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Erin Hills golf course in Wisconsin with Holy Hill Basilica in the distance
From the Wall Street Journal:
He Brought the U.S. Open to a Cow Pasture. All It Cost Was His Fortune.
Bob Lang says he spent $26 million to build Erin Hills, but has little left
By Brian CostaDELAFIELD, Wisc.—Fifteen miles south of Erin Hills, where the U.S. Open begins on Thursday, Bob Lang sits in an office surrounded by mementos from the golf course he built. There are early design drawings, the original clubhouse cornerstone, a framed photo on one wall and, on a recent morning, two enlarged landscape photos spread across the wooden floor.
They are remnants of one of the most improbable tales in golf history: How a little-known Wisconsin businessman with only a passing interest in the sport turned a rural cow pasture into the site of America’s national championship.
Not commemorated here is where his pursuit of the U.S. Open has left him: without the golf course, without millions of dollars he poured into it and, at age 72, on a self-described quest for financial solvency.
“I don’t have any money anymore,” he said.
After buying the bulk of the land in 2001, Lang built and operated Erin Hills with a manic zeal that blinded him to the magnitude of his costs, which had two effects. It brought the U.S. Open to Wisconsin for the first time ever. And it put him so deep in debt that he ended up selling his calendar publishing company, his commercial real estate holdings and finally Erin Hills itself in 2009. …
Lang invested $26 million in his course and sold it for $10 million, leaving him broke at age 72. The buyer, Andy Ziegler, generously keeps him on salary as a consultant so he can enjoy a dignified old age.
After buying a two-year option to purchase the property, he attended the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and had an audacious thought: Take this course away from the Pacific Ocean and Erin Hills, with its glacial dunes and rolling fields, is a better site for golf. It was the seed for the idea that would consume him.
Okay, but Pebble has ten holes on the rocky Pacific coastline, while Erin Hills is an inland course that happens to have Scottish-style sand dunes left over from the glaciers. Elite tastes in golf course architecture today favor raw-looking Scottish-style linksland courses, but the general golfing public isn’t as convinced that the old tree-lined American courses were so bad.
For example, in 2014 the USGA put on a bizarre U.S. Open at Pinehurst by tearing out sprinklers so that half of the fairways were brown rather than green. As the voice of unrefined common sense, Donald Trump, who has been pursuing a U.S. Open for his best course at Bedminster, NJ, alienated the USGA by tweeting the average golfer’s reaction: green is better than brown for golf courses, so what in the world was the USGA thinking?
Strikingly, a friend of mine, the founder of the market research company in Chicago where I worked for about 15 years, like Lang also built a golf course in exurban Milwaukee’s Kettle Moraine geological area of interesting Ice Age topography. He got started in the mid-1990s, almost a decade before Lang did. And he built houses around the periphery of his course, so he made most of his money off real estate sales, unlike Lang, who bought an entire square mile of land so that he could tear down pre-existing houses on the fringe of his course to improve the isolation of his precious.
And my old boss had his course designed in a less radically Scottish look than Erin Hills, so that his course looks like a cross between a traditional tree-lined American country club course and a treeless billowing Scottish links. Erin Hills is the greater course, but it reflects the elite tastes of 21st Century golf design, which can be offputting to American golfers.
My boss’s course was the first new real estate development course in the greater Milwaukee area to open since the 1970s, so he tapped into some unmet demand, e.g., selling a house on the course to a star Green Bay Packer (not Brett Favre, but a name you’d remember). He opened the course around 1996 when there were still several years to go during the 1990s golf boom, whereas Erin Hills didn’t open until after the collapse of golf as a business around 9/11 caused by Baby Boomers aging out of their Golf Years (golf appeals most to men in their thirties, I would say, not to older men as many assume) and by the oversupply of quality golf courses built in the 1990s by golf-loving businessmen like Lang, my old boss, and Trump.
Nonetheless, my old boss’s road to breakeven was longer than he’d hoped. Like Lang, he sold his course in the recession year of 2009. I presume he did much better than Lang did because his course was a more sensible compromise between greatness and economic prudence.
Nonetheless, this kind of history suggests that Donald Trump isn’t as broke as Hillary repeatedly implied: Trump aggressively bought expensive golf courses in the teeth of the golf recession and has held onto his purchases.
To some extent, this is because Trump smartly targeted places with lots of the One Percent, such as Greater New York, Palm Beach in Florida, Washington DC, Los Angeles, and Dubai, while avoiding Rust Belt states like Wisconsin.
Trump hasn’t gotten a men’s U.S. Open, but he will host the ladies’ U.S. Open at Bedminster in July and in 2022 will get his first men’s major championship, the PGA, at Bedminister.
To the right is the new 9th green at Trump Turnberry in Scotland, with the famous lighthouse where the owner might have been advised to live in exile if Hillary had won.
A big question is whether the Royal & Ancient golf club will choose Trump Turnberry to host a future men’s British Open. With the improvements the Trump Organization has paid for over the last couple of years, Turnberry is now by far the most spectacular, indeed Pebble Beach-like, of the limited number of traditional British Open courses.
But will the R&A boycott Turnberry because it bears Trump’s name?
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My friend and his wife just returned from 12 days in Scotland. He played one round at both St. Andrew’s and Dornach. He was happy that he played at St. Andrew’s, because of the history, but the course was lacking in the lush that Yankee golfers have come to prefer. The Open a few years ago at the course where the freight train ran by frequently was an unusual course. Forgot it’s name.
Pittsburgh has an open-air concert venue at Station Square where the trains run right behind the stage, with the river behind them. Lends the perfect atmosphere for rock & blues concerts.Replies: @Buffalo Joe
Royal Troon in Scotland or Royal Lytham in England?
Or Chambers Bay near Tacoma, WA?
Most British Open courses are near railway lines since most date back to before the automobile age, so they needed to be near a railway for customers to get to them conveniently.Replies: @Buffalo Joe
The longest major league home run was measured at 46 miles. It fell into an open coal car running past the Braves' park in Boston, and didn't stop until it reached Providence.
The park the Saint Paul Saints used for the past quarter century had a BNSF line just beyond the left field fence, but I don't think anyone hit a train in those years. Their new park is near the renovated Union Station, but I think the nearest tracks are in foul territory. Too bad-- I'd love to see Amtrak carry one 1600 mi to, well… Chambers Bay.Replies: @Steve Sailer
” [W]hich can be offputting to American[s].”
Now if there was some way to transmit consequences like this to architects of other things that Americans don’t want …
The economics of golf are out of whack.
All of the new courses are 7500 yard behemoths that are not fun for the average player with $100 plus green fees. Shorter, less punishing and most importantly less expensive courses is the only way for golf to grow.
Johnny Morris of Bass Pro Shops is attempting to turn Branson, MO into a golf destination, but it appears to be more a labor of love than an effort make a buck. Hopefully, it will work as golf is dying.
There are probably some tweaks that could be applied to hazards and out of bounds as well.Replies: @Chase
And it wasn't busy at all. On top of that, they're having lots of trouble selling home sites.
The problem with Branson and golf is that your mind doesn't default to upper class activities and upper middle class activities when someone says "Branson."
Golf seems to have the same problem as housing and vacation resorts. The low end seems to have all but been abandoned as they chase after the more profitable high end niches.Replies: @Steve Sailer, @The Last Real Calvinist
However, that being said, even on less pricey courses, golfers themselves deserve a lot of the blame for making a course too hard/long. If they chose the correct tee box for their hitting length, golf would both enjoy the game more and speed thing up.
On the rare occasions that I play, my friends are pretty big hitters by weekend hack standards driving around 240+. Yeah, yeah, I realize that everyone claims to drive that and more, but looking around on any given weekend, I can tell you that the vast majority of guys are just like me, i.e. driving around 200 yards, maybe 210-220 on a very good hit. I always tell my friends that I should be playing from the Gold tees instead of the white. Well, you'd think that I just admitted to be a tranny. Unacceptable, they say. They'd rather give me 50 strokes and lose every round than let me play the gold tee box.
Most weekend golfers should be playing the gold and, maybe, the red tees.
Someone once said that on a normal par four, if you hit a solid drive, you should be hitting a 7-iron or higher into the green, so play the tee box that gives you that opportunity. If I'm standing a 375-yard par four and I hit my 7-iron ~140 yards, there almost zero chance that I'll ever be in that situation. On a solid drive, I'll be 165 yards out, hitting a 4 hybrid or 7 wood into the green. What are the odds that I'll make it on the green. Basically, if I hit two very solid shots in a row (and that doesn't happen too often), I'll likely still not be on the green.
