Home Stretch

We left Cleveland at 6:15 and headed to the Poconos. We decided to change our plans and after golf drive all the way to NYC same day. This means that we left Portland Oregon on Friday the 21st at 3pm and arrived in NYC on Thursday the 27th after 7 days of driving and 126 holes of golf. The plan was to play 18 more in Brooklyn on Friday but that didn’t go to well. More on that later…

After a six hour drive we arrived in the Poconos and followed signs to Shawnee Inn. It was a much bigger complex than we expected, there were tour buses lined up along the entry and a large group of elderly women boarding one of the buses dressed in matching pink t-shirts. It wasn’t quite the view we expected pulling up to a golf resort but after six hours it was nice to just get out of the car. We were excited to see A.W. Tillinghast’s first ever golf course design.

The Inn’s grand entryway was classic and beautiful at the same time. To it’s left was a balcony and to the left of that was a painted map of Shawnee Inn’s 27 holes. As promised on the website, the map showed 24 of the 27 holes are located on Shawnee Island in the Delaware River. The map also told the story of how Arnold Palmer met his wife on the adjacent balcony. Random, but definitely cool…

The course itself definitely felt more like the New England courses we were used to but was very nice. Tree lined hills provided a beautiful backdrop to most of the holes. The conditions were in every way adequate but not magnificent like our previous day. During the final holes of the back nine I played the best 7 hole stretch of my life going even par over those holes. Perhaps the most memorable hole was a par 3 returning to the mainland. To the right of the tee boxes was a wooden bridge complete with white painted rails.

For the second time in the last six days, after finishing 18 holes we still wanted more golf and continued onto Shawnee’s final nine holes. Great day of golf! I would love to come back to Shawnee for a vacation and for a lot more golf. It was definitely a good value less than 90 minutes from NYC.

After our 27 holes we got right into the car and headed to Brooklyn. We arrived around 9:30pm, ate dinner and set the alarm for 6:30am to golf Brooklyn’s Dyker Beach, one of the worlds busiest courses. As we struggled to wake up and make the drive to Dyker it was sprinkling a little but we didn’t think much of it. The rain picked up a little as we walked into the clubhouse but the Weather Channel kept putting each hour as only a 30% chance of rain so we liked our chances. For the first time in my golfing career I birdied the first hole, hitting a 145-yard 7-iron to within a foot (wow, that happens so rarely it surprised me all over again to write it…). The rain turned a lot heavier as we started the second hole but we tried to continue on. Unfortunately, the rain worsened and we had to head in. Weather Channel still put the chance of rain at 30% for each hour, even the current one where we witnessed torrential downpours, so we lost confidence in the site.

This was a bit of a frustrating end to an amazing cross-country trip. Total tallies include over 3000 miles, 127 holes of golf in 7 days. Wow, I’m tired and need a vacation from my vacation!

Cleveland - Beginning of the home stretch

As we roll our way west to east, the weather is slowly deteriorating. Ever since our stop in Chicago, the sky has been overcast with intermittent spitting rain, and humidity has probably doubled. The courses are getting progressively more crowded and conditions aren’t quite as pristine. Why do we live in New England again?

Anyway, we arrived at Fowler’s Mill Golf Club around 1:30pm and all signs pointed to a let down. The forecast was for rain, our stamina was waning after thousands of miles in the car, and Matt caught a bad case of my contagious lower back pain. Our play had gotten progressively better over the first four days, and any golfer knows that constant improvement invariably leads to big scores sooner or later. And, finally, there was no way to top being treated like royalty with our own caddie at Cantigny the day before.

Highlights/lowlights from Luc’s round:
#1 After a tee ball struck left into left trees, I unintentionally thinned a 9-iron through a gap and onto the green two feet from the hole. Birdie.

#4 Fowler’s Mill’s signature hole, this 450 yard par four takes a direct 90 degree turn right around a large pond, with wind blowing hard right to left. I hit sliced my first tee ball into the lake, shanked my fourth shot into the lake, and made an 8.

#6 I hit a 3-wood through the fairway into the trees, punched out to a severe downslope the fairway, shanked my third shot (and my 6-iron on the next par three), and made a double-bogey 6.

#11 Sliced my drive out-of-bounds on this short par four and then birdied my second ball for a bogey five.

Then I caught fire and made two more birdies and an eagle on the back nine for a 3-under 33. Overall, I was 6-over on two holes, shanked three shots, and was 5-under on the four par fives.

Highlights/lowlights from Matt’s round:

#4 Matt also blew up on Fowler’s Mill’s signature hole, hitting 2 balls into the lake and making an 8. He called this his “Noah’s Ark Hole” because he hit two woods, two wedges, two putts, and two balls to a watery grave.

