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Reade Tilley e d i to r

publication

Matthew Squire publisher

Robin Barwick

Matthew Halnan

m a n a g i n g e d i to r

a r t d i r e c to r

group art director

special thanks & contributors

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Clive Agran Andrew Archer Joe Buttitta Georgie Crawford Gary Crist Tony Dear Diego Eidman Fabian Gomez Emiliano Grillo Angela Haydel Mike Jones Bernhard Langer Floyd Leverton Jon Linen Keith Millen Mileece Jay Mincks Ginny Sanderlin Arthur Waite John Xuereb Charlie Zink

Mitsubishi Electric Classic at TPC Sugarloaf

Leon Harris junior designer

Kieron Deen Halnan founding contributor

Arnold Palmer special contributors

Cori Britt, Doc Giffin contributing photographers

Patrick Drickey, Dan Murphy / stonehousegolf.com, Getty Images, Leon Harris, Evan Schiller, Meghan Tilley vp , operations

Joe Velotta head of advertising sales

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TPC Letter

I

t certainly has been quite a thrilling summer for the PGA TOUR and TPC Network, as our properties have hosted numerous events across the PGA TOUR and PGA TOUR Champions, keeping us all buzzing with excitement. Congratulations to all of the tournament winners including Daniel Berger who claimed his first win on the PGA TOUR at TPC Southwind during the FedEx St. Jude Classic, and to Joe Durant for winning the 3M Championship hosted at TPC Twin Cities. Russell Knox claimed his second PGA TOUR victory at the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands where Jim Furyk made history by posting a 12-under 58, the lowest score in PGA TOUR history. The tournament came on the heels of a multi-million-dollar course renovation that saw tremendously positive feedback from TOUR players and members alike. Adding to the excitement at TPC River Highlands was the announcement of plans for a new 33,000 sq. ft. clubhouse expected to be completed in 2019.

On the enhancements front, we also recently announced a major project for TPC Sugarloaf, launching this calendar year, the scope of which encompasses the golf course’s 27 holes, the clubhouse, and the Sports Center.

Additionally, we are anxiously awaiting the reopening of TPC Sawgrass’ PLAYERS Stadium Course, Home of THE PLAYERS Championship, this November upon the completion of a significant course enhancement.

In addition to the exciting course enhancements, we were pleased to announce the addition of two new TPC properties to bring our TPC Network to a total of 34 clubs. We are thrilled to welcome TPC Colorado located

Fall in Berthoud just north of Denver, which is currently being constructed and is scheduled to open in 2018. We have also continued our expansion internationally with the recent announcement of TPC Kuala Lumpur, located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which will continue to host the PGA TOUR’s annual CIMB Classic. TPC Kuala Lumpur becomes the Network’s first facility in Southeast Asia, and will also hold the distinction of being Southeast Asia’s first TPC-branded facility to ever host an official PGA TOUR event.

We are anxious to see the outcome of the upcoming FedExCup Playoff event— the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston, as well as kicking off the 2016-2017 season with the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin. As we near the end of the 2015-2016 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 round of golf at one of our 34 properties, Fall looks to be the season of more good golf, and we look forward to having you be a part of it.

Charlie Zink Chairman PGA TOUR Golf Course Properties The Presidents Cup THE PLAYERS Championship

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Editor’s Letter

In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable.

John Steinbeck

L

oneliness had little to do with this issue’s main story on trees—if anything, the experience I had with a man named Floyd Leverton was that much more remarkable because it was witnessed by so many people I trust (p36). But loneliness does factor into Floyd’s life, I think, and into the life of Mileece, a friend and sonic artist who, like Floyd, occupies a space slightly ahead of the mainstream, a space that’s as often ridiculed as it is misunderstood and, sometimes, as overly embraced for its surface value as it is ignored for its substance. If there’s a common thread among Floyd, Mileece, and others we’ve profiled, it’s that excellence and its pursuit often come down to solo efforts, even if the rewards from those efforts are widely shared.

Consider professional golfers and the countless hours they spend alone working on the skills that others later might take for granted in some ways—not maliciously, mind you, but certainly few fans of the game seriously consider the grind of solo work sessions when watching pros display their seemingly effortless abilities on course. Likewise, the history of General Motors and Cadillac is filled with many individual efforts, unheralded names who pushed through the night to fulfill their individual tasks as part of building a greater whole (p100). Why did George Washington’s older half-brother decide to sail to Cartagena, Colombia

(p106) and how did America benefit from that adventure?

What drove Mike Jones as a young man to spend so many hours alone practicing the skills that one day would turn him into a Super Bowl legend (p56)? And what about all of the individual employees on the PGA TOUR and in the TPC Network who give so much of their time to this game we all love so much? Loneliness may be a necessary component of greatness, with the irony being that when that greatness comes to fruition its creator might find him or herself isolated by virtue of mass appeal. Here’s to celebrating great moments close at hand, then, and to supporting the individuals among us who are chasing excellence. And here’s to having the strength to accept a little loneliness, if need be, in our individual pursuits to be the best we can be. In the end all of us benefit from such efforts, and so we’re all in it together—and that’s how we’ll celebrate.

With you,

Reade Tilley

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Publisher’s Foreword

I

All about teamwork

t is precisely mid-way between the end of the Olympics’ golf tournament and the start of this year’s Ryder Cup as I write this, and I’m optimistic. My hope for Hazeltine is that the finish of this year’s matches can be as tight and as exciting as the battle between Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson in Brazil and that—particularly in these divisive times—the two teams demonstrate the same spirit of respect in the fierce heat of battle that the gold and silver medallists so admirably evidenced in Rio. Congratulations also to Inbee Park, who won the women’s gold, and to every other every competitor on course. Despite the Zika scare, those in attendance clearly were proud to represent their countries and honored to have been selected to do so. By participating, they demonstrated respect for that selection and gave something back to the game that gives them such a good living.

The Olympics call to mind another great international competition in the game, The World Cup of Golf, which the International Golf Association has so admirably administered for so long. Not only has it grown the game, introducing it to potential golfers all over the world, but the IGA itself has helped the communities in which golf operates with charitable donations to groups like The First Tee, which recently benefited again from the IGA’s efforts.

Likewise, the TPC Network has made a tremendous difference in the communities in which it operates—and accordingly it has been heavily awarded for those efforts (and for the great golf it offers, of course!). Congratulations to all the managers, greenskeepers, merchandisers, chefs,

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food and beverage teams and to everyone else who works so hard to keep those awards coming, and we certainly look forward to many more. It’s nice to be recognized, even if so many individual efforts in the TPC Network are made with no thought of reward.

One figure in the game who’s always exemplified that is Arnold Palmer, and every golfer knows he has contributed enormously to the game. Still, there’s much about the man we don’t know, and some of that is found in a new book, A Life Well Played. Among other things, it taught me that Arnie has never charged to return items sent in to him for autographing, and that he spends roughly $250,000 a year making sure the items get back to their owners. And how much does that mean to the fans whose items he’s signed?

Among them, surely, are a few kids who represent the future of the game—something I believe lies in mixed play. I was delighted this summer, then, when my own 8-year-old daughter hit her first 150-yard drive and made birdie at one of my favorite courses, Quinta do Lago in Portugal. As long as she waits a while before outdriving me, all will be good in the world!

Matthew Squire

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Contents

Issue 9 Sumer 2016

46 56 60 68 76 82 94 100 106

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World Game

Gold Star

Climbing Trees

How the IGA and the World Cup of Golf make a difference

A world of awards for the amazing TPC Network

Opening up to the art and science of arboreal conversations

Perfect Drive Autumn provides a great reason for a New England road trip More Than One Tackle We reminisce on the Rams’ 1999 season with Mike Jones New Again It’s not a Renaissance—Palm Springs is always moving forward Root & Branch Looking up at some of golf’s living legends A Timeless Classic Bernhard Langer looks forward to his favorite event, the Ryder Cup Made for match play 18 holes that have made Ryder Cup history Pick it Up The when, how and whats of concession So many choices A full day driving all that Cadillac has to offer One Time in Cartagena Colombia’s coastal city and its piratical past

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Contents

Issue 9 Fall 2016

132

138

168

Sipping by the Bay

The strange story of Chaco

New Holiday Table

We head to Islay in Scotland’s Hebrides to visit the Lagavulin distillery as it marks its double century

112 115 123 144 148 154 160 164 172 178

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How a small town in Argentina has produced three of the best in the game

The family holiday meal, reconsidered and restructured for modern tastes

Nicholas Air Flying high with the top choice in private aviation TPC Signature Holes Beautiful destinations within the TPC Network Gift Guide Fall options for that special gift Top Game Only one sport will do for Insperity A flash of lightning How gin has become the clear choice for any occasion Sharp Success is in the details with these accessories Desert Oasis Bar Beautiful cocktails from the expert at Seymour’s All American Home Made right here in the U.S. of A. Over / Under Deciding where to hit when a tree blocks your path to the green 80 acres of corn Remembering Dave Hill’s alternative view on Hazeltine

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Global Game 22

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W

entworth had never seen anything like it, and neither had golf. More than 20,000 fans swelled the fairways of the storied English club in June of 1956, comprising what was at the time one of the largest crowds ever to gather for a golf tournament. The competitors were the world’s best, top players from all over the globe, but they weren’t in England for the Open Championship—that would be contested the following week at Royal Liverpool. The week of June 24th, the players and fans were in Surrey for The Canada Cup, and though they might not have known it at the time, they were engaging in one of the greatest examples of sports diplomacy in history: The World Cup of Golf.

The tournament that began in 1953 as The Canada Cup received a name change in 1967, when it became known by its more appropriate moniker, The World Cup of Golf. From 1955 to 1999, two-man teams representing the top-ranked players from a wide array of countries competed over 72 holes of stroke play for a trophy and a cash award, with an additional individual award, the International Trophy, going to the man with the best 72-hole score. The tournament was played every year from its inception through 2009, at which point it became a biennial event, with a format that adjusted slightly over the years. With a winners’ list containing many of the the greatest names in the game, names like Palmer, Nicklaus, Hogan, Snead, Trevino and Ballesteros, along with

Ben Hogan at the Canada Cup, 1956

The International Golf Association and The World Cup of Golf have long worked to bring the world together via the game. Building a strong future with support of initiatives and organizations like The First Tee, the IGA also celebrates a tremendous history of outreach and diplomacy, one that begins and ends with golf.

Gary Crist looks ahead, and back, on a legacy of excellence:

modern champions like Jason Day, Matt Kuchar, Bernhard Langer and Tiger Woods, among others, The World Cup of Golf’s rather modest beginnings underlie its endurance.

The latter is as much a testament to the market acumen of its founder as it is to the integrity of his beliefs—chief among them, that golf can save the world.

“It is my hope that the International Tournament will serve through the spirit of the game to bind people together. The thousands, and hopefully, ultimately millions who watch these sportsmen must inevitably recognize the common bond that links all nations.”

So said John J. Hopkins, an industrialist primarily known as the founder and longtime head of General Dynamics, but who also could be considered the father of international golf.

Hopkins, the California-born son of a Presbyterian minister, believed the game could serve as a mechanism of diplomacy, that the values and principles extolled in its performance were universally shared and most easily displayed on a golf course. A sharp industrialist who combined Electric Boat, Canadair Ltd. and other notable firms to create industrial heavyweight General Dynamics, he put his golfing convictions into play when he founded The Canada Cup in 1953, with the inaugural event in Montreal going to the Argentine team of Antonio Cerdá and Roberto De Vicenzo.

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Golf taught me: Perseverance Respect Confidence All of the above

In elementary schools, on golf courses and at youth centers across the country, The First Tee is teaching life-enhancing skills that empower young people to make decisions for their future. Get involved today. www.thefirsttee.org

Commitment Describing the goal of his tournament as “international goodwill through golf,” Hopkins believed golf’s attributes were well presented via gentlemanly behavior during fierce competition, and so The World Cup of Golf matured into a strong test of ability and sportsmanship, capturing fans’ hearts and growing the game in the process.

Driving it forward was the International Golf Association (IGA), established in 1956 as a not-for-profit New York corporation through which Hopkins’ goal would be realized. The IGA operated the World Cup event from 1956 through 1999, and during this period the World Cup was staged all over the planet—in Japan, Spain, Italy, China, South Africa, New Zealand, and a host of other locales where the tournament is credited as having had a significant role in growing the game.

Game growth and diplomacy via golf are still prominent goals for the event, which secured its continued enhancement and prominence via a partnership with the PGA TOUR in 2000. This association has allowed the IGA to add to its legacy of “international goodwill through golf” through the substantial financial support of charitable programs consistent with its mission. As just one example: since 2009 IGA has been responsible for donations to The First Tee totaling $1.75 million (see sidebar: First Tee).

This complements the World Golf Foundation’s First Tee initiative to introduce youth around the world to golf’s benefits and values, and it reinforces IGA’s mission with The World Cup of Golf.

Speaking on behalf of IGA’s Board of Directors, current IGA Chairman, Jonathan S. Linen has stated the view that financial support of The First Tee is an ideal method of preserving Hopkins’ vision and extending the accomplishment of the IGA’s international goodwill mission, and one has to look no further than the abundance of young international talent coming out of First Tee programs and other global initiatives to see that IGA’s efforts are working.

With regard to The World Cup of Golf specifically, if the past is anything to go by, then we can expect a future of fantastic golf.

Supporting The First Tee The International Golf Association and The World Cup of Golf are continuing to support The First Tee in 2016, pledging $250,000 to support The First Tee’s youth development programs.

“The First Tee brings golf and its ideals and values to kids, particularly those in under-developed cities and economically challenged localities, and they do a wonderful job,” states Jon Linen, Chairman of the IGF. “We think of the World Cup from its inception as building the game of golf and promoting goodwill through the game, and a microcosm of this is what The First Tee does. The First Tee promotes the same values and goodwill but to different constituents so it is a perfect marriage for the IGA. The differences The First Tee makes to young lives are fantastic.

“We are donating $250,000 to The First Tee this year but the total contribution we have made over the years totals $1.75 million.”

Action The 2013 event was particularly enjoyable for fans who attended as it was taken by two locals, Australians Jason Day and Adam Scott playing at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club.

Named the 2013 ISPS Handa World Cup of Golf, a slightly new format with an emphasis on individual play saw the duo take the team prize and Day lock up the individual award with 10 under over 72 holes. This also was the first World Cup event in which Official World Golf Ranking points were awarded, and with a total purse of $8 million the event’s relevance and importance couldn’t be overstated.

Whether or not the Day/Scott team will continue World Cup success has yet to be determined, but they have a long way to go to catch Fred Couples and Davis Love III, easily the most successful pairing in the Cup’s history with four consecutive victories between 1992 and 1995. Their third win in particular was quite inspiring for Americans, coming at Dorado Beach in Puerto Rico on the heels of a tough year for U.S. talent. Then at the height of their powers, Couples and Love had battled injuries throughout the year

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and watched foreigners take all four majors (the Masters went to José María Olazábel, the U.S. Open to Ernie Els and The [British] Open and PGA to Nick Price). Canada had taken the Dunhill Cup, the U.S. had fallen below Zimbabwe, Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Spain and South Africa in the Sony Ranking and it looked as if the international year was going to be a wash for the Americans. But Couples and Love dominated the World Cup, eventually taking the team trophy with a 14-shot victory over the second-place Zimbabwean team of Mark McNulty and Tony Johnstone and winning the individual honor with Couples’ 23-under total 265. Together they’d scored 40 under, breaking a tournament record that had stood for more than 20 years (a 32-under 544 set by Australia’s Bruce Devlin and David Graham in 1970 in Buenos Aires). Their three-peat (which became a four-peat the following year) was also a first, besting back-to-back victories by Palmer/Nicklaus, although that team managed two sets of consecutive wins (in 1963-64 and again in 1966-67).

Beyond a single country having reason to celebrate, the game as a whole has benefitted and has been invigorated by the Cup, perhaps most notably at the before-mentioned 1956 event at Wentworth. Featuring players from all over the globe, including Ben Arda from the Philippines, Tomekichi Miyamoto from Japan, Argentine legend Roberto De Vicenzo and a 20-year-old Gary Player from South Africa, the crowds were immense. As one half of the ultimately victorious American team Ben Hogan said at the time, “That crowd—I don’t mind a lot of people, but I never saw anything like that but once before. That was at Carnoustie (where Hogan took the 1953 Open Championship).” Quoted on a Facebook page dedicated to Hogan’s legacy (@benhogangolf), a piece on the 1956 World Cup goes on to offer that “dozens of times the usually staid and well-mannered English broke through the rope barriers and disregarded orders and pleas by the 400 stewards. Hundreds of them climbed trees around the course and a few fell from the upper branches.”

Playing with Sam Snead, Hogan and his partner took the trophy and Hogan took the individual award, putting the exclamation point on one of golf ’s most exciting tournaments to date, one that had been a true international celebration of the game. If one notable party at the time was absent, even that wasn’t due to a lack of goodwill, according to reports at the time. A 1956 article in England’s The Spectator newspaper written by Frank Littler claims that Hopkins had invited the USSR to participate in the tournament, but the country’s officials had declined. From the article: “There are no irons behind the Curtain, and Russia’s polite abstention derived from this fact rather than from any abhorrence of the cult of personality.”

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Beyond a single country having reason to celebrate, all of golf has benefitted from the tournament Legacy There were Irish victories in 1958 (Harry Bradshaw and Christy O’Connor) and 1997 (Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley); a Taiwanese win in 1972, the same year President Nixon visited mainland China (Hsieh Min-Nan and Lu Liang-Huan); Welsh triumphs in 1987 (David Llewellyn and Ian Woosnam) and again in 2005 (Stephen Dodd and Bradley Dredge); and a host of exciting wins by Americans, South Africans, English, Japanese and others, making the Cup truly golf’s greatest global event.

The year after the Wentworth event, Japanese businessman Matsutaro Shoriki helped bring the tournament to Japan and perhaps best summed-up the tournament’s mission with his statement: “If the people of the world learn to play with each other, they will know better how to live with each other.” In that spirit, instituted by Hopkins so many years ago and carried by the IGA, the PGA TOUR, and so many fans and players, we’ll see you this November (21-27) at the famous Kingston Heath Golf Club in Australia.

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

The World Cup of Golf W HE N : November 21-27, 2016 W HE R E : Kingston Heath Golf Club, Australia W HAT :

K

And The Winner Is‌ A legacy of awards demonstrates that the TPC Network is building the best in the game, on course and off

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W

e all know that the TPC Network is one of the most respected golf course brands in the world—but how good is it really?

Turns out it’s amazing, and we have the proof. The now 34 clubs that comprise the TPC Network have earned hundreds of awards among them, nearly too many to count (we tried), and the total is growing so fast that we can’t be sure we caught them all at press time.

To anyone who has played a TPC course (and that should include nearly every serious fan of the game), awards for golf course excellence within the TPC Network will come as no surprise. But well beyond the golf itself, TPC Network properties have earned accolades for their dining, clubhouses, operational management and commitment to the environment, and those awards are a testament to the high standards to which TPC Network properties are held, with solid performances across all categories a top priority.

More important than the awards received by TPC Network properties, however, are the personal rewards gained in those properties giving back to the communities in which they operate as local representatives of the PGA TOUR. In this as well the TPC Network has demonstrated excellence in so many ways, further fulfilling its and the PGA TOUR’s founding principles of charitable giving, growing the game, and commitment to exceptional quality in golf standards.

Here, then, is a quick look at just some of the accolades earned by TPC Network properties, and a few examples of how they’ve given back.

Nearly every TPC property has found itself on a “best” list

TPC Sawgrass

Courses It didn’t take long for the TPC Network to get noticed and, fittingly, the recognition began with the course that started it all: TPC Sawgrass. The groundbreaking design by Pete and Alice Dye opened in 1980 and proved a stiff challenge, with lightning-fast greens and plenty of strategic options. A quick redesign in 1983 polished the course to perfection and Golf Digest noticed, placing TPC Sawgrass on its “America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses” list for the first time—but certainly not for the last. The course has been a longtime resident of the list and, in fact, sits on it now, at No.47, more than three decades after it first appeared.

Of course, TPC Sawgrass is far from the only TPC Network course to be so honored; nearly every TPC Network course has found its way onto a “best” list of some sort. Consider that Golf Digest’s America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses; 100 Greatest Public Courses; Best Courses in Florida, Texas, and California; and Best Courses in 206 Countries; Golfweek’s Best State-by-State Courses You Can Play; Best Modern Courses; and Best Classic Courses; Golf Channel’s Golf Advisor Top 50 Public Courses in the U.S.; and Golf Magazine’s Best Golf Communities in America all feature TPC Network properties—for 2015/2016 alone. Go back, and you’ll find that TPCs comprise a fair number of the “best courses” awarded since TPC Sawgrass first made the list back in 1983, and that doesn’t even include the numerous local and regional awards earned by TPC courses, like TPC Boston being declared Course of the Year for 2016 by the New England Golf Course Owner’s Association. Altogether, the awards point to TPCs being responsible for some of the best golf in the world—and it’s only the beginning.

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TPC Network courses give back to the communities in which they operate Giving Back

Sawgrass Clubhouse

Amenities At TPC Network properties, performance off the course is as important as the golf, and so it’s no wonder that numerous clubs in the TPC Network have been awarded for their golf shops, clubhouses, management and dining. With regards to the last, TPC restaurants are regularly lauded in local awards, as TPC Tampa Bay’s Chefs Michael Toscano and Wes Morton demonstrated in taking home three of eight awards given at a top Tampa food event last year. Furthermore, Chef Toscano has been recognized as a James Beard “Rising Star Chef” Semi-finalist, and the club’s ¡CUATRO restaurant is regularly heralded in local press. On a national level, TPC Sawgrass has earned recognition from Wine Enthusiast over the years as well as winning numerous Wine Spectator Awards of Excellence, most recently in 2015, and gaining an Opentable “Diner’s Choice” commendation that year, too.

TPC Tampa Bay has also earned awards for its shop, as have others in the TPC Network. TPCs Boston, Las Vegas, Jasna Polana, Deere Run, Craig Ranch, River Highlands, Sawgrass, and Summerlin all have been recognized as having top shops by the Association of Golf Merchandisers, with selections, layouts and service among the best in the country—something that likely will come as little surprise to club members and guests. Numerous TPC Network properties have also earned recognition for their clubhouses in general, with Golf Inc. Magazine lauding both TPC Sawgrass and TPC Boston specifically and regional and local media routinely praising TPC Network properties around the world.

And thinking globally, it’s worth noting that the TPC awards aren’t limited to American shores. Both Latin American courses to join under the TPC banner—TPC Cartagena in Colombia and TPC Dorado Beach in Puerto Rico—have been recognized by Golf Digest as among the finest in their respective countries. Now, with the new TPC Kuala Lumpur in Southeast Asia it shouldn’t be long before the accolades are coming from even further afield.

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Beyond awards for performance and course excellence, all of the PGA TOUR’s owned and operated TPC properties are proud certified members of the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf, reflecting a commitment to uphold environmental excellence and sustainability in golf course operations. To receive this certification, courses must uphold environmental excellence in golf course operations, practicing sound land management and conservation. There are only 910 courses in the world sharing this honor, making the designation that much more distinctive, and numerous environmental awards for TPC properties from the likes of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America and others bear testament to the TPC Network’s commitment to protecting and maintaining our communities.

This commitment is further supported by the charity work and outreach in which TPC Network properties regularly participate. As part of the PGA TOUR’s substantial efforts for charity, TPC Network properties have provided tournament venues, aiding the TOUR’s mission to generate significant charitable and economic impact in those communities. In 2016 alone, TPC Network clubs will host 19 events across the PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions and Web.com Tour, bringing their event total to over 400 professional golf tournaments since 1985. The Network also supports charities and foundations through their own fundraising events. In the first half of 2016, TPCs raised nearly $545,000 for national charities such as Birdies for the Brave and The First Tee, as well as benefitting local nonprofit organizations “adopted” by individual clubs in order to make a difference in their respective communities.

For example, TPC River’s Bend hosts the annual Think Pink Cure Golf Tournament benefitting the Mary Jo Cropper Family Center for Breast Care, a former member who lost her battle to the disease in 2011. Another example stems from TPC Twin Cities, where a group of 60 philanthropic women called TPC Rose raise money through golf to support local nonprofits.

In addition to a steadfast commitment to service, efforts to support the PGA TOUR’s mission to grow the game are also on the rise within the TPC Network.

Since 2014, TPC Network clubs have hosted more than 15 qualifiers for Drive, Chip and Putt. Youth participants get

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TPC Award List 2015/2016 Golf Inc. Operator of the Year: • Lee Smith TPC Summerlin • Brad Williams TPC Scottsdale Golf Digest America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses • #47 TPC Sawgrass Golf Digest America’s 100 Greatest Public Golf Courses • #10 TPC Sawgrass • #29 TPC Old White at the Greenbrier • #68 TPC San Antonio Golf Digest Best Courses in Florida • #2 TPC Sawgrass Golf Digest Best Courses in Texas • #14 TPC San Antonio • #19 TPC Craig Ranch Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses 2016 • #22 TPC Sawgrass Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses 2015 • #99 TPC Old White at Greenbrier Golf Magazine Best Golf Communities in America • TPC Dorado Beach

a taste of what it’s like to compete on the same courses as their favorite TOUR players, and the experiences can have a huge impact and make a lifelong impression. Along similar lines, another major development for youth arose from an existing relationship with Southern Nevada Junior Golf Association (SNJGA), as TPC Las Vegas became the first course in Nevada to participate in the national Youth on Course Program. This initiative encourages youth involvement by offering affordable $5 rates all summer long. TPC Las Vegas isn’t alone, of course, with other TPC courses initiating their own programming designed to reach youth. Since 2013, TPC Network clubs have fielded more than 25 teams for PGA Junior League, meaning the future of the game is in good hands.

