AIR SICKNESS
When a kind vet- eran pro found out a promising young player had a coach ticket booked from a tour stop to a major championship, he invited the young player to “ride with me.” When he got to the plane, the young player discovered there were just three other pros on the flight, with execu- tives from an apparel company filling out the cabin. No issue, right? Well, major- championship weeks are like spring break for the C-Suite, and these executives got the party started early. One exec went too hard too fast and regurgitated everything he had just consumed on to the shirt of the young player. This story has a happy ending, though: The young player landed a multiyear deal with that apparel com- pany. We’re guessing that endorsement wasn’t based strictly on the quality of his play. – JOEL BEALL
THE GREATEST DAY They said it couldn’t be done. Even the fastest jet cannot eclipse the speed of the Earth’s rotation. Yet on May 16, 2020, arguably the greatest day in golf was consummated: Pine Valley, Augusta National, Cypress Point Club – then as now ranked 1, 2 and 3 on Golf Digest’s America’s 100 Greatest – in a single day. Two fourballs (most titans of their occupations, some merely very successful) teed off at Pine Valley at 5.09am, some with glow-in-the-dark balls. The sunrise in purplish glory above the ridgeline at the ninth was an unfamiliar sight. They walked off the 18th green at 7.15, and the wheels of the van were in motion by 7.20. Each transition of the day needed to be seamless, and as anyone who has flown privately will attest, it’s the avoidance of rental-car returns, check-in lines, se- curity and other common travel hassles that is the true luxury. On the flight from New Jersey to Georgia they had breakfast and changed their shirts and socks. At 10.29, they teed off at the home of the Masters for swift yet splendid rounds of three hours and 20 minutes. Back in the air, this assemblage of mostly senior golfers had lunch and indulged in massage guns and heating pads. Fighting headwinds but gaining time all the way to California, golf at Cypress Point commenced at 5pm. The final putts dropped at 8.12, precisely sunset, though 10 to 15 dusky minutes remained had they needed it. For dinner in the clubhouse, everyone had the burger. If all the rushing disturbs one’s sense that the game in great places should be savoured, know the feat was bookended by unhurried rounds the evening before at PV and the morning after at CPC. – MAX ADLER
72 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024
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