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Written by Jim Apfelbaum
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Greetings from Austin
The Blue Dot with Great Greens
 Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book collaborator Edwin “Bud” Shrake once said that he thought Austin had lost a little something each year for about the last 30. The novelist, now in his 70s, smiled wryly when asked about the remark. “Yeah,” he said, “but I’m still here.” Therein lies the essence of Austin laissez-faire, of life—and golf—in “the little blue dot in the big red state,” as beloved resident politico Molly Ivins put it, a town where the pervading philosophy can be summed up by a bumper sticker admonishment: “What’s your hurry, you’re already in Austin.” The surrounding landscape is no less eclectic. “This doesn’t look like Texas,” is invariably a visitor’s first impression. True enough. Austin has hills, swimming holes and trees: gnarly, majestic oaks, towering pecans, mesquite, cedar, elm, ash, cottonwood—in a variety of sylvan settings from lush parkland to sun-splattered lakes to wind-swept plains. In short, Austin is a microcosm of Texas’s more appealing environs. |
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Written by Jason Kerkmans
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Natalie Gulbis is already the biggest name in women’s golf. If she can become one of its biggest winners, there will be no stopping her…or the LPGA Tour.
 Natalie Gulbis isn’t a cupcake. She isn’t just a pretty face either. But she is arguably the most visible face of the LPGA. So when Gulbis’s chocolate cupcakes didn’t rise during the season debut of this year’s “The Celebrity Apprentice” on NBC and it appeared for a moment that she could be the first to hear Donald Trump say, “You’re fired,” LPGA fans can be excused for thinking their tour was about to miss out on some much-needed, prime-time exposure. |
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Written by Art Stricklin
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Last of the Legends of Texas Golf
 Tough and fair. Legendary and helpful. Gruff and kind. A true Texas original, a champion in three different eras, all would be good descriptions of longtime Champions Golf Club kingpin and former Masters Champion Jack Burke Jr. Burke, 86, a Fort Worth native who has lived in Houston almost his entire life, is one of Texas’ last remaining links to its glorious golfing past and tradition. He grew around the dinner table at Houston’s River Oaks Country Club where his father, Jack Burke Sr., was the head professional. |
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Written by Jim Apfelbaum
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The Lanky Lass from New Mexico
Set the WABAC machine for November 1963, San Antonio, J. Press Maxwell’s formidable Pecan Valley Golf Club, a few weeks before the Kennedy assassination. After a fitful start, Kathy Whitworth, 24, is having her first big year on the LPGA Tour. With eight wins already, she enters the week the winner of three of the last 10 tournaments, with three seconds, finishing no worse than tenth.
Pecan Valley: Considered stout enough to host the PGA Championship in five years, this week it’s playing wet and long, “toughest course they played all year,” said one observer afterwards. “Period. Exclamation point.” |
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