Three TPCs recognized among “America’s 100 Greatest Public Golf Courses” by Golf Digest, 12 listed as “Best State-by-State Courses You Can Play” by Golfweek, five qualifying as “Top 50 Public Courses in the US” by Golf Channel’s Golf Advisor and 12 Platinum Awards for clubs boasting the nation’s best golf shops by the Association of Golf Merchandisers—and these are just recent accolades.

Taken together, all of the awards, the community

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Golfweek’s Best State-by-State Courses You Can Play 2016 • #1 Florida—TPC Sawgrass, PLAYERS Stadium • #1 West Virginia—The Greenbrier, Old White TPC • #2 Louisiana—TPC Louisiana • #3 Illinois—TPC Deere Run • #6 Texas—TPC San Antonio, Oaks • #10 South Carolina—TPC Myrtle Beach, Murrells Inlet • #10 Texas—TPC Four Seasons • #11 Arizona—TPC Scottsdale, Stadium • #14 Nevada—TPC Las Vegas • #20 California—TPC Harding Park • #20 Texas—TPC San Antonio, Canyons • #25 Florida—TPC Sawgrass, Dye’s Valley Golf Channel’s Golf Advisor Top 50 Public Courses in the U.S. • #21 TPC Sawgrass • #25 TPC Harding Park • #26 The Old White TPC at Greenbrier • #33 TPC Scottsdale • #41 TPC Deere Run Golf Digest Best Courses in 206 Countries • #1 TPC Dorado Beach (East)—Puerto Rico • #1 TPC Cartagena at Karibana—Colombia • #4 TPC Dorado Beach (West)—Puerto Rico • #47 TPC Sawgrass (Stadium)—U.S.

outreach, the work with the environment and with youth, comprises a legacy of commitment to something much greater than the individual properties within the TPC Network: it demonstrates dedication to golf itself and to serving TPC members, guests, fans of the game, and our communities to the best of our ability. Steadfastly committed to that, and as the Network continues to grow (construction of TPC Colorado was announced earlier this summer), we’re sure you can look for more awards on your clubhouse walls soon.

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CLIMBING TREES

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THE INCIDENT:

A man told me a tree was going to fall over.

I asked him how he knew.

“The tree told me,” he said.

“You’re crazy,” I thought.

And then the tree fell over.

On December 30, 2014, Floyd Leverton arrived at our property in Malibu, California. He was there to look at our trees, which have grown where they liked, largely unchecked, for who knows how long. A Canary Island palm, royal palms, myoporum, pomegranates, California pepper, bananas, acacias, two olive trees, a rogue pine and numerous others of various shapes and sizes are scattered all over our three acres, which a friend calls “the forest.” But as with much of coastal California, eucalyptus are the dominant residents, with a tall stand of them at the bottom of the property and plenty more along the borders.

We’d had windstorms that autumn and my mother-in-law was concerned that things might start falling. I’d called an arborist, the arborist had suggested Floyd as a tree trimmer, and so here he was—tank top, tattoo, blue fingernails and all. “He’s eccentric,” the arborist had said, “but I think you’ll like him.” We didn’t care what he looked like, we just wanted someone who could handle the job, and she’d also said that Floyd was one of the best in the state, if not the country. More than that, she added, “he’s not a butcher. He’s considerate,” and that was important to us.

It was about 4pm, and we could feel the wind picking up. My motherin-law was asking Floyd various questions about the trees, his opinion on the state of the land, when work might start and so on. Then she asked if he thought any of our trees would fall down soon, “Like that one, for example,” she said, casually gesturing toward a tall eucalyptus nearby. “Oh I guess that’s a silly question,” she quickly added. “There’s no way you could know that. I mean, it’s not like you can talk to the trees and ask them if they’re going to fall down.”

And then Floyd said it: “Actually, I can.”

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The text I sent Floyd the morning the tree fell, narrowly missing (avoiding?) my car

“Of all the trees on your property, I wouldn’t let my grandson play under this one. It’s going to fall down”

Floyd asked if he could have permission to speak to the tree. “Sure,” my mother-in-law said, smiling and shooting me a “this should be interesting” glance, which I returned with my own East Coast smirk. My mother-in-law is a California girl, like my wife, but even she didn’t seem to be buying it, standing there with her arms crossed and a look that seemed to say, “We’ll enjoy the show and then we’ll move on.”

Floyd walked over to the tree, which was more than two stories tall and which had lived next to the house for more than 40 years, and he just stood there, about 20 feet away from us. He put his hand on his chin at one point, cocked his head to the side and he might have gestured with his hands a few times, as if he and the tree were having a conversation over lunch. If I’d come across him in a city park I’d have thought, “Wacko. Just another day in LA.” After five minutes or so Floyd walked back to tell us what he’d learned, and it went something like this: “This tree is very happy

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that it had a chance to talk with someone.

It’s been in distress for a long time, for many years. It’s been doing its best to hold itself up, but it’s about to fall. It wants you to know that it has enjoyed being here and it really likes your family. It also wants you to know that it doesn’t want to hurt anyone or damage any property. Now that it has told you this it says it feels unburdened and it’s going to let go. Out of all of the trees on your property, I wouldn’t let my grandson play under this one or anywhere near it. This tree is going to fall at any moment, maybe tonight.”

We thanked Floyd for his time, he climbed into his pickup truck and left. Less than eight hours later, the tree fell down.

When I looked out our front door in the morning, over the deck that had been pushed into the air by the roots of the tree when it fell, I couldn’t see my car and I assumed that it had been flattened.

I’d parked it under the tree, as usual, and I hadn’t moved it—that’s how seriously I had taken Floyd. After walking into the

tree’s canopy, which now covered my vehicle, I discovered something amazing: the tree had only grazed the back of my SUV, sheered off the rear windshield wiper and put a half-inch ding in my bumper. A tree with a trunk so big I could just get my arms around it had missed—avoided?—my car by less than an inch. I drove out of the tree with the glass roof of my vehicle, like the rest of it, intact.

Looking at the downed eucalyptus I felt bad for it. How long it had stood there, and it said that it had been struggling.

But wait a minute… “It said.” Then I felt confused. There were even the beginnings of anger when my journalistic instincts went to the dark side and I questioned whether the tree had told Floyd it was going to fall down—or whether Floyd had told the tree to fall down. But that was crazy, questioning his ability to control trees, which means that I had already accepted that he could communicate with them. But couldn’t he? Could he?

THE TREE MAN “There are a lot of things that the eye doesn’t see that are actually taking place, that are real,” Floyd tells me in UCLA’s botanical gardens, more than a year after the tree fell.

“I’ve been blessed and fortunate enough to allow myself to step into some real stuff of being able to actually listen to trees and to do a communication with them and hear what they have to say. I ask them questions, and most of the time I will get some answers, like that day I was at your place.”

It wasn’t always like this. Floyd says he had his awakening, as he calls it, five or six years ago, around the time he turned 60.

An event with a tree on a client’s property led him to question everything he thought he knew.

“I was freaked out and I thought that there was something invisible going on that had something to do with other dimensions,” he says. “I had studied a little quantum physics at the time, string theory, and I found a grad student and he and I would meet and talk, but I wasn’t getting anywhere.”

A contact suggested Floyd go to a meditation group, and though he says he was skeptical he also felt he needed answers, so he went. “It was very difficult for me, because I’m very active and driven, and at the time it was that I’m a rock climber, I’m a master SCUBA diver, I ride motorcycles, I have my rifles that I practice with, my guns.

I was a very aggressive male and I would do my marital arts, and then someone at the meditation group says ‘You should go see a psychic.’ I’d never seen one. I thought ‘OK maybe this guy will have something.’”

His experience with the psychic left him even more confounded, he says, but still curious, and so he continued on his path, which then led to a Native American man.

“He said, ‘My father is an elder, a medicine man, and he’s been waiting for you.’

His father, an elder Apache, adopted me. He said ‘I’m adopting you, you’re my son.’ And I started to be taught. This process of listening to trees, it’s not imaginary ‘fa la la’ stuff, it’s real... I began to relax myself and to settle in

and to trust and to listen to the voice or the voices and realize that it’s not my thoughts, it’s whispers from tree spirits—there are tree spirits, there are other spirits around us that are overlapping and interweaving simultaneously on this planet. And so I began to allow myself to believe that stuff like this is possible, and as I allowed myself to believe I shifted away from my locked-in male aggressive attitude and belief system that had served me so well for the beginning of my 60 years… And I began to look at these healers and these energy workers and these medicine men and women, and see that when they no longer take ownership for being judgmental, when they no longer take ownership for being afraid, for being aggressive or angry, when they stand neutral and ask, then things begin to happen and things unfold and truths are expressed and shown. And so that’s where my communication, my sensitivities, have increased to the point where it happened that day when I went out with you guys to take a look and do the estimate on your eucalyptus.”

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“We’re always so surprised when another life form turns out to be much smarter than we thought”

THE ARTIST “What I’m not is a traditional musician,” Mileece told VICE’s Motherboard in 2013.

In her 20s, the English sound designer was the resident artist at the London School of Economics, forwarding interactions that sought to give a voice to plants, translating their naturally occurring electrical currents into sound via a sophisticated software and hardware setup of her own design.

“The way that it works is that you have a plant and you put an electrode on it, which can be used to conduct that current coming off the leaf, and then it goes into an amplifier and then the amplifier gets turned into binary code and then the software takes that data and animates sound.”

Her work has been featured in installations and performances at such venues as MoMA in New York, the Migros Museum in Zurich, and many others around the world. Key to her efforts, she told me, is dispelling the notion of a natural hierarchy of communication, which we’re taught to embrace from a very young age.

“We’re always discovering new things that are going on with life that we have assumed is at a low level,” she says. “It’s a sad fact, why we have the skepticism, and also it becomes that we become incredulous of communication that reaches into those realms we can’t easily perceive but which touch on things that science says cannot be realizable. We have been taught to have

dominion over the Earth, and we’ve been taught ‘survival of the fittest,’ and we’ve been taught these things that give us this character, and in that context we have a hard time allowing ourselves to interface or to have some kind of intelligent exchange with other life forms. We’re always so surprised when it turns out they’re much smarter than we thought. It’s not a trend that we’ve discovered that life is less intelligent. That has never happened. We’ve never thought something was more intelligent and then found out that it was stupid—except for humans. We should look at that, that trend of experiencing the world and becoming more and more able to qualify and to quantify intelligence.”

In the 2013 interview, Mileece laid out her long-held view on plants and intelligence, a view that is becoming more mainstream: “I do think plants are sentient. I know they’re sentient. No one in science can answer to you what consciousness is. No one. But what we do is, we like to say consciousness is derived from having a central processing unit, as in ‘the brain,’ which plants do not have. But they do have conglomerations of tiny cells that function like brains, because they can take information, they can assess information, and then they can make decisions about that information and they can update it in real time.”

She’s right.

THE SCIENTISTS “It was just a massive mat of intertwining exposed roots that you could walk across and never fall through,” said Suzanne Simard, speaking to National Public Radio’s Radiolab in a segment called From Tree to Shining Tree, about the time she dug a hole to help the family dog out of a bind and exposed an extensive root network.

The experience prompted Simard, then working in the timber industry, to consider how trees interacted.

“When I came onto the scene in the 1980s as a forester we were into industrial large scale clearcutting in western Canada,” she told NPR, explaining that timber companies would clearcut huge patches of forest, then re-plant the area with new trees.

“My job was to track how these new plantations would grow.” She began to notice that differing tree species weren’t behaving as expected: they weren’t shading each other out for sunlight or fighting over resources. Instead, some kind of symbiotic relationship was at play, which she first noticed in the case of a Birch tree and a Fir tree. If she took out the Birch, “the Douglas Fir became diseased and died,” she said. “There was some kind of benefit from the Birch to the Fir, there was a healthier community when they were mixed, and I wanted to figure out why.”

Simard devised a simple experiment: she isolated trees by covering them with

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“We don’t normally ascribe ‘intelligence’ to plants, and plants are not thought to have brains, but when we look at the belowground structure it looks so much like a brain physically, and now that we’re starting to understand how it works we’re going ‘Wow, there are so many parallels.’”

“They talk about how honeybee colonies are sort of ‘super-organisms’ because each individual bee is sort of acting like it’s a cell in a larger body,” adds Frazer. “Once you understand that trees are all connected... they’re all signaling each other, sending food and resources to each other, it has the feel, the flavor of something very similar.”

THE POSSIBILITIES

It’s as if individual trees are thinking ahead to the needs of the whole forest plastic bags, then injected them with radioactive isotopes, which could be tracked as they moved through the trees’ roots. The pattern of distribution ultimately proved that trees of completely different species were sharing food underground. In fact, Simard found that any given tree could be connected to 47 other trees around it, with the biggest and oldest trees most connected.

Jennifer Frazer, who writes the Scientific American blog, The Artful Amoeba, and who also was interviewed for Radiolab, said the tree communications network has become known as “The Wood-Wide Web.” Driving it are small—perhaps a tenth the width of a human eyelash—white, translucent, hairy threads of fungi, as NPR’s host described them. According to the segment, there can be up to seven miles of these “hairs” in a single pinch of dirt.

Once “the fungus” had been discovered, scientists realized that what had appeared to be threads were actually tubes, a hollow network connecting one tree to the next.

Among other functions, the network delivers minerals to the trees, with the fungus breaking down rocks (and even fish) then delivering nutrients to the trees that

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need them. In return, the trees provide sugar to the fungus (which can’t photosynthesize) so that it can grow. Beyond minerals, the network facilitates sophisticated communications, including warnings issued by trees under attack to other trees nearby.

The phenomenon has been well documented, and it’s been proven that if a forest is being infested by beetles, say, trees under attack send out a kind of alert signal, which prompts neighboring trees to produce toxins that repel the invader, that taste bad to it, for example.

“The other important thing we figured out,” Simard told the program, “is that as those trees are injured and dying, they’ll dump their carbon into their neighbors. So carbon will move from that dying tree—so its resources, its legacy—will move into the network, into neighboring trees.

“One of the weirdest parts of this, though, is when sick trees give up their food, the food doesn’t usually go to their kids or even to trees of the same species… It ends up very often with trees that are new in the forest and better at surviving global warming. It’s as if the individual trees were somehow thinking ahead to the needs of the whole forest.”

“You go to a garden like this [at UCLA], forget about having any kind of sensitivity about spirituality or awakening, you just walk through a place like this and you can listen to the silence and you know that there’s something else going on, you know that there’s peace, you know that there’s love,” says Floyd. “I like the monarchs, the patriarchs, the trees that have been around for a long enough time and have a connection with so many of the other trees; those are the ones I like, personally.

“Trees will help to guard us, they will help to absorb things from us. They will take our grief: some people don’t know, they can go and sit at a tree and ask its permission to absorb their grief from them, and the tree will.

“Now as I work with my trees, I just try and do the best I can. I make them safer so they’re not going to fail, have a branch break or fall over, but I really, really, really try and listen. I’ll argue with clients—‘No, I’m not going to cut that off’—my sensitivity has gotten even greater for it. I’m an advocate, and I never thought I’d be saying this, but I’m an advocate for these trees and this planet and for the children of this planet.”

FLOYD:

workerinthelight.com tree-guardian.com

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Giving it to the British at the Battle of Bennington

Colorful history

A New England road trip reveals the brilliance of autumn They were German, mostly, and in the August of 1777 they were spread throughout the forested hills west of Bennington, Vermont, fighting for the British. Few of the Hessians spoke English and fewer still knew the strategy for taking the town. They’d been told to stay put, await orders and not to shoot any man coming through the woods who had a bit of white paper tucked into his hat. Such men, they were told, would be Loyalists, using the paper to distinguish themselves from the enemy. But the enemy—Gen. John Stark and his men—knew about the “white paper” code, and so they adorned their headwear accordingly and walked into the German camps largely unchallenged, subsequently taking the mercenaries hostage, going on to kill hundreds of British troops and later compelling the surrender of the Red Coats’ commander, Gen. John Burgoyne.

The brilliantly organized Battle of Bennington, too-neatly summarized above, was a key victory in the War of Independence that resulted in a drop in native tribal support for the British and in France committing to the Americans’ cause. The battle has long been celebrated with an annual festival in Bennington and a monument that stands 306 feet over the town, although the town today is better known for pottery, fly fishing and the brilliant red-and-gold landscape that emerges as summer ends and the now-peaceful hills transform into a sea of autumnal colors.

Bennington makes a fine starting point for a weekend of leaf-watching, in fact, for a short road trip that crosses Vermont, dips into Massachusetts and which culminates just south of another key Colonial city, Boston. Even the greatest thirst for fall foliage will be quenched along the route, which can be traversed in as little as four hours if you like your reds and golds blurred through a window. But of course the trip is better savored over a long weekend, stopping for picture-taking, local fare and a glass or two of wine. And if there’s some great golf along the way, well that’s fine, too. Let’s get started:

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Vermont

The Bennington Battle Monument, built in 1891, is just two blocks away from Bennington’s Main Street, also called Hwy 9, also called the Molly Stark Byway. Named for Gen. Stark’s wife, the road commemorates Stark and an inspiring line he spoke to his men before the battle: “There are your enemies, the Red Coats and the Tories. They are ours, or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow!”

In fact Mrs. Stark died eight years before her husband, in 1814. The general, who had fought at Bunker Hill and later with George Washington at Princeton and at Trenton, lived until the age of 93. The trip along the highway named for his wife takes about an hour, east across the state from Bennington to Brattleboro, and depending on what time of day you’ve departed the leaves will be either brightly gleaming or subtly glowing. If it’s the latter, there might be an argument for dinner at T.J. Buckley’s, a charming restaurant sited in a restored 1925 Worcester Dining Car (tjbuckleysuptowndining.com). Surviving examples of the iconic barrel-roofed structures built by the Worcester Lunch Car Company, which contributed mightily to the aesthetic of the American diner, are scattered throughout this part of the country, and this one is as nice as they come.

Chef-owner Michael Fuller’s kitchen serves anything but standard diner fare, though, with locally sourced organic ingredients meeting his classic French training in brilliant

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ways. Menus vary with the seasons and are subject to availability, but expect plates like Rabbit Loin Wrapped in Jamon Serrano and Diver Scallops & Crispy Pork Belly, which, like all entrees, come with artisan bread and a salad that some claim is too beautiful to eat. If you have room, dessert might be a fresh Rosemary Chèvre gelato or a Chocolate Ganache Layer Cake brushed with rum syrup and layered with chocolate caramel ganache (finished with a dark chocolate glaze and toasted almonds). As a small restaurant—and it is small, seating only 20 or so—there’s nowhere near enough wall space to display all of the accolades it’s earned, and as long as you don’t mind paying cash it’s well worth a visit.

Example of a Worcester dining car

The River

Millers River

If you stayed the night in Brattleboro, wake up early enough to start the day at Crumpin-Fox Club in Bernardston, Massachusetts (golfthefox.com/crumpin-fox), just 20 minutes south on I-91 (add 10 minutes if you drive along the Connecticut River). It was conceived in 1969 from the heart as a “field of dreams” project, but it wasn’t really completed until 1990. Now, its pleasant clubhouse and 18 holes make for a good roadside game, especially in fall when the treelined fairways are awash in color. A number of Boston Red Sox players have dropped by, as has Aaron Lewis, lead singer of the band Staind, though we’re wondering if those guys came for the golf or to ride the GolfBoards. Crumpin-Fox has five of the surfboard-cum-golf carts on offer, which have you “surfing” the fairways, balanced with your bag perched like a maidenhead on the prow of the vehicle, leaning to steer and happily impressing (or annoying) everyone in a standard cart. We’re guessing the boards are better in the morning after a cup of coffee than they are in the late afternoon after a glass of not-coffee, but they do look awfully fun, and the fall colors here are fantastic.

From Bernardston, we turn east across the Connecticut River and head south to join Hwy 2A, which follows the Millers River and ambles through the numerous small towns along its banks. Cutting approximately 52 miles through Northern Massachusetts and part of New Hampshire, nearly 80 percent

of the river’s basin is forested, meaning the drive in autumn is done against a kaleidoscope of vibrant reds, golds, oranges and bronzes (preferably with a belly full of good cider and local baked goods). The river has long been known for fly fishing, particularly for native Brook Trout. Over time, manufacturing along the river saw a negative impact to the ecosystem and subsequently to the sport, but years of restorative work seem to have done the job as locals report the Millers is in great shape, stocked with Browns and Rainbows and with the native Brook population in form as well.

The town of Orange, just a half an hour from Bernardston, has a solid, if simple, local outfitter in Flagg’s Fly & Tackle (978-544-0034, no website), which gets great reviews from locals and which seems well equipped to handle essentials. A more sophisticated experience is found at Swift River Fly Fishing, just 10 minutes away in the town of New Salem (swiftriverflyfishing.com). With fly rods and reels from the best names in the business, including hand-built reels from father-son team Garry and James Mills of Mill Tackle Company in England, plus exquisite, hand-built rods from owner Rick Taupier, this appointment-only business looks to be a classic stop indeed. Taupier also sells beautiful wooden canoes optimized for anglers, top-quality waxed canvas packs, duck decoys from master carvers and a small selection of other tools of interest to discerning sportsmen.

Again, don’t just drop by; Swift River is appointment-only.

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Ross to Tiger

For non-anglers, you’ve a better chance of staying dry at the Ellinwood Country Club, just five miles east of Orange in the town of Athol (ellinwoodgolf.com). The club, which opened in 1929, is a kind of social hub for the area, hosting weddings and local events. But the beauty for golfers lies in its original nine holes, which were designed by Donald Ross. Upon arriving from Scotland in 1898, Ross’ first job was in Massachusetts, as a pro and designer at the Oakley Country Club in Watertown (which served Bobby Jones while he was at Harvard), and that club boasts Ross’ first commissioned golf course in America. The state as a whole features more Ross designs than any other: no fewer than 50 Massachusetts courses are either Ross designs or feature designs on which Ross worked. Ellinwood’s is reported to be in great shape and is rounded out by another nine holes added in 1965 by lauded course architect Geoffrey Cornish.

With its rolling terrain and well-considered challenges (not to mention its glorious tree-lined fairways that light up in autumn) this makes for a satisfying afternoon of golf.

However you spend your day, plan to stay the night at The International in Bolton, roughly an hour east of Athol (theinternational.com). A proper upscale resort and corporate retreat, lodging and amenities are first-rate and the on-site Fireplace Room restaurant will take care of your appetite, with Rosemary & Prosciutto Pizza, Grilled Chicken

Breast with Chorizo Hash and plenty of cold craft beers and beautiful wines. When you wake up, the Robert Trent Jonesdesigned Pines course awaits. Built in 1901, it was refined in 1954 by the prolific Cornish, with input from Francis Ouimet, and then renovated and polished by Trent Jones in 1972. At the time, it was the longest course in the world and one of the most difficult. Notably, it features Cornish’s infamously long “Tiger Tees,” so named years before Tiger Woods was born, which have the course playing to 8,325 yards. The Tom Fazio-designed Oaks course joined The Pines on the property in 2001, and with an “Impact Zone” science-based training facility as well The International is one of the region’s best golf destinations.

A Toast

Massachusetts features more Donald Ross-designed courses than any other state

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From The International, it’s a short walk (not quite three quarters of a mile) to the Nashoba Valley Winery (nashobawinery.com). Massachusetts isn’t necessarily the first state that comes to mind when one considers wine, but the winery here makes roughly 13 wines from grape varietals, including Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and another 22 from berries and fruits, including Strawberry Rhubarb wine and Semi-Sweet Blueberry wine. For the cautious, there’s hard cider and a number of beers available from the on-site Bolton Beer Works, while the adventurous can explore a selection of spirits that includes house-made vodka, gin, single malt whiskey, and “Foggy Bog.” The latter’s creation goes something like this: a geist made from cranberry and apple brandies is distilled, then the resulting cranberry brandy is blended with cranberry wine, cranberry juice concentrate, sugar and eight different spices. Bottled in 375ml bottles, it’s 21% alcohol by volume and 14% sugar by weight. The winery claims Foggy Bog is its best-selling spirit, and who are we to argue. It’s certainly a regionally

Ellinwood Country Club

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specific way to commemorate a visit to the area, and a solid reason to book two nights into The International (and to walk from the resort). If you do stick around for a second night, consider having dinner at the winery’s J’s Restaurant, with its nice selection of seafood, hearty venison and steak entrees and, of course, extensive libation options.

Feel free to sleep in the next morning as the final stop of the tour is less than an hour away. Sitting at 400 Arnold Palmer Boulevard in the town of Norton is the superlative and private TPC Boston, a perfect reason to join the PGA TOUR’s TPC Network if you aren’t already a member. Originally designed by golf legend Palmer, Gil Hanse revisited the layout in 2007. Host to the PGA TOUR’s Deutsche Bank Championship, TPC Boston is heavily awarded, very well regarded and simply stunning in autumn, when its perfectly manicured fairways and greens are gilded in bold fall finery—a top golf destination and a fitting end to a colorful road trip. Now where’s my glass of Foggy Bog…

TPC Boston provides some of the best golf anywhere Nashoba Valley Winery [above]; TPC Boston

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Are your bladder symptoms taking you off course?

