http://tombedell.com Wed, 16 May 2012 01:59:02 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Here at The A Position we’re given a topic to address (or not) each month for The A List feature, and the task for May was to suggest an aspect of golf in need of renovation. Actor Bruce McGill joined in on the fun, and a baker’s dozen of strongly worded recommendations can be found by clicking here. Since colleague Susan Bairley and I were heading along a similar track, the editors deferred to her, and ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2744/get-real-augusta-national/ Ailsa Amber Ale is currently available in only one place in the world, and I’m lucky enough to be here--at the Turnberry Resort in southwest Scotland. The beer is named after the Ailsa golf course, easily among the world’s most enchanting as it plays along the Ayrshire coast. In most recent memorable memory, it was the scene of the 2009 Open Championship, when Tom Watson almost turned back time, only to fall short at the ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2802/tap-beer-of-the-week-ailsa-amber-ale/ I belong to a Shakespeare group. Not a troupe, a group, which meets now and again to read through the plays with a minimum of analysis or histrionics and a maximum of snacks and fine beverages. We’ve been together for years and have been through all the plays at least twice and most thrice. But we were still all a little surprised at a recent meeting, when Shakespeare himself showed up. It was unquestionably him—the rounded forehead ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2709/what-golf-ball-through-yonder-window-breaks/ For once in this recent “versus” series we actually have two beers in the same style, pales ales from some venerable English names. And we have a clear winner, too, as Samuel Smith pretty well stomps on Newcastle. Not to say I wasn’t mildly excited to find the Newcastle Founders’ Ale in the local Newfane Market recently. I’d managed to not hear a thing about the beer, and so running across something new from a company ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2732/tap-beers-of-the-week-newcastle-founders-ale-vs-samuel-smiths-old-brewery-pale-ale/ < Previous: Birdies and Brews Part 4: Orlando We decided to give up and declare a tie here, between two of the best golf resorts anywhere, with solid beer selections. Kohler gets the edge with the beer, Bandon with the golf, but both are bucket list worthy. The small heartland town of Kohler is an hour north of Milwaukee. It’s a company town, but the company is now a lot more than plumbing fixtures: The American Club ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2588/birdies-and-brews-part-5-kohler-wisconsin-and-bandon-dunes-oregon/ < Previous: Birdies and Brews Part 3: Vermont Next: Birdies and Brews Part 5: Kohler, WI and Bandon Dunes, OR> This is a stretch, because while the golf in Orlando is wildly abundant, the good beer-drinking opportunities are harder to find. But we’ve found them. Keep three places in mind and all should be well: The Cricketers Arms Pub is in the Festival Bay Mall along International Drive, where much of the action (that is to say, theme ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2559/birdies-and-brews-part-4-orlando-florida/ < Previous: Birdies and Brews Part 2: San Diego, California Next: Birdies and Brews Part 4: Orlando, Florida> Okay, but where in Vermont? No, all of Vermont. The latest Brewers Association stats put Vermont at the head of the list--the state with the most breweries per capita--and all of them are craft breweries. Vermont is not a huge state--slightly more than 600,000 souls call it home, and there are more senators in the U.S. Congress than the lone ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2503/birdies-and-brews-part-3-vermont/ < Previous: Birdies and Brews Part 1: St. Andrews, Scotland Next: Birdies and Brews Part 3: Vermont> There’s so much great brewing going on in San Diego that the city has been required to bend time: November’s annual San Diego Beer Week lasts for ten days; a mid-June Beer Week-end preview lasts four days, all taking place in multiple venues and still only beginning to sample all the glories of the local beer and dining scene. In the ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2491/birdies-and-brews-part-2-san-diego-california/ <Previous: Birdies and Brews: Introduction Next: Birdies and Brews Part 2: San Diego, California> Having dissed Ireland, we’ll salve the Celtic soul at the venerable home of golf, St. Andrews. As for the beer, consider four words: college town, real ales. Scotland’s first university was founded here in 1413. With classes in session this compact seaside town’s population effectively doubles to 14,000, invigorating the many charming shops, excellent restaurants, captivating historic sites, lively arts scene and boisterous ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2481/birdies-and-brews-part-1-st-andrews-scotland/ Bread and butter, meat and