June 2010: Where's Matty G?: Golf Digest

A Postcard From Wales, Day 4

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 Comments

These golf trips are always a blur. By day four I was distracted by a lack of sleep. So much golf by day, followed by watching soccer and then other stuff by night. (Please send all sympathy to: matt.ginella@golfdigest.com.)

On this day I stumbled from a slumber to meet John Wake, a former senior detective in the local police force:

Wake says that he never carried a gun but he was stabbed several times in the line of duty. He grew a moustache to hide a scar he got when he put his lip in the way of a perpetrator’s blade.

Wake is currently a human Google of Celtic history, including castles, King Arthur (did he exist?), lighthouses, industrial archeology and . . . wait for it . . . Vietnamese potbelly pigs. (If you want to know, it’d be best to let Wake explain.)

Safe to say that Wake is a lot of things, and when my travel story comes out in August, I’ll post a video of the Cardiff tour he conducted, but he’s not a golfer. “No thank you,” he says. Again, he’s a smart man. He’s also an author and a songwriter. He has written several books (none have been published yet) but some of his songs are on YouTube. This is “The A470 Song, The Iconic UK Road to Wales.”

Not bad. Among other things, Wake showed me the National Museum of Wales:

The Cardiff University:

The Welsh National War Memorial:

And the Castell Coch:

It was a great tour. If you have a small group (two or three) and you’re also serious about any subjects that are in Wake’s wheelhouse, you can reach him by e-mail: info@wales-tours.com.

Wake cracked me up and he could charm the crown off a queen, so keep your wives or girlfriends at an arm’s length.

On the subjects of loved ones, in the afternoon I went back to Royal Porthcawl for one more round at my latest on my list of favorites:

I like it so much that I actually spoke to Martin Bond, the club secretary, about the cost of overseas memberships.

He told me there were a few options. Either way I’d have to spend some time there and get to know a few of the local members. If I was serious, eventually I’d need some sponsors. But the first and most realistic option is to try for a “country membership.” I’d pay about $750 annually and that would cover all of my golf, regardless if I played three or 30 rounds per year. (It would take about five rounds to make it cost-effective.)

The other option is an overseas life membership, which is a single payment of a little more than $20,000, and then you’re a member for life. (Locals pay a little more than $2,000 annually to be a member at Royal Porthcawl.)

I didn’t see them, but there are 12 rooms at Royal Porthcawl. They’re called dormys, and I get the sense they aren’t much bigger than dorm rooms (six are singles and six contain twin beds). “They’re more functional than luxurious,” says Bond, “but they satisfy a need.”

You’d pay $67 per night for a single and $60 per person per night to stay in a twin. Both prices include breakfast. Bond says, “A lot of our guests roll out of bed, have breakfast, play 18 holes, eat lunch, go back for another 18, eat dinner, have a few pints and then go to bed.”

I was tempted to ask Bond if he’d be my first sponsor. And then I had one more pint while I waited for a cab to take me to Celtic Manor. Cheers:

--Matty G.

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A Postcard From Wales, Day 3

Sunday, June 27, 2010 Comments

From the moment the flimsy security gate goes up at the entrance of Royal Porthcawl Golf Club (1891), I get the sense that this is the course that would anchor any golf trip to southern Wales. It’s a world-class track that has hosted a slew of high-profile events, including the 1995 Walker Cup. That was the year that Gary Wolstenholme, the English amateur, beat a young Tiger Woods, even though Woods was hitting driver-wedge into some of the downwind par 5s.

Since 1995, almost 100 yards have been added to the 12th hole, which now plays 575 yards from the back tees. So the story goes, Tiger made an albatross on the 507-yard 17th hole during one of the practice rounds.

Rumored to be a possible venue for an upcoming British Open, this is Royal Porthcawl’s clubhouse, which looks out to the rolling waves of Rest Bay:

A day of golf and surf is an option if you bring a longboard and a thick wetsuit. The men’s locker room is a scenic spot to change into your golf shoes:

Here’s the 374-yard first hole:

Through October, you’ll pay $146 during the week, $178 on weekends. Pay $213 to play all day during the week, $260 on weekends. (Weekday rates include lunch.) Here’s a link to the rates page of Porthcawl’s website.

