The Big Easy
I was lucky enough to be invited to the Zurich Classic this past week(end). This is the only PGA Tour’s regular-season team event, when 80 pairs of pro golfers compete at the TPC of Louisiana.
TPC Louisiana is a stunningly beautiful golf course in Avondale, 15 miles from New Orleans, built over wetlands, still home to hundreds of alligators, and carved from a forest of cypress and oak trees.
I’m not a golfer, find it takes far too long, can’t stand the snobbery plus I like to be good at stuff, and I am rubbish. However I do like a good day out at a sports event, especially fancy ones and especially if someone else is paying.
This is an old event by American standards, circa 88 years, but in the past couple of years LIV has taken away a lot of the top golfers from the tournament, yet there are still plenty of good ones to follow on the course. On Sunday afternoon English brothers Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick swept to victory by just one shot, this after having a four stroke lead entering the final round.
The brothers from Sheffield are good, Matt particularly and younger brother Alex is a rising star, but that is me exhausting my golf knowledge, but Zurich were great hosts and it was a fun weekend in the Big Easy.
Other than a flying visit to New Orleans for a work pitch pre-Covid in 2019, I hadn’t spent any time there since this visit in 2007.
New Orleans is a party town, no doubt. The city is a unique blend of French, African, and American cultures, the food is incredible and so is the attack on your senses, particulary smell.
Music is at the centre of everthing. NOLA is the birthplace of jazz, and you can stumble in and out of whole in the wall bars in the French Quarter and find musicians that would not sound out of place on Pop Idol.
In fact Jazz Fest just started, and sadly I left before it was ramping up. It is more than a jazz festival and this year is being headlined by Stevie Nicks, Eagles, Kings of Leon, Teddy Swims, Lorde, Raye and Rod Stewart.
The city of New Orleans suffered massively after Hurricane Katrina, 1,400 died, one third of who drowned.
New Orleans is technically an island, shaped like a bowl with most of the city situated entirely below sea level, but since Katrina one of the most advanced flood protection systems in the world now protects the city and it’s people.
It is certainly an interesting place to visit. Fun, wonderful food and entertainment, walkable, but a place you always need to keep your wits about you. I think it is what you’d call a sensory city. Loud, messy, smelly and authentic. Raucous but soulful.
