fescue blades are finer than those of warm-season grasses like Bermuda, it grows relatively slowly and tends to retain its color for longer. It is very hardy, more resistant to disease, and doesn’t go dormant in autumn and winter. It therefore requires far less attention from greenkeepers than turf found on inland, parkland-style courses.

What else? There is usually a total absence of trees on a links, few if any water hazards save for the occasional burn or stream and, because the course is so exposed to breezes blowing in off the sea, the wind is a near constant factor with which players must contend.

Dogged purists insist links courses must be located not only on the coast but also at the mouth of a river estuary—

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The real key to links courses is how they play. You have to take the ground and natural topography into account

Inland links? Colorado’s Ballyneal is as close as an inland course comes to being a links layout

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the Old Course sits close to the where the River Eden meets the North Sea. Some will also tell you the routing must comprise nine holes running in the same direction away from the clubhouse, and nine running back towards it—yes, just like the Old Course. And there should also be plenty of bunkers—the Old Course has nearly 120.

Those who allow for a little wiggle room, however, will point to the many exceptions to these rules. There are plenty of trees at Carnoustie. Muirfield has nine holes moving around the course’s perimeter and then nine circling in the opposite direction, inside the outer loop. Royal Lytham and St Anne’s, venue for 11 Open Championships, may have over 200 bunkers, no water hazards and very few trees, and its 9th green may be the furthest point on the course from the clubhouse, but it lies in suburban Fairhaven, seven miles south of Blackpool and half a mile from the coast.

They may not agree on one or two finer points, but famed course designer Robert Trent Jones does share many of the criteria as Kidd for what constitutes an authentic links.

Like Kidd, Jones believes links courses are really defined by what happens to the ball after it pitches. “Appearance is certainly important,” starts Jones. “But I think the real key to links courses is how they play. You have to take the ground and natural topography into account far more than you would at a suburban course.”

Links courses, Jones continues, are laid out on the “link” between sea and arable land, on terrain that has no agricultural use apart from grazing sheep. The land is an integral part of the game influencing the outcome of nearly every shot, and you learn quickly never to say “good shot” until the ball has come to a complete stop. “You need to use the ground creatively in order to move the ball toward the hole,” he adds.

If Jones and Kidd agree the type of shots is the defining criterion, then perhaps they regard certain inland courses built on sand as genuine links. How about courses in the Nebraska sand hills, for example, or those set on similarly sandy ground at the Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina? What about the incredible collection of courses on Australia’s Melbourne sandbelt, or those located on wonderfully fast-draining sand to the west of London?

“Well, the turf is short and the ground firm,” says Kidd.

“They are natural like the Scottish links, and the type of shots you play aren’t dissimilar to those you might play at the Old Course. But I would stop short of classifying them as ‘inland links’ because some have a lot of trees so aren’t as exposed to the wind. The courses in Melbourne and outside London have a lot of trees and are really heathland courses. But Gamble Sands in Washington, which I designed, and Sand Hills in Nebraska which was the work of Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, have no trees and are very similar to an actual links. You may not smell the seaweed or salt, but the golf is virtually the same.”

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George Waters, a shaper and architect who has worked for Crenshaw and Coore as well as architects Tom Doak and Kyle Phillips, likewise believes that while the inland sand courses come very close to replicating real links conditions, only courses set on coastal sand dunes are the real deal. “A course can never truly be a links without the coastal connection,” he says. “This is a matter of landscape, playing characteristics, and sense of place.

The sand characteristics, plant species, wind patterns, and cultural history associated with coastal dunes are the fabric of links golf.”

Doak himself has designed a couple of courses in the sand hills of Nebraska and neighbouring Colorado; the

much admired Dismal River (Red) in Nebraska, and the superlative Ballyneal in Colorado, 170 miles northeast of Denver, which features everything you would expect of a links, other than a connection to the sea. Does he think either of them could be deemed links?

“I’m careful not to use the term when talking about either,” he says. “The Thought Police appear to enforce the strictest possible definition, and there is no use arguing with them. But I certainly do think Ballyneal, especially, plays like a true links as it was designed around the wind and the ball’s bounce on a firm playing surface. The shots you play there actually remind me of those you play at Machrihanish.”

By the seaside: The Seaside Course at Sea Island, Georgia, is about as close as the PGA Tour comes to playing on links

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Taking the U.S. Open to the links?

There are American seaside courses that many assume are links, but which do not meet all links requirements. Like Pebble Beach; it’s often labelled a links and has the word “Links” in its official name: “Pebble Beach Golf Links.”

“Pebble is not a links,” argues Jones. “It’s a headland course where the ground conditions are actually very different to those you find on the Scottish coast.” Same for the Pete Dye-designed Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, which Kidd describes as “a little contrived.” And the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, though situated right on the Atlantic Ocean, is likewise not a links because of its warm-season turf. The Arnold Palmer Signature Course at Palmilla Beach Resort at Port Aransas, Texas is another stunning golf landscape that shares many links characteristics.

The PGA Tour does not visit a links course in the strictest sense, although the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links at Hilton Head, South Carolina comes close, as does The McGladrey Classic at the Sea Island Resort on the southern tip of St. Simon’s Island, among the idyllic Golden Isles of Georgia. This is the home club of reappointed U.S. Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III, and the tournament is played on Sea Island’s celebrated Seaside Course, with the Atlantic surf serving as stunning backdrop.

Designed by links legend Harry Colt and Charles Alison in 1929, and updated by Tom Fazio in 1999, the challenging Seaside Course is defined by tidal creeks, sand dunes and salt marshes.

Chambers Bay on the Washington coast, 40 miles

south of Seattle and designed by Jones, is an interesting case, the inclusion of which in the links stable will be strongly debated when it hosts the U.S. Open in June. Peper and Campbell chose not to include it in True Links (they listed only four authentic links in the USA: Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes, Old Macdonald in Oregon, and Highland Links in Massachusetts) because it’s located on Puget Sound rather than the sea or ocean, and because the course was manufactured rather than “discovered.”

Jones disagrees. “It definitely has all the natural characteristics of the ancient links,” he says. “Yes we crafted it, and didn’t use the land as we found it, but that wasn’t possible as we built the course on what had been a sand and gravel mine for over a century.”

One wonders what the typical American golfer, more accustomed to courses with artificial hazards and man-made features, will make of Chambers Bay when it is on TV in June. Many will consider it a little goofy, says Peper, but the dedicated golfer who appreciates the game’s history— and what Jones calls “great creativity and unusual shotmaking”—will be absorbed.

“Americans seem to prefer parkland-style courses,” Jones adds. “But I firmly believe Chambers will be the paradigm shift I’ve been working toward since designing The Links at Spanish Bay in California, 25 years ago.

Natural, firm courses that don’t require a lot of maintenance or water are where golf started, and, hopefully, it’s where we’re headed.”

Summer camp: Chambers Bay has attracted the U.S. Open to the Pacific Northwest for the first time

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“ WITH WHEELS UP, LESS TIME ON THE GROUND ME A NS MORE TIME ON THE GREENS.�

Name: Rickie Fowler Title: Professional Golfer Aircraft: Cessna Citation Excel/XLS

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As a professional athlete, travel is a huge part of my life. With tournaments, sponsor obligations, and training, I spend up to forty weeks a year on the road. Over the course of my golf career, that can add up significantly. The Cessna Citation Excel/XLS is spacious enough to bring friends along for the ride, and the King Air 350i can access shorter runways, bringing me closer to more remote tournaments.

I train hard to be the best professional golfer, and Wheels Up is the most efficient way to stick to my schedule and advance my career.

Wheels Up acts as an agent for the Wheels Up members, and is not the operator of the program aircraft; FAA licensed and DOT registered air carriers participating in the program exercise full operational control of the program aircraft. Subject to additional terms and conditions in the Wheels Up Program documents.

It’s knowing you’re not perfect. Yet hoping that maybe, just for one swing, you can be. It’s gaining complete focus. Pristine, laser-fine focus. Because that focus isn’t just what’s required, that focus is why you’re here. Everything else dissipates into nothing. Sounds muffle. Touch is sharpened. Every detail is in the highest definition. And there you are. In the moment. After this you can go back to all the flaws, the fears, the doubts and the doubters. But not now. Now there’s you and the ball. And the opportunity for a split-second of perfection. Wouldn’t that be nice.

Arbor Links, Nebraska City, NE

Bayside, Brule, NE

Quarry Oaks, Ashland, NE

There are few places in the world where true peace can be achieved. It is the terrain of golf dreams; where you will find the unexpected, the peaceful and the surprising. It’s the Sandhills and the courses of Nebraska.

The Prairie Club, Valentine, NE

Coastal Riches Some of Florida’s treasures are hidden in plain sight

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ith roughly 1,480 courses from which to choose, there is no doubt that Florida is a golfer’s paradise. Deciding which of these to play is a tall order, however, and while we do like exploring lesser-known tracks in hopes of uncovering hidden gems, some visits just don’t offer enough time. For those trips, we do our best to stay at full-service properties that feature great golf on site, ensuring that we’re comfortable, well fed and near the action. Recently, one such trip had us skirting the state’s edges, staying within sight of water at all times.

Of course, we managed to stay within sight of great golf as well. Here, then, are a few of our favorite golf resorts in the Sunshine State. Hardly hidden, they are gems nonetheless, each offering its own take on top quality accommodations and amenities, served up with some great game.

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Rooms here are a study in state-of-theart modern opulence

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FOUR SEASONS RESORT ORLANDO AT WALT DISNEY WORLD RESORT Before you begin your tour of coastal Florida you’ll most likely fly into Orlando, and it’s absolutely worth spending a few days here to adjust to the climate and to get your game in shape. If Bay Hill Club & Lodge is full, or if you’re just in the mood for something different, the Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort is a fantastic new property that has some of the city’s best dining and golfing options on site. Check out your room, which is a study in state-of-the-art modern opulence, complete with an in-room iPad for scheduling everything from room service to housekeeping. There’s also a large walk-through closet and a personalized TV in the bathroom mirror—you’ll want one at home immediately. Head to PB&G for some inspired Southern fare—the deviled eggs are heavenly—before lounging poolside at one of the resort’s two pools or in the lazy river, complete

with waterfalls. If you have kids in tow, they will be well entertained at the Splash Zone water park where they can play in the spray or plunge down two 242 foot long water slides. Escape into nature at the resort’s spectacular Tranquilo Golf Club with a secluded and challenging course designed

by Tom Fazio. Featuring extensive wetlands, it winds its way through Southern Live Oaks and as a certified Audubon sanctuary it is home to all manner of native wildlife. After a round, relax with an expertly crafted cocktail at Plancha, before heading to dinner in the sky at Capa where you can enjoy a steak, sumptuous tapas and, when the time comes, the fireworks display at both Epcot and Disney’s Magic Kingdom. If you’d like to visit one of the parks or play any of the excellent Disney courses, the dedicated on-site concierge can secure your tickets, tee-times, make reservations and more, ensuring your adventure is not just hassle-free, but magical. fourseasons.com/orlando

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RITZ-CARLTON SARASOTA Sarasota is a city with more to offer than you ever could have imagined, and the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota is the perfect place from which to explore the city’s fine dining, museums, music festivals, art galleries and the breathtaking white sugar sand beaches of Lido Key. Oh, and there’s also some phenomenal golfing if you’re interested in that sort of thing. Set in the city’s downtown, you are walking distance to all the action, yet a short shuttle ride whisks you away to another world of swaying palms, tropical sun and sand at the hotel’s Beach Club on Lido Key. Get your feet wet in one of the beachfront pools or in the crystal blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

While your feet are in the sand, you can enjoy a refreshment of the adult variety at Sarasota’s only beachfront tiki bar— the Lido Key Tiki Bar—where your everyday stresses will not be able to withstand the gale force power of its signature drink—the Hurricane Category 5. After recovering from your relaxation, it’s time for some golf. Located 13 miles from the main hotel, the members- and hotel guests-only Tom Fazio course at Lakewood Ranch is a golfer’s paradise.

The Audubon certified course’s sweeping fairways roll among 12 picture-perfect lakes and, though tough, the course is fair. If you have any questions or need a tip, don’t fret: your personal caddie concierge is there to help. Back at the hotel, snag a table at Jack Dusty and settle in for some creative coastal cuisine and crafted cocktails while watching the sunset bathe the end of the day in glowing warmth.

Then exhale and get ready to do it all again tomorrow. ritzcarlton.com

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TRUMP DORAL In the 1950s, real estate visionaries Alfred and Doris Kaskel purchased 2,400 acres of swampland northwest of Miami intending to build a hotel and golf course. In 1962, they did just that, combining their names—Doris and Alfred—to christen the Doral Country Club. In 2012, another real estate visionary, Ivanka Trump, led the Trump Organization’s negotiations and acquired the 800-acre club property, intending to restore it to its former glory and create the greatest golf resort in the United States. From the luscious guestrooms, designed by Ivanka in cooperation with WATG’s Wimberly Interiors, to the completely redesigned Blue Monster, Red Tiger, Palm and Silver Fox golf courses, the Trump Organization and Ivanka have unequivocally brought the property up to their exacting standards and to a level of luxury and quality that reflects the Trump name.

After dropping off your things in your plush guestroom or suite, reserve one of 18 decadent private poolside cabanas at the newly remodeled Royal Palm pool complete with a stocked mini-refrigerator and 55” HDTV flat screen TV, then spend the rest of the day soaking up the Florida sunshine. Save your appetite for dinner at BLT Prime where chef Paul Niedermann will impress you with a menu fit for a king. You can’t go wrong with the 12oz American Kobe ribeye that we can sum up in one word: extraordinary.

When it’s time to get on course, your hardest decision will be where to start. With four legendary courses, each with its own challenges and charms, one thing is certain: you can’t go wrong. Gil Hanse took the helm in redesigning and meticulously resculpting these courses into the pinnacle of world-class golf. The Blue Monster has been testing PGA TOUR players for over 50 years, and now it’s your turn to try and tame this beast. Set on just 120 acres, The Red Tiger, named by the late, great Jackie Gleason, brings New England elegance but with many varieties of native palm trees to remind you you’re in south Florida. The Silver Fox demands precision with its narrow landing areas and fast greens while The Golden Palm will delight lovers of links-style golf. The Trump Doral is exceptional in every single way. trumpgolfdoral.com

Ivanka Trump and her team elevated the property to her family’s exacting standards

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BOCA RATON RESORT & CLUB— A WALDORF ASTORIA RESORT Centuries after Ponce de Leon sailed along its shores, renowned California-born architect Addison Mizner had a dream for Boca Raton and it started with a hotel. In 1926, he opened his magnificent Cloister Inn, which at a cost of $1.25 million was the most expensive 100-room hotel ever built at the time. Built in the Mediterranean revival style, the hotel was simply glorious, with specially built custom furniture and Mizner’s own antiques decorating the public areas, and it quickly attracted the most influential people of the day— from Elizabeth Arden to Al Jolson.

As the hotel changed hands over the years and expanded into the present day Boca Raton Resort & Club, it has retained the stunning details and character Mizner designed and, as a Waldorf Astoria Resort, it embodies a level of luxury rarely found in the modern world. After completing a $30 million renovation in 2014, with over $100,000 being spent on each Cloister room, guests can enjoy their stay in this historic hotel the way Mizner intended—in utter luxury. If

you can peel yourself out of bed, go explore the resort’s elegant courtyards or book a treatment at the absolutely spectacular spa where you can enjoy the beautiful private outdoor pool or the elaborately tiled ritual bath. A short shuttle ride will take you to the hotel’s Boca Beach Club where two pools and a gorgeous private beach await you. Back at the main property, grab some expertly prepared sushi at internationally acclaimed Morimoto or fly up to the 27th floor of the tower to dine on the freshest seafood at The Blue. The Boca Raton Resort & Club boasts two fantastic championship golf courses. The Resort Course is located directly adjacent to the main hotel and was originally designed by William Flynn in 1926. It was redesigned by Gene Bates in 1997. This distinctive course, with a signature water feature by Hugh Hughes, is sure to enchant golfers of all skill levels. The longer Country Club Course is just a short shuttle ride away from the resort and features an open layout and some excellent holes.