This is a view from behind the third green:

The big structure you see in the distance is Rest Home, which is actually a rest home. If Porthcawl is to ever get a British Open, according to some locals, Rest Home might be bought and converted into a hotel.

There are a lot of bunkers protecting par at Porthcawl. The kind of bunkers that might as well be played as water hazards because they’re so deep they’re at least a one-stroke penalty. This is a shot of the 122-yard seventh hole:

A few holes later, at the 184-yard 11th, I came across an example of just how mean the bunkers can be:

It took some poor maintenance guy another three Toros to get out. It took one of my playing partners three strokes to get out of one of the neighboring bunkers.

After the round there was a buzz around the Porthcawl clubhouse: Ian Botham was there. To be honest, my reaction was, Who is Ian Botham?

“The Babe Ruth of cricket,” someone said.

I grabbed my camera and notebook and tracked him down:

It’s actually Sir Ian Botham--(nickname is “Beefy”) and here’s a link to his Wikipedia page. I think “Babe Ruth of cricket” is all you need to know. I guess he was legendary at pitching and catching, but in cricket terms:

Botham, 54, is now an avid golfer. He’s a member at Archerfield Links in Scotland, Sunningdale and Darlington in England. He told me Alistair Mackenzie designed Darlington, “But on a few holes, we’re not sure what the old bloke was thinking.”

Botham says he enjoys Porthcawl and plays to an 8-handicap, so we had that in common. It turns out, regrettably, but based on an old prom picture, that Botham and I also both went with a mullet at one point.

Oh, the “fun” of Facebook. What was I Thinking???

Botham was skipping the England/Slovenia soccer game that afternoon. (Botham actually had a brief run as a “footballer” for a few years.) Botham ripped the professional soccer players. He thinks they’re soft and that the players get paid too much. “When they’re asked to play for their country, they have no bottle.” I assume that means no heart. (We’d find out a few days later, when England took it in the shin guards against Germany, that Botham was right.)

Botham is good friends with Ian Woosnam and shares a similar reputation: They both party as hard as they played, but you have to give Botham a lot of credit, he has used his fame to raise more than $45 million for charity.

After the round I spoke to the club secretary about another tee time at Royal Porthcawl for the following day, which meant I had to tweak my itinerary, but I knew I had to get another crack at this course before I left the country. Some of my favorite courses in Scotland and Ireland are Tralee, Lahinch, Dornoch and Turnberry. I’d put Porthcawl in that company.

Before I left I had a few more pints in the men’s lounge, which also has a great view of Rest Bay, and the walls were dripping with golf lore:

After another day of perfect weather (70 degrees and a slight breeze), I was wondering if I could rent a room at Rest Home.

--Matty G.

(Photographs of Woods/Wolstenholme and Botham in action are courtesy of Getty Images. The picture of me at the prom is by some guy who should be shot.)

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A Postcard From Wales, Day 2

Saturday, June 26, 2010 Comments

I’m having quite the week in Wales. This country is full of nice people, I’ve had plenty of decent meals and there are an endless number of pubs with personality. (One pub I went to is haunted.) I’ve come across some persnickety sheep and you'd love the affordable links golf. (One has a history of landmines.)

My first night in Swansea I stayed at Morgans, the small city’s only five-star hotel, which is located near the Mumbles and Gower coastline:

Swansea was home of Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) who wasn’t a golfer, but he was a famous Welsh poet.

For the first round of two on Tuesday, I played Southerndown Golf Club:

Established in 1905, when I arrived at Southerndown I met Alan Hughes, the club's chief executive. Among other tidbits of info Hughes dealt me as quick as cards, Hughes passed on a history of the Duncan Putter, which is an annual amateur tournament played at his club. Willie Park Jr., and Harry Colt have both been involved in the design of Southerndown. Henry Cotton, who won three British Opens (1934, ‘37 and ‘48), once remarked about the club's first hole: “Bracken to the left, bracken to the right, and a fairway rising up to the sky--the first at Southerndown is one of the most difficult opening holes in golf.”

