Golf Club Atlas
GolfClubAtlas.com => Golf Course Architecture => Topic started by: archie_struthers on September 14, 2022, 08:55:14 PM
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;D
Can think of two as a young golfer. Got on the high speed line to Philly then took the Blue Line ("the El" ) out to Cobbs Creek for a walkabout with a couple buddies (Appx age 16) Later when caddying at Pine Valley caddie master Tom Elder would take two foursomes of "loopers" to play Saucon Valley (Grace /Weyhill) and Winged Foot (East /West) on a Monday with him in the summer. What great fun! Was so happy to be included as one of the "in crowd" lol
Let's not talk Bandon or a big trip but one in your youth that sticks to this day
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Probably around 12-13 years old playing in junior interclub matches at some really good courses on the east end of Long Island. Unfortunately at the time I was not super interested in playing yet, but I still got out to experience a lot of great courses.
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When I was a kid, my family used to take a driving trip for a summer vacation. My Dad took up golf after I did but quickly became an addict so we incorporated golf into the trips even though my Mom, Sister, and Brother did not play the game. The first one I can still remember distinctly (this was 50 years ago) is driving to Bedford Springs. A colleague of my Dad’s who was single at the time joined us. What a great time playing a great course with my Dad and his good friend. I don’t think my Sister or Brother were ever envious but I know that I appreciated the time with my Dad. The added memorable aspect is that I was entrusted with making the post-round Martinis.
Ira
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When I was about 11 or 12 or so my dad started taking me once a year on a 2-3 day driving golf trip that usually included one round per day and some sort of arcade or lake swimming activity as well.
We did this 3 or 4 times before HS got intense, and I usually brought along a friend to play with us too. Northern New England is great for things like this...low-key public golf often with a historical pedigree, and beautiful lakes/rivers/beaches to explore.
I remember on one of these trips I made my first birdie ever on a par three at Val Halla GC in Cumberland, ME.
I hope to do the same with my son/daughter in the coming years if/when! they pick up golf.
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My first golf trip came relatively late in life. In 1984, at the age of 37, two buddies and I spent four days at Innisbrook. It couldn’t have been a better trip. Right the and there I decided to make at least one trip a year, which blossomed into many trips a year.
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I got to see a few famous courses courtesy of my parents, but the first expedition on my own was going to play at The Country Club while a freshman at M.I.T. I had written the club to ask for permission, and received a nice note back from the green chairman, telling me he would be out of town but I was welcome to play as his guest in the spring. So, a friend and I took the "T" from campus out to Brookline, and walked a mile or so to the course.
I asked the pro shop about the composite course, and it was such a slow day they told us it was okay to play it that way if we wanted!
The main thing I learned from this venture was to write to the green chairman of the club to ask for permission to visit, not to the pro or greenkeeper. The green chairman is a member, and if he wants to invite you as his guest, you're in! The staff would have to worry about what the jerkiest member might say.
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Well, if we are talking expeditions without parents, then it still would be in high school where I would take the L (Archie, the real one in Chicago) clubs in hand to downtown to meet the older guys in my foursome for breakfast at the Near North branch of Walker Brothers before driving to Cog Hill. As noted in my thread about renovations, we had the 10:36 tee time but knew we could show up a few minutes before because the course already was running 45 minutes behind. After the round, we would play Liars Poker while my friends would slip me a beer or two. Not infrequently, we would have deep dish back in the City before I got back on the L to Skokie. I might be gone for 15 hours or more to play a round of golf. Absolutely some of the best days of my life.
Ira
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Well, if we are talking expeditions without parents, then it still would be in high school where I would take the L (Archie, the real one in Chicago) clubs in hand to downtown to meet the older guys in my foursome for breakfast at the Near North branch of Walker Brothers before driving to Cog Hill. As noted in my thread about renovations, we had the 10:36 tee time but knew we could show up a few minutes before because the course already was running 45 minutes behind. After the round, we would play Liars Poker while my friends would slip me a beer or two. Not infrequently, we would have deep dish back in the City before I got back on the L to Skokie. I might be gone for 15 hours or more to play a round of golf. Absolutely some of the best days of my life.
Ira
Ira-The mention of Liar’s Poker brings back some fond memories of a favored post round pursuit. We would have as many as eight or ten players in some of the games and guys knew to bring a stack of bills if they were going to get in. We played at a public course quite a bit that knew of the games and would have plenty of “fresh” bills to swap out for the guys that would magically possess a handful with three or four of a kind.😊
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Tim,
As you can imagine in Chicago with all of the Futures and Options traders let alone, well, the Denizens of Chicago, one needed to be careful about who was at the table.
