The CaddyShack #14 - The road to Cabot: Part III
A new written series for 2024, by Pat's Ten Pence.
The journey to Cabot (Part Three)
You may wonder how a couple of English people ended up working at Cabot Cape Breton. The golfers certainly wondered. Well; we drove. Always a good answer walking up the first fairway to the ‘so what brings you here?’ opening question. We didn’t set off from England. Although the total distance travelled was a lot more than the flight would’ve been. We took the long way round from Kamloops, BC, Canada, and it was pretty life-changing.
Like The Godfather, this journey comes in three parts. We left last week in Southern Texas, with sights set on New Orleans. I had managed to wangle a media pass to the Zurich Classic through my online writing and networking efforts - and funnily enough we featured on the Full Swing episode where they were filming the Fitzpatrick brothers for the episode ‘In the Shadows’.
We’d been following the Fitz-Fitz group, and were laughing when we saw ourselves in the background at TPC Louisiana.
Ode to NOLA
The rest of the week spent in New Orleans was a time capsule, preserved in the 1960s but also in the present day, weekly structure seemed non-existent - late night jazz is equally good on a Sunday as it is on a Wednesday, set mealtimes don’t exist, you see beers on the street without it being rowdy, it’s musical but not over bearing, crowded without being rushed. New Orleans folk are aware of their history, in a few days you’re swept up in the whirlwind that is gumbo, crawfish, jazz bands…and the right kind of hurricanes (shoutout Pat O’Briens).
5 days there was enough to speak the language, I think. Hoping to go back one day. We got back in the car on Monday morning at the end of April and headed North after a brilliant week, and settled in Nashville, Tennessee after seven more hours and a quick drive through Ole Miss and Alabama. The country music hall of fame, Broadway, beers, everything was bigger in Nashville. This was a stop-off that we cut short, and headed on up to a dingy 2 star hotel in Roanoke (we like Darius Rucker, felt fitting) en route up to DC, allowing us to go through the Shenandoah National Park. It was at about this point where I thought we might actually make it all the way to Nova Scotia.
DC was certainly a highlight. If New Orleans was free-flowing, vibrant and unstructured, we had met its antithesis. Washington was bureaucratic in every sense of the word, the imposing presence of the global power that is the US of A very much apparent as you walked past the Pentagon, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and the various government buildings. War, honour, history, patriotism were omnipresent. On our third and final night we had not yet decided where the next destination was, but figured on a dwindling budget that New York maybe wasn’t the play. We waved hello and goodbye to the Concrete Jungle on the way up and vowed to visit soon (we did) and settled in Boston, exploring Harvard, MIT, quoting Good Will Hunting (wicked smaht) and following the historic trails throughout the city, even catching some famous pizza and a Broadway travelling show.
This North Eastern leg of the road trip could even garner its own chapter in the future, but we point the compass towards Cabot Links which is getting veer closer. It is around May 4th, 2023 and in one week, I’m set to start as a caddie stationed in Cabot Cape Breton. A couple more pit stops; purchase a spare rangefinder battery and a red cap, and we were there.
Next week, I’ll return to stories from the course. We’re exactly a year on from my first ever training loop, 12th May 2023 at 7.56am, and it’s cool to reminisce and realise how clueless I was at the start of the 2023 summer season. Seeing old colleagues make the pilgrimage back out East this summer is inspiring and I’m glad to see them go back and make some memories.
Key Takeaways:
- Yes, we played Luke Combs music on the I-65 up into Tennessee. When it rains, it pours.
- If I was to give feedback on New Orleans gumbo, Nashville sliders, and a Turkey leg in Texas, I’d still take a Sunday roast above all three.
- We saw the odometer creep up to 250,000 kilometres on the old Ford in Nashville and realised we still had about 3,500km to go to get over to Nova Scotia. At this point, everything was a gamble. Naivety at an all-time high.
- Hoping to share some do’s and don’ts next week, as well as a couple extra stories. By the end of May, the back nine will be complete!
What a journey - love it
Loved it again 🥰