The Mother of All Golf Trips

A blog about the Gurus' 9 day/18 course trip back east (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania) where we played many of the most historic and renowned golf courses in the world.

Blog by: Mike Sutorius

Well, here it is . . .  the mother of all blogs about the mother of all trips.  I don’t really even know where to start with this one.  The course line-up is incredible.  The duration, for 2 guys with 8.9 kids – all under the age of 12 between them, is unbelievable.  The prep work for the trip was extensive.  And, the stories from the trip are soon to be legendary – if only in our own minds.  This trip was huge.

I guess that I should start with some key stats and then offer the explanation that goes with them.  Again, where to start?  Here is a modest Top 10 list:

1. The trip was our longest to date – 9 days – which was actually 9 days and about 6 hours. We round down to 9; my wife Shawnie rounds up to 10. Either way, what occurred in that amount of time (listed below) is what Guru trips are all about.
2. We played 18 courses – or 324 holes.
3. 13 of those courses are currently on Golf Digest’s Top 100 list – and 4 of the remaining 5 have been on it previously.
4. 36 US Opens have been played at the courses that we visited . . . yes, thirty –six. Oh, and also 10 PGA Championships, and 26 US Amateurs – not to mention uncounted LPGA, Senior, and Junior championships, as well as Ryder and Walker Cups.
5. We travelled 7300 miles . . . . 4800 by plane, and 2500 in two different Budget Rental cars – well, actually, 2150 in rental cars and 350 in Bill’s car on the round trip to and from the airport.
6. We walked 75 miles . . . in golf shoes.
7. We had 17 different caddies, including the best we have ever had, and the worst that we have ever had . . . by far.
8. We played golf in 4 states, drove in 5 states, drove across state lines at least 12 times - twice by boat.
9. A brand new camera wouldn’t work for 16 of the rounds, a caddy’s error resulted in me using someone else’s driver for 12 rounds, another caddy faux pas left me without my range finder for 8 rounds, and a flat tire on the rental car cost us precious hours of sleep and landed us in possibly the worst rental car of all time.
10. And, maybe most impressively, we were able to work the famous phone system at Bethpage Black – as out-of-staters – and legitimately land a tee time on the final week of public play before the ‘09 US Open.

It was quite the trip.

The idea for the trip started innocently enough. We had intended to make a quick, but efficient trip to Northern Idaho to play the newly Jack Nicklaus redesigned Idaho Club in Sandpoint – and as much good golf on the way there and back as possible. This timing was critical because Bill’s wife Stacy was due with their fifth child, and first boy, in mid-June. (This should explain the combined 8.9 children mentioned above). Stacy’s preference was for us to get the golf trip out of the way before having the baby rather than after. This all made good sense. However, as often occurs with golf trips, good sense was pushed slightly aside, and the details got a little out of control.

This combustible change in formula began with the discovery of a fantastic airfare from SLC to JFK. Soon, research was conducted, fantastic courses were found, inquiries about access and accommodation to these courses were made, and suddenly the trip had a mind of its own. Before we were finished, we had contacted close to 40 courses, strongly considered 30, or so, and ultimately had settled on 18 great tracks over a 9-day span in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. In the process, we gained an entirely new respect and appreciation for a good travel agent (which we didn’t have), as we attempted to sequence these 18 courses in a way that maximized quality and quantity, while minimizing travel time and expense. It was a TON of work, and yet we didn’t find a lot of sympathy from anyone not going on the trip. Go figure.

The single biggest logistical challenge was the scheduling of Bethpage Black. First, it is possibly the most popular public track in America. Second, an infamous phone system is the only method of making a tee time . . . and it puts out-of-staters at a severe disadvantage. And, third, we were trying to schedule it on the final week, of already reduced play, prior to it closing in preparation for the US Open on June 18th. We were facing ludicrous odds. However, Steve from Virginia, a golf fanatic contact of Bill’s, insisted that we could (and would) prevail with his fanatical forethought and coaching.

Step One: We were put in touch with a New York resident friend of Steve’s named Jay, or more correctly, we were put in touch with Jay’s New York driver’s license number. Jay’s number was already registered in Bethpage’s phone system, qualifying a person, or persons with that number to compete for a tee time at the earliest possible minute – which is 7 pm Eastern Time exactly one week prior to the desired date. Step Two: Register Bill as an out-of-stater in the system, in the event that Jay was not able to play with us – as course policy demands that the one making the reservation is included in the group – with valid photo I.D. to prove it. (More on this step later). Step Three: Conduct multiple dry runs with the phone system to determine the exact and most efficient key sequence needed to most quickly navigate through the labyrinth of questions to the point that tee times are requested, and to determine the exact time that the phone system was using– whether that was slightly ahead or slightly behind an atomic clock – which we found to be about 1 minute and 40 seconds ahead. Trust me, these details were of the utmost importance. Step Four: Meet at Bill’s office with my oldest daughter Mikkel, Bill’s brother Rick, 4 land lines, and 3 cell phones (and Steve working 2 lines in our behalf in Virginia) 20 minutes before the phone lines opened to review the game plan, and to emphasize the magnitude of the mission.

