Fairway to Heaven

I have a group of friends that I have gone on a golf trip with each year since 1986. We have been going to the Brainerd, Minnesota area each year and played the Madden's courses, the Pines courses, the Preserve, Deacon's Lodge and several others through the years. In fact, we played the Pines the first year it opened and we've played Deacon's Lodge every year since it opened.

I consider Deacon's Lodge my personal home course. There is nothing in the golf world better than the twilight scramble with these friends at Deacon's. I have a mural of the 17th green on my basement wall.

In 2000, we went to Ireland with our wives. We played golf five times while on the Emerald Isle. It was a lifetime experience that left us with some wonderful memories that we often rehash.

For the past several years, we've been talking about another trip abroad. We discussed Scotland in 2015 and informally planned to make that junket. But circumstances didn't come together to make that trip a reality. So a trip to Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, a complex of four links courses and a par-3 golf course, located just north of Bandon, Oregon, in the southwest part of the state, became the consolation prize.



Needless to say, one could do much worse than this resort that has been described as "the last great meeting of sand and sea on American soil". Six of us made plans in May to make this journey to the west coast to experience the golf nirvana that is Bandon Dunes.

Our cast of characters included:

Tom Helland: Turk is a high school classmate and lifelong friend (over 50 years). We grew up two blocks from each other. He was our travel agent for this trip (which ain't easy for this crew!).

Mike Casey: Mike too, is a high school classmate and lifelong friend (again over 50 years). We grew up three blocks apart. Mike, Tom and I have been playing golf together for almost fifty years!

Emmet Kenney: Emo is a friend from our days at Creighton University where we were fraternity brothers. Emo is a friend of over 35 years. Emo is also a Final Four trip traveler with me each year.

Pat Goetzinger: Goet is my attorney and a friend for over 30 years. He was a USD college friend of Mike and Turk's. Our friendship really began with the Cahoona trips back in the mid-eighties. We share a passion for good whiskey and fine cigars.

Bob Milligan: Bob is a friend of Mike's. I did not know Bob before our Oregon trip. I think Emo was the only other one who previously knew Bob. We found Bob to have a sharp wit and quick laugh. He was a great addition to the group.

In the days leading up to the trip, Tom had a detached retina which forced him to forgo the flight to Oregon in favor of a road trip! The plane trip presented some risks that were not acceptable.

I had a scare of my own with a little "cardio event" one week prior to our junket but the doctor gave me the green light to go golfing upon my discharge. He told me to "listen to my body" (which told me to go on the trip!!).

Day 1 - Travel

So on Sunday, August 16, we all made our way to the "Beaver State" for our golf retreat. Turk had set out in his truck early the prior day. Everyone's flight went well and we met at the Eugene, OR airport just as Turk came into the baggage claim area. We grabbed a quick lunch while we waited for Mike's arrival.

Emo looking good despite a early wake up call!

It was a full day journey for all. Emo got up at 4:45 local time (which was 2:45 PDT). We arrived at the airport at noon and after lunch and a trip to the liquor store, we left Eugene about 2:00 pm. A few nature breaks later we rolled in to Bandon Dunes around 4:30 PDT.

We unpacked and headed to the practice facility. Mother Nature was showing off when we got to the practice facility. The wind was blowing 25-30 mph out of the north. It was unbelievable. We didn't last long on the practice range. It didn't seem like real effective practice when you had to cock your body into the wind as you addressed the ball. We learned then and there that you got what Mother Nature gave you at Bandon Dunes!

Goet leans in to a gust on the practice range

We went to McKee's Pub for dinner. It was pub grub served in fine fashion. The Cahoonas sampled some of the heartier selections including the braised lamb stew and roast chicken pot pie. They didn't get cheated on the beer and wine either!

Braised Lamb Stew

Roast Chicken Pot Pie

Grilled Charleston Rock Fish

(From left) Goet, Emo, Casey, Turk, me and Milligan at McKee's Pub

After dinner, a short Cahoona "session" was in order back at the the quarters. We caught the highlights from Jason Day's PGA victory earlier in the day. But mostly, we did what we do well, highlight the problems facing the world today and offer our best solutions. Of course this is all bathed in top shelf wine, scotch and whiskey (except for the heart patient who vowed to be on his best behavior!).

