For any golfer who wants to play great golf
Fore! Golf Marathon at Crystal Springs
On Wednesday, May 19th, I played in the golf marathon for the Jack and Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation at Crystal Springs resort in New Jersey.
It was one of the best golf experiences I have had in my life. The resort is beautiful and the Crystal Springs golf course is a very challenging layout. Although it’s not as long as some other courses, you must keep the ball in play and on the fairway. And even if you manage to hit the fairway you need to be in the correct side of the fairway. There are very few flat lies on the fairways and even less of them in the rough. The rough is full of punishing grass moguls that make it difficult hit good shots to the large, but fast undulating greens. This course has some of the largest greens I have played on, but you must be in the right part of the green to have a good putt at birdie or even par.
Besides the beauty and difficulty of the golf course, the whole day was so much fun. Once I checked in with Rob Pritts of Back9Promotions, the man behind the golf marathon, we got some breakfast and an opportunity to meet some of the other golfers and participants including about 10 players from the New York Jets. I ended up playing with 3 of the Jets, 2 of them for over 50 holes of golf.
I ended up playing a total of 63 holes of golf. It was the most I have ever played in one day, and although it was tiring, the whole experience was amazing. The two Jets I played with were wide receiver Danny Woodhead and safety Jim Leonard. Both of these guys have excellent golf games. One of the contests during the day was to see who could play the most number of holes with a Bridgestone ball that was handed out at the beginning of the day. Danny Woodhead ended up playing his Bridgestone for 33 holes and ended up winning the prize (a very nice Bridgestone Staff Bag). I unfortunately lost mine on the 2nd hole.
One of the my favorite holes on the Crystal Springs course was the 2nd hold on the Classic 9. It was also the hole on which I started my day. It is a 185 yard hole 75 feet below the tee, across a quarry pool to a bow tie (or dog bone) shaped green. The first time I played the hole, I over clubbed and hit a 5 iron off the roof of the house that bounced back onto the green from where I made my par.
I was also proud to be wearing a golf shirt donated by L.O.F.T. golf of Hartford, CT. And I was able to deliver a putter donated by the Roll-Master Golf called “The Ringer“, which makes a sweet sound, like fine crystal, when you hit a putt on the sweet spot, for the $10,000 putting contest.
Although the day was about golf, it was also very rewarding to raise money for a great cause. The Jack and Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation creates wow experiences for families with a parent diagnosed with late stage cancer. It is very sad to think that the kids in those families are going to lose a mom or a dad. In the end we raised about 35,000 for the foundation.
