Palladin Award

[Scott_Burroughs]

Some good ones y'all.

Pete above did the Portland to Bandon thing last year to join me.  Stayed over night in North Bend, then did 36 with me at Pacific Dunes, with lunch and dinner (afterward), then drove home to Portland after dinner.  


A few of mine:

While living in Alexandria, VA in early 1994, left after rush hour subsided on a Friday night down I-95 to NC, then tried to sleep in the trunk of my car (a hatchback) in a roadside motel's parking lot some time after midnight, but the activity of other people around and the police driveby's made me nervous, so I just kept on driving towards Wilmington, got there early and played 36 that day, then 36 the next day, then drove back to NoVa after that.

GCA-related trips last year:

While on a Vegas vacation w/wife's family, got up in the wee hours on Easter morning, drove to L.A., ate breakfast in Beverly Hills (saw a rather old-looking Larry King there), played at LACC, had drinks afterward, then chatted in the parking lot for about a half hour, then drove up to Rustic Canyon (about 4 weeks before it opened) to walk around a little and see things in person before the sun set, then drove back to Vegas, getting in just after midnight.


My trip that has had a few of you talking:

Left Friday night, drove though NC, VA, DC (a smidge), and MD and stayed at relatives in suburban Baltimore.  Got up early for a 10:00 tee time in suburban Philadelphia, driving thourgh MD, DE, and PA.  Couldn't stay for drinks, had to run to play Yale (it was June, sun set late), driving through PA, NJ, NY, and CT.  Teed off around 5:45-6:00, played (walked and carried) the hellaciously hilly and wonderfully fun Yale, finishing at dusk, while playing through a group of what looked (and sounded) like Martina Navratilova (local resident) and 2 students.  Then had dinner in New Haven, then drove back through CT, NY, and stayed in NJ.  That was 6 states in one day, passing through 8 total, coming back through NY and NJ again.  9 states/districts in 2 days so far.  Then stayed up late watching the hockey finals (local 'Canes went into 3OTs).  Got up early for round at Baltusrol (Lower), then got tour of Upper course afterward.  Drove to Plainfield to join a small outing of GCAers and had lunch.  Going out to get my clubs, I noticed they weren't there.  Left them on the bag rack back at Baltusrol, gotta go get them.  Drove back, got them, on way back got lost trying to take shortcuts (death in NJ), missed first two holes, joined them on par 3 3rd.  Chatted some afterwards, then drove back to Alexandria, VA to stay at sister-in-law's, driving through NJ, DE, MD, DC, and VA.  Got a few hours sleep, got up and left by 4:45 a.m. to drive (too fast) back home to pick up my daughter by 8:00 to take to daycare and then go to work.

I was in 9 different states/districts and crossed borders 15 times.

There have been a few others, can't wait for the next one.

[Dan Grossman]

I have had several whirlwind trips, but the most recent consisted of getting up at 5am on December 23, driving an hour to pick up a college friend of mine and then driving an additional two hours to World Woods (FL).  We played 36 holes and finished around 4:30.  We then convinced the pro shop that we could play and finish the short course before dark.  So after playing 45 holes, I drove 3 hours back and got home about 9pm.

[Mike_Cirba]

Scott;

You're nuts!  

[THuckaby2]

Scott Burroughs - your recent trip out here was enough to crown you king, given the marital risk that was involved... but good god, I can't come up with a high enough honor for you for that mult-state trip.  I am sitting here in absolute awe.

What's also very interesting to me is that I'd have to guess all of these stories mentioned were in the end "worth it", with Joel's sad aventures excepted, of course.

TH

[Scott_Burroughs]

The multi-state trip sounds better than it really is, considering the small states in the northeast.

The Saturday is what got people talking.  Rolling Green outside Philly (west) at 10:00, then Yale in CT in the late afternoon.  That and forgetting my clubs at Baltusrol.   :-/

Hell yes, it's all worth it.

[THuckaby2]

By "multi-state" trip I just meant the whole saga you outlined above, Scott.  The whole thing makes you legendary.  Forgeting the clubs just puts you in a league by yourself.  