Day 2 - Bandon Dunes Golf Course and the Punch Bowl Putting Course

Our first day of golf found us on the tees at the Bandon Dunes course, the first course and namesake of the resort. We were two threesomes and we had a caddie in each group.

Rich was the caddie in my group. He looped for Turk and me while Goet took on Bandon Dunes by himself (with an assist here and there from Rich!).

Rich is a big strapping guy that we decided reminded us of Sam Elliot. He's about 6'4" and a hulk of a man who looks like you could hang a couple more golf bags on his frame. He guides steelhead trout fisherman during the fishing season. An avid hunter, he loves life and is a "salt of the earth" guy.

In the other group, Patrick caddied for Mike and Emo while Bob hoofed it on his own. Patrick the caddie is a laid back guy. He is a former Dakota Tour golfer who played some tourneys in "God's Country" (South Dakota). He is a free spirit who has has a lotta "use to be's" and suggested that he might still be searching for his "calling".

As advertised, the Bandon Dunes course is a spectacular layout with views that are distracting. We had 65 degree weather with a north wind that continued to build after our 10 am tee time into the afternoon. It was blowing 20-25 by the end of the round but we didn't see anything like the prior evening on the range.

I was able to put a string of five consecutive pars on the card just before and after the turn. Unfortunately, I bookended it with a few bogies and doubles. Goet and Casey carded birdies and Goet was the medalist. Scores be damned, it was a great day of golf.

With my group: Caddie Rich, Goet and Turk

After discussing our round over a couple of beers, we made our way to the Punch Bowl, the resort's 18 hole putting course. The Punch Bowl was the perfect way to quench the Cahoonas thirst for scramble golf without another 7 miles of walking.  The bonus was cocktail service on the course. In a "turd in the punch bowl" moment, Goet got  a good draw and had Emo carry him to a victory on the 18-hole putting course.

Goet looks on as Emo strokes a putt at the Punch Bowl

We returned to our rooms to clean up before dinner at the Gallery. Emo was in charge of ordering wine and hit the bullseye with a magnum bottle of Cabernet (which brought the obligatory needling from the Cahoonas).

After dinner, the Cahoonas made their way to the inner sanctum of the Bandon Dunes Resort to the Bunker Bar which featured scotch, whiskey, port wine and stogies. The centerpiece of the bar was a pool table, where Goet and Turk almost got into a rumble. What?

The Bunker Bar is one of those places that just makes men want to piss in every corner and mark their turf. The boys experienced a group like that. While you'll never meet two more diplomatic guys, Turk and Goet met their match. There was never the threat of a rumble or even an argument, but the other group were assholes! The Chicago boy (Milligan) was pushing their button at every opportunity.

Editor's note: I did not witness this incident as I was a good cardio patient and had retired for the evening! Perhaps there was some embellishment but I can only report what I heard.

Day 3 - Pacific Dunes and Bandon Preserve

We woke on Tuesday to find we had a beautiful forecast- 70 degrees and 10-12 mph wind. Anytime the wind is under 20 mph is cause for celebration here. I played with Goet and Casey on Pacific Dunes. Rich caddied for Casey and me.

With Casey and Goet at Pacific Dunes

Patrick had to chase down Casey from about 100 yards on the second hole to deliver sand wedge that he discovered he had put in Emo's bag at the end of the previous day. We were all proud of Emo for recognizing that it was not his sand wedge. Word is that it took Patrick a couple holes to recover from the 200 yard sprint!

Patrick later told Emo that he found himself some places he'd never been during the round. But it was alright because they were all very scenic!

Casey takes dead aim

Goet adds a little "body english"

Goet looks on as Casey throws a dart

Casey had birdie on Pacific Dunes which helped him be the medalist for the day. That earned him a pairing with Turk and Emo for the three man scramble at Bandon Preserve.

