In June, at the end of the school year in Indianapolis, my wife is going into retirement mode and we’re taking the Sansom’s Geezer Adventure off the road.  For the first time in 4 years, we’ll have just one residence… our home in Atlanta.  It’s been an interesting time, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything, but it’s time.  

Indianapolis is a nice town, with nice people and little traffic.  Lots to recommend it.  But visually, Indy is not inspiration central.  I know there are photographers who can dig the beauty out of Indy, but I’m not one of them.  Except, that is, for Crooked Stick Golf Club, in Carmel.  Tony Pancake and his team at Crooked Stick were my saving grace, creatively, during our time in Indy.  I met Tony when I first moved to town and was making the rounds of the golf clubs, saying hello to everyone in the industry I could get in front of.  He was very welcoming, but he had purchased a huge number of photographs of the course just two years before.  No luck there.

For some reason, in the Spring of our second year Tony invited me to do some shooting at the club.  Then again in the Fall.  And he began buying my photos and selling them in the golf shop.  Doing business with him has always been relaxed and comfortable... I think because we both love that property, and that shared affection gives us common ground.

So it was only right that the final day I was in town, in April, before I moved most of my Geezer Adventure Gear south to Atlanta I did one final shoot at The Stick.  Since my last full shoot at the club, Pete Dye had directed a significant modification of the par 3 17th hole, adding a lake from tee to green that completely altering the character of the hole.  Jake Gargasz, the Superintendent, did a masterful job on the lake, and the change is remarkable.  The bad news is, the images weren't exactly what the club was looking for.  It was too early in the Spring for the newly planted grasses to have come up and for the leaves to have moved beyond the “tiny, bright green new spring leaf” stage.  The good news is, they want to document this great new modification when it is ready for prime time.  So I’ll have to go back up to shoot it again.  Life is so hard!  :)  In the meantime, here’s my favorite of the three images I completed of the 17th!