Sadly, this is the situation for most weekend golfers. But because of the mentality, no one does what they should do and change tee boxes.Replies: @The preferred nomenclature is..., @prosa123
Chambers Bay.
Pittsburgh has an open-air concert venue at Station Square where the trains run right behind the stage, with the river behind them. Lends the perfect atmosphere for rock & blues concerts.
See, I’ve loved that Scottish links look ever since I was a boy. I guess I must have been an elite child.
Anyway, one of my favorite childhood memories is of a hike with my father in 1977 when I was 12. We drove up to Kettle Moraine State Forest from our home in the western suburbs of Chicago on a glorious fall holiday–Columbus Day, maybe?–and tramped around for hours. It really is beautiful up there.
“After buying the bulk of the land in 2001, Lang built and operated Erin Hills with a manic zeal that blinded him to the magnitude of his costs, which had two effects. It brought the U.S. Open to Wisconsin for the first time ever. And it put him so deep in debt that he ended up selling his calendar publishing company, his commercial real estate holdings and finally Erin Hills itself in 2009.” — Brian Costa
Commercial Real Estate Bubble Soon To Pop
Commercial real estate is going to collapse soon. Golf courses are commercial real estate that could also be residential real estate. I don’t know if President Trump’s Bedminster golf course has a residential component. There may be 5-acre or more zoning laws in Bedminster to stop unpleasant sprawl.
The collapse of commercial real estate prices during the last economic implosion in 2007-2009 was bad enough that the Federal Reserve Bank had to bail out many of the corporations that invested in it. The next asset bubble implosion is on its way, and this time I hope the Federal Reserve Bank allows the market to clear without intervening. Many investors won’t like the price discovery that is coming.
All of the new courses are 7500 yard behemoths that are not fun for the average player with $100 plus green fees. Shorter, less punishing and most importantly less expensive courses is the only way for golf to grow.
Johnny Morris of Bass Pro Shops is attempting to turn Branson, MO into a golf destination, but it appears to be more a labor of love than an effort make a buck. Hopefully, it will work as golf is dying.Replies: @The Anti-Gnostic, @Chase, @countenance, @AM, @Citizen of a Silly Country
My priceless outside consulting advice to the golf industry and governing bodies: standard 12-hole round.
There are probably some tweaks that could be applied to hazards and out of bounds as well.
Commercial Real Estate Bubble Soon To Pop
Commercial real estate is going to collapse soon. Golf courses are commercial real estate that could also be residential real estate. I don't know if President Trump's Bedminster golf course has a residential component. There may be 5-acre or more zoning laws in Bedminster to stop unpleasant sprawl.
The collapse of commercial real estate prices during the last economic implosion in 2007-2009 was bad enough that the Federal Reserve Bank had to bail out many of the corporations that invested in it. The next asset bubble implosion is on its way, and this time I hope the Federal Reserve Bank allows the market to clear without intervening. Many investors won't like the price discovery that is coming.Replies: @The Anti-Gnostic, @Alec Leamas
The looming price discovery in sovereign and subordinate government debt is going to leave a mark as well.
All of the new courses are 7500 yard behemoths that are not fun for the average player with $100 plus green fees. Shorter, less punishing and most importantly less expensive courses is the only way for golf to grow.
Johnny Morris of Bass Pro Shops is attempting to turn Branson, MO into a golf destination, but it appears to be more a labor of love than an effort make a buck. Hopefully, it will work as golf is dying.Replies: @The Anti-Gnostic, @Chase, @countenance, @AM, @Citizen of a Silly Country
“Elite tastes in golf course architecture today favor raw-looking Scottish-style linksland courses, but the general golfing public isn’t as convinced that the old tree-lined American courses were so bad.”
Count me as one of those who don’t think tree-lined courses are so bad. I grew up playing on a Denver-area country club like that since I was three. Firestone Country Club is very high on my bucket list relative to where it ranks on the official rankings because it is such a classic “country club”-type course.
“All of the new courses are 7500 yard behemoths that are not fun for the average player with $100 plus green fees. Shorter, less punishing and most importantly less expensive courses is the only way for golf to grow.”
Once you get to about a five handicap or so, the quality of golf (and the correlation between distance and overall golf skill is very high) shoots up exponentially. My friend’s father plays Augusta annually and said that my friend (0.7 USGA handicap index) would struggle to break 100 in tournament conditions. That makes hosting a professional event really difficult to balance with a golf course that is enjoyable for 99% of players.
They are getting better at adding more tee boxes to each hole, but that’s a rather new concept; most older courses have three or maybe four sets of tees. And the courses were never designed to have shorter holes anyway, so there are downstream effects in trying to update it. The longer it goes on, the more convinced I am that the pros should play with low-flight golf balls to prevent the 8,000-yards course designs that are becoming mandatory to host major events, locking out classic, historic courses like Cherry Hills Country Club near me, where Arnold Palmer hit one of the most famous golf shots ever.
I'm agreed that pros should simply change equipment rather than change the courses for them. The modern courses look beautiful on TV, but the reality is as you state. It takes a very high skill level to have modern courses be much fun. It shuts out 90% (or more) of golfers, even if they are serious enough to know what their handicap is and maybe even take lessons. ;)Replies: @Reg Cæsar
Golf as a pastime is declining. Number of new golfers is not matching those who have stopped playing. There are a number of reasons for this (including demographics – Tiger Woods did not inspire many Blacks to pick up a club as was hoped 20 yeas ago) but surveys sow the biggest complaints are that a game takes to long to play and is too difficult. I blame course developers, who in the last 30 years have made courses that look great but are too long and too hard for average golfers.
My favorite local course was built in the 1950’s, the fairways are wide, straight and flat, lined with trees. It’s a joy to play. A colleague has a membership at a a nationally ranked course built in the early 1990s, in the links style, with hilly fairways lined with fescue. It looks great but on at least half the holes you can’t see the green from the tee box or even where your ball lands, so you’re hitting blind. The result is that a incredible amount of time is wasted looking for balls. Yet this is the type of course the golfing establishment has forced on players. And they wonder why participation is declining.
Whoever thought that watched too much Bill Cosby Show and didn't read enough of The Bell Curve.
Yes, that is a thing.
http://www.millennialmarketing.com/2014/07/what-golf-can-learn-from-millennial-runners/
There are probably some tweaks that could be applied to hazards and out of bounds as well.Replies: @Chase
I’ve always felt that there are two lengths of golf that are perfect: 12 holes and 15 holess. Much better than the standard 9 and 18.
That’s Royal Dornach, Buffalo. A designation bestowed by the Crown. Believed to be the second oldest place where golf was played. Some fabulous history there. Andrew Carnegie was a long time member. Stayed there, but didn’t get to play the course due to an end-of-season, assistant pro tournament. Played at Tain instead–the local course for the “Sixteen men of Tain” who “perfected” Glenmorangie single malt scotch whiskey.
Right. Nine is not long enough, while 18 is too long. A 36 hole complex could be converted into three twelve hole courses.
An interesting difference between Trump and Obama as Presidential golfers is that Trump routinely knocks off partway through a round, such as playing 5 holes in an hour or 75 minutes, to get back to business, while Obama appears to have been religious about finishing 18 holes or at least 9, perhaps because he was highly concerned about submitting his score for handicapping purposes so that he could lower his handicap. Also, Trump likes to play with important people he needs to wheedle, while Obama preferred to play with nonentities, like his body man Marvin Nicholson’s even more obscure brother.
Golf could use a technology breakthrough that would make it quicker to find your golf ball. I don’t know how to do it, but it doesn’t seem impossible to build some kind of system where electronics would help you easily find your ball.
https://topgolf.com/us/alpharetta
A driving range with targets, and chip tech that tracks your ball and tallies your score as you hit the targets. It's a lot of fun--like combining golf with bowling.Replies: @Anonymous
New courses in this century are usually built with very wide fairways to allow you to blast away off the tee with your high tech driver. The later 20th Century trend that began with Pete Dye’s Harbour Town in 1968 of saving money on real estate by building narrow fairways where you couldn’t risk hitting driver on many holes is now out of fashion. But, of course, wide fairways for hitting driver are expensive and in turn they play into the need for longer courses, making the real estate costs even higher.
“The Open a few years ago at the course where the freight train ran by frequently was an unusual course.”
Royal Troon in Scotland or Royal Lytham in England?
Or Chambers Bay near Tacoma, WA?