Goet would suggest than he made three birdies by himself at the Preserve. As Emo says, Goet puts the "I" in "teamwork". Milligan and I were so lucky to ride Goet's magic carpet. What a ride!!!

Goet did hit a marvelous shot on hole eleven. He skulled it off the box and it sliced off the backstop on the right side of the green. It rolled down the hill at the hole and settled inside a foot away. Fortunately for Goet, Milligan was there to make a putt! The magic carpet carried us to a resounding 5 shot victory.

Waiting to tee off at Bandon Preserve

Goet will also claim to have birdied hole fourteen, but the record will show that there are only thirteen holes on the Preserve. Our starter told us that designers Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw set out to design a par 3 course with 12 holes in the tradition of some of golf's oldest and greatest courses. But they found a spot for another hole so they added it, making it a baker's dozen and thus, the unorthodox number of holes on the Preserve.

Goet skulls one to within a foot

It looks like he threw a dart (we know better!)

Between Pacific Dunes and the Preserve, I logged over ten miles and my feet felt it! I could have used a foot massage! It felt real good to sit down to a glass of wine in the room at the end of the day.

Turk lays a smooth stroke on his ball

I have the Cahoonas' complete attention

We had a wonderful dinner over at Trails End in the Bandon Trails Clubhouse. The vista at dusk offered a spectacular view of the 18th green at Bandon Trails, dunes that roll to the sea and a half dozen blacktail deer. The view was punctuated by the sound (and power) of the Pacific surf hammering the coast. Outstanding!

Blacktail deer silhouette over Bandon Trails #18

Bandon Trails clubhouse

A short "session" followed but the Cahoonas were tired. After a bit nodding off without spilling their drinks, the boys made their way toward their pillows.

Day Four - Old Macdonald and the Punch Bowl

The report on Old Macdonald was that there was more than 250,000 square feet of putting surface which translates to the largest greens in America. When you putt like me, that ain't good news!

We got a calm(!) foggy day for our final golf day at the resort. With a late morning tee time, we expected the fog to burn off and the wind to pick up. But it didn't burn off all day - in fact, it got a bit thicker.

It gave a surreal feeling about the golf - like playing in a cloud. Perhaps St. Peter would be sitting by the 18th green!

Turk, Goet and Casey at Old Macdonald

We decided Rich and Patrick the caddies, were ying and yang. Both are great guys. Rich was the kind of guy I sell a new truck to and Patrick is the the kind of guy that Turk sells a craft beer to!

I played with Emo and Milligan. Rich looped for Emo and me while Bob went solo. I three putted the first four greens and generally did not play the first several holes very well. I got it together later and even carded my only birdie of the week.

Emo's golf lessons seemed to pay dividends on this round. When they heard he was coming to Bandon Dunes, his wife and youngest son went to work on getting him in (golf) shape for the trip. Diane (his wife) set him up with golf lessons and his son drug him out on the course a few times.

Milligan's misses were always in the fairway. Like a good lawyer, he stayed out of trouble and actually played better than he scored.

In the other group, Casey and Goet lit it up. The word is that there were three or four birdies between them. They shot low eighties and were both strutting around the clubhouse after their round.

From left: Me, Turk, Goet, Caddie Rich, Casey, Milligan and Emo

Before more putting at the Punch Bowl, we sat down for some beers and light lunch. Goet decided to teach Hannah, our server, how to mix a "Skirt Chaser", some libation that fueled Goet through the summer at Arrowhead. Hannah is memorized and tells Goet what a wonderful barkeep he is. The Cahoonas collectively roll their eyes. This on top of his hot round of golf cause us to suggest to Hannah that she is starting the fire and will leave it for us put it out!!

Next is eighteen (or more) holes of putting and cocktails at the Punch Bowl. First the boys broke out the winter gear. It was misting and cold - great weather for Irish coffee! Milligan was the trend setter and the Cahoonas followed like lemmings! The putting scramble was great fun and a perfect way to put and exclamation point on the golfing part of our trip.