Ira
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2015 roadtrip from San Diego to Rustic Canyon with three other RC first-timers soured by my bright idea to detour to an exhibition about golf called “Foreground” at the Center for Land Use Interpretation in Culver City. Waste of time. We could have played a second round instead. Oh, do I rue that dumb idea!
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As a late starter to golf, my first wow experience was driving on Hwy 101 thru Bandon, and stopping to have a look, not actually playing.
At the time it was just Bandon Dunes and Pac Dunes, and I was simply blown away by what I saw.
I'll never forget that.
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Archie,
It does my heart good to know you were a Cobb's Cricker. ;D
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Playing NGLA and Shinnecock the same day in 2004.
Woke up at 2:30 am, drove from my NJ home near Philly to link up with others at NJ Tpk rest area, continued on to along Island, played both courses in high wind (it was late autumn and chilly), ate dinner and drove home. That trip would probably kill me today.
Previous to that trip my experiences had been one day excursions if I was in the area
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I broke a tooth at Cobbs Creek sledding with my to be wife at midnight after an el ride from West Philly in 1971. Or, it might have been Karakung; it was dark.
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Twelve guys traveling from Bridgeport, Connecticut out to Piping Rock in 1984. The day was set up by the superintendent who grew up with one of our guys. It was the first time I had taken a caddie who was a great green reader and quite a character. One of the players in our group dunked one for two on the 1st in a morning fog which wasn’t evident until the caddie implored us after some searching to look in the hole. Plenty of post round libations and dinner capped off a terrific outing.
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Davenport CC. I drove from Sacramento to Massachusetts for my senior year of college. Motel 6 in Davenport was the obvious geographical stop for night #3. At a pizza joint in Davenport, I revealed in conversation with a local that I was co-captain of my college golf team. He said I should try to play DCC while in town, but I let it slide as I had another ten hours behind the wheel the next day. Yet I called my coach, head pro at Taconic, and asked him if he could get me a spot. I was awakened by his phone call at 6:30 the next morning saying "You're on the tee in an hour".
And now, almost 40 years later, I'm a member. I'm blessed. I can't wait for Ran to profile our course.
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I broke a tooth at Cobbs Creek sledding with my to be wife at midnight after an el ride from West Philly in 1971. Or, it might have been Karakung; it was dark.
Classic.
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When I was in high school, my dad had to take a summer business trip to Tucson and asked if I wanted to go. This is right when I was really getting into golf, so I said yes. At the time, the PGA Tour Tucson tourney was played over two courses – Randolph North and TPC StarrPass, so I decided to play both of those on the same day while my dad worked. I'm pretty sure the cab ride from one to the other was the first time I ever took a taxi by myself anywhere. Then somehow (pre cell phones) my dad got ahold of me before I teed off at StarrPass and said to wait for him to join because he was done working. He joined me but the 117-degree heat took its toll and he had to quit after nine. I played all 36.
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I'd taken trips to play Jr tournaments and a couple college tournaments, before I was kicked off for drinking related issues. My roommate, and also a permanent member of the golf team, and I got pretty ripped on a Wednesday night at the Two Keys Tavern (Lexington, KY). This was during one of my sophomore years at UK. So we decided to go to our apartment, get some clothes, clubs and spikes, and head to Hilton Head. We stopped at a rest area along the way and slept for a bit, and then headed off to HH. Somewhere in NC, we stopped for some gas and I went to the payphone, along with a calling card. After getting the number I called somebody at Sea Pines and after being passed on to a couple different people, somebody came on the line who sounded like they were important. I proceeded to tell this man that I was the Chair of the Journalism School and that a couple of our most promising students were headed to HH to write a travel article for our school newspaper, The Kentucky Kernel, and that it was "my" hope that I'd be able to get it into the Lexington Herald-Leader, giving wonderful exposure to Hilton Head. Then I asked if they could set up my two "students" up with housing and golf. Somehow, someway, the HH guy bought this story and he gave me a number for the 2 students to call, once they arrived at HH.
Bottom line, we got a condo and 5 rounds of golf, gratis, for our trip.
It should be noted that neither one of us even new where the Journalism building was, let alone ever stepped foot inside.
About 5 years later, I was in the process of making amends to several people/entities, and contacted Sea Pines to make a financial amend. The person I spoke with thought the story was very funny and told me not to send any money.