Most British Open courses are near railway lines since most date back to before the automobile age, so they needed to be near a railway for customers to get to them conveniently.
Donald Ross, the busiest Scottish-American golf course architect before WWII (e.g., Pinehurst) grew up at Dornoch where he was a club pro.
I am firmly in the Modernist tree removal set. The inputs to maintain grass under trees are very expensive nowadays.
From everything I have heard about Erin Hills it holds no allure to me. A very, very difficult walk. High greens fee.
Lawsonia Links in semi nearby Green Lake is supposed to be great. I did play to new Mike Kaiser/ Coore and Crenshaw course on preview last summer at Sand Valley. It is stunning, playable and fun. Look it up, a bunch of sand dunes in northwest Wisconsin.
Commercial Real Estate Bubble Soon To Pop
Commercial real estate is going to collapse soon. Golf courses are commercial real estate that could also be residential real estate. I don't know if President Trump's Bedminster golf course has a residential component. There may be 5-acre or more zoning laws in Bedminster to stop unpleasant sprawl.
The collapse of commercial real estate prices during the last economic implosion in 2007-2009 was bad enough that the Federal Reserve Bank had to bail out many of the corporations that invested in it. The next asset bubble implosion is on its way, and this time I hope the Federal Reserve Bank allows the market to clear without intervening. Many investors won't like the price discovery that is coming.Replies: @The Anti-Gnostic, @Alec Leamas
Private Golf Clubs are more like fractional ownership agreements than proper Commercial Real Estate – the Clubs’ owners are its users and customers. They don’t need tenants to pay market rates, they need Members with sufficient and stable disposable income to pay dues and use the Clubs’ amenities to cover the overhead. If they’re not over-leveraged and their Members aren’t all tied to a narrow slice of trades or businesses that will be decimated in a downturn they should be alright if they have enough Members paying dues to cover the debt service and maintenance.
There are a number of reasons for this (including demographics – Tiger Woods did not inspire many Blacks to pick up a club as was hoped 20 yeas ago)
Whoever thought that watched too much Bill Cosby Show and didn’t read enough of The Bell Curve.
Steve, thought you’d like this related story about another Steve:
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-best-part-of-being-steve-ballmer-is-the-golf-2017-6
Yes, I am green with envy.Replies: @Steve Sailer, @Lurker
Ross was the architect of my home course, which to this day still sports an all-time low score of 64 by Slammin’ Sammy Snead. May it never be broken.
Donald Ross designed my home course. He has a thing for blind tee shots (and lost balls as a result) – there are four holes that require a periscope to verify the group in front has cleared the landing area.
Unless there are too many private clubs. Then you get into consolidation etc which is already happening in some places.
All of the new courses are 7500 yard behemoths that are not fun for the average player with $100 plus green fees. Shorter, less punishing and most importantly less expensive courses is the only way for golf to grow.
Johnny Morris of Bass Pro Shops is attempting to turn Branson, MO into a golf destination, but it appears to be more a labor of love than an effort make a buck. Hopefully, it will work as golf is dying.Replies: @The Anti-Gnostic, @Chase, @countenance, @AM, @Citizen of a Silly Country
As luck would have it, I played Branson Hills on Saturday. The club formerly named for Payne Stewart.
And it wasn’t busy at all. On top of that, they’re having lots of trouble selling home sites.
The problem with Branson and golf is that your mind doesn’t default to upper class activities and upper middle class activities when someone says “Branson.”
“Demographics” meaning that middle aged Gen-Xers like me aren’t as interested in golf as middle aged Boomers. That, and X in middle age don’t have the income punch that Boomers in middle age had. I was lucky in that I got interested in golf at a time, thanks to the Great Recession and Boomers aging out of their golf years, that golf as a hobby is less expensive than it would have been had I taken it up a dozen years ago, though it’s a moot point because I didn’t have money like that a dozen years ago.
Obama probably didn’t like losing to a more capable golfer.
The combination of real estate development around a golf course is a bad idea. I played most of my golf on a handful of courses that had no visible housing. Medinah in the Western Chicago suburbs is built on a square mile. It was built by the Shriners in the 1920’s and then went through the depression under financial pressure.
Pinehurst was almost broke in the early 80’s. Boom and bust is part of golf in the US.
Length is the least interesting aspect of the game, and best left to the pros.
A core element of the game is the opportunity to wager on feats of skill. And that action is most intense around the greens.
However, a transmitter to find a golf ball. Hell yes. Someone is working on it. http://chip-ing.com/faq?language=en
All of the new courses are 7500 yard behemoths that are not fun for the average player with $100 plus green fees. Shorter, less punishing and most importantly less expensive courses is the only way for golf to grow.
Johnny Morris of Bass Pro Shops is attempting to turn Branson, MO into a golf destination, but it appears to be more a labor of love than an effort make a buck. Hopefully, it will work as golf is dying.Replies: @The Anti-Gnostic, @Chase, @countenance, @AM, @Citizen of a Silly Country
We’ve always played on the little par 3s and low end golf courses. We’re not Tiger Woods and never will be. It’s plain old more fun and low key. I’m not sure what I’d do on a $100 a day course other than think that it should come with a caddy and possibly an extra person just wipe my brow.
Golf seems to have the same problem as housing and vacation resorts. The low end seems to have all but been abandoned as they chase after the more profitable high end niches.
We’re Gen X. We can only afford golf because we’re in a place that has a fair amount of cheap courses and really wonderful little par 3 course. No way could do any of the middle to high end stuff.
That’s a great idea. It doesn’t seem like it would be that hard.
I always wanted my handicap to accurately reflect my average game. Not that I bothered with one for more than a season. But the club events were more fun when the competition was the handful of members with the same philosophy.
Golf seems to have the same problem as housing and vacation resorts. The low end seems to have all but been abandoned as they chase after the more profitable high end niches.Replies: @Steve Sailer, @The Last Real Calvinist
Golf is similar to skiing: Aspen and Whistler are doing great for high end skiers, Mammoth okay for middle of road skiers, and the low end mass market ski mountains are in big trouble.
If I mentally transport it to a rust belt state, it might be in real trouble. Makes sense.Replies: @Buffalo Joe
We play golf on a semi-regular basis as a family and we’re so causal, none of us have any idea what our handicap is. And my Dad has played for 40 years. That’s how Branson we are. *grin*
I’m agreed that pros should simply change equipment rather than change the courses for them. The modern courses look beautiful on TV, but the reality is as you state. It takes a very high skill level to have modern courses be much fun. It shuts out 90% (or more) of golfers, even if they are serious enough to know what their handicap is and maybe even take lessons. 😉
I mean, you start your kids on checkers, not3D chess.
The Cox-Rathvon grids every month in the WSJ are a prime example. It took me a year or more experience with the straight-ahead puzzles at the Financial Times before I could finish one of WSJ's, even when I'd answered all the clues. Still didn't know where to put them.
The best straightforward cryptic in the US is on the last page of The Nation. But I don't want to pay for the other 31 pages to the left of the puzzle, and way to the left of me, and you can only print six at the library before subscribing.
Our local par 3 seems to be doing OK. On the other hand, it’s in climate that can be year round, they have night play, a well designed course, and the area is growing with people who might be interested and have children.
If I mentally transport it to a rust belt state, it might be in real trouble. Makes sense.
I remember 20 years ago in Europe when everybody HAD to play golf. Every overweight balding 50-year-old in the lower-middle was doing it. It allowed them a triple LARP: that they were being healthy, that they were single, and (most importantly) that they were Somebody. I remember realizing even at that young age that if you democratize elitism, it won’t be elitism anymore and so the whole thing was self-defeating. I’m happy it’s over.
From everything I have heard about Erin Hills it holds no allure to me. A very, very difficult walk. High greens fee.
Lawsonia Links in semi nearby Green Lake is supposed to be great. I did play to new Mike Kaiser/ Coore and Crenshaw course on preview last summer at Sand Valley. It is stunning, playable and fun. Look it up, a bunch of sand dunes in northwest Wisconsin.Replies: @Steve Sailer, @Charles Erwin Wilson
Wisconsin has a bunch of the most spectacular courses of the last 30 years: Blackwolf Run, Whistling Straits, Erin Hills, Sand Valley.
That brings up a very istevey question: is Trump (who from what I have read is basically a scratch golfer) the best ever presidential golfer?
I knew Trump had Scottish ancestry, but I only learned the specifics recently. I was surprised to see his mother was from Tong in the Outer Hebrides. That’s the smaller island to the NW of the main part of Scotland. It’s pretty remote. (I had read about the area previously in an old book by dentist Weston A. Price who traveled to isolated areas in search of the people with the best teeth). Gaelic was her first language, apparently. I wouldn’t have guessed she was from such a rustic background.