Emo ready to drain a long one as the Cahoonas look on at the Punch Bowl

With Milligan and Casey after a little Irish coffee

Our final dinner of the trip was at the Pacific Grill which was back at the clubhouse for the Pacific Dunes and Punch Bowl. Seafood and wine was a perfect compliment to our discussion of three days at this golf nirvana. We had a great dinner and a lot of laughs.

Emo displays dessert at the Pacific Grill

A short "session" followed but after three nights, we had solved most of the world's problems. It's a lot of work and we were tired!

Day 5 - Travel

Perhaps part of the magic of Bandon Dunes is the journey involved. But that magic is lost on the way home. For me, it began with a 2 1/2 hour drive from Bandon beginning about 9:00 am local time. We arrived in Eugene about noon for a 1:00 pm flight to Salt Lake City.

After a 2 hour flight and a 90 minute layover in Salt Lake City, we boarded the first flight on which I flew over my final destination, a 2 1/2/ flight from Salt Lake City to Minneapolis, After another hour on the ground in Minneapolis, I again flew over my final destination on an hour and a half flight to Rapid City. I arrived at 10:30 local time in Rapid and after claiming luggage, I set off on a 2 1/2 hour drive home. I arrived home about 2:30 am, about 14 1/2 hours after I departed Bandon Dunes.

Epilogue

I did not include photos of the golf course here. You could spend a more time than it takes to play eighteen at Bandon Dunes looking at incredible photos of this marvelous piece of landscape. If fact, I encourage you to do just that. But they will not do it justice.

One of the ironic anecdotes of the week came from our caddie Rich who told us that he had never seen a puffin (the bird on the Bandon Dunes logo above) there.

I bought a copy of the book Dream Golf by Stephen Goodwin when I made my obligatory trip through the pro shop on our final day there. It’s a wonderful book about the site selection for and the building of Bandon Dunes. I found it to be a great resource to more fully appreciate this little slice of golf heaven.

As I reflect on my 92 hours at this golf resort, I realize how lucky I am to make the trip to this golf bucket list destination. But more significantly, I am blessed to have such great friends with whom I am able to share such a journey. Cheers boys!

Hating on Ribbons in the Garden

As I have documented in the past, I am an avid college basketball fan. I have attended 34 consecutive Final Fours. Over the years, I have attended over twenty Big 8, Big 12 and Missouri Valley Conference tournaments. I have also attended many NCAA first and second round games and regional games.

I have followed college basketball across the country and have been fortunate to see many games in many different venues. I've had the opportunity to visit with fans from schools across the country.

Two years ago, when Creighton University joined the Big East Conference, we attended the mens basketball tournament as a family. When purchasing the tickets, we were told that the Big East used a "ribbon seating" format in Madison Square Garden. In all of my college basketball travels, I had never heard of "ribbon seating". In fact, a Google search does not reveal any results that are relevant to this definition.

When I inquired with the Creighton ticket office, I was told that rather than seating fans of different schools in a "block", where they all sit together, tickets are distributed in "ribbons" or strips of two to perhaps ten seats in a row. Fans sit with and among those from other Big East schools.

The goal of "ribbon seating" is to not have big blocks of empty seats appearing on television. But the “ribbon seating" is not fooling anyone. Madison Square Garden looks empty on Wednesday night of the tournament because it is empty. The four lowest seeds are playing. There is no seating configuration that will change that.

Treating the fans well and making their experience positive, however, will do more than anything else to resolve the issue of empty seats. There are dozens (hundreds?) of prime seats (lower level at mid-court) that were empty for the first four sessions of the tournament this year. How did "ribbon seating" fix that?

I offer a couple ideas for why the Big East Conference should consider traditional block seating for fans of the Big East tournament:

First, and most importantly, traditional block seating offers a better game experience for the fans who are paying the bills. I don't know any fans that wouldn't prefer to sit with other fans of the same team. I believe the conference would take some of the pressure off the member schools because fans are not as sensitive about their priority seating if they are seating with fans of the same school.

