Blog 2016-17
October 14, 2017
October 2017
Ever since I wrote my magazine article about Johnny Miller's Silverado Resort and Spa about four years ago, I have really enjoyed the season opening PGA golf tournament held there each early October. Right now I am watching the video of yesterday's round, with a young Web-com player, Tyler Duncan, trying to hang on to his lead and get a three-year exemption on the PGA tour. When I wrote the article, the tournament was called the Frys.com, but a couple of years ago switched sponsors and became the Safeway Open. I love the crazy feeling that this tournament is the start of a "new season", even though we were playing the President's Cup last week. It's fascinating to think about Tyler Duncan winning the thing, and going from a Web.com wannabe to a guy who would then play, if he wins, in the Masters, the Players, and more, along with the two-year PGA tour exemption (which with this year, is effectively a three-year exemption.
Two years ago, Emiliano Grillo broke through at Silverado with a win, and has since become a star on tour. Plus, it is always great to see Johnny Miller sitting in as a "guest announcer". You can see his tremendous pride in having put all this together, written all over his face. I really like that guy!
September 2017
In late September this year, I had a chance to return to Spain for almost two weeks. My son's company has an office there (and an apartment--so a free place to stay!), so off I went. One of my top objectives -- to play Valderrama Golf Club near the Straits of Gibralter in the far south of Spain. As I expected, it was extraordinarily beautiful and extremely challenging. In some ways, it reminded me of Augusta National, because it seemed not a blade of grass was out of place. The only negative for me (which is not much of a problem) was that the greens had been recently "sanded" so they were quite a bit slower than expected. The reason for the sanding -- The Andalucia Spanish Masters is to be played at Valderrama beginning October 19 and they were getting the greens in shape. As you may recall, Valderrama was the sight of the 1997 Ryder Cup and the story is this tournament, hosted by the Sergio Garcia Foundation, is the first return to Valderrama for Jose Maria Olazabal since that Ryder Cup. Valderrama hosted the Open de Espana (the Spanish Open) in 2016. The European Tour event was won by England's Andrew Johnston (the golfer known as "Beef").
Despite my disappointment in not getting to play on the world-reknowned greens with them in tip-top shape (and fast!), I believe that Valderamma is very likely the best golf course in Spain and one of the very best in all of Europe.
By the way, an interesting note......in 2015 King Juan Carlos of Spain granted Club de Golf Valderrama the Royal Title, and the official name became Real Club Valderrama. "Real" is Spanish for "Royal."
One other small negative for Valderrama is that they charge "Pebble Beach prices" to play, so it's not cheap. If you got the dough, though, it is well worth it.
October 2016
As I have mentioned, the Tuesday Nite Basketball-Golf Group generally goes on a Fall Trip, usually to celebrate the “big birthdays” of its members. This year was my turn (again), as I hit the Big 6-5. (Got my Medicare card October 1st!!) At first, we were going to return to Hilton Head (home of Harbour Town Golf Links) where we had a great trip in the Fall of 2013. But then one of the guys, Bill P., had the idea to go to the Dominican Republic with the idea of playing “The Teeth of the Dog” (“Teeth”) at Casa de Campo. So that became the plan. The dates were November 1 to 7. Warning: Like Scotland in the fall of 2014, this was not one of our “cheaper” trips.
We didn’t know exactly what we were getting into, despite some research, but most of what happened was mighty good. Casa de Campo, which is between Punta Cana and Santa Domingo on the southeast coast of the D.R., is a huge resort development with four golf courses (one is private), a lot of housing, a beautiful hotel, and lots of service. The three golf courses available for play by resort guests are the “Teeth”, “Dye Fore,” and “The Links” . All are designed by reknowned course architect, Pete Dye. Teeth is ranked the best golf course in the Caribbean and number 39 in the world. On The Teeth, there are seven holes that are played right alongside (or over) the Caribbean Sea. Just gorgeous.
