Ye Olde Green Wave Forum

"Graeme McDowell withdraws from Open qualifier after Air France loses his golf clubs"

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/golf/2018/07/03/graeme-mcdowell-misses-open-qualifier-airline-loses-golf-clubs/754037002/

You would think he would have a contingency plan.

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Quote:The Good - TULANE
The Bad - LSU
THe Ugly - USM

One would think. Heck, if I were a pro golfer whose livelihood depending on having my tools of the trade 100% available, I’d buy an extra airline seat next to me for my clubs. Musician cellists do it and their kit is more bulky and they don’t make nearly as much coin (unless it’s Yo-Yo Ma). Yes, it’s easy to jump on the airline and they deserve all the grief they get, but c’mon Skippy, think ahead!

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Tulane Class of 1978 | NROTC Tulane - Submariner | From everywhere and nowhere

It's not so much his livelihood as it is just one out of 40 or so tournaments in a year...he'll be ok.

Most of the top players have chartered jets; often they share rides with other top players. McDowell has been one of the better European players, including winning the U.S Open in 2010. He has fallen off quite a bit, and the fact that he has to play in a qualifier to get into the Open Championship shows that he has not been at the top of the leaderboard very much of late.

When Tiger was at his top form he would basically schedule his activities toward being at his best in 4 tournaments- The Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA and the Open Championships (what is sometimes referred to as "The British Open" on this side of the pond). As a duffer, the two tournaments I find the most interesting are the Masters (have walked the course for several practice rounds), and the Open. Air France losing his clubs is incredible.

He will probably look at chartering or hitching a ride on a charter more in the future; however, if you aren't on the top, the money for those is often not there.

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What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it's all about?

Buying a second airline seat might be a tad cheaper than chartering a jet. Barring that, thumbing a ride wouldn’t hurt.

In the close to a million miles I have flown, I have only had luggage delayed a couple of times and never once lost. However, with anything super critical I always had a backup plan with carry on. I would never ever ship a pet either.

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Tulane Class of 1978 | NROTC Tulane - Submariner | From everywhere and nowhere

CDG is by far the WORST airport in the world and I wouldn't ever fly through it again. That the authorities lost his clubs does not surprise me at all. Like all things French, the airport is beautiful, but there absolutely no logic to the way it is laid out. It takes so long to get to your gate from the front door, you cannot enjoy the niceties of the airport. Avoid CDG at all costs. This is but one example.

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Plan your work, work your plan.

We are in violent agreement. CDG makes LaGuardia look good. And if you must, anything less than a 3 hour connection time and you WILL miss your connection. And as a non-EU citizen plan 2-3 passport control checks with all their lines. Fun.

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Tulane Class of 1978 | NROTC Tulane - Submariner | From everywhere and nowhere

I'll be going through CDG airport again in October. I still get the sweats thinking of the last time.........

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A magic dwells in each beginning- H.H.

Go through Amsterdam/Schiphol instead. It's the best alternative--especially if you are changing planes. If you're going to Paris, just hop a train and you'll be there in about the time you'll get through the lines at CDG. And forget Frankfurt, better than CDG but barely. If you stick it out, I feel sorry for you, I really do.

As one frustrated US passenger said in a CDG line, "I'll put our bureaucracy over anyone else's any day."

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Plan your work, work your plan.

CDG is the worst airport I've ever encountered, and it's not close.

+1 Schiphol is very easy to navigate and handle.

Another alternative is to fly through Vienna. Good airport without intimidating lines with connections throughout eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Before I retired I was flying 2-3 times a month through Europe. We all agree CDG is the worst but I did not have the problems some have had with Frankfurt despite its sprawl and the infuriating knack of having to pick up a plane via a bus ride out to a far flung tarmac. Real fun after an overnight flight.

My choice for German airports is Munich. It’s Frankfurt lite; not nearly as sprawling, a lot newer and cleaner, same duty free booze selection, uncrowded lounges (Frankfurt’s are packed). I’ve only flown through Amsterdam a couple of times and it was fine too.

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Tulane Class of 1978 | NROTC Tulane - Submariner | From everywhere and nowhere

Whilst CDG was at the top of my list, Rome made me rethink tjat aggressively.

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Using big words is not a personal attack

How much does his personal set of clubs affect his game? If I were in that situation, I would beg, borrow, steal, or buy another quality set of clubs just in order to be able to make it to the starting line. Unless he has "illegal" clubs, I can't imagine it would bring his game down that much--maybe one stroke a round at most?

Do the rules permit him to use his own clubs on day two if the airline can get them to him?

I had 6 flights (two international in/out plus 4 short hops on Alitalia domestic) in March and April in Leonardo Da Vinci/Fiumancino airport, plus dropping off a rental car, and it was fine. Not great, just fine. I’ve had a lot of experience flying internationally over the past 20 years and Rome is nowhere near my avoid list. Even Naples, Palermo and Venice weren’t bad, plus arriving at Marco Polo Airport by boat was kind of cool.

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Tulane Class of 1978 | NROTC Tulane - Submariner | From everywhere and nowhere

I actually had the opposite happen to me once. Our luggage beat us to our location. My wife and I were going to SFO for one of our vacations a while back, and we had a layover in Houston. When we were deplaning to wait for our connecting flight, there was a flight that was boarding for a flight to SFO in about 30 minutes at the gate right accross the concourse from where we had landed. My wife asked me why I didn't book that flight and I explained to her that if our flight out of MSY was delayed for some reason we might have missed that flight, so I booked a slightly later flight to keep that from happeneing. When we arrived in SFO we couldn't find our luggage, so we went to the lost luggage area and found our luggage there. What had happened is that our luggage was put on that earler flight to SFO and therefore made it there before we did.

FS'54

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"...a hellava Hullabaloo"