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

Myrbetriq ® (mirabegron) is approved by the FDA to treat overactive bladder (OAB) symptoms of: Urgency

Frequency

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

Leakage

Visit MyBossyBladder.com for doctor discussion tips.

Ask your doctor if Myrbetriq may be right for you.

In clinical trials, those taking Myrbetriq made fewer trips to the bathroom and had fewer leaks than those not taking Myrbetriq. Your results may vary.

USE OF MYRBETRIQ® (MEER-BEH-TRICK) Myrbetriq® (mirabegron) is a prescription medicine for adults used to treat overactive bladder (OAB) with symptoms of urgency, frequency, and leakage.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION Myrbetriq is not for everyone. Do not use Myrbetriq if you have an allergy to mirabegron or any ingredients in Myrbetriq. Myrbetriq may cause your blood pressure to increase or make your blood pressure worse if you have a history of high blood pressure. It is recommended that your doctor check your blood pressure while you are taking Myrbetriq. Myrbetriq may increase your chances of not being able to empty your bladder. Tell your doctor right away if you have trouble emptying your bladder or you have a weak urine stream.

Myrbetriq may cause allergic reactions that may be serious. If you experience swelling of the face, lips, throat or tongue, with or without difficulty breathing, stop taking Myrbetriq and tell your doctor right away.

Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take including medications for overactive bladder or other medicines such as thioridazine (Mellaril™ and Mellaril-S™), flecainide (Tambocor®), propafenone (Rythmol®), digoxin (Lanoxin®). Myrbetriq may affect the way other medicines work, and other medicines may affect how Myrbetriq works.

Before taking Myrbetriq, tell your doctor if you have liver or kidney problems. In clinical studies, the most common side effects seen with Myrbetriq included increased blood pressure, common cold symptoms (nasopharyngitis), urinary tract infection and headache.

For further information, please talk to your healthcare professional and see Brief Summary of Prescribing Information for Myrbetriq® (mirabegron) on the following page.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Myrbetriq is a registered trademark of Astellas Pharma Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2016 Astellas Pharma US, Inc.

All rights reserved.

Printed in USA

057-1113-PM

March 2016

Myrbetriq® (mirabegron) extended-release tablets 25 mg, 50 mg Brief Summary based on FDA-approved patient labeling Read the Patient Information that comes with Myrbetriq® (mirabegron) before you start taking it and each time you get a refill. There may be new information. This summary does not take the place of talking with your doctor about your medical condition or treatment.

What is Myrbetriq (meer-BEH-trick)?

Myrbetriq is a prescription medication for adults used to treat the following symptoms due to a condition called overactive bladder: • urge urinary incontinence: a strong need to urinate with leaking or wetting accidents • urgency: a strong need to urinate right away • frequency: urinating often It is not known if Myrbetriq is safe and effective in children.

Who should not use Myrbetriq?

Do not use Myrbetriq if you have an allergy to mirabegron or any of the ingredients in Myrbetriq. See the end of this leaflet for a complete list of ingredients in Myrbetriq.

What is overactive bladder?

Overactive bladder occurs when you cannot control your bladder contractions. When these muscle contractions happen too often or cannot be controlled, you can get symptoms of overactive bladder, which are urinary frequency, urinary urgency, and urinary incontinence (leakage).

What should I tell my doctor before taking Myrbetriq?

Before you take Myrbetriq, tell your doctor if you: • have liver problems or kidney problems • have very high uncontrolled blood pressure • have trouble emptying your bladder or you have a weak urine stream • are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if Myrbetriq will harm your unborn baby. Talk to your doctor if you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.

• are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. It is not known if Myrbetriq passes into your breast milk. You and your doctor should decide if you will take Myrbetriq or breastfeed. You should not do both.

Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, including prescription and nonprescription medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Myrbetriq may affect the way other medicines work, and other medicines may affect how Myrbetriq works.

Tell your doctor if you take: • thioridazine (Mellaril™ or Mellaril-S™) • flecainide (Tambocor®) • propafenone (Rythmol®) • digoxin (Lanoxin®) How should I take Myrbetriq?

• Take Myrbetriq exactly as your doctor tells you to take it.

• You should take 1 Myrbetriq tablet 1 time a day.

• You should take Myrbetriq with water and swallow the tablet whole.

• Do not crush or chew the tablet.

• You can take Myrbetriq with or without food.

• If you miss a dose of Myrbetriq, begin taking Myrbetriq again the next day. Do not take 2 doses of Myrbetriq the same day.

• If you take too much Myrbetriq, call your doctor or go to the nearest hospital emergency room right away.

What are the possible side effects of Myrbetriq?

Myrbetriq may cause serious side effects including: • increased blood pressure. Myrbetriq may cause your blood pressure to increase or make your blood pressure worse if you have a history of high blood pressure. It is recommended that your doctor check your blood pressure while you are taking Myrbetriq.

• inability to empty your bladder (urinary retention). Myrbetriq may increase your chances of not being able to empty your bladder if you have bladder outlet obstruction or if you are taking other medicines to treat overactive bladder. Tell your doctor right away if you are unable to empty your bladder.

• angioedema. Myrbetriq may cause an allergic reaction with swelling of the lips, face, tongue, throat with or without difficulty breathing.

Stop using Myrbetriq and tell your doctor right away.

The most common side effects of Myrbetriq include: • increased blood pressure • common cold symptoms (nasopharyngitis) • urinary tract infection • headache Tell your doctor if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away or if you have swelling of the face, lips, tongue, or throat, hives, skin rash or itching while taking Myrbetriq.

These are not all the possible side effects of Myrbetriq.

For more information, ask your doctor or pharmacist.

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

How should I store Myrbetriq?

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

• Safely throw away medicine that is out of date or no longer needed.

Keep Myrbetriq and all medicines out of the reach of children.

General information about the safe and effective use of Myrbetriq Medicines are sometimes prescribed for purposes other than those listed in the Patient Information leaflet. Do not use Myrbetriq for a condition for which it was not prescribed. Do not give Myrbetriq to other people, even if they have the same symptoms you have. It may harm them.

Where can I go for more information?

This is a summary of the most important information about Myrbetriq.

If you would like more information, talk with your doctor. You can ask your doctor or pharmacist for information about Myrbetriq that is written for health professionals.

For more information, visit www.Myrbetriq.com or call (800) 727-7003.

What are the ingredients in Myrbetriq?

Active ingredient: mirabegron Inactive ingredients: polyethylene oxide, polyethylene glycol, hydroxypropyl cellulose, butylated hydroxytoluene, magnesium stearate, hypromellose, yellow ferric oxide and red ferric oxide (25 mg Myrbetriq tablet only).

Rx Only PRODUCT OF JAPAN OR IRELAND – See bottle label or blister package for origin Marketed and Distributed by: Astellas Pharma US, Inc. Northbrook, Illinois 60062

Myrbetriq® is a registered trademark of Astellas Pharma Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2015 Astellas Pharma US, Inc. Revised: December 2015 15L110-MIR-BRFS 057-0910-PM

More Than One Tackle After a solid college career as a running back at the University of Missouri, Mike Jones moved to defense and spent 12 years in the NFL as a linebacker, the best of those coming with the St. Louis Rams. In 1999 he became a Super Bowl hero when he tackled Tennessee’s Kevin Dyson to save the game for St. Louis, giving fans a “can you believe it” moment and giving one of the game’s older teams perhaps its finest hour. With the Rams now back in Los Angeles, we thought we’d take the time to reflect on the team that earned the nickname The Greatest Show on Turf. Jones, now coaching football at Missouri’s Lincoln University, graciously took the time to walk us through his years with the team, starting with his first year as a Ram, 1997, when the team looked to be anything but Super Bowl material.

“When we got together, of course, it was going south.

Coach [Dick] Vermeil had just got the job and they’d brought him in to shake up the program, but he’d been away for a while. [Citing burnout, Vermeil stepped away from coaching in 1983, but returned to the game with the Rams in 1997.]

“No one could really relate to Coach Vermeil. Usually a new coach comes in, you can call one of the guys who played for him for a few years, another player, and say, ‘Tell me about the coach, what should we expect?’ But none of the guys who’d played for him were playing anymore. They’d

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all become coaches or left the game. When he left there was no 20-hour rule [the NCAA rule that mandates college players practice no more than 20 hours a week]. We had a young team, a lot of those guys were 20-hour rule guys, and he had to transition to that. He was a big ‘keep hitting it!’ guy. He believed you only got better by practicing, and the guys weren’t used to the work.

“We were probably one of the youngest teams in the NFL. I was in year seven of my career. We received our parking spaces by how old you were, the experience, and I was probably in the fifth or six space. Year seven and you’re the fifth-oldest guy on the team? That’s a really young team.

“The problems were more our inexperience than our discipline. You look at it, Orlando [Pace] was a rookie, Isaac [Bruce] was a fourth-year player, Torry [Holt] hadn’t even got there yet. Tony Banks was our quarterback and he was in his second year… It was a lot of young guys just learning how to be professionals. Our first year, we didn’t really know what to think. We were banging it out there—we were hitting it too much. [At 29] I was one of the older guys and so I had to go talk to Coach Vermeil about what the guys were thinking. They were telling me, ‘You need to go talk to Coach, this is getting beyond ridiculous, we’re hitting it every day so hard and we’re not seeing any results.’

“Whenever you had to talk to coach they called it ‘the death march.’ He was in the right corner of the building, he had a 100-foot view and he saw you coming around the corner before you saw him. But I did it, I talked to him and he said he was going to cut back a little bit. Hitting it so hard,

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all the practice, keeps going that way a team isn’t going to play for him. He had the same thing as coach at UCLA, the same thing at Philadelphia. But this time he approached it a little different, he said it was the only way we’re going to get better.

“I would say the year we turned it around was the year, 1999. We picked up Marshall [Faulk], Orlando was coming into his own, two slot receivers [Az-Zahir] Hakim [and Ricky Proehl], Isaac was helping, Tony Horne, Kurt [Warner]… Offense-wise it was coming together.

“And defense, we had third-year players, two guys who were fourth- and fifth-year players hitting their stride as professionals, D’Marco [Farr] was playing well, these young guys had figured out how to be professionals.

“We started off extremely fast. We were pretty successful, went 6-0 before we met Tennessee. They were a good football team and we got beat by 3. Then we played Detroit, lost to them in overtime. Those two losses usually would have been something with the team that when bad things happened they just compounded, but we righted the ship and ended up winning. I was the old man, I was in year nine. I was one of the older guys on defense, but I think I was right on my best football, and offensively we took off.

Super Bowl XIV The Rams finished the regular season 13–3, becoming one of only four teams in NFL history to score more than 30 points twelve separate times in a single season. On the other side of the ball, in a great year for Jones, the Rams defense recorded seven interceptions returned for touchdowns, third most in NFL history. They were on top, and yet the playoff win against Tampa Bay wasn’t the full-blown party that many conference wins create. Jones remembers: “We didn’t have the two-week break, we played [the Super Bowl] the week after the playoff win. I want to say we played a later game, we started at 3pm. [The playoff win] was a weird day because we beat Tampa and everyone was excited but then we came in the locker room and found out that [Kansas City Chief] Derek Thomas had a car accident, and the rumor in the locker room was that maybe he was dead [Thomas survived]. We were excited about winning, but a lot of us knew him, and if you don’t know if a guy’s alive… It was kind of bittersweet. And we had to leave at 2pm the next day.

“We had a celebration party, get home at midnight, one o’clock, then pack for a week to leave. We had a team meeting at 10am, might have been earlier than that. Got all our stuff packed, then get on a plane to fly to Atlanta because Tuesday was media day, had to get down there Monday evening. It was a great time but it was so fast, everybody slept on the plane down to Atlanta.

The ironic thing was that none of the coaches could come, it was only Coach Vermeil and [Coach Mike] White.

The rest had to stay and game plan. They stayed up all Sunday, all Monday, Tuesday they’re doing the game plan, they leave Tuesday night, didn’t get a chance to go to media day. They were flying at 2am, we had a team meeting at 7am.

Over three days the coaches maybe had eight hours of sleep, so that Wednesday practice people weren’t exactly in a very good mood.

LINEBACKERS ARE SUPPOSED TO TACKLE PEOPLE, SO I DID WHAT I ALWAYS DID

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“The night before the game, [former NFL offensive lineman and College Football Hall of Famer] Randy Cross speaks to the team, and he’s talking about this guy that played for him, a linebacker, a guy a lot of people don’t know that came up and made a big play. And he said that’s how it is, that it’s going to happen, that a guy a lot of people don’t know is going to come up and make a play in this Super Bowl.

“The next morning Devin Carter and myself, Todd Lyght, we’re eating breakfast together and we’re just talking about who’s gonna be that guy, who’s gonna make the play.

“We were all a little antsy, the game was so late. It was on the East Coast so it didn’t start until 7:30pm, it was almost like a Monday night game. All day it’s just there, you doze off, we had a team meeting at 3pm, and the early bus to the game started at 3:30. But everybody had the jitters, so out of all the players, 40 of them took the third bus.

“The thing that’s different at the Super Bowl is that when you warm up there’s usually people at the game

St. Louis Rams owner Georgia Frontiere with head coach Dick Vermeil and Isaac Bruce celebrating the Rams victory in Super Bowl XXXIV

GOLF Mike Jones hosted a charity golf tournament last year, and he’s planning on keeping it going. The head coach at Missouri’s Lincoln University says the game keeps things focused, even if it’s no break from his day job.

“Golf by far is harder than coaching,” he says. “It’s like they say, when they went to name the game all the other four-letter words had been used.”

Speaking to the number of NFL players who golf, Jones says, “I think what it does is it gets you focused. Also, you can’t take yourself too seriously, you can do everything right and still hit the ball wrong, so you’ve just got to have fun with it. That’s a good mindset. That’s how I play, I don’t take myself too seriously. A couple guys I play with, friends, they told me to play with them, that I’ll get better and that they’ll show me. But I keep telling them, ‘Hey guys, one of us is lying: I said I can’t play and you said you can—and we’re getting the same score!’”

hanging around. But I distinctly remember while I was running, warming up, I looked and did a double-take, ‘Is that Samuel Jackson?’ You see people on the sideline, but it’s usually not every movie star, every actor. You’re not used to that. It can throw you off if you’re not focused, but we were focused. We’d played Tennessee during the season, lost to them. We knew they were a good football team, we knew we were a good football team, we knew we’d beat them if we played our game. Of course they felt the same way. But we didn’t know, and they didn’t know.”

The Tackle The first two quarters of Super Bowl XXXIV were all about defense. The Greatest Show on Turf, as the Rams’ offense was known, gained 294 offensive yards to the Titans’ 89, but held only a 9–0 lead at the half. St. Louis took it to 16–0 after the break but Tennessee responded with 16 consecutive points, leaving it tied with 2:12 in regulation. On the next St. Louis drive, QB Kurt Warner completed a 73-yard touchdown pass to Isaac Bruce and it was time for the Rams to hang on.

Tennessee got it back to the St. Louis 10 yard line with six seconds left and set up for what would be the last play of the game. With no timeouts remaining, the Titans pushed tight end Frank Wycheck up the middle and had him go right, hoping he’d take Mike Jones with him so Titans QB Steve McNair could get the ball to Kevin Dyson. But Jones was having none of it. Jones initially followed Wycheck as the Titans had planned, but while the ball was in the air on its way to Dyson, Jones looked over, changed direction and caught the receiver’s legs, bringing him down roughly two-and-a-half from the goal line. As Dyson was falling he reached out, trying to break the paint with the ball, but it wasn’t to be. The final image—one that will forever be remembered by fans of both teams—is Dyson on the ground with his arm outstretched, the ball inches from the line, Jones wrapped around his legs.

“It was, you know, something I’d do all the time.

Linebackers are supposed to tackle people, and so I did what I always did. We were in a bracket coverage, I had to keep my vision on the guy. It looks like I’m covering one guy but I’m actually covering Kevin the whole time. I knew exactly where I was, and when I got him I knew that unless he’s nine feet tall we’re going to be OK. “The second half was so long for us, we were so tired that I was just happy the game was over with. It didn’t hit me that we’d won until I was in the locker room and I just had so many things happen. I had hurt my ankle so I had to go get to the trainer, and I had to do interviews. But when I got back from the trainer almost everyone was gone. The only person there was [Sports Illustrated’s] Peter King. He looks at me and says, ‘You know, that might be one of the greatest plays in Super Bowl history. You made a play at the one yard line—there’s almost nothing like that.’

“It didn’t hit me like that until he said it.”

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NEW A lot’s happened in the desert since Frank & Co. did Palm Springs their way, and while we’re as nostalgic as the next guy we’re also inclined to believe that change is good, mostly. So when we see new restaurants popping up under the stars and old hot spots becoming new hot spots in one of the hottest cities that ever was a hot spot, it makes us want to raise our Martini high and tip our fedora to the latest and greatest, even as we continue to enjoy the tried and true. So don the dark lenses and turn up whatever gets you tapping on your steering wheel because the party in Palm Springs isn’t a revival—it’s just business as usual

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Mr. Lyons steakhouse is an instant classic, the best of new desert dining

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FOOD / DRINK When you roll into the desert in style—that is, in a Cadillac—the first mission is to find a watering hole, then you chase some grub, then you locate a bed. Thankfully, a single stone takes care of the first two birds, with a visit to Mr. Lyons Steakhouse (mrlyonsps.com). Desert native Tara Lazar (also responsible for the city’s great breakfast spot Cheeky’s) bought this place a couple of years ago from David Lyons himself, who opened it in 1938 as Lyons English Grille and who’s still around at 102 years old. If the Rat Pack was still making noise they’d be doing it here, and they’d start with a drink in Seymour’s, the on-site speakeasy named for Lazar’s dad. Jump right into things with a Little Owl, which the house drinks chief Steen Bojsen-Moller makes with rye whiskey, some walnut liqueur, bitters, and a little magic. [Check out the “drinks” feature in this issue of Kingdom for other great Seymour’s options.] Following that, head back into the main house for the plates and what fills them, including great steaks—30 day dry aged bone-in New York strip or the Tomahawk Ribeye for Two? Maybe the 30 day dry aged porterhouse with foie gras and dry-aged fat butter? There’s always the prime rib (10hr slow roast with horseradish au jus), which Lazar kept on the menu from the old days, and thank the Lord she did. Crazy-good sides, solid bottled offerings and modern/classic-cool decor make this the place to be after dark. We say sunset can’t come fast enough.

Melvyn’s is one of the city’s true legends, a great place for a memorable night out

If you want to increase your chances of having a story to tell the next day (good or bad), Melvyn’s Restaurant and Casablanca Lounge (inglesideinn.com/melvyns_restaurant) seems like it was here even before the exclusive Ingleside Inn in which it resides was built, in 1925. In fact the restaurant and bar opened 50 years later in 1975, the same year Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. hosted a Grammy Awards ceremony during which a visibly altered David Bowie gave a rambling speech about John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and that particular coming together of personalities seems oddly appropriate when mentioning Melvyn’s. After a certain hour the whole place becomes a surreal gala of blinking poodles and their brightly attired cortege, leading one to think that perhaps he’s wandered into a party that’s been going on for a few hundred years—or longer. In fact, the Inn in which Melvyn’s resides was frequented by the likes of Salvador Dali, Howard Hughes and other classic eclectics, and it’s impossible to believe that the restaurant and bar didn’t exist to serve all of them. A strong night here (beware the Gimlet) is as rarely forgotten as it is rarely remembered, leading us to believe that, in its own way, Melvyn’s is the perfect desert oasis.

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BEDS & BEYOND At the end of a good night out (or a bad one) sleep will be of paramount importance, and Palm Springs is not starved of options. It is impossible not to like The Parker Palm Springs, with its Jonathan Adler-designed interiors and labyrinthian hedged grounds hiding private gardens, casitas, a croquet lawn and gloriously spaced hammocks (parkerpalmsprings.com). More than a decade ago the place set media and new Hollywood aflutter when the fading Merv Griffin Estate and Givenchy Spa was given a BANGPOW! makeover that started with the vibrant orange doors and ended with the “Palm Springs Yacht Club” spa. Celebs aplenty flocked here, including the Jolie-Pitts of the world, and it wasn’t long before other local properties followed suit and cleaned up. The Avalon Palm Springs (formerly the Viceroy) is another great option, a series of 1930s bungalows and rooms with three pools, a great spa and a refreshing bar (avalon-hotel.com/palm-springs).

If you’re looking for a one-stop shop or just want to stay out of Palm Springs proper, it’s worth making the drive to nearby La Quinta and the famed resort of the same name (laquintaresort.com). One of the most storied golf resorts ever built was constructed in the desert using money made from oysters, specifically that of oyster magnate John S. Morgan. In 1921 Morgan’s son Walter took the family money and bought 1,400 acres of sand and scrub brush in California, and we wonder how that dinner conversation went down. Still, the younger Morgan was proved right when what began as a modest collection of casitas made from adobe bricks (fired on premises) blossomed into a world-class resort with five golf-courses, 41 pools, 52 hot spas, a full service spa, luxury accommodations and some of the best dining in the Coachella Valley. Another perk of staying in La Quinta is the chance to try Arnold Palmer’s Restaurant (arnoldpalmersrestaurant.com), a great place that serves meals fit for a king (and those beloved by the King).

Nicely done at the Parker Palm Springs [above and right]; classic desert digs at La Quinta Resort [below]

Staying in La Quinta also means you get to try Arnold Palmer’s Restaurant, with food fit for a king

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GOLF After a meal and a good night’s rest it’ll be time for some fun, and for that we’ll head to a golf course. First stop, Classic Club (classicclubgolf.com). What a place: The Palmer-designed golf course hosted the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic for three years, and it’s no wonder. Rolling terrain, wide landing areas, 30 acres of water features, 14 bridges and a beautiful array of pine trees, pine straw ground cover and more (including five sets of tees on each hole) mean this course has something for everyone. Regularly lauded by the likes of GolfWeek, the Zagat Survey, Golf Travel Annual and others, the Audubon-certified track offers a visual feast and a world of amenities in its elegant 63,000 square-foot Tuscan Village-inspired clubhouse, including a top pro shop and the excellent Bellatrix restaurant. It’s a desert must-play as far as we’re concerned, and not just because we like the name.

Another classic golf spot, and also host to the Bob Hope tourney (now the CareerBuilder Challenge) is the renowned PGA WEST. Featuring 2,000 acres of golf and lifestyle community grounds, PGA WEST offers 109 holes of golf on six legendary courses, including tracks built by Palmer, Nicklaus, Greg Norman and Tom Weiskopf. Beyond just visiting, there are membership and real estate options here that make it a compelling way to spend more than just a little time in the desert. With so much golf on offer, it’s hard not to call this a kind of paradise.

For those who like their games truly old school, the site of the original Bob Hope Classic is The Thunderbird

PGA WEST Stadium Course [top]; Classic Club 9th [above]

Country Club in Rancho Mirage, where Frank himself used to play. It’s one of the oldest in the Coachella Valley and it’s still going strong (thunderbirdcc.org). There’s also what used to be Canyon Country Club, now Indian Canyons Golf (indiancanyonsgolf.com), which opened in 1961 and features a Midcentury Modern clubhouse and a course designed by William Bell. Check it out on Sundays when Champagne with any entree is only $4.95—and that’s served with unlimited mini muffins! Nothing wrong with mini muffins.

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LAST STOP Yeah, we said it: we get nostalgic. And while we love sipping cocktails at modern hotels, we always have to tip our hat to Mr. Sinatra before leaving the desert. A good place to drop the smile and to think about things for a minute is Michael S. Wolfson Park, at DaVall and Frank Sinatra Drive in Rancho Mirage. Frank had a place up the street from here, a compound, really. It was his second home in the area and he shared it with his wife of 22 years, Barbara Sinatra.

There were several guesthouses named after his hits, a barbershop, a sauna and other amenities, and in 1962 he even added a helipad and installed a couple of dozen phone lines in expectation of a visit from President John Kennedy.

However, JFK didn’t like the rumors of Sinatra’s mob ties and so he stayed with Bing Crosby down the street instead.

Word has it that Sinatra got mad, smashed up the helipad with a hammer then turned it into a garden. The house isn’t visible, it’s behind a wall, but the park is nearby and it’s said that Sinatra liked it. Whatever the truth of all the stories, the park offers a bit of peace and quiet, along with a chance to hear Frank again: there’s a machine here with a button on it that, when pressed, emits a welcome message from Sinatra himself: “Hi, this is Frank Sinatra. The city of Rancho Mirage, an oasis in the desert and the playground of presidents, welcomes you to Michael S. Wolfson Park.”

If you keep listening it mentions something about bighorn sheep in the area, but we’re usually back in the Cadillac by then, headed home and wondering what’s next for our favorite place under the palms.

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Frank Sinatra prepares to cool down at home in Palm Springs, 1965; classic desert view [below]

Root & Branch

Oak, sycamore, silver birch, fir, cypress, pine, elm, maple, aspen, cottonwood—ever since golf moved inland, trees have given courses character and charm. But Tony Dear asks, at what cost?

