August 29, 2006 7:23pm
32,000 feet
Delta Flight 1433
Greetings from flight 1433 at 32,000 feet in the air. I’m returning from the most amazing golf trip, and possibly the most amazing single day of golf I’ve experienced.
Today I woke up in Sterling Colorado, about 60 miles east of the Colorado/Nebraska border. Jay Flemma, Eddie Peck and myself drove to the town of Holyoke and met our pal Adam Clayman 12 miles from the Nebraska border.
From there we drove straight into some corn fields, literally on dirt farming access roads. After about 15 miles of dirt roads and a few dusty turns, we made it to Ballyneal Golf Course. This course is in the middle of absolutely nowhere.
Ballyneal Golf Course
This is where I had one of the best golfing days I’ve experienced. The short version (long version to come after my plane lands and I can decompress for a few days): I played an absolutely amazing course designed by Tom Doak. The course isn’t even open yet. It opens in about 2 weeks. The design, routing, terrain and especially my playing partners were 2nd to none. By the way, “routing” is a buzzword I learned on this trip by hanging out with 3 golf course architecture geeks. A few more buzzwords to come.
Witnessed a hole in one, the first at Ballyneal
I was cruising along at -1 when we got to the 5th tee. The 5th hole is a par 3 at 165 yards uphill. My buddy Eddie teed off with an 8-iron. The shot was pure butter and never left the flagstick. It bounced on the front of the green and then released into the hole for an ACE! Not only was this ace Eddie’s first, it was the first ace recorded at Ballyneal. Historic event to say the least. Jay Flemma jumped up in the air with his hands raised and did his best Phil Mickelson ’04 Masters jump imitation. I do think Jay got a little higher in the air than Phil did, about 3 inches.
Read Jay’s version of this story here.
Final descent
Oh, I have to “turn off all electronic devices” now. The plane is starting to descend on home. I do wonder about the whole “cell phones may interfere with the plane’s navigational systems” comments the flight crew says though. So… if I send a text message to my girlfriend the plane might go off course and land in Russia or something?
More to come on this amazing golf experience, much more.
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