Originally designed in 1985 by Joe Lee, the green complexes were completely redesigned by Kipp Schulties in 1999. bocaresort.com

Mizner’s dream for Boca Raton is beautifully on display at this enchanting property

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The worlds of business and flight have been sharing the centre armrest almost since the Wright Brothers first left the ground. As luminary advocates like a certain Arnold Palmer have explained for decades, corporate and private aircraft are such an integral part of modern business that to not have access to a plane is to limit your business’ and your personal brand’s potential.“To put it quite simply,” Palmer once said, “I could never have accomplished even half as much as I have in my golf and business careers over the last four decades without having my own airplanes.”

In today’s world, “having my own airplane” can be defined in a number of ways. Outright ownership is

obviously still an option, but there are also a number of programs that allow travelers to share the cost and use of a plane, membership clubs that allow access to a fleet of planes and even services that offer both planes and personal concierge services, taking the notion of “high flyer” to another level. These options are more cost-effective than outright ownership, and some are even downright reasonable when compared with the cost of business-class or better travel on conventional airlines. Here then, is a quick look at the best options in various categories. Each has its own approach to the business of flight, but they all share the same goal: to help you upward and onward.

Ticket to J E T

S U I T E

je ts uite .c om Founded in 2009, JetSuite isn’t short on experience at its top end. CEO Alex Wilcox was one of founders of JetBlue Airways, and other JetBlue alums are on staff as well. Accordingly, JetSuite is a small airline more than it is a club or ownership arrangement. “We own all the airplanes outright,” Wilcox explains. “We take the risk, we can control the inventory a lot better and we can negotiate costs better, which keeps costs down for our customers.”

Flying top-end Embraer Phenom 100s and JetSuite Edition Citation CJ3s, JetSuite focuses on short haul regional flights, with more than 70 percent of its flights covering less than 1,000 miles. With large commercial airlines abandoning small planes and shorter routes in favor of larger aircraft and longer flights, JetSuite is catering directly to business and high-net-worth individual needs, and the more they fly the less expensive the overall service is. “We are more

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or less about half the price of the major brand competitor,” says Wilcox, explaining that intelligent, efficient aircraft selection and smart scheduling that keeps their planes in the air instead of in a hangar means greater business efficiency overall and a better value for customers.

AIRCRAFT: Wi-fi equipped Embraer Phenom 100s and

a longer-range JetSuite Edition Citation CJ3s SERVICE: Membership is not required (though there is a membership option) and thus no membership or ownership fees are charged. Rather, JetSuite is a private charter provider that charges competitive per-hour rates, offering quotes on its website with guaranteed online pricing. Already low hourly rates are even cheaper for members, and members receive additional service amenities as well.

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Jessica Ambats

Ride

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W H E E L S

U P

whe e ls up.c om A relative newcomer to the private travel landscape, but with a long history in the industry in terms of leadership, membership-based private aviation company Wheels Up is already making noise with over 1,200 members in just 18 months of operation. The Company has identified a niche in the marketplace, democratizing private aviation by offering a lower initial cost along with competitive hourly rates, all while providing unparalleled flexibility, service and safety.

Wheels Up members have access to “mission-appropriate” aircraft with guaranteed availability on a “members-only” private fleet of Beechcraft King Air 350i and Citation Excel/ XLS aircraft.

“Our members have exclusive access to the Wheels Up fleet of brand new Cessna Citation Excel/XLS and King Air 350i aircraft, which we refer to internally as the ‘SUV of the sky’,” explains Mark Sage, Chief Brand Officer of Wheels Up. “The King Air 350i is the perfect aircraft for Wheels Up with its proven track record of tremendous flexibility and efficiency for regional travel, as nearly 80% of all private aviation flight needs are less than two hours. Our fleet can reach more airports nationwide and bring our members closer to their final destinations, which makes us the most convenient, economical and intelligent way to fly private.”

The company knows what it’s talking about, as Founder and CEO Kenny Dichter was both the Founder of Marquis Jet and innovator of the 25-hour fractional card.

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Added to its great flight services, the company also offers Wheels Down, a lifestyle, events and concierge program that provides such benefits as insider access to top sporting events including The Masters and Super Bowl, notable cultural events, and exclusive member benefits through partnerships with companies such as Luxury Retreats, Kwiat and Barton & Gray Mariners Club. It’s all part of what they call their around-the-clock 8760 culture—(24 hours a day, 365 days of the year)—in which safety, flight services and member experience are on the forefront of Wheels Up’s mind all of the time. The Company has also developed a proprietary, cutting-edge booking and ride share mobile application that will allow its members to streamline travel plans, further reduce costs, and unlock the true social value of a private club. Rickie Fowler, Nick Faldo and many other golfers are already fans, and we’re not surprised.

AIRCRAFT: Wi-fi equipped King Air 350i and Wheels Up

Citation Excel/XLS SERVICE: Rather than purchasing an asset, per se, joining Wheels Up constitutes membership in a club. A reasonable initiation fee and low annual dues provide access to a private aviation network with guaranteed hourly pricing on a “pay-as-you-fly” basis, paying only for hours flown. It also offers access to the firm’s Wheels Down lifestyle, events, concierge and partner benefits program.

spring 2015

If you must...

If an aircraft purchase is in your future, here are a few options— for business or for recreation

H O N D A

J E T

After years of anxious waiting by aircraft enthusiasts, the HondaJet made its appearance this year to great acclaim. Innovations such as engines mounted atop the wing, sophisticated aerodynamics, a cutting-edge composite fuselage, state-of-the-art cockpit and more make this the newest, most efficient star in the sky. With a maximum cruise speed of 420 KTAS at 30,000 feet, this is the world’s most advanced light business jet. hondajet.com

S T E M M E Not all flying needs to be for business, and with a motor glider from class-leader Stemme the sky can be a playground or a sanctuary, depending on your needs. The company is globally renowned for its aircraft, which offer the serene experience of glider flying paired with the convenience of a motor, freeing pilots from winches and tow planes. There’s no better or quicker way to get into the air than in Stemme’s lauded Peak Performer S10 or Sky Sportster S6. Advanced avionics, convenient and luxurious cockpit appointments and innovations like a retractable propeller (on the S10) combine to put you among the clouds in high style and sophistication. stemme.info

C E S S N A With a maximum range of 3,429 nm, a maximum cruise speed of 528 KTAS and room for 12, there is perhaps no finer civilian aircraft in the sky than Cessna’s Citation X+, the fastest civilian aircraft flying today. It can climb to 51,000 feet and cruise at Mach .935, taking its passengers wherever they need to go in one of the most luxurious and functional cabins ever designed. Arnold Palmer is a fan, having owned his Citation X for years, and you will be too. cessna.txtav.com/citation

spring 2015

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P L A N E

S E N S E

N E T J E T S

p la n es e n s e .c o m

ne tje ts .c om

Providing a traditional fractional aircraft ownership service, the PlaneSense® program distinguishes itself from the competition by putting an emphasis on superior owner service and practical, cost-effective ownership.

“Our owners appreciate that we are the most logical and economical solution to their flying needs,” says David Verani, Director of Sales for PlaneSense, Inc. “They love that we’re incredibly service-oriented. We recognize that placing the highest priority on world-class service sets us apart from other programs, and we are committed to professionalism, reliability, and safety on every flight.”

Part of that commitment to its owners includes being ready nearly at a moment’s notice. “Owners can call us to fly and be picked up in as little as eight hours,” says Verani.

“If it’s 2:30pm and you are at an airport in Kentucky, large or small, and need a plane by 10:30pm, we’ll have one there for you.” Another benefit to the service is that its choice of aircraft—a Swiss-built Pilatus PC-12 turboprop, which seats six in its comfortable interior—can land on runways as short as 2,000 feet long. “We’ll pick up families and their pets, golfers and their clubs and luggage, or business professionals with their conference materials, and fly them into almost any location in our operating area. We can get into four times as many airports as similarly sized jets. For example, we can get you into Fishers Island [exclusive island and golf club in NY]; which very few aircraft can access.”

With service reaching to the Bahamas and into Canada, the PlaneSense® program is a solid option when it comes to flying privately.

Industry veteran NetJets has a variety of participation programs available, including fractional ownership, the ability to lease time on a jet and a Marquis Jet Card, which sells fleet access in 25-hour blocks. The company grew out of Executive Jet Aviation, a firm launched by USAF Generals Curtis LeMay and Paul Tibbets, with U.S. Army Air Corpsman Bruce Sundlun. Richard Santuli purchased that company in 1984 and launched NetJets, and with it the concept of fractional ownership, and the rest, as they say, is history. Now providing access to a worldwide fleet of more than 700 private jets, NetJets is one of the most—if not the most—comprehensive private jet travel companies and one of the very few that has you covered nearly anywhere on the globe. Working with partners such as the PGA TOUR, no question NetJets is a fine choice.

AIRCRAFT: An array of Cessna Citations, Gulfstreams,

Bombardier and other jets covering a wide range of seating capacities and service needs all over the world.

SERVICE: NetJets offers a number of participation options, including fractional ownership, the ability to lease time on a jet and a Marquis Jet Card, which offers 25-hour blocks of flight time.

AIRCRAFT: Pilatus PC-12 SERVICE: PlaneSense, Inc. is a fractional aircraft ownership program that offers 1/16th, 1/8th, and larger share increments (depending on flying needs). Ownership guarantees access to the entire fleet of aircraft. A monthly management fee and occupied hourly fee are at a fixed cost, set on an annual basis for the term of the management agreement.

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To learn more about PlaneSense, Call 866.214.1212 or visit us at www.planesense.com. ©2015 PlaneSense, Inc. PlaneSense is a registered trademark of PlaneSense, Inc. 1 Source: airnav.com

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TPC S I G N AT U R E HOLES TPC properties open a whole world of fantastic lifestyle possibilities for their members and guests, and chief among them is good golf.

With courses and clubs that are among the best anywhere, there are sites to fit every personal taste and style of play. Here, we look at just a few signature holes from the TPC landscape. As it turns out, in the TPC Network inspiration is everywhere.

TPC SNOQUALMIE RIDGE

TPC BOSTON

TPC RIVER HIGHLANDS

TPC TWIN CITIES

TPC JASNA POLANA TPC DEERE RUN

TPC MICHIGAN

TPC POTOMAC

TPC STONEBRAE TPC SUMMERLIN TPC HARDING PARK TPC VALENCIA TPC STADIUM COURSE AT PGA WEST

TPC LAS VEGAS TPC SCOTTSDALE

THE OLD WHITE TPC AT THE GREENBRIER

TPC RIVER’S BEND

TPC WAKEFIELD PLANTATION TPC PIPER GLEN

TPC SOUTHWIND

TPC MYRTLE BEACH

TPC CRAIG RANCH TPC SUGARLOAF TPC FOUR SEASONS TPC SAN ANTONIO

TPC SAWGRASS

TPC LOUISIANA

TPC TAMPA BAY TPC PRESTANCIA TPC TREVISO BAY

RESORT/DAILY FEE PROPERTIES PRIVATE CLUBS

TPC CARTAGENA AT KARIBANA

CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA

TPC AT BAHA MAR

NASSAU, BAHAMAS

TPC EAGLE TRACE

TPC Jasna Polana HOLE 17

Meaning “Bright Glade” in Polish, TPC Jasna Polana’s name hints at what its course holds. The 165-yard par-3 17th hole offers a tiered green with plenty of room to breathe, but if the pin is towards the water this little gem takes the difficulty to a whole new level.

TPC Stadium Course at PGA WEST HOLE 11 Another of Pete Dye’s challenging creations, the 617-yard par-5 11th is quite the test, but with a sprawling fairway welcoming a good tee shot, don’t be too quick to rule out a chance at birdie.

THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass HOLE 17 On a list of most-recognizable celebrities, Hole 17 at TPC Sawgrass would probably come somewhere between Bob Hope and Brad Pitt—though it’s hardly as beloved as either. Measuring only 137 yards from the pro tees, and with a green larger than many others on the course, the waters here could be strangely magnetic as they attract more than 120,000 balls per year. Famous or infamous?

Depends on your tee shot.

HOW’D HE DO THAT?

WHERE HE DID THAT.

LOOKING FOR THE BEST IN GOLF? LOOK FOR TPC ® .

Of the world’s 33,000 golf courses, only 33 exceed the standards of the PGA TOUR ® at every turn. For design. For agronomy.

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gift guide

Just the essentials Kingdom’s guide for the discerning traveller

AMERICAN ALLIGATOR CARPET BAG Designed by Frank Clegg and handmade to last in his Fall River workshop, the American Alligator Carpet Bag is constructed from wild alligator hides that are custom tanned before being shipped to the workshop. There they are hand-stained and finished. The unique beauty of the wild alligator emanates from the markings on the hide that are enhanced by the hand-stain. This most stylish of travel bags is lined and trimmed with hand-stained harness-belting leather, that perfectly compliments the alligator hide.  frankcleggleatherworks.com

PALM BOARD Alexandra Llewellyn is often inspired by her travels. She has played backgammon all her life, and her love of the game was cemented as a child in Cairo.

As she travelled more her interest in backgammon evolved, over countless games. She became enthralled by the idea that board games operate as an independent vocabulary requiring neither common language nor culture.

Alexandra's hand-painted Palm backgammon board is inspired by long summers of playing games under date palm trees in Morocco. The case brings in natural laurel burl and the game is played upon a cream ground with hand-painted palm fronds, finished with hand-applied lacquer. The outside of the box is laurel burl with brass sliding fastenings and hinges. The board is tournament sized and accompanied by antique gold and black weighted aluminum playing pieces, a doubling die in laurel burr and rosewood dice cups that are lined with inside lips to ensure a fair and random roll of the precision laser cut dice.  alexandralldesign.com

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ROLEX

ETTINGER

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

This Ettinger hip flask is the most sophisticated vessel for that discreet nip when you are on the move, on or off the golf course. Renowned tattoo artist Saira Hunjan created the images, that have been applied with utmost care by Ettinger’s craftspeople onto a velvety soft burnishable calf leather, ensuring the designs stand out in their full glory to give the flask a distinctive look and feel. Moreover, this leather will acquire a unique patina over time, perfecting the antique heritage of these leather goods.

The stainless steel hip flask comes with a captive top and holds 6oz. Enjoy responsibly and sip with pleasure.  ettinger.co.uk

 rolex.com

JOHN WALKER & SONS™ PRIVATE COLLECTION In the second annual edition of the small batch of Johnnie Walker & Sons Private Collection, only 8,888 individually numbered decanters of the 2015 have been made available worldwide. Johnnie Walker’s most prestigious range, the Private Collection is blended from bespoke, hand-picked casks to best explore the fruity distillery character that traditionally ranges across the top notes of the finest Johnnie Walker & Sons Scotch whiskies.

The result is a beautifully balanced and luxurious whiskey rounded off with with a touch of sweetness and a hint of astringency.

Certainly a collectible, but why not enjoy it immediately?  johnniewalker.com

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spring 2015

gift guide

LEICA X

BOWERS & WILKINS

Famous for its top film cameras, Leica’s digital offerings have proven as beloved and as solid in terms of quality. The APS-C format Leica X makes use of an extremely fast Leica-Summilux 35 mm f/1.7 lens that yields an exceptionally beautiful bokeh.

