GHIN
If you missed it, catch up on my colleague Casey’s debut G&T dispatch from last week. The heater that she’s been on for the last few weeks between travel, music and activities is pretty wild, and I read about her trip to Ireland with wistfulness. I rue the fact that it’s been well over five years since my first and only visit to Carne. On top of that, Casey and her husband Jon visited Mulranny, a rustic little links about 30 miles south of Carne that had been firmly on our itinerary for Tourist Sauce Season 4, until we realized nothing was going to pull us away from what remains one of the all-time days in NLU history on that links in Belmullet.
The (DJ) Kilmore Nine at Carne
And that’s the conundrum, ever more so as we age and our families grow and the business grows: how to balance exploring the new and revisiting the old? Some of my most cherished memories have come upon second and third visits to places - digging deeper on a course and it revealing more and more over several loops or in a different season, reconnecting with people who became friends the first time around, taking pride in going back to somewhere that left an outsized impact on your journey, wanting another crack at a certain shot. On the other hand, there’s always that next place to go to, even within the same region. I’m jonesing to get to Gamble Sands, but I’m also intent on getting back to Gearhart or Chambers Bay. Royal County Down is on the list. Does a trip back to Carne get tacked onto that one? There’s only so much time to go around. And when you look at it all in totality it becomes daunting and intimidating, especially when factoring in non-golf trips, family trips and other hobbies.
The Dunhill Links is this week on the east coast of Scotland, which makes me realize it’s been over six years since I’ve been back to the Highlands. You can bury me at Brora or Dornoch, and yet somehow I went twice in 2018 and have never been back. Another New Zealand trip, Iceland, getting down to Hobart, Portugal, half a dozen different regions of England, Argentina, Japan, South Africa, Northern Europe, Western Canada, a dozen different parts of our own country. As we sit here doing 2025 and 2026 planning, how do you balance the familiar and the unknown? There’s always the risk of going back to a place and it not living up to that first trip, or that group of people you were with, or the conditions you got. Or heading to a new spot in search of some magic and being let down and wishing you would’ve just taken the opportunity to head back to the place you loved the first time. These certainly aren’t problems - it’s part of the magic. And there’s no right answer or recipe. The biggest thing is committing fully to each trip and planning it in a way that there’s enough depth and variety and adventure that it’s impossible to have a bad time. And if it all adds up to something a lot greater than the sum of its parts, you file it away and don’t let anything stop you from getting back there, even if it’s a decade down the road. If you bring a friend or two to enjoy it without the cameras.
My last trip to Brora & Dornoch
Speaking of the Dunhill, I always love running through the draw to see which amateurs are playing, who their partner is and who host Johan Rupert paired them with. Plenty of intrigue beyond the bombshell news of “Steamboat Jay” Monahan (and his partner, Billy Horschel) being grouped with The H.E. Formerly Known as Andrew Waterman (and his partner, Stinger GC standout Dean Burmester.) The breadth, depth, and randomness will amaze you…Google and Wiki wormholes galore. Excited to see what comes of this, if anything, especially on the heels of some interesting comments from Rory the past month or so around his future schedule. My hope has been that he and the Euro Tour call the PGA Tour’s bluff and leverage PIF to underpin some legitimate DPWT-sanctioned global events at venerable venues and dare Jay to stop guys from playing in them.