#9 This is a great golf hole with two different fairways separated by a 15 foot creek running from tee to green straight up the middle of the hole. Players either pick a fairway to aim at or shoot directly for the creek, figuring that it’s highly unlikely to hit it straight enough to find the water. Matt skillfully went with the second option, hitting a great drive that started out over the creek and faded just slightly onto the right edge of the left fairway. From there he hit a 9-iron just off the green 15 feet from the hole and made an easy par to win the hole.

Matt was three holes up on the 11th hole and was sitting pretty to win the match (and dinner), but thankfully for me his back tightened up and his golf shots developed a frustrating magnetism to random cross-fairway creeks. Matt made a devastating 13 on the hole #12 and then a bunch of double and triple bogies on our way back to the clubhouse. This epic collapse coincided with my game catching fire, and I ended up exacting revenge for my loss at Cantigny with a 2 and 1 win (up two holes with one to play).

Matt actually struck the ball quite well off the tee throughout the back nine, and those shots were best when made after a break to lie down and stretch out his lower back while waiting on the tee box. But he forgot to pack his precision short game from the day before at Cantigny (not sure if that’s better or worse than me forgetting my American Express at Old Works in Montana), and I’m worried he’ll find it again for today’s round at Shawnee Golf Course in the Poconos.

Chicago!! Best day of trip!!

We had a short 5 hour drive from Osseo Wisconsin to the Chicago area. The drive felt a lot shorter thanks to Bill Simmons’ podcast called “The BS report”. I’m happy technology allows us to stream podcasts from my favorite sports-writer directly to the iphone as we drive down the highway.

Cantigny Golf course is in the Chicago suburbs and defines living the GOOD LIFE!! Corvettes, BMW’s and Lexus’ filled Cantigny’s parking lot and we quickly understood why the elite frequent this course. As we arrived at the bag drop, we were greeted by one of the many friendly staff dressed in a green polo, navy knickers and knee-high argyle socks. To fully immerse ourselves into Cantigny’s culture, we decided to use a fore-caddy for the round. It was a first for both of us so we didn’t even know exactly what a fore-caddy does. Christian was waiting for us as we arrived and introduced himself as our caddy.

Before we teed off, Christian ran out about 250 yards, turned back to face us and folded his arms across his chest to let us know he was ready for us. Luc hit first and to everyone’s (except my) shock hit a 3-wood over Christian’s head. As I lined up to hit, he started to back up, thinking that I may do the same, instead I topped my shot that barely reached the fairway, and thus our round began. As an aside, since I did reach the fairway – I clicked “hit fairway” on the iphone stats application even though it was a terrible shot. My second shot was better and by the time I reached the ball, Christian had already located it and walked off (measured) that I had 85 yards remaining to the green. Halfway through the first hole I already knew I would really like this fore-caddy idea.

As we arrived on the green, Christian pulled the flag for us and asked if we wanted him to clean the balls. I think my response was something very dignified along the lines of, “Cool”! After putting, our fearless leader walked us to the next hole, explained target lines and traps and then jogged off down the fairway. I put my second shot into a bunker and as I hit out, Christian was there with rake in hand to rake the sand for me. With a complete lack of an ‘act like you’ve been here before’ attitude, I exclaimed, “wow, this is great” and walked to the green.

The course itself was in amazing condition with multiple interesting holes throughout. It didn’t feature the wow factor of panoramic views like our first three days, but the course itself was my favorite. Luc’s favorite track is probably Troy Burne but it’s close.

I lost Luc’s camera somewhere on the 7th hole and didn’t realize it until we made the turn. As I started to panic at the snack shack and contemplate running back to search for it, the woman behind the counter calmly told me not to worry and radioed the ranger who asked a couple of follow-up questions and then searched for the camera. Before we even finished our next hole, an employee drove up proudly displaying the camera in his left hand. After the hole he wanted to take a picture of us by a 40-foot butterfly-shaped floral arrangement (yes, this course really does have multiple large meticulously groomed, shaped floral arrangements). We insisted on having Christian in the picture. Again, the level of service at Cantigny is better then anything I had ever experienced on the golf course!

I finally won a match today so our next meal is on Luc. We both played much better today and I think Christian deserves the credit. Oh, lastly, it’s probably worth mentioning that our fearless leader came straight from school where he finished his first day of 8th grade!! Christian is golfer himself and I just hope he remembers this blog when he’s on the PGA tour.