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Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

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Non-golfers probably have a hard time believing they share a planet with folks who regard it as a major talking point. But the topic of trees on golf courses can divide opinion like a US Presidential race, like Brexit.

And while Donald Trump and Ted Cruz were waging Twitter war earlier this year, the golf-tree debate also rose to the leafy canopy. In early June, the Women’s PGA Championship was played at Sahalee CC outside Seattle in the Pacific Northwest, a region known for its vast forests of conifers. The Ted Robinson-designed course scored high approval ratings among spectators, TV viewers and players who thought it one of the most beautiful layouts they’d ever seen. But while that group gazed lovingly at the Douglas fir, red cedar

The 9th hole at Sahalee in Washington State, deep amid an enchanting pine forest

and hemlock lining the fairways, another was using words like ‘infested’, ‘riddled’, ‘overrun’, and ‘choked’ to describe the sheer number of trees on the club’s North and South nines.

A week later, when Oakmont hosted its ninth U.S. Open, we heard the fascinating story of how club superintendents, most recently John Zimmers, had cut down thousands of trees since the mid-1990s, sometimes under cover of darkness to avoid detection by cranky, long-standing members. These members were very fond of the trees, which the club began planting in the mid-1960s after revered writer Herbert Warren Wind referred to the course as an ‘ugly old brute’.

In August, an admittedly meager body of detractors took to Twitter to label the largely barren, windswept Olympic Course in Rio as unattractive, bleak and desolate, while a much larger band of proponents heaped praise on Gil Hanse for creating so intriguing a course and superintendent Neil Cleverly for transforming the dirt-covered 240-acre expanse Hanse had given him into a layout ready for a major international competition in a little under two years.

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But everybody loves trees, right? So why do they polarize golfers who share a love for the game?

Those that champion trees believe they add beauty and definition to what might otherwise be dull, unappealing courses. Imposing, stately specimens lend prestige and character they say. Trees bring distinguishing quality, enhancing golf holes with their unique acoustic shapes by buffering exterior noise. A quiet, forested backdrop can invoke a profound sense of peace in golfers looking to escape the noisy clatter of urbanization. For golfers who prize splendid isolation on a course, tree-encompassed holes can provide the ultimate sanctuary.

“They often give a course a distinctiveness that forms its identity,” says Canadian course architect Jeff Mingay.

“Trees can provide a wonderful backdrop to a golf course and often help with safety concerns,” adds John Fought, a former U.S. Amateur champion and now an acclaimed designer. “They add proportion and are wonderful when they remain in their natural element.”

“Great escape shots played from trees are a dramatic and exciting part of the game,” says Australia’s Michael Clayton, a former European Tour player who now designs and restores courses alongside 2006 U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy and partners Mike Cocking and Ashley Mead. “Plus, trees can often enhance the ambience of a golf course.”

Trees can provide a sense of place. Play between

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The 13th hole at Oakmont Country Club [above] and Victoria GC, Vancouver Island [below]

towering loblolly pines and there’s a good chance you’re in North Carolina. Avoid striking silver birch and you might be in Surrey, England, while dodging cypress trees with their high, flat canopy means you’re likely in northern California.

“Indigenous vegetation almost always works in creating a great feel,” says Ogilvy.

The list of benefits is genuine but there’s a “but” coming. These great architects and players are actually eager to voice some very real concerns.

Trees’ shortcomings and the dangers of tree planting become apparent in three main areas—vistas, strategy and maintenance. Few renovation projects illustrate the first of these problems better than Mingay’s

Daniel James Murphy / stonehousegolf.com

“Britain’s links prove there is no need for a tree on a golf course” —Michael Clayton work at Victoria GC in British Columbia. Opened in 1893 and redesigned by AV Macan in 1930 and again in 1955, Victoria is a picturesque course located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island and it is Canada’s oldest layout still playing over its original ground. After 116 years of play, the course had inevitably succumbed to wear and tear before Mingay got to work enlarging the greens to Macan dimensions, replacing contaminated bunker sand and removing dozens of trees that concealed views across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula, and also east towards to the snowcovered, 10,781ft Mt Baker.

“Trees had grown so tall they were just getting in the way of some of the best views,” says Mingay. “You get a little bit of resistance from the older members who have known those trees for decades, but we only had to remove a few for people to see the benefits of taking more down.”

Clayton also thinks golf is better when views across and beyond the course are opened up. “Seeing

cupressus macrocarpa Commonly known as Monterey cypress, the native range of the species was confined to two small relict populations at Cypress Point in Pebble Beach and at Point Lobos near Carmel, California.

holes from different angles and perspectives is a huge part of the thrill of Shinnecock, NGLA, Chicago GC, Swinley, Kingston Heath, and Royal Melbourne,” he says.

“Courses where the members understand the proper role of trees are invariably more enjoyable to play.”

The second drawback is likewise easily explained, and no one is more lucid on the matter than Clayton, who says trees should have a ‘very limited role in the game’. “The best of golf is played around hazards on the ground, on great greens and to great green complexes,” he says. “Britain’s links prove there is no need for a tree on a golf course. The Old Course at St Andrews is the most interesting course in the world and the strategy and play are dictated by the OB fence on the right, the bunkers, the crumpled ground, the greens and the wind. Trees are utterly irrelevant.”

Mingay and Fought agree, saying trees just aren’t a reliable strategic element. “They can die or change with the weather very easily,” says Fought. “I have learned over the years not to rely on trees for strategy. I’ve

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Donald Ross was wary of trees that unnecessarily hindered a golfer’s progress used them as an aiming point or some sort of strategic obstacle, but in each case I was sorry. At Pumpkin Ridge in Oregon, I set up almost every green site with trees; most died within the first year. And at the Gallery in Arizona, I fell in love with an old Palo Verde directly behind the second green, but it was struck by lightning before the course even opened.”

Mingay says the best example of a course where trees work well is Pete Dye’s Harbour Town in South Carolina. “There are trees between the tee shot landing area and green that force players to hit a particular type of shot from the margins of a hole—over, under or around the tree,” he says. “But Harbour Town is a rare exception. Trees that encroach too close to fairways and greens mostly bother higher handicap golfers, without enhancing the interest and challenge for better players.”

Ogilvy meanwhile believes Augusta National’s recent tree planting has been a disaster, while the course’s older trees give holes shape while not getting in the way. “They add interest too,” he says. “And being big, beautiful, healthy trees certainly helps.”

The great Donald Ross, like Ogilvy, was wary of trees that unnecessarily hindered a golfer’s progress.

The 18th at Harbour Town Golf Links [above] and the 14th on the Old Course, St Andrews [below]

“As beautiful as trees are, and as fond as you and I are of them, we still must not lose sight of the fact there is a limited place for them in golf,” he said. “We must not allow our sentiments to crowd out the real intent of a golf course—that of providing fair playing conditions.

If it in any way interferes with a properly played stroke, I think the tree is an unfair hazard and should not be allowed to stand.”

The third and probably most serious burden ill-placed trees can cause a golf course is unhealthy turf. Simply put, trees and turf do not mix. “A course needs healthy turf to be at its best and for the golf to be properly enjoyed,” says Mingay. “Trees block sunlight and prevent air flow—both essential for healthy grass plants.”

Fought says trees compete with turf for water, nutrients in the soil, and sunlight preventing the turf

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from ever reaching its best. “Trees are a liability when they harm turf,” he adds, “especially on tees and greens.

We play golf on grass, not dirt.”

There is a delicate balance to be struck between protecting the natural environment in which a golf course is located and offering golfers a test that is strategically sound.

Arnold Palmer Design was presented with a rare situation in planning the outstanding Oceanico Victoria course in Portugal, where it is forbidden by statute to cut down cork trees. The layout had to be designed around the trees or at most move them a short fixed distance. It was a unique challenge but as subsequent awards prove it resulted in a course more in harmony with its bucolic surroundings while still setting a fair golfing test.

Nonetheless, perhaps you should pause a moment the next time you feel like recommending a new stand of trees at your home course or voting for three rows of memorial conifers. Not only might they look hopelessly awkward, they will likely compromise the turf and alter the designer’s original strategy for a golf hole. In short, they could add little while potentially taking plenty away.

And remember the words of Bobby Jones who said he saw no need for a tree on a golf course, CB Macdonald who insisted trees on the golf course were a serious defect, Alister Mackenzie who thought playing a hole lined with trees was both tedious and uninteresting, and England’s most revered architect Harry Colt, who said that if a course did have trees they should be a part of the scenery, but not the main stage.

One golfer’s tree-lined haven is another’s lost ball or stolen vista.

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At Oceanico Victoria it is forbidden by statute to cut down cork trees

The idyllic Oceânico Victoria in Portugal

quercus suber Cork oak trees are not cut down to harvest cork but the bark is harevsted by hand every nine years.

They can live up to 300 years.

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timeless classic 2016 has been a milestone season for Bernhard Langer. He has reached 40 years on tour and a century of professional wins and the winning is probably not finished yet. Oh, and it has been 25 years since he missed that putt at Kiawah Island in the Ryder Cup, but he’s over that now, honestly.

The German legend spoke to Robin Barwick

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Whenever there is euphoria for one in sport, there is desolation for another. It’s how it works, like Jin and Jang, like the Ryder Cup. One of golf ’s most vivid images shows the moment Bernhard Langer lost the Ryder Cup. Kiawah Island, South Carolina, September 29, 1991. The German golfer, aged 34 at the time and in the prime of his distinguished career, missed a six-foot putt on the final green to half his decisive singles match against Hale Irwin, the three-time U.S. Open champ.

The ball slipped past the hole, Langer’s knees buckled and he yelled, the agony etched across his face as the surrounding landscape melted around him into a bubbling sea of American celebrations.

“I was pretty confident I was gong to make that putt,” reflects Langer in an exclusive interview with Kingdom.

“There were spike marks on my line but I figured I could hit the putt straight, miss the spike marks and with a firm putt hope that the ball would not break and go straight in.”

The half point was all the hosts needed to secure victory by the narrowest margin, 14 ½ - 13 ½. It was the first time the United States had won the Ryder Cup since 1983—an eight-year drought after the United States had never previously lost consecutive Ryder Cups. So 1991 was particularly emotional and it was dubbed the “War on the Shore” after tempers and patriotism spilled over.

There is so much to see in this iconic picture [on previous pages]—captured brilliantly by the late Phil Sheldon—like the figure of Irwin at the back of the green, rising to his feet and showing his sportsmanship by resisting the temptation to lead the raucous celebrations despite bringing home that last half-point. Instead—and for the record—he walked over to Langer, offered his

“ That putt just comes back to me when people ask me about it in interviews!”

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Langer is hoisted aloft by Darren Clarke [left] and Lee Westwood [right] after leading Europe to victory in the 2004 Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills

commiserations and the two players hugged. Irwin and Langer: major winners, steely competitors, Ryder Cup rivals and they have since become two of the finest golfers ever to grace the PGA Tour Champions. They have also become firm friends.

“Certainly for the next few hours after that putt, and probably into the next day or two, I thought about the missed putt quite a bit, but otherwise I really have not thought about it very much,” says Langer. “That putt just comes back to me when people ask me about it in interviews!”

Langer responded to the disappointment the way the greatest champions do; he returned home and straight away won the German Masters on the European Tour the following weekend.

“At that German Masters I faced a 15-foot putt on the last hole to get into a play-off,” he recalls. “My first thought was: ‘You just missed a six-footer a week ago’. So I walked around for a moment and said to myself: ‘Don’t go there.

Don’t think about that. Let’s focus on this.’ I was able to make the putt and I won the play-off.”

Hal Sutton [left] and Langer prior to the 2004 Ryder Cup

Setting the record straight American captain Hal Sutton stood proudly on stage at Oakland Hills in September 2004 during the opening ceremony to the Ryder Cup. Wearing a dark pinstriped suit and gold tie around his thick wrestler’s neck, Sutton boldly announced that the lead-off American pair the following morning would be world number one at the time, Tiger Woods, and world number two Phil Mickelson; the two most exquisite talents in American golf. Sutton said the pair would be “as strong as old rope”.

Sutton believed that in the heat of the Ryder Cup, arch rivals Woods and Mickelson—who could not stand the sight of one another—would form an indestructible bond.

“We had heard a rumor that Woods and Mickelson might play together and we were ready,” says Langer, who was Sutton’s opposing captain that week.

The Woods-Mickelson axis was one of the biggest gambles of the modern Ryder Cup era and it flopped miserably. The pair lost the opening fourball match to Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington, 2&1, which set the tone for the rest of the weekend. A humiliated Sutton went double-or-quits, pitting his dented dream duo against

Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood in the Friday afternoon foursomes. All square on the 18th tee, it was ironic that Mickelson wildly sliced his critical drive, having previously commented publicly that Woods was holding himself back by playing with inferior Nike equipment. Woods was left with a drop from an unplayable lie, they lost the point and finished 0-2 for the day.

“It is important to find out who your players like to play with, and who they might not like to play with,” reflects Langer, now 59, who led Europe to a record-breaking victory over the hosts that week, 18 ½ points to 9 ½. “The last thing you want is to put players together who don’t like each other.

You can’t expect them to carry each other through a match and to encourage each other.”

Always blunt and matter-of-fact, Langer adds, a little harshly: “Hal Sutton was, in a sense, ignorant enough to think that if he put the number one and number two players in the world together—in their home country—that they could not be defeated.”

In contrast to Sutton’s reckless pairing, Langer treated his captaincy as he had his entire playing career; with meticulous care. He even sent out his players for extra autograph signing duties to defuse any hints of the toxic atmospheres that soured the Ryder Cups at Kiawah and again at Brookline in 1999. The visitors spent more time with the home fans than the home team and the plan worked.

“In Europe we have been very fortunate over the years to have such great captains,” Montgomerie, captain of the European team in 2010, tells Kingdom. “I’ve played for a number of them, and no one was better than Bernhard. We were quite close as a team in 2004 and we played for each other. That is huge, and that feeling was very much brought together by Bernhard.”

“The Ryder Cup is one of my favorite events, maybe even my favorite of them all,” says Langer, with the memories of famous success far out-weighing the disappointments. “It is always thrilling to see the matches and all the emotions on the faces of the players, the caddies and the captains, and even the spectators. It is just a different kind of tournament, being in teams and match play, and it is great to have that in our sport. It is not often we just play for honor.

“It is a unique event and with all those emotions flying around it is worse for the captains because they see and hear everything but they can’t do anything about it in a sense. All the captains are players, we are used to playing golf, being active and being part of the action, and here in the Ryder Cup you are in the middle of the action yet you are not hitting any shots. You just hope that your guys perform and you hope you put the right pairings out and in the right order, and that you have done everything you could beforehand to set the stage and make sure the players are happy, to give your players the opportunity to perform at their best level. Then you watch.”

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Now the player to beat on the PGA Tour Champions, Langer comfortably leads the 2016 Charles Schwab Cup points list for the over-50s circuit at the time of writing, having won four times this year—including a pair of senior major titles— which takes his roll of professional tournament victories to a total of 102.

Twice the Masters champion—in 1985 and 1993— Langer played on 10 European Ryder Cup teams from 1981 to 2002 (Nick Faldo is the only European golfer to have played in more; 11) and he was a member of Europe’s “Big five” of the 1980s and ‘90s—along with Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam—who were integral in turning the Ryder Cup tide away from the once omnipotent Americans.

While Langer will be undoubtedly hooked to the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine, his more pressing priority is to claim the Charles Schwab Cup, the senior equivalent of the PGA Tour’s over-arching, season-culminating FedExCup. Langer has completed seven out of the last eight PGA Tour Champions seasons as its leading earner of prize money, converting three of those seasons to Charles Schwab Cup success too.

Since claiming the Boeing Classic in August Langer is tied with Lee Trevino on 29 wins on the over-50s tour, second place all time behind Irwin. Now 61, Irwin has accumulated 45 PGA Tour Champions wins; a record that remains insurmountable for the foreseeable future.

“It has been a phenomenal run,” admits Langer, with a new Schwab Cup Playoff format to look forward to in October, building towards the decisive 36-man Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Desert Mountain Club, Scottsdale, November 7-13. “Just to have won 100 tournaments as a professional worldwide is an amazing number. Not many get there. To have won two majors this year is also incredible.”

Another seniors record within Langer’s reach is Jack Nicklaus’s all-time leading mark of eight senior major titles. Langer is on seven—tied with Irwin—having claimed the Regions Tradition and Constellation Seniors Players Championship this year. And if Langer can claim the 78th KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Trump National Golf Club in Washington D.C. in 2017 he will become the first golfer to complete the senior slam of all five major titles.

“You don’t get that success without just a lot of things,” starts Tom Lehman, one of Langer’s PGA Tour Champions rivals and another past Ryder Cup skipper. “You have to have great character, a great work ethic, you have to have talent, a good perspective, and Bernhard has all those things. He’s a perfect example of a guy who just always works hard, always gives his best, always has the right perspective and keeps things in balance. He’s just a remarkable person, quite frankly.”

“These milestones are a by-product of always trying to

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Stefan von Stengel

102 and counting

Langer, Germany’s greatest golfer of all time, here pictured at WINSTONgolf. Langer is an ambassador for WINSTONgolf, one of Germany’s finest courses

“ The Americans will be in front of a home crowd but that does not matter” get better and working on my game,” says Langer. “I always do the best I can. It is amazing that only Jack Nicklaus has won one more senior major than Hale and I. I could catch Jack and maybe even surpass him.

“These records are motivating. They prove that I have played some very good golf over the past eight or nine years on the Champions Tour. I have won the money list seven years out of eight and the one year I didn’t win it was when I had surgery on my thumb and I couldn’t compete.”

Like he did as captain in 2004, Langer keeps his cards close to his chest in considering the prospects for the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine, when Clarke and Davis Love—friends who halved a singles match at Oakland Hills in 2004—lead out their respective teams. The stakes are particularly high this year, as if Europe wins it will do so for the fourth straight Ryder Cup, something that has never happened in 99 years of Ryder Cup competition.

“The Americans will be playing at home, in front of a home crowd, but all of that does not matter,” says Langer. “The key is for your players to be in form and it just depends who makes the putts and who plays the best over the three days.

“Nobody knows who will win. I hope the Europeans win, but at the same time I hope it is exciting and good for the game of golf.”

The Links Course WINSTONlinks has been elected best German golf course by Golf Magazin and Golf Journal

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Germany’s best golfer.

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Bernhard Langer at the WINSTONgolf Senior Open 2016 (European Senior Tour)

Made for match play

Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

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Kingdom’s series of notional golf courses—comprising real holes from different courses—pays its dues to the Ryder Cup in this issue, with a layout made up of the finest holes that have seen Ryder Cup action. As ever with our compilations, it wasn’t easy. A lot of great holes and classic courses missed the cut but this is the Ryder Cup, the most intense match play event there is, and there is no room for sentiment. Here are 18 fantastic Ryder Cup holes and it is a blessing this round of golf could never occur in reality because it might just be the toughest ever conceived

Royal Lytham & St Annes, Lancashire, England

1

Par 3, 198 yards, Handicap 11

Tony Jacklin described the first at Lytham as a “terrible strain” and he knew all about it, having won The [British] Open here in 1969. He also played here for what was the last Great Britain & Ireland Ryder Cup team in 1977, while Lytham first staged the Ryder Cup in 1961.

The strain suffered by Jacklin, among others, derives from the unerring accuracy demanded from the first shot of the round at Lytham, as its opener is a rare breed, a long par three (it plays eight yards longer in The Open at 206 although the men’s yardage can come down to 174).

Trees to the right provide definition from the tee but shouldn’t come into play, but the challenge comes in finding the right part of a green that slopes from front right to back left. Giving golfers a hint of what is to follow at the heavily bunkered Lytham, the green is protected by seven bunkers.

No wonder Jacklin felt the strain.

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Pinehurst No. 2, North Carolina

Par 4, 439 yards, Handicap 2

Golfers need to be on their game straight from the start on this Ryder Cup compilation as we go from a long par three to one of the toughest par fours in golf at Pinehurst No. 2, the renowned U.S. Open venue which hosted the Ryder Cup in 1951.

The par-four second at Donald Ross-designed Pinehurst typifies this awe-inspiring course, which was brilliantly renovated by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore ahead of its last U.S. Open in 2014. Tom Watson rated this one of the best second holes in the world. It’s a slight dogleg to the right and the target for the tee shot is left center of the fairway. The turtle-shell green lends itself to several testing hole locations and golfers need to avoid a sprawling bunker front and right of the green.

We are taking on the second hole at 439 yards, which is plenty, although it reached 507 for the U.S. Open.

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3

The Country Club, Brookline, Massachusetts

Par 4, 444 yards, Handicap 4

There is no let-up as our Ryder Cup course heads up north to The Country Club at Brookline, one of the oldest golf courses in America. The Country Club was one of the five charter clubs that founded the USGA in 1894 and it hosted the famous U.S. Open of 1913, when local 20-year-old amateur Francis Ouimet—who had grown up caddying at the club—defeated the world’s greatest professionals.

Brookline’s Ryder Cup is equally memorable; the 1999 episode when Ben Crenshaw’s American team were 10-6 down after two days, yet fought back to take 8 ½ of 12 singles points on the final day to win by one.

The par-four third hole played to 451 yards in the Ryder Cup but we are settling for the medal yardage of 444. The dogleg-right hole has early protection from a rocky outcrop on the inside of the elbow, which only the longest of drives can clear, before golfers need to take aim at a small green that is well guarded by sand and by a pond behind.

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4

Valderrama, Sotogrande, Spain

Par 5, 537 yards, Handicap 10

Our notional round now heads to the first course in continental Europe to host the Ryder Cup, 1997 venue Valderrama in Spain, where Seve Ballesteros led Europe to victory on what many consider the toughest parkland course in Europe, designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. The fourth hole is a classic risk-reward challenge, ideal for match play. From its elevated tee to its raised, two-tier green, which is protected by a cascade at the front, a lake to the right and more water at the rear, the 4th is a creature of breathtaking beauty. “It’s probably the best of all my par-5s”, Trent Jones even said. Even if the Levante is blowing in your favor, a full drive flirting with the left-hand bunker followed by a long, accurate second shot through an oak-lined vista are required to reach the green in two. It is a golfing route taken successfully by very few.

The hole totals 567 yards from the professional tee, so we are giving golfers a better chance of success from the Championship tee at 537 yards.

5

Kiawah Island (Ocean), South Carolina Par 3, 185 yards, Handicap 18

Pete Dye’s rugged coastline masterpiece made its entrance back in 1991 when the course was only just finished in time to host the “War on the Shore” Ryder Cup, which the hosts won when Bernhard Langer missed the last putt on the final green.

Now firmly and rightly established among the very finest public courses in the United States, the Ocean Course gained major status when it hosted the 2012 PGA Championship won by Rory McIlroy.

For the first par-3 on the Ocean Course and the second on our card, players tee off towards the Atlantic and often into a stiff ocean headwind. For that reason we are playing off the Ocean tee at 185, rather than the Tournament yardage of 207. Leave that one to Rory.

A sandy waste area runs from the tee to a steep face cutting into the middle of an hourglass-shaped green. Dye effectively created two greens in one—it’s 49 yards long with a three-club difference between pin placements—with a large hump across the green’s constricted waist making it vital to land the ball on the same half as the pin.

6

Muirfield, East Lothian, Scotland

Par 4, 440 yards, Handicap 5

Muirfield, home of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers on Scotland’s east coast, was the first course built specifically to stage a major. Designed by ‘Old’ Tom Morris, it hosted the 1892 [British] Open within 12 months of opening. Revered today as arguably the finest challenge on the Open rota, it was not always so. After its debut, Scot Andrew Kirkaldy—who had finished in a disappointing tie for 13th—described it as “nothing but an old water meadow”.

Harry Colt reconfigured the links in 1923 and it hosted the Ryder Cup in 1973, by which time the ‘GB&I’ team had entered terminal decline as opposition fit to take on the mighty Americans. The visitors cantered to a 19-13 victory.

Muirfield’s par-4 6th, a right-to-left dogleg, is among the most difficult of its 18. Usually played in a crosswind, the hole sweeps down to a climbing green in front of Archerfield Wood. A hidden hollow short of the green creates the impression the pin is closer than it really is. The hole reaches 467 yards from the back but the White yardage of 440 allows for plenty of golf.

7

Oak Hill (East), Rochester, New York

Par 4, 431 yards, Handicap 6

The relentless challenge of our Ryder Cup compilation continues unabated on the East Course at Oak Hill.

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 the 2013 PGA when Jason Dufner notched his first major title. Boasting a pair of Donald Ross courses, East and West, which opened in 1926, Oak Hill remains the only club to have hosted all of the U.S. Open, PGA Championship, Ryder Cup (in 1995, and won by a European team led by Bernhard Gallacher), U.S. Amateur, U.S. Senior Open and Senior PGA Championship.

The par-4 7th—“Creek’s Elbow”—toys with golfers with a creek that follows a crooked path across the fairway.

A patient fairway wood off the tee is the percentage play for the longer hitter, but either way par is always an excellent outcome with second shots directed to a small, well protected green. The Championship tee plays to 461 yards these days, but the Black tee at 431 is all we need.

