This & That: Making the Rounds – Installment 41

This column features recollections of the author’s 38 years as a golf writer. These installments stem from his many travels and experiences, which led to a gradual understanding that the game has many intriguing components, especially its people.

This column contains some meandering thoughts and personal observations.

The Best Dog Park in the World

Ever since moving to Whidbey Island we’ve discovered several gems on the biggest rock in Puget Sound. Particularly striking are some amazing yet uncrowded parks owned and operated by several entities, including the state of Washington, Island County,  private individuals (including https://earthsanctuary.org/) and the Whidbey Camano (Island) Land Trust.

The mission of the latter organization, a member of the national Land Trust Alliance, is to partner with landowners and island communities; expand county and state parks; protect natural areas and local family farms; increase trail and beach access; and protect and restore fish and wildlife habitat. Residents and tourists are thankful for their work.

Some remarks about our new home:

• There’s a “deliberate” paucity of national-chain stores and restaurants, fast food or otherwise on South Whidbey, with small, locally owned and operated businesses being prioritized.
• The island’s only predator is the coyote, which competes for wild rabbits, squirrels and mice with Red-tailed Hawks, Cooper’s Hawks and Sharp-shinned Hawks.
• Over 50 breeding pairs of bald eagles are often seen majestically snagging fish from the Sound and the island’s many freshwater lakes.
• The island is rife with almost 3,000 Columbian black-tailed deer and untold Nuttall’s cottontails. Both species plague gardeners, many of whom employ various “countermeasures” to minimize the damage.

One of our favorite places here is Greenbank Farm and its 500-acre off-leash dog park. Owned by the Port of Coupeville, it’s located off SR-525 at one of the 37-mile-long island’s skinniest coast-to-coast points.

This open space situated 11 miles south of Coupeville and 7 miles north of Freeland has a decided agrarian history. It was first settled in the early 1900s by Danish immigrants, who established a dairy farm that ran through the Great Depression and World War II.

When the dairy business closed in the 1950s, the site became a turkey farm – and soon after – a loganberry enterprise that became America’s largest producer of this small but tasty vine fruit. After these shuttered, subsequent owners attempted other farming ventures, but none survived beyond the early 1990s.   

Plans to convert the property into high-end homes in the mid-‘90s were quashed by citizen groups and the agencies listed above. It’s easy to see why developers drooled over a huge site split by a 270-degree-view ridge – at 300 feet above sea level – offering panoramas of Puget Sound, the Olympic Mountains and Camano Island. [This well-traveled golf writer has imagined it being a world-class links-style golf course. Sigh.]

The Port of Coupeville (a town settled by sea captains and farmers in 1850) bought Greenbank Farm, including rustic-red buildings, gardens and many acres of meadows, partnering with local organizations to preserve it for posterity.

The Farm now features hiking and birding trails, gardens, shops, a bistro, home offices of Whidbey Pies and the Land Trust, outdoor and indoor spaces for concerts and community events, and the off-leash dog park.

Hiking here with our rescue black lab, Ruby, is a year-round treat. In late spring and summer, we pick bounteous and free offerings from the massive black berry, logan berry and Marionberry bushes. (My wife’s crumbles are divine.) Ruby carefully picks black berries, and any day here for her is canine heaven as she romps alongside other dogs, jumping through the tall grass with a huge smile and her pink tongue flying about.

The vast place is blessedly serene. If this were in Seattle or any other big city, it would be crawling with people.

But there’s often a darker side in paradise. In this case, it’s a woman (which was confirmed when I asked her the questions below during a chance encounter) who’s appointed herself the resident poop policeperson. Her “duty” is to grab a pile of dog doo, put it in a non-biodegradable (!) bag, write “Is this yours?” on it with a Sharpee, then place the offending parcel beside a path that’s often near a large poop disposal barrel.

Upon encountering these wrapped “gifts,” my wife and I banter about such strange passive-aggressiveness: “Does she think pet owners will look into the bag and recognize their dog’s poop?” “If so, what does she expect them to do with it?” and, finally, “Why doesn’t she just throw that #&$% in the @&$%! garbage can or leave it unbagged so it can naturally biodegrade?”

Back to the Future

Moving on, here are some popular words and phrases from years past that should resonate for many more centuries (*describes the author):

• *Fuddy-Duddy – A person who clings to old fashioned attitudes and ways, or a person who is fussy while old-fashioned, traditionalist, conformist or conservative, sometimes almost to the point of eccentricity or geekiness.
• Cockamamie – Derived from the French word décalcomanie, which referred to the process of transferring images using decals. Over time, the pronunciation evolved to “cockamamie” in American English, particularly in New York, where it was used to describe the cheap, temporary tattoos popular with children in the mid-to-late 1800s. By the 1930s and ’40s, in America, the term broadened to mean anything ridiculous or implausible.
• Gadzooks – twee response to a surprise or annoyance.
• Bump on a Log – lazy worker acting like an inert piece of wood.
• Flapjacks – pancakes, and nothing else.
• Rip Snorter – something or someone that is exceptionally strong, exciting, charismatic or dubious.
• *Boondoggle – wasteful or pointless work and activity with the appearance of having value.
• Giggle Juice – booze or hooch; related: “swing juice” in golf.
• Above my Pay Grade – admission of stupidity or copout for noninvolvement.
• Rhubarb – one of many colorful baseball terms; used for a player or manager arguing with an umpire. See also “Can of Corn,” “Yakker,” “Fungo,” “Suicide Bunt” and “Wheelhouse.”
• Whistling Dixie – see Bump on a Log.
• Made in the Shade – enjoying comfort, success and the easy life.
• Meat Wagon – ambulance or police van for transporting prisoners.
• Over a Barrel – an untenable situation with few choices.
• Schnook – easily fooled, outmaneuvered or scammed person. Note: “schnookered” is a Midwestern slang term for someone who’s drank too much giggle juice.
• In Cahoots – a secret collusion or co-conspiracy that often results in a boondoggle for those who may or may not later have it made in the shade.
• *Moxie – what’s needed to avoid getting schnooked.
• Get Someone on the Horn – archaic term for telephoning a person. In baseball, the term refers to a manager calling the bullpen coach to warm up a reliever to minimize further damage.

