A CEO, Commissioner and Ambassador walk in...

Tournament Players Club Louisiana
July 2007
Avondale, La. (20 minutes from Downtown New Orleans)

Dear Family and Friends--

Norman has big eyes, the kind kids with something to believe in have. He’s 15, and I’ll bet he believes he can win the U.S. Open someday. Fantasies like these make kids great—and unaware of suits and slacks, shakes and waves, the day to days of grown-up business.

The PGA TOUR’s Commissioner, the CEO of Zurich Financial Services and the Former U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland addressed hundreds of Zurich Classic of New Orleans advocates and donors the other day. They announced the agreement to keep Zurich title sponsor of the professional tournament until 2010. Tournament organizers also announced that over400,000 will be given to charity from the 2007 event.

Chad, Chris and Norman are products of the First Tee program, whose mission is to give non-traditional junior golfers an opportunity to learn and play the game so many admire.

“Who has the best golf game?” I asked.

“I do,” they all said.

“We’ll have to see about that,” I said.

So Norman, Chris and Chad followed me to a hole on the green. “Ok, right here, six feet,” I said.

Chad, 10, was the sure underdog. He had a training set of clubs. Chris, 11, was also new to the game. But Norman? He dedicates his free time to golf.

Chad sinks his first, but goes one for three from six feet. Chris hits his first putt 12 feet, his second putt four feet, but nails the last.

Norman leaves his first two attempts short. “Oh man, I can’t lose to you kids,” he says. He makes his third attempt.

“Sudden death.” I say. “Oh yeah,” Chad says.

But Chad misses. Then Chris misses. Norman makes his putt with a “you’ve got a long way to go kids” smile on his face.

I gave them a wave and walked off the green. I had to do grown-up stuff. On the putting green, fantasy still rules. It’s the best thing about being young.

You can be a U.S. Open champion, someday.

Inside, suits and ties, microphones and cameras fixated on lottery-style checks and heartfelt words from a few very important people. A CEO, Commissioner and Ambassador--three dreams come true, I’m sure.

But they have to wear suits. And rarely get big trophies.

Best—

Robert

This week's column picked up by Omaha World Herald

Family and Friends--

Omaha World Herald picked up this week's column/blog. Had me follow Omahan Scott Gutschewski (GOOT-CHEF-SKI) at the PGA TOUR's Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

70 and sunny. Food and Drinks. Locker and Player's Dining room access--all very fun.

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1200&u_sid=2370937

Best,
Robert

New Orleans City Park Golf Course: Once a TOUR Stop, Always a TOUR Stop?

New Orleans City Park
Week of March 15, 2007
New Orleans, La.

Family and Friends--

The New Orleans City Park, massive and pre-KATRINA wonderful, is one of "America's Great Parks."

Post-KATRINA, people frisbee, dogs walk, and the solitude of a sunset is still an experience that hundreds of New Orleans' residents experience daily.

But you won't find golfers, anymore. Well, I take that back. A rinky-dink driving range still operates.

But what used to be in City Park? Three championship-length golf courses. One, with a world-class pedigree and former host of the PGA TOUR stop in New Orleans from 1939-1962.

Also, the golf courses were the City Park's largest revenue generator.

Today, on the roof of the Bayou Oaks columned clubhouse, a blue tarp covers much of the structure's left side. The green front door swings open.

I go in. I have a sand wedge in my hand--for the rats.

The clubhouse is massive. When a structure is gutted to its planks, you can really get a feel for square-footage, for the true size of it.

It looks like the Bayou Oaks clubhouse had several rooms: a proshop, male and female locker rooms, a bar and restaurant, and possibly a bag room/caddy shack.

The only sense of organization around this place is actually outside. It's a Xerox machine. One of the big ones that once was capable a major collations, copies and faxes. The glass underneath the lid is cracked badly, wires and chips obviously flooded.

As I walk out the back door down the path that Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer used to take to the Championship Course's first tee.

I have to step around the cracked concrete and into the unkempt bush. The course is totally overgrown now. Crabgrass. Weeds. Dandelions. You name it, it's there. I walked out to the blue 200 yard line painted on the first hole cart place. I could see what this place used to look like.

What Palmer and Hogan used to see. What thousands of amateurs had seen before August, 2005.

The first tee waiting table and starter booth still stand. All the signs remain. I wonder where the starters, typically old retired military or school teachers, have gone. I'm sure many of them evacuated hoping their golf salvation would be the same when they came back.

As it turns out, several thousand people have not been able to return to New Orleans. Going off of evacuee statistics, many people who love this place more than I can know haven't seen what I'm seeing.
And that's sad.

The marble first tee marker is cracked in half. The 150-yard marker in what looks like the 18th fairway is being overcome by grass.

Hardly the same walk Hogan or Palmer made up the old-18th.

I'm sure people walk through and say, "This used to be the Bayou Oaks golf course."

Soon I hope, it will be a course again. Then someone could check it off as another "used to be" revitalized from the post-KATRINA rebuild list. It'd sure be nice to see people out here again.

At least the sunset is beautiful tonight. And somewhere on these grounds a frisbee game is finishing and a woman walks her dog. A man reads his book.

It's a start.

Best to you,

Robert

To donate to the rebuilding of the 1,300 acre New Orleans City Park, visit: http://neworleanscitypark.com/