SOUTHAMPTON, NY – I want to thank the great Dan Jenkins for today’s writing prompt. He published some of his favorite (and not so favorite Opens) and reminded me that it’s time for my annual U.S. Open history lesson for y’all. So here we go; class is in session. Take good notes. You never know when you’ll be quizzed. GREAT STORIES YOU...
SOUTHAMPTON, NY – My colleague and friend Mike Vaccaro, a sparkling gem of the New York Post sports writing diadem, likes to collect datelines. I remember he was especially proud of “Beijing,” but lamented publicly that it couldn’t be “Peking” instead. Mike and I met writing the dateline “Mamaroneck” in 2006 at Winged...
SOUTHAMPTON – “It’s a process, it’s a process, it’s a process.” If the old Tiger Woods – describing his swing changes – said it once, he said it a thousand times. It became a joke in the media center. I thought it was merely a combination of platitude and mantra; something to he chanted to himself as he worked the range...
So my U.S. Open preview is up at Golf News Net. (They always male it look fantastic!) Ryan Ballengee and I will have wall-to-wall coverage of the tournament all week long, with radio, video, and 1,500 words a day. Plus I’ll have three-day coverage of the Anderson Memorial at Winged Foot. Throw in a round at National Golf Links of America, and that’s a...
We celebrate my Dad’s life tomorrow and Thursday, but for today, I thought you all might to reminisce with me in another way. Many Sundays when covering the U.S. Open, I’d write a Father’s Day piece as a letter to Dad. Here’s my favorite… LA JOLLA, CA – [Editor’s Note: Jay wrote this piece in real time, while watching the...
I shed a tear as I wrote this piece. We lost my beloved Dad this weekend. The son of Italian immigrants, as a WWII vet, he landed at Normandy, survived the bloody Battle of the Bulge, and liberated those persecuted in German concentration camps. Later, in the war-time ski patrol in Europe, he skied the Alps before he returned to America to graduate from the College...
I wrote about Meadow Club for this month’s Golf Course Trades, one of those courses that you have to play before you die. Here’s my favorite part of the article: As I took a deep breath and savored the crisp, wine-sweet, forest-fragrant air, the October sun’s rays began their last golden stretch across Alister Mackenzie and Robert Hunter’s...
Double good news over at Golf News Net today. First, they have published my Fenway Golf Club article. Short but dangerous, and always interesting around the greens, Fenway belongs in the Pantheon of great Tillinghast courses. Next, Steve Eubanks of Global Golf Post joined me on the Jay’s Plays Radio show. We talked PGA, LPGA, Tiger, golf travel and –...
Tell anyone other than an ardent golfer that you’re going to Fenway and they’ll ask you to say hi to Big Papi and Jason Varitek for them. Tell the ardent golfer, on the other hand, and they’ll not only know that Yankee Stadium is much closer, they’ll be totally jealous too, because they know Fenway is a terrific A.W. Tillinghast golf club...
[Editor’s Note: As part of the 2018 Ominous Seapods Reunion festivities, Jay went into the vault, and with the help of South Catherine Street Jug Band archivist Nate Pelton, released three more live archival recordings from the Golden Age of the Ominous Seapods under the “North Country Freakouts” series. Today, Volume 1: 10-15-94 (Early Show) Zeta...
Ryan Ballengee and GNN did a fantastic job making my Meadow Club article look so good. Big thanks also to Sean Tully. I can’t wait to get back out there again – it was Heaven. From the article: Call it the Machu Picchu of golf. From far below, in the hippie town of Fairfax, one can look a thousand feet sheer up the cliff-side to the shallow, mountaintop...
[Editor’s Note: As part of the 2018 Ominous Seapods Reunion festivities, Jay went into the vault, and with the help of South Catherine Street Jug Band archivist Nate Pelton, released three more live archival recordings from the Golden Age of the Ominous Seapods under the “North Country Freakouts” series. Today, Volume 2: 06-17-94 Waterhole 3...
All year long for this? PATRIOTS-eagles?? Most of the country is shaking their head over this stinker of a Super Bowl. This one is like voting for President – you hold your nose, pull the lever, and hope for the best. If Ernesto had hands, he’d throw them up in frustration. As it is, he’s sticking his tongue out and hissing, partly because of the...
FAIRFAX, CA – Call it the Machu Picchu of golf. From far below, in the hippie town of Fairfax, one can look a thousand feet sheer up the cliff-side to the shallow, mountaintop bowl where the verdant fairways of Alister Mackenzie and Robert Hunter’s Meadow Club lie, serenely etched between fescue-clad rocky slopes. Indeed, the first time I saw Meadow Club...
It’s one of the greatest courses in the world, and a personal favorite of both myself and Tom Doak, (who did terrific work there, by the way). A HUGE thank you to Golf Course Trades for making my article on Garden City Golf Club look so good! From the article: “Garden City is one of those courses that materializes out of the mists of time like a reverie...