It plays 367 yards and Hughes said Cotton wanted to make it a par 5.

I love the fact that the sheep still “own” Southerndown. Once, a very long time ago, the land that is now Southerndown was deemed infertile, so the rights were turned over to the “commoners.” And one of the commoner's rights, to this day, is to be able to graze their sheep on this land. A few local farmers still take advantage of their rights and the club still has to pay them a few thousand pounds every year for what's considered a, “disturbance fee.” That covers the golfers disturbance of the sheep. Some of them look at you like you're a disturbance, especially the ones with a limp. (I assume they've stood in front of a topped shot, in which case, they’ve earned the benefits of a small fee.) This pretentious bunch of sweaters only has one line of defense, which is to littler the links with their droppings, so expect a mess.

That being said, you'll spend more time appreciating the views at Southerndown than you will looking down at the droppings, and the golf course is a lot of fun:

After golf I caught some soccer and a massive lunch at the Pelican, which is at the base of the slope leading up to Southerndown:

I’m not saying you eat healthy in Wales, but with the amount of walking you do, you'll burn plenty of calories to eat and drink as you please. The portions at the Pelican are generous, so order accordingly:

After lunch I picked up an afternoon round at Pyle and Kenfig. Locals call it P&K. It's also a Harry Colt original (1922), but Philip Mackenzie Ross added some holes in the late 1940s. This is one of my favorite holes of the trip so far, P&K's 11th:

It plays 509 yards, doglegs to the left and there are twin pot bunkers 60-yards from the front of the green.

Buckle up before the back nine of P&K--it’s a bumpy ride with lots of sharp twists and turns. It’s also where they once discovered an active landmine (no one was injured), so I stayed light in my Adidas as I looked for lots of lost balls.

I met a few more kids along the way. They have a nine-hole junior academy course at P&K and roughly 50 junior members (ages 5 to 17). Wales is having a similar problem than we are in the States--keeping kids attracted to the game of golf. (More thoughts on this in a future blog about high school golf.)

This is (from left): Tom Beadle, 15, Cameron Morris, 12, (who they call “Scotty Cameron”), George Beadle, 12, Tom Furneux, 14, and Brad Young, 15:

That’s George Beadle’s bag, which is just about as big as he is. These guys all used trolleys (pull carts) and they pay 100 pounds per year for unlimited golf. Only one of their dad’s is a member of P&K and their favorite players are Sergio, Phil and Paddy.

Dylan Williams, the pro at P&K (and a guy you should get to know if you're planning a golf trip to Wales), treated me to a post-round visit to the Jolly Sailor, “The oldest Pub in Porthcawl,” where we watched Argentina beat Greece. (How good is Lionel Messi?)

Locals will tell you there is still a tunnel that runs from the Jolly Sailor, under the church across the street, all the way down to the docks. They used the tunnel to smuggle in illegal goods and the locals will also tell you the Jolly Sailor is haunted. I didn’t stick around long enough to find out. I did, however, stick around for a few pints. Beer is undefeated after a round of golf. It tastes even better in a Porthcawl Pub full of locals and watching the World Cup:

Williams started Wales Golf Vacations and he’s a well-liked local. Especially at LaRaj, the Indian food restaurant just down the street. A must if you're hungry. Williams says people drive for hours for the food at LaRaj. After dinner, I could see why. The owner was disappointed to find out I was a journalist for Golf Digest. His favorite magazine is Playboy.

You can play Southerndown for somewhere between 35 and 75 pounds, depending on the day, time and time of the year. (Right now, 75 pounds is $111.) It’s about the same price range to play P&K.

So two days into the trip and I had played three courses with almost 300 years of history. I have tiptoed through explosives, been scared of ghosts, shocked by hot wires, spiced by curry and stared down by something furry.

A Postcard From Wales, Day 1

Wednesday, June 23, 2010 Comments

I'm touring golf courses in Southern Wales this week. My itinerary includes: Pennard, Southerndown, Pyle and Kenfig (aka P&K), Royal Porthcawl and the Twenty Ten Course at Celtic Manor. I have time to play one course twice. I'm figuring it will be Royal Porthcawl, widely considered the best in the country and also loosely rumored to be a future British Open venue.