Furthermore it is almost completely insensitive to flare and ghosting, even without an extra lens hood. The camera delivers bright, clear, and incredibly sharp photos—from infinity to a close-focus distance of only 0.2 metres—and the finest rendition of details, even in unfavorable light. Portable, more than capable and attractive as well, the Leica X is another legend from this top brand.  leica-camera.com

Even when on the road, living space requires music, and Bowers & Wilkins deliver. Best known for the Zeppelin Air, a complete speaker dock that is compatible with the latest generation of iPhones and iPods, the company’s A7 and A5 wireless speaker systems are likewise sleekly designed and pair the highest-quality audio engineering and best-in-class electronics with Apple’s AirPlay streaming. Featured here is the latest product from the innovative company, the T7. With bluetooth technology, the T7 is intelligently sized for spaces such as the kitchen, and it’s portable, allowing you to unpack your favorite sounds while travelling. Totally versatile, the sound quality is superb, meaning your next social gathering will be as lively or as chilled as you like, while the compact design is elegantly modern, meaning your music won’t get in the way—wherever you may be.  bowers-wilkins.com

ROYAL ALBARTROSS On a weekend trip, the less you need to take the better. The Club Collection from Royal Albartross for 2015 will appeal to golfers on the move—with luxurious leather linings, superior componentry and a soft sole that we at Kingdom have come to enjoy. The Club Crew Domino aesthetic blends classic brogue styling with a contemporary trainer shape in majestic monochrome. The look may be new but the ethos isn’t: Italian leather, lasting luxury and high performance design. The shoes comfortably transcend from course to club and to wherever else you need to go, meaning you need but a single pair of shoes for your next stick-and-ball journey.  albartross.com

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RECIPES

JURA

One of the joys of travel is returning home with newfound tastes and recipes, hence this book from Canteen restaurant, which serves superlative examples of traditional British food made with great attention to detail and the finest ingredients. Here, some of its most beloved fare is presented in easy-to-follow recipes that will have you cooking like a pro in no time. Canteen: Great British Food is available online and is a welcome addition to any cook’s kitchen library, whether you enjoy a good curry, a pie-and-mash or a traditional Sunday roast. Try making any of these at home or, better yet, when you’re in London visit one of Canteen’s three locations—Spitalfields, Canary Wharf and Royal Festival Hall—and experience the recipes prepared by the experts. We recommend following it with one of Canteen’s excellent desserts...

Featuring all things coffee, Jura makes top-end machines and complementary accessories, like cup warmers, chocolate shakers and even wireless milk coolers that communicate with the main coffee machines to let you know when they’re low on milk for that next latte. Elegantly designed, Jura’s machines feature display screens that allow you to select from a wide variety of coffee drinks—like Cappucino, Macchiato, Latte and more—all of which the machine will automatically produce. We feature here their smallest model, the ENA Micro, that despite its moveable size still effortlessly provides an espresso with true bean-to-cup flavor.  jura.com

 canteen.co.uk

KITCHENAID MULTI-COOKER When you are out all day it’s a joy to come home to hot food.

The supremely stylish KitchenAid Multi-Cooker delivers consistent culinary results, and with more than 10 cooking methods displays amazing versatility to stop even the most demanding of palettes from getting bored. The digital display shows step-by-step instructions, temperature and timer for up to 12 hours of cooking and, thanks to KitchenAid’s patented EvenHeat technology, from 110° to 450° F the temperature of the cooking pot is constantly monitored allowing precise temperature control.  kitchenaid.com

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gift guide

WINE Cheval des Andes is one of the wine world’s most interesting fusions, combining the historical expertise of one of Bordeaux’s greatest labels, Cheval Blanc, with one the New World’s top highaltitude terroirs. Produced on a 50-hectare vineyard in Lujan De Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina, the resultant wine is a powerhouse that displays plenty of fruit, balanced tannins and a long finish. More of a red meat dinner wine than a summer picnic accompaniment, we chose it not just because it is wonderful but because, unlike some of its more delicate sisters, it is an excellent traveller.  chevaldesandes.com

KNIVES This five-piece knife set, with custom-made German stainless steel blades cased in clear plastic sheaths and 18/10 stainless steel hollow handles, is practical, attractive, sturdy and safe.

What sets it apart though is the Italian designed knife holder crafted in polished highgrade aluminum, that features a patented magnetic suspension system that securely holds each knife in place. A pre-dinner talking piece, the holder weighs 11 lbs and is 15 1/2" tall.  theexknife.com

PICNIC This attractive picnic hamper is all the better for the superlative quality of its contents, all of which are sourced from luxury goods provider Grant Macdonald. English fine bone china with platinum detailing joins lead-free crystal Champagne flutes, tumblers, Irish Damask linen napkins and tablecloth and other top accessories, all from Grant Macdonald’s Aston Martin Collection. The company has crafted fine products for royals and discerning VIPs worldwide, and this wicker basket with saddle leather details is yet another example of its top quality. With a wax-backed 100% Scottish Lambswool blanket included, you’ll be able to take in the countryside without taking it on, exactly.

A perfect gift for any Aston Martin lover.  grantmacdonald.com/astonmartin

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MACK DADDY 2 TOUR GRIND WEDGES

NEW ERA New Era’s Contour Tech golf cap represents the pinnacle of its product design. The Contour Tech is the only cap featuring CoolSkin technology: a high performance fabric that can absorb heat from key areas and dissipate it to the atmosphere, lowering skin temperature.

The cap also features a performance sweatband with MicroEra, which acts as an anti-microbial agent to reduce odor, and CoolEra, which disperses sweat to virtually eliminate sweat stains. In addition, New Era’s exclusive Contour-Bonded technology fuses the cap together without the use of traditional thread or taping, lessening the weight and providing ideal fit, comfort and breathability. No wonder Martin Kaymer has adopted New Era as his cap of choice.

The new Callaway Mack Daddy 2 Tour Grind Wedges are premium forged designs, led by a new Tour validated shape, a new shallow C-Grind, aggressive groove pattern and increased surface roughness for maximum control.

They’re expertly crafted by Roger Cleveland and inspired by the majorwinning performance of the original Mack Daddy 2s, to give you more precision, greater spin and pinpoint control. Always take with you wherever you golf.  callawaygolf.com

 neweracap.com

UPPER DECK Rory McIlroy & Michael Jordan Authentic Memorabilia Exclusively from Upper Deck. Own a piece of history with authentic, autographed memorabilia from the world’s best athletes. Upper Deck brings you exclusive collections of game-used and inscribed items, autographed memorabilia, unique art and limited edition images of the world’s greatest athletes, including Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, LeBron James and more.  UpperDeckStore.com

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spring 2015

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SPACE IS LIMITED.

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Whether it meant sleeping on a balcony in Panama or an alarming wake-up in New Zealand, Arnold Palmer was ready, come what may. Robin Barwick and Kingdom’s editor look back at some of the travels enjoyed by a man who truly believes golf is a global game rnold Palmer has many useful tips for international travel, such as: always check the runway for rhinoceros before landing. That’s not a direct quote, but it seems like something Palmer might advise after his first trip to South Africa. In the early 1960s, Palmer visited the country and was hosted by firm friend and fierce rival Gary Player.

Player’s late brother Ian was a noted conservationist in their homeland. He died in November 2014, aged 87, and his life’s work resulted in South Africa’s endangered White Rhino population growing from around 600 in the late 1950s to more than 20,000 today. For Palmer’s first visit, it just didn’t occur to Ian to clear the rhinos from the airstrip.

“We flew to Zululand,” recalls Palmer, “and we had to buzz the landing strip in a single-engine plane to chase off a herd of rhinoceros. What a thrilling sight that was!”

Travelling by jeep around the game reserve run by Ian, the group saw prides of lions and spotted a deadly gaboon viper, before playing an exhibition match on a golf course with tees laid out on hills built by giant ants that were reputed to be man-eaters.

“As we played the course a little while later,” admits Palmer, “all I could think about was that if I hit my usual number of balls into the rough, Africa could simply keep them.”

Out of his element, Palmer could not have been more content. This is a golfer with a natural, insatiable appetite for adventure and discovery,

spring 2015

carnival ride operator,” recalls Palmer.

“I worked on my game so I could play everywhere and under different conditions, and traveling helped me find some success in professional golf.

Being able to play in South America, Central America and then in Europe, I learned a lot about the game.”

Despite staying in a hotel in Panama City where the coolest place and this attitude enabled him to to sleep was out on the balcony, on the perform with poise in unfamiliar mattress dragged from the bed, Palmer surroundings. hit the ground running as a touring Take 1955, just weeks after pro, shooting 65-68-70-71 at Panama turning professional and getting Golf Club to finish just a shot shy of married to his first wife, Winnie, when Argentine Tony Cerda. The runner-up Palmer jetted due south to play in check for $1,000 was just what Palmer the pre-season Panama Open. At the needed, and it was with a smile on his time, rookies on the PGA Tour had to face that he and Winnie jumped in his complete a six-month “apprenticeship” old two-door, coral pink Ford, and of official events without being headed to California to join the Tour. eligible to collect prize money, so That same year he found his this Panama trip for Palmer was a first PGA TOUR victory much further

A winning start to an epic career

gamble: he needed to invest in the travel costs in the hope he could earn some much-needed dollars from this unofficial event, to help fund his Tour apprenticeship. But there was the chance, ever so slight, of him returning with little more than a tan.

“I was down there to try to make some serious money and prove to Winnie that she hadn’t married the golf world equivalent of a

north, at the 1955 Canadian Open at Toronto’s Weston Golf and CC. Palmer almost took that tournament again in 1964, but a 44-year-old Kel Nagle narrowly squeezed by him and Raymond Floyd to become the tournament’s oldest winner.

During Palmer’s second year on tour (1956), the Latrobe golfer headed south again and won tournaments in both Panama and in Colombia. In the

J AY H AAS

CO L IN M O N TGOMERI E

FRE d CO upLES

© 2014 PGA TOUR, INC. / BER NH A R D LA N G ER

LEGENDS. RIVALS. BUDDIES. CHAMPIONS.

FOLLOw tHE 2015 SEASON-LONG RACE tO SEE wHO wILL tAkE HOME tHE NExt CHARLES SCHwAB CUP.

Che vs. Fidel in Havana (left); Chi Chi Rodriguez (above)

ensuing years, ever so slightly closer to home, he also golfed in the Cuba of the 1950s. There were roughly 12 quality courses in the country prior to the Communist takeover, including two Donald Ross designs. One of them, at the Country Club of Havana, hosted the PGA TOUR’s Havana Tournament for 11 years, and Palmer regularly competed.

“I played a lot in Cuba in the early days, before they closed it up,” Palmer told Kingdom recently.

After Castro came to power in 1959, the game all but disappeared— but not before Castro and fellow revolutionary Che Guevara teed it up at Havana’s Colinas de Villareal golf course. Both played in combat boots and fatigues, with Che’s eventual 127 beating Castro’s 150. Whether due to hubris, confused political rectitude or something else, Castro all but eliminated golf from Cuba following the round, plowing up most of the country’s courses. In recent years the game has begun to return, and with the steps being taken by the United States to normalize relations between the two countries, Palmer is optimistic.

“I think it’ll be good for the Cubans and also good for America,” he said, adding that he might entertain

spring 2015

In 1963, Palmer’s foreign conquests continued beyond Paris as he also took that year’s Wills Masters Tournament in Australia. And three years after that, in 1966, Palmer was back on that side of the world, playing at the Middlemore Golf Course in Auckland, New Zealand. Golfing over four days in an exhibition with thoughts of adding a Palmer-designed left-hander Bob Charles, who’d won course to the Cuban landscape at some the 1954 New Zealand Open as an point. “Well, personally I have plans,” 18-year-old amateur, Palmer thrilled he said, smiling. “But I haven’t been the crowds. Local spectators that day asked to come and build one yet.” received both the chance to witness As the 1960s kicked off, Palmer’s one of the greatest ever in Palmer and passport started filling up. Besides the satisfaction of seeing their local his well-known exploits in the UK guy win, as Charles took the match. (including the 1961 and ’62 Open Many years later, Palmer would return Championship victories), he teamed to New Zealand and have an alarming with Sam Snead at Portmarnock Golf experience when the fire alarm in his Club in Dublin, Ireland, to win the hotel went off in the middle of the night.

1960 Canada Cup, which later was “We all ended up out in the street, renamed as the World Cup of Golf the entire hotel,” Palmer remembers. and which features two-man teams “But that wasn’t a big deal.” competing from various countries. The Back in the 1960s and continuing Snead/Palmer team won again two the mileage, in 1969 Palmer competed years later in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf, and Palmer went on to take four of facing off against Gay Brewer and the the next five events as well, teamed flamboyant Chi Chi Rodriguez in the with Jack Nicklaus. Those wins came latter’s homeland of Puerto Rico at in Paris in 1963, Maui (Hawaii) in ’64, the El Conquistador Golf Club. It had Tokyo in ’66 and Mexico City in ’67. been a decade on the road, to be sure.

‘I played a lot in Cuba in the early days, before they closed it up,’ said Palmer

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ON THE ROAD

Next time you’re planning a golf vacation, consider venturing beyond the excellent but well-trodden courses of Scotland, Ireland and England. A world of golf awaits.

TPC CARTAGENA AT KARIBANA, COLOMBIA

Opened only last autumn, TPC Cartagena at Karibana represents the TPC Network’s Colombian debut, and features a breathtaking Jack Nicklaus Design golf course, bringing in both forest and sea. b o n u s : Colombia’s first-ever beachside holes. tpc.com/cartagena Palmer’s Lancôme victory in 1971

Palmer likely needed more pages in his passport by the time the 1970s rolled around, but he kicked off the disco era with big news at home by purchasing the Latrobe Country Club in 1971, on which he’d grown up and where his father, Deacon, had worked since 1926. Also in 1971, Palmer headed back to France to take the Lancôme Trophy, a tournament born out of France’s participation in the 1963 Canada Cup. That tournament came to France via a business team consisting of golf enthusiast Gaetan Mourgue D’Algue, Dominique Motte and Lancôme Company Chairman Pierre Menet, and the three kept the sport in-country with the Trophée Lancôme. The year Palmer won it, it was a 54-hole affair and it wasn’t part of the European Tour, but from its earliest days until its last match in 2003 the Lancôme was an important part of popularising golf in France.

Three years after the victory, Palmer was on a plane headed to the 1975 Spanish Open when Jerry Heard reportedly asked him what he thought about when he hit a ball. According to Gil Capps’ book The Magnificent Masters, Palmer said, “I just grab it real firm with the right hand and hit it as hard as I can.” Heard replied, “That’s it?” And Palmer said, “That’s it.”

He hit it hard enough, as Palmer took that year’s tourney in Spain, beating runner-up South African John Fourie in torrential rain.

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Palmer extended his internationally winning ways into his fourth decade as a pro, taking the 1980 Canadian PGA Championship at Mayfair Lakes GC, on the other side of the country in which he’d forged his first PGA TOUR win. The rest of the decade saw yet more air miles as Palmer built the first golf course in China in 1985 and then revisited Japan in 1988, where he carded his 14th hole-in-one on No.14 at the Oak Hills Country Club in Narita (his 20th ace came in 2011 at the age of 82 on No.7 at Bay Hill’s Charger Course). As ever, his game shone brightly both at home and abroad.

Palmer’s career has been truly amazing, and it’s all the more incredible that he was able to find so much success when he traveled so far from home. Besides the matches mentioned in this article and all of his well-documented time in the UK, the King took his game to Taiwan, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Portugal and Thailand over the years. If you add in the places he’s visited as a businessman and during his record-setting roundthe-world flight in 1976, drawing a map of Palmer’s travels would keep a cartographer very busy indeed.

Legendary player and individual, Palmer’s vast travels prove that he’s also one of golf’s great ambassadors, letting nothing get between him and the game—excepting the occasional rhinoceros, of course.