potatoes, Laverne and Shirley, baseball and hot dogs, golf and beer. Great pairs are together for a reason, and while the flinty soul of golf may have been forged in the home of whisky, a good pint is a far more common tipple when the bets are being paid off at the 19th hole. A good pint is the trick. Lord knows tsunamis of Megabland Bellywash Light have streamed from golf ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2445/birdies-and-brews-introduction/ Here at The A Position we’re given a topic to address (or not) each month for The A List feature, and the April challenge was to rhapsodize about our favorite golf island. We even cornered Perry Dye, one of Pete’s designing sons, and put the question to him. Since he worked for four years on Roatan, completing work on the Black Pearl course at the Pristine Bay resort in Honduras, it’s not hard to guess ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2648/going-home/ What were we just saying about I.K. Kim? Time to envelop Lefty in a group hug for his near miss at the 2012 Masters. If you’re a Philly fan, that is. One of my friends who was over for our Easter feast and Masters viewing yesterday was cackling about Phil’s misfortune while rooting for Miguel Angel Jimenez. (This in vain, as Jimenez crashed and burned yesterday with an 81, going five-over on the last three ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/personalities/2634/group-hug-for-phil-mickelson/ The shock of missing what appeared to be a gimme one-foot putt to win a major was all too evident on I.K. Kim’s face on Sunday. Had she sunk the putt on the 18th hole she would have won the Kraft Nabisco Championship and had the pleasure of the traditional leap into the pond at the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage. It was a cruel April Fool’s Day rim job, and while Kim quickly ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/personalities/2627/group-hug-for-ik-kim/ There was an egregious saying in my misspent youth, “Once you go black, you’ll never go back,” which when uttered by white people seemed to be a racial tribute wrapped in a slur. In any case, it wasn’t referring to beer. But these days, black is beautiful in the beer world. Black IPAs are the particular rage, though every brewery worth its roasted barley is making at least one stout, if not an oatmeal or Imperial ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2566/tap-beers-of-the-week-guinness-black-lager-vs-guinness-draught/ By the time Hurricane Irene slammed into New England on August 28, 2011, it had actually been downgraded into a tropical cyclone. But for the residents of western Massachusetts and Vermont, Irene was still an apocalyptic fury, with devastating damage from the winds and, particularly in Vermont, from flooding. The rivers in Vermont became raging torrents that swept away lives, damaged or sluiced through hundreds of roads, carried off century-old covered bridges, and isolated whole ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2604/tap-beers-of-the-week-good-night-irene-and-more-brown-than-black/ Reports appear to be untrue that Sasha Baron Cohen, prior to dumping ashes on Ryan Seacrest at the Oscars Sunday night, had warmed up in Germany on Ash Wednesday by pouring a stream of beer down the back of Chancellor Angela Merkel. While disguising himself as the waiter in this video wouldn’t have been a stretch for Cohen the provocateur, the unlucky oaf appears to be a Greek so far identified only as Martin D. No ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2435/sasha-baron-cohen-dumps-beer-on-angela-merkel/ They’re both rural, and it takes some getting to get there. One’s in Sam Snead territory, the other near Andy Griffith’s home town. But there’s nothing aw shucks about either The Homestead or Primland resorts, where the golf is great and yet only scratches the surface of things to do. Primland is the new kid on the block, that block being just north of Mount Airy, North Carolina, Andy Griffith’s hometown, about 20 minutes up the ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2407/in-the-virginia-territories/ “How did you hit it over here?” The Red-winged Blackbird gurgles in my ear, Commenting on my slicéd drive Which led to an unfortunate bogey five. It’s just a remark, he’s seen it all, The fruitless struggles with the strange white ball Agreeably watching it all go by, A darkened speck against the vast blue sky: The red shoulder patches give his attire flavor, Since otherwise he’s all in black--like Gary Player. ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2372/ode-to-the-red-winged-blackbird/ Geoffrey Cornish died this morning at the age of 97. I had the great pleasure of meeting him a little over ten years ago for a piece that appeared in Commonwealth Golf magazine in 2002. As a tip of the cap, I present it here without updating. While some details have certainly changed (Brian Silva left the firm, for one example), the essence of the man remained unaltered, and will be sorely missed. Geoffrey Cornish rose, ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/personalities/2341/the-walking-man/ It’s not easy reviewing a beer that doesn’t exist. But as I’ve been drinking it for the last two nights, I’ll do my best. One need merely flip the cyber page to last week’s TAP Beer of the Week entry to see how this one developed. I promised to pick a specialty beer of whichever brewery won the Super Bowl XLVI wager, and we all know how that turned out. The only wrinkle from what I reported ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2378/tap-beer-of-the-week-brooklyn-black-ops/ Despite outing my anti-football stance in this rant, careful readers will have noted I’m pretty much okay with gambling. And since nothing brings out that instinct (it does seem like an instinct, doesn’t it?) more vigorously than the Super Bowl, here we are again. Last year we wandered from Pittsburgh to Green Bay by way of the White House (and the homebrewing activities going on there, all mentioned here). But for Super Bowl XLVI we’re sticking to ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2312/tap-beers-of-the-week-brooklyn-lager-vs-harpoon-ipa/ Here at The A Position we’re given a topic to address (or not) each month for The A List feature, in a neat 150 words or so. The January challenge was pretty much the same as last year’s--to make fearless predictions about the golf year ahead. Click here to see just how far off the tracks The A Position writers careened then. This year we enlisted the prognosticating skills of Jimmy Roberts of NBC Sports to ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2291/lucky-jim/ My wife gave me the t-shirt for Christmas (and took the picture). I think she might be on to me. But Happy New Year all, and here's to a fun road ahead for 2012. ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2241/the-big-question/ In the year of his grieving, 2001, Scott Willis would hop in his car and just drive south from Brattleboro, Vermont, on Route 5, the back road through Guilford, into Bernardston, Massachusetts, Greenfield, Deerfield, as far as he needed to go until his equilibrium returned. Then he’d turn around and head home. His father, Ed, had died that June, and then the shock of 9/11 just compounded the dislocation. Golf had been a big part of ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2222/the-yoga-oasis/ In 1947 Belgian cartoonist Marc Sleen introduced a comic strip character, Nero, who would be around for a long time--as would much more comic art from Sleen’s pen. He is in the Guinness Book of World Records as single-handedly producing more issues of a comic book series than any other artist. In all he produced 125,592 drawings, 20 comic strip series, with 378 album covers and on-the-spot drawings of the Tour de France for variety. So ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2263/tap-beer-of-the-week-nero/ I recently scored a bottle of the Full Sail Wassail at Brewtopia, the fine brew and brewing supply store in Keene, New Hampshire. The shop carries many a beer I haven’t found here in Vermont. Only problem is that Keene is a good hour roundtrip for me, so the danger is blowing a serious wad at Brewtopia in the thought I might not pass this way again soon. But I behaved myself this trip, since I ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2206/tap-beer-of-the-week-full-sail-wassail/   Rarely has a beer been so aptly named as this holiday offering from Sierra Nevada. Mental fireworks blossom each November when I run across it on market shelves. Although following the lead of Anchor Brewing, which first produced its annual holiday ale in 1975, Sierra Nevada was pioneering as well in annually producing a special winter beer since 1981, long before it became a brewing commonplace--and virtually a requirement for a brewery these days. Unlike the product ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2174/tap-beer-of-the-week-celebration-ale/ 1 - Warm welcome 2 - Big rocks 3 - Bigger rocks 4 - Tough lies 5 - Tougher lies 6 - Cacti 7 - Cacti with embedded golf balls 8 - Distant mountains 9 - Famous holes ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2069/nine-signs-youre-playing-desert-golf/ I had a great day playing the TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course this morning. Not because I was playing well, because I wasn't. I chalk it up entirely to a lack of sleep and my aching back, with nothing left over for an inherent lack of skill. But it was a lovely morning that dodged the bullet of predicted rain. We saw a bobcat on the first tee, eagles in a tree on the second, and a ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2047/tgi-tpc-scottsdale/ Man plays 36 holes, man gets hungry. Barbecue by the pound should do the trick, and it’s tough to beat the grub at the Buffalo Chip Saloon & Steakhouse in Cave Creek, a short gallop north of Scottsdale. Invoke Cave Creek in these parts and people seem to roll their eyes a bit, as if you’ve mentioned an eccentric uncle who is