I landed in London on Monday morning, drove almost four hours to Swansea (bad traffic), dropped bags at Morgans Hotel and played Pennard in the afternoon. I echo a common tip to Americans taking the redeye from NY to the UK: Push through the first day without taking a nap. It's the only way to hobble jet lag.

There will be a few stories in Golf Digest and Golf World about this trip to Wales, but here are some pictures to kick off the coverage:

The first thing I noticed at Pennard was the black cows roaming the course. This fuel efficient Toro was trimming the edge of the third tee:

With grazing cattle comes the need to keep them off the putting surface. Hence the short electrical wire surrounding the first green:

Not all of the wires are hot all of the time, but I wasn't about to test the system. I've witnessed a playing partner top the current when I was on a trip to Scotland. He was lining up a putt and dropped his anchor. Zow! As in a Batman comic. This guy looked like someone tipped his chair forward and he lined up the rest of his putts that day Villegas-style.

The other adverse condition to cows on the course:

Pies attract the little guys. I was encouraged to see some juniors playing Pennard. Meet (from left to right): Aled White, 18, Tai Yasuda, 18, Tom Radcliffe, 12, and Callum Dale, 14.

These scrappers are all locals. Kids will usually pay about 100 pounds per year for unlimited golf at a club like Pennard. They told me they love links golf in Wales, that they play a lot of match play, they usually bet Pro V1s and that the best game they play is, "Touch the wire."

Loser has to touch the live wire near the green. Shocking, sorry, but it's true.

Pennard gets real good at about the seventh hole, when you start playing out to Three Cliffs Bay:

The old church ruins on the seventh fairway reminded me a little of North Berwick, in Scotland. Emphasis on "a little." But ruins on the course are undefeated in the charm column.

I made my first birdie of the day at the 207-yard 13th, which was charming:

Some of the best views of Three Cliffs Bay were from the 16th hole:

My foursome let through so many twosomes that the never ending round tested the longest day of the year. Here's the view of the Pennard clubhouse under the light of the moon as I walked off the 18th green:

You can play Pennard for 40 pounds during the week, 50 pounds on the weekends. Cows, kids, pies, wires, ruins and sweet scenery are all included.

--Matty G.

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Golf And Travel: Summer Savings

Tuesday, June 22, 2010 Comments

“Where should we go for a golf getaway this summer?”

I get asked that a lot. Last week that was the focus of my discussion with Russ Evans and Pat Rooney Jr. of “Golf Exchange,” which airs every Sunday morning (8 a.m.-10 a.m.) on both ESPN 760-AM in West Palm Beach and 790-AM “The Ticket” in Miami.

Here’s an audio clip of that conversation:

I mentioned the “Donald Ross Package” at Pinehurst, which is $395 for two rounds of golf, accommodations for a night, a dinner the day you check in and breakfast on the day you check out. If you can get together a group of eight or more, or you’re looking for a buddies trip destination, Pinehurst has created the “Buddy Trip of a Lifetime” package. Here’s the page on their website with more details.

They’re always “giving it away ” on the RTJ Trail, but especially this time of year. Last I checked it was unlimited golf for $99 per day.

As I said to Russ and Pat, golf is teetering on being reasonable right now. And I made the point that you can learn more about the deals at your favorite places by finding the “golf packages” page on almost every destination's website.

Scanning a few more of my favorite spots, I found the “Unlimited Crosswater Golf Experience” up in Central Oregon. Through the end of September, you get: lodging, a round at Crosswater per day and unlimited golf on any of the three courses at Sunriver Resort, starting at $244 per night.

Another good spot this time of year is Treetops in Michigan. You get four courses, all with a 4.5-star rating by Golf Digest, and they have one of the best par 3 courses I’ve ever played. Check out the “Perfect Week” package: $770 per person gets you five nights of lodging, five rounds of golf (includes cart) and you get nine holes of on-course instruction.

