No golf in Italy

I trust you’ll understand my leave of absence.

My wife took the Bar Exam just 3 weeks ago, and we decided to go off-grid for some time. As we retreated to the Italian coast, countryside, and city, I deliberately chose not to even dabble in the 9-5 or the creative.

And while Scottie Scheffler and Bobby McIntyre made it awfully difficult to stay offline completely this past weekend, I would say the wife and I did a relatively good job of disconnecting.

I understand. Your inbox has felt dry, barren, lacking the wit and charm of the tasteful golf newsletter you had come to so frequently enjoy over the past couple months.

As an apology, I offer you two things:

Only a few things, as I’ve truly been out of the loop aside from the bookend Sunday storylines over the past couple weeks. Yes, I saw bits and pieces of the gritty Rose/Spaun playoff, marked too by Tommy’s heartbreaking finish. And yes, I saw Scottie’s chip on 17th that will be a legendary shot for years to come. But no, I was not in the weeds of the action. I was unable to glue my eyes to the screen for any full day of action of consistent chunks of play.

My TV providers made it clear to me that I was too far away from where they wanted me to be.

Without further adieu, Italy.

Feel free to skip to the end to read about the golf if you don’t care at all about my personal life — I won’t lose sleep over it. Otherwise, get to know me just a bit.

I’ll share in four courses, as the Italians would appreciate (a minimum course count for those hungry boys and girls over there). If I were to accurately place each destination into a category based on their length of stay + activities activitied, it’s hard to say where they’d fall. Positano and Tuscany were long in stay, but relaxed in action. Rome was short in stay, dense with frolic.

To limit confusion (or to add to it I’m really not sure), I’ll sort the courses by order in which we visited.

AntipastaPositano + Capri

She’s remarkable. My wife and I have lived a number of our married years (fine, just 2) in Malibu, CA, so we’d grown accustomed to the beach to mountain terrain, but this was different.

Positano and Capri boast grandeur, with towering cliffs protruding from the water in an almost unbelievable fashion. With any nook the cliffs provided, the coastal Italians built the most charming, colorful, lively towns, stacking structures (houses, hotels, restaurants) on top of one another

There’s a right way to do this in the summer, as it does get hot and crowded in the main city square. Happy to show you how it’s done (I’ll send you the itinerary my wife made and I enjoyed — she wasn’t thrilled with my lack of participation; it’s something I’m working on).

Regardless, incredible time.

PrimiIschia

A charming island with probably many things to do.

I say probably, as we stayed at a wonderful resort that made it quite difficult to leave. We treated ourselves to a spa, and while I wish we could have saved the foot massage for AFTER the tens of thousands of steps we accumulated in Florence and Rome, it was still wonderful.

The little port town of Forio offered us some of the best pizza I’ve ever had, paired nicely with a sunset apertivo overlooking the water.

Two short nights here were well spent.

SecondiTuscany

Ah, a more sophisticated approach to life in Italy. Mmm, yes yes of course, wine and cheese please. Vino e formaggi, si? These tannins sure are firm, and oh boy is this wine acidic… must be a young one (ah haha hahahaha mmmmm hahaha), he laughed in a wealthy tone.

I only joke. We had quite the wonderful (elevated, albeit) agriturismo hotel. Some of these agricultural hospitality hotels may give you the chance to live the farm lifestyle while staying on property. Our place, while home to a beautiful organic garden along with a small farm of goats and chickens, did not require us to get our hands dirty in the least.

While relearning the art of the stick-shift brought about both the best and the worst of me, whipping around the Tuscan countryside was an overall joy.

Rest, wine, and a day trip to Florence highlighted our stay.

Dessert (same word in Italian, nice)Rome

Truly not a city in the world like Rome. The history, the food culture, the people. We had just an afternoon, one full day, and one full morning. On our full day, we eclipsed 20,000 steps without much fuss.

The main streets and side streets alike are crowded with pizzerias, ristorantes, bars, gelatarias, convenience stores. All small business, all over.

Noteworthy: they speak of Rome’s newer buildings being constructed in the 1600s. Unfathomable to my American mind.

I don’t even have to say anything about Scottie, but I will.

You had the feeling going into Sunday that it was just as much Scottie’s tournament to win as it was Bobby’s. YOU DON’T SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT WHEN A GUY IS DOWN 4 STROKES. But you do say it when the guy down 4 strokes is Scottie Scheffler. Golf doesn’t seem to have the same effect on him that it had on others.

Golf is so unpredictable. It’s why Bobby can shoot -8 on day one and finish with a +3 on the final day — every day on the golf course presents its own challenges that you can never be fully prepared for.

Yes, these days happen to Scottie. The 72 at the Travelers, the 71 at the Schwab. He’s human, but only barely.

Bobby is great — he’s cracked the top 10 in the world now, and he’s always a threat to go low. But everyone is prone to fumbling. It just seems Scottie is not quite as susceptible as others. He’s won his last eight events that he’s had the 54-hole lead.

A quick blurb on the week before.

A really fun 4-man race down the stretch in Memphis. Perhaps a little Ryder Cup preview. I find myself rooting for each of these four guys often in tournaments — Rose less often than the others, but I was really thrilled with him winning.

He’s a gentleman’s gentleman. Once it seemed Scottie and Tommy were out of contention (my goodness, poor Tommy… he’s got to find himself a win soon), I narrow-mindedly rooted for Spaun in my own patriotic way.

We all probably would’ve chosen a Tommy/Scottie playoff, but the Rose/Spaun battle was everything. Wild lip outs, big time birdies. Electric stuff.

Rose’s finish with six birdies in his final eight holes (including the playoff holes) was so gritty.

Well, I had a great time in Italy. Over the next couple weeks, you’ll get some more FedEx Cup content, some Ryder Cup look aheads, a few brand shoutouts, maybe a short story or two.

I’ll be lucky enough to attend Sunday’s action of the Ryder Cup, and will be sure to report back everything that made the world go round that day. I trust you’ll stick around, yeah?

Goodness gracious this was a beast to put together.

Not really going to read over it for writing error — I again trust you’ll extend me some grace given that I’m a bit out of practice because of my sabbatical of sorts.

CHEERS

Luke ManganOn Golf