From the course we drove to Leigh’s apartment in Edgewater on the Northeast side of Chicago. Great place in a chill neighborhood! We hung-out at the apartment, walked to dinner and then got home around 10:30. We crashed immediately after setting the alarm for 5:30am to continue onto Cleveland for a 2:00pm tee time.

4 days, 81 holes of golf, 8 states and still having fun!

Another 5.5 hour drive from North Dakota through the entire state of Minnesota and into Wisconsin to get to Troy Burne Golf Club. As we drove up the entryway past an engraved welcome stone and amazingly manicured fairways and bunkers our eagerness to get out of the car was surpassed by our excitement at playing this course.

In efforts to mature and avoid childish meltdowns on the course, we spent the majority of the ride discussing how to maximize our enjoyment of the remainder of the trip. Simply put, we were determined to have fun! For me this just means growing up on the golf course and for Luc it also means transitioning from a competitive golf mindset with total focus on the next shot to enjoying the scenery and camaraderie. I attempted to use my Psychology degree and tried to convince Luc that he wouldn’t only enjoy it more but that it would also improve his scores. I’m not sure he bought it… (I am sure that for my skill-level it would work if I could only develop the mental strength to do it…). During the middle of the round I had a real test of my newfound maturity with a particularly terrible stretch of holes that somehow included 7 bunker shots from 4 different bunkers. Despite these 2 pitiful holes there was no swearing (at least audibly), and more importantly, no throwing of clubs…

I forgot to mention in Sunday’s post that Luc won our match, so once again dinner was on me. The result didn’t change at Troy Burne for day three but at least the match was much closer. Luc, in his infinite kindness, tried to bridge the subject of offering me more strokes to level the playing field without trying to offend. In my complete stubbornness, I’m refusing to take any more strokes. Luc is already giving me a stroke a hole, as he was the #1 seed on the college golf team at Pomona and at that point I had never even played a round of golf but more than a stroke a hole seems ridiculous. In addition to my stroke a hole, Luc also played from the way back tees called the tips and I play from the middle tees.

Among the many quality holes on this course two holes really stuck out. #2 is a difficult but fair par 4 that was visually stunning. Water runs along the left side of the hole and there are large bunkers littering the right rough. The hole is long, playing 7100 yards from the Lehman (back) tees. With about 40 yards remaining, the hole doglegs left with water jutting out to necessitate carry to reach the green in two (or in the case of my golf game, in three…)

#10 – Number ten was another fantastic and memorable hole. It features a sharp, 90+ degree left turn around water. There is also a large waste bunker separating the fairway from the water. I hit my drive really well but predictably, sliced it left and despite having an ample landing area, managed to put my tee shot into the bunker. This image above right shows where you don’t want to be on this hole.

Troy Burne was in fantastic shape and the greens were lightning fast, making the ball trickle forever, at times much to our chagrin. It was also an extremely windy day which made the already difficult course almost excruciatingly so. The course was pristine and every detail was well thought out. The creative layout even included a covered tunnel during the drive between two holes that coincided with a gurgling creek also running under the tunnel.

















We finished 18 holes at 6:00pm, looked at each other and decided we hadn’t played enough golf so played the front nine again. 4 days, 81 holes of golf, 8 states and still having fun!

Sunday - Montana to North Dakota

Hi everyone! We just crossed the 2,000 mile mark on our journey. We’ll post two updates this morning covering the last couple days. Sunday started in Montana and after a 5.5 hour drive we finally reached Hawktree Golf Club in Bismarck North Dakota. The two of us both suffered on Sunday from sub-par attitudes on the course that definitely fed off each other and spiraled downward throughout the round. More on this later, but we spent a few hours of Monday’s drive creating strategies to ensure this didn’t happen again.



One random North Dakota moment before getting to Luc’s review of the course itself. As we arrived outside a Jamestown, North Dakota restaurant there was a guy that started a conversation with us. He was maybe in his early sixties and it was immediately obvious that he was a genuinely nice guy. We chatted for a couple minutes about our trip and then came a question neither of us were expecting. “Are you two fellas church-going folks?” Um, I’m sorry, we were just talking golf and driving – where did THAT come from?? We didn’t say that, instead I answered that actually I was jewish and Luc said something about being raised Quaker. We then got the “I have a jewish neighbor” line and something about knowing a nice guy who was head of the university that was a quaker. He then reassuringly told us, “as long as you believe in the man upstairs, it’s all a good thing.” Um, thanks… In retrospect, we wished we had answered, “no, we’re atheists” just to see his reaction. He might have had a heart attack right on the spot so maybe it’s better we didn’t. Ok, onto the course review.