One bit of bad news to report: Bethpage Black raised their prices this year. New York residents are now paying $65 during the week and $75 on weekends. (Up $15 in both cases.) For non-residents, you’ll pay $130 during the week and $150 on weekends. (Up $30 in both cases.)

Regardless, I still say The Black is one of the best deals in golf.

And while on the topic of good deals, I'm in Wales this week. Tomorrow I'll post a few pictures from the first two days of my trip.

--Matty G.

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Need Two For Pebble On Tuesday

Thursday, June 17, 2010 Comments

I'm actually headed to Wales on Sunday. But if you're inspired by what you see on TV, you could potentially play Pebble Beach the day after a U.S. Open playoff. I went to Pebble's website and found tee times next week--lots of them.

Here are the openings on the tee sheet next Tuesday:

I spoke to a reservation agent. If you call and book one day in advance, you don't have to stay at the resort. Bottom line: if any of these times are available on Monday, you'd pay $495 to walk. Add $35, per person, if you take a cart and add $75, per bag, if you decide to take a caddie (plus gratuity).

What about next Friday?

--Matty G.

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More On Hershey, Pa. Part 4: Mark Henry

Wednesday, June 16, 2010 Comments

Mark Henry was only 18 when he caddied for Gene Sarazen in the 1940 PGA Championship, which was held at the West course of the Hershey Country Club. Back then a looper would get 75 cents a bag. “If you really did a good job,” says Henry, “you got a buck.”

When I was in town to report a travel story for the July issue of Golf Digest, Henry, 88, gave me a tour of Hershey’s West course (above). Built in 1930, designed by Maurice McCarthy, it was my favorite of the three courses I played when I was in town. (The East course is underrated and I think the Links course, at $120, is overpriced.)

Among other things, I appreciated the history of golf in Hershey. Henry Picard and Ben Hogan were both pros at the Hershey Country Club. In the late 1930s, Milton Hershey, who was an avid golf fan, would invite some of the top pros to town for a two-man team event, round robin style. It was popular with the locals and it was another tool to spike tourism.

Henry told me that Byron Nelson (above), who went on to win the 1940 PGA Championship, would play in these small tournaments. In 1937 Nelson hit a tee shot on the 15th hole (what is now the ninth hole of the West course) and he never found it. Stroke and distance cost Nelson two shots and in the end, $300 in prize money. A few weeks later a check for $300, made out to Byron Nelson, arrived at the club. A woman in New York read a tournament recap. She was at the tournament and picked up a ball out of the rough at the 15th hole, not knowing it belonged to Nelson. Henry said she wanted the money delivered to Nelson so she could sleep at night. Henry asked, “I wonder what ever happened to that golf ball?”

Henry told me he still tries to get in 100 annual rounds of golf. He said, “I’m so old that shooting my age is a bad score.”

Here’s a short video I made after my tour with Henry. He tells stories about his days as a caddie at Hershey, how Hogan worked on his high fade, and I ask Henry to rank Hogan, Nicklaus and Woods.

--Matty G.

Click here for Part 1: Milton Hershey.

Click here for Part 2: The Juvenile Course.

Click here for Part 3: Kids And Todd Kramer.

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More On Hershey, Pa. Part 3: Kids And Todd Kramer

Monday, June 14, 2010 Comments

The reason I’m spending so much time (and words) on Hershey is because I came back from Pennsylvania with more than just a travel story about affordable theme parks, streetlights in the shape of Kisses and intersections of E. Chocolate and Cocoa Avenues.

Of course you can get in and out of town having only experienced the facade of fantasyland. Millions do every year. But there were some compelling pockets of reality in Hershey as well.

One afternoon I sat in a chair in Founders Hall (pictured below), the second largest unsupported dome in the world, which is located on the campus of the Milton Hershey School. (The largest unsupported dome is St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome).

I barely had time to be impressed by the setting before they started rolling in, one after another, carrying book bags, heavy hearts, but no excuses for their lots in life.

Some of the stories of how and why certain students land at Milton Hershey School wouldn’t just melt your heart, they’d melt your soul. One girl came to MHS and when she walked the golf course, she had a pronounced limp. It was assumed she had turned an ankle. The golf staff later discovered she was missing three and a half toes--a victim of child abuse.

