Sutee Nitakorn from Ka'anapali Golf Resort

A couple of weeks ago, I had a chance to sit down and catch up with one of my favorite golf pros in the Aloha State, Sutee Nitakorn from Ka’anapali. When I first met Sutee, he was the new Assistant Pro, fresh from Cincinnati, Ohio, and I was researching the Ka’anapali chapter of The Golf Fanatic’s Guide to Hawaii. Sutee was nice enough to join me for a round on the Royal Ka’anapali Course. Playing with an actual professional is usually a pretty solid technique for warding off a good game, and this round was no different. But Sutee said two things that stuck with me. First, he showed me how to always escape a fairway bunker (”choke up,” and “move the ball back in your stance”). Then, when I finally pieced a couple of good holes together and hit a tee shot up alongside his, he took a deep breath, looked around and said, “Yeah, just a couple of pro golfers putting in a day at the office.” Of course, I was just a pro writer, not a pro linksman, but I didn’t feel like pointing that out. It was cool to just dig the moment. View blog entry.