The game of golf is a great avenue for meeting people.  As I travel the country on my Quest (http://logoballtraveler.com/top-100-lists.html), I am often a single golfer hoping to be paired with other golfers.  On my recent trip to Colorado, I played several rounds of golf with people I met on previous trips. And for my next big journey in September, I'll join another friend in Southern California.

I met Lee Atencio on a trip to Colorado Springs in November, 2012.  He was near the first tee at Cheyenne Shadows Golf Course as I prepared to tee off one Saturday morning. Lee asked if he could join me for the round. What a great time we had! Now each time I return to The Springs, I am sure to play at least one round of golf with Lee and his buddies.

On a long trip to the Pacific Northwest last summer, I had a tee time at Eugene Country Club in Eugene, OR.  I was paired with a club professional from Los Angeles, Scot Alexander.  Scot and I spent less than four hours together that morning and by the time we parted ways, we had exchanged contact information.  And now we will play again together this September at Hillcrest Country Club where he makes his living.

At the end of that very same trip, I was preparing to play my final round at the Riverdale Dunes course in Brighton, CO when I was paired with Greg Quirk and his son, Drew.  Again, less than four hours later, we exchanged contact information.  And on my recent July trip to Colorado, we played together again.  Or should I say we played three AWESOME courses together again.  We played Arrowhead Golf Club in Littleton, CO on a Monday.  And the next day, we played Greg’s home course, Meridian Golf Club, a unique Jack Nicklaus links design in Englewood, CO in the morning and that afternoon, we played Colorado Golf Club, a Coore/Crenshaw design and the site of the 2013 Solheim Cup and the 2010 Senior PGA Championship, in Parker, CO.  I will attempt to describe our experiences in this post.

It is going to be tough to describe the unique beauty of Arrowhead Golf Club.  As the scorecard states, Arrowhead is a course “300 million years in the making.”  My pictures can’t do the scenery on this course justice. You have to see for yourself.

Greg met me in the clubhouse and after a brief warm up, we headed to the first tee with the temperature hovering around 95 degrees. We teed off right behind a large outing, knowing our pace would be dictated by the outing. By the third tee, the twosome behind us caught up and asked to play along with us. Jake Smith and Mike Grant, 30-something buddies from Regis Jesuit High School proved to be great company. Mike, a former pitcher at Regis, had his left thumb taped up after a sand surfing accident that required many stitches.  Predictably, he struggled given his awkward grip. Jake, a shortstop on that same team who went on the play college baseball, was a very good golfer with a beautiful swing.

The September 2014 issue of Golf Magazine is now in the public record, having arrived in my mailbox on Thursday, August 7. It is in the September issue of every even year that Golf Magazine publishes its latest list of the top 100 public courses in the United States, better known as "Top 100 Courses You Can Play".

I will admit to being a statistics nut. I have kept a log of every course that has ever been on Golf Magazine's "Top 100 Courses You Can Play" list. I've analyzed each of these lists over the years and thought I'd document some interesting facts about the list over the past eighteen years in this post.

• Thirty-nine states have had courses on the list. Here are the eleven that are still waiting: Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Kansas, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and Vermont.
• California leads the states with 19 courses of the 207. Guess which states are tied for second with 15? I'll give you one of the two - Arizona. The second will surprise you. See below for the answer.
  
• The nine Northeast states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont combined have only 14 of the 207.
• Hawaii has 8 of the 207.
• Scottsdale, Arizona is the top city with 6 entries (Troon North (Pinnacle), Troon North (Monument), Grayhawk (Talon), Grayhawk (Raptor), Talking Stick (North), and Legend Trail).
• Pinehurst, North Carolina is next with five entries (Pinehurst #2, #4, #7, #8, and Pinehurst Plantation).
• Bandon, Oregon has four entries (Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes, Bandon Trails, and Old Macdonald).
• No other city has more than three.
• Thirty-six courses have made an appearance on every one of the ten biennial lists.
• Forty-two courses have been on only one of the ten lists.
• Four courses no longer exist.  High Pointe, Tom Doak's first design in Williamsburg, MI, opened in 1989 and closed by 2009 due to the economy; Reflection Bay, a Jack Nicklaus design in Henderson, NV, succumbed to the bedeviling 2008 housing downturn; Beechtree, also a Tom Doak design in Aberdeen, MD, and Blue Heron Pines, a Steve Smyers design in Cologne, NJ, went the other way and were sold to become upscale housing.
• Tom Fazio has been a prolific course architect having designed 26 of the 207 courses (including two collaborations). Pete Dye has designed 15 of the courses and Jack Nicklaus has designed 14 plus two redesigns.
• The family Jones (Robert Trent Sr., Robert Trent Jr., and Rees) have designed 32 of the courses plus 3 redesigns.
• Only 17 of the 207 courses were designed prior to 1950 and include classics by Donald Ross, C.B. Macdonald, Alister MacKenzie, and A.W. Tillinghast.  
• For the 2014 list, California still leads the pack with eleven entries followed by Florida with eight and Arizona, Oregon, and South Carolina with seven.
• Thirty-three states have at least one entry on the current list.
• Tom Fazio has 11 designs on the 2014 list (including two collaborations) followed by Pete Dye with 10, the team of Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw with 6, and Jack Nicklaus and Robert Trent Jones Jr. with 5 each. Donald Ross still has 4 of his efforts on the list.
• Only 13 courses on the 2014 list were designed prior to 1950.