SAINT-NOM-LA-BRETÈCHE, PARIS, FRANCE

Saint-Nom-la-Breteche is located in La Tuilerie, just west of Paris, where two Fred Hawtree courses opened in 1959. The club was home to the famous Trophée Lancôme for 34 years, in which Arnold Palmer beat Gary Player by two shots in 1971. t i p : Visit the epic 19th hole, housed in an 18th century manor. Powdered wig and poodle not required. golfdesaintnomlabreteche.com

OAK HILLS COUNTRY CLUB, CHIBA, JAPAN

Japan’s Oak Hills opened its Robert Trent Jones Jr. course near Tokyo in 1982, and Palmer aced its 14th hole six years later (there’s a marker on-site). p r e pa r e : Fast play is prized here, and one of your group will have to be appointed as “etiquette master” to keep things moving. Would be appointees should dress in light colors as the “master” must wear a yellow tag—and bad fashion is hardly good etiquette. oakhills.cc

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Par 3 Legends, pros, family and perhaps some voodoo. It’s the most famous short tournament in golf

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layed on a course that might not have been built, it thrills its fans but potentially jinxes its victors. Retired legends and the occasional celebrity fill out the field, but it isn’t a pro-am.

The lowest score was 20, the oldest winner 61, and it recently featured a 17-month-old. It’s seen 80 holes-in-one since it started, including five in a single day in 2002. It could be a sideshow, it could be a showcase, it could be a curse. Whatever you think of it, the Par 3 Contest at Augusta National Golf Club is as much a part of the Masters Tournament as the Champions Dinner, and there’s nothing else like it in golf.

“It’s a distraction to a degree,” Arnold Palmer recently told Kingdom. “But I think it’s a good thing for the players.

It takes away the attention and pressure that might be all directed at the Masters tournament somewhat and gives it a new angle. It gives people something else to talk about and to watch, and I think the public enjoys it.”

No question about that. Since its debut in 1960, when it replaced the long drive contest and skills clinics that had previously taken place on Wednesday before the Masters, the Par 3 Contest has become one of the more popular family-friendly events on the spring golf calendar.

In that spirit, ESPN has broadcast the event every year since 2008. Speaking to the press prior to the first broadcast, network host Mike Tirico said ESPN was going with the family angle in hopes of providing not only entertainment, but inspiration.

Phot Edward Acker

It’s a good thing... It gives people something else to talk about and to watch, and I think the public enjoys it

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“The Par 3 is a deep breath before [the Masters],” Tirico said in a Steve Uhles article from an April, 2008, Augusta Chronicle. “I think the broadcast will communicate that, as well as the family atmosphere… I mean, when you see some of the biggest golfers out there with their kids, how can kids not respond? How can they not become enthusiastic about the game?”

In 2014, Ryan Moore did his part to get kids into the game early by having his 17-month-old son, Tucker, by his side during the contest. His wife, Nichole, was there as well, serving as caddie while Moore shot 6-under 21 to win by two shots over Kevin Stadler and Fuzzy Zoeller.

“It was fun having my boy out there and playing a round, you know, playing with a couple of friends,” Moore said. “That’s what it’s for, to kind of make you relax a little bit and just go and enjoy yourself the afternoon before.”

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Local Numbers 7,200

Augusta has about 7,200 hotel rooms, and the occupancy rate during Masters Week runs as high as 93 percent. That means that as many as 6,700 hotel rooms per night are sold.

1,000

Approximate number of customers served daily during Masters Week at the French Market Grille, which is located near Augusta National and specializes in Cajun and Creole fare. Its top menu item is the West Bank Duo, which is a combination of beef filet and choice of crab chop, soft shell crabs, shrimp, oysters or seafood crepes.

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Number of Greek chicken entrees served during tournament week in 2014 by Luigi’s, a family-owned downtown Augusta restaurant that specializes in Greek and Italian cuisine. While Greek chicken is the top choice, other favorites include lasagna, chicken and veal parmesan, and pizza.

Moore and Stalling show the family spirit that’s such a part of the Par 3

Compiled by John Boyette

If kids and families are one of the highlights, another is certainly the chance to see legends of the game teeing it up, and no group is as legendary as the Big Three: Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus. Palmer doesn’t stalk the fairways of Augusta National Golf Club anymore, having retired from official competition in 2004 after a 50-year run that produced four memorable Masters wins.

But he, Nicklaus and Player (the group won 13 Masters titles combined) annually compete in the Par 3 Contest, then get together on Thursday morning to serve as honorary starters.

“It’s sort of a tradition now,” Palmer said. “Everybody kind of looks forward to it, and we do too.”

Alister MacKenzie’s original plans left room for an 18-hole “approach and putt course,” and the legendary architect made his case for the project. According to David Owen’s Making of the Masters, MacKenzie wrote, “There is, as far as I know, no interesting approach and putt course in America. A really good one requires as much thought and planning as a full course. All those I have seen are terrible.”

Augusta’s Cliff Roberts was all for it, but co-founder Bobby Jones was less enthusiastic. Again according to Owen’s book, Jones vetoed the idea in 1932 and, because funds for the project were lacking anyway, it was shelved. But 20 years later the climate had changed and so Roberts got the 9-hole course at last, in 1958, helping architect George Cobb with the design. Now a beloved fixture of the club, Roberts wrote that some members at the time were unconvinced with the track and referred to it as a “Tom Thumb course.”

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Not so today. The par-27 1,060-yard gem is as captivating as any, and an integral part of club operations.

In addition to hosting the contest, it serves as a sort of test lab for its bigger sibling, allowing the club to try things out before implementing them on a larger scale. For example, Augusta National’s famously fast bentgrass greens were installed on the main course in 1981, but the change from Bermuda was made only after the new grass had proved itself on the Par 3 course, where it was installed in 1978.

If it’s useful as a lab and as a tournament venue, it’s also beautiful, in part due to some fantastic suggestions over the years. Perhaps chief among them is one made

by Augusta National’s most famous member, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who mentioned to Roberts that a dam could be built east of the big course if the club wanted to build a fish pond. Ike’s Pond was built in 1949, and in 1986 architect Tom Fazio designed two new holes that play over it. The course’s original first and second holes still exist, but they were converted into viewing areas for the Par 3 Contest.

When it comes to the competition itself, it’s fun, certainly, but that doesn’t mean some players don’t take it seriously. The contest is open to tournament competitors, noncompeting past champions and honorary invitees.

Winners’ names are recorded in Masters history, and victors receive a crystal pedestal bowl (closest to the pin on each hole gets a crystal pitcher, and holes-in-one receive a crystal vase).

Padraig Harrington is the only three-time winner (2003, 2004 and 2012), tying in 2003 and 2012 in matches that were cut short due to weather. He’s also one of only two men to win it back-to-back, joining Sandy Lyle (1997, 1998). Sam Snead won the first event in 1960 with a 23, not far off the tournament record of 20, which is shared by Art Wall (1965) and Gay Brewer (1973), and which Moore nearly reached last year with his 21.

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The Curse For many years it seemed winners of the Par 3 Contest were cursed not to win the Masters ever again, let alone in that year. Sam Snead won the inaugural Par 3 in 1960, and failed to win another Masters afterwards; Arnold Palmer won it in 1967 and never won another Green Jacket; then Tom Watson won the Par-3 in 1982. He was the defending Masters champion that year (having won the Masters in 1977 and 1981), and despite multiple majors elsewhere after 1982, he would never again win at Augusta. The original curse of the Par 3 was eventually broken by Ben Crenshaw. He first won the Masters in 1984, won the Par 3 in 1987, and then claimed his second Masters title in 1995. What a relief. Vijay Singh would follow suit, winning the Par 3 in 1994 before slipping his arms into the Green Jacket in 2000. Padraig Harrington holds the record for the most Par 3 victories: three, in 2003, 2004 and then in 2012. “I don’t believe in a curse,” claimed Harrington. “I try to win every time I play.

I like winning.”

Sam Snead during the Par 3 Contest, c. 1987

“I’m sure they all go out there with the thought they’d like to win it,” Palmer told Kingdom recently, adding that while he had fun, he also took it seriously. “Sure!” he said.

“I won it in 1967.”

Of course 1967 was not one of the years in which Palmer earned a Green Jacket, and that’s notable as some believe the Par 3 Contest curses its winners. No player who has won the Par 3 has gone on to win the Masters in the same year, although 11 champions of the main event can also claim victory in the Wednesday tune-up. Count Moore among those who aren’t convinced.

“I’m entering something I’m trying to win it no matter what,” Moore said. “I don’t believe in any of that other stuff about, you know, the curse or whatever. I mean, the reality is the odds of winning both are not very high.”

Moore missed the cut last year by one shot.

Though many claim not to believe in it, the curse might be partly responsible for Nicklaus never having won the Par 3, in which he rarely competed during his pro days.

“I never played it in the years that I had a chance to win,” Nicklaus said in 2008. “Two reasons: I suppose one, I’m a little superstitious like everybody else.” The second, he said, was because he was focused on practicing for the Masters. “In the days when I was competitive and felt like I had a chance, I had so much energy focused on wanting to win that golf tournament that [the Par 3] was a distraction for me and nothing I wanted to do.”

Focus likely explains Tiger’s usual absence from the Par 3, though the red-shirt-on-Sunday player hasn’t spoken extensively about why he’s been an infrequent Par 3 participant since he turned pro in 1997. Perhaps he will, like Jack, find more time for it as his career advances. At the end

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of the day the tourney remains a showcase of top golfers, and it has produced an uncountable number of great moments. Those include 80 holes-in-one over the years, with three in the 2014 tournament. Moments like those, plus players signing autographs and inviting their families along, all add to the family- and fan-friendly atmosphere.

While youth usually rules the day, from young caddies to the winners of the contest, it could be said that the older competitors bring the charm, giving their fans a boost with moments like Palmer’s first tee shot in 2008, in which he hit the ball 22.5 inches from the cup on the first hole and won closest to the pin. Count two-time Masters winner Ben Crenshaw among those who appreciate the Wednesday round.

I’m sure they all go out there with the thought they’d like to win it—I won it in 1967 “It’s fun. It’s amazing, the conditions, the greens are just almost as fast as they are on the main course, maybe just a hair softer,” he said. “But it’s made for a pleasurable day. It’s just entertainment for people and it’s really fun.”

And even though Crenshaw is no longer a serious threat to win the main event (he said this year will be his last Masters appearance) he still gets a kick out of the Par 3.

“I do,” he said. “I tell people it’s the only greens I can reach in regulation.”

John Boyette, sports editor of The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, contributed to this story.

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Brilliant Spring has sprung, and with it dreams of green shoots and bold blooms like fireworks. Your retreat, your escape from the world at large, your backyard is the promised land of pool parties, barbecues and sitting in the shade of a large umbrella on a summer day. Survey your perfectly landscaped kingdom from a bold deck. Kick off your shoes, walk down into your yard and feel the cool grass between your toes. And before you even think of doing anything else, take time to stop and smell the roses. With the products on the following pages, your brilliant backyard awaits.

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Star Roses & Plants The old saying has it that “a rose is a rose is a rose.”

Don’t you believe it

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f you play nice courses (and you do), you’ll no doubt notice that the aesthetics extend beyond the fairways and greens to include borders, hedges and decorative landscaping around the clubhouse and other parts of the property. Keeping everything looking pretty is a tough job, with landscaping crews having to battle pests, disease and dynamic seasons as they tend to the flora on site.

Helping them are roses from Star Roses & Plants, which are bred to be resilient and hardy, as well as lush and beautiful.

Roses from Star Roses hold up better than other roses and require minimal care and upkeep to make any garden look lush and gorgeous. No surprise, they’re the choice of some of the most visited and most-photographed places in golf, making it easy to understand that they’re the perfect choice for backyard gardens.

“Probably the best-known installation [of Star Roses] is at the 17th hole at Sawgrass,” says Steve Hutton, President and CEO of the company that for more than 100 years has been the country’s No. 1 rose supplier.

Founded in 1897 as a retail mail order firm specialising in roses, today Star Roses & Plants is the preeminent provider of cutting-edge roses, producing and introducing stunning rose varieties that are resistant to pest and disease, adaptable to a number of environments and—most importantly for home enthusiasts—incredibly easy to care for. As the company’s motto has it, “If you can dig a hole, you can plant a Star.”

“People don’t know that you can patent a plant like you can patent a computer chip,” says Hutton. “We

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as a firm have over 300 in-force plant patents; it’s almost a technology company along with horticulture. It’s very much like horse breeding, you refine bloodlines and work generation after generation to get the positive characteristics of the offspring and none of the negative characteristics— disease susceptibility, lack of hardiness, lack of vigor. You get these out, but it takes time. It’s part science and part art.”

It doesn’t happen overnight, he explains.

“For a rose, from the day that you make the pollination, that you’ve combined the two parents, to the day you sell the first plant is typically ten years. It’s a slow process and, typically, if you create 10,000 seeds, you probably will be lucky to get one variety out of the population. That’s the game; you’ve got to create large populations.

“Our selection process is very rigorous. After we go from 10,000 to ten, we’ll distribute those to 12 to 15 test sites throughout the country, all with different climates, different summers, different winters, different rain fall, high humidity, low humidity… It’s a big country and we need to be beyond reasonably sure how a variety is going to perform in a given climate.”

Perhaps the most notable result of the firm’s work in recent years has been The Knock Out® Family of Roses (see sidebar). Breeder Will Radler created a rose that is incredibly versatile and easy to grow, and it’s currently the most widely sold rose in North America.

Requiring no special care, Knock Out roses are in use nearly everywhere, commercially and in home gardens, and they’re absolutely beautiful.

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TPC Sawgrass No.17

Accordingly, many have said that Radler and Star Roses & Plants have single-handedly brought rose genetics from the 20th century into the 21st century. Those, along with the company’s Drift® Roses (see sidebar) and other incredible creations, make for stunning, cost-effective gardens that look good in a number of seasons and environments, including some of the top properties in the world, as Todd Fonda, Landscape Superintendent at TPC Sawgrass, confirms.

“When we moved THE PLAYERS Championship from March to May, our seasonal blooms at the time were azaleas,” he said. “In May they have zero blooming color, so we had to rethink what plants we were going to use.

Knock Out Roses were chosen because they bloom from May to November and maybe even longer. They’re tolerant, resistant to disease and insects, and they produce a much

fuller shrub than others, there’s a high density of blooms. We have between 6,000 and 8,000 roses on the property, and they’re a great performer for us.”

The choice of such luminary properties as TPC Sawgrass, imagine what Knock Out Roses will do for your home gardens.

“I don’t know that your readers want to learn about plant genetics and biology so much, but what it’s about, our one line mission statement, is that we bring great plants to the world’s gardens,” says Hutton. “Most people would prefer to be playing golf than pruning a rose bush— people only have so much time for their backyards. We get maximum return for any investment of time and money, and with aesthetic appeal. These are plants that give an awful lot and don’t ask very much.” starrosesandplants.com

Best Roses Available at Lowe’s, Home Depot and numerous garden centers and nurseries around the country, Star Roses & Plants are the best in the business. Ask for them specifically to ensure your garden is as good as it can be. Just three examples of their work:

Knock Out® Family of Roses

Drift® Groundcover Roses

Look-A-Likes®

Heavily lauded, highly regarded and a legend in the world of roses, The Knock Out Rose is the most widely sold rose in North America. The popularity of the family is due to the fact that Knock Out Roses are easy to grow and don’t require special care. Moreover, they’re flexible in terms of placement, happily at home on their own, among shrubs, annuals and perennials in mixed beds and borders, or joyed to be part of a large group as a vibrant hedge or border. There’s a full palette of colors from which to choose, and with its hardy, forgiving nature, the Knock Out Rose is an easy decision.

Groundcover roses do a beautiful job of filling in spaces, adding some splash to borders and spreading in nicely among taller and bigger established plants.

Available in a number of colors, the Drift Groundcover Roses do the job with aplomb, combining the best of full-size ground cover roses and miniatures. Like the larger example of the genre, they’re tough, disease-resistant and stalwart in winter. Like the miniatures, their size is quite pleasing and they have a repeatblooming nature. Low maintenance and requiring no special care, Drift Roses are a daily color reward all season long.