New Course Openings

Golf continues its post-pandemic boom as new courses keep arriving. Among them is the North Course at private Windsong Farm Golf Club in Independence, Minn. Opened in July 2025, the layout was designed by John Fought, who co-designed the club’s original South Course with native Minnesotan Tom Lehman. The North layout is about 1,000 yards shorter than South and plays to par 70.

Augmenting its regulation-length Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw layout in Carolina’s Low Country, Chechessee Creek Club will unveil a 12-hole short layout by golf architect, David Zinkand. It has two loops, with the first five holes designed for beginners and high-handicappers, and the final seven adds more difficulty for players. Construction is underway, and the new layout is slated to open in spring 2026.

The long-awaited second course at Gamble Sands Resort in Brewster, Wash., opened on August 1, 2025. Called Scarecrow, the 18-hole layout traverses across 300 acres perched gloriously above the Columbia River with uninterrupted westerly vistas. The original Gamble Sands layout opened to much acclaim in 2014. Scarecrow is architect David McLay Kidd’s second effort at this destination resort in the north-central and “dry” region of the state. Amenities include the 14-hole Kidd-designed Quicksands short course, the 100,000-square-foot Cascades Putting Course, multiple dining options, and 77 luxury rooms.

Presidential Golf

Golfweek filed a July 14, 2025, report that President Donald J. Trump announced he’d won his fifth golf club championship since being inaugurated for the second time January 20^th. Americans must be impressed with their 79-year-old leader.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, each of Trump’s victories came at one of his eponymous Florida clubs in West Palm Beach and Jupiter, or in New Jersey. His fifth title was at Bedminster, N.J., partnering with Tommy Urciuoli in the club’s Member-Member. “The Many other competitors were not only great Golfers, but also terrific people!” Trump wrote in typically capitalized excitement on his Truth Social portal.

Believe it or not, there are at least two websites (https://didtrumpgolftoday.com/ or https://trumpgolftrack.com/) devoted to counting Trump’s rounds, his days spent in office, and the associated taxpayer costs of this nonofficial activity.

To be fair, golf has been played – with wildly different frequencies – by 16 of the last 19 American presidents. The only non-golfers were Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman and Jimmy Carter. Starting with the portly William Howard Taft, who admitted he was “addicted to golf,” the various men holding the POTUS title had their own play schedules – and ability – with the Royal & Ancient Game.  

[None, however, are as mythical a golfer as North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il, who, in 1994, recorded a 38-under par score – with 11 holes in one! – on a 7,700-yard layout at Pyongyang in his first-ever round of golf. Seventeen bodyguards apparently witnessed this incredible feat. Just 5-foot-3 in stature, the Supreme Leader overpowered a course that was longer than virtually all major golf championship venues.]

In 2016, Trump famously ripped then President Barack Obama for playing too much golf and “wasting taxpayer’s money.” In April 2017, while campaigning for his first term, Trump promised Americans that if he became president, he wouldn’t have time for golf. “I’m going to be working for you. I’m not going to have time to go play golf.”

As it turned out, Obama played 98 rounds during his presidency, while CNN counted 266 days that Trump spent time at a Trump golf course in term No. 1.

But Trump must step up his pace to catch Woodrow Wilson, who played over 1,000 rounds during his eight years in office. The Democrat, who said the game helped alleviate stress from managing World War I, even ventured out in the snow. Wilson had designs on running for a third term – which would have padded his record round total even more – but suffered a stroke that left him incapacitated.

Though their proclivity to play golf are similar, Wilson and Trump will go down in history with distinctly different economic policies. In setting several benchmarks, Wilson was the father of the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States. He also abolished secret treaties, reduced armaments, adjusted colonial claims in the interests of both native peoples and colonists, and sought freedom of the seas. On October 7, 1913, President Wilson signed legislation that initiated the modern income tax, which when launched targeted only the wealthiest 3 percent of the population.

The jury’s still out on Trump’s on-again-off-again tariffs and his authorized DOGE rescissions of Congress-approved programs and institutions. The next few years will tell whether these decisions are rip snorters, wishy-washy or he’ll be receiving a package from Greenbank’s poop policewoman.

Jeff Shelley has written and published 12 books as well as numerous articles for print and online media since 1987. Among his titles are three editions of the book, “Golf Courses of the Pacific Northwest.” The Whidbey Island resident was editorial director of Cybergolf.com from 2000-15, co-founder of the Northwest Golf Media Association and president of the nonprofit First Green (https://www.thefirstgreen.org/). To contact Jeff: fairgreens@seanet.com.