I’ve now directed five Solstice Survival events for GolfStyles magazine, and I’m back home in Columbus after two weeks on the road. Back-to-back 20 hour days last week nearly wrecked me, and I found that I wasn’t able to focus or maintain my train of thought. I babbled and it was so hot I think my internal core temperature was about 102 degrees.

I once went behind the scenes at Disney World in Florida, and that experience is kind of like running these tournaments. Out in the park, the guests all see a smoothly running operation with no hitches or problems. But behind the buildings, where there are steam pipes and cinder block walls and an industrial feel, people are running around like their hair is on fire.

At one of these 54-hole, one-day tournaments, I routinely have players tell me what a great experience it was and that everything ran without a hitch. But I spend the entire day putting out small metaphorical brush fires. I guess that’s the point.

As for having driven 2,000 miles in two weeks and visited Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Frederick and two spots in Northern Virginia, I can say there is no way to negotiate I-95 without getting caught in traffic. No wonder people from this area of the country seemed so pissed off all the time. I’m agitated now, and I’m not even there.

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