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8

Scioto, Columbus, Ohio Par 5, 516 yards, Handicap 14

Long before ‘local boy’ Jack Nicklaus made Columbus famous as a fount of golfing excellence, Donald Ross laid down a marker in Ohio’s largest city. Celebrating its centenary this year, Scioto’s esteemed championship heritage features the 1926 U.S. Open, 1931 Ryder Cup and 1950 PGA Championship. Scioto is a shining example of Ross’s design philosophy, forever invoking a strategic approach to course management.

The majestic par-5 8th, perhaps Scioto’s most picturesque hole, is often remembered for reasons other than its beauty.

A drive down the left side can find a wide landing area short of a stream that crosses the fairway. An iron to the green is possible from there but the safe shot is to the peninsula just short as the green is surrounded by bunkers and lots of water.

Sometimes played as a 502-yard par four in championships, with so much trouble surrounding the green we are sticking to the Blue yardage of 516 with the extra shot. You’ll need it.

9

Laurel Valley, Ligonier, Pennsylvania

Par 4, 395 yards, Handicap 8

Built in 1959 by Dick Wilson and redesigned by Arnold Palmer in 1988, Laurel Valley staged the 1965 PGA Championship and the 1975 Ryder Cup when Palmer led the U.S. to a resounding victory in what would be GB&I’s penultimate Ryder Cup outing before bringing in the rest of Europe.

The 9th is a long, uphill par-4 played into the prevailing wind with the clubhouse overlooking beyond, and it is consistently the toughest hole on the course. Even though the fairway is relatively wide and straight, the elevation makes it difficult to see the green when playing the second shot. About 100 yards out the small stream that runs down the right side of the hole cuts across and can easily come into play. Some big pines nearer the green, also on the right, should also be given a wide berth. The difficulties don’t end there because the green has two tiers and three putts are a distinct possibility for anyone on the wrong level.

The Blue tee at 481 yards renders the hole a monster, so at the end of a long a generally brutal Ryder Cup 9, we are going off the White tee at 395 yards.

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10

Medinah (No. 3), Chicago, Illinois Par 5, 555 yards, Handicap 13

At the 2012 Ryder Cup—which will forever be remembered as the “Miracle of Medinah” in Europe, not so much in the US—this long par-5 proved a pivotal hole in several matches, not least because it demands pinpoint accuracy and a fearless mindset as well as gargantuan length off the tee.

Long hitters have the advantage if they can drive the ball to the top of the hill that crowns the middle of the fairway.

They should then have a long-iron or metal-wood into a green that is well protected by a semi-circle of bunkers and what seems like an umbrella of overhanging branches.

The hole played 578 yards in the Ryder Cup but we are bringing more golfers into range by playing off the White tee at 555.

Medinah is one of the grand clubs of the American north, founded in 1924 by Shriners from Chicago’s Medinah Temple. Its course No. 3 was designed by Tom Bendelow and opened in 1928, with the original intention of being a ladies’ course. In addition to the Ryder Cup, No. 3 has hosted the PGA Championship twice and the U.S. Open three times.

Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

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11

Oakland Hills (South), Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Par 4, 400 yards, Handicap7

The renowned South Course at Oakland Hills, outside Detroit, was originally designed by Donald Ross and opened in 1918, and it was later adapted by Robert Trent Jones Snr. It was after Trent Jones’ work that Ben Hogan referred to the South Course as ‘The Monster’—after Hogan had won the 1951 U.S. Open there—and the course has been frequently lent to the USGA and PGA of America to stage six U.S. Opens, three PGA Championships and the 35th Ryder Cup in 2004.

The 11th on the South Course is not all that long by modern standards yet par is always a good score. A long, straight drive will set up a short-iron approach for which accuracy is critical as the back tier of the green is four feet higher than the front. The hole played 423 yards in 2004 although we are edging up to the Blue tee and a distance of 400.

By the way, the first club professional at Oakland Hills was Walter Hagen, whose original pro shop was housed in what had previously been a chicken coop.

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Champions (Cypress Creek), Houston, Texas Par 3, 181 yards, Handicap 16

Champions Golf Club was built by two Texan legends, Jimmy Demaret from Houston and Jack Burke Jr from Fort Worth, who earned five major titles between them. Demaret was the first golfer to win the Masters three times, in 1950.

They built Champions in 1956 and the club’s tournament course, Cypress Creek—designed by Ralph Plummer—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, smashing Europe 23½ - 8½. The US team was captained by 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 and delivered four points out of four.

A swirling wind at the par-3 12th can be the hole’s greatest defence, although a pond to carry has counted for many penalties, most notably to Bob Hope, who was reportedly the first to dunk a ball in there soon after the course opened. It has been “Bob Hope Lake” ever since. 213 yards from the back, we are opting for the middle tee at 181.

Daniel James Murphy / stonehousegolf.com Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

13

Valhalla, Louisville, Kentucky Par 4, 355 yards, Handicap 15

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 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.

The relatively young course has already hosted three PGA Championships—most recently in 2014—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, one of the most attractive short par-4s you can find. Measuring 355 yards from the back and downhill most of the way, the fairway veers 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 but too much spin will plummet the ball to a watery demise.

14

Muirfield Village, Dublin, Ohio Par 4, 363 yards, Handicap 12

15

PGA National (Champion), Palm Beach Gardens, Florida Par 3, 163 Yards, Handicap 17

Taking the Ryder Cup to “the course that Jack built” in 1987, with Jack Nicklaus serving as captain of the US team in his home town, was supposed to be a combination just too evocative, too fateful, for anything other than a home win.

But the Ryder Cup takes little notice of sentiment, as we were vividly reminded with Tom Watson’s flawed captaincy in 2014.

Also working against Nicklaus in ’87 was Tony Jacklin— arguably the greatest Ryder Cup skipper of them all—who was leading the European team for the third time. He was in his stride and he had Ballesteros, Faldo, Olazabal, Woosnam, Lyle and Langer in theirs and Europe won the Ryder Cup in the US for the first time.

The shortest par-4 at Muirfield Village, its 14th, is as eye-catching as it is difficult. Starting downhill, golfers need to find the middle of the tree-lined fairway to give them the best chance of succeeding with a treacherous approach to a green guarded by bunkers to the left and water to the right.

Nicklaus has said the biggest challenge for golfers at 14 is not letting the second shot “over-intimidate” them. The championship yardage is 363 and that works for us.

And so we enter the “Bear Trap,” arguably the toughest three-hole stretch on the PGA TOUR. The Champion course at PGA National was originally designed by Tom & George Fazio, before being reworked by Jack Nicklaus in 2014, and it is home to the Honda Classic. The Bear Trap incorporates holes 15, 16 and 17.

Wrote Karen Crouse of The New York Times: “The Champions layout at PGA National is 7,140 yards of venom, a king cobra of a course that rises without warning to strike down the world’s best golfers. Snake charmers may have a better chance of taming it.”

The par-3 15th has changed since the course staged the 1983 Ryder Cup—when Nicklaus successfully captained the US team for the first time—but it remains a slicer’s nightmare, with a lake dominating short of the green, to the right and long. Playing 176 yards on tour, and a club shorter on our card at 163 off the gold tee, a broad bunker awaits a pulled tee shot, although golfers are permitted a bail-out area, short and left. Says Nicklaus: “It’s about precision. It’s about guts.”

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16

Southport & Ainsdale, Lancashire, England Par 5, 528 yards, Handicap 9

Southport and Ainsdale Golf Club, or ‘S&A’ as it is commonly known, is home to one of England’s great links courses although as it has never hosted The [British] Open it does not carry the same kudos as its neighbor Royal Birkdale.

Scotsman James Braid—the first golfer to win the Open five times—laid out the S&A links in 1925 and acclaim soon followed when it was chosen to stage the Ryder Cup in 1933 and again in 1937. GB&I won in ’33 with Walter Hagen’s visitors taking the cup home in ’37.

The most famous hole at S&A is it’s mighty 16th— also known as ‘Gumbleys’ after one of the club’s founder members. We are opting to play off the back tee here to savor the full experience into the prevailing wind. The outstanding feature of this hole is what must be negotiated with the second shot as a band of rugged sandhills and mounds cut right across the fairway, in the middle of which lies a bank of railway sleepers above two bunkers. The sleeper-armored sandhills rise up over 20 feet, rendering the second shot blind, and a mishit shot played into the sleepers is a dispiriting experience best avoided.

17

K Club (Palmer Ryder Cup), County Kildare, Ireland Par 4, 424 yards, Handicap 3

The Palmer Ryder Cup course opened in 1991 but before a single shot had been struck here, designer Arnold Palmer suggested to owner Michael Smurfit that the course would provide the perfect stage for the 1993 Ryder Cup. The Belfry got the ’93 event but four years later Palmer’s recommendation became reality when the K Club was awarded the 2006 event, won by Ian Woosnam’s home team.

Named ‘Half Moon’, the demanding right-to-left dogleg 17th requires accuracy and commitment from the tee. The River Liffey will swallow a pulled or hooked drive (for the right-hander) while there is little solace for those who choose to bailout right towards thick woodland. Palmer says: “The ideal drive is down the left side of the fairway but this is very risky. Much easier is to hit a long iron or rescue club to the middle right of the fairway, but this can leave a lengthy shot into the green.” With the putting surface also sloping sharply from right to left towards the Liffey, a delicate touch is essential around the green.

The 17th played to 424 yards in the 2006 Ryder Cup and we are heading to that Blue tee for our penultimate hole.

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18

Royal Birkdale, Lancashire, England Par 4, 472 yards, Handicap 1

Famed for its magnificent sand dunes, Royal Birkdale was the scene of Arnold Palmer’s first victory in the [British] Open in 1961 and the club owns an Open heritage that stretches far beyond. The Ryder Cup was played here twice, in 1965 and 1969, and it was on this 18th green where Jack Nicklaus made golf’s most famous concession, picking up opponent Tony Jacklin’s marker for a two-foot putt that the Englishman needed to secure a half in their decisive singles match. The halved point halved the overall score for the first time in Ryder Cup history, at 16-16.

Birkdale has one of golf ’s toughest finishing holes. Played by the members as a par-5, as a par four in championship play it offers a true test of nerve. The best line off the tee is down the right of the fairway but out of bounds also lurks. Playing safe with a 3-wood leaves a lengthy approach through a narrow entrance to a backwardly sloping green guarded by three bunkers.

The final decision is whether to play the 18th as a par-4 or 5. Well, in matchplay the par is irrelevant so we’ll go for 4 to give our compilation a tidy closing par of 72.

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Kingdom Scorecard Hole

Course

Par

Yards H/cap

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Royal Lytham Pinehurst No. 2 Brookline Valderrama Kiawah Island Muirfield Oak Hill Scioto Laurel Valley

3 4 4 5 3 4 4 5 4

198 439 444 537 185 440 431 516 395

36

3,585

5 4 3 4 4 3 5 4 4

555 400 181 355 363 163 528 424 472

Back 9

36

3,441

TOTAL

72

7,026

Front 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Medinah Oakland Hills Champions Valhalla Muirfield Village PGA National Southport & Ainsdale K Club Royal Birkdale

11 2 4 10 18 5 6 14 8

13 7 16 15 12 17 9 3 1

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Pick It Up Perhaps more than any other element of the game, the match-play concession offers a chance to be forever regarded as a gentleman or as a pariah. Here, Clive Agran looks back on Ryder Cups past and considers the agony, the fury and the quiet applause that come in the moment of silence before a short putt is addressed

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or anyone who suffers the yips inside of three feet, “pick it up” must be the prettiest set of three words in the English language. But since the demise of the stymie, few aspects of the gentleman’s game generate more controversy than the question of when—or when not—to concede a putt.

One general rule of thumb has it that the worse someone is at putting, the more likely he or she is to offer a concession. It’s a kind of Golden Rule perspective: if I generously concede a putt that you might miss, then perhaps you’ll generously concede a putt that I might miss.

So “do unto others” and hope that they do the same unto you. But what if they don’t? Imagine conceding a 2-foot putt to your opponent only for him to decline to concede you a slightly shorter one a few seconds later on the very same green? That could make for a quiet cart the rest of the round, and so the decision of whether or not to concede can often come down to a simple question: which would you rather lose, the match or the friend?

Superficially at least, professionals appear altogether more philosophical about the business and are far less likely to sulk if obliged to hole a putt they might reasonably have expected to be conceded. Of course part of their holding it together is strategic: they certainly don’t want their opponent to know they’re irritated as this might give the stingy foe both a measure of satisfaction and an irritating new strategy.

Pros know not to expect a concession and to appear perfectly content to hole out every time. They also appreciate that getting annoyed might adversely affect their positive mood and render a miss more likely. Accordingly, handicap golfers should expect to (and be prepared to) hole out every time as well. Not only is asking an opponent to concede a putt considered poor form, but it also reveals a nervousness ripe for exploitation.

On the distribution side of things, one popular strategy advocates conceding short putts early in a match and then not conceding one when it really matters later on.

Part of the thinking here is that by denying your opponent the opportunity to hole shortish putts, you are depriving

him of the practice he needs to feel confident when a more important challenge comes along. That, taken together with the disappointment factor at not having the putt conceded, increases the chance of a miss.

It’s gamesmanship, pure and simple, but it’s seemingly an unavoidable and important strategic element in match-play golf, and nowhere is it more significant than in the Ryder Cup. The danger with gamesmanship is that it can easily escalate into unsportsmanlike behavior, and that has no place in what has undoubtedly become one of the greatest sporting contests on the planet. The trouble here is that an elevated theater often creates elevated expectations, expectations that might be unrealistic or even unfair. In the heat of competition, for example, failing to concede a putt shouldn’t necessarily be regarded as unsportsmanlike—all putts are missable after all, and circumstances might demand a focus on result rather than style. Still, the opposite—generously conceding a putt—undoubtedly is always sportsmanlike.

The best-remembered and single most outstanding example of a generous concession at the Ryder Cup remains the tricky 3-footer on the 18th at Royal Birkdale that Jack Nicklaus conceded to Tony Jacklin in 1969, thus ensuring the match finished in the first-ever tie. What made the gesture even more welcome was that it came at the end of a contest that had grown rather acrimonious, with GB and Ireland’s captain Eric Brown instructing his team not to look for an opponent’s ball in the rough and American Ken Still repeatedly and deliberately standing too close to Maurice Bembridge when the latter was putting. All of this was a far cry from Nicklaus’ words as he gave Jacklin the putt: “I don’t think you’d have missed that, Tony, but I would never give you the chance.” Despite how fondly “The Concession” is remembered and perhaps not unsurprisingly, a number of Nicklaus’ teammates were not thrilled with his gesture. Even though the tie meant the United States retained the Cup, they would have preferred to see Jacklin putt and, presumably, miss. Instead, the moment cemented a close friendship between the two great golfers that achieved physical expression when they combined to create The Concession Golf Club near Bradenton, Florida.

“Not only is asking an opponent to concede poor form, it also reveals a nervousness ripe for exploitation”

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In stark contrast, the 1999 Ryder Cup created a specific opportunity in which a conceded putt might have been the right call, but it was not given.

Jose Maria Olazabal was lining up to putt on the 17th at Brookline after Justin Leonard had holed a monster that effectively sealed a great comeback by the US team on the final day. Celebrating Leonard’s shot, dozens of American supporters, including players, caddies and wives, invaded the Justin Leonard celebrates at The Country Club, green and inadvertently Brookline in 1999 [above]. Alison Lee is reduced to stamped on Olazabal’s tears at the 2015 Solheim Cup [below right] line. It certainly didn’t make the Spaniard’s putt any easier, and he duly missed it. Should Leonard have conceded the putt?

It’s interesting to speculate about the consequences and reaction. In part, it depends on what the final outcome of the match and the overall result would have been, but there’s no doubting that many would have applauded the gesture. Much to his credit, Olazabal did a great deal to defuse the situation after the match when he said, “Next time all of us need to act a little better. All of us.”

A putt that was very nearly conceded but wasn’t and which turned out to be critical was the 14- incher Craig Stadler stood over on the second morning of the 1985 Ryder

Cup at The Belfry. The former Masters champion was paired with Curtis Strange in a fourball match against Bernhard Langer and Sandy Lyle. The Americans had been two-up with two to play and needed to win to keep their side on level terms. Lyle won the 17th with a birdie but Stadler had a 14-inch tiddler to halve the last and win the match by one hole. The Europeans later confided that they came very close to conceding it, but they didn’t and Stadler pulled it wide. The following day, the Europeans won the Ryder Cup for the first time in 28 years. Because Stadler missed it, it’s hard to argue the British pair behaved badly in not conceding the putt. But Langer and Lyle could also point to a general principle that it’s not unreasonable or unsporting to expect an opponent to hole a putt for a win, either for the hole or the match.

That last notion was put to the test at last year’s Solheim Cup, with upsetting results all around. On No.17 and putting to win the hole at St. Leon-Rot in Germany, American rookie Alison Lee and her teammate Brittany Lincicome were all square against Europeans Suzann Pettersen and Charley Hull. Lee’s putt slipped no more than 18 inches past the cup, at which point Hull and her caddie turned and started to walk away. Pettersen was already off the putting surface and on her way to No.18, and so with Hull leaving and Pettersen out of sight, Lee thought her remaining putt had been conceded. She picked up her ball—and all hell broke loose. Instead of heading to 18 all tied, Pettersen suddenly turned around and said that no concession had been given. Despite the “concession” body language from Hull and Pettersen and the fact that Lee insisted she’d heard someone say out loud, “That’s good,” a rules official backed Pettersen and the Americans lost the hole. Cue the mayhem. Lee and Hull were both in tears, both teams were left in shock and U.S. Captain Juli

Lee thought her putt had been conceded.

She picked up her ball and all hell broke loose

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Inkster was furious, saying later, “It’s just B.S. as far as I’m concerned… It’s just not right.” In addition to losing the hole the U.S. went on to lose the match, leaving Europe with a commanding 10–6 lead. In an example of how a “no concession” can influence things just as much as a concession might, the U.S. team used the incident as a rallying point and staged the largest comeback in Solheim history, leaving the Europeans—and Pettersen in particular— with nothing to show for the bit of gamesmanship, and perhaps more lost than just the tournament. PGA TOUR short, can be missed. As evidence, consider Hale Irwin’s pro Zach Johnson called Pettersen’s action “a disgrace to extraordinary whiff from little more than an inch in the the sport,” while Pettersen’s friend and European Laura third round of the [British] Open at Royal Birkdale in 1983.

Davies told Sky Sports that she was “Disgusted… the wrong Often cited, it cost Irwin a possible place in a play-off with thing was done. How Suzann can justify that I will never, Tom Watson. ever know.” For her part, Pettersen later apologized in a Oddities, gamesmanship and ignorance aside, for letter posted on her Instagram account: “I’ve never felt most golfers conceding a putt is an opportunity to display more gutted and truly sad about what went down Sunday courtesy and sportsmanship in a game that is rightly on the 17th at the Solheim Cup,” she wrote. “I am so sorry renowned for promoting precisely those qualities in for not thinking about the bigger picture in the heat of the a competitive world where they are all too frequently battle and competition. I was trying my hardest for my team forgotten. Even though our short putting might benefit as and put the single match and the point that could be earned a consequence, golf without the “gimmes” would be very ahead of sportsmanship and the game of golf itself!” much the poorer game. Victory on the line or no, it’s never Still, if not conceding a putt can be considered bad to remember the Golden Rule and to tell your opponent, excessive gamesmanship, it’s worth noting that not all “Pick it up.” Whatever might be lost as a consequence will concessions are sporting gestures motivated by altruistic certainly be regained tenfold, and the prize you take home generosity. For example, there can be occasions in fourball will last longer than any trophy on a shelf. matches where you might want to prevent an opponent from putting so as to deny his partner a read, a partner Hale Irwin putts at the 1983 Open who might have a chance to tie or win the hole. If, despite having his putt conceded, your opponent goes ahead and putts anyway, his partner is disqualified from the hole under rule 2-4.

Then there are those moments when one might assume there’s some negative gamesmanship at play, but in fact it’s something altogether different, or ignorant even. Take for example one of the shortest putts not to be conceded in a professional tournament: that of Martin Kaymer on the first hole in the opening round of the 2008 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. It was less than a foot to the hole and the German waited in vain for his opponent to tell him it was good. Instead, Boo Weekley, who was studying the line of his own putt at the time, said nothing. Eventually Weekley’s caddie told Kaymer to pick it up. Weekley’s subsequent explanation was rather extraordinary in that he claimed he didn’t know that you could concede putts. Apparently, the previous occasion on which he had played match-play golf was in the Pensacola Scratch Open way back in 1996.

While it seems unbelievable, some golfers would certainly approve of Weekley’s natural instincts, his reluctance to concede a putt even if that reluctance was unintended. They believe that no putt, however short, should be given simply because every putt, no matter how

They believe that no putt, however short, should be given simply because every putt, no matter how short, can be missed

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“Y

ou can kill a horse but not a Cadillac.” Hardly reassuring words for the usual residents of California’s Santa Anita Park, but the track is closed in summer and so the horses were away, spared any existential angst from the Cadillac Truth+Dare event this August. Promising “a range of driving experiences that profile bold product truths and provide pulse-pounding thrills,” the event filled Santa Anita’s expansive parking lot with the full range of Cadillacs and offered this challenge: “Critics call us ‘German kryptonite’—dare to see why!” With the sun shining and the best of Detroit available to drive, I grabbed a not-European pastry from the hospitality table, adjusted my made-inAmerica jeans, and dared.

The “you can kill a horse” line is from a 1905 advertisement for the Cadillac Automobile Company, just three years old at the time. The same issue of Motor Age magazine in which the ad appeared also proclaimed news of a then-recent court decision firmly establishing that “a garage is not a livery stable and an automobile is not a horse… in a legal sense,” which puts the ad in some context. Thankfully, better slogans for Cadillac were just around the corner, including “Cadillac Shows the World how truly magnificent a motor car can be” (1937), “It’s a Who’s Who of the Highway” (1952) and “A New Realm of Motoring Majesty” (1959). But on the long road to becoming an American icon the one thing that didn’t change was the brand’s commitment to quality cars often featuring powerful engines, rich interiors and impressive new technologies. There have been a few missteps along the way (Cimarron, we’re thinking of you) as there have been with all automakers, but the Cadillac of recent decades has operated as a market leader, and its best attributes were on full display at Santa Anita—even in a darkened room, as it turns out.

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Enhanced Night Vision The Truth+Dare event featured a handful of stations (“modules” in Cadillac’s parlance) showcasing features across a range of vehicles. We were able to drive several different Cadillacs on the roads around the track as part of a “luxury street drive”; we rode along in cars while professional drivers demonstrated safety and parking technologies; we drove three different Cadillacs over an improvised autocross course that featured an S-turn and hazards, and we put the pedal down in a top-spec ATS-V performance car, going from 0 to 60 in 3.8 seconds. Of everything we saw and experienced over the course of the day, the bit that impressed me most of all was Cadillac’s Enhanced Night Vision technology. Not “vision” in the true sense but rather thermal imaging similar to that used by the military, Cadillac’s system was developed by noted SwedishAmerican auto safety firm Autoliv. In short, Cadillac’s system provides a real-time infrared image of the space in front of the car, well beyond the area lit by the headlamps.

With incredible temperature-sensing technology, the Night Vision system evaluates any obstacle and, based on heat signature, determines whether it’s an animal or a human before sending an alert to a screen in front of the driver (which can be turned off if it’s found to be distracting), as well as sending alerts via a seat vibration and in the heads-up display. Humans are illuminated in one color, animals in another, and alerts are highlighted accordingly.

So Many Choices The editor drives nearly everything Cadillac makes during a Truth+Dare event in Los Angeles and comes away smiling

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We saw the system at work in a darkened room and it was quite impressive. Sitting in a new CT6 sedan in the dark with fog all around, facing another car parked in an “oncoming traffic” position with its headlights on, the scenario was an accurate staging of a typical driving situation at night on a moderately foggy road. Visibility was poor, with the “oncoming” vehicle’s headlights creating a moderate blinding effect in the fog. Though it appeared there was nothing in front of us, the Night Vision system showed something rather alarming: a human waving his arms not more than 50 feet in front of our car. Completely invisible out the front window, he appeared crisp as day and perfectly illuminated on the vehicle’s information screen.

Likewise, when a large deer appeared (a statue), it too was invisible through the windshield but crisply illuminated and highlighted on the screen. More than being impressive in a “bells and whistles” kind of way, there’s no question that this technology could prevent a horrific accident.

In 2012 the U.S. Department of Transportation reported 271,000 accidents involving animals and 76,000 involving pedestrians, with a fair number of those occurring in compromised light conditions. The result: more than 4,400 fatalities and 190,000 injuries, not to mention expensive vehicle and property damage. Being able to “see in the dark” is an obvious advantage for drivers and for increasingly tech-laden cars. Paired with vehicle alert systems and sophisticated handling and braking technologies, like those in Cadillacs, we imagine this kind of tech will be required on all vehicles in the future. For now, it makes the alreadycompelling current lineup of top-trim Cadillacs that much more appealing.

XT5 Replacing the SRX, the new-for-2017 XT5 fills the crossover category for Cadillac and shows improvements over its predecessor, most significantly in weight: it’s 278lbs lighter than the SRX, and 650lbs lighter than a Mercedes GLE. I sat in the back seat during a demonstration of the Pedestrian Collision Mitigation system and had plenty of legroom (I’m 5’11”). To illustrate the 63 cubic feet of cargo space, Cadillac uses a picture of an XT5 holding a weekend bag and an acoustic guitar, with plenty of room left over. Swap-out the guitar for a set of golf clubs and consider us interested.

