Way Over Par for the Course

Supervising Producer Dave

If you’re a fan of Robin’s podcast – and I know you are - then you’ll remember an episode from a few weeks ago where Rafer and Bob were hanging out at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. They got to meet and joke around with some of the world’s best golfers, who were getting ready for the PGA’s Tour Championship.

Dave goes elite, for a day.

Well, I recently did Rafer and Bob one better. I played the course.

Although East Lake is an ultra-exclusive, private club, the experience got me thinking about how golf - despite its elitist image - separates itself from other, more populist sports by allowing the average Joe (or Dave, in this case) to play some of its most magnificent venues. Any golfer with the patience to wait for a tee time, and the money to pay for it, can play legendary courses like Pebble Beach, Pinehurst #2, TPC Sawgrass, Torrey Pines, Bandon Dunes, Whistling Straits, and Bethpage Black - not to mention most of the great British Open courses.

On the other hand, I guarantee that you and your buddies can’t play a pickup softball game at Fenway Park. You can’t play three-on-three basketball at Madison Square Garden, or flag football at Lambeau Field, or a friendly tennis match on Centre Court at Wimbledon.

(In case you’re wondering how I got to play East Lake, a buddy of mine won a silent auction for a foursome and was nice enough to invite me. I got the word via text message at 6am on a Saturday, and I couldn’t type “Count me in!” fast enough.)

Although I play most of my golf on municipal courses, I’m no stranger to some of the game’s hallowed grounds. I’d played Pinehurst #2 and TPC Sawgrass (yes, I put my tee shot in the water on #17.) But East Lake was going to be different. For one thing, I rode in a cart at Pinehurst and Sawgrass, and played with strangers. At East Lake, I’d be playing with friends and walking the course like the pros do, with a caddie who knows the layout’s every angle and break like the back of his hand.

Plus, East Lake is just a few miles from my house. I drive past the course every day on my way to work. And, I often play at a neighboring par-3 course, from which you can look across the street and see East Lake’s rolling fairways, treacherous hazards and frighteningly fast greens.

I’d walked East Lake as a spectator during the Tour Championship, but I never thought I’d get to play there. And yet, on a cool, clear mid-October morning, there I was, standing on the first tee.

Seven shots later, my ball was in the hole. And, that’s pretty much how it went the rest of the day.

East Lake is tough, but fair. The standard rules apply: keep the ball in play and out of trouble around the green, and you can shoot a decent score. But if you start spraying your tee shots and putting yourself on the wrong side of the hole, you’re in for a long day. Championship courses like East Lake really penalize bad shots, as I found out again and again.

But in the end, I had fun. My caddie was great, I only lost one ball, and I finished with consecutive bogeys on the difficult 17th and 18th holes. As for my overall score, let’s just say it was a big number. So big, in fact, I had to get some of my scientist friends to work on it. Click here to check out the result.