She immigrated in 1930 at the age of 18. This would have been under the quota system of the 1924 immigration law.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3MzZgPBL3Q
Trump is an extremely good old golfer. He is definitely in contention for best President golfer.
FDR was his club’s champion at age 17, but polio hit as a youngish man. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and several others all got down to about a 10 handicap (i.e., shoot in the low 80s pretty regularly). But Trump is probably the only single digit handicapper, although FDR or JFK perhaps were before their various illnesses. Just before running for President, JFK, who played in secret to distinguish between himself and the publicly golf crazy Ike, almost got a hole in one on the most formidable par 3 in America, the trans-oceanic 16th at Cypress Point. He told his playing partners that if the ball had gone in, his chances of being President would have vanished in all the publicity. (At that point only Bing Crosby and one or two others had aced the 16th.)
Since Taft, the only Presidents not to play golf were Hoover, Truman, and Carter.
http://www.golfadvisor.com/articles/us-presidents-golf-14906.htm
https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/834799339121815554
Straightforward elitism being frowned upon, they’re left with mere offputtingness to distinguish themselves.
It’s past time to just go ahead and cut through the bullshit. Everyone would be better off.
Speaking of golf, question for gallery… especially the Slate Star Codex regulars:
If one does not know, personally, how to golf, can one still benevolently Tiger-Dad (Polgar Method, I prefer) a ~10 yo (ie. still prepubescent) girl to a full-ride college scholarship in a cost-effective manner (ie. always paying for lessons through the pro shop)?
My goal is not necessarily an LPGA level golfer. But a full-ride has to be worth close enough to 6 figures. And with assortative mating becoming more and more the rage, golf seems a decent choice, notwithstanding the notorious L(esbian)PGA rumors.
Additional caveat: does our Pac-NW climate preclude the type of intense, year-round practice that would be required irrespective of costs?
Other thoughts or considerations? Thx.
Many college athletes major in generic subjects that will not conflict with their athletic schedule. The degree isn't free; athletes have to work at least 20 hours a week on their sport. It makes more sense to use the money that you would have spent on golf lessons to pay college expenses and have your daughter work a paying job 20 hours a week while in college. I can't tell if your daughter is even interested in golf.
Flagships in states like Arizona, Kentucky, and Alabama tend to offer full-rides to National Merit Scholars. It would be more profitable to tiger-dad her on the SAT.Replies: @Buffalo Joe, @Lot
http://admission.stanford.edu/student/athletics/intercollegiate.htmlReplies: @Portlander, @Shaq
I have met a few female ex college golfers (Asian) who were tigered into scholarships. They hate the game now and do not play.
My little girl will never be big enough for most sports, unless coxswain.
Full ride Div. 1 scholarships for mascots. It's a thing. I personally know the kid who is a mascot for the local Div 1 school. Lot's of travel, lots of fun...can be hard work. Lots of access to women, in the summer he's the mascot for the local triple A baseball team (paid) and in the winter for the local WHL hockey team (paid).
Full ride.Replies: @Ivy, @Portlander
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-best-part-of-being-steve-ballmer-is-the-golf-2017-6Replies: @Hodag
Notice he does not mention he is a member at Pine Valley. He made a jackass of himself dancing at some basketball game a few years ago wearing a Pine Valley member’s shirt.
Yes, I am green with envy.
No way!!!!
Instead of building golf courses, Trump should sponsor golf tournaments at 6,700 yard venues and require entrants to play with 70’s-’80’s equipment. Huge crowds would turn out.
Snowy regions don’t produce many pro golfers. I don’t know about the Pacific NW, though.
To get good, you have to be able to afford to play almost everyday during summer as a teen. That’s expensive when paying a la carte at a daily fee course. Best to belong to a country club where you pay a lump sum annually. Military courses worked for Tiger Woods. Municipal courses with cheap rates for junior golfers are a possibility if they aren’t overcrowded in summer.
You need access to not just a driving range and a practice putting green, but also a practice chipping green with a practice sand trap. Good golfers are vastly better than people who don’t get much chance to intensely practice their sand play and chipping. Those were rare outside of country clubs when I was a kid.
Paging Malcolm Gladwell...
Yes, I am green with envy.Replies: @Steve Sailer, @Lurker
Pine Valley is where even a visiting billionaire would stock up on gift shop swag. Augusta, Cypress, Muirfield too. I wore an NGLA hat until it fell apart.
President Obama also enjoyed playing golf with Valerie Jarrett’s cousin, Cyrus Walker.
John Hinckley now lives with his mother at the Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, VA which has three golf courses. The house is on the 13th tee of the River Course which is home to the LPGA’s Kingsmill Championship. On a couple of occasions, Mrs. Hinckley has watched from her window as President Clinton passed by playing a round of golf.
To: John Hinckley
From: Mrs. Nancy Reagan
My family and I wanted to drop you a short note to tell you how pleased we are with the great strides you are making in your recovery.. In our fine country’s spirit of understanding and forgiveness, we want you to know there is a nonpartisan consensus of compassion and forgiveness throughout.
The Reagan family and I want you to know that no grudge is borne against you for shooting President Reagan. We, above all, are aware of how the mental stress and pain could have driven you to such an act of desperation. We are confident that you will soon make a complete recovery and return to your family to join the world again as a healthy and productive young man.
Best wishes,
Nancy Reagan & Family
P.S. While you have been incarcerated, Bill Clinton has been banging Jodie Foster like a screen door in a tornado. You might want to look into that.
Here’s something from a website called millennialmarketing.com.
Yes, that is a thing.
http://www.millennialmarketing.com/2014/07/what-golf-can-learn-from-millennial-runners/
Caddies?
Trump’s Links course in the Bronx despite being in the Bronx overlooks Long Island Sound and looks great. Hope had been businessmen would be able to ferry or drive from Manhattan for a half day of work and 18 holes. Problem with that is nobody who golfs wants to really do that; it’s a day off. And no matter how you cut it, it’s the Bronx. Nobody associates a fun day in the country chasing a little white ball with the Bronx. Trump’s best hope is the opening of a club will bring banquet business to make it more profitable.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/02/nyregion/trump-golf-course-bronx.html
With the exception of football and basketball, the other Division I sports primarily offer partial scholarships and the scholarships have to be renewed on an annual basis. While awaiting her rape trial, the female soccer player at Baylor had her scholarship reduced which forced her to leave the university since she could no longer afford the cost. Of course the football player who raped her maintained his full-ride until he was convicted.
Many college athletes major in generic subjects that will not conflict with their athletic schedule. The degree isn’t free; athletes have to work at least 20 hours a week on their sport. It makes more sense to use the money that you would have spent on golf lessons to pay college expenses and have your daughter work a paying job 20 hours a week while in college. I can’t tell if your daughter is even interested in golf.
Flagships in states like Arizona, Kentucky, and Alabama tend to offer full-rides to National Merit Scholars. It would be more profitable to tiger-dad her on the SAT.
Pittsburgh has an open-air concert venue at Station Square where the trains run right behind the stage, with the river behind them. Lends the perfect atmosphere for rock & blues concerts.Replies: @Buffalo Joe
Johnny, too bad it’s not a steam engine. Can you remember those?
Forbes, I stand corrected and by the way Scots don’t refer to it as Scotch whiskey, just whiskey.
Royal Troon in Scotland or Royal Lytham in England?
Or Chambers Bay near Tacoma, WA?
Most British Open courses are near railway lines since most date back to before the automobile age, so they needed to be near a railway for customers to get to them conveniently.Replies: @Buffalo Joe
Touche Mr Sailer, of course the “Open” is the British Open, Chambers Bay was the course I was thinking about.
While we’re on the subject, I suppose I should add that the Scots spell it as whisky (no “e”), while the Irish (and we) spell it with an “e”, whiskey.
Canadians use the Scots spelling.
Cheap brown ones! Hordes of them! Pawing thru the weeds desperate for their $1-a-ball tips!
What is this RFID-tech okeydoke tricknology of which you speak? Not on my course, sir!
I bet you think we still harvest cotton with teams of stout darkies purchased at the Charleston Market.
Steve, So a guy is playing golf with his friend, a real duffer, and he remarks, “Did you bring enough golf balls?’” ” I only brought one,” the friend replies, ” but it is a very special ball.” “How so ?” inquires the first golfer. “Well, if it lands in water, it floats to the closest shore. If it lands in fescue it motors out to the fairway. If it lands in the trees, it flashes and emits a beep.” ” Wow, how cool is that? Where did you get it?” ” I found it.”
