Lunch with Rees

Funny story from the Golfdom Summit...

I made a few new friends at "Eleven," the rooftop bar at the Reunion Resort. These guys were on vacation from Pennsylvania, and thought it was pretty cool that we were hosting our event at the Reunion Resort.

They thought it was even cooler that Rees Jones was giving our keynote speech.

So the next day, I get a phone call from one of the guys. "Seth, it's Roy, from Pennsylvania," he says. "Not sure if you remember from last night, but if the offer's still good, we would like to come see Rees give his talk at your event."


Well, I didn't remember, of course, but that does sound like something I'd do. So I said sure, we've got room, be there at 7:30 to see Rees. Roy and his friend are pumped.

A few hours later I get a call. "Seth, you won't believe this... we were getting off the golf course, walking through the clubhouse, and who do we see? Rees Jones! So we introduce ourselves... the next thing we know, Rees is inviting us to have lunch with him! So, long story short, we got to meet Rees today at lunch, so don't worry about us crashing your party!"

When I introduced Rees at dinner that night, I related that story. I told all the attendees that I think it's pretty cool that Rees Jones is not only the greatest living golf architect, but he's also that nice of a guy that he'll invite some strangers to have lunch with him.

Everyone thought that was a pretty good story, and Rees stepped up to the podium.

"Seth, there's more to that story," Rees said as soon as he got to the microphone. "Oh, no," I thought t myself...

Rees talked about how they were having a pleasant lunch when the topic of golf courses in Roy's area came up. They liked this course, and that course, and this course was nice too... but this one course (which will remain nameless) was a real mess, Roy said. Blind shots all over. Just awful. Worst course in the area.

And Rees smiles and says, "I'm sorry you feel that way... I designed that course."

As you can imagine, Roy turned a little red in the face. But Rees and everyone laughed it off. 

"So I think there's a reason they decided to miss this evening's talk," Rees then deadpanned to our group.

Classic.

We did run into Roy and his friend again that evening, and they validated the story. A few of the attendees had to hear it from Roy himself, and the version from Roy was pretty classic, too. We all had a good laugh. A few of the attendees thanked the guys for the great story