Starting at $38,995

Autocross Challenge Navigating a few turns, simulated potholes and speed bumps, we drove the ATS Coupe and Sedan and the CTS Sedan. There’s not a lot left to say (and nothing bad to say, really) about the last, a six-time resident of Car and Driver’s “10 Best” list and twice Motor Trend’s “Car of the Year.” If you want some thrills with your four doors, there’s a “V” trim that makes 640hp with 630 lb-ft of torque and which hits 0-60 in 3.7 seconds on its way to a 200mph top speed. Slowing down a bit, the ATS Coupe and Sedan are more tame versions of the ATS-V profiled in “Acceleration Ride” in this article, but both are fine performers in their own right, and all of the cars mentioned here are well worth a look for anyone in search of a dynamic and nicely appointed daily driver.

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ATS Coupe: Starting at $37,995 ATS Sedan: Starting at $33,215 CTS Sedan: Starting $45,560 CTS-V: Starting at $83,995

More than just being impressive, this technology genuinely could save lives Spacious interiors and top electronics, including trackpad controls in the console, are features on many Cadillacs

Other Safety The Cadillac’s ability to “see” isn’t relegated to nighttime, and in daylight hours there’s an added feature to improve safety for pedestrians and drivers alike: Active Safety. Using a coordinated system of radar, cameras and ultrasonic sensors, the feature detects potential collisions with people or objects and alerts the driver. At lower speeds, the system is able bring the car to a complete stop, preventing the collision altogether, but even in cases where the speed is too high to completely arrest the car’s motion, the car will still auto brake and reduce speed as much as possible, mitigating the effects of any collision as much as possible.

It works rather well judging from the in-car demo we had, during which a professional driver drove a system-equipped XT5 toward a mannequin positioned in the parking lot; as we drew closer, the car identified the “pedestrian” and alerted us. When the driver didn’t touch the brakes, the car stepped in and applied them for us, bringing us to a safe and complete stop. It did the same thing again a few moments later when we approached the back of a simulated stopped car, again throwing us forward in our seatbelts but bringing the XT5 to a quick and effective stop. Like Night Vision, this is the kind of technology one could imagine actually helping to save lives.

Other features include a lane-departure alert, which can coordinate with a system that will spin the steering wheel of its own accord and help a driver to maintain a lane. A Cross-Traffic Assist system warns drivers of vehicles coming in from the rear or from the left or right behind the vehicle, which helps tremendously in reverse situations, such as backing out of a space or driveway, while a Blind Spot Detection feature helps in passing situations or other lane-change situations. An array of other driver-assist and safety features are available as well, and they work together to ensure that today’s Cadillacs are as safe as possible, not to mention as technologically sophisticated.

CT6 Cadillac made great efforts to highlight the CT6 at the event, and with good reason: It’s an all new car, with a new lightweight architecture matched to a solid selection of engines and interior trims. The trim I drove featured the latest and greatest tech (including the Enhanced Night Vision and Pedestrian Collision Mitigation systems), a touchpad interface on the console, plenty of beautiful displays and more, and I would have enjoyed more time to play with all of its gadgets. Around town on the street drive, it had sufficient power, a very comfortable ride, nice ergonomics, massage seats and the excellent Bose Panaray Sound System— everything you want in a luxury sedan. An added bonus: the automatic parking feature on our test car. We watched the driver put his hands in the air and work nothing but the brake as the car’s wheel spun by itself and the CT6 easily slipped into a parallel space. Nice.

Starting at $53,495, As tested, starting near $88,460

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Other Tech While Night Vision alerts and auto-brake features are dynamic in more ways than one, much of the best technology goes unseen, and that includes Cadillac’s much-lauded Magnetic Ride Control suspension. The system, which made its debut in the 2002 Cadillac Seville STS, is now standard on many Cadillac models and on General Motors’ performance vehicles (like certain Corvettes and Camaros), as well as being used by the likes of Ferrari. In it, pistons move through a type of oil that contains iron particles (magnetorheological fluid, if you like words). Charging the fluid changes its viscosity, affecting the amount of dampening, and the response is nearly instant—10 times faster than the blink of an eye, in fact, meaning Cadillacs equipped with the system are constantly adjusting for surface and load differences, ensuring a stable and comfortable ride. Technologies like this combined with the range of excellent Cadillac power plants, weight-saving build materials and design, and nicely appointed luxury interiors that in top trims include such amenities as massage seats and the excellent Bose Panaray sound system, make for an all-around top driving experience.

For notes on the various cars experienced at the Truth+Dare event, please see the sidebars in this article. Better yet, find a Cadillac event or dealer and experience them yourself. The horse vs. car argument was settled ages ago* and Cadillac has continued to produce strong arguments for motorized transportation, with increasingly impressive engines and technologies on display. Considering the current lineup and following glimpses of the future, like the recently revealed Escala concept, which is a whole world of advertising slogans away from the “un-killable” vehicles of 1904, we’ll paraphrase another Cadillac catchphrase from 1958 and offer that we believe the brand is continuing to “outstep its own great traditions,” and that’s a very good thing.

Acceleration Ride We drove the race-informed ATS-V for this, and it was a tremendous demonstration of the car’s power, which is immense. At 3.8 seconds from 0-60, it’s one-tenth of a second quicker than the 2017 Aston Martin V12 Vantage S according to car and driver, nearly a full second faster than the 2017 Mercedes AMG C43 4MATIC Coupe, which takes 4.6 seconds. Despite its power off the line, stemming from its 464hp Supercharged V8 and 445 lb-ft of torque (top speed of 189), the ATS-V felt incredibly composed both under acceleration and under hard braking, when the substantial Brembos clamped down at the end of the run. A performance car for town or track, composed and forgiving enough that you’ll be able to drive it home from the latter in one piece. Available with a paddle-shift eight-speed transmission or—fantastically—as a six-speed manual.

ATS-V Starting at $62,665

Visit cadillac.com for more info on vehicles and events. *No horses or Cadillacs were harmed in the making of this story.

Escalade Cutting through traffic and accelerating/braking on the surface streets around Santa Anita Park, I wouldn’t call its maneuverability “deft” exactly but, as it always has been, it was more than capably agile for a vehicle of its size and certainly comfortable. The longtime (and ubiquitous) standard for SUVs in this class, it continues to impress.

Starting at $72,970

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1738, Captain Jenkins shows British Prime Minister Robert Walpole (1676 - 1745) his severed ear, which he claims the Spanish cut off, while other merchants complain of attacks on their trade

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ONE TIME IN CARTAGENA A slice of the city’s past was the turning point for its future as a top international destination

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It would have appeared unremarkable to all except its owner, the odd, dark little thing in a jar. Yet it was quite special, and not just because Robert Jenkins had owned it his entire life but had only been able to see it, to truly examine it, that is, for seven years. Seven years it had been since the Spaniard cut the left ear from Jenkins’ head, sliced it from behind his jaw and placed it into the nervous Welshman’s hands as he stood there on the deck of the Rebecca, anchored off the coast of Florida with the sun beating down. That was in 1731, and how shocked the known smuggler must have been, surprised first to be caught by the Spanish patrol and then to be holding his ear. Perhaps shock is why Jenkins could not bring himself to complete the separation, to throw the ear overboard, and so it returned with him to England. And then came 1738 and the request, and how proudly Jenkins would have carried his trophy down the streets of London then, how carefully he would have

unwrapped it that day before his name was announced and he stepped forward to stand before Parliament with the whole of England outside, and his ear, his precious ear, taken from darkness and held aloft so that the members of the special committee in the House of Commons could see it clearly, produced an audible reaction: “War,” the men in the room had cried, gaping at the ear, at the infuriating thing. But the ear could deliver only silence, and in that silence the faintest of warnings carried across time and 4,000 miles of ocean from the warm stone shores of Cartagena.

Following that day in Parliament, one of the largest fleets of warships ever assembled spent the next nine years sailing against Spanish positions in the Caribbean in a campaign that became known as The War of Jenkins’ Ear. For Great Britain, the battles between 1739 and 1748 brought the deaths of thousands, the end of a government and the complete restructuring of British foreign policy. But for Colombia and for the City of Cartagena in particular, the Guerra del Asiento, as it was called, gave the territory one of its first great heroic moments and lead the way to a period of growth and prosperity, even helping to pave the way for Colombian independence.

Today the war continues to color Cartagena’s fabric, as do all of the city’s battles and celebrations. The

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walls shelled by the British are still scarred but are as much a part of life here as the latest high-end eatery and well-manicured golf course. Cartagena, a city of near 900,000, is a place in which the past walks in perfect step with the present, where ancient neighborhoods and cutting-edge technology do not seem out of sync.

Vibrant, dynamic and international, Cartagena is also deep, with a past that began so many ages ago, and certainly before Jenkins took his ear back to London.

There had been people living on the site for more than 5,000 years by the time Pedro de Heredia arrived in 1533 and founded Cartagena, named for the city in Spain where many of his crew lived. Its natural bay and location saw it soon established as a central loading point for gold headed to Spain. Here, large reserves of precious metals and gems looted from local burial sites and tribes were stored in warehouses to be packed onto ships bound for Europe, and so Cartagena quickly became a target for pirates. It was sacked and looted five times in the 15th century alone, with Sir Francis Drake nearly burning it to the ground in 1586, a decade after he’d first looted the city. In fact, Cartagena was burned by pirates so many times that it gave birth to the Americas’ first fire department.

By the 17th century Spain was fed up, and so engineers were brought in to bolster city defenses, which included adding nearly seven miles of walls and building the original Castillo San Felipe de Barajas, a compound that resembles a stealth fighter in some ways, designed as it was to deflect cannonballs and to repel land attacks. While raids on Cartagena continued, the Castillo wasn’t truly put to the test until the British saw Jenkins’ ear—though to be fair it was King George II’s ear that started the war, or rather a threat to it.

“Go and tell your king that I will do the same, if he dares do the same,” Spanish Captain Julio León Fandiño is reported to have told Jenkins after catching him off Florida, severing his ear and warning him away from Spanish territory. Seven years after the incident, at the urging of British merchants and slavers who’d grown frustrated at Spanish gains in the New World and who were looking for an excuse to fight, Parliament invited Jenkins to recount his tale, decided that threatening the king’s ears (or even one of them) was too grave an insult to bear, and so war ensued.

Lead by Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon, the series of confrontations in what’s now Panama, Venezuela and other areas yielded thousands of British casualties—especially at Cartagena, with that campaign specifically leading to the resignation of Britain’s longstanding first Prime Minister Robert Walpole, who’d been against the war. Losses also compelled Great Britain largely to shift its expansionist ambitions away from the Caribbean and toward the

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Naval action at Cartagena De Indias in 1741, from Short History Of The English People by J.R. Green, 1893 [left]; Blas de Lezo, engraving by Arturo Carretero [below]; Castillo de San Felipe [bottom left]

already a respected battle-tested leader by the time he was charged with defending Cartagena from the British, but the War of Jenkins’ Ear and the Battle of Cartagena de Indias would yield his finest hour and turn him into a hero. Outmanned and outgunned by Vernon and his fleet of 186 ships, 2,000 cannon and more than 26,000 men, de Lezo withstood three separate engagements and days of heavy bombardment with no more than 6,000 defenders at his disposal. By the end of the 67-day campaign, 18,000 men from the attacking force had died (many from disease) or were badly injured; at least 50 ships had been destroyed; and support for the effort had collapsed. Of the 3,600 colonists who’d signed on for adventure, gold and land, only 300 returned home, including Washington.

Blas de Lezo died four months after the conflict, most likely from disease, but his successful defense of the city turned him into a legend. Today, there’s a statue of him in Madrid, Spain, in the Plaza Colón, plus Spanish and Colombian naval ships named for him, numerous books about him and other honors that seem to be increasing each year as his story becomes better known.

The one-eyed, one-armed, one-legged Basque admiral went from hero to legend Mediterranean, changing the face of global politics forever.

If there was any bright spot in the conflict for Britain, it came in one of the last significant cooperative efforts with its American colonialists, and most notably with Lawrence Washington—the older half-brother of future American President George Washington. He and 3,600 recruits from Virginia served under Vernon in Cartagena, and upon returning home the American honored his former commander by naming the Washington family estate after him, hence Mount Vernon.

It’s unlikely that anyone sipping coffee in Cartagena’s Old Town today would know much about any of this, but mention the name Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta and you might get a conversation. The one-eyed, one-armed, one-legged Basque admiral was

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Looking Around In Cartagena there’s both a square and an avenue named for de Lezo, and a statue of him can be seen in front of the Castillo, which is well worth a visit. Reinforced for the last time some years following its test by Vernon, it was never successfully breached.

A short cab ride away from the Castillo, Café San Alberto is a great place to learn why Colombian coffee is so well regarded (this is the home of Juan Valdez, after all). The café serves its own heavily-awarded coffees and offers a “coffee ritual” tasting experience that’s meant to help visitors understand the subtleties held within a drink that’s so often taken for granted. More than that, the café’s setting in Cartagena’s El Centro neighborhood is a perfect place to take in the essence of the city. El Centro is one of two neighborhoods in the walled “Old Town” district (the other is San Diego), and both are loaded with historical treats. Next to the café, for example, sits the Catedral Cartegena de Indias, a stunning colonial cathedral on which ground was broken in 1577, with an aim to replace another church on the site that was built of straw and reeds. Drake’s attack in 1586 left the structure severely damaged, delaying construction, and so it wasn’t completed until 1612.

Another 16th century church, the Iglesia de San Pedro Claver is just down the street, while a statue of the city’s founder can be seen in front of La Torre del Reloj, the impressive 19th century clock tower that serves as a ceremonial gateway to Cartagena and which is just to the east. Still within the Old Town and next to the Iglesia de San Pedro Claver, El Barón offers a break from the sun with rich decor and a menu of fine crushed-ice cocktails and beautifully prepared dishes. Fine dining is found at Restaurante 1621, which offers Frenchinspired fare with local flavor inside the beautiful Sofitel Legend Santa Clara del Curato hotel, which is housed in a 17th century convent. Another good Old Town option for accommodations is the Casa San Agustin, a boutique hotel with 30 elegant rooms housed in three whitewashed buildings in El Centro.

Should one wish to step out of the Old Town proper, another neighborhood worth exploring is the Getsemani area, which in recent years has made the transition from rather sketchy to rather hip. Here, restaurants like Demente, and La Cocina de Pepina, garner rave reviews for serving authentic fare, while the district’s Calle de la Sierpe continues to serve as one of the world’s great open-air street art museums, with block after block of amazing graffiti. Accommodations here are still rather limited, but this is the place to be for cutting-edge culture.

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Cartagena is a city of depth in which the past walks in perfect step with the present

Golf Further beyond the Old Town walls, there is perhaps no better example of modern Cartagena than the golf property that opened here last year: TPC Cartagena at Karibana. Part of the PGA TOUR’s respected TPC Network, the course is a Jack Nicklaus design and it’s one of the finest in the region, hosting a Web.com TOUR event among other competitions. The front nine is laid down through a spectacular stretch of natural forest, with the impeccably manicured fairways bordered by Colombia’s lush native beauty. Six artificial lakes come into play, adding visual respite from the formidable rough and reminding golfers that water is ever at hand—a fact that becomes obvious after the turn. Coming out of the forest and onto the back nine, the sea breeze is usually strong but the views render any challenges mere afterthoughts. Two holes on the back play along the beach, and all nine feature ocean views.

Hole 16 in particular is stunning. 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 Drake. Likewise, the par-3 Hole 17 plays at 120 yards but is more complicated than it would at first appear. It plays along the beach as well, with the ocean on the right, and the sand cutting through the fairway in front of the green will pose big problems if the wind catches your ball. Ending with an equally breathtaking Hole 18, which offers a lake along with its timeless setting, TPC Cartagena at Karibana is reason enough to visit the city, offering a bold look at the future of the game built on a truly historic foundation.

16th hole [above]; town square in Cartagena [below]

There is perhaps no better symbol of modern change in Colombia than TPC Cartagena at Karibana Finally It’s not as if the crowds didn’t want to come here— Cartagena literally fought off visitors for centuries—but recent events in Colombia have the potential to see the country’s tourism business thrive. Most notably, the 52-year war between the government and the FARC insurgents is now officially over, with a permanent ceasefire signed in August of this year. It’s an amazing achievement that, taken with Colombia’s already muchimproved infrastructure (including a TPC course) could lay the foundation for even more stability and thus more visitors. Sacked, looted, plundered and burned for so long, Cartagena’s dynamism and resolve have only been enhanced by conflict during its history. Following The War of Jenkins’ Ear, the city’s fortunes improved during a “Silver Age” of new construction, increased immigration and growth and higher incomes all around. With a modern chapter of its conflicted history now closed, one has to imagine the possibilities for Cartagena’s future with a smile—and with their ears pricked up.

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It’s Time to Raise Your Expectations

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ith so many amazing places to visit, it’s a shame the means of reaching them are so often lackluster. In other words: commercial air travel isn’t what it used to be. The good news is personalized air travel is more accessible and affordable than ever thanks to a host of new private flight options. Chief among these options, certainly, is Nicholas Air. Founded in 1997 by Nicholas Correnti as a private aviation company focused on aircraft management and lease programs, today the company is one of the largest providers of Jet Cards, Lease Shares, Fractional Ownership, and Aircraft Management programs in the United States.

With a host of flexible options suited for nearly every need, it’s no wonder Nicholas Air is the company used by PGA TOUR player Daniel Berger, lauded journalist Tom Brokaw, and the likes of Archie and Eli Manning, among others.

Indeed, be it celebrities, top executives, or individuals alike, what sets the company apart is its high quality of service. Most new members come through current member

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referrals and such exclusivity ensures not only the fiscal and structural integrity of Nicholas Air programs, but also means that the Nicholas Air community builds and moves forward together with the company. Clients work directly with Nicholas Air, which is the owner and operator of all aircraft in the fleet, rather than going through a broker or 3rd party of some kind. Because all services are under one roof, so to speak, Nicholas Air is better able to pay meticulous attention to the details of safety, service, and quality. Accordingly, Nicholas Air Club Members enjoy access to an exclusive fleet of 5-year or newer aircraft with guaranteed availability, and a direct working relationship with schedulers and flight crews. This kind of one-on-one communication and service is bolstered by the company’s years of experience working at the highest level; and with so many flexible options for participation, it’s likely that Nicholas Air could be the solution for your business or personal travel needs.

PROGRAMS

FLEET

Jet Card Enjoy membership with a minimum upfront investment and access to the entire Nicholas Air fleet. Three Jet Card options—pre-purchase of hours, pay as you fly, or a depositbased card—offer the perfect solutions to convenience and flexibility. Cards offer unparalleled reliability and can be replenished at any time with no long-term commitment.

With an impeccably maintained fleet of aircraft, Nicholas Air offers the most technologically advanced and safest aircraft in the industry. Members enjoy the flexibility to choose the aircraft that best suits their travel needs and enjoy the freedom to fly on their own schedule.

Jet Lease For those who travel more than 90 hours per year, the Nicholas Air Lease (lease share) program offers access to the entire fleet through a monthly payment system.

Like owning your own aircraft, this program provides the benefits of fractional ownership without the upfront financial commitment of an asset.

Jet Share The Nicholas Air Jet Share program, or Fractional Jet Ownership, does away with the hassles of whole aircraft ownership while providing greater flexibility, creating a valuable option for those who fly more than 100 hours per year and enjoy the depreciation benefits of owning an asset.

Purchase a Nicholas Air Jet Share and own an interest in a specific aircraft in the exclusive Nicholas Air fleet.

Pilatus PC-12 300mph 6-8 Passengers 1,500 miles

Phenom 100 420 mph 5 Passengers 1,000 miles

Phenom 300 500mph 9 Passengers 2,200 miles

Daniel Berger - Pro Golfer, NICHOLAS AIR Member “As a professional golfer, my life is a balancing act. Traveling up to 40 weeks a year for tournaments and other commitments can really take its toll. With NICHOLAS AIR, I can get where I need to be safely and comfortably, while saving time and energy. I’ve learned that finding a few extra hours to practice and rest can make all the difference for me. What really sets NICHOLAS AIR apart is the professionalism and customer service. The staff and crew pay close attention to my needs and give me complete peace of mind that my travels will go smoothly wherever the destination. In a sport where every shot counts, it’s nice to have experts like that in my corner.”

Latitude 513mph 9 Passengers 2,850 miles To find out more about Nicholas Air and their programs, visit NicholasAir.com or call (866) 935-7771

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

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

TPC SNOQUALMIE RIDGE TPC BOSTON

TPC RIVER HIGHLANDS

TPC TWIN CITIES

TPC JASNA POLANA TPC DEERE RUN

TPC MICHIGAN

TPC POTOMAC

TPC STONEBRAE TPC SUMMERLIN TPC HARDING PARK TPC VALENCIA

TPC LAS VEGAS TPC SCOTTSDALE

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 EAGLE TRACE

TPC TREVISO BAY

RESORT/DAILY FEE PROPERTIES PRIVATE CLUBS

TPC CARTAGENA AT KARIBANA

TPC DORADO BEACH

TPC KUALA LUMPUR

CARTAGENA,

DORADO,

KUALA LUMPUR,

COLOMBIA

PUERTO RICO

MALAYSIA

TPC Summerlin HOLE 15 A short, drivable par-4 measuring 320 yards, most players will attempt to reach the green on TPC Summerlin’s 15th hole with their tee shot. If the tee shot misses the green, an “up and down” birdie is possible, but not easy, due to the severely elevated and undulated green—which is surrounded by five bunkers that regularly attract stray tee shots. Hole 15 begins an exciting finishing stretch for PGA TOUR professionals during the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

TPC Las Vegas HOLE 2 TPC Las Vegas’ 2nd hole offers players a swift introduction to desert golf. A 196-yard par-3, the hole features an island green bordered by a desert barranca instead of water which offers a challenging approach shot. The right side is protected by a single bunker that is deeper than it is wide. Golfers will want to aim for the more forgiving right side of the green, as the left side slopes down toward the rocky terrain.

TPC Craig Ranch HOLE 14 TPC Craig Ranch’s exciting hole 14 is a Tom Weiskopf signature driveable par 4, with water coming into play on the left side. Pin placement should dictate where golfers should position their tee shot for the best approach angle, although reaching the green in one is possible yet risky.

Players should be aware of the many bunkers protecting the spacious green featuring four distinctive levels.

HOW’D HE DO THAT?

WHERE HE DID THAT.

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

Of the world’s 34,000 golf courses, only 34 exceed the standards of the PGA TOUR ® at every turn. For design. For agronomy.

For providing a professional level of golf and service to every devoted golfer. Play with the confidence of a champion. Play TPC.

For tee times, golf vacations or memberships visit playtpc.com.

TPC Summerlin Host of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open

gift guide

Thoroughly engrained They say old wine is the best to drink, old friends the best to trust and old authors the best to read. Old wood is also the best to burn, but don’t be too hasty to strike a match as some timber should be for keeps

Leith Silver’s Claremont Hickory

Bowers & Wilkins 805 D3 Speaker

A reproduction of the Hugh Philp baffing spoon, the Claremont is crafted in the Highlands of Scotland. The five hallmarked silver balls are suggestive of the five holes of the Leith Links golf course, in Edinburgh, Scotland, where the very rules of golf originated nearly 300 years ago, while the rich hues of the charred staves from a 25-year whisky barrel perfectly complement the natural wood of the hickory club. This would make for a stunning member-guest trophy, or between close friends.

The pioneering sound engineer John Bowers wanted his speakers to disappear, leaving only the music as it had been intended to be heard, pure and uncolored. With his firm’s flagship Diamond speakers, mission has been accomplished. Featured here is the 805 D3, the only loudspeaker of its size and type to feature studio-grade technology in the form of a Diamond dome tweeter.

Book a listening session at your favorite high-end audio retailer and rediscover what music actually sounds like.

leithsilver.com

bowers-wilkins.com

History, whisky and craftsmanship integrate in this centerpiece

The speakers look amazing and sound even better

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Alba Humidor

Keeping cigars in condition with elegance Every Alba Humidor is crafted by a team of skilled carpenters, with each square of veneer cut, dyed and placed by hand. The rich color background is derived from dyed sycamore and natural veneers. It is practical for those that indulge in cigars yet a beautiful piece of craftmanship for all. jjfox.co.uk

iWOODESIGN

Matches with a creative spark Hand-constructed in a standout Royal Ebony Macassar, this practical match holder brings a luxurious wrapping of contemporary design to a ubiquitous product. The strike is found at the base. Stand it up or lie it down. Bring forth light and warmth. Handle with care. iwoodesign.com

Loft Chairs

Made by Shelley Shelley for Bernhardt design The Loft is an unusual chair that is single-mindedly constructed solely in solid Walnut. The wood has been sculpted in lines that flow seamlessly but that dissect and angularly frame the enclosed light. The Loft could be a splendid addition to a clear space or complement a soft furnished world. bernhardtdesign.com

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gift guide

Putney Canvas Briefcase From the great British luxury leather goods manufacturer Founded by the colorful Gary Ettinger in the 1930’s, Ettinger is today one of the world’s leading leather goods marques.

