Golf Pilgrimages
8 stories, in order from the beginning of the trip.
1April 2, 2012
Dateline April 2, 2012, The Masters Practice Round at Augusta National
Back on the road in the Roadtrek after six months in Flagler Beach. Janice's sister Connie and her husband Lee dropped at the Jacksonville airport, an overnight at Jekyll Island, and on to Augusta for Monday of Masters week. The 5:30 AM alarm, Gate 9, the merchandise tent, and then down to Amen Corner where Tiger and Mark O'Meara were standing on the 15th fairway. Tom Watson hitting into 9. The Eisenhower Cabin. Lunch by the Hogan Bridge in 90 degree heat. The 16th skip-shots. And Janice walking the same course she had worked three Masters tournaments on with IBM in the late 1990s, still without the chance to play it that some of her colleagues got.
2May 6, 2012
Dateline May 6, 2012, Heading to the RTJ Trail by Way of Henderson Beach
Out of Flagler Beach and seven hours west to Destin and Henderson Beach State Park on the Florida panhandle. Our first time in this stretch of the Gulf since the BP spill, and the beaches were back, no trace of it. Pristine dunes, monarchs and sea turtles, sand like powder. Sixteen dollars for the campsite (being 65 helped). One night on the way to Alabama and the start of the RTJ Trail.
3May 8, 2012
Dateline May 8, 2012, The Robert Trent Jones Trail
Off for another adventure. Pete and Bunny, who we met during Walkabout in Alaska, came down to Flagler Beach in January for a few days of golf at home. By the end of the visit, we had a plan: meet in Muscle Shoals in May for a three-week golf fest on the Robert Trent Jones Trail. Twelve courses scheduled, and the Trail itself a quiet small-miracle of state economic development. A short post on the history of how 26 public golf courses, on eleven sites, with 468 holes, ever got built in Alabama in the first place.
4May 12, 2012
Dateline May 12, 2012, RTJ Trail Alabama, The Shoals
Out of Henderson Beach to Joe Wheeler State Park on the Tennessee River, where Pete and Bunny Warenski were already set up. Three rounds over four days. The Fighting Joe at The Shoals, all eight thousand yards of it. A rain day for Rogersville antiques and Brooks BBQ (Yelp again). The Schoolmaster the next day. And on Friday, Turtle Point Country Club in Killen, a private RTJ Sr design Janice had played years before in the SWATCA tournament. Plus a quick history of the Nassau bet, and the unlikely story of Joe Wheeler, the only Confederate general to come back and serve under Union colors.
5May 17, 2012
Dateline May 17, 2012, Hampton Cove and Silver Lakes
Out of Florence and up to Monte Sano State Park, sixteen hundred feet above Huntsville. Two days at Hampton Cove, including the River Course, the only Robert Trent Jones Trail layout in Alabama with not a single bunker. Then eighty miles south to Gadsden and Silver Lakes, which we found in remarkable shape considering an EF4 tornado from the April 27, 2011 Super Outbreak had taken out forty thousand of its trees and the top of its clubhouse a year before. The Backbreaker and the Mindbreaker. And a brown water snake we left to its business.
6May 20, 2012
Dateline May 20, 2012, Oxmoor Valley
Ninety minutes south from Gadsden to Oak Mountain State Park outside Birmingham, the largest state park in Alabama, nearly ten thousand acres of trails and lakes. Then up to Oxmoor Valley to play the Ridge and the Valley, two of the most photogenic courses on the Trail, both built on former coal-mining country. The Ridge with its 150-foot elevation changes, the Valley running two miles down its namesake. Plus the discovery of sweet tea vodka, a small wildlife parade of turkeys, and an East Hampton neighbor in the campground who came in second in the XTERRA over-50 women's triathlon.
7May 27, 2012
Dateline May 27, 2012, Capitol Hill, Magnolia Grove, and the End of the Trail
The last week of the Robert Trent Jones Trail trip. Montgomery and the Capitol Hill complex: The Legislator (rained out partway and finished the next afternoon), The Judge with its first tee two hundred feet above the fairway, and The Senator with its 160 pot bunkers. Then down to Mobile and Magnolia Grove for the Crossings and the Falls. On the last round, individual stroke play, Janice shot a 78 from the men's white tees and won outright. Final standings, with Janice giving the most strokes all trip. The Trail ends. The alligator at Meaher State Park does not. And James and Mary's wedding in Gettysburg waits a few weeks ahead.
8November 21, 2015
Dateline November 21, 2015, Casa de Campo
Forty years after Janice first played Casa de Campo as a young programmer on a golf vacation, we returned to the Dominican Republic for the resort's annual Senior Golf Week. A week of Pete Dye golf followed: the famous ocean holes of Teeth of the Dog, the cliffside views of Dye Fore above the Altos de Chavón village, and a turn on the Links. Old friends turned up by surprise, the pool bar did its work after each round, and when the credits were tallied Janice won the women's division and John the men's.