If I mentally transport it to a rust belt state, it might be in real trouble. Makes sense.Replies: @Buffalo Joe
AM, We had a par 3 in town that was less than a mile and a half from my house. Used to come home from work, shower and get in a round and then back home to put a meal on the grill. Now the site of the newest upscale housing development around. Land was already cleared, water lines in and an access road. Miss that course.
We have a local driving range that's tried to sell itself off twice in the last 3 years, but it's zoned commercial. I suspect at some point it will go the way of your par 3. :(
I was thinking on account of Title IX gerrymandering there was demand for female athletes outside of soccer, volleyball, bucketball, and track. Could be wrong, obviously.
She’s sweet w/ a bubbly personality and will have nice, though not HBD 9+ looks. Academics and fast-twitch sports are not her strength, but she is comfortable around boys doing boy-ish pursuits.
I could see her being welcomed on the golf course making a fourth on some pharma sales-outing junket until settling down to get married. As degrees go, seems like a lot of women, especially, spend a lot more to get something far less marketable than that. Again, could be wrong… as an engineer, I’ve always been kept a safe distance from the C-suite types.
Mark, Caddies require the golfer to walk as he carries your bag and maybe the bag of your partner. I don’t know too many golfers that want to walk a course, or maybe that’s because I am older.
Although...when I was young I was paid to pull around my Dad's wheeled cart around a 3 par, 9 hole course by lake. I remember rolling down the hill on the last hole.
That's as close as my Dad ever came to a caddie. :) It's a concept hard for me to wrap my head around even, although I'm sure it's boon to the pros.
Not completely off topic as Syrians are notoriously passionate golfers. From Vermont Public Radio:
Stanford has 900 intercollegiate athletes — only 300 scholarships.
http://facts.stanford.edu/campuslife/athletics
http://admission.stanford.edu/student/athletics/intercollegiate.html
http://stanfordmensgolf.org/practicecenter_945.htm
And be sure to find an alum or member to get you on the course.
http://golfcourse.stanford.edu/
But don't take your daughter if Tiger is in town.
Many college athletes major in generic subjects that will not conflict with their athletic schedule. The degree isn't free; athletes have to work at least 20 hours a week on their sport. It makes more sense to use the money that you would have spent on golf lessons to pay college expenses and have your daughter work a paying job 20 hours a week while in college. I can't tell if your daughter is even interested in golf.
Flagships in states like Arizona, Kentucky, and Alabama tend to offer full-rides to National Merit Scholars. It would be more profitable to tiger-dad her on the SAT.Replies: @Buffalo Joe, @Lot
Triumph, From an article about coaches in Ohio who make at least $200K per year, Kent State Men’s golf coach earns $216K and Ohio States Men’s golf coach makes $223K. Not bad pay .
Pilt, Thank you and have a dram on me my friend.
Golf seems to have the same problem as housing and vacation resorts. The low end seems to have all but been abandoned as they chase after the more profitable high end niches.Replies: @Steve Sailer, @The Last Real Calvinist
I’m with you. My ideal course was one Mrs C and I played somewhere in New Zealand: nine flat holes, wide fairways, nobody else there, $5 in green fees which you put in an envelope and left in a drop box. It wasn’t maintained very well, as you’d expect, but it had greens and sand traps, and was more than good enough for us.
I wish. Not even close
So what you’re saying is private golf clubs are like timeshares. I agree. Many of them should be selling for $1 downstrokes on Ebay just to get new members on board who will pay the monthly membership fees and monthly food and bar. A private club here in Toronto dropped the downstroke to $5k to pick up younger members and was able to fund a course and clubhouse renovation. Most clubs are like timeshares and don’t set aside enough reserves and have to eventually face the old Special Assessment when things get a little frayed around the edges.
If your handicap is over 10 there is really no point in keeping score. Just count the number of pars and bogies you make. When that number gets real big, then you can keep score. This system makes you popular with your friends – you don’t bother looking for balls, you do your friends a favor and take the drop and don’t make them wait. 19 out of 20 times you weren’t going to par that hole anyway. If you do actually “par” it with the drop, just call it a bogey, and if you “birdy” it call it a par (i.e. assume you would have found the ball and popped it out onto the nearest grass with one stroke- as you are not working for a score but for realistic self-assessment, it is honest). If your friends get enervated playing with someone who does not keep score – well, deal with it. Also play “best ball” as often as you can. That makes 18 holes go at the right pace. For almost every single person playing golf on a given day, playing every shot and looking for every ball is like listening to an elementary school orchestra play Beethoven, or playing chess with someone with a learning disability who is not good at chess. Takes too long. (If your handicap is below 10 you probably don’t think 18 holes is too long ).
We have a lot of upscale housing developments going in around where I live. I was expecting it because it’s growth area, but I’ve genuinely shocked at how many people (apparently) can afford $350K+ houses.
We have a local driving range that’s tried to sell itself off twice in the last 3 years, but it’s zoned commercial. I suspect at some point it will go the way of your par 3. 🙁
http://admission.stanford.edu/student/athletics/intercollegiate.htmlReplies: @Portlander, @Shaq
Good point. I should first research how many women’s golf scholarships are awarded per year. Thanks.
There’s also two classes of golfers, it seems to me quite literally. Caddies are hold over from servant days. The people I golf with or think to golf with, would at most have one of those wheeled carts for their bags if they walked. My Dad uses carts almost exclusively.
Although…when I was young I was paid to pull around my Dad’s wheeled cart around a 3 par, 9 hole course by lake. I remember rolling down the hill on the last hole.
That’s as close as my Dad ever came to a caddie. 🙂 It’s a concept hard for me to wrap my head around even, although I’m sure it’s boon to the pros.
Wisconsin is the best place in America to have it both ways. Most of the state is glacial, but 85% of the Driftless, which the glaciers missed, lies in Wisconsin, too.
A good model might be Bois des Sioux, which straddles the Red River at Wahpeton, ND, and Breckinridge, MN– America’s only interstate course.
Likewise, a course half in, half out of the Driftless would be fascinating, and a fun lesson in geology to boot. Or to cleat.
Gaelic Psalm Singing from the Isle of Lewis (where Trump’s Mum is from) in the Outer Hebrides.
NO WAY was Bubba ever a 10. He took Mulligans at all times. Plus, have you seen his swing?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBI3XZCD3GkReplies: @Danindc
John Daly refers to Clinton as Mr. Mulligan. John Daly looks like a strange amalgamation of Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.
golf courses are safe spaces. I wish I could retire to a great course…the most beautiful in the world…but I am short 2 million dollars for the perfect one! Must seek cheaper courses/condos.
Golf course condos are probably more sensible to own than ski/snow condo for your kids? Tough when winter & summer activities are equally enticing.
Eminently sensible.
There is a golf course on Maui in Hawaii that was built for about $135 million and sold a few years later for $12.5 million.
Nice ROI.
The new owner sunk another $40 million into it, but they still rent out the $30 million club house for high school dances and once a month 80’s night disco parties.
It is in trouble.
http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2006/02/13/focus3.html
The heck with tech; just hack. Marinate the balls, and bring Fido along.
Wireless telecommunications have long since been integrated to golf; most people just don't bother about it.
(I reiterate I know almost nothing of golf; telecommunications, on the other hand, I will bore you with staggering minutiae about that topic....)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBI3XZCD3GkReplies: @Danindc
Dear God Rich Eisen is annoying – nothing is that funny
Trump famously hit a hole-in-one in front of GE CEO Jeff Immelt.
In case you are interested, my grandfather, Earl Millikin, was the gentleman who owned the charlois cattlefarm that Lang purchased to build Erin Hills.
Interestingly, he had been a commercial builder in the Milwaukee area before suffering a heart attack in his early forties. He bought around 1,000 acres in the area and retired to do cattle ranching. Ultimately, his health deteriorated further and in his 60s he started selling off his cattle, then the land.
Truly beautiful area with great views of Holy Hill.
What’s funny is a lot of my coworkers here in Phoenix are nuts about golf and they’re all 20s to early 30s.
Of course, they are also GS 11s amd 12s so probably something to it being a money sport.
The relentless chemical assault on the hormonal balance of the country has hurt the golf industry.
Record low sperm counts across the USA. Low testosterone is the new normal. But testosterone is the key to golf’s appeal. That is why pre-menopausal women are notoriously immune to golf’s appeal and post-menopausal women are suddenly open to the idea.
