For golfers on the mainland, the PGA Tour's season opener at Kapalua is one of the most powerful fantasies that HD television has to offer. The course seems like a dream world, with its emerald fairways, towering Cook pines and — set against the glittering waters of the Pacific — views of the neighboring island of Molokai. And yet, TV doesn't do it justice. Visitors' first impressions of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw's design often involve shock, because of the absolute beauty of the place, and awe, over its size. On this course, carved from the mountainous slopes of a former pineapple plantation, we feel dwarfed by our surroundings, and sometimes humbled by the elements.
Hawaiian golf is often stereotyped as a manicured lark, lush and easy, but Kapalua is ruled by the long-haul trade winds trucking down from Alaska. (The secret to posting a good score here is to play in the morning, before the big breezes kick up.) I learned this on my very first tee shot on the Plantation, while honeymooning at the resort in 2006. …
Click here to read more in the Fall 2012 issue of The Ritz-Carlton Magazine
It's a sunny morning just north of San Francisco as the Marin Farmers Market hums to life. The growers, who've been up since well before dawn, have finished pitching tents and hanging scales, and their fresh-picked wares are laid out on long tables like some riotous picnic.
Striding toward a stall at full tilt is a sandy-haired man in a running jacket and blue jeans. He looks a lot like Sean Penn, right down to the amused expression playing around the eyes. Greeting the vendors with a smile, he makes a beeline past their orchestrated display to a jumble of crates around back. A moment later, he's reaching into one to take a bite of an haricot vert.
A customer takes the man for a farmer and starts to ask a question, but he pivots away, oblivious, to inspect a box full of sungold tomatoes. Then he stops and scans left and right, giving the impression that he might be about to take off. The farmers know better: he and they are about to engage in a gastronomical pas de deux, a quick-witted and detailed appraisal of every fruit and vegetable, every edible flower and bouquet of herbs, on offer today. …