False Start

About once a month I have to travel for a day or two for business. The locations vary from Des Moines to D.C. A few weeks ago, I had the rare opportunity to travel somewhere exotic, Maui. I really tried to find a way to get Stephanie to come with me, but the logistics just wouldn't work. Naturally, one of the first things I thought of was to look up what Maui had to offer for golf. I found that Kapalua, the home of the Mercedes-Benz Championship, the opening tournament of the PGA was on Maui. I would be arriving in Maui on a Monday around 2pm. The fee to play a normal round at Kapalua is $295 or about half of my yearly budget! But they offer a twilight, nine hole rate for $75. It was a rare opportunity, so I made a tee-time for 4:30, knowing it would take an hour to drive there from the airport. Plenty of time right? Not if the airline loses your clubs! By the time I realized my clubs weren't coming out of the baggage carousal, and filling out a claim ticket it was 3:30. The airline offered to pay for rental clubs, but I hadn't even gotten my car yet. As it turns out, Aloha Airlines discontinued just about all of their flights as of this week, so maybe I would have never seen that money. It took 30 minutes to get my car, and by that time, it was just too late. Nuts. I called and canceled my tee time, and the course was kind enough to waive the $25 cancellation fee in light of the circumstances. I had a little extra time after getting my work done while down there, but not enough to get to Kapalua. The airline did get my clubs to me the next day. Thanks a lot.