Mark Chmura?
Many college athletes major in generic subjects that will not conflict with their athletic schedule. The degree isn't free; athletes have to work at least 20 hours a week on their sport. It makes more sense to use the money that you would have spent on golf lessons to pay college expenses and have your daughter work a paying job 20 hours a week while in college. I can't tell if your daughter is even interested in golf.
Flagships in states like Arizona, Kentucky, and Alabama tend to offer full-rides to National Merit Scholars. It would be more profitable to tiger-dad her on the SAT.Replies: @Buffalo Joe, @Lot
Good points. Athletes in third tier sports like women’s golf were always missing class, going to bed early and missing parties, half-assing class assignments, and generally getting less socially and academically from college.
Yes, I am green with envy.Replies: @Steve Sailer, @Lurker
Steve Ballmer made a jackass of himself?
No way!!!!
The romantic, windswept Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides has become quite a haunt for Trumpists … the matriarch came from here and it is to here that the Trumps return with some frequency …
Pure moneyballing college is skip golf and buy an used rowing ergometer. Because of title 9 colleges need to fill out scholarships for women at football schools. The easiest way to do this is crew, which has massive teams, very few meets and low cost. There is prep school pretension and little lesbianism unlike field hockey, basketball or rugby.
I have met a few female ex college golfers (Asian) who were tigered into scholarships. They hate the game now and do not play.
My little girl will never be big enough for most sports, unless coxswain.
Do you know you can get a full ride college scholarship for being a golf caddie? Almost 1000 caddies are sent to school a year on the Evans Scholarship. Full tuition and a place to stay but you have to get your own food (usually working as a waiter or cook at a sorority or fraternity).
Division I women’s teams can offer 6 full scholarships, while men’s teams are limited to 4.5. All in the name of Title IX. There are girls earning scholarship to top tier schools who can barely break 80 on easy courses. If you go to a typical second tier junior tournament, there might be 100 boys and 8 girls.
That said, it’s not easy to get girls to love the sport. There’s little of the camaraderie that drives girls in high school, especially since there are few girls teams and most who are any good are playing with the boys anyway. Also, Tiger parents already have an outsized influence in girls golf (beyond the dominance of Asian women on the LPGA tour). Something like 28 of the 35 women competing in the Ivy League championships this year were Asian, and there were at least 3 or 4 conquistadors as well. Not too many white girls end up there, even though there are plenty of fathers who make some effort to introduce the game to their daughters (and would invest significant time and capital to make them successful).
The real opportunity lies in Division III. There, girls who occasionally score in the low 80s will receive significant admissions preference and tuition-reducing “grants.” No literal scholarships, but plenty of good schools looking to fill out their rosters. The relative time commitment to compete in DIII is also considerably less, leaving time for academics and a normal college life.
TopGolf is already all over this.
https://topgolf.com/us/alpharetta
A driving range with targets, and chip tech that tracks your ball and tallies your score as you hit the targets. It’s a lot of fun–like combining golf with bowling.
This article did it. It has broken my last shred of resistance. I will take up golfing one day!
All of the new courses are 7500 yard behemoths that are not fun for the average player with $100 plus green fees. Shorter, less punishing and most importantly less expensive courses is the only way for golf to grow.
Johnny Morris of Bass Pro Shops is attempting to turn Branson, MO into a golf destination, but it appears to be more a labor of love than an effort make a buck. Hopefully, it will work as golf is dying.Replies: @The Anti-Gnostic, @Chase, @countenance, @AM, @Citizen of a Silly Country
Totally agree about expensive courses. There are a few around me, and it’s ridiculous. How many golfers are good enough to really enjoy a $100 course. Almost none.
However, that being said, even on less pricey courses, golfers themselves deserve a lot of the blame for making a course too hard/long. If they chose the correct tee box for their hitting length, golf would both enjoy the game more and speed thing up.
On the rare occasions that I play, my friends are pretty big hitters by weekend hack standards driving around 240+. Yeah, yeah, I realize that everyone claims to drive that and more, but looking around on any given weekend, I can tell you that the vast majority of guys are just like me, i.e. driving around 200 yards, maybe 210-220 on a very good hit. I always tell my friends that I should be playing from the Gold tees instead of the white. Well, you’d think that I just admitted to be a tranny. Unacceptable, they say. They’d rather give me 50 strokes and lose every round than let me play the gold tee box.
Most weekend golfers should be playing the gold and, maybe, the red tees.
Someone once said that on a normal par four, if you hit a solid drive, you should be hitting a 7-iron or higher into the green, so play the tee box that gives you that opportunity. If I’m standing a 375-yard par four and I hit my 7-iron ~140 yards, there almost zero chance that I’ll ever be in that situation. On a solid drive, I’ll be 165 yards out, hitting a 4 hybrid or 7 wood into the green. What are the odds that I’ll make it on the green. Basically, if I hit two very solid shots in a row (and that doesn’t happen too often), I’ll likely still not be on the green.
Sadly, this is the situation for most weekend golfers. But because of the mentality, no one does what they should do and change tee boxes.
Most weekend golfers should be playing the gold and, maybe, the red tees."
Another sport that's seen a misguided bigger-is-better trend is, of all things, deer hunting. Younger hunters scorn the old stalwart deer calibers like the .30-30, .308 and even the famous .30-06, as something that only old men use. They flock to hugely powerful magnums like the .300 Winchester Magnum and the .300 Remington Ultra Magnum, calibers more suitable for moose, as if deer have somehow become armor-plated and impossible to kill. What they don't or won't realize is that it's more difficult to shoot such powerful rounds in an accurate manner.Replies: @Citizen of a Silly Country
Record low sperm counts across the USA. Low testosterone is the new normal. But testosterone is the key to golf's appeal. That is why pre-menopausal women are notoriously immune to golf's appeal and post-menopausal women are suddenly open to the idea.Replies: @Daniel Chieh
Evidence?
I know nothing of such matters, but I presume pets are not permitted on most golf courses, no?
Wireless telecommunications have long since been integrated to golf; most people just don’t bother about it.
(I reiterate I know almost nothing of golf; telecommunications, on the other hand, I will bore you with staggering minutiae about that topic….)
Numb the ball — that’s my advice to re-invigorate the game. Not by a lot – by just enough to reverse some of the distance-creep that has rendered so many fine old courses obsolescent. I caddied for the club membership in 1989 after a lapse of 20 years and was shocked to see the drives of 11 handicappers go as far as 3 handicappers used to. Jack Nicklaus brought discredit to the concept many years ago by proposing so drastic a numbing as to change the essential character of the game and broaden the participation. Golfers swilling beer, wearing tank tops, and pulling hand carts over 25-acre courses are fine with him so long as the developers make money, I suppose. Improved equipment has disrupted existing course design strategy and you can push the tees back only so far, so it’s time to partially reverse the trend by careful tinkering with the ball’s size, mass, or resilience, without going so far as to diminish the game’s patrician aspects.
Do you guys ever have trouble at the windmill hole? Seems I can’t ever time the blades correctly. What’s the secret? It’s way easier to putt one into Alley Gator’s open mouth. The jaws move more slowly than the windmill blades.
I did not. Thanks for that. I’ll definitely follow-up on it.
ExBanker, thanks to you too. 6 scholarships * ~20 schools nationwide == being one of top 100 18-22 yo females in the country. Seems possible.
I’m being serious here. Get her into gymnastics, dance and cheer. Then have her take improve classes in the summer. When she’s ready for High School have her become the schools mascot. Go to a school that will allow her to be a mascot.
Full ride Div. 1 scholarships for mascots. It’s a thing. I personally know the kid who is a mascot for the local Div 1 school. Lot’s of travel, lots of fun…can be hard work. Lots of access to women, in the summer he’s the mascot for the local triple A baseball team (paid) and in the winter for the local WHL hockey team (paid).
Full ride.
Full ride Div. 1 scholarships for mascots. It's a thing. I personally know the kid who is a mascot for the local Div 1 school. Lot's of travel, lots of fun...can be hard work. Lots of access to women, in the summer he's the mascot for the local triple A baseball team (paid) and in the winter for the local WHL hockey team (paid).
Full ride.Replies: @Ivy, @Portlander
A neighbor sent his kids through college on full rides as tuba players. March in the band, see games and save a ton of money.
