Austin Golf Club

I had the good fortune of playing Austin Golf Club yesterday, and it was the best golf experience I’ve had in my 24 years of playing.  Everything about it.  I’m not sure it’s the fact that they did everything the way they would want it, but more that they did everything the way I would want it.  (Out of respect for the club, its members and the privacy of it all, this is the only photo you get.)

So what if I’ve never made par on it…

Tough hole to play, but I love the way the par-3 13th at Cordillera Ranch photographs.  I even put a shot of it from 2006 on my business card.  I hate business cards.

Progress and separation

Just got back from a day trip to the incomparable Cordillera Ranch.  Shot a few, played the course and shot some more.  The clubhouse is coming along and should be finished out by the end of the year.  The course looked incredible, and the greens were even better.  I don’t claim to know stimp readings, but I’d guess theirs were running about 12+.  I played poorly, so I won’t tell you what I shot, but I played the day before the first round of the Valero Texas Open, and three PGA Tour players were there playing right behind us:  Jim Gallagher, Jr., Jimmy Walker and Mike Heinen.  The wind was blowing a steady 15mph and gusting to 30.  The course was playing hard and fast, and I mentioned those greens.  Heinen shot 65 and broke the course record by three.  I want to think he’s lying, but I doubt it.  I just can’t believe someone is that good.  Or that there’s that much separation between me and the average Tour player.  Scratch that.  Heinen hasn’t been on anyone’s radar in over a decade, so he might not even be considered average, but anyone who even came close to breaking par at Cordillera Ranch last Wednesday is far better than average.

Seaholm

I’m not sure what’s going to become of the iconic structure there along Cesar Chavez (1st Street in honor of you Austin lifers) when the redevelopment dust settles, so in case it’s not going to look like this, I figured I should capture a little piece of Austin as I found it 20 years ago.  I printed a couple of 24 x 30 giclees, and they look sorta cool.  I’m working with a local gallery to have a show.  Music, food, drinks, photography.  Sometime this summer.

(Having just proofread this post, I realized that Eric Sutherland was right when he said, “Blogs are me, me, I, I, me, me.  Who gives a shit?”)

El Macho Chupacabra

I, for one, as a fatboy redneck who loves food almost as much as my kids, am bigtime excited about the opening of El Macho Chupacabra.  Interior Mexican meets Rio Grande Valley meets South Texas, fast casual, with the grillmaster right out there in the open, firing up meats and peppers and everything good about Mex-Tex grub. Stay tuned for details…

The game of golf

I played with Mark Knowles last Friday at Barton Creek Fazio Canyons.  That’s him there hitting a 50-yard bunker shot on the 5th hole.  He’s quite a golfer, despite being one of the best tennis players of all time.  He’s currently the 8th ranked doubles player on the ATP Tour.  Taking nothing away from his “golf” ability, I’ve come to notice that most gamesmen make good golfers, too.  Notice I didn’t say “athlete.”  Knowles is obviously a world-class athlete, but he plays the game of golf, and that’s what makes him a good player.  Regardless of what your golf instructor tells you, golf is not an athletic move.  Webster’s defines “athletic” as: Physically strong, fit, active.  None of those are required to play golf well.  They help, sure, but golf is a game.  It’s a shame we spend all this time teaching swing mechanics and encouraging everyone to “get fit for golf” and all that other useless peripheral nonsense.  Teach someone the GAME of golf, and you’ll fix every single problem he has.

2009 Texas Legends Champions

Matt Sitra & John Staleski

The University of Texas Golf Club

I’ve been out at UT Golf Club shooting their ‘Texas Legends” Invitational.  The golf course really looks good, but it’s the club that impresses me every time I go out there.  Those guys know what a club is supposed to be.  The thought and effort that goes into their events is the best I’ve ever seen.  Anywhere.

The Club at Concan

Been working on some images for the next edition of the Texas Tour & Meeting Guide.  This one’s on the short list.  The 9th hole at The Club at Concan.

Marshall Kuykendall

While working on a project down at Fosforus, I met a very nice man and lifelong Austinite.  Marshall Kuykendall (pronounced “kirk’ in dawl”), who grew up on the land now known as The XV Ranch, was kind enough to invite me to his home in southwestern Travis County and allowed me more than a few minutes to photograph him.  Turns out I knew his late wife Karen, through her work as an actress at Zachary Scott Theater.  I also know his niece, Laura, who was my son’s preschool teacher a couple of years ago.  Mr. Kuykendall is a highly respected and accomplished land broker and has a ton of great stories about growing up on his family’s ranch.

The XV Ranch

If I had a million dollars, I’d buy you a ranch.  Specifically, a 100-acre ranch next door to the Salt Lick, 17 minutes from my office at 6th and Brazos, known as The XV.  I know, I know, the economy sucks and we’re supposed to be saving, but I look around at all the smart people buying stuff right now, and I realize that maybe I should, too.  Warren Buffett has always advised me to “buy when there’s blood in the streets.”  I’m not sure if we’re there yet here in Austin, but if we’re not, it’s probably coming.  Aside from that, in the twenty years I’ve lived here, I can’t imagine getting that much land, that close to town, for that price.  Besides, if I can’t make my payments, the government will step in and give me some of my grandkids’ money to get me through it.  Right?

Name that hole

Communication

Here’s a closer look at that memorial you see on the Hike-and-Bike Trail along Town Lake near the 1st St. bridge.  I get the point, but I’m not sure it’s written so well.  I remember something from college (believe it or not) that 95% of communication resides with the audience.  But it’s that other 5% that’s important to me, as a writer, photographer, designer and whatever else is asked of me down at Fosforus.  Getting the point across isn’t enough.  Fosforus has a tagline: The Idea is to Sell Something. That’s a completely different practice from the widespread perception of advertising being “The Idea is to Tell Something.”

Clever

I know nothing about Brewster’s political agenda, so this could be just some smartass kid having fun.  I wonder if this qualifies as a hate crime?