Secondly, if all fans from each institution sit together, they will not have to be bothered by other fans sitting in front of them who don't care about the game going on and are up and down to the rest rooms or concession areas. There is nothing more annoying when trying to watch my team's game than some fan that disrupts the entire row at the least opportune time because he doesn't care about the current game. I experienced that many times during the two Big East tournaments I have attended.

Third, you would prevent animosity between fans of different schools sitting in the same section when some fans want to stand and other want to sit. Block seating circumvents this issue because fans of the same team tend to stand as a group and sit as a group. My family has been called some very special names in the "heat of the moment" the past two years. We also had our view of the court obstructed by fans holding signs and flags in front of us. Why not avoid the conflict?

Finally, it would be nice if the conference did something that is good for the fans in the arena rather than letting television dictate their every decision. I recognize the importance of the television contract. Madison Square Garden is a unique arena in that the lighting contrast between the floor and the seating is dramatic (perhaps the most dramatic of any major venue). It is difficult to see the seats because they appear quite dark on television.

I can attest to the fact that the empty seats from losing teams will find their way into the hands of basketball fans. The experience of wading through oceans of ticket scalpers on the way in to the Garden ensures that. Those blocks of seats will fill in when a school loses. The tickets are expensive. If fans choose to go home after their team loses, they will sell their ticket prior to their departure. But when a team loses, there is a better chance fans will go to remaining tournament games if they can sit in the block of fellow supporters of their school rather than among fans of other schools.

This is not the old Big East where most schools were a short drive away. Five schools, Creighton (1,100 miles), Marquette (900 miles), DePaul (800 miles), Butler (700 miles) and Xavier (600 miles) all required air transportation to get to New York for a weekend tournament. Add the cost of four nights in the hotel and four days of meals in the city and you have a considerable investment by a fan of any of these schools to attend the tournament.

The fans in the arena are customers. Please treat us as such. Make our experience a better one. Let us sit with each other after we make that investment to support the Big East Conference.

C'mon Big East. I urge you to consider changing the seating for future Big East Men's Tournaments to a tradition block configuration. If the only reason you can give for utilizing "ribbon seating' is that "it is the way we've always done it", then it's time to re-think it.

P.S. I received a response to the letter I sent to the Big East commissioner.  "The BIG EAST Conference is always searching for ways to improve the fan experience and we are spending the summer working with MSG staff and our institutional ticket and marketing representatives to review our current ticketing practices and methods.  We will be certain to incorporate your thoughts into our discussions." It was copied and pasted very neatly into the email.

Have a Great Memorial Day Weekend!

So I am committed to this blog now. I have passed off the Facebook posting responsibilities for our store page to Paula and will now be blogging regularly. You can expect thought on lots of different topics here. It won't be all about cars; in fact it won't be much about cars.

If you use a news reader, I have added the gadget that allows you to subscribe to this nonsense. The subscription is priced right anyway! If you have thoughts or comments, please respond. Dialogue is much more fun than monologue.

So my wife, Judy, and 14 year-old daughter, Sarah, are off to DC to see our other daughter, Rachel, for the extended weekend. I know they are looking forward to their visit. I'm sure Rachel has all kinds of plans.

With the college-student son, Alex, in Omaha for the summer, that leaves me at home alone. I have my (Judy's) list written with dry-erase marker on the bathroom mirror: feed the dogs, water the flowers, and water the garden. That leaves the rest of the weekend wide open for a little sailing, a little golfing and some handyman work that needs to get done.

The forecast calls for wind, and lots of it, so the sailing will be at the top of the list. Golf and handyman projects be damned!

But Memorial Day weekend means time for the grill and even though I'm cooking for one, I am thinking about some kind of smoked pork project - maybe ribs, maybe a tenderloin. If I cook it early in the weekend, I can eat leftovers until Judy rescues me! I'll get back to you on that one and let you know how it turns out.

So in addition to remembering those who have sacrificed for our freedom this Memorial Day, please have a safe and happy holiday!