The briefcase is made with a robust cotton drill canvas and trimmed with waxy hide leather. Named after the leafy district of west London where the company is headquartered, it has an external fullwidth slip pocket and all-round zip opening with a roomy single internal compartment for papers. ettinger.co.uk

Rolex

Celebrating the Italian renaissance

Crockett & Jones Shoe Box Leather, wood, brushes and shoe creams

Sounding more like a notorious gunslinging duo from the wild west, the actually genteel shoemaker Crockett and Jones have designed this charming wooden Shoe Box containing a full range of shoe, welt and suede brushes as well as a duster, shoe polishes, shampoo and renovator cream. Also effective on holsters.

Inspired by the great Italian renaissance artist, the new Cellini collection combines state-of the-art Rolex expertise with precision that heightens watchmaking heritage in its most timeless form. The lines are refined, the materials noble, the finishings luxurious.

The cases are available exclusively in 18ct white or Everose gold cast by Rolex in its own foundry, while the dials are either lacquered or embellished with a black or a silver-plated classic “Rayon flammé de la gloire” guilloche motif, and adorned with gold applique hour markers. Irresistible. rolex.com

crockettandjones.com

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Stonehouse Golf

Framing treasured golf memories Arguably there is no one who captures the depth and breadth of a golf hole as well as Stonehouse. Welcomed into the most prestigious clubs of America and Europe, the extensive Stonehouse catalog of great golf holes ensures golfers can purchase a stunning keepsake from a treasured round. The “Giclee prints” by Stonehouse combine high-resolution technology with archival inks and fine art watercolor papers for rich color saturation and dramatic effect that is vivid and lasting. stonehousegolf.com

Barker Black

Crocodile Golf Spectator All Barker Black shoes are handmade in England and the regal Crocodile Golf Spectator comes in Chocolate Croc and Ivory Suede. The all-leather shoes epitomize what Barker Black describes as “subversive sophistication”. They are playful in spirit yet built to endure the rigours of the most adventurous rounds of golf.

Arnold Palmer

A treasure trove of entertaining anecdotes and timeless wisdom This is vital reading from the world-famous golfer, visionary businessman and devoted family patriarch. Arnold Palmer has always been a man of the people and for more than half a century he has been one of sports’ most exciting, popular and accessible figures. This book is Palmer to a tee—gracious, honest, open and down to Earth. arnoldpalmer.com/book

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gift guide

KitchenAid

Oban

Available in Imperial Black, the classic KitchenAid Red or Frosted Pearl White, the Pro Line Series Blender is an incredibly powerful blender that makes healthy, nutritious eating as easy as flicking a switch. This product is made in America, continuing the KitchenAid tradition of being one of America’s most most committed home producers since 1919.

Oban was established in 1794 on Scotland’s west coast and it is still in the scenic port town which grew up around the distillery. The 14 Year Old is Oban’s most popular single malt; a classic whisky with a first sip that brings forth warm flavors of nut oil and sweet fruit that dry and cleanse before providing a long and oaky finish. Like the idyllic town that took its name, Oban is a whisky once visited, oft returned.

The strongest blender yet

kitchenaid.com

14 Year Old

malts.com

Carat

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Vessel bag

Beauty, functionality & simplicity Painstakingly designed and handcrafted to perfection, Vessel bags each fulfill a specific mission—in addition to benefitting kids in need. Elegant on the street, stylish at the beach and practical for the clubhouse, Vessel is fast becoming a style icon.

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Sipping by the bay Lagavulin single malts are among the most sought after whiskies in production today and 2016 marks the 200th anniversary of the famous old label from Islay. We set sail for Lagavulin Bay to meet distillery manager Georgie Crawford

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The ancient ruin of Dunyvaig Castle, once the naval HQ for the Lords of the Isles

T

he lure of Lagavulin Bay has endured for more than a millennium, we know that for sure.

The terrifying specter of longships from Scandinavia first sailed into Lagavulin in the eighth century. Long and sleek as they coursed through the sea, the serenity of a sailing longship was in bloodcurdling contrast to those who disembarked from its slender, creaking bow; the marauding, all-conquering Vikings.

Settling on the principal Scottish islands, the Vikings established a ruling class of Norse-Gaelic earls, the Lords of the Isles. These island rulers were based on the idyllic Islay for more than six centuries—an island still known as the ‘Queen of the Hebrides’—and around the turn of the first millennium evidence of just how much they cherished Islay came with the construction of Dunyvaig Castle, out on the promontory that shelters Lagavulin Bay from the northeast.

Dunyvaig—which means ‘Fort of the galleys’—was effectively the naval base for the Lords of the Isles, the pivot around which they could dominate these eastern reaches of the Northern Atlantic and the seas reaching around Argyl and the Isle of Arran and into the Firth of Clyde, beyond

which lay the mainland of Scotland.

In 1314, over a thousand men of Islay sailed from Lagavulin Bay to the mainland to join Robert the Bruce in his historic campaign at the Battle of Bannockburn, which was key to victory in the First War of Scottish Independence from England and which saw Robert the Bruce crowned King of Scotland.

Life has settled down around the banks of Lagavulin Bay since those tumultuous times. The castle is a ruin. Its last grey stone remnants remain stubborn and upright, but partly grassed over and providing ideal nesting spots for Islay’s abundant seabirds such as the common guillemot.

Red-billed oystercatchers pad around the rocks beneath.

Islay attracts bird watchers and whisky sippers alike and even golden eagles are resident on this isolated isle, although their territory is the fertile hunting grounds of open land rather than sea, and they are more likely to nest up on the high grounds of Islay’s Oa Peninsula, a short drive southwest from Lagavulin Bay. Covering an area of only 25 square miles, there is no such thing as a long drive on Islay.

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Maritime by nature The galleys and canon long ago departed Lagavulin Bay yet the castle’s ancient, austere spirit remains, reminding visitors today that Dunyvaig is still on watch.

And Lagavulin Bay still has something of particular value and rarity to protect, the Lagavulin whisky distillery, which this year celebrates its 200th anniversary.

Boasting no less than eight distilleries, Islay is one of the world’s most revered centers of whisky production.

“It goes back to the history of aquavit [Aquavit, derived from the Latin ‘aqua vitae’, meaning ‘water of life’] and early whisky production,” starts Georgie Crawford, distillery manager at Lagavulin and a child of Islay. In fact records show that Crawford’s ancestors served as bards—the in-house storytellers and songwriters—to the Lords of the Isles in Dunyvaig Castle.

“The art of whisky distillation came from Ireland into Scotland and Islay was one of the stepping stones on the way. The travelling monks came through Lagavulin Bay and Dunyvaig Castle and some of them settled here, so Islay’s whisky production dates back to the 14th century.”

The monks produced that aquavit with unstinting dedication because they believed it had medicinal powers.

“From the monks the knowledge of distilling dissipated into the people,” adds Crawford, who has been manager at Lagavulin for six years, “and whisky gradually became a drink not just for medicinal purposes but also to mark celebrations and holidays, and as something to drink before and after battle.

“Islay lent itself so effectively to distilling because of thriving barley crops, an abundance of water and it had the peat as fuel, which is where those distinct key flavors came from in the beginning.”

The cool maritime climate lends itself perfectly to the distilling process and Islay’s water is a key ingredient, with

the island’s Sholum Lochs pouring a steady flow direct into the Lagavulin distillery, although not before it has flowed over 100 falls on the way. The climate, water, peat and distilling expertise passed down through the centuries have combined to see Lagavulin grow into one of the world’s most highly prized whiskies.

“Historically peat would have been the main fuel source and used throughout the entire kilning process,” explains Crawford as she takes Kingdom on a guided tour of the Lagavulin distillery, where every sod of peat used is dug up from Islay’s carefully-managed natural stock. “But now peat is just used for drying the malt. In fact, to get that

“Islay lent itself so effectively to distilling because of thriving barley crops, an abundance of water and peat as fuel”

Islay’s natural peat [above] and Lagavulin’s whisky in oak-cask maturation [left]

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smoky flavor we only need to burn the peat for 12 hours under the malt because once the outside of the husk of the grain of barley becomes dry the smokiness stops adhering to it. It has to be damp for adherence, so today we use a lot less peat than was originally used, while still getting the same smoky flavors.”

They talk about ‘terroir’ in fine wine, but there is certainly an element of terroir in Lagavulin too.

“Islay the place has a huge influence on the flavors of Lagavulin and so do the 1,000 unique features of this distillery,” explains Crawford. “My heart says the place makes Lagavulin and terroir comes into it because we are using peat that comes out of Islay’s ground. There are certainly organic differences to peat that is produced in different geographical locations so some of that maritime flavor you get from Lagavulin comes direct from the peat and from our island.”

In the 19th century the demand for Lagavulin whisky grew not just because of its distinct and layered flavors— flavors that just could not be replicated elsewhere—but also because of uncompromising attention to every detail of the production process to maintain consistency.

“Islay the place has a huge influence on the flavors of Lagavulin and so do the 1,000 unique features of this distillery”

Lagavulin’s distillery manager Georgie Crawford [top] and the Still House [below]

The distillery came under majority ownership of the Mackie family in the mid-19th century and it was Peter Mackie—or ‘Restless Peter’ as he was known—who led Lagavulin to new heights of production and fame in the late 19th and early 20th century. Mackie ran the business for nearly 50 years and Lagavulin’s production grew from little more than 4,000 gallons of whisky in 1821, to more than 130,000 gallons a year a century later. This year, Crawford is overseeing production that will reach a new annual high of just over 570,000 gallons. It’s a lot by Victorian standards but decidedly niche in terms of the 21st century whisky industry. That is the way Lagavulin is supposed to be and that is how it is going to stay, with demand far outlasting supply.

“We don’t have to market it very much,” adds Crawford, and there is no warehouse at Lagavulin, no liquid stockpile (unfortunately). There isn’t the capacity by the bay if a warehouse were required, but as soon as the whisky is bottled it is put on the back of a truck and heads to the ferry. “The liquid speaks for itself. Its popularity has grown through word of mouth over many years. We can sell Lagavulin for its value and its rarity ensures it does not ever need to be discounted.

“Lagavulin is quite a regal whisky and we don’t mess with it. We don’t have to.”

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Taking out the fire The cornerstone bottle from the Lagavulin distillery has long been its 16 Year Old, a premium single malt—distinct and layered—that somehow encapsulates Islay in every sip.

“16 Year Old is our flagship—a classic malt,” starts Crawford as she gently turns a glass under her nose.

“When I think about Lagavulin’s flavor profiles it’s the same as describing Islay and that is what I really love about Lagavulin. I don’t think there is another product in the world that is not only a distillation of the production process but also a distillation of the people who have made it and the place where it is made.

“I can close my eyes and when I taste Lagavulin I am standing down at the bottom of the pier and drawing in all those flavors and senses. The peat smoke does make the whisky challenging and uncompromising and Islay is the same. Looking out from the bay here on a sunny day is absolutely sublime, but then on another day, perhaps in December or January—when it is blowing a gale and there has not been a ferry across from the mainland for three days—then Islay is challenging and uncompromising and that balance and characteristics are in the Lagavulin.

“Lagavulin has some subtlety about it—it’s a beautifully balanced whisky—so there are the cereal flavors you want from the barley, there are also some nice rich fruit flavors and you get some nice orange characteristics. Then the peat smoke balances it but it is not too over-bearing.

It is rich and strong and there is a wood smoke flavor too that comes through from the cask. There is a multi-layered richness about 16 Year Old and it is quite serene.”

The reputation and global demand for Lagavulin is down to its 16 Year Old, although to mark the distillery’s 200th anniversary it has introduced special editions of an 8 Year Old—a revival of the age of the distillery’s first whisky two centuries ago—and something to really get the enthusiast dreaming of whisky barrels rolling down the pier at Lagavulin Bay; a 25 Year Old, matured in sherry casks, of which only 8,000 bottles are being filled worldwide (that’ll be $1,200 per bottle, so store it with care and open with reverence).

“The 25 Year Old is an unbelievable whisky,” says Crawford. “The Lagavulin character is there, right at the front, but it also has this big, rich, wood character. It is like an amplified version of the ‘16’ but because of the age you get into so many different layers of flavor. The sherry casks are made from European oak and they enhance the woody characteristic and give an earthy, spicy richness.

“For me, the older the whisky, the longer you should spend drinking it and enjoying it. The aromas and the flavors are there to be savored. This is not a drink to be rushed.

Spend time delving into it, share it and talk about it.”

And remember what the islanders say of Lagavulin: “Time takes out the fire but leaves in the warmth”.

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“I can close my eyes and when I taste Lagavulin I am standing down at the bottom of the pier and drawing in all those flavors”

Lagavulin 16 Year Old, a classic single malt that encapsulates the island on which it is distilled

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Chaco Golf Club, almost lost in the northeastern reaches of Argentina, has somehow produced a trio of PGA Tour winners.

It is unlikely yet true, as Robin Barwick reports

RESISTENCIA

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f Australia has the Outback, Argentina has Chaco Province. In Argentina’s northeast, Chaco is sparsely populated, very hot, humid and apart from far-reaching hardwood forests, the province is dominated by vast cattle ranches. High summer rainfall often causes widespread flooding on the flat terrain of Chaco’s savannah as the natural drainage of the Bermejo and Guaycuru rivers are quickly overwhelmed, and this has hindered the development of modern infrastructure.

Chaco’s steak is renowned and it boasts a strong tradition of cotton production but as for golf, it is almost entirely an irrelevance. The entire region—all 40,000 square miles of it—has but a single 18-hole track.

Chaco’s capital city is Resistencia, with a population of 290,000 and located in the far east of the province, 30 miles south of the border with Paraguay. On a map of South America, Resistencia is right in the centre and it is on the outskirts of the city where Chaco Golf Club lies, the one 18-holer.

It is a decent layout defined by tight, tree-lined fairways. The golf course is easy on the eye but lacks genuine championship caliber. You could hardly expect more—it is some feat that the club and its skeleton staff of 15 have kept the course alive for over 70 years at all, since opening in 1942.

Chaco has a golfing membership of 90, the club is largely ignored by a local population devoted to soccer, yet somehow it has nurtured a trio of PGA Tour winners: Jose Coceres, Fabian Gomez and Emiliano Grillo. Their ages span 30 years, they have five PGA Tour victories between them and it doesn’t make sense.

Sometimes we just have to accept that not everything has a rational explanation.

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“When it rained we would have a fairway to ourselves to play football barefoot and that was a lot of fun”

JOSÉ EUSEBIO CÓCERES Born

14 August 1963, Chaco, Argentina

Turned professional Current tour(s) Professional wins

1986 Champions Tour 11

Career highlights Two-win season on PGA Tour in 2001, winning Worldcom Classic & Disney Classic

Blazing a trail Coceres was the first child of Chaco to break through. Now 52 and playing on the PGA Tour Champions in the United States, Coceres has won 11 tour titles worldwide, including two on the PGA Tour during the best season of his career in 2001, the Worldcom Classic and Disney Golf Classic.

Coceres earned his first pesos caddying at Chaco GC and a generation later so did the son of one of his best childhood friends. Fabian Gomez, 37, twice a winner on the PGA Tour in the past 14 months, was born in a small house literally across the road from Chaco GC, and followed Coceres’ footsteps through both the Chaco caddie shack

and onto the PGA Tour.

“I lived very near the golf course and so we were there all the time, not only playing golf but also playing soccer,” starts Gomez in an interview with Kingdom. “My friends and I would spend the whole day there. Sometimes, when it rained, we would have a fairway to ourselves to play football barefoot and that was a lot of fun. They have built a wall around the club now so the kids can’t do that anymore, but when I was growing up there was just a fence and we could get through.

“Being a caddie was the best way for me to earn some money, particularly as I lived next to the course. I did some gardening as well but I got better money as a caddie. I started playing golf when I was five and a bonus of being a caddie was that we could play on the course when it was closed on Mondays.

Once I reached the age of 14 it looked as though I might be able to be a professional and so the club let me play more. I would caddie until 4pm and then play afterwards, every day.”

The last member of the Chaco triumvirate is Grillo, 24, who won the 2015 Web.com Tour Championship to earn his PGA Tour card for the first time, and then promptly won on his debut as a PGA Tour golfer a fortnight The 9th green at Chaco, with the birthplace and childhood home of Fabian Gomez among the houses across the street

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FABIAN GOMEZ Born

27 October 1978, Chaco, Argentina

Turned professional Current tour(s) Professional wins

2002 PGA Tour 11

Career highlights Two PGA Tour titles in space of seven months, at 2015 FedEx St. Jude Classic and 2016 Sony Open in Hawaii in January

later, last October, at the Frys.com Open (although held in 2015 the tournament was the 2016 season opener).

“I don’t know how this one golf course has produced three golfers with five wins on the PGA Tour between them,” starts Grillo, also speaking to Kingdom. “It makes you wonder and it’s hard to say why it has happened. All three of us are different ages so it is not like we grew up together, pushing each other on. Chaco is just a very special place— it is to me anyway.

“I got into golf because my dad used to play. He learned to play at Chaco just like me. I was just a typical kid trying different sports and golf was just one of them, but once you start playing golf it is really hard not to fall in love with it. I started at the age of five and I am thankful for being able to start the game so young.”

Adds Gomez: “I like to tell people that a good golf course teaches golfers to play straight, and certainly Chaco does that with its narrow fairways, but I know there are many golf courses in Argentina that do the same, yet none of the others have produced three PGA Tour champions. It’s tough to pinpoint the exact answer but is a nice story to tell!”

“Chaco only has less than 100 members and one 18-hole golf course and Resistencia is not a big city,” explains Grillo. “Chaco is a very humble golf club and the people there work so hard to keep the golf course in as good condition as possible, month after month. The same greenkeeper has looked after the course for something like 40 years now.”

When Coceres was growing up in Resistencia in the 1970s, and when he wasn’t caddying or playing golf, there was hardly a wealth of distraction and amusements for youngsters, and he and Luciano Jose Gomez—or ‘Chelita’ as Fabian Gomez’s late father was known—would trek into the countryside in search of bee hives and more importantly, honey. The stings hurt but the sweet taste was worth it.

“Jose was a really close friend of my father’s in Chaco,” says Gomez, who now lives in Buenos Aires yet has family in Resistencia and regularly returns to Chaco GC. “I have known Jose pretty much for my whole life and he was the person who convinced my parents to let me go with him to Buenos Aires to start playing golf more regularly and at a higher level when I was 18. By then Jose was a well-known professional in Argentina. He was a great inspiration for me and also for Emiliano—it was Jose who proved to us that it was possible to succeed as a golfer on tour, no matter where you come from.”

In 2001, Coceres became the first Argentine golfer to win on the PGA Tour since Roberto de Vincenzo in 1968.

Short on English vocab, on winning at Harbour Town Golf Links Coceres unfurled a borrowed pillowcase on which he had written: “For my family and my friends and for all the Argentineans, a million thanks.”

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Taking on the world Grillo and Gomez are now spearheading Argentina’s standing in world golf. Grillo is ranked 25th in the world at the time of writing, Gomez is ranked 83rd and they are the only two Argentines in the world’s top 400 (Angel Cabrera is next at 469). Already this year the pair made their debuts at Augusta National, joining Cabrera to see three Argentines in the Masters for the first time since 2001. Back then the trio incorporated Cabrera, Coceres and Eduardo Romero.

Gomez missed the cut at the Masters but Grillo finished in a creditable tie for 17th, highlighted by a first

EMILIANO GRILLO Born

14 September 1992, Resistencia, Argentina

Turned professional Current tour(s) Professional wins

2011 PGA TOUR 3

Career highlights Having earned his PGA TOUR card by winning the Web.com Tour Championship in October 2015, Grillo began his first full season on the PGA TOUR by winning his next start, at the Frys.com Open

round of 71, one under par, despite struggling to control his nerves on the first tee.

“I wanted it to be really special but I was really nervous on the first tee,” recalls Grillo. “I was so nervous it felt as if it was someone else playing that drive. You know, I didn’t really care where that shot was going—as long as it didn’t hit anybody I would have been happy. In the end it was the straightest ball you have ever seen! It was a great feeling, and that was the hardest shot of the tournament out of the way.”

At 24 and established on the PGA Tour there is every reason to expect Grillo has a great deal more to achieve.

“Emiliano is still young and this is just the beginning,” says Gomez, who shot 62 in the final round of the 2016 Sony Open—a round featuring a run of seven straight birdies— before defeating Brandt Snedeker in a playoff. “I knew about him back at Chaco since he was a boy although he is 14 years younger than me so it was not until we both joined the PGA Tour that we have had many opportunities to play together.

Back in 2007, when Emiliano was only 14 or 15, I remember he finished the low amateur in the Argentine Open. That was very impressive and that is when I realised he could do very well as a professional. What Emiliano is doing now is great but his future can be even better.”

“I have known Fabian for a long time,” returns Grillo, “and when I was starting to take golf seriously he was just starting to play professionally, and I was always very interested to see how his career grew. Fabian is a great guy and he has always been very good to me. These days we spend some time together on tour and I am very fortunate to have had Fabian as a role model and now as a friend.”

Chaco Golf Club must feel fortunate too, to count Coceres, Gomez and Grillo among their own, but it works both ways, and this trio would never have made it to the PGA Tour if it weren’t for Chaco GC.

The 18th green at Chaco, with the city of Resistencia in the background

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When top HR firm and business solution provider Insperity was looking for a way to convey the integrity, drive and dedication to values that the company holds dear, one sport was the obvious choice

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T

he business of business is no simple thing. Staffing a company, then training and managing employees, often proves overwhelming to companies big on potential but short on experience. Enter Insperity, an organization that provides HR services and business performance solutions to numerous small and medium-sized companies around the world. Along with its expert knowledge of how to optimize workplaces and workforces, the company also brings a sincere commitment of integrity and trust to every relationship—important assets, no matter the business.

“We’re entrusted by hundreds of thousands of people to take care of their employees, their training and benefits; that’s a precious responsibility,” says Jay Mincks, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Insperity. “You have to have the integrity in doing what you say you’re going to do—integrity and trust have to be hallmarks of your company and your performance.”

Jay Mincks, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Insperity

That kind of deep-seeded commitment to values is part of what has made Insperity so successful, growing from a single telephone in co-founder Paul Sarvadi’s 600-square-foot office into a global solution provider serving more than 100,000 client companies with more than 2 million employees (and with Sarvadi still at the helm).

“You don’t go into business to hire employees,” says Mincks, “You go into business to make money, to build and sell your product or service. But you grow, and now you’ve got employees and suddenly you’re in the employer business.”

This is a complicated situation for many business owners, especially if they built a firm with a core group of friends and acquaintances—associations that began as personal relationships.

With growth comes the need to hire people who effectively are strangers, and how the expectations of them (and from them) are managed will be quite different to the way old friends work.

Streamlined payroll services, good medical benefits, logical retirement account structures, legal compliance with all of the above and more on a seemingly endless list of required and optional services all present a confounding array of variables to manage, especially for someone who just wants to build furniture, say, or to run a service company. Further to that, employee recruiting, training and performance management, and optimizing the workplace environment to maximize a firm’s production are skills that rarely come naturally to business owners who just want to build their dreams.

“If you think about it, being an employer is an art unto itself,” says Mincks. “We provide that level of comfort, and that level of liability management, that allows business owners to sleep at night.”

Insperity’s effectiveness is due in large part to the firm’s belief in its responsibility to its clients and to the integrity at the heart of each Insperity relationship. That’s why, when it came time to find a way to communicate with clients, only one game made sense:

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(

Bernhard Langer during the final round of the Insperity Invitational at the Tournament Course, Woodlands Country Club, 2014

“What we determined 14 or 15 years ago is that the No.1 recreational activity for business owners in our target market is golf,” says Mincks. “The thing we love about golf is that it’s the last bastion of ‘the gentleman,’ integrity, all of the things that everyone holds as a value that should be protected and honored and recognized.

Consider the ability of a golfer to call a penalty on himself: you don’t see an offensive lineman calling holding on himself or a second baseman saying, ‘Actually, the guy’s safe. The ball was a little late.’ It’s a great game, and it reflects our core values very well.”

For more than 10 years, those values have been on fine display in the Insperity Invitational, an annual event on the PGA TOUR Champions calendar. The experience and solid character on that tour specifically spoke to Insperity’s clients, Mincks says.

“A large percentage of business owners are Baby Boomers, they grew up seeing these golfers in their prime, they’re their heroes,” he says. “And with Arnold Palmer as our spokesperson, that brought all of that on board and took it to the next level for us. Beyond that, there definitely are those in the golf business who are clients of Insperity.

“The way we work with all of our clients, the responsibility we feel to uphold the integrity of the relationships… Golf is hand in glove with that value segment of ours, with opportunities for that to be demonstrated fairly frequently. It’s refreshing in the whole world of sports that there’s a sport that still holds those values to be important, that people still believe in them and behave accordingly.”

Find out more about Insperity at Insperity.com

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You never see a second baseman saying ‘Actually the guy’s safe; the ball was late’ —golf is a great sport

Gary Player of South Africa [right] and Jack Nicklaus [center], look on as Arnold Palmer putts at the 18th green during an exhibition round at the the Insperity Championship

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A flash of lightning Gin has real staying power. The juniper berry-based spirit originated as a medieval elixir in the Netherlands (‘Jenever’ is Dutch for ‘Juniper’, which became shortened to ‘gin’), before the Brits took to it with such resolve that virtually the whole of London became intoxicated in the 18th century.