Roses all, though you’d be forgiven for wondering, the Look-A-Like Series of Roses is a delightful and surprising departure from conventional appearances.

Names like Apple Dapple, BougainFeelYa, Phlox Baby and Hydrangealicious, betray the various inspirations at play here, and the results have to be seen to be believed.

The large-growing ground cover Apple Dapple, for example, will cover your garden in a white/pink blanket of blossoms beautifully reminiscent of apple blossoms.

Functional, hardy and aesthetically pleasing, these are sure to be conversation starters as well.

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Decked Out You have an amazing backyard, it needs the best deck available. Here’s the answer

W

ith the arrival of warm weather, you may be looking forward to taking advantage of your deck to relax in the sun, entertain al fresco or enjoy quality time with family and friends. With the improvements in the performance and aesthetic of decking materials, now is an ideal time to build your outdoor oasis.

Whether your current home or summer home is in need of a makeover, Trex Company, the world’s largest manufacturer of high-performance wood-alternative decking and railing, offers the following considerations to help ensure your efforts will be enjoyed for many seasons to come.

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Decking Materials Choosing the right decking material is key to helping your deck withstand Mother Nature as well as wear and tear, such as dropped grill tools, spilled BBQ sauce and wet planter pots. From a performance standpoint, composite decking outperforms wood and PVC in structural integrity, wear and maintenance. It resists fading, scratching and mold —and won’t rot, warp, crack or splinter. In fact, you never need to worry about sanding, staining or painting. A simple soap and water cleaning twice a year is all that’s needed to keep a composite deck looking like new. This minimal upkeep means you can spend more time enjoying your deck rather than maintaining it.

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Installing a New Composite Deck Reaps Benefits!

Decks and porches have become true extensions of a home’s living space, and composite decking helps to provide a seamless transition between indoor and outdoor areas.

The cost—and time—required to maintain a traditional wood deck far exceeds the upfront investment in a high-performance composite deck that will last for 25 years or more.

Today’s wide range of product offerings makes it easier than ever to customize an outdoor living space to suit your needs and lifestyle.

Customization When it comes to deck designs, think outside the box and have fun exploring the many options available that allow you to customize nearly every aspect of your outdoor living space. Among the fastest growing trends right now is the use of mixed materials from deck designs featuring planks in more than one color to the combination of composite railings with metal balusters. It’s now also easier than ever to incorporate distinctive design elements, like curves and multiple-tiers, into a deck for added function and style.

While outdoor living spaces still function as a place for private relaxation, the popularity of outdoor entertaining has surged, and today’s decks are designed with this in mind. Outdoor kitchens, bars and fireplaces are among the most requested features, along with integrated storage components that eliminate the need to keep running inside for what’s needed outside. Adding style and function, the new Trex® Outdoor Storage™ collection offers options for storing towels, cushions, games and snacks—as well as built-in drawers to hold trash cans and ice to chill drinks.

Accessories such as deck lighting, ornamental post caps and decorative balusters are ideal for enhancing the atmosphere of any outdoor living space. Outdoor lighting provides sophisticated, understated silhouettes for improved ambiance and security. Several energy-efficient, LED lighting systems are available for use on posts, floors and steps, and can be built into a new deck or retrofitted into an existing one.

Color With high-definition wood grain patterns and rich, saturated colors inspired by the outdoors, today’s composites look more natural than ever before and boast a vibrancy that remains unchanged for years. Color options range from deep earth tones to warm umbers, spicy reds and pristine greys—while some boards offer the distinct streaked look of

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tropical hardwoods and others provide an appearance with less color variation. When choosing colors, consider the type of setting or mood you want to create—e.g., traditional comfort, urban chic, tropical getaway, etc.—and incorporate colors that exude your preferred style.

Sustainability Create a more satisfying and sustainable outdoor living space that you’ll feel extra good about by going “green.”

Trex decking, for example, provides the look and feel of real wood, but without the environmental impact. The entire high-performance decking portfolio is manufactured from more than 95 percent recycled content, including plastic from many common household items. In fact, Trex keeps more than 400 million pounds of plastic and wood scrap out of landfills each year.

Warranties Finally, be sure to ask for and carefully review both the contractor and manufacturer warranties. It’s important to note that deck builder warranties typically only cover structural issues related to the construction of the deck.

Product is covered by the manufacturer’s warranty. Keep in mind that every decking system has its own unique installation requirements and, in most cases, if those specific requirements are not followed, the warranty will be void.

When it comes to composite decking, look for a long warranty to guarantee enduring good looks and peace of mind. For example, Trex decking is backed by a 25-year Limited Fade and Stain Warranty, which is unprecedented in the industry—resulting in the ultimate assurance of lasting beauty.

Spring is just around the corner so now is an ideal time to start planning your deck build or renovation. Before you know it, you’ll be relaxing in your own customized outdoor living space.

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1. Santa Barbara Umbrella Built with the absolute best materials possible—all of it marine-grade, weather tested and cutting-edge—Santa Barbara Umbrellas’ creations are installed at the world’s finest homes, hotels, clubs and other top properties. Umbrellas are custom crafted and hand-finished to customers’ specifications, sewn and fit by a team of experts working with the best components available. With a brilliant display of available colors and patterns, Santa Barbara Umbrella is also completely capable of fulfilling custom orders, meaning your patio, deck or poolside will be perfectly covered by the best, with you and your shade better for it. sbumbrella.com

2. Showa Thornmaster Gloves Showa doesn’t mess around when it comes to gardening gloves, and neither should you. Their 350R Thornmaster gloves are tough as nails, protecting you from your plants’ defenses. The supremely durable latex palm is rough as well, which helps you to grip onto tools, and there’s a breathable knit liner inside, which reduces hand perspiration. Moreoever, they’re seamless, which prevents anything irritating getting to your skin. Incredibly, each product the company makes is individually hand-inspected at the end of the production process, meaning these aren’t just the best-designed gardening gloves you can buy, they’re also the best made. globusretail.com

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3. Water Right Hose When it comes to getting informed about backyard accessories, garden hoses are right up there with pool brushes and grill covers on most people’s priority lists, so let us save you some time and tell you that the only hose you’ll ever need to buy is from Water Right, Inc. The company’s polyurethane hoses are slim and light, won’t permanently kink or leak or crush, they’re American-made, don’t leach chemicals, remain soft and flexible in cold weather, are available in an number of colors, last for years and are attractive to boot. Tough, beautiful and drinking-water safe (they contain no lead or BPA), they’re the best way to get water where you need it. waterrightinc.com

4. Garden Gnome Putting a strange little creature in your garden dates back to the Renaissance, when one would have imagined tastes were elevating. By the 18th century gnomes were in homes, and by 2001 they were being featured in award-winning French films (e.g., Amelie). In 1847 Englishman Sir Charles Isham introduced gnomes to the UK, returning from Germany with 21 of the little guys. One of those still exists and is on display at England’s Lamport Hall. Insured for more than $1.5 million, it perhaps explains why some people just can’t let gnomes go—including a 53-year-old man in France, who in 2008 stole 170 of them. Here’s hoping yours stay put.

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If I’d known you could rent cars like this, I’d have taken more road trips by now Four great cars, three beautiful days, and the perfect road trip courtesy of

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li had a show in Palm Springs, and I had a plan to get us there. I wasn’t playing the gig with him this time—I’m only half good on guitar, anyway—but I had a fast car, courtesy of Hertz, and so you can see how the plan started coming together. “Let’s hit Vegas, too,” I suggested, though it was miles from LA and hardly on the way to Palm Springs. But that was fine; detours with distractions always made sense to both of us, and when you’re driving a good car you never want the road trip to end. Thanks to Hertz and their Dream Cars and Adrenaline Collection, we had all kinds of good cars at hand— four of them, in fact—with three cities and three days to experience it all.

Gentlemen, start your engines.

If I’d known you could rent cars like this, I’d have taken more road trips by now The company perhaps best known for professionally serving business travelers has a long history with performance and luxury vehicles, too. In fact, Hertz has a long history, period. The company was founded in Chicago in 1918 and is currently the largest U.S. rental car company, with locations in 145 different countries worldwide.

In 1966, they partnered with racing legend Carroll Shelby to produce a specialty Mustang, a customized high performance model dubbed the GT 350H (“H” for Hertz).

Unsurprisingly, in a decade famed for car songs like “Little Deuce Coupe” and “409,” people loved the company’s “Rent-a-Racer” program. Problem was, they actually raced them. There were reports of Mustangs coming back with marks where roll bars had been welded into (and then removed from) the interiors for weekend races, never

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mind what happened to the fourspeed manual transmissions, and so the program was discontinued. Fast forward to today, and Hertz once again has a powerhouse Mustang available, this time built with current racing standouts Penske. While Hertz is less tolerant of welded customizations and abused transmissions these days, the modern Hertz Penske Mustang GT is nonetheless a proper racer, with all of the best bits from the Ford Racing Performance Parts Catalog installed to ludicrously great effect.

More than a hint of the car’s potential immediately becomes apparent when the key is turned, as Eli discovered when I picked him up at his home in Los Angeles. The thunderous noise from the quad exhausts can only be described as “rude,” and we loved every minute of it. “Who knew?” he asked, musing about how a rental car company could include anything this great in its catalog. Lower, meaner and far faster than any stock Mustang, the Hertz Penske Mustang GT made short work of the trip to Vegas, and every second of the journey was exhilarating. Just north of a speed I won’t mention, the car found another gear and shot forward like it had been stung, unexpectedly throwing us back in our seats. Honestly, if I’d known you could rent a car this fun, I’d have made it an excuse to take a million weekend road trips already.

We came into Vegas at night— the best time, as the lights of the strip set the whole road aglow and put the energy of the town right into you. Without so much as a look at our hotel, we headed straight for the Hertz office in Las Vegas. The “desert racer” portion of our trip was over and now it was time for “high rollers,” so we swapped out our Penske Mustang GT for a new C63 AMG Mercedes—I only wish we’d had time to stop by Armani for a pair of new suits first. The car is extraordinary, part of Hertz’s “Dream Cars” collection, which also includes the Ferrari California, Lamborghini

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for the fact that our floor-to-ceiling windows faced east and that the earlyrising desert sun is big, bold and merciless. No matter. We had to get up early anyway as we had another leg of our journey to complete—and we had to pick up yet another great car from Hertz before heading to Palm Springs.

After a couple of laps around town in the Mercedes, we bid it a fond farewell and jumped into an elegant Porsche Cayenne, another Dream Cars member and just the thing for a drive through the desert.

The driving position in the capable SUV was more relaxed than the racers we’d enjoyed the day before, and it proved a comfortable way to head out of town.

Rather than sticking to the major roads, we left I-15 and jumped on Morningstar Mine Rd, which cuts through the Mojave National Preserve. It takes a bit longer, but the twists and turns, numerous rises and bumps and occasional

We did a few laps of the hotel before we checked in, just to enjoy the car Gallardo Bicolore, Mercedes SLS AMG Roadster and other luminary autos, variously available at a large number of Hertz locations around the country. The Mercedes was more spry than the Mustang—and certainly more civilized—and with roughly 503hp and a 0-60 time of 3.9 seconds, we were at our hotel in no time. Too quickly, in fact, so we took a spin around the block to show off a bit and to enjoy the whip-fast cornering, pleasant grumble of the engine and quick flick of the accelerator. When we

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finally did pull up to our hotel, there was no shortage of valets rushing to help us. We loaded our guitars out from the trunk (I brought mine along in case we were suddenly inspired to do a bit of songwriting) and headed inside to try our luck—and then to get some sleep.

When you forget to close the curtains in Vegas, you pay for it in the morning. So enamored were we by the view of the strip from our high-floor room, Eli and I had fallen asleep in our respective beds without accounting

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chances at some dirt driving make it well worthwhile. What’s a road trip if you don’t bother to enjoy the scenery?

After a stop at a roadside Mexican restaurant and miles spent staring out the windows just listening to music and watching all the beauty roll by, we finally pulled into Palm Springs.

It was just getting dark and we couldn’t wait to grab a cold beer and then some sleep.

The next day was the day of Eli’s show, but I couldn’t stick around.

Some friends had driven out to see him play, and so I left him in their care and headed to Hertz once again to trade the Cayenne for something smaller, lighter and quicker. After all, it was just me traveling now. I told Hertz I needed to get back to LA in a hurry, and they suggested the sharp-driving Porsche 911, which I readily accepted. Technically it’s one of the company’s Dream Cars, but it easily qualifies for their Adrenaline Collection as well. With the wind screaming by outside (windows open, of course—tremendous fun) I left the golf courses, windmills and palm trees of Palm Springs behind and shot west towards LA. Too soon I was parked at the edge of the Pacific, watching the sunset and marveling at how much fun Eli and I had enjoyed in just three days. The only cars I’d rented before

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were tied to business or to personal travel—and Hertz’s excellent catalog and the perks of its Hertz Gold Plus Rewards program certainly ensures the company is a great choice for that. But it never occurred to me that I might rent a car just to drive something other than what I own, that the top offerings in Hertz’s Dream Cars and Adrenaline Collection could themselves be reason to travel. If nothing else, driving four high-performance and high-luxury vehicles in three days proved that a quick road trip with a friend is all the excuse one needs to get away, and that—just as the old saying goes—the journey really is the destination.

Driving the cars reminded me that the journey really is the destination

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The Sense of Siam A fan of Thailand’s beaches and cuisine, Kingdom co-founder John Halnan had never visited the country’s courses...

Until now

I

closed my eyes. Through the thick, warm, polluted air noisily rushing past my ears came a clear peal of laughter from directly in front of me, derisory but somehow satisfied in tone. Who knows what was so funny.

During the day, unless your destination is close to a railway stop, the only ways to get somewhere quick in Bangkok include running—impractical on crowded tropical pavement—or riding on the back of a motorbike taxi, ubiquitous across the city. And so it was that I found myself without a helmet, hurtling at 60 mph into the tiniest gap between two frenetically shifting lanes of cars. How my driver spotted me closing my eyes I do not know, but he did and it amused him.

I survived, obviously, though with slight damage to my eyes-shut ego, and while I can’t sensibly recommend Bangkok’s motorbike taxis, I can heartily support Thailand as a tourist destination. Thais may demonstrate a lax attitude to safety, but any mortal recklessness is more than compensated for by a sense of fun and a near constant celebration of joy in life.

Here I should pause to offer a full disclaimer: Even before co-founding

Kingdom magazine some 13 years ago, I had already fallen in love with the Kingdom of Siam. Bizarrely though, in 25 years of visiting friends, beaches and restaurants here, I had never visited a golf course in Thailand. It was time to correct that.

BANGKOK If you are traveling from Europe or the United States your first port of call likely will be Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. From here, many holidaymakers choose to immediately head south to the Gulf of Thailand.

Others keep flying, either to the islands and beaches of the South or to the temple-laden traditional towns of the North. Valid options, but to miss out on Bangkok itself is a mistake in my book. Yes the city is over-heated, overcrowded and over-polluted, but it also boasts a sensory overload experience that’s well worth your time.

The first thing to do is to choose where to stay. The three main options are the old part of Bangkok by the river, which holds heritage sites like the Grand Palace; the relatively new tourist-dominated Sukhumvit area in the east of town that is home to hundreds of high-rise hotels, with the

infamous Nana Plaza at one end and Soi Cowboy at the other; or the newer center around Siam Square, with its shopping and the best transport links.

For golfers I recommend first checking how quickly you can access the main raised exit roads from your lodging. Almost every club of note is between 30 and 90 minutes out of town and you don’t want to spend an hour in traffic just to get to an exit. For this reason I chose to stay not far from Siam Square and right by Ratchasima station. I had easy access to the railway, the airport and the freeway system.