I was at Founders Hall to meet with a group of students who had more in common than just the label of being “underprivileged.” These kids shared a sense of a second chance in life--but more relevant to my visit, they all had a passion for golf.

There were five of them, ranging in ages from 12 to 17, and they formed a half circle in front of me. I told them how valuable an introduction to the game of golf would be once they got older. That when they braved the world of business, even if they go away from golf when they are in college, a foundation in the game, and the core values of the sport, will always be there to build on again one day.

If you think of kids as a garden, planting golf as one of the seeds can produce fruits in their future.

When I asked them what they liked about golf, they all agreed it was a good mental diversion from school and some negative temptations.

“Golf gets me out of trouble,” said Jarrod, 15. “And I like that no matter how small you are, you can hit it far.”

“All I can think about is golf,” said Arman, 17. “Golf gets my mind off studying and the decision about where I want to go to college. It’s definitely my release.”

Adam, 15, started playing when he was in seventh grade. “I couldn’t hit the ball at first,” he said. “Now it takes my mind off school, and it’s relaxing for me.”

I asked each one, “Who is your favorite golfer?”

“I like Phil,” said Donovan, 16, who you met in my previous blog post. “He takes his time, I like his focus and he has a good attitude.”

I told you in the previous blog post that Donovan started playing golf because he couldn’t be beaten in the Tiger Woods video game.

Arman asked me what I thought of Tiger. I told him he should seek out a new role model. That too often we try to jam our favorite athletes into the peg of perfect, and too often they let us down. Tiger is a great golfer, which doesn’t make him a great man.

“I was the No. 1 Tiger fan in the world,” Arman told me. “I used to use stuff from his website. I can’t do that anymore.”

Who is Adam’s favorite pro? “It’s Jim Reed,” he said. “He’s the only pro I’ve played with, and the other day, he put a shot over the trees.”

You also met Reed in my previous post. He’s the director of golf at Spring Creek, the nine-hole course originally built by Milton Hershey in 1934, specifically for kids.

Keirstin, 12, who beats all of the boys her age, agreed with Adam. “I don’t watch golf,” she said, “but if I had a favorite pro, I’d also say Jim Reed.”

And then Jarrod provided his perspective. “Jim Furyk is my favorite pro,” he said. “He’s not a stuck-up golfer. You have to be respectable and he does good on and off the course. But If it wasn’t for Mr. Reed and Mr. Kramer, I wouldn’t be here right now, doing this interview with Golf Digest.”

(From left: Jarrod, Adam, Todd Kramer, Donovan, Keirstin, and Arman.)

Todd Kramer is one of 286 “houseparents” who manage one of 143 houses built for the students of the school. Kramer, who played on some mini-tours before he got married, volunteered to be the school’s golf coordinator. Kramer and his wife are raising two kids of their own, as well as 12 of the kids at the school. Kramer abandoned his dream of the PGA Tour; now he’s in Hershey working with Reed to cultivate new dreams.

“It’s still grass roots,” says Kramer. “We’re simply trying to introduce them to the game.”

The golf program Kramer and Reed have started is nine weeks long. They preach the nine core values established by the First Tee program: Honesty, Integrity, Sportsmanship, Respect, Confidence, Responsibility, Perseverance, Courtesy and Judgment. They focus on one of the values each week.

“We’re still in our infancy,” said Kramer, who helped start this program with Reed four years ago. “I felt the course and golf hadn’t been utilized. Jim has been the link to the course, organizing equipment, tee times, doing whatever we need to do. My goal is to introduce them to a game and sport that has numerous lessons to be learned, many of which they’d normally never be exposed to. Hopefully, if they get out into the business world, golf isn’t uncomfortable to them.”

Who needs a role model like Tiger Woods when you have Jim Reed and Todd Kramer?

--Matty G.

(Photographs by Bjorn Iooss x 3; Founders Hall, courtesy of Milton Hershey School website.)

Click here for Part 1: Milton Hershey.

Click here for Part 2: The Juvenile Course.

