SWEDISH FACT-OF-THE-DAY:
Hans Blix found himself in the spotlight during the Second Iraq War in his role as chief weapons inspector for the United Nations.
One of my more minor peculiarities is collecting logo balls from golf courses that I have played. Among my most cherished are the one from the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland, thanks to our son Andrew, and one from the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California, thanks to Mike D'Antuono.
I also really like the logo balls from any course outside of the United States that I get the opportunity to play. In Europe, I've played a course on the island of Rhodes in Greece, another one in Sicily and last weekend here in Sweden.
When I asked about buying a logo ball at the Pro Shop last Saturday, they said that they were out but that I could get one at the clubhouse of the Araslöv City Course's parent 36 hole facility across town in the village of Färlöv.
With all of this in mind, and knowing that Laurie was doing the laundry this morning, I was off to board the train to Kristianstad in search of a prized Araslöv Golf Klubb logo ball.
Once in Kristianstad, and after having some morning fika to properly start my day's nutrition, I got on a bus for the 15 minute ride to Färlöv. According to the map, the bus would pass right by the entrance to the course so once I saw it I simply had to get off at the next stop and walk back about five minutes.
Along the way back to the golf course I was treated to some fun sights.
Blueberries for sale on the Honor System
One flat for 30 Swedish crowns, 2 for 50, that sounds like a good deal to me. Just take what you want and put the money in the green metal box.
The Färlöv Rune Stone
Discovered in 1997, it dates from somewhere between 650-900 A.D.
When found, it was greatly damaged and, despite careful restoration, only some of the individual runes can be deciphered. The inscription as a whole remains unreadable.
Stone walls are all over Sweden
It must have been back breaking work for farmers back in the day to clear their fields of these boulders in order to plant their crops and then to build these territorial barriers.
The village of Vinnö???
Better keep Laurie and Elin away from here!
Barns like this are Skåne's "Logo Ball"
A Horse Farm . . .
. . . complete with horses
I finally arrived at the course and asked the man at the counter in the Pro Shop for my Grail Quest, one Araslöv GK logo ball.
He sold the last one yesterday.
Damn.
It was then back on the bus to Kristianstad to meet up with Shawn Cordeiro. Shawn has been my right hand man all season long in working with the Junior players, he is a great asset to the Canes.
Shawn is very actively trying to get the Hurricanes Junior and PeeWee programs off the ground. His goal is to get both teams up and running as quickly as possible.
With this in mind we decided to meet with a Swedish coaching legend, Tyson Guillen.
Tyson is the founder/coach of the Kristianstad Predators and owns a sporting goods store in Kristianstad that specializes in American football equipment. He is also the coach of the Swedish National Junior team.
He is originally from Sacramento, California, married a Swedish lass and has been living in Sweden since 1985. Tyson's Predator program currently fields four teams for kids ranging in age from 10 to 19. Next season they will field their first Senior team. It has taken time but I think his visionary plan is something that all teams in Europe should investigate.
He has a perfect blueprint for building a complete football organization and was more than willing to share his ideas with us about how to get the Hässleholm program on firmer ground. Go to http://www.predators.se/ for more info on the Predators.
Good guy.
We were invited to dinner at Castle Palmbrink in Vinslöv, it was Taco Friday!
Now, I have gone on record before as saying that Elin serves the best Mexican cuisine in all of Skåne.
She did not disappoint us.
In a stunning upset, two year old Ludvig kept his clothes on the entire evening.
A golf book from Mike D'Antuono
This blog started with golf, so lets end it that way as well.
Carl Hiaasen is an American writer of Norwegian descent who stopped playing golf in 1973 at the age of 20. When he quit his best round ever was an 88.
In 2005, after a 32 year break in the action, he decided to take up the game again at the age of 52 and write a book about his first two years back on the links.
He moans about being such a terrible hack, shooting in the low 90's usually with the occasional flare up into the low 100s and actually breaking 90 more than a few times. His highlight was lowering his all-time best round score by carding an 85 one blissful day on his comeback tour.
It was a fun read except for the fact that he constantly complains about how bad his game is as he is, as mentioned, usually shooting in the low 90s.
I first began playing golf about 15 years ago at the urging of our two sons, payback no doubt for some deep psychological trauma I inflicted upon them in their youth. I know that I first broke 100 at Elkins Ranch in Fillmore, California playing with Dave Wilde and Curt Garner. I even think I broke 100 one other time in my lackluster career but I can't remember when or where. Thus, in reading Hiassen's golf book I have decided to slap him silly should we ever meet.
I would love to have his game.
On a final note, while Hiaasen writes about having his golf cart sink into a lake due to a faulty brake, I once helped Andrew and Michael stop their cart at the last second from submerging into a lake at Elkins Ranch. Only the front half of the cart went into the lake on the rain slicked course that day.
Complaining about a 92? Damn Norwegians!