Hawktree Sunday August 23, 2009
Hawktree is an American resort-style course, designed for recreational golf. It is perfectly manicured, boasting lush fairways, rough, and greens. The clubhouse is beautiful with panoramic views overlooking much of the back nine. There’s a comprehensive practice facility with grass tees, a short game area, and two putting greens. This is the type of course that anywhere near a coast might cost double the $65 green fee.

Hawktree is designed with long distances between greens and tees, demanding that players rent golf carts (equipped with GPS systems that track your every move, shut down when you enter any marginally restricted part of the course, and advertise McDonald’s as you wait between shots). There are no water fountains or coolers on the course, just a cart girl selling drinks and a bin with bottled water halfway through the front and back nines.

It is frustrating that more and more courses are being designed to prohibit walking eighteen holes, usually explicitly by rule, or as in the case of Hawktree, by the practical constraints of design. It's ironic that the one time a high profile-golfer had an actual physical need for the use of a cart, Casey Martin, the American golf establishment pushed back arguing that walking is an essential part of competitive golf. I'd guess that well over 50% of high-end American golf now courses require cart rentals.

The holes themselves are mostly phenomenal, challenging yet fair. The rough and black sand bunkers are consistent, downgrading the role of luck when recovering from an errant shot. The greens are large and undulating, with full-grown grass allowing them to roll fast and consistently, without being hampered by dry spots that plague so many greens late in the summer.





















Best holes:
#4 A par four that turns slightly right to left around a long pond, #4 has a large tree on the left side of the fairway and a large two-tiered green that runs right/left, rather than back/front. The tree is large and shouldn’t affect a well-struck tee shot, but it provides a visual frame for shooting up the right side, safely away from the pond.
#10 The back nine starts with this reachable downhill par five. #10 turns right with a water-protected green that has a ridge dividing it into two distinct sections. With an elevated tee and a snake-like fairway, longer players are forced to keep driver in the bag and carefully place a ball about 240 yards from the green. While shallow, this back-to-front sloping green is receptive to balls carrying all the way to the putting surface. This hole is target golf at its best—punishing balls struck off line, but rewarding players who manage to hit fairway woods/hybrids consistently.

Holes that try too hard:
#3 is a short par three (150-165 yards) that runs straight downhill to a small, narrow green guarded by a deep bunker on the right side and a large tree just on the left. I’m a huge fan of challenging short par 3s that require players to hit at the middle of the green regardless of the day’s hole location. And this hole is visually stunning. The only problem: you can’t see any of it from the back tees! The architect neglected one of the basic conventions of course design–while individual holes should be distinct and have their own personalities, every one should start the same way: a flat tee box and a line of sight. #7 is a par five with the same line of sight problem. Teeing off without seeing any of these of these two holes is made particularly daunting by the fact that there are no distinctive landmarks on the horizon to aid alignment.

Waterskiing attempts, 500 miles driven, 2 ugly rounds at 1 amazingly beautiful course

Wow, lots of driving today – but great day. Day started at 6:15 when Mrs. Wroe took us out on the lake to go waterskiing (or at least try to…). We met her friend Ken at the lake and had a blast. I was first into the water and tried to wakeboard and then waterski– I was absolutely terrible! I managed to fill my nose and ear with water each time I fell and even turn my ankle the one time I kinda got out of the water.

Luc was up next and fared a whole lot better, at least in regards to getting out of the water (more on his back injury later). The first couple times he fell as he tried to get up but the third time he stood up on the skis and actually stayed on for awhile!

I was super impressed with him, at least until we saw how it’s supposed to look when Ken took a turn on the way back to dock.

Next was a cool coffee shop and then onto Montana, about a four hour drive to get to Old Works Golf Course. We’d been amped about playing this course since seeing the writeup in Golf Digest calling it a top 100 course and the #1 value out of the top 100. Also, Matty Nelson had played it and raved about it.

As we got out of the car we weren’t in the best of shape. As Luc stood up for the first time in 4 hours his back tightened up and my right ear was still full of water and popping painfully at the mile-high altitude (both symptoms directly related to our relative success at waterskiing – my ailment had to do with falling and his had to do with staying upright). Luc took a bunch of aspirin and Nina consulted from 2500 miles away to fix my ear.

After taking care of our injuries, we noticed people arriving for a wedding next to the clubhouse. I came to the conclusion that Montana is a lot more casual and chill then the northeast since the groomsmen were all wearing white polos and not sweating their butts off in suits or tuxedos. Seeing the reception was a cool and different view during lunch. After the reception the bride and groom were taking pictures near the fourth teebox. Not every day that this is the background to a teeshot.