a lot of fun, even if he asks you to pull his finger from ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2116/tap-beer-of-the-day-eclipse-black-ipa/ Dinner tonight was at the Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale’s modern spin on a classic steakhouse, Talavera. I opted for fish, since we’re heading for a western barbecue joint tomorrow night, but my tablemates assured me the steak was fantastic. And here they are: The beer list at Talavera and the resort’s Onyx Bar Lounge is limited, but it does have some of the stars of the craft brewing show--Anchor Steam, Fat Tire, Dogfish 60 Minute IPA, ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2040/tap-beer-of-the-day-nimbus-pale-ale/ The dance card for a Golf Road Warrior is always full. Maybe a little too full sometimes, looking ahead at our itinerary. Days of 36 holes, massages, lavish dinners at tony hotels, all washed down with local elixirs. It can wear a man down, I tell you. Enough to have you nodding off over your laptop at the close of day. But considering the trepidation I had this morning about my back, I was all in ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2247/the-golf-yoga-connection/ Though I’d been on Peter Kessler’s “Making the Turn” radio show once, the Golf Road Warrior Scottsdale trip was my first chance to meet him, get to know him and play golf with the Voice of Golf, so called thanks to his stentorian tone, his many years with The Golf Channel and his regular stint now on the PGA Tour Network (SiriusXM). Kessler had chided me about my back complaints in an email before we even ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2190/meet-and-beat/ I took three golf trips in rapid succession in late October/early November, and I had to pull out of rounds during each trip. Whatever was going on in my back had worsened, to the point where some mornings I could barely walk. Turned out to be a herniated disk pressing on my spinal cord (spinal stenosis), big enough to warrant an operation. As it was the week before Thanksgiving, I proceeded to tell the doctor the story ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2092/my-aching-back-vs-the-monument-course/ Why land at a destination and go immediately to your hotel when you can detour to a brewpub instead? That’s exactly what fellow Golf Road Warrior Terry Moore and I did when our plane landed in Phoenix. Jerry Rose, a vice president at the Communication Links public relations firm, picked us up. The last time I saw Jerry was atop a barstool at a Yard House near Miami, so this wasn’t hard service for him. He took ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2028/tap-beer-of-the-day-kilt-lifter/ I live in a dream world. The slightest breeze can distract me. I lead the league in Walking Into Rooms and Forgetting Why You Went There, and the concomitant stat, Returning to Your Desk Chair and Realizing You Forgot to Get the Thing You Went Out of the Room For in the First Place. I’m like the absent-minded professor who buttered his dog and patted his pancakes. I’m sure I’ve lost days of my life in ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2009/the-long-haul-luggage-matters-part-ii-changes/ The Golf Road Warriors are converging on Scottsdale tomorrow. For those who haven’t already read about it elsewhere, heading to www.GolfRoadWarriors.com should do the trick, and there’s also a chance to enter a sweepstakes that would basically send the winner on the same trip with a similar shower of goodies. I’m hoping to pull off a TAP Beer of the Day throughout the week, because there will be beer. But no promises, because the days ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2003/tap-beers-of-the-week-golf-road-warriors-scottsdale/ Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off--then, I account it ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/equipment/1988/loomings/ As the plans unfolded for the second Golf Road Warriors trip mounted by The A Position--this one to Scottsdale, Arizona--the good folks at Callaway came on board as a sponsor and offered to custom fit the foursome. Only problem for me in Vermont--no fitting center anywhere nearby. That seemed like a shame, so in full GRW spirit, I went on the road to get the job done. Okay, I was heading off on an assignment anyway, to ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/equipment/1971/let-there-be-callaway/ Part of my admiration for the late Herbert Warren Wind’s writings for The New Yorker was the way he could report on a golf tournament that had been over for months with the outcome well known, and still manage to keep me on the edge of my seat. A similar tip of the golf cap goes out to sportswriters Neil Hayes and Brian Murphy, who collaborated on The Last Putt: Two Teams, One Dream, and a Freshman ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1951/when-tiger-was-young/ As it did with other withered brewing traditions in the country in the last quarter of the last century, San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing Co. stepped in, or up, to breathe new life into them. One such was the notion of brewing a special beer around the Christmas holidays. Now virtually every brewery in the land, and worldwide for that matter, puts out some kind of holiday ale or winter warmer, usually a strong or spiced or ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2158/tap-beer-of-the-week-our-special-ale-anchor-brewing/ Congratulations to the U.S. team for its Presidents Cups win in Melbourne earlier today. Watching some of the play on the Royal Melbourne course put me in mind of the time I was fortunate enough to play there. So I thought I’d pull this one out of the vaults as a nod to the land down under, part of a trip I took eight years ago, and which remains one of the high points ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1930/of-vegemite-vineyards-and-the-tommy-tolles-incident/ Here at The A Position we’re given a topic to address (or not) each month for The A List feature, in a neat 150 words or so. The November challenge was to offer our assistance to Presidents Cup captains Fred Couples and Greg Norman in naming celebrity co-captains that might really get the boys going this week in Melbourne. We even enlisted the guest services of baseball Hall-of-Famer Johnny Bench in taking a swing at ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1900/cameron-diaz-and-cate-blanchett-please/ Nice of Stone to release their Veterans' Day Vertical Epic Ale 11.11.11 a few days earlier than the label date. That meant I actually found a few bottles on the Brattleboro Food Co-op shelves today. And since I'm a vet, my path seemed clear. It also seemed apt that the chilies in the beer--yes, chiles--came from the Hatch Valley in New Mexico, since I was mainly stationed in New Mexico back in my army days. (I ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/1888/tap-beer-of-the-week-111111-vertical-epic-ale/ You learn something every day, but in about 48 hours I learned about giant pumpkins, the Archimedes Screw, the Propeller Brewing Company, Cape Breton golf and meat darts. All this because ‘tis the season for pumpkin ales, which I suspect are now outselling Oktoberfest beers as far as fall seasonals go. I was going to bypass them this year but as I was just on a whirlwind trip to Cape Breton, where the fall colors were ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/1853/tap-beer-of-the-week-propeller-pumpkin-ale/ Here at The A Position we’re given a topic to address (or not) each month for The A List feature, in a neat 150 words or so. The October challenge was inspired by Halloween, and we were asked to come up with treats or tricks--things we're enamored with in our relationship with the game, or the mean-spirited opposite. We asked golf architect Tom Doak to chime in, and he offered a little of each. Click ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1909/let-it-rain/ As far as I’m concerned, our long national nightmare began again about a month ago, with the start of the football season. What’s this heresy? I could go on and on why I think football is less of a healthy pastime in this country and more of a disease, but why bother? I know I’m in the minority, so I’ll just try to keep my head when all about me are losing theirs, painting them two ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2139/tap-beers-of-the-week-blacktop-blonde-hefeweizen/ I’ve been to the Dominican Republic several times to see its unfolding development as a major golf destination. But there aren’t going to be a lot of beer tourists heading this way any time soon, unless they’re extremely undemanding. My last visit, chronicled here, turned into a quest to find Ambar Cerveza Oscura, the darker-hued sibling to the ubiquitous Presidente, the flagship beer of the sole brewery in the DR, the Cervecería Nacional Dominicana. With no ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/1812/tap-beer-of-the-week-presidente/ Here at The A Position we’re given a topic to address (or not) each month for The A List feature, and the September challenge was to expose the holes in golf’s bucket list.  We even enlisted the guest services of PGA Tour player Duffy Waldorf, who said playing in the Masters isn’t all it’s cracked up be. Click here to see what golf shibboleths Duffy and my colleagues decided needed toppling. My contribution follows, with the ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1754/playing-with-tiger-woods-thanks-but-ill-pass/ Why would anyone want to revisit the sordid details of the Tiger Woods sexual scandals? Well, they’re juicy, for one thing. But in the hands of Sports Illustrated writers Michael Bamberger and Alan Shipnuck, they become suspenseful, comic and poignant by turns. The Swinger (Simon & Schuster, 2011, $25) it should be noted, is neither an instructional book nor one you’ll want to let the kids get their hands on. The co-authors have not left the ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1730/golf-in-the-flesh/