The Best In Golf

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.

You get the feeling in the cozy grill room, where an Arnie sighting is not just common but almost guaranteed, that they’ve done just that.

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.

Sometimes the Best In Golf is a person, and this week is just such a case.

I have a friend more valuable to me than my Ping Zing who sells ad space with me out in LA, and no that’s not Lower Alabama for my Southern readers.

His name is Bruce Taylor and although he’s a good Cleveland kid, he’s been out with the palm trees so long that his idea of a great meal is a tofu burger hold the sprouts, and a nice cold Life Water, whatever that is.

There are legends in our business and Brucie is one of ‘em. He’s sold more gatefolds and waved more bleed charges than you’ve had hot showers…Wait, I’m having a vision…I can see him now in the men’s grill at Wilshire Cee Cee in about 20 years or so.

He’ll be over at his regular corner table holding court, a la Hogan at Shady Oaks, having a little nap now and again. But it will be different, really different.

Unlike The Hawk, Brucie won’t be on his 3rd double Dewers and 6th Chesterfield before a rare New York strip, baked loaded, wrapped up with a big piece of cherry pie.

No, he’ll be swillin’ a Sobe’, Mango Rush would be my guess, telling tales of the day. Just then a young web-based media salesman will come in, look over, and say to his host “Is that Bruce Taylor? My Dad used to compete against him in the 80’s and 90’s, said he was the toughest strikeout in the game.”

“That’s him alright”, says the host, “go over and talk to him…he’ll probably snap your head off when you wake him up and if he screams ‘what, can’t you read a rate card??!!!’ or ‘I’ ve got your multi-platform, integrated solution right here’ don’t let it bother you…he’s harmless enough.”

“And make sure and ask him to tell you about how he won the ‘07 Sr. Club Championship…every version includes an extra birdie or two but he loves to tell the story of how today’s player could never contend with the antiquated equipment he used like the 500 cc driver (custom fit of course), only four hybrids, and a 68 degree lob wedge…no sir.”

He’ll tell you how he brought The Valley to it’s knees but will be more proud of his family and the HR his kid hit in the 8th.

Best In Golf? Oh Yeah.