My Golf Roadtrip!!

Monday, May 27, 2013

Charleston, SC

Miles Driven: 5748

After Savannah, I headed to Charleston for a few days before I flew to NYC for an overnight trip. Being the foodie that I am, I made sure this was one of the stops I made. This city did not disappoint! I got in at around 1pm and had already booked a culinary tour of the city before I arrived. We walked around to different restaurants in the city and learned about the original of souther cuisine. One of my favorite local specialities was she crab soup (crab bisque) where they use crab roe in soup for additional richness. The traditional way to eat it is to pour sherry in the soup to give that extra kick at the end.

Charleston was a larger city than Savannah and on the second day of the trip, I did a carriage history ride around the historic parts of the city. Since it rained most of the time, it was a good time for me to catch up on my rest since my body hasn't been the same since playing 6 straight days in Texas (man, I'm getting old...)

I did manage to get in one round before I flew out to NYC. I woke up at around 6am the day I was to fly out and saw that it was dry outside. Since my flight didn't leave until 5pm, I figured I can do a quick round at Wild Dunes Links Course (Tom Fazio's first designed course) before I had to check out. I got to the club house, paid my green fees, and went straight to the first tee. I was paired up with a father and son that decided to walk. I was thinking, oh great, I hope I can finish in time before I had to check out. After the first hole, it started sprinkling and by the 3rd hole, it was a complete down pour! I went off by myself after the pair decided to take shelter.

I have never played in the rain and I can tell you I did not enjoy it at all. I had no grip on my clubs and the club would twist in my hand in my backswing. Since golf is a game of millimeters, that made a huge difference in my swing. Now I did manage to finish the course in 2.5 hours, and it was the shortest and the longest round I've played so far.

Here are the food and golf pics of Charleston. Enjoy!

She Crab Soup with Sherry

Black Scallops with Creamy Grits

Fried Chicken with Truffle Grits and Fried Egg...YUM!!

Savannah, GA

Miles Driven: 5604

After my trip to Alabama, I drove to Savannah, GA to do some historic sightseeing. As I was driving in, I was happy I made the decision to keep going after I hit New Orleans. I think I would have regretted it if I turned back and went back to California. Now I can really say I did a real "cross-country" roadtrip.

Savannah was always one of the cities that interested me since it had so much historic value dating back to both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. I guess this fascination came from watching movies like "Gone With the Wind." The city itself was pretty well preserved since General Sherman spared it (for the most part) from this scorched earth policy in his March to the Sea campaign in the Civil War. Many of the older, historic buildings were preserved and the architecture of the buildings were amazing.

The street of the historic district was filled with live oaks with spanish moss growing on them. There were squares and parks every few block to commemorate founders and historic figures of the city with people giving walking tours and musicians playing. Cool little bars, pubs, and taverns are around every corner made it a pretty fun place to come visit. There was also an open container law so you can take your drink to go. I would have compare Savannah to a much cleaner and tamed version of New Orleans.

Since I was only in Savannah for 2 nights, I wanted to make sure I at least played one course here. I booked a 7:40am tee time at the Club at Savannah Harbor on the second day so I can walk the course before it got too hot and have time to do some more sightseeing in the afternoon. The course is a site of the Champions Tour and designed by Robert Cupp and Sam Snead. The course is laid out as a links style course in the middle of a marsh. Not too many trees and REALLY fast greens (probably a 12 on the greens.) Great fun course to play at. I was paired up with a member and he told me he pays $1800 for the year for club membership and he can come out to play anytime. Man, I wish we had that in SF! After my round I went back to the hotel to shower up, take a nap, and did a historic bus tour of Savannah. Rode around the city and stopped at the city market area, got a peach sangria, and headed to Paula Deen's restaurant. I do love my southern foods but it doesn't love me back since I think I've gained some weight eating all the fried chicken, mac & cheese, grits, etc.

Here are the pics from Savannah. Enjoy!

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail - Alabama

Miles Drive: 5162

After the debauchery of spending 2 days in New Orleans, I was excited to restart of golf road trip again. One thing I wouldn't recommend, driving 5 hours hungover after spending way too much time on Bourbon Street. I had never driven east and New Orleans before and I must say Alabama is a very beautiful state. The golf courses here are just absolutely breathtaking. I can only imagine this place in the fall when the leaves turn red and orange.

It's been 1.5 weeks since I played 6 straight days of golf in Texas and my body is still sore from that experience. However, that wasn't gonna stop me from heading east to one of the destinations I had set out from the beginning, the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama. Robert Trent Jones, Sr. (1906-2000) has designed/redesigned about 500 golf courses in his lifetime including: Spyglass, Firestone, Augusta National (redesign), and Olympic Club (redesign.) He started designing the RTJ Trail in 1992 and his company added 2 additional courses after his death. What resulted was an 11 site, 468 hole golf trail that spans across Alabama.