What we need to do is have a group rountable where the stories we CAN'T tell here get revealed... hmmm... potential topic of conversation for the next get together?  I'd pay good money to here some of the real stories from Dave Schmidt, for example... and I HAVE heard some priceless ones already from Papazian/Stettner/Wigler....

TH

[Bob_Huntley]

Dan King.

In my book you take the biscuit!

After all that driving were you let down by Squaw Creek?

[Brian Phillips]

Left Norway on Wednesday night together with my design partner Jeremy.  Drove to Sweden, stayed overnight at airport hotel.

Flew to Denmark, then to Newark (with the usual 6 hour delay in Newark!!), then to Denver.  Met up with other architect friend.  Stayed overnight at Holiday Inn. (This is now Thursday night).  Friday morning take bus to collect hire car.  Drive hire car and colleagues to Sand Hills which took approx. 5 hours.

Graeme didn't know much about Sand Hills and mentioned that the place had better be good or he was going to beat me up after a 5 hour drive.

Surprisingly he now calls it heaven!!

Stayed all weekend talking to some of the greats in the business and then repeated the drive and flight to Newark to play som good courses in that area.

I think we worked out it took nearly 50 hours to get there.

But, boy was it worth it.

Anyone, who ever gets an invite to that place and turns it down shouldn't be allowed to talk about architecture again!!

Brian Phillips

[THuckaby2]

Anyone, who ever gets an invite to that place and turns it down shouldn't be allowed to talk about architecture again!!

Brian Phillips

I am with you 100% re Sand Hills, brother Brian, and wow is that some kind of ordeal you had to get there... I thought I had it bad coming from California...

But in any case, God I hope Rich Goodale reads your above quote.  

Or maybe I don't.  I enjoy what he says about golf, architecture and life and the connections among them too much to disallow the middle topic.

TH

[Pete_Pittock]

Lynn,
     The greenskeepers set up a night rabbit hunt on the course and he was accidentally shotgunned by another participant near the 17th green, close to houses and gardens. Ganton was basically closed that day, but they kept an assistant on because they couldn't reach me.

[JDoyle]

Two adventures come to mind:

Flew into Shannon Airport in Ireland, landed by 7 AM, grabbed a rental car and headed south to Waterville.  Played the course with another golf-crazy solo American.  Loved the round, especially the 17th and 18th tee boxes.  Finished the round and paid off the bet with a few Smithwicks in town.  I checked the map and decided to make a run at Old Head.  The road had spectacular views of the ocean and Irish landscapes, but many sheep got in the way and the trip was long.  The tiny roads didn't help either, plus learning to drive a stick-shift with my left hand and staying on the left side of the road proved a challenge.  I ended up on the 1st tee at 6 PM.  The course was empty and the sky was cloudless.  I played two balls all the way around and had a blast.

The second was this summer.  I received a last minute invitation at Oakmont.  I was in car by 4 am and drove from NYC to Pittsburgh.  The trip took seven hours.  I played the course, was blown-away by the experience.  On the first hole my par putt lipped out and rolled forty feet and off the green!  The trip home was faster, only 5.5 hours.  I was home by 11 pm with a memory that will last all winter and then some.

[TEPaul]

Ahh shoot!

I hadn't looked in on the Palladin Award thread before now. I didn't know what it was for but obviously I had the wrong idea. Even with my wrong idea I hadn't looked at the thread until now and I didn't think I would win anyway because I've got the gun but I don't feel like traveling.

[Mike Leveille]

Mine would be as a result of some car troubles on a 1999 trip to Ireland.  We flew into Shannon in the early morning and had a noonish tee time at Old Head, after which we were driving to Waterville.

Well, the van we rented from Hertz had a problem with overheating brakes, and it took us until 3:30 pm to get down to Old Head.  We called Hertz, asked them to have a new van for us at the course around 8:00 pm, then went out to play.  We get done at 8:15 pm, and find out in the clubhouse that Hertz has come and gone without leaving us a van.  Over the next few hours, we spent quite a bit of time in the Old Head clubhouse on the phone with Hertz and drinking Guinness - thank God they were nice enough to keep the clubhouse open just for us.  Finally, about 11:00 pm, we realize Hertz is not going to have us a new van anytime soon, and that we have had too many Guinness to drive to Waterville, so with some help from the bartender at Old Head we manage to hire a guy from Kinsale to drive us to Waterville.  He picks us up after midnight and we make it to the Waterville House around 4:30 am, after many stops to "wet the bush" as our driver says.