The course is beautiful, both for its conditions and the panoramic views in every direction. Its signature feature is the jet black sand in all the bunkers. This comes from the slag that was originally produced at the mill that existed on this site. Check out this picture, the interesting part is not me in the bunker, anyone who plays with me knows that isn’t rare at all but check out the sand and the background!

The scenery is unreal!!! I’m a little ashamed that this natural wonder reminded me a little of Big Thunder Mountain as Disney and not the other way around but oh well… Here’s a couple more pictures of the backdrop for this spectacular course. 9, 8, 11, 13, 12, 14.

Neither of us played well, but looking around at the amazing backdrop was a great reminder to stay calm (it worked for the most part… ;-) )

Luc won today’s match in a landslide, I paid for dinner but lucked out that we had another 230 miles to drive so dinner was just Wendy’s drive through – I got off cheap on this one…

Lastly, both Luc and I have been pleasantly surprised by my relative ease driving a stick shift. It helps that I haven’t had to park on any hills but overall is has been pretty smooth. Definitely a couple of stall outs coming out of traffic but no harm done so far.

MGM's Portland experience

Portland is sweet! It reminds me a little of Berkeley with it's hippie roots, environmentally friendly feel and lots of local shops. I spent the morning at Adidas' US headquarters. Thanks to JR for showing me around! Adidas had a sweet setup, funky architecture, and a real cool vibe.











Next we went to lunch, and I had by far the best wings of my life. This place was unreal!! It's called Fire on the Mountain. Let me put it this way, I really don't cook but after the meal I was so impressed that I went back in and bought two bottles of their sauces in different flavors. Fire on the Mountain now sells their sauce locally in Whole Foods. Selfishly speaking, this needs to get to the east coast!! I gotta email them and see if they'll ship to Boston.

On the road now to Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. 390 miles door to door. This part of the drive is beautiful! We're driving along the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge. At one point there was 50+ kitesurfers in the water, and they were seriously moving! Right now Luc's speeding a little, on the phone with Matty Nelson, and we just passed a cop... It's ok though, the cop was too busy with whomever he already pulled over to bother us. Matty suggests the Porkchop Sandwich tomorrow for lunch in Montana. We're in!! That's it for now. Talk to y'all tomorrow

random and unrelated thoughts

Jetblue is by far the best airline. I watched espn all the way to nyc for my connection and now am chilling on a cushion charging my computer and using the free wifi in their terminal.

Question of the day, multiple choice, which crime gets the longest jail sentence:
a. Mike Vick - Dogfighting ring and animal cruelty
b. Donte Stallworth - DUI manslaughter
c. Plaxico Buress - Accidentally shooting himself in leg
Answer C: C'MON NOW - THAT'S OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM?????

Thanks for following everyone!! I leave tonight to fly to portland and i'm starting to think that maybe i should have spent more than 10 mins learning to drive a stick-shift since Luc's car is a stick... Oh well, nothing i can do now - he works tomorrow so i can practice a little then without him in the car to cringe when i stall out or grind the gears... Other drivers beware!!
-mgm

Cross Country Golf Excursion

8 days
2900 miles
126 holes of golf

This blog tells the stories of a journey across the country from Portland, OR back to the East Coast. First, here is some background on the two writers. Luc Schuster is on the Cambridge School Committee and is a student at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Matt Meyersohn works for the Boston Celtics in Community Relations and Player Development. Luc spent the summer in Portland doing an internship and has his car with him. At a Red Sox game before he left, he somehow convinced Matt to fly to Portland at the end of the summer and drive cross country back to Boston with him. In order to get Matt to agree to the trip, Luc suggested playing golf each day along the trip (most of Matt's friends/family think he's completely nuts, except for the golfers - they understand!). We had time constraints on both ends so needed to do the trip in 7 days. Luc's last day of his internship is Friday, August 21st and Matt needs to be at a rehearsal dinner (not for his wedding) in New York City at 6pm on Friday the 28th. The following is a description of their adventure.

8 days
2900 miles
126 holes of golf at top public courses across the country

1. Sat - Anaconda, MT – Old Works - oldworks.org

2. Sun – Bismarck, ND – Hawktree - hawktree.com

3. Mon – Hudson, WI – Troy Burne - troyburne.com

4. Tue – Chicago, IL – Cantigny - cantignygolf.com

5. Wed – Cleveland, OH – Fowlers Mill - www.fowlersmillgc.com

6. Thur – Poconos, PA – Shawnee Inn - http://www.shawneeinn.com/