The 2018 Dunhill
Smackdab in between two of the venues for the Dunhill sits The St Andrews Links Castle Course. On our visit to Scotland in March and April I made it a point that we saw this one firsthand, as we’d read and heard such polarizing things about it. Most notably, Tom Doak, in his Confidential Guide, bestowed a “zero” rating on the course (which is different than a “one” on a scale of 1-10), signifying in Doak’s words “a course so contrived and unnatural that it may poison your mind, one I cannot recommend under any circumstances.” Most of the time I’ll do a bunch of research before I go to a course I’m curious to see, but in certain instances, I refuse to do any and want to go in without a frame of reference and see it with fresh eyes. While knowing the backstory, and the subsequent softening of greens and various nips and tucks, I’d never really even seen pictures of it. See what we thought:
As I continue to detox from some of the side effects of the FedEx Cup (nausea, vomiting, Wet AMD) and dive deeper and deeper into Euro Tour coffee golf (quite a run we’re on, having had brilliant weekend coverage from Crans, County Down, Wentworth, and Madrid in consecutive weeks), it’s becoming more and more obvious just how contrived and broken the PGA Tour schedule is. That made last week’s Presidents Cup, which should serve as a fun changeup to the weekly grind and an ascendant property that should be gaining momentum after a strong showing at Royal Melbourne in 2019, feel like a reminder of everything we’re up against an International team depleted of talent by LIV defections, a captain doing favors for his countrymen at the expense of his team, a largely disinterested city disconnected from the event, a wholly disinterested broadcast partner, a tour favoring government subsidies and familiar venues over genuine interest and exciting venues, and a lopsided competition that feels like a contrived version of the Ryder Cup on a dull canvas. Amazing that a sport (and it goes well beyond one organization) can manage to mess up an international team match in golf, something inherently magical!, that badly.
In more upbeat news, in addition to the Dunhill, I’m excited to watch the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. It’s at a new venue this year up in French Lick and the Pete Dye course should be a nice change-up to what turned into sort of a slog the last few years about 90 minutes southwest of there at Victoria National. Always fun to see new venues on TV and I’ve always heard good things about both courses at French Lick (the other is a Donald Ross.) And there’s genuine drama with cards and promotions on the line - even with the (de?) evolution of the PGA Tour, the jump from KFT to a full tour card is immense and life-changing, and there’s more depth than ever on KFT. Of the 75 guys in the field, 17 have already clinched cards, with another 13 up for grabs, and plenty of jockeying for priority ranking even among those who have locked up status.
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Lastly, on the golf front, I’m still working through my thoughts and reflections from attending the Saturday round of LIV Chicago. I took at least a hundred pictures and short videos and would love to stitch them into a narrated reel and then I’m going to write something, too. My experience paralleled a lot of what Joseph LaMagna relayed over at The Fried Egg. It’s a low-stakes social gathering - basically a music or food truck festival (sans good music) and they should probably lean more and more into that element and the social.
I have also realized that I am so deep into the bit of being a Cleeks fan that I’ve turned into an actual Cleeks fan, and I plan to write up various scenarios as we enter the offseason and restricted free agency begins. Incredibly stupid.
And yet, it's an interesting thought exercise in evaluating how someone with an unlimited pocketbook and virtually no constraints reimagined what a golf tournament should look like, how similar it actually is under the surface, and how it might affect how the overall landscape looks moving forward. The how and what with LIV are interesting, but the why looms over everything and a pervasive emptiness looms if you dig too deep. Bottom line: seeing the carts staged for the shotgun start and then all the players heading out to their assigned holes was positively surreal.
A sampling from LIV Chicago
Since I last wrote one of these, I flew up to New York for a couple of days getting lost in the city, picking up my sons’ Swedish passports, eating some great food, reflecting on the year so far (more on all of that below), and realizing on the flight up that it was 9/11, which was an unexpected occurrence. Those couple of days coincided with a lot going on in the city: Fashion Week, NBA Owners Meetings, and a surprise meeting between Jay Monahan and the PIF. Again, meeting with the Saudis in New York. On 9/11. Things are moving down the line toward some sort of resolution, however slowly, but the how is important, too. And I’m not sure what’s worse: that either there’s not someone to vet these decisions for common sense and baseline humanity, OR that someone is doing so and deciding to do it anyway, especially after those same people prepped Monahan for this interview and helped him formulate an entire strategy built around using the 9/11 families as props. That the same people are still in charge is bleak, especially when you consider the hundreds of other strategic missteps, unnecessary own-goals, loyal lieutenants ousted for various misdeeds and just general incompetence.
