Feature Interview with Greg Ohlendorf

[Ran Morrissett]

Golf Club AtlasFeature Interview with Greg Ohlendorf | Golf Club Atlas

Writing about where you have played golf is tricky business. In his just released book, Global Golf Travels, Greg Ohlendorf avoids the trap of doing so in a braggadocios manner that could lose the reader. Rather, the book casts a variety of hooks to lure the reader in, including learning about scores of courses world-wide, highlighting the most unusual/distinctive holes, tips on travel, human interest stories, the art of networking, etc. Additionally, the book’s sweet spot for me is that much of it involves family time, which is how I grew up playing the game. Be it often with his wife, son, and/or nephew, Greg has played in all 50 states and every major golf country and then some.

Greg self-published this 8”x11” hardbound book and it contains 400 pages and 40 color photos. Phil Hensley turned up last weekend (uninvited as usual! ) and grabbed Greg’s book off my coffee table, eventually remarking, “If I saw this is in a book store, I would buy it.” That’s the ultimate compliment to the author and the folks that helped along the way, including a lady here in Southern Pines with a professional magazine background that did much of the layout.


Greg and his caddie at Naruo

Greg is a doer, one of those guys with gumption who makes things happen. Having lost his father at age 36 years, he knows there are no guarantees in life. Worth noting, he didn’t start with a silver spoon in his mouth. His journey started from playing public courses around Chicago and there is an appealing every man’s perspective present in his writing. His trips are of his own making and he hopes that you, the reader, conclude that if he has seen the world’s best, so can you. Plus, how he has experienced certain courses can enhance your own journeys. One example centers around playing in ‘open’ events in the UK. Another is organizing and playing in ‘club matches’. Those are two avenues open to overseas visitors when playing golf in the UK. The point being, it is not just about where you play that helps build memories for a life time.

Apart from this being a tribute to his family, the game and the people he met along the way (including talking trout fishing with Bush 41 at Cape Arundel and an indefatigable 90 year old lady member at MPCC), what you get is a single, cohesive perspective on the courses that we dream of playing. That means you need to care what Greg thinks and his answer to question 4 provides clarity on his perspective. He and I have had numerous lunches locally (he calls Pinehurst home part of the year) and I can attest that he has a keen eye and a great memory for details. Plus, he is shrewd enough to give his wife, Melissa, gobs of (deserved) credit throughout, so we are definitely dealing with a man who knows how the world works.

The story is one of unfettered gratitude to what the game has meant to him. He elects not to use it as a platform to demean courses and he declined to answer questions in this Feature Interview that would disparage courses, noting “Were all the courses great? Certainly not, but only a few didn’t have any redeeming qualities. And beyond that, the people I met and played with more often than not made up for course deficiencies.”

Therein lies the beauty of using golf as the fulcrum for travel – the golf matters (for sure!) but really it is a means to explore and interact with different people and cultures around the world, made all the better if you experience many such moments with a family member.  Global Golf Travels is the story of a life well lived and appeals on a variety of levels.

Best,

[Mike Sweeney]

Thanks Greg. I was talking to a family friend today who is much younger than me, and we were talking about the quirkiness of golf, golf courses, and golf clubs. It seems like you captured it, so I ordered and I am hoping you found more of this:

[Greg Ohlendorf]

Hey Mike, thanks for the purchase! Trust me, in my over 1000 courses, I saw tracks of all kinds and loved something about them all! 


Best,
Greg

[Keith Phillips]

Ordered - sounds like a great read!

[Mike_Young]

Enjoyed the interview.  Just ordered the book...if you ever come this way...stop...