The big surprise of the trip (for me, at least) was the Dye Fore course. The Dye Fore course has three nines, the Dye Fore, the Marina, and the Lakes, but the Lakes was not open during our trip. This entire course is for the most part more inland except that the Marina course does have a few holes that work their way down towards the sea. The real excitement, though, is the Dye Fore nine, which is set in the hills and ravine area above the River (exact river name to come). Two par threes require substantial carries over deep ravines and evoked memories in me of the beautiful and striking number 14 par three at Ireland’s Royal Portrush, sight of the 2019 British Open. You don’t run across many holes like these. To say the least, the complete nine-hole set on the Dye Fore nine, comprise one of the finest set of nine holes that I’ve seen.
As it was my birthday, my significant other, Ms. Brenda Brazik, and I went down to The Dominican five days early to get a head start on the festivities (Brendey would leave on November 1, the same day the boys arrived. She and I obtained a fantastic “prepaid” deal at the resort. We were given five nights in the Pete Dye Lodge along with three rounds of golf each at any of the courses for a total of $1350, which was a bargain compared to what the guys and I paid. With the guys, we arranged for an 8-bedroom rental house through an acquaintance of one of the guys, but we paid pretty close to “rack rate” for our greens fees which ran roughly $200 to $235 per round, depending on the course. The price is hard to pinpoint exactly because there is an 18% sales-resort tax involved, which really adds up.
Another feature that we were a bit unclear on in picking the Dominican Republic in November is that the high season is actually more around February. When Brenda and I arrived in late October, we were met with five days or near-oppressive heat and high humidity. Of course, we still played golf! By the time the guys arrived a week later, the weather was a bit more tolerable. But the resort was not particularly super-busy during our stay. We also speculated that the threats of the Zika virus might have been having an impact, although we never saw a mosquito in our time there. (I should say, my son, Steve, claimed he did see or “hear” a couple of mosquitoes. The resort is engaging in extraordinary efforts, it seems, to kill off the mosquitoes.
One more thing that made this a great trip. As you may have noted, we are all from Chicago, and the trip overlapped with the Chicago Cubs appearance in the World Series. While Brenda was there, we watched games 3, 4, and 5. When the boys arrived, we watched Game 6 and Game 7 –and the end of the 108-year drought. Interestingly, we were watching on Spanish TV, with only Spanish-speaking announcers. However, Brenda and I figured out during our second game there that we could get radio play–by-play from Chicago’s WSCR-670 radio, so we could listen to the game (almost simultaneously) with our usual announcing team, Pat Hughes and Ron Kumer.
June 2016
The next stop on this year’s golf travels was the Nashua CC member-guest in Nashua, N.H. My good buddy, Dr. Jim Graves, is a long-time member there, and I have been his invitee about 20 times over the years. The event has always been fabulous. The golf course is quite nice, but the most amazing thing to me is the closeness of the membership there and their commitment to having a rollicking time – both at their event but also generally. I’ve been to a few different member-guest tournaments over the years, but Nashua’s is the best. I think part of what occurs there is the club is a centerpoint of the Nashua community and the members spend A LOT of time there and really are great friends who know each other very well.
This is different from my personal experience where I have been a member at a few county clubs (Point O’Woods CC in Michigan and Pottawattomie CC in Indiana) that are more “destination” clubs. By this I mean much of the membership at my clubs lives miles away (i.e., in Chicago) and many members are infrequent visitors. In my 10 years or so at Point O’Woods, I probably averaged 10 or 12 visits a year, so I really had few close friends there and didn’t even know the majority of the membership. I usually played with my significant other. At Nashua, there are many, many people with close friendships whose families get engaged in many activities both at the club and outside the club. It’s a concept to keep in mind, particularly if you are young and thinking about joining a country club.
Anyway, back to the member guest. Dr. Graves and I have a long and consistent history of finishing “back in the pack” of our bracket at the NCC member-guest tourneys. 2016 was no different. While we are the best of buddies for somewhere around 35 years, we just can’t get our heads together for the member-guest events. This is particularly disturbing because Doc Graves is a Ph.D. psychologist. Plus, he has a lot of successful experience with sports psychology. He just has not been able to stoke our minds into a winning way! Probably part of the problem has been that when we were a bit younger, we partied way too hard during the four days of the event, and we would stay out way too late. (And I mean, really late!) Our bleary-eyed play from those early days led to some solid last-place finishes and our history seems to still guide us, even though our lifestyles during the event have calmed down a bit.