I had originally planned to spend about 1 week in Alabama starting at the NW corner of Alabama at Muscle Shoals then heading SW through Birmingham, Montgomery, and finish in Auburn/Opelika. However, since my road trip might come to an end in a few weeks because of a career opportunity, I decided to cut the RTJ Trail short so I can enjoy golf in the Carolinas. So instead, I only played the Capitol Hill Judge Course in Montgomery and the Grand National Lakes Course in Auburn/Opelika.

The two courses I played were distinctly different yet shared some similarities designed the course. The over-the-water Par 3's and the tree lined fairways puts emphasis on accuracy. Each course has plenty of risk/reward scenarios that make you think if pulling out that 3-wood from the fairway was a smart idea (and it certainly wasn't for me today...)

The Capitol Hill Judge Course was longer of the 2 courses I played measuring 7813 yards from the tips. There was even a 711 yard Par 5!! I was humbled when I picked the middle tee box and it still measured 6517 yards. I ended up walking the course because I hadn't walk one since Palm Springs. It was some of the best 8.2 miles I've ever walked on a course.

The Grand National Lake Course was even prettier than Capitol Hill Judge! Even though it was not as long, there were plenty of chances to get in trouble around the course. The placement of the bunkers in the middle of the fairway makes you think to go left, right, or right over the bunker on the tee box. This is where course management comes to play. Instead of pulling out the driver on every hole, it was smarter to pull out a 5-iron or 3 iron and knock the ball down the middle. Too bad I wasn't that smart and my score definitely suffered today :)

The past few days my drives and irons would come and go. I can keep it in play and get myself out of trouble on most holes to have a chance to save par or bogey. My pitches and chips were pretty consistent for me to get the ball within 10-15ft of the cup, but here is where the trouble starts. I could not putt if my life depended on it!! It was just horrendous! Down right ugly and embarrassing! I just could not feel the ball with my putter, especially with that fat Superstroke grip I had on the putter. I think I'm getting to a point in my game where I'm not using my hands anymore on my putts and the feel of the ball on the putter face is more important. So after my round, I head over to the sporting goods store, ripped off the fatso grip and bought much smaller grip so I can have the feel back in my putts again. I'm also changing back my putting grip style to have the index finger one the shaft for more control. We'll see if that helps when I play on Friday.

Now one of the coolest thing happened today when I was paired up with this nice gentlemen. I was about to tee off by myself when he drove up and asked if he could join me. "My name is Ronald," he introduced himself. He told me he grew up here and now lives in New Zealand. I was thinking that is pretty cool and he still comes back home to see family. Throughout the round we chatted about travels, living abroad, and debated if there were alligators in the lakes around the course (there was.) It wasn't until the back nine when I asked what he did before retirement. He said, "I used to be the Bass player for The Commodores (Brick house, Easy, Nightshift) for 25 years playing with Lionel Ritchie." I was thinking, "Wow! I'm playing with Ronald LaPread and he just bought me a diet coke!" Now, that's pretty cool!

Here are the picture from the last 2 days. Enjoy!!

Monday, May 13, 2013

New Orleans, LA

Mile Driven: 4742 miles

Texas was fun but after being there for 2 weeks I was ready to hit the open road again. My buddy Scott decided to meet me in New Orleans since he's never been before. This is the 3rd time I've been to New Orleans and haven't been back for about 10 years. This is one of those cities that's much more fun when you have friends to share the food and memories with. Being a huge foodie, I knew this was gonna be an awesome trip. One of my fondest memories of New Orleans was going to Commander's Palace in 2002 and having one of the best dining experiences during Sunday Brunch.

I got in on Friday afternoon and decided to stay by the airport since Scott was flying in on Saturday morning. Besides, it was much cheaper than to stay in the French Quarter. I found an awesome little seafood restaurant by the hotel called Harbor Seafood and Oyster Bar. Sat at the bar and powered down a dozen oysters, cup of crawfish etouffee, and 1/2 an Oyster Po-Boy. Not a bad way to start the trip.

Scott gets in on Saturday and we checked into our hotel in the French Quarter. Since our room wasn't ready, we decided to hit up Bourbon Street for some day drinking and pub crawling. At night, we booked at table at Muriel's Jackson Square for some authentic creole cuisine. If you ever go, save room for the bread pudding.

The next day we did some sightseeing in the museums and walked around the Garden District after an awesome brunch at Restaurant Stanley. Follow by checking out Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar (built in 1722, the oldest structure used as a bar in the US) and hitting up Pat O'Brien's while watching Tiger win the Players Championship. I did manage to walk away from some jackass trying to pick a fight because he wanted to grab the seat I was saving for Scott. Whatever man, if you are that desperate to sit down, you can have the seat. No need to call me a "douche" because I'm from San Francisco and wanting to fight me when I said that was uncalled for. Loser...

After that brief encounter with the psychopath, we got cleaned up and went to Commander's Palace to celebrate my friend Lisa's 30th (for the 3rd time) birthday. The meal was a good as I remembered from 10 years ago! We then met up with my friend Chris that I hadn't seen since 1996 and stayed out until 3am. It was good to catch up with friends I haven't seen in a long time but I was definitely feeling the effects of the weekend this morning.

I didn't golf this trip but did have plenty of food...here are the pictures. Enjoy!!