On arrival I had deliberately decided not to golf for the first couple of days, partly because I knew I wanted to indulge my senses with the sights and delights of Bangkok, but also because I knew I would be seriously jet lagged. To both counter jet lag and to satisfy a sense, soon after checking into the hotel (and straight after checking out of the pool) I headed to the spa for a massage. Thai massage has centuries of history and tradition behind it.

Conducted loose-clothed, it is as much about body and bone alignment as it is about muscle and knot kneading, and it can be strenuously stretching. After 90 minutes of being walked over and

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Thai Country Club’s 18th is overlooked by its hospitable clubhouse

pulled in myriad directions I emerged feeling re-balanced, relaxed and ready for the city.

My first port of call was Wat Pho, my favorite temple in Bangkok. Home to the largest reclining Buddha in the country, the ancient temple is also the spiritual home and birthplace of Thai massage, with murals, engravings and inscriptions of massage techniques going back centuries.

If you want to study Thai massage there is a world-renowned school attached to the temple, which is also a great place to get an authentic massage at a tremendous price. In addition to the reclining Buddha, squeezed into a beautifully muraled hall that seems to emphasize the outgrown nature of its size, Wat Pho features gardens, statues, scripture murals and a cornucopia of ornate colorful chedis (Buddhist towers) all dreamily pointing to an azure blue sky. I am usually relaxed by the temple experience, but on this occasion the

grounds were simply too overcrowded to find the sense of calm I was seeking, so I left to wander the streets and discover some of the lesser known temples in town.

I have always enjoyed walking in cities, going where my nose takes me until my legs give out, then hailing a taxi home. Hours later, lost but

street stall that was grilling pork over charcoal (Moo Yang) and took it along with sticky rice (Khao Neaw) and raw green papaya salad (Som Tam). The pork and rice was wonderful and is easy eating; Som Tam is venerated in Thailand, particularly in the northeast of the country, but for most foreigners it takes a bit of getting used to.

In addition to shredded green papaya, Som Tam is supplemented with shredded carrot, chopped tomato and crushed peanuts—so far so good, right?

But it’s then flavored with various items including, but not limited to, crushed small paddy field crabs whole in their shells, fish or squid sauce, dried prawns, lime, sugar and a mountain of fresh Thai chili. Sour and violent, the combination blows the roof off your mouth but over time becomes addictive. What doesn’t take much time is the effect on your digestive system, which is, let’s just say, an aid to healthy weight loss.

‘Muwwigan!’ my caddy cried, and who was I to argue—my first shot had been terrible

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delighted to have stumbled across both a temple I had never previously visited and a street housing printers, presses and Heidlebergs from a far-off era, my sense of hunger was becoming overpowering. So strong was my desire for nourishment that my eyes reached a point where they refused to focus on anything other than the huge variety of food outlets that adorn seemingly every street in the city. Finally, with the smell just too tempting, I stopped at a

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With the day done, the night loomed large. Even with the sun down Bangkok is hot—with a nightlife that’s infamously even hotter. I love it here. In contrast to a lot of other Asian cultures, having fun is treasured in Thailand and most Thais are welcoming to foreigners.

With Johnnie Walker ubiquitous, it certainly makes for my kind of place.

Where isn’t my kind of place, though, is the nexus where the worst aspects of Thai culture meet the worst of the West, a race to the moral bottom in what can only be described as blatant sex tourism.

Still, you will only encounter this if you seek it out or have the misfortune to visit the town of Pattaya. There are plenty of regular bars and clubs in Bangkok where Westerners congregate and have a good time, and they’re easy to find. My suggestion, though, is to go where Thais like to go: not just bars and clubs but snooker halls, Karaoke venues, soccer games and Thai boxing matches (a spectacle in their own right). You will likely find the locals friendly, genuine and delighted to share a night out. And being Thailand, when the night finishes at 4a.m. there will be a stall open for that final bowl of noodles before bed.

BANGKOK GOLF “Muwwigan!” my caddy cried, after my errant first shot. The other smiling caddies, all decked out in blue and wearing flappy caps like French Foreign Legionnaires, nodded in agreement.

Who was I to disagree? After all, you might as well start happy. Caddies are compulsory in Thailand and are part and parcel of the Thai golf experience.

As far as I can make out, caddying is an exclusively female occupation with some (presumably higher-testosteroned) golfers taking more than one out on their round. My brother-in-law tells a tale of seeing nine policemen coming down the last at his local club, each with two or three caddies, all apparently hitting at the same time. Imagining clubs as spears and balls as bullets he described it as “like a battle scene out of the movie Zulu.”

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You are unlikely to see such chaotic scenes at the excellently run Thai Country Club, 50 minutes from Bangkok, where I was happy to take the aforementioned mulligan on the first. Like many tracks around Bangkok, the conditions are similar to those in Florida, with lots of lakes and tough Bermuda grass. At 7,097 yards from the back tees, though, only the very best courses in Florida are as testing. Too often either off-line or overly ambitious, I managed to indulge the water gods.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed my round, so much so that I immediately wanted to play the 18 all over again—always the sign of a good course. If you get the chance to play Thai Country Club do look down for the 30 or so monitor lizards on the property, and look up for the wide range of birdlife, including the cute spotted owlets. Just don’t be distracted when you come to meet the challenge that is the Par-3 signature 6th.

With the clubhouse providing good food, great views and a convivial atmosphere, I can also recommend staying on for a bite and a Michelob post round.

Next up on my stick and ball itinerary was the not-so-highly-rated but very friendly Vintage Club, where I had the appropriate pleasure to golf with two elderly Thai gentlemen. They

were great company, regaling me with gossip about people I couldn’t possibly know. As much as I enjoyed their stories, I fear, having almost eagled the par-4 first, that my bogey+ golf thereafter was a bit of a letdown for them. A solid track with forgiving fairways and fast but flat greens, the Vintage Club is good fun, but perhaps for very low handicappers it is best suited to use as a warm-up before tackling some of the nearby championships courses.

One of those that I cannot recommend is the over-priced and unfriendly Alpine Golf Club. In a similar vein, and sadly for Arnie advocates like us, the excellent Palmer design at Bangpoo is let down by poor management and a lack of maintenance.

In stark contrast, all the courses at Siam Country Club are in excellent condition and, despite the distance from Bangkok, they’re certainly worth a visit. I have also heard good reports about Amata Springs and Ayodhya links, though I didn’t play them. The former was hosting the Thailand Golf Championship during my visit (won

by Lee Westwood) and the latter is 100 percent private, founded by 30 of Thailand’s richest men. Without a doubt it’s the country’s most exclusive club. Two more reasons to return, then.

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Santiburi is owned by Thailand’s largest brewery, Singha

HUA HIN Originally a fishing village and still a place where the catching and drying of squid plays a part in the local economy, Hua Hin, just two hours or so south of Bangkok, is now a tourist-friendly beach town. I was first here in 1990 and enjoyed the quaint Colonial-style streets.

Little did I suspect that over the next 25 years the town would develop into the country’s principal golf destination.

The growth of Hua Hin’s tourism industry dates back to the early 20th century and to twin Siamese events: the opening of a railway linking the town to Bangkok, and the arrival of Thai Royalty. The Royal association was initiated by Prince Chakrabongse who (whether by chance or design is uncertain) strayed into Hua Hin while on a hunting trip with some Russian acquaintances. He enjoyed it so much that he soon returned to build himself Thailand’s first “beach villa.” This first royal installation was followed by another, a summer retreat for King Rama VI himself. This, in turn, was

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superseded by King Rama VII erecting a sumptuous palace here, still in use by the Thai Royal family today. With the royal endorsement, along with its proximity and rail link to the capital, the town was soon to catch on with Bangkok’s elite as the seaside retreat.

The marvellous Railway Hotel (now the Sofitel Central) was built in 1921 and is reminiscent in ambience to Luxor’s Winter Palace, to this writer at least. More significantly for golfers, three years on saw the opening of Thailand’s first ever golf course, the appropriately titled Royal Hua Hin. Designed by British railway engineer A. O. Robbins, the club is still thriving and should be on every golfer’s list.

While Royal Hua Hin can’t be bested on the historical front, the club’s golf has [probably] been eclipsed by a few of the town’s more modern championship courses. There are now nine within 30 minutes of the city center, the latest of which is the Banyan, a high quality track tied-in with the adjacent Banyan Tree

Hotel. My top recommendation is Black Mountain, host of the European Tour’s True Thailand Classic. Often rated as Thailand’s best course and a regular fixture on World Top 100 lists, Black Mountain Resort comprises a water park and a very fine par-3 course amongst its facilities, making it attractive to families of all ages as well as pure-golf aficionados. The 195 yard par-3 11th, with water short and right, is the club’s signature hole. Believe me when I say it is both a stunning golf hole and a ball manufacturer’s delight.

THE NORTH Approximately an hour by plane from Bangkok or, far more romantically, overnight in a sleeper by train, are two of Thailand’s most memorable cities: Chiang Mai and its smaller northern brother, Chiang Rai. Chiang Mai is the country’s spiritual capital and I urge any first-time visitor to Thailand to spend at least a few days there. The city is somewhat spread out and suffers from traffic congestion in parts, but the

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Protected by ancient walls and a moat, the old town and its temples are a magical delight old town, protected by ancient walls and a moat, is serene, beautiful and best visited on foot. It is packed with temples, and wandering from one to another is a near magical delight.

On this trip, however, I based myself in the exceptionally laid back Chiang Rai, opting for the peace and tranquillity of the Legend, a boutique resort gently nestled on the southern banks of the hypnotic Mae Kok river.

While not really able to compete with the cultural wealth of Chiang Mai, the “new city” that replaced it as a capital of the Lanna Kingdom in 1296 is actually the older of the two and boasts some notable temples of its own.

The town also possesses a wonderfully temperate climate and an ambience so welcoming that it soon had me thinking of moving there permanently.

Moreover, Chiang Rai also has an exceptional golf course: Santiburi.

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I teed off early one morning with dew on the grass and with a thin white mist floating across the course like a silk sheet on a gentle breeze. Designed by Robert Trent Jones II, the club opened in 1992. It appears entirely natural with mature trees, a flowing layout, and a clubhouse sitting proudly at the apex of the property, but an enormous amount of work, cost and shaping went into Santiburi. Owned by Thailand’s most famous brewery, Singha, and despite the fact that no expense has been spared, rates to play and join the club are more than reasonable.

The par 72 course features plenty of wet stuff, mainly on the flatter front nine. I was particularly taken by the hillier back nine with its sweeping views from the tees, rolling fairways and trickily positioned sand traps. Over 7,000 yards in the length, Santiburi is a true championship course, tough

but honest. Birdies are hard won and bogeys your own fault. The par-3 17th is the nominated signature hole, but I thought it was eclipsed by the testing par-5 18th, which starts with water along the left of the fairway before you cross over and approach the green with water and bunkers all along the right.

Although none are quite at the professional standard of Santiburi there are a number of other courses in and around Chiang Rai. The best, in my opinion, is Waterford. Upriver some 30 miles from town, I arrived there mid morning with the place near-deserted. I was just beginning to contemplate whether I had turned up at a country junior school during summer recess rather than at a golf club when a caddy bedecked entirely in canary yellow came fluttering into view. She kindly showed me where to pay the (modest) green fee before expertly accompanying me for my round. Although an 18-hole layout, the score card shows two 9s: A and B. Driving south to Chiang Mai provides the golfer with further opportunities to play. There are over 15 courses within an hour’s drive of the city, but if I were to pick only one to experience it would have to be Chiang Mai Highlands. Situated some 40 minutes east of the city, the par 72 course winds its way along the base of the adjoining hillside and provides players with tantalising views of the dreamy mountains and steamy tropical vegetation. The Highlands is only a decade old but, in addition to the obvious quality of the facilities, what sets it apart from other courses is its inherent naturalness. It is built in an area of great spiritual heritage, which perhaps explains why the design team clearly set out to put together a course that is in close harmony with the truly exceptional surroundings. They not only succeeded in staying close to nature but they also created an exceptional golf course in an exceptional country. Visit if you can—just watch yourself on those motorbike taxis.

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IMPORTANCE OF A BRAND

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donald trump

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ears ago I can remember people asking me “You don’t want to become a brand name, do you?” in a tone that indicated it would be a negative thing.

Since then, people have realized how important brand recognition is for any product. What’s the point of having a great product if no one knows about it? From Coca Cola to Coco Chanel, the power of a brand has been proven—even more so in this time of fast media coverage and constant exposure. Brand recognition is instant communication, which is a powerful sales tool.

For example, my name on a building carries with it a promise of the highest quality available—it’s a snapshot image of elegance and luxury. I had my eye on being a gold standard brand since building my first skyscraper, Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. It’s one of the top tourist attractions in New York City now and is still an incredibly beautiful building.

From then on, I went out of my way to guarantee that my name would be synonymous with ‘the best’ in every arena I entered, from skyscrapers to television to golf course development.

If you are out to develop a brand, my advice is to keep your focus on that at all times. Hopefully you will be aiming to be the best—that way, everything you do will have an inherent standard of excellence. Be aware that part of your job is to be the spokesperson for your brand—in my case that’s relatively easy because my name is Trump–and people know the name by now. But I don’t take vacations from the promotion that I’ve realized is necessary for establishing great success and in sustaining that success. In many ways I am my own advertising agency and publicist, and you should be too. It’s more effective and it’s less expensive. So keep your focus and don’t waiver.

Of course, you will always have detractors. The critics will multiply in accordance with your increasing success. Herbert Muschamp was a scholar and an authority when it came to architecture. He wrote for the New York Times and to receive a compliment from him was a tremendous prize in itself. He wrote an article on Trump World Tower at the United Nations Plaza, describing it as “A Handsome Hunk of a Glass Tower”—and I had a great victory.

“Although Donald Trump prefers to publicize the aggressive side of his nature—it’s the manly thing to do—he is also the only beauty freak at large in New York City real estate development.” He goes on to say, “It’s not surprising that unofficial approval of Trump’s building should come by way of the Museum of Modern Art. The tower embodies the Miesian aesthetic through which the Modern’s design department’s taste was initially formulated---I hope Trump sticks with this material. Trump does better when he ignores his critics than when he pays attention to them.”

Ignoring your critics can be a good thing. It can even be a great thing.

Just keep on track with your own vision and keep moving forward with it. In this media-saturated world, it’s become increasingly important to keep your original plan intact and have a rock solid base of quality and integrity of purpose. When the assaults start (on Twitter or elsewhere), you will be standing on a firm foundation—which will include the strength of your brand.

Will it be worth it? Yes.

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Burning Love Blazing, fiery, blistering, incendiary, infernal, hellish, screaming, sizzling, sweltering, crackling, it hurts like brimstone in my mouth, a Louisiana 4th of July, the beach parking lot in bare feet, fresh coffee from a paper cup, a swan dive into a volcano, a campfire in the Sahara at noon on a summer’s day, like hell itself, tears streaming, heart pounding, panic-inducing, terrifying, hilarious, painful and downright alarming—we love it

Scoville Scale Abbreviation: SHU (Scoville Heat Units) Named for American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville, the Scoville Scale is a measure of the pungency of the heat of peppers or foods based on the capsaicin concentration of those foods. Capsaicin is a chemical found in chili peppers that, technically, is an irritant for mammals, producing a burning sensation.

Accordingly, it’s used in riot control and personal defense sprays, in pest deterrents and, to the delight of young-boys-whodare-their-friends-to-do-senseless-things everywhere, in hot sauce.

Jalapeño

Likely the best known chili pepper in the United States, this staple of Mexican combination plates everywhere has a somewhat rubbery flavor that tends toward bell pepper but which contains a heat that seems to complement food quite well. If there’s a problem with jalapeños, it’s that you’re never quite sure what you’re getting: there’s a wide spectrum of flavor and heat depending on the specific kind of jalapeño, how it was cultivated, when it was grown and when it was picked, meaning that the little green wheel on your sandwich could be harmless or it could make for quite a bite. Still, even at their hottest most of these are fairly manageable by pepper standards.

