Last week I did something you need to do.
Blair and I were guests of Golf Digest for the US Open. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and headed for Oakmont. The majesty of this golf course is well chronicled…and should be.
What a sight this monster is from the top of the hill looking down on numbers 2, 3, and 4.
Unfortunately the skies opened up as soon as we acquired our first cocktail so we were forced to sit in the air conditioned open bar for a couple of hours before it cleared…brutal I know.
We had a great couple of days hanging with our buds Meg, Jen, Tom, and Jim.
Our hospitality passes were waaaaaay too good for us to see much of the golf course Friday. We did amble out into the mayhem at about 2:00 but once we hit the wall of true golf fans, we made a hasty retreat back to the safety of the tent and it’s 100 TVs…”Sea Breeze here please”
But the indisputable highlight of the trip was a round at Latrobe CC complete with a King sighting.
As all Best In Golf readers know Arnold Palmer grew up on these fairways and greens…and mowed both I’m sure.
The sense of history for a golf fan is as strong as the 11th at Charleston CC. I’ll probably need a few more shots at it before I could play AP…he knows the course pretty well.
We were welcomed by Jerry Palmer (pictured) with a warm smile and firm handshake telling us how happy he was we were there…was he kidding?
It was obvious from his likeness to his brother as well as his friendly, unforced, known you for years demeanor that this was a man educated by the same Dad as The King himself.
I didn’t expect much of the golf course. After all this is a working man’s club where the local dry cleaner, car dealer, and podiatrist throw in 10 bucks on Saturday morning and play for it…dollar trash, two dollar birdies…not a fancy place.
But what followed was a really good, borderline better than that, mountain course with big elevation changes, old trees, and enough Rolling Rock at the halfway house for the entire town to
come knock back a couple.
come knock back a couple. You get the feeling in the cozy grill room where an Arnie sighting is not just common but almost guaranteed…that they have many times.
That day Tim Finchem and a bunch of very important looking cats were enjoying their grill cheeses at what must have been his regular table. What was discussed? Who knows but it looked awfully social.
We just sipped our Bloody Marys and stared…or Blair stared, I didn’t.
Latrobe CC is a throwback, the fact Arnold Palmer learned to play here and still lives across the street is a bonus.
Get there if you can for a Best in Golf day.
Advertisement
