The Diplomat was a super-cool place. It had a very "old-time" feel to it. Golf Operations Manager Stan Hughes filled me in on that. The club was once a stopover for the "Rat Pack" boys --Sinatra, Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Lawford, etc., and the scorecard has a photo of Bob Hope and Dr. Cary Middlecoff on the cover. For you youngsters, Dr. Middlecoff was a guy who quit his dental practice at age 26, went on tour, and proceeded to win a Masters and two US Opens. When he finished the tour in 1961, he became the Head Pro at The Diplomat. Brenda and I loved the place.; a unique experience. My only complaint --when I took a shower after our second round there (on the way to the airport) they had some "Clubman spray deodorant" that I used. My armpits were stuck to my body for like the next three days. It was like SuperGlue! Maybe someone had tampered with the stuff!
EARLY DECEMBER: Lucky me, just four days after coming back from California, I had been invited by one of my Wilmette buddies, John C., to join him and a couple of other buddies for a 5-day to his second home on Kiawah Island. It was my fifth trip to Kiawah, so I already know the courses quite well. Clearly one of my favorite destinations anywhere. We had a great day on the Ocean Course, which definitely is in my Top 10 in the world.
CURRENT TRAVEL:
JANUARY 2016: Right now (early January) Brenda and I are in Ft. Lauderdale trying to get a head start on 2016. Thus far we have played twice, at The Diplomat Golf and Tennis Club on Thursday and at Jacaranda Golf Club (West Course) on Saturday. Both are among the better tracks available for public play in Ft. Lauderdale. The Diplomat is generally available on GolfNow for between $100 and $150 bucks. Jacaranda offers times on GolfNow in the $90 to $100 range. Jacaranda is a 36-hole facility with the other course called the "East Course."
NOVEMBER 28, 2015: Just back from another trip to California. Due to a little asthma flare-up I had out there, I was only able to play twice. First, at San Geronimo Golf Club in San
Geronimo, CA. Then,six days later, a visit to one of my favorites anywhere -- Silverado Resort in Napa. You may have caught on TV the recent second-playing of the Frys.com event at Silverado in October, which ended in a shootout of a playoff between Kevin Na and Argentinian newcomer Emiliano Grillo. After playing the 18th hole three times in a row, Grillo finally won the thing. But the big news I learned on my visit to Silverado the other day is the club has just signed a five-year deal with Safeway to host the tournament for the next five years. So it will no longer be called the "Frys.com," but the tournament will continue on there through at least 2020. Another feather in Johnny Miller's cap, to say the least!! Unfortunately, we did not get to play one of our regular stops, Wente Vineyards near Livermore, due to the asthma thing. But I thumbed through my course guide book while resting up and re-lived many of the incredible golf holes on that course! Did I tell you they have their own version of "Lombard Street" as you travel from the 9th green to the 10th tee? Of all the courses we've played in the Bay area, Silverado and Wente are our two favorites, and we can't decide which one we would rate number 1. They are quite different. (I want to be clear, I am not including the Pebble Beach area golf courses when I refer to the "Bay area.") Tough to beat Pebble.
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Traveling Chicago Golfer.com
NOVEMBER 3, 2015: Please don't tell your wives or girlfriends, but my main "buddies golf group" has developed a ploy over the years (especially as we've gotten REAL OLD) of celebrating significant birthdays within the group with a fall golf trip. We had always gone on a spring golf trip since around 1990, but we added this fall celebration somewhere around 2001 when I turned 50 and we went to Scotland -- two weeks after 9-11. This fall one of my best golf buds turned 65, so he chose Scottsdale as his destination of choice. He arranged lodging through VRBO in a five-bedroom home in the north Scottsdale area, and he and I set up tee times at some of the local resorts -- The Boulders, Troon North, We-Ko-Pah, and Grayhawk (Raptor course). Every one of them was fantastic.
As we teed off on the first hole of the Boulders, the starter pointed to a fairly high mountain to the West, probably about a couple of miles away and beyond the magnificent boulder formation behind the first green. He said, "Do you see those two homes up on the top of that mountain? The highest one, on the right, that's Goldie Hawn's house. And the one just to the left of that, that's Stevie Nick's." These house were really way, way up there. The starter continued: "When they built those homes, they had to drive the cement trucks up backwards, because if they drove them forward, the trucks would have flipped on their backs like a turtle." Not sure if all this was true, but it was a hell of a story. And the two courses at the Boulders, the North and South, are just as lofty. I rate them very high, and the scenery and vistas are definitely to die for......(pardon the hanging preposition!)
It's more of the same at the two Troon North courses, the Monument and the Pinnacle. If you really dig big rocks and rock formations, the four courses at these two resorts are truly breathtaking. And the golf at Troon North might even be a smidgen better than The Boulders. Who knows? I think Troon North is generally ranked a little bit higher. Regardless, I cannot tell you how much I love playing those four courses. Note, they aren't cheap. The rack rates when we visited were in the $175 to $200 a round range.