Full ride Div. 1 scholarships for mascots. It's a thing. I personally know the kid who is a mascot for the local Div 1 school. Lot's of travel, lots of fun...can be hard work. Lots of access to women, in the summer he's the mascot for the local triple A baseball team (paid) and in the winter for the local WHL hockey team (paid).
Full ride.Replies: @Ivy, @Portlander
Wow, very interesting that one. Older son’s already in ballet. He started late and I’ve been questioning whether it make sense to stay with it. But as a feeder to cheer, maybe so??
It’s always good for this golden oldie:
To: John Hinckley
From: Mrs. Nancy Reagan
My family and I wanted to drop you a short note to tell you how pleased we are with the great strides you are making in your recovery.. In our fine country’s spirit of understanding and forgiveness, we want you to know there is a nonpartisan consensus of compassion and forgiveness throughout.
The Reagan family and I want you to know that no grudge is borne against you for shooting President Reagan. We, above all, are aware of how the mental stress and pain could have driven you to such an act of desperation. We are confident that you will soon make a complete recovery and return to your family to join the world again as a healthy and productive young man.
Best wishes,
Nancy Reagan & Family
P.S. While you have been incarcerated, Bill Clinton has been banging Jodie Foster like a screen door in a tornado. You might want to look into that.
“To some extent, this is because Trump smartly targeted places with lots of the One Percent, such as Greater New York, Palm Beach in Florida, Washington DC, Los Angeles, and Dubai, while avoiding Rust Belt states like Wisconsin.”
Bingo. And that’s the reason why this little remarked businessman couldn’t make a go of it. Wisconsin, is not Pebble Beach.
In popular lore, the 1%’s game remains golf. Trump’s instincts are accurate as usual to purchase golf courses where the 1% (Charles Murray’s super zips) tend to be located.
Believe it or not, no super zips located in WI, and few super zips are located in the Rust Belt; Upper Midwest; non-coastal areas of the US.
Golf was never really that popular with the masses. Why would it be? As far as actually playing on the elite country club PGA calibre courses (which are private, closed to public for the most part). It’s their sport, not the 99%.
Top 1% do golf; they don’t do Wisconsin.
So all those would be golfers of tomorrow need to do is try and get in about 10,000hrs before they’re 18, and voila, the next Tiger in the making. If only it were that easy.
Paging Malcolm Gladwell…
They are both aspirantialist sports.
http://admission.stanford.edu/student/athletics/intercollegiate.htmlReplies: @Portlander, @Shaq
By the way, if you are recruited for golf at Stanford, take the scholarship. Their practice facilities are off the charts:
http://stanfordmensgolf.org/practicecenter_945.htm
And be sure to find an alum or member to get you on the course.
http://golfcourse.stanford.edu/
But don’t take your daughter if Tiger is in town.
Haha! – only answering Steve’s post, btw, no other meanings: We do not have a TOWER! Golf courses are like paintings in a museum: you know they have importance (the good ones where all the TV stuff happens) but it is still subjective.
But, golf saves old people, smart people, rich people, skilled people, cagey people- bc they have to move and make their limbs move every day.
We have learned these past 10 years that to stave off dementia, one must play games. So, golf gives you the exercise, social, dialogue, empathy that you need to hope to live until tomorrow. Happiness is priceless. Enjoy your life, spouse, children, family, community.
Trump wants to get things done. Obama is thinking about how “the people” (the goodthinkers, you know) think about him. Obama is a middle school, arrested development, clique conscious virtue signaller on his way to be the BMOC in high school. What a maroon.
From everything I have heard about Erin Hills it holds no allure to me. A very, very difficult walk. High greens fee.
Lawsonia Links in semi nearby Green Lake is supposed to be great. I did play to new Mike Kaiser/ Coore and Crenshaw course on preview last summer at Sand Valley. It is stunning, playable and fun. Look it up, a bunch of sand dunes in northwest Wisconsin.Replies: @Steve Sailer, @Charles Erwin Wilson
You bastard. You will swim in the Lake for this.
golf will literally, save us.
However, that being said, even on less pricey courses, golfers themselves deserve a lot of the blame for making a course too hard/long. If they chose the correct tee box for their hitting length, golf would both enjoy the game more and speed thing up.
On the rare occasions that I play, my friends are pretty big hitters by weekend hack standards driving around 240+. Yeah, yeah, I realize that everyone claims to drive that and more, but looking around on any given weekend, I can tell you that the vast majority of guys are just like me, i.e. driving around 200 yards, maybe 210-220 on a very good hit. I always tell my friends that I should be playing from the Gold tees instead of the white. Well, you'd think that I just admitted to be a tranny. Unacceptable, they say. They'd rather give me 50 strokes and lose every round than let me play the gold tee box.
Most weekend golfers should be playing the gold and, maybe, the red tees.
Someone once said that on a normal par four, if you hit a solid drive, you should be hitting a 7-iron or higher into the green, so play the tee box that gives you that opportunity. If I'm standing a 375-yard par four and I hit my 7-iron ~140 yards, there almost zero chance that I'll ever be in that situation. On a solid drive, I'll be 165 yards out, hitting a 4 hybrid or 7 wood into the green. What are the odds that I'll make it on the green. Basically, if I hit two very solid shots in a row (and that doesn't happen too often), I'll likely still not be on the green.
Sadly, this is the situation for most weekend golfers. But because of the mentality, no one does what they should do and change tee boxes.Replies: @The preferred nomenclature is..., @prosa123
I have no idea what you just said. I did play a par 3 course a few times in the late Reagan and early Bush 1 admins. Of course, I’d much rather punch or shoot something than ruin a good walk.
(-: sorry, Steve, glad you got to me before all stupid emotional, and whatever; I have become cynical, or rather, hopeless.
That would be a hellish par if a shot landed in a railcar, or “truck”, as the call them on Sodor and, apparently, the other British isles as well.
The longest major league home run was measured at 46 miles. It fell into an open coal car running past the Braves’ park in Boston, and didn’t stop until it reached Providence.
The park the Saint Paul Saints used for the past quarter century had a BNSF line just beyond the left field fence, but I don’t think anyone hit a train in those years. Their new park is near the renovated Union Station, but I think the nearest tracks are in foul territory. Too bad– I’d love to see Amtrak carry one 1600 mi to, well… Chambers Bay.
I'm agreed that pros should simply change equipment rather than change the courses for them. The modern courses look beautiful on TV, but the reality is as you state. It takes a very high skill level to have modern courses be much fun. It shuts out 90% (or more) of golfers, even if they are serious enough to know what their handicap is and maybe even take lessons. ;)Replies: @Reg Cæsar
The same point is made by crossword buffs as to why the British-style cryptic puzzle has never caught on in America– our constructors insist on adding a further level of complexity with “variety cryptics”.
I mean, you start your kids on checkers, not3D chess.
The Cox-Rathvon grids every month in the WSJ are a prime example. It took me a year or more experience with the straight-ahead puzzles at the Financial Times before I could finish one of WSJ’s, even when I’d answered all the clues. Still didn’t know where to put them.
The best straightforward cryptic in the US is on the last page of The Nation. But I don’t want to pay for the other 31 pages to the left of the puzzle, and way to the left of me, and you can only print six at the library before subscribing.
Reg Caesar:
With one notable exception I agree with you regarding The Nation’s generally putrid left-wing stances. But the one exception which proves the rule is Prof Emeritus Steve Cohen and his take on modern Russia. Probably the only reason he’s permitted to write in The Nation is the fact that he’s married to its editor who also happens to be its chief financial bundler.
Play with seven clubs, it’s more sporting and you can walk it yourself. I daresay the average duffer’s handicap wouldn’t change much either.
Golf/baseball memo to Steve:
Yesterday in wine country I was in a foursome with a guy who played at Tidewater for Hank Bauer. I asked, how did a guy who managed a World Series winner just a few years before end up in AAA? He responded, “probably cuz he’s such an asshole.”
However, that being said, even on less pricey courses, golfers themselves deserve a lot of the blame for making a course too hard/long. If they chose the correct tee box for their hitting length, golf would both enjoy the game more and speed thing up.
On the rare occasions that I play, my friends are pretty big hitters by weekend hack standards driving around 240+. Yeah, yeah, I realize that everyone claims to drive that and more, but looking around on any given weekend, I can tell you that the vast majority of guys are just like me, i.e. driving around 200 yards, maybe 210-220 on a very good hit. I always tell my friends that I should be playing from the Gold tees instead of the white. Well, you'd think that I just admitted to be a tranny. Unacceptable, they say. They'd rather give me 50 strokes and lose every round than let me play the gold tee box.
