I think I would have the same backyard as Dave Pelz if I won the lottery. His backyard practice facility is just ridiculous. He’s replicated a number of famous greens including the island 17th from TPC Sawgrass. My first thought was that he must have an insane water and lawn care bill each month. But don’t worry, the greens are made of SynLawn synthetic turf and consequently don’t have to be watered or mowed, providing a perfect low-maintenance practice area year round.
One of the things I liked most about playing golf over in Scotland was that even though the courses are famous all over the world, they haven’t been turned into ultra-touristy golf theme parks. Don’t get me wrong. You can certainly go into the pro shops of any of these courses and pay out the nose for a crappy hat or ball marker with the club logo on it. But for the most part, the focus remains on the golf and golfing experience, not in squeezing every last penny out of you. Either that, or I’m a sucker for getting every last penny squeezed out of my wallet.
One thing to keep in mind when visiting over there is managing the expectations you have for what constitutes a “good” golf course. Here in America we tend to equate super green grass and well manicured fairways and rough as a sign that a golf course is nice. We also look for some kind of “signature” element that stands out, such as a waterfall in the middle of a pond on the course. If these are your ideas of a great course, you would think a place such as St. Andrews is ugly. The beauty of a real golf course lays in the design of a course, in the way that a course seems to naturally blend into the the land on which it sits. [click to continue…]
Got to love #1. I bet Adidas loved that.
Dustin Johnson almost took out the camera guy on top of the tower today at the WGC event in Doral. If that guy wasn’t paying attention before, he is now.
Since Derek has been too busy making hole-in-ones on par 4s (no doubt using this ball), there’s been some downtime here at 72stokes. I figured this would be the perfect time to recount my golf trip to Scotland last fall. I wanted to recount the experience while it was still fresh, and I remember every detail as if the trip had happened over six months ago.
In late August, I left on a Friday morning and finally made it into Edinburgh, Scotland about mid-morning on Saturday. In another post I’ll get into the mistakes I made travelling and what I could have done to save time and money. But let’s just say that leaving Raleigh, NC at 7 a.m. on one day and not getting to your destination until 1030 a.m. the next morning is a bit tiring.
