This Week at TravelGolf.com: Nov. 7, 2007

Honor the golf heroes of San Diego fires by visiting the city, playing golf there

During the chaos and fear of the California wildfires, nine ordinary men with no firefighting experience battled flames racing toward homes with garden hoses and buckets of pool water for 12 long hours.

Those nine guys were the Rancho Bernardo Inn's golf course maintenance crew, led by superintendent Dave Buckles.

One resort had workers volunteer to stay during the worst of fires to serve food and provide lodging for almost 700 emergency workers who needed a base camp near the raging flames. This despite the fact, the resort had an emergency evacuation only a day before.

That resort was Pala Mesa Golf Resort.

Golf stood up and had one of its finest hours during the San Diego blazes. Nongolfers love to criticize this sport - let's face it, this happy, crazy sickness that so many of us have - and often they're justified. It's still too exclusionary, too elitist, too self important in many ways.

But it also boasts plenty of people with big hearts who just won't quit.

That's what Buckles and his guys should have done by anyone's estimation. Instead, they climbed on the roofs of two houses to wet down shingles, saved at least six homes that would have burned otherwise.

Now, it's time to make sure we don't quit on San Diego as vacationing golfers.

It's time to honor all those ordinary golf heroes, by still taking that planned trip to Ron Burgundy's city, by considering San Diego's golf wonders if you hadn't before. The tourism industry in this town is terrified that vacationers are going to stay away this winter.

Those who swing big $300 sticks sideways can be the army that allays those worries.

It's not like you're being asked to conduct some big sacrifice. This isn't like going to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The local government didn't break down and the federal one showed. San Diego's golf courses somehow escaped largely untouched too.

You can play places like Torrey Pines and La Costa, find the usual joy in the fairways. In L.A., there is cruel talk of prosecuting the 10-year-old who started one of the fires there playing with matches. In San Diego, golfers are back to yelling "Stay Classy" to one another.

That "Anchorman" line holds more meaning now. Thanks to golf's heroes. And hopefully, vacationers who pay homage by showing up.

As always, TravelGolf.com welcomes your comments.

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