Tonic
Like I mentioned up top, great stop in NYC. Stayed in Brooklyn this time around at the William Vale Hotel in Williamsburg. Very hipster, but great views and outstanding restaurants nearby, namely Le Crocolile, which hit the spot for cocktails, some good vino and French standards. Stopped in to see Neil and little Pete, who is such a happy little dude. One of the highlights of the trip was a Nepalese Uber driver, Tsering, who picked me up in Brooklyn, then we picked up Casey in Midtown, and drove us up to see the H&B guys in Armonk. Fascinating story. He walked me through how the area he’s from in Nepal is growing like crazy and changing rapidly. Been on a run of great Uber drivers the last few months, including one in DC named Mohadin who was a bona fide #BallKnower.
Anyway, Casey and I then rode Amtrak down to DC, which was delightful and popped into Rasika, which is always a favorite stop for Indian food, before heading southwest to go to the hotel we were staying at for Solheim. Solheim was unexpectedly a logistical hot mess, but refreshing and fun, nonetheless. After our live show on Friday night, Cody and I took Casey, Randy and Meg Adkins to a decent Korean BBQ spot nearby for their first experience. Another highlight of the trip - I think we melted Randy’s brain.
The big letter hat trend should be running out of steam soon, hopefully.
I mentioned the Saturday detour to Chicago for LIV - left the hotel at 7am, got to the course just after the gates opened at 10am. Will save the meat of the on-site experience for another piece, but speaking of meat, I was back to the airport by 5pm and popped into both Tortas Frontera AND got a Chicago-style dog at O’Hare. A true highlight only eclipsed by getting upgraded to one of the outdated layflats for the sub-two hour flight back to Dulles. Met the gang for dinner and was in bed at a reasonable hour. Sunday singles were great at Solheim and then we recorded the live show and flew home that night.
NOBODY, I repeat NOBODY wants to read about how my fantasy baseball team fared this season…but I’m going to tell you anyway, because it got me back into being a casual fan of the game. So thank you to Soly for setting up the league, and to Rob Manfred for pushing through the rules changes that made it a lot more watchable than when I stopped watching over a decade ago. And congrats to Soly on his impressive (and tainted) victory. This is also a test to see if he reads these. He won the league, fair and square, after the nearly-impregnable roster I assembled had an off-week in the semis against a hot Polos Hermanos squad (my totals would’ve beat both guys in the other semifinal matchup) and then absolutely went off for nearly across-the-board season totals in the final week that had everyone’s jaws on the floor and made the championship matchup look like the last-place game. The good news is it’s a keeper league and I mortgaged the entire 2025 season for success this year, so I’m devoid of good keeper options AND traded away a bunch of draft picks. Shoutout to David Tepper! Anyway, hats off to Soly on a great season. We may be adding a couple of expansion franchises over the offseason!
I’ll let you figure out which team is mine ;)
On the homefront, it’s been a weird last month of weather here. Mostly quiet hurricane season, yet fourteen inches of rain in the first half of the month (like just a constant drizzle every day) rolling in from both coasts of the peninsula of Florida. The path of the hurricane that rolled through late last week and then northward wasn’t that dissimilar from the a few others we’ve had here in NE Florida the past couple of years, except it moved through remarkably fast, which usually limits the damage from coastal flooding due to on-shore winds, less time for wind damage to trees and structures, etc. It rolled in on Thursday evening around 8 pm and by 11 am Friday morning I was out on the golf course and it was sunny, if still pretty windy. We had a couple of big branches down and an afternoon's worth of clean-up in the yard, and these storms leave me with an immense amount of respect for the power they generate and also for a local utility company in Beaches Energy that does a stand-out job keeping our electricity on. I can count on one-hand how many times it’s gone out in seven years of living here. More than anything, I’m just thankful for health and safety.
