Ultimate golf trip

[A.G._Crockett]

At a high school golf match yesterday afternoon, the father of a former player of our opponents told this story.  His son is now a freshman on the Dartmouth College golf team, and they are arriving in Atlanta today for a spring break golf trip.  Here is their schedule:

     Thurs.    St. Ives in Atlanta (Fazio course, and a very
                  decent track on which to shake off the rust of
                  a long N.H. winter)
     Fri.        Shoal Creek
     Sat.       East Lake
     Sun.      Augusta Natl.
     Mon.      The Ocean Course
     Tue.       Pinehurst #2
     Wed.      Aronimink
     Thurs.    Winged Foot
     Fri.         C.C. at Brookline

Anybody ever heard or been on a better gig than this?

[Mike_Cirba]

A.G.;

If they're planning to play Aronimink, Winged Foot, and Brookline within the next week, they'd best bring snow shovels.  

His story sounds a bit contrived to me.  

[Mike Hendren]

A. G.,

I'm hoping for two rounds at The Old Course this fall.  Let's call it a tie

Regards,

Mike

[John_Conley]

A.G.:  Colleges routinely make such trips.  Harvard's women did Ireland this season.  Suffice to say, they'll probably never have it as good.

[Tim_Weiman]

Mike Cirba:

I agree. Guys from Dartmouth aren't likely to make plans to play Brookline or Winged Foot in March. Living in Hanover, they have some idea about March weather in Brookline. Aronimink doesn't make sense either.

[Craig_Dex]

Do they need a marker for the next two weeks?  Please tell them I'm available...

AG, I can't think of a better collection of courses to play in such a short time frame.  Come to think of it, we should put together a mythical ultimate golf road trip for each state.

Here's my list for Georgia (suggestions, corrections, and even ridicule is welcome):
Day 1 - Osprey Cove (St. Mary's)
Day 2 - Ocean Forest (St. Simon's)
Day 3 - Ford Plantation (near Savannah)
Day 4 - Houston Lake (Perry)
Day 5 - Callaway Gardens - Mountain (Pine Mountain)
Day 6 - Brasstown Valley (Young Harris)
Day 7 - Augusta National (Augusta)
Day 8 - Cuscowilla (Lake Oconee)
Day 9 - Cobblestone (Acworth)
Day 10 - Orchard Hills (Newnan)
Day 11 - Atlanta CC (Marietta)
Day 12 - Hawk's Ridge (Ball Ground)
Day 13 - East Lake (Atlanta)
Day 14 - Peachtree CC (Atlanta)

Apologies to those omitted.  It would be a great two weeks, wouldn't it?

[JDoyle]

How about what Bob McCoy pulled off in 1997:  He played the top 100 courses in the world (per Golf Magazine) in 100 consecutive days!!

Now that has to be the ultimate golf trip.  I am still amazed at the accomplishment.

[John_Conley]

South Florida:
Jupiter Hills, Seminole, Bear's Club, Loblolly Pines, Old Marsh, Emerald Dunes, Pine Tree, PGA Reserve (54 holes) and PGA National.  And that's not even a road trip.  You could easily swap out some of the area clubs.

North Florida:
Pine Barrens, Rolling Oaks, Lake Jovita, the Dunes at Seville, Golden Ocala, CC of Ocala, El Diablo, and Black Diamond.  Wow.  It always amazes me how many great courses are so close to each other in such a remote area.

Minnesota (not a Spring Break trip):
Interlachen and Minikahda (Watson/Ross), Rochester and Golden Valley (Tillinghast), Somerset (Raynor), North Oaks (Thompson), Northland (Ross), Hazeltine (RTJ), the Wilds (Weiskopf/Morrish), StoneRidge (Weed), Spring Hill (Fazio).  You'd get a great sampling of many architects and play some very challenging courses.

[D._Kilfara]

Every three or four years, the Harvard men's golf team went out to the Bay Area and played (among others) Olympic, SFGC, Pasatiempo, Pebble and Cypress - a pretty fair front five if ever I've heard of one. (I missed this trip - which irked me greatly, although I was in Scotland at the time, so I can't really complain!) The Dartmouth trip doesn't sound right to me, though, as it involves way too much travel for a typical "shake the rust off" spring trip - when will they find the time to hit any range balls in all this? - and, as Mike said, I find it very unlikely that the last three courses will be open for play anyway. I'm sure they're going some where cool, though...or should I say, somewhere warm.

Cheers,
Darren

[Tim_Weiman]

Darren,

I agree with your comments. The Harvard plan makes a lot more sense than this questionable itinerary. As a college student, it is also one I would hate to miss.

About twenty years ago BP bought a refinery from Chevron and the brass celebrated by playing Canterbury on Monday, Olympic on Tuesday, Cypress Point on Wednesday and back to Firestone on Thursday.

It was a closely guarded secret, but it did leak out. On Friday I got on the elevator with John MacDonald, the US division president and asked him:

"John, how is your golf game?"

A formal Midwestern type, John became embarrassed and couldn't wait to get off the elevator.

[Joel_Stewart]

I see many college teams around Olympic all the time.  It seems the Air Force acadamy lives there half the time.  I've talked with the players and they are always on there way down to Cypress Point, Pasatiempo and others so I don't think it's unusual for these college players to get great boon-doogles.

Corporate boon-doogles is another story especially if it involves corporate jets and nice hotels.  I am happy to say I have participated in a few.

[Robert Kimball]

I don't know. . .sounds a little contrived to me as well.  I mean, the logistics don't even make sense.  Maybe he has some good land to sell in Florida?  

[JamesP]

I'm on a Division 3 golf team in the northeast, and we go south for a week every year - but Nothing like this!  To all those out there in college, or who played in college, did your colleges spend break playing top notch clubs like Harvard's plan (or Dartmouth's wishful plan?)?  Or did you go south and play pretty average colleges like we do each year?  I'm quite jealous!.... didn't know some colleges had it so good!

[Steve Lapper]

Hi everyone ,

 My name is Thornton Melon and I'm new at this college. I like to play golf and here's my schedule for a great ol' early season trip:

Mon. Cypress Point
Tues. San Francisco GC
Wed. Shadow Creek
Thurs. Sand Hills
Fri.  Prairie Dunes
Sat. Augusta Nat'l
Sun. Merion
Mon. Pine Valley
Tues. Shinnecock
Wed. Friar's Head


Now ya'll see Lou and he'll get Pussy Galore to fire up the G-V and we'll take it out for a spin....Great farce, should I keep going?