Day 18 - Tuesday, September 6 - New Jersey << Index
Anticipated: Play golf Fiddlers Elbow Country Club, New Jersey
Travel:
  Itinerary:
Leave Johnsons for 2:00PM tee time at Fiddlers Elbow, Farhills, NJ. After golf drive to the home of Dick and Wendy Koch in Pocono Manor, PA. Wendy is Pat's cousin. We will be spending two nights with them. casino
  States/Provinces Played:
Web: www.fiddlerselbowcc.com
Actual: (Photos and text)
Click on the photos below to enlarge

Leaving the Johnsons—a fond farewell

Pro Shop-Assistant Pros

Starters (upper left picture) Eric Burgooyne (left) and Ken Mascola with Pat. Scenes from the golf course.

Fiddler’s Elbow Clubhouse scenes
After a leisurely breakfast we left the Johnsons heading south on Route I95 for our 18th round of golf at Fiddler’s Elbow, New Jersey. We had about 200 miles to cover before we reached our destination, and since we weren’t sure how heavy the traffic would be going south the day after Labor Day, we left about 9:15AM for our 2:00PM tee time. We hit a few congested areas, but for the most part, the traffic moved along at a steady pace. We traveled 4 states on I95, I287 & I78 right to the golf course. Since we eventually ended up in Pennsylvania today, we traveled 5 states (RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA). This is the most we will hit on any given day the whole trip

Fiddler’s Elbow was easy to find, thanks to the map Arnie had printed from the computer, and we arrived by 1:30PM and teed off almost immediately. We were met in the pro shop by Aaron Abeles, one of the assistant pros, who got us signed up and directed us to the starters. Fiddler’s Elbow has 54 holes of golf, and we played “The Meadow” course. The other two courses are “The River Course” and The Forest Course”. The Meadow course is in great shape with beautiful rolling fairways and immaculate greens. However, there are several holes where water comes into play, and Pat got into three of them (after hitting pretty good shots!). Jim shot a 92 (yardage=5961), and Pat shot a 107 (yardage=5368).

Unfortunately, we did not get to meet Mike Kallam, the Director of Golf, and Chas Sarlund, the head professional, because they were both playing in Pro-Ams. We were introduced to the Fiddler’s Elbow and Chas Sarlund by Ken Kapcia who attended Ferris State University (Michigan) with Chas. The assistants, Aaron Abeles and Mary Ring, as well as the starters, Ken Mascola and Eric Burgoyne were most courteous and helpful in making our round a very enjoyable one. We would like to thank everyone for their generosity in letting us play the course, and Mike for “comping” our fees. It was greatly appreciated.

After golf we headed west on Highway 78 towards Pennsylvania and our next round of golf. We turned north on highway 33 towards the Poconos. We arrived at Dick and Wendy Koch’s home in the Pocono Mountains about 7:30 PM (Wendy is Pat’s cousin). We will be playing round 19 with them tomorrow at Pocono Manor Golf Course which is just across the street from their house. In fact, we are viewing it as we are composing this journal.

Interestingly, Pocono Manor Golf Course is adjacent I80 as was Purple Sage GC (Wyoming) which was the 2nd round of our journey (I80 transverses the country from New York City to San Francisco). We will be seeing I80 again several times as we continue our journey.