The September 2014 issue of Golf Magazine arrived in my mailbox on Thursday, August 7. It is in the September issue of every even year that Golf Magazine publishes its latest list of the top 100 public courses in the United States, better known as "Top 100 Courses You Can Play". And there is good news for me and "The Quest" (http://logoballtraveler.com/top-100-lists.html). For the first time, I have lost no ground. Below are the details about how my "Quest" stands after Golf Magazine's latest biennial list.

As detailed elsewhere on this site, I once had a goal of playing every course on Golf Magazine's "Top 100 Courses You Can Play" list. It didn't take me long to understand how daunting this goal is since the list is refreshed every two years. For instance, from the year 2000 to 2002, twenty courses, many of which I had played, were replaced by new courses. And from 2004 to 2006, twenty-one courses were replaced. With each new biennial list, I was losing ground!

So in 2006, I revised the goal. I would attempt to play every course that has EVER been on any of the lists. This is a daunting task...but at least it is somewhat finite and within my grasp.

So I now keep track of two numbers. One, how many courses have I played on the current list. And two, how many courses have I played of the courses that have ever made an appearance on any of the lists.

I finished this past two year period having played 81 of the courses on the 2012 "Top 100 You Can Play" list and 161 of the 203 courses that have ever been on any of the lists.

And from the 2014 list, I have also played 81 of the 100 and 164 of the 207 courses that have ever been on any of the lists.

The good news is that I lost no ground in terms of numbers.

Six courses were replaced from the 2012 list:

• Black Mesa - La Mesilla, NM (#44)
  
• The Greenbrier (Greenbrier Course) - White Sulphur Springs, WV (#61)
  
• Turning Stone Resort (Shenandoah Course) - Verona, NY (#69)
  
• Hawktree Golf Club - Bismarck, ND (#81)
  
• Branson Creek Golf Club - Branson, MO (#88)
  
• Eagle Ridge Resort (The General Course) - Galena, IL (#98)
  

Of these, the Shenandoah Course at Turning Stone Resort is the only one I have not yet played. And of the six new courses that replaced the above six, there is only one I have yet to play. Thus, no ground lost.

As regular readers of this blog know, I rarely take a trip of any length without mixing in a round of golf at a course that is new to me.  On Thursday, June 26, I set out with my grandson Landon on a drive to Colorado Springs, CO from Ft. Wayne, IN for a visit with family.  We took a northern route along I-80 through Iowa.  Our destination was Pella, Iowa where we planned to play Bos Landen Golf Club. I became aware of the course as a result of my relationship with Warrior Golf which recently entered into an agreement with the City of Pella to operate the golf course.

Bos Landen, a Dutch name meaning "Land of the Woods", has an interesting history.  Opened in 1994, this Dick Phelps designed course was rated the number one public golf course in the state of Iowa from 1997 to 2001.  Golf Digest gave the course a 4 star rating in its 2007 “Best Places to Play” guide.  The course, like so many top courses in small town America, is very important to the local quality of life, its tourism, and home values.  The land on which the course sits is owned by the City of Pella.  The course has been owned and operated by two different groups since its opening and for various reasons, has not been profitable.  Following the 2013 season, the owners put the course up for sale.  The course did not open for business at the start of the 2014 season and was left in limbo.

Subsequent to the closing, the City of Pella, realizing the importance of the course to the local economy, acquired the pro shop, the restaurant, conference center, and maintenance buildings which were located on the golf course.  And in late May they entered into a new ground lease with Warrior Golf.  The term of the lease is for 99 years and includes some one-time facility improvements by the city of Pella, a transition subsidy, and several years of chemicals/seed/bunker sand reimbursements.  Warrior is required to operate a public course and is responsible for the financial risk of loss.  And Warrior is responsible for all maintenance and capital expenditures at the course.