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TOP Jim Furyk, Class of 1993 BOTTOM Keegan Bradley, 2010; Bubba Watson, 2005; Webb Simpson, 2008; Brandt Snedeker, 2006 | ©2015 PGA TOUR, Inc.

3 out of 4 PGA TOUR players learn to win here.

This is the path to the PGA TOUR. The proving ground. It’s not a stop along the way. It now is the way. Here is how you get to the PGA TOUR. Web.com Tour players account for more than 375 PGA TOUR victories, 19 majors, 5 PLAYERS Championships and 3 FedExCups, showing why it is where PGA TOUR players earn the right to compete on golf’s ultimate stage.

The Path to the PGA TOUR.

Cholula Hot Sauce

Always on the edge of the spotlight owned by its red-capped rival, Cholula nonetheless appears in Mexican restaurants everywhere and is popular in its own right. The company refers to its Original product as “The Flavorful Fire,” and it is that, offering a more sophisticated flavor profile than some of its competitors, courtesy of its mix of piquin and arbol peppers. Those are ground into a paste, then mixed with the company’s proprietary blend of seasonings before being bottled and sealed under a round wood top. Like Tabasco, Cholula claims to enhance flavors without masking them, and that’s accurate. Named for the oldest inhabited city in Central America, we like it on scrambled eggs.

Pain: What To Do Maybe it was a dare, maybe it was an accident, maybe you just stood there staring at it for a while, thought, ‘What the hell,” and popped it in your mouth without thinking. However it happened, you’ve just eaten a pepper, you’re panicking, and you think you’re going to spontaneously combust. What to do… In a word: Milk.

Capsaicin is fat-soluable, so the fat in dairy binds to the capsaicin oil and pulls it away from your tongue/cheeks/ whathaveyou, offering some relief. The Discovery Channel show MythBusters did a program on this and tried water, beer and tequila as well. Water actually spread the capsaicin oil around, which you don’t want.

As for alcohol: technically it can dissolve capsaicin, but you’d need to drink 10 ounces of 70-proof tequila to dissolve just 1 ounce of the hot stuff, meaning you’d forget about the pain long before it was cured.

3,600 SHU

Sriracha

A version of this hot paste has been made for eons in Thailand from chili peppers, distilled vinegar, garlic, sugar and salt, and the generic name for it references the coastal Thai city of Si Racha. Americans are more familiar with the “rooster sauce” version produced by California’s Huy Fong Foods and its CEO, David Train, who left Vietnam in the late 1970s. As the story goes, he first created the sauce in 1980 and used to dish it out of buckets in LA’s Chinatown. Today his company is worth $60 million and produces more than 20 million bottles of the hot stuff each year, using jalapeños as opposed to chilis from Asia.

An American success story, to be sure.

2,500 SHU

Bird’s Eye Chili

Often referred to as Thai chilis—and more recently bearing hipster-ish names like “Little Bird Pepper”—these slender little guys are like the red firecrackers of your youth: small in size but packing formidable bang power. They’re common to Southeast Asia and, accordingly, often show up in Thai and Vietnamese cuisine. Additionally, they sometimes provide entertainment in restaurants when someone accidentally bites into one and begins screaming. Our advice: unless you’re acclimated, look before you eat, and set them to the side.

100,000-250,000 SHU

spring 2015

Crystal Hot Sauce

Everyone knows Tabasco, most people have seen Cholula, but if you ain’t from down South then you might not know about Crystal Hot Sauce. A staple in kitchens south of the Mason Dixon line, this “salt and pepper made better,” as the company has it, has a kick and a flavor that are immediately identifiable. Think fried catfish, BBQ pork, okra and our personal favorite, raw oysters. Like Tabasco this stuff is from Louisiana and its construct is similarly straightforward (aged Cayenne pepper, salt and distilled vinegar) but unlike its much-better-known cousin this is fairly specific when it comes to application. You can put Crystal Hot Sauce on anything, but it’s happier when it’s at home, sittin’ pretty on a Southern table, just as it has been since 1923.

2,500 SHU

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Red Hot Chili Peppers

Clara Balzary

Formed in Los Angeles in 1983, loud, energetic, and known to rock the party. With more than 80 million records sold worldwide and members who have become rock legends—including lead singer Anthony Kiedis and bassist Flea—the band is aptly named.

125,000+ SHU

Habanero

Original Red Tabasco

Americans like to spell this with the diacritical tilde over the “n,” like this: Habañero, but this is technically a hyperforeignism, added to give the pepper a bit of flair like its cousin the jalapeño (which really does take the ñ). Thing is, the habanero doesn’t need any flair. They start off green but their color changes as they ripen, and you might say that there’s a warning built in as these bloom into brilliant oranges and reds, white and even pink. A domesticated version of these was found in a Peruvian cave and dated to 6,500 BC, so people have been loving their heat and citrus-y flavor for a long time. Hardly just a step up from jalapeños, the habanero is a force unto itself. Try it in small doses via a hot sauce before you commit to a dish that integrally uses them; these can hurt.

When someone asks you to pass the hot sauce, there’s a better than good chance they’re talking about Tabasco. But what exactly is the stuff bottled under the iconic red cap? The short of it is that Tabasco is a combination of fully aged red peppers, salt from Avery Island in Louisiana, and high-quality distilled vinegar, all mixed into the personal pepper sauce recipe of one Edmund McIlhenny. The man himself first created Tabasco in 1868 and it’s been roughly the same ever since.

The reason it works, according to people who claim to know about such things, is that it enhances flavours in food rather than masking them with heat—i.e., the food is hotter, but it still tastes like food as opposed to tasting like hot sauce. Featured on so many restaurant tables and in myriad overly dramatic moments, Tabasco isn’t actually that hot as hot sauces go, but then that’s not really the point. The Tabasco company makes a habanero sauce for those who like their fire. Think of the Original more as a flavor enhancer than as liquid lava and you’ll remain impressed, just as people have been for over 140 years.

100,000-350,000 SHU

2,500 SHU

Carolina Reaper

It won’t win a beauty contest and its name won’t get it invited to a Christmas party, but the Carolina Reaper ain’t trying to make friends. It’s one mission in life is to burn, baby, burn, and it does that better than any other pepper in the peck. Cultivated by Ed Currie, owner of the PuckerButt Pepper Company in Fort Mill, South Carolina, HP22BNH (as it was originally known) is a cross between a Ghost Chili and a Red Habanero. With peak levels exceeding 2,200,000 SHU, it burned its way into the 2013 Guinness Book of World Records, torching the competition. “Reaper Squeezins” sauce, Carolina Reaper Puree and other hot products are available via the company’s website, which describes the flavor of the Carolina Reaper as “roasted sweetness delivering an instant level of heat never before achieved continuing with an increasing tidal wave of scorching fire that grips you from head to toe. Eyes glaze. Brows perspire. Arms flail. CAUTION! CAUTION! CAUTION! CAUTION!” Can’t say they didn’t warn you.

2.2 million SHU

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/™ ©2015 Jenn-Air. All rights reserved. ®

THE ONLY REFRIGERATOR THAT GIVES YOU THE CHILLS. Introducing the Obsidian interior. Food has never looked so beautiful—dramatically illuminated by LED lighting and kept fresh with advanced climate control. Now in a built-in refrigerator with details that thrill, every time you open its doors. jennair.com/obsidian

Nothing like a refreshing plunge to wake from a long winter of hibernation, and we’ll take ours in a tall glass poured over ice

Jeff Randles agrees. Despite having access to numerous pools at the Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, the property’s PB&G (Pool Bar & Grill) bartender and his associates spend their days focusing on the kinds of refreshments you find on the top shelf. Here, Jeff shares with us four fantastic rites of spring. Invigorating, vivaciously named and all made with the finest ingredients, assemble these at home or drop by the Four Seasons and leave the mixing to Jeff and the other experts.

A seemingly straightforward gin and tonic, this drink is greatly enhanced by quality of the ingredients and by the herbs and fruit in the glass. The recipe includes Caorunn Gin, a small-batch Scottish gin made with five Celtic botanicals, and FeverTree Mediterranean Tonic, which is infused with flowers and herbs from the Med. An international gin and tonic if ever there was one, and beautiful as well, it’s a full-flavored take on a crowd favorite.

2 oz 1 btl 1

Caorunn Gin FeverTree Mediterranean Tonic Ice Sphere

GA R NISH: 1 slice Red Apple 3 ea Juniper Berries 1 slice key lime 1 ea Raspberry 1 ea Fennel Frond 3 ea Microflower Marigolds Add the garnish to your favorite glass, then pour in the tonic—from a great height, if you like a little drama...

[Note: If you plan on sampling all four cocktails at the resort, we suggest getting a room—even if you call Orlando home. In fact, such a sampling provides the perfect excuse for a vacation or a stay-cation at this top luxury resort property.]

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Jeff himself invented this beautiful margarita, which features premium spirits served in a salt-and-gold-rimmed glass.

The gold is real, and edible, and with the salt it creates an adornment that appears to be scooped from the finest beach that Ponce de Leon ever imagined. Meaning “spring time” in Spanish, La Primavera was also the name of Don Julio’s first distillery in Mexico, which was established in 1942.

A fitting tribute and considered use of the brand’s lovely and appropriately named premium tequila, this drink goes the extra mile in using an agave-and-lime ice cube to ensure the full flavors of the fiesta aren’t watered down as the ice melts. A $48 treat at the Four Seasons Resort Orlando, La Primavera will put you in a sunshine state of mind no matter where you live.

1 ½ oz ½ oz 1 ½ oz 1 oz ½ oz

Don Julio 1942 Grand Marnier 100th Anniversary Agave Nectar Fresh Lime Juice Lemon Juice

Shake all ingredients and strain over an agave ice cube* in a “gold-laced salt”– rimmed coupe glass. *Agave Ice Cube Use a 2-inch cube tray and freeze a 1:1:1 mix of water, agave nectar and lime juice

spring 2015

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We’re guessing the name for this cocktail comes from the story of a damsel in distress who, upon being handed this magical elixir, drank it poolside and immediately recovered from her ailment. [Note: that might not be accurate.] We do know that we were better after trying this drink, and you will be as well.

2 oz 1 oz 1 oz ¼ oz ¼ oz 1 ¾ oz

Belvedere Vodka Lime Juice Mint-infused Simple Syrup St. Germain Cocchi Blanc Prosecco

Blend all ingredients with ice (except for the bubbly) and strain into a coupe glass. Top with Prosecco and garnish with mint leaf.

174

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“Winning the FedExCup is surreal. This has been the highlight of my career.”

- Billy Horschel, 2013-14 FedExCup Champion

One storm in which you won’t mind getting caught, this hurricane is made all the more notable by virtue of the absinthe—an inspired addition, to be sure. Additionally, the butter-washed rum—which Jeff explained essentially involves infusing rum with butter then chilling it so that the fat can be skimmed from the top, which leaves the rum with a savory flavor and lush mouth feel—will have you putting your feet up in the sand as you relax into the never-ending eye of a beautiful weather system.

1 ½ oz 1 ½ oz

Dark Rum butter washed, Sugar Island Spiced Rum 1 barspoon Absinthe 2 oz Passion Fruit Juice 1 oz Orange Juice ½ oz Fresh Lime Juice 1 barspoon Simple Syrup 1 barspoon Grenadine Combine all ingredients and pour into a highball glass over ice. Garnish with a chunk of pineapple, an orange slice, and a cherry—all on a broken drink umbrella, for the full wrecked island effect.

176

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Ferrari Taranis

Produced under license of Ferrari Spa. FERRARI, the PRANCING HORSE device, all associated logos and distinctive designs are property of Ferrari Spa.

Ray Ban Aviators Named the Light Ray, these aviators from Ray Ban combine classic shape and modern materials, including titanium temples.

Effortlessly cool

ray-ban.com

Tranquility Spring is a bold and vibrant season, but there’s no reason to let things get out of hand.

Chill out, kick back and relax

178 00

spring 2015

Miansai Bracelet Miami-based Miansai handmade accessories frequently reference the ocean, represented in this men’s bracelet with a bold nautical nod.

Featuring top materials, we’re hooked

miansai.com

spring 2015

179 00

Bettinardi BB1 Superior Ameican craftsmanship and timeless design; Bettinardi putters offer unparalleled feel and quality.

Just ask Matt Kuchar

bettinardi.com

180 00

spring 2015

Callaway Chrome Soft The SoftFast Core has low compression and low spin, the Tour Urethane Cover has strength and consistency, you have the advantage

callawaygolf.com

spring 2015

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Golfino Clothing Europe’s market leader for golf fashion, Golfino’s forward styles are at home anywhere in the world. Your game’s sharp, now fix your look

golfino.com

00

spring 2015

Garmin Approach S6 A GPS golf watch with a swing trainer built in, data for more than 38,000 courses and full connection with your iPhone means this is the cutting edge

garmin.com

spring 2015

183 00

Das Horn Cups, glasses and other conventional conveyances built to get liquid from the table to your mouth make way, Das Horn is here. Perfect for parties, celebrations or any time you feel like releasing your inner Viking

dashorn.com

184 00

spring 2015

Stand out.

Fork Union Military Academy’s rigorous admission standards, high academic expectations, and focus on achievement help outstanding young men develop, compete, and accomplish even more than they thought possible.

In our safe and structured academic environment, based on Christian values, young men develop the qualities of character, self-discipline, respect, and leadership essential for success in life.

The One Subject Plan Fork Union Military Academy follows a unique curriculum schedule in our Upper School (grades 9-12 and postgraduate). It is called the One Subject Plan.

Instead of juggling four to six classes every day, or following a confusing “block schedule,” our students take one subject at a time. The year is divided into five grading periods of about seven weeks each. Each grading period, the student takes one class.

Talk about individual attention!

In a typical school, a teacher is responsible for teaching 80 to 150 different students every day in several different classes. At Fork Union Military Academy, a teacher has only one classroom of students (usually about 10 to 17 students) each day, every day, for seven weeks.

This enables the teacher to get to know each student as an individual, and enables each student to concentrate fully on each subject. There are no more nights of deciding “should I do my math homework or my writing assignment first?” or jumping the mind back and forth between science and social studies.

Concentration goes up, learning goes up, and grades go up.

Download our white paper, About the One Subject Plan, to learn more: http://www.forkunion.com/onesubjectplan

Fork Union Military Academy

Success stories begin here.

MicroPort Orthopedics Leading the Charge to Fast ForwardTM Patient Satisfaction Fast Forward™ to game-changing innovation 45 year-old Steve has led an active lifestyle for much of his life.

Playing sports, such as tennis and golf, have kept Steve in shape and mobile. However, little did he know that a pain in his left hip would force him to give up the sports he loved and lead to hip replacement surgery.

“It was 2009 and I was playing golf. All of a sudden, there was an acute pain in my hip that was so strong it brought me to my knees.

It was the first time I ever felt any kind of discomfort,” Steve explained.

Over the next year, Steve learned to cope with the constant discomfort in the hope that it would “work itself out.” However, it soon worsened, prompting a visit to the doctor.

After a series of X-rays and MRIs, Steve’s physician delivered the news: severe arthritis and with very little cartilage remaining, a hip replacement was inevitable. Not ready to undergo a major operation, Steve sought second, third and fourth opinions over the next two years, but the diagnosis and suggested treatment did not change.

He kept putting off the surgery because he feared how much time he would miss at work to recover, not to mention the unknowns of how painful surgery might be and whether surgery would really work for him.

It was the SUPERPATH® Hip Replacement that finally convinced Steve that he was ready to take the next step, having heard from many physicians that—because this procedure is tissue-friendly and cuts no muscles or tendons like the traditional hip replacement —he could expect minimal pain and a shorter hospital stay.

And with no typical post-operative hip restrictions, Steve could return to his normal activities faster than with more traditional hip replacement procedures.