I’ve had some of the best times of my life at the ol’ Nashua CC member-guest, and I’ve often commented that I know more guys at that club than I know at my own clubs. Kind of weird……
March 2016
In my November 2015 blog post I mentioned my primary group of “Traveling Golf Buddies.” I wrote about our trip to the Phoenix area. If I can indulge you a bit, I will fill you in on some of the background of this group. Most of the guys, I originally met playing basketball in a regular, Tuesday night pick-up game in Chicago’s Lincoln Park area. I joined the game in 1978 or 1979, who knows or remembers? I was really the only avid golfer, and most of the guys played a few times a year in corporate outings and the like. I got them playing a little more golf in the late 1980’s, and around 1990 got them to do a group outing to Myrtle Beach in the early springtime. That trip was a big hit, and we haven’t missed a spring since – so 26 years or so of consecutive spring golf trips.
We did Myrtle Beach a second time, and then looked for warmer climes as we were traveling in late February. Our next stop was the Pensacola, Florida, area. We did that for about 7-8 years, had a couple of very cold rounds, then moved farther south to Orlando and then Tampa. Finally, about 8 or 9 years ago one of the fellas discovered a resort about 30 miles north of Tampa called Lake Jovita Country Club. We set up shop there and haven’t left yet after 8 or 9 visits. By the way, we generally refer to this group as the “TNB-golfers.” TNB standing, of course, for “Tuesday Nite Basketball.”
In early March 2016, we went again. The beauty of Lake Jovita for a guys trip is three-fold.
--- They have two 18-hole courses there, so there is variety.
--- We stay in very nice condos that adjoin the course. The condos we typically stay in our about 200 yards from the pro shop, and 100 yards from the practice tee.
--- The price is right; roughly $165-$185 bucks a day for unlimited golf and lodging, with every guy getting a private bedroom in three-bedroom condos. You could definitely save some money by doubling up in some bedrooms (if you’re young and able to tolerate that kind of snoring!)
As an added bonus, about five years ago we convinced the head chef to prepare dinners for us at our “headquarters condo” several nights of our visits. He would come down and prepare steaks and/or fish with all the “fixin’s”, including appetizers and desserts, all for a reasonable price. Plus, we would be drinking our own liquor, so the savings there were substantial, plus no driving under the influence.
The two Lake Jovita courses are very nice layouts and generally in great condition. We had a couple of visits where they’ve had some conditioning issues, but overall it’s been quite good. And generally, the greens run very fast with a lot of character. Lake Jovita has hosted many tournaments, such as USGA qualifiers and state tournaments. We have really enjoyed the golf there.
If you’re looking for a little more variety, on several occasions we have left the Lake Jovita campus to travel to TPC Tampa for a round, and also to World Woods, home of the famous Pine Barrens course by Tom Fazio. There is also a second Fazio course there, Rolling Oaks. TPC Tampa and the Pine Barrens are highly acclaimed and not to be missed. Rolling Oaks is also quite nice. TPC Tampa is about a half an hour south of Lake Jovita, and right in the city of Tampa. World Woods is in Brooksville, about 45 minutes north of Lake Jovita, and perhaps and hour and a quarter north of Tampa.
When we go down to TPC Tampa, we usually head over afterwards to Ybor City for dinner. Ybor City is the historic area adjacent to downtown Tampa – quite “touristy” but lots of fun with some very decent food options.
A few days ago, I was writing about how much I was enjoying watching the PGA season-opening tournament at Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa,
and the next thing I know the whole Napa countryside is on fire!!! I've been trying to figure out how my beloved Silverado (I hope to live there
before too long) has fared in the wild fires, but information is limited. I did see that the famous Mansion at the center of the club has
October 14, 2017
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Blog 2016-2017
survived the fires, but there was a video of one of the grandstands near the 17th hole completely on fire. The fires hit just hours after the Safeway Open concluded, and many fans, players, caddies, journalists, and others had to hightail it out of the resort and seek safety. I did hear that several on-site and nearby residences were lost, including a townhome owned by Johnny Miller's daughter, but it appears that most of the resort buildings survived and the resort should be able to reopen within weeks.