At 6:55 we began calling, frenetically calling. For what seemed like forever, we got busy signals and the “all circuits are busy” message. Then, suddenly Bill yelled from his office that he was “IN!” Getting “in” was the first hurdle, now the rest of us could only wait (and continue to dial, just in case) while Bill, relying on innumerable dry runs and adrenaline, rapidly entered the sequence of numbers that would request a foursome at 9 am on Tuesday, May 26th, at the Black course. At this point, we all waited breathlessly as the computer-generated voice stated that it would look for the best available time. Finally, a verdict was given: WE WERE CONFIRMED FOR THE 9:03 TEE TIME! Yeah, baby!

That was Tuesday, the 19th. On Friday afternoon, the 22nd, we got the terrible news. Jay couldn’t make it! And, as stated before, that meant the rest of us were out of luck. Well . . . almost. Steve’s scheme did call for a back-up plan, which was to cancel Jay’s reservation in the middle of the night (when, hopefully, 10 million New Yorkers were not working the phones) and immediately rebook it under Bill’s information. This could not be done until we were within 2 days of our desired tee time, the window of opportunity that is provided for non-New York residents. Three problems remained, though. First, Bill had not received his confirmation and registration back from Bethpage. Second, it was now after 5 pm on a Friday of a holiday weekend. And, third, we found that this scheme had already been exploited by a professional tee-time-scalping business in New York, resulting in a change to the phone system where once a tee time was canceled it would go into a queue and not be released for 1 to 3 hours.

The first and second issues were pleasantly resolved without as much hassle as was expected. I found a gal that answered her phone and gave me Bill’s registration number. Why a state employee was available after hours will forever be a mystery. Bill also found the park director in his office on Sunday morning (of the same holiday weekend) and attempted to explain our plight, in hopes of getting some insider favor or information that would help us rebook with Bill’s registration number. This time we were denied. This meant that we would need to move on to our last resort – which was to cancel the reservation late that night, and then call continuously for at least 4 hours or until we were able to re-register, whichever came first. So, we waited anxiously all day for midnight, Eastern Time. However, we encountered a huge curveball. At midnight, Bethpage’s phone system unexpectedly went down. We could neither cancel Jay’s reservation nor rebook our own. Not willing to give up we continued to call it every few minutes for the next 2 straight hours. Suddenly, the system was operational again, at exactly 2 am – apparently, this occurs each night – which would have been nice to know. So, we waited a calculated 18 minutes for the scalpers to hopefully do their thing, and then we did the unthinkable: we canceled our Bethpage Black tee time! Now the anxiety really set in. Our information regarding the 1-3 hour queue was from a random article that we had found online. Not willing to trust it, Bill and I alternated calling over and over again on our cell phones in attempt to catch the now-available tee time before someone else did. Knowing that we had time on our hands, we decided to go to Alberto’s, a 24-hour burrito shack across town, and then to an always-open grocery store to do some shopping for our wives – all the while, dialing like crazy, only to be told repeatedly that there were “no available tee times.” At about 3:50 am, the grocery store’s freight crew was rattled by the aftershocks of a violent but ecstatic eruption on aisle 11 when Bill’s magic touch worked again and we re-booked the time that we had cancelled almost 2 hours earlier. Bethpage was now ours. Well, almost.

• Conquering Bethpage's famous phone system and booking an out-of-state tee time just before the Open - Not Hype
• Scheduling a 9-day golf trip and staying married - Not Hype
• Other "ultimate golf trips" that we heard about - Hype

Continue reading about the Gurus' experience at Bethpage Black, Atlantic, NGLA, Sebonack, Shinnecock, and Maidstone: (NY Trip Days 1-3) >.

Read about the Gurus' experience at Philly CC, Somerset, Baltusrol, Yale, and Fishers Island: (NY Trip Days 4-6) >>.

Read about the Gurus' experience at Oak Hill, Oakmont, Laurel Valley, and Winged Foot: (NY Trip Days 7-9) >>>.

You can also click on an individual course name to read the review posted on that particular course.