The difference with this one was the amount of rain that fell in the days before the storm up there combined with how localized those effects are up there in those mountain ranges with the rivers and watersheds. I’ve spent a lot of time up in those parts: Asheville, Brevard, Highlands, Lake Lure, Boone, Waynesville, and driven all through those parts of I-40 and I-26 that got washed away. Fishing, skiing, hiking, lake houses, exploring Asheville, etc. It’s staggering to consider the amount of water needed to cause that level of flooding, and then the human toll and destruction. I’m devastated for those people up there, as nice as you’ll find anywhere. And that’s not to diminish anything here in Florida, but people here know what they’re signing up for and there’s a level of preparedness and expectation for these storms depending upon what part of the state you’re in, for better or worse. A tropical system like this moving that rapidly and intact up through Augusta/Aiken/Greenville and then into NC is crazy, and then combining with an existing low-pressure system. All of this brought memories of Hurricane Opal in 1995 - we were living in Toronto at the time and it’s seared into my memory how nasty that storm was, a thousand miles away from where it made landfall.
Now for a few recommendations:
- A smattering of low-stakes but quality social accounts I’ve been into the past few months:
- This guy @GfedGoCrazy basically either sneaks into stadiums and arenas or hangs out well after the game and snoops around. Very stupid. But his recurring observations and comparisons between facilities always draw me in. Here’s a great sampling from a place that’s long piqued my curiosity.
- This one is a local Jax guy, Wes Davis. Never met him. Love his stuff. I don’t go fishing even close to as much as I want to, and this account always reminds me of a whole world that we’re surrounded by here in Northeast Florida that you forget about being on land.
- This is Ra, aka Rasheen Bailey, who goes by Hoodfishing Entertainment on the socials. The stuff he catches down in South Florida is wild. Lakes, canals, off-shore, in-shore, you name it. I didn’t see him post for a few months and didn’t realize he got shot a few months back, but he’s back on it now. His insta is a good view at what he’s about and there’s plenty more on his YouTube (also, I guess he’s a snitch?... but I’m taking that with a grain of salt). Pretty popular follow, so you may already follow him.
- On the subject of hurricanes and tropical weather, Mike’s Weather Page on X is among my go-tos for the tropics, off-beat weather analysis, and an entry into some other niche accounts. Highly recommend! Levi Cowan aka @TropicalTidbits is another good follow.
- Recent reading:
- Talked about this one with Randy on the TrapDraw this week and want to highlight it here, too, as it’s really good and shits all over a Bain & Co alum. “The Man Who Made Nike Uncool: Instead of transforming the sneaker giant into a high-tech powerhouse, John Donahoe pissed off partners and disappointed fans.” Some laugh-out-loud anecdotes in there, and some crossover with the one I linked last time about Disney. The guy got shitcanned less than a week later, but not before collecting over $100M over his five-year tenure, during which Nike stock was down 10% (and over 20% this year.) Good riddance.
- Other random recs:
- Very excited for this one from friends of the program Steven Godfrey and Ryan Nanni - “Who Killed College Football?” We’ll have them on the TrapDraw to dig in. The first episode is out now and explores the first suspect: TV.
- It’s still Popsicle SZN here in Jax and I continue to explore the full slate of JonnyPops offerings, with my current favorite being Blue Wave. Otherwise, lots of sparkling water lately - a friend turned me onto Topo Chico’s Blueberry flavor (excellent for cocktails!) and Orange/Ginger flavor. Tastefully executed flavors that taste natural and not over the top.
- Told Randy a bit about the surprise within our family when we got to the park a couple weeks ago to realize that our 4-year-old and 7-year-old were playing one another in a flag football game. WHAT. A. MORNING. In hindsight, it’s among the highlights of parenthood thus far and made me really thankful for both of our boys, their friends, and the way they all treated one another. Would recommend! Will try to post some highlights on Instagram, too.
Life lately!
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