MicroPort’s total joint implants are intended to be used to treat patients with hip or knee joints damaged by severe arthritis or a failed previous surgery. The implants are intended to give patients improved mobility by reducing pain and restoring movement in the joint.

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Steve

One week after surgery, Steve was back at work. “When I walked in, there was a group of about 10 people standing around me asking me what I was doing back so soon. I think it was just shocking for everyone to see.” With the blessing of his physical therapist, Steve was back at the gym, doing leg workouts to regain full strength in his hip and legs.

“Just one week after receiving my new hip, I was pain-free and my range of motion and quality of life was substantially improved as compared to the agony I was in prior to the operation.”

MicroPort Orthopedics is changing the course of orthopedic hip and knee care for patients like Steve. More important, we’re changing the speed at which recovery evolves—with innovative techniques and products that accelerate patient expectations to new levels.

We call this philosophy Fast ForwardTM.

microport

Fast ForwardTM to maximize satisfaction Many factors contribute to the length of hospital stay and rehabilitation. These factors include, but are not limited to, your age and health at the time of surgery as well as your surgeon’s determination of the appropriate hospital stay and rehabilitation.

Additionally, there are risks associated with hip replacement surgery such as pain and bruising, damage to blood vessels or nerves, infection, or blood clots that can travel to your heart or lungs. If you experience these complications, your hospital stay may be extended.

Working together, we’re creating and bringing to market hip and knee products and techniques that allow surgeons to increase their patients’ post-operative satisfaction9. Our SuperPath® Hip Replacement empowers surgeons to offer patients a more comfortable hospital experience where over 91% of patients can be released to recover at home rather than requiring them to be transferred to a physical therapy rehab facility, and use fewer post-op narcotics, returning to daily function in a matter of days.

SuperPath® Hip Replacement

United States Average

Mean Length of Stay in days

1.6 days1,4

3.2 days2

3o-Day Readmission Rate (%)

2.3%4

4.2%5

Home (%)

91.5%4

27.3% 2

Home Health Care (%)

3.8% 4

39.8% 2

Skilled Nursing Facility or Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (%)

4.7% 4

32.7% 2

Transfusion Rate (%)

5% 4

25.5% 8

Dislocation (%)

<1% 4

2.4% 6

Deep Vein Thrombosis (%)

<1% 4

0.4% 3

Fracture (%)

1% 4

0.6% 7

Infection (%)*

<1%

Pulmonary Embolism (%)

<1% 4

Discharge Status

Complications

4

1.3% 3 0.2% 3

*All infection types combined (surgical site, deep infections, etc.)

Our eMP™ ACL/PCL Substituting Knee System offers patients a more stable and normal feeling knee implant that allows them to have confidence with activities that many other patients often fear, like going up and down stairs or walking on sloping or uneven terrain.

A study has shown that as many as twenty percent of total knee patients are not satisfied with their total knee replacements10.

Many of these patients are not comfortable with activities like walking down stairs and steep slopes. Our eMP™ ACL/PCL Substituting Knee was designed to replicate the motion and function of the normal knee, and aims to provide long-term satisfaction.

“My husband recently commented that I have walked further in the six weeks after the operation than I did in the years before surgery. The implant feels very sturdy and steady and I’m glad to have my mobility back,” said Roslyn, eMPTM Knee patient.

“From keeping up with three grandchildren to working and boating, I could not afford to shy away from living my life to its fullest anymore. I’m looking forward to having better stability in both knees so I can continue my active lifestyle,” said Michael, eMPTM Knee Replacement patient. “I feel better than I have in years.”

Roslyn

microport

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Fast ForwardTM to normal function For patients, the decision to undergo hip or knee surgery is not something taken lightly. Patients have commitments. They are depended upon to get the job done, whether it’s pulling a double shift or taking care of the grandkids. They are uncertain about how painful surgery and recovery will be. There is the fear of the unknown and the uncertainty of whether surgery will actually work for them. They are looking for a solution to knee or hip pain that eliminates the pain and gets them back to normal function—fast.

“I was astounded that I didn’t require any physical therapy and was thrilled to begin walking with my dogs again. Not long after the surgery, I was at a mall with my daughter, who laughed and commented that I walked faster than she did,” said Sallie, a SuperPath® hip patient. “I was hoping for a quick recovery, but I couldn’t comprehend just how quickly until I experienced it for myself.

I am extremely happy I chose the SuperPath® procedure.”

“My recovery was quick and I was surprised that—although most patients do have to go through physical therapy—I didn’t have to participate in any physical therapy. A week after surgery I was able to go up and down stairs,” said Cheshire, SuperPath® Hip Replacement patient. “I was back to water aerobics two and a half weeks after the surgery and after about a month I was back to all my normal activities, pain free… it was phenomenal.”

Once you have healed, there is the possibility that the bone surrounding the hip or knee implant may lose its ability to support the device or the device may wear out. If this occurs, additional surgery may be required to replace it.

Every patient is different, and individual results will vary. There are risks and recovery times associated with surgery. Consult your doctor to determine if joint replacement surgery is right for you.

Cheshire

Fast ForwardTM to “I wish I’d done this sooner.”

“My daughter is a physical therapist and was amazed at my recovery. She couldn’t believe how quickly I was walking by myself after surgery,” said Laureen, SuperPath® Hip patient.

“Would I recommend the SuperPath® procedure? Absolutely—I already have!”

At MicroPort, our ultimate goal is patient satisfaction. We know that we are unknown to most patients. And we know that other companies have good products with good clinical results.

But we have something that all the bigger companies want. We have a way to give patients what they want. Fast return to function.

References 1. J. Chow, B. Penenberg, and S. Murphy, ‘Modified Micro-Superior Percutaneously-Assisted Total Hip: Early Experiences & Case Reports’, Curr Rev Musculoskelet Med, 4 (2011), 146-50.

2. AHRQ HCUPnet, ‘Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality H-Cupnet Database, Icd-9-Cm Code 81.51 for United States in 2012) <http://hcupnet. ahrq.gov/HCUPnet.jsp> [Accessed September 4, 2014].

3. R. E. Mednick, H. M. Alvi, V. Krishnan, F. Lovecchio, and D. W. Manning, ‘Factors Affecting Readmission Rates Following Primary Total Hip Arthroplasty’, J Bone Joint Surg Am, 96 (2014), 1201-09.

4. W. Gofton, J. Chow, K. D. Olsen, D. A. Fitch, ‘Thirty-Day Readmission Rate and Discharge Status following Total Hip Arthroplasty using the Supercapsular Percutaneously-Assisted Total Hip Surgical Technique’, International Orthopedics, Nov 2014.

5. A. J. Pugely, J. J. Callaghan, C. T. Martin, P. Cram, and Y. Gao, ‘Incidence of and Risk Factors for 30-Day Readmission Following Elective Primary Total Joint Arthroplasty: Analysis from the Acs-Nsqip’, J Arthroplasty, 28 (2013), 1499-504.

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Because our hip replacement technique preserves all muscles and tissues, patients experience less pain and no post-operative range of motion restrictions.

We are the company that will change a patient’s life. We are the Fast ForwardTM company. And we have the tools that help surgeons fast forward patients back to their life and their passions.

We are MicroPort Orthopedics! ”I can do more now than I could before the surgery. My only regret is that I didn’t get the procedure done years ago!” said Tom, SuperPath® Hip patient.

6. J. Sanchez-Sotelo, G. J. Haidukew ych, and C. J. Boberg, ‘Hospital Cost of Dislocation after Primary Total Hip Arthroplasty’, J Bone Joint Surg Am, 88 (2006), 290-4 7. N. P. Sheth, N. M. Brown, M. Moric, R. A. Berger, and C. J. Della Valle, ‘Operative Treatment of Early Peri-Prosthetic Femur Fractures Following Primary Total Hip Arthroplasty’, J Arthroplasty, 28 (2013), 286-91.

8. H. Yoshihara, and D. Yoneoka, ‘National Trends in the Utilization of Blood Transfusions in Total Hip and Knee Arthroplasty’, J Arthroplasty (2014).

9. Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS), http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-PatientAssessment-Instruments/HospitalQualityInits/HospitalHCAHPS.html.

Reported mandatory HCAHPS scores for patient experience following Hips procedures serve as a means to indicate satisfaction. Scores reported by a single non-designing hip surgeon. Data on file at MicroPort.

10. P. N. Baker, J. H. van der Meulen, J. Lewsey, P. J. Gregg; . ‘The Role of Pain and Function in Determining Patient Satisfaction after Total Knee Replacement.

Data from the National Joint Registry for England and Wales.’, J Bone Joint Surg Br (2007), 89(7), 893-900.

microport

Golf Ocean Cit y, Maryland

At OceanCityGolf.com, you can plan and book your next golf getaway to Ocean City, Maryland 24 hours a day, seven days a week. With 17 championship courses designed by the legends of the game, great golf is just the beginning. Add miles of beach and boardwalk, exciting nightlife and excellent dining, Ocean City, MD is the ultimate golf getaway. Book your golf trip today by visiting OceanCityGolf.com or call (800) 4-OC-GOLF.

2 Nights, 3 Rounds Starting: Spring / F Weekday all s$ Weekend 153 s $175

“Great Golf is Just the Beginning” Ocean City, Maryland www.OceanCityGolf.com

OFF THE B E AC H Perfect weather or no, the last place golfers want to be is on the sand

I

t happens. Sooner or later everyone finds him or herself in a bunker. But never fear, as a combination of practice, focus and the right equipment can make sand pits seem like mere dimples, turning them from hazards into something more like landscape features.

Don’t believe us? Spend some time with PGA West Golf Academy instructor Bryan Lebedevitch, who recently helped us get out of the gold stuff and onto the green. Displaying the mind-blowing skills that have served him well at PGA West (and as Cristie Kerr’s full-time coach since 2004), Lebedevitch walked us through three lies: the good, the bad and the buried, and executed masterful escape plans for each. We brought our sunscreen and watched carefully…

EVALUATE The first thing that you have to do is to evaluate the lie, because that’s going to dictate your technique. Is the ball on top of the sand? Is it partially buried? Is it completely covered? And how deep is the sand? When you’re dealing with sand wedges, we’re dealing with the front edge that’s going to dig in and the trailing edge, which glides through the sand more like a duck’s foot through water. If you set up with the shaft of the club forward you expose the digging edge, which is going to make a divot that digs in deep. If you set up with the handle of the club slightly behind the club head and make a similar motion, the club’s going to skip, creating an explosion style shot. A digging shot is going to be useful for a buried lie, the explosion is going to be hit out of a good lie. And then there’s everything in-between.

BOUNCE SHOT

DIG IN

(Good lie)

(Bad lie)

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Good lie

Typical lie

GOOD LIE For this purpose we’re talking about a good lie with medium-depth sand, we’re going to place the ball forward of center in your stance. You’ll set up slightly open to the target, your body facing just slightly left of the target (or right of the target, if you’re left-handed). The handle of the club, because the ball is positioned forward, should be slightly behind the club head. What you’re trying to do is to make a swing where the face stays open and the back of the club hits the sand. You really don’t need to have a lot of power if you have a long enough swing.

TYPICAL LIE So we walk into the bunker and the lie isn’t terrible, but it’s not great—not buried but sitting down in the back of a heel print, for example. If I set up the way I described for a good lie, with the handle back, ball forward, weight a little forward, and try to make the same swing, I could make contact with the sand and then the ball.

In this situation, if you don’t make any adjustment for the lie, the club doesn’t get deep enough into the sand and so it’s riding through the sand at that shallow level using the bounce, and so it skips into the ball.

[Editor’s note: This can result in the dreaded “out of the bunker and over the green” shot, which can put you in another bunker—or somewhere beyond belief. I might have some experience with this…]

spring 2015

When the ball is somewhat buried, there are different ways to approach the shot.

The most important aspect here is, again, to evaluate the lie, to feel for the sand depth. It’s important as it determines how the club is going to travel through the bottom of the shot. In this example, because I know (by feeling it with my feet) that there’s sand under the ball, I’ll just be adding a little dig with the face open. So I will lean forward and take the handle a little more forward. What that does is it moves the focus off the back edge toward the front edge for more dig. I can still have the face lofted with the handle forward and I can get it out because the club digs in deeper. This is where it becomes a little bit difficult.

Partially buried with an open face is a dicey situation; you do have to know what you’re doing.

Another option, and the safest way, is to put the ball back in your stance and your handle forward. Then, really, what you’re trying to do is to almost bury the club head in the sand and the ball will be forced out. You need to be precise about where the club enters the sand, but it doesn’t take a ton of force.

It’s safer, but with this method you get a lot of roll and definitely less ball control. The ball can go a fairly long way, so you have to prepare for roll out. With this shot you shouldn’t be concerned with how close you get it to the pin.

The object is simply to get it out of the bunker in one, and if you’re 50 feet, accept the outcome.

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BURIED Finally, the worst lie. The ball gets hit in there and maybe the sand falls down from the hill on top of it and so the ball is buried. Now you’re going to reverse the things that you try to do with a good lie. For a good lie we were talking about exposing the bounce.

Now I want to expose the digger.

You’re going to put the handle more forward and the ball a bit more back.

That’s going to introduce the digging edge. Your weight will favor your front leg with firmer grip pressure.

Take the club back in an upright fashion and bury the club in the sand just behind the ball. The ball will pop out of the hole and roll forward.

I would be against a big follow through. The most important thing is the proximity you hit to the ball. The force of the club digging into the sand will push the ball out.

EQUIPMENT 60°

BOUNCE ANGLE 4 °

People come to me and say, ‘I’m really bad out of the bunkers.’ The first thing I do is look at their wedges. In most cases, amateurs choose too little bounce. TOUR players use a lot less bounce because their bunkers have consistent bottoms, so they don’t require as much. With PGA TOUR standards, the pros’ bunkers are about the same each week.

They get used to playing with minimal bounce because of sand depth at tournaments. Amateurs tend to play in bunkers with a lot more sand depth, so if you don’t have enough bounce it becomes a very difficult shot. Getting a wedge with 12 to 14 degrees of bounce is probably better and will make it easier for the average player to successfully get out of the sand.

CONTACT P OINT

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spring 2015

Palmer Cup set for Rich Harvest The 19th chapter of the Palmer Cup will take place at Rich Harvest Farms in Illinois, June 12-14; an event that has fast established a famous tradition within the amateur game in the United States and Europe

T

he Palmer Cup shares many similarities with the Ryder Cup, except you could argue that the Palmer Cup is even better. Unlike the biennial Ryder Cup, this trans-Atlantic match-up between leading college golfers from the United States and Europe takes place every year.

Results in the Palmer Cup could hardly be closer, too: the record is shaded in the Americans’ favor coming into 2015, with the United States having won the Palmer Cup nine times, Europe (and before it the original Great Britain and Ireland team) has won eight, with one Palmer Cup finishing in a tie, back in its second year, 1998, when the match play event unfolded on the Old Course at St Andrews.

The names of Dustin Johnson, Graeme McDowell and Luke Donald have all appeared on past Palmer Cup team sheets.

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Coached by Georgia Tech head coach Bruce Heppler— one of the most successful coaches in the history of the NCAA’s Atlantic Coast Conference—the 2015 American team will be desperate to add to the United States’ slight superiority in the Palmer Cup won-loss record, particularly as it was defeated convincingly last year at Walton Heath in England— the 1981 Ryder Cup venue—by a score of 18½ -11½.

Jean Van de Velde, the first Frenchman to play in the Ryder Cup, will lead the European team when it lands in Chicago in June, while his predecessor, 1999 Ryder Cup colleague Andrew Coltart, eloquently summarizes what it means to be part of the Palmer Cup story: “It’s an incredible privilege to be associated with anything that carries Mr. Palmer’s name. What he has done for the game of golf is just incredible, so to be involved in the Palmer Cup is a thrill.”

spring 2015

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