We sleep for a couple of hours and are up early the next morning and play 36 at Waterville.  The proprietor at the Waterville House, who is a saint, arranges for a weekly rental of a Mercedes sedan from a local used car dealer, has it delivered to the hotel, and it is much cheaper than the van from Hertz would have been.  Best of all, no need to mess with a car rental company upon return, as they had us leave the Mercedes in the general parking lot at the Shannon airport with the keys at the information desk.  You absolutely have to love the Irish.

[Jeff Goldman]

Three years ago almost to the day, Its freezing in Chicago and I've got the weather channel on at the office and it says "clear and warm in Alabama."  I've got nothing interesting to do, bored as hell and the golf bug, so I leave around 2 from Chicago, drive to Birmingham to play the RTJ trail course there (didn't know you have to go through mountains), get lost, get a couple hours sleep at a Days Inn in central Birmingham because mapquest doesn't tell me there's a highway exit right near the golf course in the nice leafy burbs, play the short course and the valley course, which was utterly ridiculous, get some barbeque and more to bring home, and drive back to Chicago.  Total time:  about 40 hours.

Jeff Goldman

[Dan King]

Tom Huckaby writes:
Of course you know this, but Hunter Ranch is nowhere near Los Banos.  Paso Robles, my friend.

In the words of Roberto, what a stupid I am. I even once owned property in Templeton, which is bordered by Paso Robles.

Bob Huntley writes:
After all that driving were you let down by Squaw Creek?

This is the point I meant to get across, but didn't.

It's not surprising when someone falls off the wagon for a dram or two of Macallan 30-year-old. It takes a special sort of sickness to jump off looking for a case of Ripple.

Traveling a long way to play Sand Hills, Pacific Dunes, Pine Valley, etc... makes sense. I drove all those miles, up and down California to play two mediocre courses and one bad one. To make matters worse, because how tired I was when I played Squaw Creek I figured I hadn't given it a fair shake, requiring a return trip a few months later.

Dan King

'Alcohol kills brain cells.
Brain cell: "Did you bring the oxygen?"
Blood cell: "The oxygen? Oh boy, let's see. I was in the lungs. I headed toward the head. And... I stopped to party with friends... I just forgot."
We take the only organ in our body that won't grow back and we kill it for fun!'
 --Carey Odes

[THuckaby2]

No hassles, Dan.  Paso Robles/Los Banos, heck what's the difference anyway?  

And re:  "It's not surprising when someone falls off the wagon for a dram or two of Macallan 30-year-old. It takes a special sort of sickness to jump off looking for a case of Ripple."

Golf addiction is a strange illness indeed!

TH

[ed_getka]

Got on a red-eye in Oakland Sunday night, arrived in Detroit at 6a.m., drove 4 hours to Kingsley Club, played 36 holes. Woke up in morning and played 36 holes at Crystal Downs, went out to dinner with member there we met that day and stayed out until 11p.m., drove south through the night to get to Lost Dunes to hook up with Shivas (we got 4 hours of sleep), after 18 holes we jumped in the car for a flat out run to Detroit to make our flight with 5 minutes to spare (I paid someone $60 to return our rental car). It was totally worth it!

[Mike Hendren]

Jeff Goldman,

The next time you have the urge to flee winter, don't drive to Birmingham.  Southwest flies each way to Nashvegas for $39!  I'll pick you up at the airport and host you at my club where you can experience vintage containment mounding by Cupp/Kite.  You can be back in Chicago by late evening!

Regards,

Mike Hendren

[Mike_Sweeney]

Instead of playing in the US Open local qualifier at a course I knew in town, I drove 10 hours from TX to KS to play at the Prairie Dunes qualifying site.  Great experience, bad score.

Chris,

You are my winner so far  .