Part 4: Mark Henry, who caddied for Gene Sarazen at the 1940 PGA Championship, will post on Wednesday.

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More On Hershey, Pa. Part 2: The Juvenile Course

Friday, June 11, 2010 Comments

Kids and golf: That seems to be industry’s hot topic lately. If Milton Hershey were alive today, he might laugh, cry or say, “I told you so.”

Combining his passions of golf and kids, Hershey (pictured above, in 1921) was the first to create a nine-hole course exclusively for kids under the age of 18, in 1934. The only way an adult could play the Juvenile Course was as a guest of a kid.

Can you imagine?

Father to son: “Hey, Johnny, can I get in your game on Saturday morning?”

Son to father: “You’re out this week, Dad. I didn’t like the way you spoke to Mom on Tuesday night. Maybe next week, if you work hard and come home with a better attitude, then I’ll hold a spot for you.”

The First Tee program reports one step forward: It started with four chapters in 1997 and now has 204 chapters, more than 3.5 million participants and 1,100 affiliated golf courses that offer participants free or reduced access.

The National Golf Foundation, however, reports two steps back: There were 3.8 million junior golfers between the ages of 6 and 17 in 2005, but only 2.9 million in 2008.

I continue to beat the bucket of balls that golf has become too hard, too expensive and too exclusive. As I travel around I look back at 8,000-yard tees that are supposed to be our future, but I can’t scratch up an 8-year-old marching down the middle of a fairway, carrying a bag bigger than his body, playing his buddy for the front seat on the ride home.

And then I was in Hershey and went to the Juvenile Course, which is now called Spring Creek (pictured above). It’s still packed with juniors, but they’ve joined the trend of less exclusive as well: Adults can play without an invite from a kid.

I saw foursomes of classmates, grandparents with grandchildren, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters; I saw $5 green fees for kids ($12 for adults) and 90-minute rounds full of topped shots, whiffs and lots of laughs.

I met Jim Reed, 59, who is in his fourth season as the director of golf at Spring Creek. He says the course does 17,000 annual rounds, and 3,200 of those are by students of the Milton Hershey School.

“In the last two years we’ve been able to put clubs in the hands of 225 new Milton Hershey students who have never played before,” Reed says. “We have a program that uses golf as a hook, but our focus is to connect kids with life skills.”

Spring Creek underwent a $1 million renovation in 2006, and it’s in great shape. Tight fairways are lined by tall trees; there are fast greens and two sets of tees, 2,125 and 1,701 yards for a par of 33. The longest of six par 4s is 387 yards; the shortest of three par 3s is 76 yards.

Reed (pictured above) played his first round of golf in 1959. He was in third grade, and it was at the Juvenile Course. “I’ve come back to where I started,” he says.

And now, if we can follow Reed’s lead and come back to what Milton Hershey started, the game will have a bright future.

--Matty G.

Click here for Part 1: Milton Hershey.

Part 3: Todd Kramer And The Kids, will post on Monday.

(Photographs by: Hershey Community Archives; Bjorn Iooss x 3.)

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More On Hershey, Pa. Part 1: Milton Hershey

Wednesday, June 9, 2010 Comments

This will be a series of blog posts about my four days in Hershey, Pa. I was there in late April, and I came back with the Away Game feature in this month’s issue of Golf Digest. But there was a lot left over. And as any good carnivore knows, the tender meat is always closest to the bone.

Yeah, yeah, Hershey, Pa., is a truly sweet spot. Yeah, yeah, it smells like chocolate. Yeah, yeah, there is great golf, comfy accommodations and a theme park. All of that’s in the Away Game. The town of Hershey was so sweet, in fact, I had to start asking, “Was Milton Hershey, the man who started it all, for real?” I did my due diligence. And then I dug some more. (An indictment on nothing more than my cynical DNA.)

On my way out of town, still trying to eat my way through one thick bar of PR, I called a trusted source of all things Pennsylvania. Jack McCallum is my golf buddy and former colleague at Sports Illustrated who lives up the road in Bethlehem, Pa. McCallum, a pro of prose, would be my final word.

