June 2024
Yes, this one needs to be done in three parts because it was so good. I’d be shocked if another trip on The 90Project checked as many boxes as this one: fun, travel chaos, golf plans changing, epic host, family, etc. But first, the lead up.
This wasn’t supposed to be the “Newport trip.” It was the “Fisher’s Island trip.” A colleague and friend had invited me to play Fisher’s Island. Well, I’m not sure he invited as much as I dropped a few “I would love to play Fisher’s some day” through the years. He’s a gracious guy and always welcomes friends to his club and offered to take me in ’24. After much back and forth we finally landed on a date - June 6th. I couldn’t believe it, I was finally going to play the iconic Fisher’s Island course. Fisher’s is one of the most famous golf courses in the world and it’s very difficult to get on. Not because of stuffy members who don’t want guests but because it’s not the easiest place to get to. It’s technically in New York, but its closest land neighbor is Connecticut. And the only way to get there is by private boat or ferry. So you don’t just “drop in” and play Fisher’s. It requires some planning. For these reasons, getting a date on the schedule and playing Fisher’s was a big win. Until it wasn’t.
As I try to do when traveling a long distance to play a course, I look around for opportunities to play others. This isn’t always easy because even if you have a connection the course has to be available and the date/time that I can play has to synch up with a willing host. But things were looking promising. My uncle, who has a house in Little Compton, Rhode Island, knows someone at Kittansett (Top 100 number 65). I called my good Austin friend Jon Stanner and asked him if he wanted to join me for this trip. Fisher’s is a great look so I thought he might say yes, even though his work and family schedule is quite hectic. As it turns out, Jon was to be in New York for work ending on June 5th. Perfect! We’ll play Fisher’s, Kittansett and then Jon had a great friend at Newport CC. That would be a very efficient trip, knocking out three big ones. Or so I thought.
First, Kittansett said they would be happy to have us except they were having an event. Darn. Down to two. Then, about three of four days before the trip the weather forecast showed my worst nightmare: beautiful weather every single day except for June 6th, the Fisher’s day. Weather forecasts are often wrong so I held out hope it would change. It did not. The day before we left for Rhode Island we pulled the plug on Fisher’s. A literal raincheck. Down to one.
Now the trip was simply about going to Rhode Island to play Newport. Not a big deal but thank goodness Jon came through with that, as my contributions of Kittansett and Fisher’s were done. I stood at the waiting area in the Austin airport for my flight to Providence, with a connection in Charlotte. I had already mentally moved on from the itinerary change and begun to be excited about seeing Little Compton, my uncle, Jon and playing Newport. All good. Then my phone buzzed and said that the Charlotte to Providence leg of my flight was cancelled. Which ultimately meant I needed to fly to Charlotte, sleep near the airport in Charlotte and then take a morning flight to Providence and hope that my golf clubs made that journey too.
Four hours of sleep at an airport hotel later, I was back at the Charlotte airport and on my way to Providence. After picking up Jon’s golf clubs at the boat ferry (they had to be retrieved from Fisher’s, where he had shipped them) we were on our way to Little Compton to meet my uncle. And in case you are wondering, Little Compton is nothing like the Compton you hear about in rap songs. In fact, just imagine the rap song version of Compton and now imagine the complete opposite and you have Little Compton.
Mason
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