Thursday, April 14, 2016

Where's Mav? He's on a plane!

I landed in San Francisco at 9:30am after a 14 hour flight from Sydney, Australia on December 21st… But I had departed Sydney at 4pm on the 21st. Sitting at the gate awaiting my final flight of 2015 to Palm Springs, I wondered exactly how much distance I had covered this year. I traveled outside North America for the first two times of my life, played a full college and amateur schedule, tested the waters on the PGA Tour, and spent only a handful of days at home. Thus prompted this blog post… A review of 2015 as seen from 30,000 feet!

Just for fun, I went back on every flight I had made (including connections) this calendar year, and totaled the number of miles covered on each leg of the journey. For those interested, I also included a quick explanation for why I found myself in this particular part of the world. So here goes:


SF->Hawaii->SF = 4,700 miles
First tournament of 2015, the Amer Ari at the Waikoloa Kings Course in Hawaii. Someone has to do it, I guess…

SF->Palm Springs, CA->SF = 900 miles
Prestige at PGA West in La Quinta, CA. If I recall correctly, our team shot a half-decent 20 under final round here. Made the trip back very nice!

SF->Cabo San Lucas->SF = 3,000 miles
Querencia Cabo Collegiate. Continuing the trend of tournament destinations that make all of our dorm-mates jealous.

SF->Palm Springs, CA->SF = 900 miles
Easter weekend and some golf with the family in La Quinta…

SF->Pullman, WA->SF = 1,700 miles
Pac12 Championships at Palouse Ridge, Washington State’s course. A few good memories here… Yeah maybe more than a few.

SF->Charlotte, NC->Dallas/Fort Worth->SF = 5,200 miles
NCAA Regionals in at UNC Finley GC, followed by a stop in Fort Worth, TX for the Ben Hogan Award ceremony at Colonial CC. Picked up a W and a berth at Nationals at UNC, and a top-3 finish at the Hogan Award!

SF->Bradenton, FL->Atlanta, GA->SF = 5,600 miles
NCAA Nationals at the Concession Club in Bradenton, FL. Can we re-do day 1??

SJ->Phoenix, AZ->Columbus, OH->Chicago, IL->SF = 4,900  miles
Two birds with one stone here… I moved my US Open Sectional qualifying to the Columbus, OH site so that I could do that and attend the Jack Nicklaus Award ceremony at Murifield Village GC. The field was stacked with PGA Tour pros- I played one group in front of David Lingmerth, fresh off his victory at the Memorial the day previous!

SF->Chicago, IL->Kansas City, MO->San Diego, CA->SF = 4,600 miles
Palmer Cup at Rich Harvest Farms just outside Chicago. We made an unplanned landing in Kansas City, as our intended flight path was blocked by thunderstorms in the Midwest.

SF->Washington, DC-Greenbrier, WV->Washington, DC->SF = 5,800 miles
The Greenbrier Classic at Old White TPC. The Greenbrier Resort really felt like an oasis in the middle of nowhere… Because it kind of was! Not easy to get to.

SF->Atlanta, GA->SF = 4,600 miles
PGA Tour Barbasol Championship at RTJ Golf Trail in Opelika, AL. This doesn’t include the hour and a half taxi ride to Opelika from Atlanta…

SF->Portland, OR->Eugene, OR->Seattle, WA->SF = 1,700 miles
Pacific Coast Amateur Championship at Eugene CC (sound familiar? Site of the 2016 NCAA National Championship! Strategic planning.) with my teammate Viraat Badhwar.

SF->Chicago, IL->SF = 4,100 miles
US Amateur at Olympia Fields CC just outside Chicago. I’m starting to like this place… Starring the Daddy-Caddy!

SF->Pittsburgh, PA->Chicago, IL->SF = 5,000 miles
Walker Cup Practice Session in Latrobe, PA.. Home of the great Arnold Palmer. One of my fondest memories was drinking an AP sitting across the table from the real AP…

SF->New York, NY->Manchester, England->New York, NY->Chicago, IL->SF = 12,200 miles
Walker Cup and Fighting Illini Invitational. Started with a tour of the NYSE and 9/11 Memorial in New York, followed by the most incredible golf experience of my life at Royal Lytham and St. Annes Golf Club. Then flew straight to Chicago to meet my Stanford team for the first college event of the year at OFCC. It’s official, I like that golf course.

SF->Portland, OR->SF = 1,200 miles
Pumpkin Ridge for the Nike Collegiate Invitational… And a tour of Nike World Headquarters as well!

SF->Atlanta, GA->SF = 4,600 miles
Alpharetta, GA for the US Collegiate Championship at the GC of Georgia. Somehow backed myself into a win here…

SF->San Diego, CA->SF = 1,000 miles
The Gifford Collegiate Championship at La Costa Resort. Make it back-to-back-back-in wins!

SF->Palm Springs, CA->SF = 800 miles
Some more sunny, 36-hole golf days with the family in La Quinta for Thanksgiving break.

SJ->LA->Brisbane, Australia->Cairns, Australia->Sydney, Australia->SF->Palm Springs, CA = 17,800 miles
This was a trip to visit my teammate Viraat Badhwar in Australia; we began in his hometown of Brisbane (and I got to witness the course where V honed his buttery little draw… Not a left-to-right hole on the property!), visited Cairns for a day to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef, and ended in Sydney and a spectacular round at New South Wales GC. Then I met my family back in the desert for some more 36 hole days over Christmas and New Years.


Add those all up, and you get:

4 countries
14 states
58 flights
90,300 miles (the Earth’s circumference is approximately 25,000 miles, so this year’s flying was the equivalent of flying around the world nearly four times…)



*note- this blog post was, in fact, written on an airplane…


by Maverick McNealy

No comments:

Post a Comment