country clubs

Main Courses: Where the Food's on Par With the Golf

Regardless of how well you've played the first seven holes, when you reach the eighth tee at Mirabel Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., your round takes on a different flavor. There, at a comfort station on the edge of the Sonoran desert, a covered ceramic pot contains "the thickest, moistest, tastiest Beef Jerky ever made." So enthuse Scott Savlov and Jon Rizzi in their appealing new coffee table book "The Club Menu: Signature Dishes from America's Premier Golf Clubs." Hyperbole? Having visited Mirabel and sunk my own teeth into those exquisitely marinated, salted and dehydrated strips of flank steak, I can vouch for every superlative the authors use to describe them.

Savlov and Rizzi (the latter of whom I occasionally worked with while I was an editor at Travel + Leisure Golf) engagingly present the culinary specialties of more than a hundred clubs. The movable feast begins at Atlantic Golf Club in Bridgehampton, N.Y., (lobster salad and coffee cake with Kahlua icing) and concludes at Windsong Farm Golf Club in Independence, Minn., (banana bread with maple pecan butter).

The book's conceit is that enjoying a club's signature dish is as integral a part of the experience as playing its golf course. To be able to say you've had the "burger dog"--a grilled hamburger shaped like a hot dog and served in a hot dog bun (see photo gallery)--at the Olympic Club in San Francisco is to make clear that you've entered an inner sanctum. In fairness, not all of the dishes featured in the book seem particularly indigenous or steeped in tradition. If I never have the orange-soy seared salmon at Bighorn Golf Club in Palm Desert, Calif., I won't feel deprived. But those are the exceptions. Anyone who has even a passing interest in the game's bastions of privilege will enjoy perusing these pages, which include recipes for every dish. The 128-page hardcover book ($50) is available at www.pindarpress.com.

Gallery: Signature DIshes from America's Top Golf Clubs

Tags: Country Clubs, CountryClubs, Golf, Signature dishes, SignatureDishes

Cigars, Golf and Happy Hour in Pennsylvania

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Cigars

What are you doing on April 24? If you're a golfer, you're about to get a new answer to that question. That's the first day of the Famous 2009 Golf Tour, sponsored by Famous Smoke Shop and ESPN Radio of the Lehigh Valley. So, clean your clubs and get ready to head out to the Riverview Golf & Country Club in Easton, PA in a few weeks.

The golf tour itself stretches all the way to the Championship Round on October 9, so if you have a decent swing, you could spend close to six months chasing a little white ball around a carefully manicured lawn.

"Each match will be a two-man 'Best Ball Scramble,'" according to Famous Smoke Shop store manager, Tim Carr. "If a player doesn't have a partner, we will assign them one. Players' handicaps will also be used as a guide for creating the foursomes and pairing-up singles, but not for scoring of the rounds, which will be based on a points system," he added.

If, like me, you don't play golf, Famous Smoke Shop has a few other events planned for the summer, so you'll have no shortage of reasons to light up a cigar (as if you need one).

Golf Round 1, April 25: Classic Car Show
Golf Round 2, May 29: Motorcycle Show
Golf Round 3, June 27: Cigar Expo 2009
Golf Round 4, July 25: Classic Car Show
Golf Round 5, August 29: Motorcycle Show
Golf Round 6, September 19: TBD

The events will be held at the Famous Smoke Shop store in Easton, PA.

If you're planning to enter the tournament, the cost is $89.99 per round, and there are pro-rated discounts available for volume. A Happy Hour follows each event, where food and drinks will be served ... with featured cigars from event sponsors Drew Estate (ACID), CAO, Camacho, Cusano, Rocky Patel and Los Blancos.

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