“Jack, it’s Ginella. I’m leaving Hershey right now, headed back to New York. Was this guy Milton Hershey for real?”

McCallum, without hesitation: “On the list of all-time great Americans. And it’s not just for the chocolate.”

So, I’m pleased to report, without hesitation, Milton Hershey is my new hero. The man redefined none other than: entrepreneurship, success and philanthropy.

It’s not uncommon for an individual, company or corporation to make a donation to a school. Milton Hershey created the first chocolate company in this country and then gifted the whole thing to his school for underprivileged kids.

And now, 65 years after Hershey’s death, 110 years after the first Kiss came off the assembly line, the school is funded by the $150 million annual interest on a $7 billion trust, executed every day by Hershey’s army of philanthropic soldiers. Hershey’s legacy of helping/saving underprivileged children will live in perpetuity.

There is no end to the story of the school, but it all started in Derry Township, which became the town of Hershey. In the early 1900s, the town held a contest to determine the name the U.S. Postal Service would use. The winning entry was “Hersheykoko,” which was shortened to just, “Hershey.” That's the name the Postal Service has used since 1906.

Milton S. Hershey was born in 1857. His father was a farmer, and his parents clearly raised a little Mr. Independent.

When he was 14, Milton set out to be a printing apprentice in Lancaster. That didn’t work, so he jumped to work for a candy maker. At 18, he started his first candy business in Philadelphia. He went from big city to big city, saving a little money but enduring many lessons of failure, which can be worth so much more than instant success.

In Denver, he learned how to add fresh milk to caramel, which took the little treats from tasty to delicious.

He went back to Lancaster, leaned on a few friends and family for loans. Hershey was running out of chances and favors. At the age of 29, he opened “Crystal A” caramel.

The chocolate that existed at that time was in Europe. And it was for the rich. Then someone started taking caramel and dipping it in chocolate. And when Hershey tasted this exquisite combo, he wanted to figure out how to make the chocolate. He sold his caramel company to his competitor in 1900 for $1 million, and shortly after introduced America to chocolate that the masses could afford. He came back to Derry Township in 1903 because he needed the milk from the dairy cattle, and by 1905 he had the first of three chocolate factories.

Hershey’s new company was born, but he went on to create a community. He opened a bank, churches and a theme park to entertain his employees. If he was training good people, he needed them to stay and be happy. If he prospered, they would prosper. There were no fences or gates to the theme park; locals could come and go as they pleased.

The philanthropic side of Hershey went (and still goes) well beyond his employees. Milton and his wife, Catherine, who were married in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, could not have children of their own, but they started an all-boys orphanage in 1909.

Today, 8,800 male and female graduates later, there are 1,800 students from 30 states, from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, attending school on the 10,000-acre campus. Underclassmen live in 143 family-like environments with a married couple known as “houseparents.”

Walk into one of these houses and you’ll be greeted by 12 firm handshakes followed by long looks into the back of your eyeballs. The students are learning the basics but the best of manners. Get a tour of rooms with military-like cleanliness and order. Daily calendars on the walls help keep everyone on schedule. Donovan Burrell, 16, of Ardmore, Pa., and my host for the day, was ready for me: In the box labeled “April 23,” Burrell, an avid golfer, wrote: Golf Digest.

After a tour of his room, where I saw pictures of his mom, we visited the music room, which doubled as a storage room; the living room, where a group of Burrell’s housemates quickly paused their game and jumped to extend their hands; and the laundry room, where Burrell explained he had missed his time slot to do his laundry. Then he walked me down the street and showed me where he likes to hit balls in his spare time. “The baseball field is never used,” Burrell says, “so I hit balls to the outfield.”

Burrell, a very good athlete, looks at golf as a means of keeping himself out of trouble and believes it will help him when he gets older. He was introduced to golf by the Tiger Woods video game. “No one could beat me,” he says. “That’s why I started playing the real thing.”

Milton Hershey’s objective of “using personal wealth to benefit others” has traction in the form of Donovan Burrell.

--Matty G.

Next blog on Friday: The Juvenile Course.

(Photographs, from top: Bjorn Iooss; Hershey Community Archives x 2.)

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