“For some people, golf courses were a place to make pars or cultivate friendships, but for others, they were cover. Fairways were just a sipping safe space for a drunk like me.”
Essay: Bribery, Lies and Other Recommended Parenting Strategies
On doing whatever it takes to pass along the love of the game
“It’s not that I expect my kids to get into golf. It’s certainly not that I need them to be good at the game. It’s just that I want it.”
The Ballad of Ray Ray Whitley
Lessons In survival, putting and hope, delivered by a video-game golfer In basketball shorts
“Missing the cut at the Masters pales in comparison to the pain of his third marriage dissolving in one very bad weekend in Biloxi, Mississippi. Golf at its worst cannot hurt Ray Ray Whitley more than life already has.”
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“They asked me what to do,” says Chessum. “I said, ‘I don’t know, fuck about?’ So they started hitting fruit with golf clubs.”
One Trip To Rule Them All
For a weary world traveler, an unexpected adventure on King Island was a life-altering revelation
“I stood on the green, taking it all in, wondering if I could talk them into letting me play until the sun went down.”
Life in the Front Row
The shock wasn’t in solving this Masters mystery; it was in discovering the remarkable golf life it unearthed
“Like it did for Chazz Palminteri in the closing scenes of The Usual Suspects, everything suddenly came into focus: I had seen this man too. Many times. Over many years. In so many galleries.”
“You see, after the round, when someone asks what I shot, I can’t simply say “81” or “85.” That won’t tell the story. People need more context. I need to give them the But.”
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The Grandes Dames of the Himalayas
Age be damned: The St. Andrews Ladies’ Putting Club is still thriving
“The club remains a collection of the young at heart, a bastion of female friendship and competitive spirit.”
“Perhaps the greatest testament to Maxwell’s work at Southern Hills is that it’s been left mostly alone. Of the original 18 greens, 17 remain in their birthplace.”
“It was 55 feet down the hill, down the tier, and, as it got about 4 feet away, I thought it was dead center. I turned around, raised my arms…and never heard a roar.”
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An Imperfect Step Forward
The search for Joseph Bartholomew’s lost course turns into a lesson on the beauty of silver linings
“Bartholomew was no fool: He and his peers knew that city officials were allowing Pontchartrain Park only because it might forestall full integration….But Bartholomew saw it as progress. It was better than nothing.”
Before the Flight
Traveling with Payne Stewart in his contented, but still contentious, final days
“The man on the dais had been taking inventory since the end of the Ryder Cup. He’d recently told friends that if he died now he’d be at peace.”
“Somehow, the ball reemerged after a 270-degree horseshoe and was rudely deposited 3 inches back toward me. I was floored. Disbelief, denial, bargaining, guilt, anger and sadness all followed in short order.”