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My senior year in high school one of my best friends and his dad flew out to Palm Desert from Maine. I had moved to Monterey and my parents let me drive down to meet them. We stayed in a condo on a course (not sure which one but we went out in the evening and hit some wedges to the green adjacent to our condo before some old guy, who lived on the course, yelled at us). We ended up playing the courses at Landmark Golf Club (now Terra Lago) and my buddy and I were both excited as it was the host site of the skins game. This also sounds stupid but the paper towels in the bathroom had the course logo and were really thick for a paper product so I took a couple as souvenirs. I bet I still have a couple of the paper towels in a plastic container somewhere.
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the paper towels in the bathroom had the course logo and were really thick for a paper product so I took a couple as souvenirs. I bet I still have a couple of the paper towels in a plastic container somewhere.
The great old oak tree Landmark logo! I loved when all the Landmark properties used that.
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Davenport CC. I drove from Sacramento to Massachusetts for my senior year of college. Motel 6 in Davenport was the obvious geographical stop for night #3. At a pizza joint in Davenport, I revealed in conversation with a local that I was co-captain of my college golf team. He said I should try to play DCC while in town, but I let it slide as I had another ten hours behind the wheel the next day. Yet I called my coach, head pro at Taconic, and asked him if he could get me a spot. I was awakened by his phone call at 6:30 the next morning saying "You're on the tee in an hour".
And now, almost 40 years later, I'm a member. I'm blessed. I can't wait for Ran to profile our course.
How long have you been a member at DCC? I grew up an hour south of there and played at WIU. One of my high school and college teammates was an Assistant there. I have never made it up there to play since I moved away before he started working there.
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As a 13 yr old I made the two hour trip to Otter Creek with three dudes of 17. A Dr’s kid, the pro’s son and the only child of the regional superintendent of schools. It was 1973 and I haven’t been sober since.
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I was in my mid 20's aroundand drove from Cincinnati to Myrtle Beach to meet a friend from NY to golf for a few days. We played Moorland, Heathland and Parkland not knowing anything about any golf courses. On the way home there was a very chemical spill and I-26 through the Smokeys was completely shut down until the morning. At the time I had a Mitsubishi Montero 4WD SUV, and me and another guy in a Jeep off-roaded around a ton off people and finally made it to an exit where we busted out my map (pre GPS days) and figured out how to drive back roads (some dirt) through the middle of nowhere to Pigeon Forge. I mad it to Knoxville by 5am and saved myself sleeping in the car all night long on the highway. I liked Moorland the best BTW.
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8) Well, ... for first one other than a handful of Golf Ohio lost weekends for our intrepid threesome.. in late 79 we wrote to NC, SC, GA, TN, FL state golf/tourism offices and received many brochures which were put into a box, at the opening party if became obvious that all roads led to Aberdeen, NC ... there were like 30 courses within 30 miles of the Fairway Motel and Jay & Judy K could plan the week for us with their local knowledge... fast forward to April 80, a Sunday at the Elks would officially start our 36/day week of Golf Carolina (as SPCC would for every year of play)
Since we only trusted Grandpa's Firebird to get us there and back, we bought collapsable bags in order to get all the clubs in the trunk and used gym and garbage bags for freeform stuffing of clothes and shoes in remaining trunk and back seat spaces.
Friday easy drive down I-75 from Bowling Green to I-70 to Cambridge, OH and played Salt Fork State Park course, a more challenging walk than most anything experienced in Cinti area, and headed down I-77 thru the mountains in the dark.
Saturday only a relatively easy ride left on the Carolina highways into Moore County... upon early afternoon arrival and after some exploring, we found Hyland Hills and drove in on a whim, as Mid-Pines looked too expensive and Pinehurst was toooo expensive. Only a small wait needed for tee time at Hyland,... we're hangin in the parking lot and while unpacking heard a bunch of NY accents coming from an RV, as they tumbled out and started talking and finishing their drinks , we found out they got to renting the RV each year, with one guy driving thru Manhattan friday at 5PM picking the others up at work and they head south to Southern Pines, they'd been coming to SP for 25 years!
Fast forward to 2005 and we're again in the Hyland parking lot and meet a group of young guys on their first golf expedition and tell them the 25 year old tale of meeting the 25 year NY'ers...a perfect passing of the torch!
Have to imagine there are others with long periods returning to favored venues and haunts where first expeditions experienced...
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To Rich Thomas: I’ve been a member at Davenport for just a year. Every visit to the club is a memory.
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My very first golf trip was a present to me from my dad upon my graduation from law school. He took me to Pebble Beach for 4 days and we also played Spyglass. I was instantly hooked. I think the 7th and 8th holes did it for me, WOW, I'd never seen anything like that before and it excited me. I was to go back to Pebble Beach for a week every year for 23 straight years after that.