Most weekend golfers should be playing the gold and, maybe, the red tees.
Someone once said that on a normal par four, if you hit a solid drive, you should be hitting a 7-iron or higher into the green, so play the tee box that gives you that opportunity. If I'm standing a 375-yard par four and I hit my 7-iron ~140 yards, there almost zero chance that I'll ever be in that situation. On a solid drive, I'll be 165 yards out, hitting a 4 hybrid or 7 wood into the green. What are the odds that I'll make it on the green. Basically, if I hit two very solid shots in a row (and that doesn't happen too often), I'll likely still not be on the green.
Sadly, this is the situation for most weekend golfers. But because of the mentality, no one does what they should do and change tee boxes.Replies: @The preferred nomenclature is..., @prosa123
“golfers themselves deserve a lot of the blame for making a course too hard/long. If they chose the correct tee box for their hitting length, golf would both enjoy the game more and speed thing up …
Most weekend golfers should be playing the gold and, maybe, the red tees.”
Another sport that’s seen a misguided bigger-is-better trend is, of all things, deer hunting. Younger hunters scorn the old stalwart deer calibers like the .30-30, .308 and even the famous .30-06, as something that only old men use. They flock to hugely powerful magnums like the .300 Winchester Magnum and the .300 Remington Ultra Magnum, calibers more suitable for moose, as if deer have somehow become armor-plated and impossible to kill. What they don’t or won’t realize is that it’s more difficult to shoot such powerful rounds in an accurate manner.
Most weekend golfers should be playing the gold and, maybe, the red tees."
Another sport that's seen a misguided bigger-is-better trend is, of all things, deer hunting. Younger hunters scorn the old stalwart deer calibers like the .30-30, .308 and even the famous .30-06, as something that only old men use. They flock to hugely powerful magnums like the .300 Winchester Magnum and the .300 Remington Ultra Magnum, calibers more suitable for moose, as if deer have somehow become armor-plated and impossible to kill. What they don't or won't realize is that it's more difficult to shoot such powerful rounds in an accurate manner.Replies: @Citizen of a Silly Country
Wow. When I was a teenager, the .30-06 was the big gun. Who the hell needs something more powerful than that.
Depending on the situations in which one hunts deer, cartridges like the .300 and 7mm magnums (there are quite a few) can give the hunter definite advantages. They recoil harder, but not all that much harder, and with a correctly fitted rifle are not uncomfortable to shoot, especially in winter with all that padding from undergarments.
But the .308, .30-o6 and so forth are still entirely adequate and excellent for most deer hunting.
The .30-30, being a rimmed round is a poor choice for a bolt gun and is usually associated with the 1894 Winchester lever gun. With its large amount of drop at the stock, light weight and narrow buttplate, it's not a pleasant gun to shoot very much, and so people don't. Without a certain amount of time at the range, you are going to miss and wound a lot. Lever guns really only make sense on horseback (or from an ATV) and if you really want one, my advice is get one in .44 Magnum (until someone smarts up and offers one in .460 S&W). In a lever gun it's milder recoiling than a .30-30 and you can shoot fifty rounds in an afternoon and not be sore.Replies: @prosa123
As I was wandering the front of the fairway looking for my ball the other day (am I the only one who loses more balls in the middle of the course than in the water or out of bounds?), I was thinking. RFID tracking in store items is old by now. Heck, 20 years ago MLB used RFID chipped baseballs in the Sosa/McGuire home run chase to make sure any balls claimed to be home runs, especially the final one, were genuine and not switcheroos. Couldn’t they get ball manufacturers to implant standardized, unique passive RFIDs during manufacture, then the market can make devices or phone apps where you “marry” a ball to it before you put it into play to you, then it’ll zero you in on location once you’re within an acceptable range? It’ll also eliminate “which ball is whose?” when you play in groups or have a crossover drive from another bunch of golfers? It would be the first gizmo that I would use since it’s not in any way a high-tech cheat, but allows me to play an actually more traditional game with hardly a provisional ball in play.
Another point in favor of Wisconsin.
https://topgolf.com/us/alpharetta
A driving range with targets, and chip tech that tracks your ball and tallies your score as you hit the targets. It's a lot of fun--like combining golf with bowling.Replies: @Anonymous
I’ve been Topgolfing for about a year now. Love it.
The longest major league home run was measured at 46 miles. It fell into an open coal car running past the Braves' park in Boston, and didn't stop until it reached Providence.
The park the Saint Paul Saints used for the past quarter century had a BNSF line just beyond the left field fence, but I don't think anyone hit a train in those years. Their new park is near the renovated Union Station, but I think the nearest tracks are in foul territory. Too bad-- I'd love to see Amtrak carry one 1600 mi to, well… Chambers Bay.Replies: @Steve Sailer
A golfer at Griffith Park in L.A. once sliced his tee shot onto the road. It bounced in the open window of a passing truck. The truck driver threw the ball out the window and it rolled in the hole for a hole in one.
Assuming you are not a nonagenarian, they had substantially hotter rounds than the .30-06 even back then. Most people bought inexpensive rifles chambered for more common cartridges, but there were certainly much more powerful rounds widely available.
Depending on the situations in which one hunts deer, cartridges like the .300 and 7mm magnums (there are quite a few) can give the hunter definite advantages. They recoil harder, but not all that much harder, and with a correctly fitted rifle are not uncomfortable to shoot, especially in winter with all that padding from undergarments.
But the .308, .30-o6 and so forth are still entirely adequate and excellent for most deer hunting.
The .30-30, being a rimmed round is a poor choice for a bolt gun and is usually associated with the 1894 Winchester lever gun. With its large amount of drop at the stock, light weight and narrow buttplate, it’s not a pleasant gun to shoot very much, and so people don’t. Without a certain amount of time at the range, you are going to miss and wound a lot. Lever guns really only make sense on horseback (or from an ATV) and if you really want one, my advice is get one in .44 Magnum (until someone smarts up and offers one in .460 S&W). In a lever gun it’s milder recoiling than a .30-30 and you can shoot fifty rounds in an afternoon and not be sore.
Depending on the situations in which one hunts deer, cartridges like the .300 and 7mm magnums (there are quite a few) can give the hunter definite advantages. They recoil harder, but not all that much harder, and with a correctly fitted rifle are not uncomfortable to shoot, especially in winter with all that padding from undergarments.
But the .308, .30-o6 and so forth are still entirely adequate and excellent for most deer hunting.
The .30-30, being a rimmed round is a poor choice for a bolt gun and is usually associated with the 1894 Winchester lever gun. With its large amount of drop at the stock, light weight and narrow buttplate, it's not a pleasant gun to shoot very much, and so people don't. Without a certain amount of time at the range, you are going to miss and wound a lot. Lever guns really only make sense on horseback (or from an ATV) and if you really want one, my advice is get one in .44 Magnum (until someone smarts up and offers one in .460 S&W). In a lever gun it's milder recoiling than a .30-30 and you can shoot fifty rounds in an afternoon and not be sore.Replies: @prosa123
While the Winchester 1894 lever guns in .30-30 weren’t pleasant to shoot given their design, current .30-30’s from Marlin, Henry and Mossberg are more ergonomic and user-friendly. Even the reproduction 1894’s, which trademark owner Browning builds in Japan, are better to shoot (though very expensive).
Lever guns still have a lot of life left in them. While the .30-30 has been overshadowed by all the new super magnums it’s still the fifth or sixth top-selling rifle cartridge in the US (the .223, used in AR’s, holds the top spot by a huge margin). And the .45-70, a lever gun cartridge that dates back to the 1870’s, is trendy today after having nearly become obsolete a generation ago. It’s basically a much more powerful version of the. 30-30.
The handgun caliber lever guns like the .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum, are in some ways as deadly as the so-called “assault rifles.” They hold as many as 15 rounds or even more, can be fired almost as fast as a semi-auto, and except for the Henry models can be reloaded without being taken out of action.
On the topic of golf, Malcolm Gladwell’s new podcast excoriates the game its (white) players. Some reasonable points about the low taxes on country clubs in California (and unreasonable ones about how much the real estate is worth -it’s one thing to estimate how much LACC would be worth if were put up for sale, but if LACC, Brentwood, Riviera and Hillcrest were all simultaneously sold, they would not get the same per-acre value).
Of course, he also talks about the exclusion of Jews from certain clubs. He suggests that the courses be opened as parks on the weekends (like the Old Course). Since all people are the same, I’m sure that the Angeleno masses would treat the grounds as well as the Scots do.
Plenty for our host to dissect!