A visit to the Olympic Club

By |  June 12, 2015 0 Comments
My first burgerdog!

My first burgerdog!

I had a great time playing the Olympic Club in San Francisco today, and a big thank you to Troy Flanagan and Pat Finlen for hosting me. Not only did I get to play golf, but I got TWO burgerdogs, the Olympic Club’s famous hot dog-shaped cheeseburgers!

Pat Finlen, CGCS a past president of GCSAA,, was previously the director of golf maintenance, now he's the general manager of the Olympic Club.

Pat Finlen, CGCS, a past president of GCSAA, was previously the director of golf maintenance, now he’s the general manager of the Olympic Club.

I learned a lot from Troy today, and got to meet a good number of his crew. Most challenging for Troy isn’t the drought, but the trees they’re losing to disease (and the amount it costs to have them safely removed.) The Monterey pines are being wiped out slowly, and have been, for a number of years. The course still looks great, but Troy says the problem isn’t going away any time soon.

The course beat me up. I developed some new swing problem that I couldn’t recover from, and the narrow, sloped fairways, along with the thick rough, took its toll on me.

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Beautiful No. 18 at the Olympic Club’s Lake Course, host of the 2012 U.S. Open.

I’ve got to clock out now because tomorrow it’s on to Bandon, Ore., and Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, where I’ll be visiting with Ken Nice.

I’ll be seeing that burgerdog in my dreams…

Photos: Golfdom Staff

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About the Author: Seth Jones

Seth Jones, a 25-year veteran of the golf industry media, is Editor-in-Chief of Golfdom magazine and Athletic Turf. A graduate of the University of Kansas School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Jones began working for Golf Course Management in 1999 as an intern. In his professional career he has won numerous awards, including a Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) first place general feature writing award for his profile of World Golf Hall of Famer Greg Norman and a TOCA first place photography award for his work covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In his career, Jones has accumulated an impressive list of interviews, including such names as George H.W. Bush, Samuel L. Jackson, Lance Armstrong and Charles Barkley. Jones has also done in-depth interviews with such golfing luminaries as Norman, Gary Player, Nick Price and Lorena Ochoa, to name only a few. Jones is a member of both the Golf Writers Association of America and the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association. Jones can be reached at sjones@northcoastmedia.net.


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