Extravagant gin palaces reigned a century later and now, another 150 years on, gin is enjoying a rocketing revival, a “gin-aissance” Photography by Leon Harris

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London’s Viaduct Tavern and [far left] Monkey 47 served with Fever Tree tonic and fresh plum

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ike the ice and lime rolling around the teasing fizz of a gin and tonic, in a broad Spanish copa glass, what goes around comes around.

Gin first reached social heights in London 200 years ago when the city’s bright and effervescent gin palaces attracted not only the social-climbing dandies of Georgian England but working people too. These appealing taverns lit up street corners on dark London nights, offering Londoners an irresistible alternative to the dingy old taverns with their dark stone floors, grimy wooden bars and dimly lit corners inhabited by ragged rogues.

London was the world’s largest city, the Industrial Revolution was gaining momentum, culturally the city was in flux and a middle class with money to spend was emerging. To entice these drinkers and their coin, a new breed of ambitious tavern landlords followed the example of the leading shops on Regent Street. They invested in shimmering gas-fuelled chandeliers, elaborate wallpaper, frescos mimicking evocative Renaissance art, tiled floors, ornate moldings, gilded edges, large pane windows and mirrors decorated with intricate patterns in colored glass.

These palaces gave evening drinking a sense of glamor,

an exciting energy and social acceptability. A “flash of lightning”—as a quick gin was known—was all the rage before an evening at the theater or before travelling home after a day’s work.

200 years on, the “gin-aissance” is flowing freely and a new generation of gin palaces is emerging, spurred on by a fresh generation of gins. As distillers become more adventurous in their botanical combinations, London’s bartenders have been presented with a new realm of possibility. Innovation behind the bar is reaching new heights and the punters can’t get enough.

Combining the Georgian glamor of the gin palace with a contemporary gin menu is the Viaduct Tavern on Newgate Street in the “City” financial district of central London, just up the road from St. Paul’s Cathedral and opposite the legendary Old Bailey courthouse.

The Viaduct Tavern opened in 1869 and it is the closest thing to a Georgian gin palace still standing. Protected by law by a Grade II listing, the corner tavern features a ceiling of hand-beaten copper plating, painted a deep burgundy.

Mirrors are decorated with 24-carat gold gilding and the walls are adorned by paintings of the four “Ladies of Holborn Viaduct”. The paintings are based on statues that stand on

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The copper-plated ceiling of the Viaduct tavern [left] and the original engraved door to what was once the tavern’s opium den.

The Viaduct Tavern’s range of Tanqueray gins [below]

In the late 19th century the Viaduct Tavern was complemented by an opium den for its more affluent customers

the four corner parapets of the nearby Viaduct.

In the late 19th century the Viaduct Tavern was complemented by an opium den for its more affluent customers on the second floor and a brothel on the third floor. Those upper floor attractions have long since disappeared and manager Andrew Archer concentrates more on the tavern’s offering of 50 gins.

Monkey 47 with Fever Tree tonic and a wedge of fresh plum never disappoints, while a glass of Portobello Road with Fever Tree, Grapefruit peel and ground juniper berries slips down without trace. If in doubt, the house gin of Tanqueray is ideal for a traditional ‘G&T’ with ice and a slice.

Supplying the demand Some perspective: research company Mintel has reported that UK gin sales surpassed £1 billion for the first time in 2015 and sales in the United States are also on an upsurge.

That UK billion represents 29 million liters of gin consumed in 2015, which is a 40 percent increase in the space of five years.

Newfound enthusiasm for gin has triggered a wave

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Portobello Road, Fever Tree, grapefruit peel and juniper berries [right]; Andrew Archer grinds juniper berries at the Viaduct Tavern; Greenhook Dry Gin [below]

Charles Tanqueray turned his back on family tradition by becoming a distiller instead of a reverend

of creativity from distillers in their botanical combinations, giving new gins distinct characters in what has become a crowded marketplace.

The Viaduct’s house selection Tanqueray is leading the established brands in terms of sales growth and in resonating with a new generation of gin drinkers, despite the rapidly emerging expanse of fledgling competitors. Tanqueray first came to prominence in the mid-19th century—during that gin palace heyday—when Charles Tanqueray turned his back on family tradition and expectation by opting to become a distiller instead of a reverend. It is reckoned that when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the repeal of prohibition in 1933, the first drink to be served in the White House was Tanqueray and tonic.

Among the Stateside artisan gins worth sipping is the American Dry Gin from New York’s Greenhook Ginsmiths.

Brothers Steven and Philip DeAngelo established their distillery in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn in 2012 and the small batch American Dry is made from New York wheat and Tuscan juniper (Tuscany seems to have a monopoly on juniper farming) with a complex, spicy flavour profile featuring chamomile, Thai Blue Ginger and

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Monkey 47 served with fresh plum; ice the old-fashioned way at the Viaduct Tavern [below]

The original “Gin Craze” There was nothing glamorous about the original “Gin Craze” when it hit London in the 18th century. Thanks to a lack of licensing regulation gin was literally cheaper than ale whereas French spirits were heavily tariffed, resulting in an epidemic of gin-fuelled alcoholism. An estimated 7,000 gin shops were established in London alone; a remarkable number for a city with a population of just under 750,000 at the time.

London artist and social commentator William Hogarth didn’t hold back in 1751 when he created his grotesque etching of “Gin Lane” [above], which was inspired by the squalid slum of St. Giles in central London (an area now occupied by New Oxford Street).

So when you next take a second glance at the steep price on an attractive bottle of small-batch gin, remember that gin is a spirit best served when it is reassuringly expensive.

As devoted gin drinker Ernest Hemingway once said: “It’s five o’clock somewhere” 152

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Ceylon cinnamon.

Leading the UK’s small-batch revolution is west London distiller Sipsmith, which became the first London gin distillery in 200 years to install traditional copper stills.

The company claims Sipsmith is “where old meets new and the two hit it off really quite spectacularly”. Sipsmith’s London Dry Gin is its flagship bottle, offering drinkers a gently floral nose, a mellow scent of juniper and also a citrus freshness. A classically dry London gin on the palate, hints of lemon and orange combine to give the gin a zesty freshness.

Lovers of London dry gin might enjoy sampling Sipsmith’s V.J.O.P. although with an alcohol content of 57.7 percent—compared to 41.6 percent in the London Dry Gin— this is a gin to handle with care. Like an amplified version of the London Dry Gin, V.J.O.P. is bursting with juniper, with a nose tempered by pine and cedar.

On course At Trevose Golf and Country Club, halfway down Cornwall’s north shoreline in southwest England, the club’s gin menu was introduced in March this year and it has boosted gin sales to a 50 percent increase. Well, golfers as a breed have been gin loyalists, but still.

The Carnegie Club at Skibo Castle, by Dornoch Firth in the Scottish Highlands—a holiday retreat to industrialist Andrew Carnegie in the late 19th century—has taken the gin revival a step further by investing in an artisan batch of its own.

“The botanicals available at Skibo are so interesting,” says distiller Martin Murray from the Dunnet Bay microdistillery, which produces the small-batch Glasshouse Scottish Gin from the Skibo Estate. “When the gardener showed us what was growing on the estate we knew we’d really like to try creating a one-off recipe just for Skibo.”

A botanical survey of the estate found more than 350 species of plant and wildflower, as well as lichen-rich heaths close to the shore of the Kyle. The exclusive recipe for the Carnegie Club’s Glasshouse Gin features bog myrtle, dandelion and the estate’s own honey.

Native to Scotland, the aromatic bog myrtle was used to flavor beer until hops were first preferred in the 16th century, while it is also traditionally used in royal wedding bouquets. Combined with dandelion, the plants give Skibo’s gin a distinct flavor.

“Bog myrtle has such an unusual aroma and is a typical ingredient of the Highlands,” says Murray, who also recommends serving Skibo’s gin with fresh strawberries.

“The Skibo honey gives a wonderful sweetness and leaves a lovely coating on the tongue while the dandelion adds some depth to the flavor.”

Well, as devoted gin drinker Ernest Hemingway once said, “It’s five o’clock somewhere”.

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Fashion

Sharp The devil’s in the details, and sharp edges make for a sharp impression. Take care of the little things and you’ll find the rest falls into place quite easily

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Pocket Squares Nothing says detail-oriented like a pocket square from the likes of Laslett England. The company’s all-silk offerings sharpen any soft edge. laslettengland.com

Billfold Nothing wrong with whimsy, and Paul Smith’s designs have always brought it to finely tuned accessories, like this Ants wallet in black leather. paulsmith.co.uk

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Fashion

Razor Cut it close with the Italian-made Acqua di Parma Collezione Barbiere razor with weighted wood handle, elegant stand and as much class as your face can handle. acquadiparma.com

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Molton Brown Top shelf men’s grooming products from Molton Brown invigorate and enhance with bold scents and quality shaving, sport, body, hair and skin care options. moltonbrown.com

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Fashion

Whisky Double-matured and simply sublime, this exquisite 1999 vintage of Lagavulin’s Distillers Edition is finished in Pedro Ximénez sherry casks—brilliant. malts.com

Apparel The King is back with a new line of golf wear, and sales benefit Arnie’s Army Charitable Foundation, with all profits to charity. Look sharp for a great cause. arnoldpalmerapparel.com

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ara Lazar is a force in Palm Springs, a desert native responsible for some of the city’s most beloved local eateries, including top breakfast spot Cheeky’s, Italian-inspired Birba and, more recently, Mr. Lyons Steakhouse, at once a Rat Pack-era classic and the future of desert dining. It’s the last that holds Seymour’s, an upscale speakeasy named for Lazar’s father and a classic in its own right. After entering through a side door (or coming through from the restaurant) guests are treated to a sublimely shadowed space featuring modern appointments, an eclectic mix of art from the real Seymour’s collection, and a wall of framed vintage illustrations left over from when this was Lyons English Grille, the city stalwart that opened in 1938 and which Lazar purchased a few years ago from

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David Lyons himself, who’s now 102 years old. No word on whether the elixirs here can help with longevity, but Seymour’s Beverage Director and Bartender Steen Bojsen-Moller is happy to help you enjoy whatever time you spend in the desert. With a range of beautiful cocktails, including rejuvenated takes on daytime classics and inspired new mixes for afterdinner sipping, Seymour’s is a great reason to head to Palm Springs, put on your dinner jacket and call a cab because the food at Mr. Lyons is too good to miss—and the drinks here are too good to have just one.

Take inspiration from the following, all from Bojsen-Moller’s cocktail menu at Seymour’s, and experiment at home with similar flavors. Better yet, visit Seymour’s and try the real things: mrlyonsps.com

We love classic whiskey cocktails, and this is our new favorite. If you like a good Manhattan or Old Fashioned, give this a try. Perfect for relaxed, cool evenings after a good steak. Jacket not required, but appropriate.

Rittenhouse Rye Whiskey Charbay Walnut Liqueur IPA Syrup Angostura Bitters

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00

Smooth, delicious and dangerously drinkable, this is on the menu for our next sunny day poolside. Or brunch out. Or evening in with friends. Pretty much any time we want a tropical lift, really. What’s more: this is no overly sweet tiki drink, this is tropical on another level. A five-star sunset overlooking a Nicaraguan volcano—or beauty in a high-class desert.

Arette Reposado Tequila Pineapple Gomme Fresh Lemon Egg White

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One of the more inspired drinks we’ve had this year (or any year, really), it begins with Japanese whiskey made from rice and gets more interesting from there. The addition of Absinthe specifically thrilled us as we’re fans and the spirit is underused by mixologists, in our humble opinion. Not so here, and the drink looks good as well. What’s not to like?

Kikori Japanese Whiskey Napoleon Mandarin Luxardo Maraschino Absinthe Fresh Lemon

As sensuous as its name suggests, this is a drink for anyone who likes to flirt with Mezcal but who might be turned off by the big smoke some Mezcals bring.

Bojsen-Moller reveals the best of the spirit by adding balance with the other ingredients, creating a beautiful cocktail in the process.

Primario Mezcal Maraschino Liqueur Hibiscus-Infused Aperol Agave Lemon Juice

All American Home Furnishings, accessories and a bit of fun, all made right here in the good ol’ U.S.A.

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Token Tables The NY-based design firm merges contemporary art and industrial design to create beautiful furnishings. tokennyc.com

Liberty Flatware The only maker of flatware in the U.S., Liberty Tabletop has been on American tables for more than 100 years. libertytabletop.com

Lodge Cast Iron A kitchen staple since cooks drove Calistoga wagons, Tennessee’s Lodge cookware is as enduring as it is useful. lodgemfg.com

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Pendleton Founded in 1863, Pendleton blankets and shirts have covered generations of Americans. pendleton-usa.com

Airstream Once ubiquitous on American highways, the charm of the silver home on wheels remains, with new models boasting luxury appointments. airstream.com

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© 2016 PGATOUR, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Player appearance subject to change

THE NEXT WAVE. WESLEy BRYAN

The Path to the PGA TOUR.

®

DAP Championship

Sept. 8 - 11

Canterbury GC, Beachwood, OH

Albertsons Boise Open Presented by Kraft Nabisco

Sept. 15 - 18

Hillcrest CC, Boise, ID

Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship

Sept. 22 - 25

OSU GC, Columbus, OH

Web.com Tour Championship

Oct. 6 - 9

Atlantic Beach CC, Atlantic Beach, FL

New Holiday Table Fall is the time when families sit down together, reflect, celebrate and enjoy large helpings of traditional holiday dishes. But do they?

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ast year, in an informal poll (we asked some friends), we discovered that more than a few holiday staples are tolerated rather than enjoyed, with green bean casserole being particularly hated.

Tradition is great, but times and tastes change and so we started wondering what a modern holiday spread might look like. For help, we turned to Helene Henderson, owner of Malibu Farm Cafe and Restaurant and, believe it or not, an actual farm in Malibu with chickens and a pig and everything.

Originally from Sweden, Helene married into the annual turkey + sweet potatoes + stuffing ritual and, while she admits that she loves the celebration, her farm-to-table fresh,

organic, healthy European ethos just couldn’t stomach the mounds of thick beige foods that we serve up each autumn.

In hopes of freshening the season’s culinary spirits, she spared a few minutes to sit down with us and plan a holiday meal that will not only leave room for dessert, but will leave everyone feeling great, guilt-free and ready to go back for seconds, thirds and who knows how many more. These recipes, sourced from her excellent Malibu Farm Cookbook (visit malibu-farm.com for more info), provide a perfect excuse to try something new this year. Test these out yourself, and next time you’re in Malibu be sure to try Helene’s cuisine first-hand. Just don’t expect any green bean casserole.

Turkey Breast Stuffed with Leeks

Sometimes it doesn’t make sense to cook a whole turkey, and anyway do you really want three weeks of turkey sandwich leftovers?

MAKES 4 TO 6 SERVINGS

• 1 whole or half turkey breast (either can be flattened and rolled) skin on, lightly seasoned with salt on both sides • 2 leeks, rinsed and sliced • 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced • 2 tbsp butter • ½ cup chopped parsley • 2 cups fresh bread crumbs • Olive oil Special equipment: kitchen string

• You really need to have a skin-on turkey breast for this to work. I don’t recommend using a skinless breast. The breast is going to be pretty thick, so you need to cut it three-quarters of the way through to split it open in half and make it half as thick as it was originally. Then you still need to place it between plastic wrap and pound it a little more.

• Sauté the leeks and the garlic in the butter on low heat until translucent. Stir in the parsley and the fresh bread crumbs, and cook for another few minutes or until the fresh bread crumbs are getting slightly toasted. Season lightly with salt.

• Place the turkey with the skin side down on a piece of plastic wrap, skin side on the far end (facing away from you). Spread the bread crumb mixture over the turkey, and then start to roll it up as tightly as you can, ending with the turkey skin covering the exterior portion of the roll. Tie it with kitchen string to make sure it holds together.

• Sear the turkey breast roll on all sides in olive oil, browning and crisping the skin for a few minutes. The roll can be made in advance up to this point and kept in the fridge until needed. If you are ready to cook it, place it in a preheated 375˚F oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until it reaches an internal temperature of 170 degrees. Let it rest for 5 minutes, and then slice it really thin and serve with super thin turkey gravy (next recipe).

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Super-thin Turkey Gravy MAKES 3 CUPS

• 2 cups sliced button mushrooms • 2 tbsp olive oil • 3 cups turkey stock (homemade or purchased) • ½ lemon, juiced • 1 tbsp fine-choped shallot • 3 tbsp creme fraiche • 1 tbsp pink peppercorns • 2 tbsp chopped chives Optional: Turkey drippings, if available

• In a large heated skillet, cook the mushrooms in the olive oil for about 3 minutes or until just beginning to brown. Add shallot. Season lightly with salt and add the stock. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and allow to simmer for 5 minutes.

Add lemon juice. Whisk in the creme fraiche, pink peppercorns and chives. If available, whisk in the turkey drippings. This gravy can be made a day in advance.

Creamy Potato and Green Tomato Gratin

Making the gratin half-tomato lightens it considerably from the full-potato staple, and this is a great use for early green tomatoes (but reds work too) MAKES 4 SERVINGS

• ½ cup heavy cream • 1 clove garlic, grated • 1 tbsp chopped rosemary • 2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese • 2 large russet potatoes, sliced thin • 2 large tomatoes, sliced thin • In a bowl, mix together heavy cream, garlic, rosemary, and Parmesan cheese.

• Toss the sliced potatoes with the cream mixture, and season lightly with salt (about ¼ tsp).

• Place in the bottom of a decorative ovenproof gratin dish.

• Arrange the tomatoes on top of the potatoes and sprinkle lightly with salt.

• OK, please don’t tell, but we are going to cheat: • Put it into the microwave for 4 minutes. This is really going to speed up the process. Then finish in the oven at 400˚F for 20 minutes. You can bake the dish without using the microwave, but you will need to cover it and bake at a lower temperature (350˚F) to cook the potatoes through without burning.

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Spicy Honey Sweet Potatoes + Pomegranate A beautiful twist on tradition, with a little kick MAKES 6 SERVINGS

• 2 large russet potatoes, peeled, chopped, cooked in salted water until soft, drained, and then re-heated on the stovetop for a few minutes to cook away excess water • 1 stick butter • ½ cup heavy cream • 4 large sweet potatoes, baked with the skin on until soft • Chili sauce (or sriracha, Tabasco, smoky habanero sauce or some combination) to taste • ½ cup honey or maple syrup, divided in half • ½ cup pomegranate seeds • 2 tbsp chopped parsley

• First, we need to mast the russet potatoes. Push them through a ricer into the bowl of an electric mixer, and then add butter and cream. Season to taste with salt. Now you have a small mound of regular mashed potatoes, to which you are going to add the sweet potatoes.

• Peel the sweet potatoes and scoop out the soft flesh into the mashed potato mixture.

• Add hot sauce to taste, and half of the honey or maple syrup.

• Combine the rest of the honey or maple syrup with pomegranate seeds and chopped parsley.

• Transfer the potato mixture into a serving bowl. Right before serving, pour the honey-pomegranate mixture over it.

• This dish can be made several days ahead and heated in the microwave.

Or cover it and place it in a 350˚F oven until heated through, about 10 minutes.

Upside-Down Cherry Cornmeal Goodness Cake

Set this next to the pumpkin pie and you’ll have pumpkin pie leftovers the next day MAKES 4 TO 6 SERVINGS

Cherry Mixture • 2 tbsp butter • 2 tbsp agave syrup • 2 tbsp pomegranate molasses • 5 cups putted cherries Dry Mixture • ¾ cup flour • 1/3 cup cornmeal • Pinch of salt • 1 ½ tsp baking powder Wet Mixture • 1 stick salted butter • ¾ cup sugar • 2 eggs • 1 tsp vanilla • 1/3 cup buttermilk or kefir

• In a small (8in) skillet, melt butter with agave and pomegranate molasses. Add cherries, when combined, set the cherry mixture aside.

• In a small bowl, stir together flour, cornmeal, salt and baking powder. Set aside the dry mixture.

• In a mixer, combine butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Add eggs, one at a time, and then vanilla and buttermilk. Once you add the buttermilk, the wet mixture will curdle—not to worry. Add the dry mixture and mix just until combined. Do not over-stir. Pour the combined wet-and-dry mixture over the cherry mixture.

• Bake the cake in a 375˚F oven for about 35 minutes or until just baked through and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool for a few minutes, and then turn the cake upside down. Do not let the cake cool completely before releasing from the skillet, as the cherry mixture will become too sticky to release. When the cake is still warm, it will come out more easily.

• Serve with whipped cream.

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Over / Under 172

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Poet and thinker Kahlil Gibran once opined that “trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky” —and what the hell was he talking about

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rees are weeds that were allowed to grow unchecked, infuriating impediments that maliciously block access to the lovely open spaces we know as fairways and greens.* How many times have we found our ball stuck up against the base of a tree (Gibran might have added, “lovingly cradled in its roots”) in a wrist-breaking situation, or worse yet: how often have we hit a beautiful drive only to see it curl and land just inside the shadow of some trunked monster, branches all akimbo like a frenetic Hindu god playing goalie for the pin? And when the monster is high but not too high, and the branches are low but not too low, what’s the play: over or under?

*Obviously the staff of Kingdom magazine loves trees, except at the moment they’re in our way on course!

Joe Buttitta has been there, and he feels our pain.

The difference between Joe and most of us is that he’s a very good golfer, and so not only can he pick the shot, he can execute. Here, standing on California’s Westlake Golf Course where he teaches, the veteran pro and sports journalist offers a few pointers.

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The Decision: Shoot high or aim low?

First Step

It depends on your skill level and what’s on the other side.

Study the situation: should you use a wedge and lay up? Or go with a 3, 4 or 5-iron and punch it under the branches? In terms of skill, you have to know how to add loft and how to take loft off a shot. If you’re not comfortable doing one or the other, then the choice has been made for you.

In terms of situation, is there water over there? Can I reach the green? And if I can, how is the green trapped? If there are bunkers or water then maybe lay up, go for a pitch shot to stop the ball just on the other side of the tree. But if there are no bunkers and it’s a clear path then maybe go with an iron and get as much distance as you can out of it, maybe just roll it up there on the green.

Once you’ve decided over or under, put your club on the ground pointed at the tree with the club head by your feet, and then step on it. This will give you a fair approximation of the launch angle the ball will take when you hit it and that will give you an idea of what you need to do and whether or not you’re making a good choice. If your wedge is pointing at the middle of the tree, maybe you should rethink your strategy.

Over I’m using a gap wedge here, and normally I play a wedge mid to back in my stance. But here I move it forward.

You want no shaft lean—none. Keep it straight. Then, as you’re going through your swing, use your bottom hand to flip the club at the bottom of the swing to add loft. Keep the face facing the sky and follow through. [Joe demonstrates and hits a perfect arc over the tree in front of us.]

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Under It’s almost the opposite of before, so take your iron—I have a 5-iron here—and play the ball back in your stance. Choke down a little, close the face a little and punch it. It should go right under the branches, and obviously you have to adjust for what you’re trying to do and where you’re trying to go with it. [Joe demonstrates and hits a perfect low shot that rolls to the middle of the fairway.]

Final Tip I tell most people that the general rule of thumb here is to aim for the tree—because you’ll never hit it anyway!

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POWERSHARES QQQ CHAMPIONSHIP OCT 28-30, SHERWOOD COUNTRY CLUB, THOUSAND OAKS, CA DOMINION CHARITY CLASSIC NOV 4-6 2016, THE COUNTRY CLUB OF VIRGINIA, RICHMOND, VA CHARLES SCHWAB CUP CHAMPIONSHIP NOV 10-13, DESERT MOUNTAIN CLUB (COCHISE), SCOTTSDALE, AZ PGATOUR.COM © 2016 PGA TOUR, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Player appearance subject to change.

Straight-talking Dave Hill, runner-up in the 1970 U.S. Open at Hazeltine National

80 acres of corn Hazeltine National Golf Club, venue for the 41st Ryder Cup this year, is rightly ranked among the very finest of American golf venues, but its acclaim has not always been universal

I

t was the 1970 U.S. Open, held at Hazeltine National just eight years after the Robert Trent Jones Sr. design had opened in Chaska, Minnesota. American Dave Hill was in contention but that didn’t stop the cantankerous golfer letting loose. Hill didn’t like the predominance of dogleg holes and said the course needed “only 80 acres of corn and a few cows to be a good farm.”

Unkind, unfair, but unforgettable all the same.

The Michigan golfer was fined $150 for ridiculing the host club but Hill paid double, declaring he had plenty more to say. True to his word, Hill promised a local farmer would lend him a tractor to ride to the awards ceremony if he won. Ultimately, and probably much to the satisfaction of

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the USGA, Trent Jones and all of Hazeltine’s members, Hill finished runner-up to Tony Jacklin.

Often cutting, at least the late Hill was always honest.

What you saw was what you got. After Jack Nicklaus made his concession to Jacklin on the final green of the 1969 Ryder Cup at Royal Birkdale, it was Hill, front and center, who told Nicklaus how much he disagreed with golf’s most famous act of sportsmanship.

If everyone agreed on golf courses and sporting gestures, the world would be a duller place for it.

Kingdom would like to offer best wishes to Ryder Cup captains, Davis Love III and Darren Clarke, and their teams at Hazeltine

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