At the time of my visit, the course had been open for no more than a week.  Having been closed the entire Spring, the course required a great deal of routine maintenance to get it ready for play.  When we arrived, the course, so recently overgrown, was lush and the tees, greens and fairways were in fantastic shape and virtually weed-free.  The rough was thick and tough as this area of Iowa was in the midst of heavy rains.

The Logo Ball Traveler site had its beginnings due to my Quest to play every golf course that has ever made an appearance on Golf Magazine's biennial "Top 100 You Can Play" list. On this list have been 202 courses since first published in 1996. An important consideration of my 2014 Spring Trip was to play the remaining Virginia courses on the list. Augustine Golf Club in Stafford, VA was one of the five I intended to play. But it almost didn't work out.

My road schedule called for a Sunday morning tee time on April 6. But when I first inquired in late February, I was told by Augustine's Head Golf Professional, Dave Finocchiaro that play would be open on a limited basis (four tee times for 16 members only) that morning due to one of the club's largest outings of the year that afternoon. The course had to be clear for a shotgun start. Of course, I asked Dave to consider me for one of the 16 slots if by chance, the tee times were not filled. Dave asked me to call back April 1 to see if my request could be accommodated. As it turned out, I was in luck and Augustine became the 155th course I've played from the list.

The Logo Ball Traveler site is all about a collection of logo golf balls for each of the courses I've played. The "ABOUT" Page on this site lists the logo balls that are not yet in my collection. Sadly, several of these courses have closed and any chance to "score" a logo ball for the closed courses is gone.

Or so I thought. This is an amazing story.

As a blogger, I follow other golf bloggers and often leave comments on their blogs. Earlier this month, I received an email from Chris Sueling of Lutz, FL near Tampa. In it, Chris related a story about Meadow Brook Golf Course in Hamden, CT. I had played Meadow Brook Golf Course in 2004, shortly before it closed. No logo balls were available at the time as I am sure the operators were reducing inventory pending the course's demise. I had listed the course on the "Logo Balls Needed" page of the site.

In Chris' note, he stated that during his college years, he had a friend who was attending medical school in New Haven, CT. He and the rest of their common friends were working in Boston or New York and would frequently meet up in New Haven. They played  a course called Meadow Brook in Hamden because it was cheap and relatively close. He correctly surmised it was the very course I listed on my blog.

After spending time at my site, he went to his collection and discovered he had purchased a logo ball at Meadow Brook and still had it! He stated he doesn't always obtain logo balls unless he really likes the course or has a particularly good round. He included a picture of the logo ball and stated he would gladly mail it to me.

I was stunned!

To summarize, Chris would not accept anything in return for the ball and it was in my possession two days later! He stated "it was fun to remember the rounds I played there, and I'm glad to help a fellow golf enthusiast (and lover of accomplishing lists)."

Best of all, he stated "I live just outside of Tampa, so if you are ever in the area, let me know and we'll get out for a round of golf or a beer."

I like both ideas! There's no "or" and I will definitely stay in touch with Chris.

Amazing! Thank you Chris!!

The Tribe beat the Twins 7-2 but the game did not end until 8:20. And I faced a walk to the parking garage and then a trip of over 4 hours to Charleston, WV. I was not in bed until after 1:00 A.M.

I was up early on Saturday morning for the two hour drive to The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, WV where I played the Old White TPC course in weather where the temperature hovered around 40 degrees. Old White is a Charles Blair Macdonald design and C.B. created a delightful course fashioned after notable holes from his home continent of Europe. Old White is home to the PGA Tour's Greenbrier Classic which will be played the first week of July in 2014 (see http://www.greenbrierclassic.com/). You can learn more about the Old White Course at http://www.greenbrier.com/Golf/The-Golf-Club/The-Old-White-TPC.aspx.

That afternoon, I drove to Gordonsville, VA where I enjoyed a warmer round at Spring Creek Golf Club. Like Old White, Spring Creek is on Golf Digest's current Top 100 list (see http://www.springcreekgolfclub.com). Will Patrick, a geometry teacher at the local high school and a member at Spring Creek was my partner for the round.

On Sunday morning, the folks at Augustine Golf Club in Stafford, VA rolled out the red carpet for me. They were kind enough to slot me in with the members. Due to a large outing that afternoon, there was very limited member play early that day so they could clear the course for the outing. It is always a treat to play with people who have great emotional ties to their course. Don Ryalls, my cart partner for the day, was a wealth of knowledge about the history of Augustine which I will share in a later post. Augustine was previously on Golf Magazine's Top 100 list and was saved by an injection of cash after being purchased by Raspberry Golf Management.  Augustine is one of sixteen courses on The Raspberry Golf Trail which is made up of courses in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Learn more about Augustine Golf Club at http://augustinegolf.com.