Following up his earlier appearance on the “Talking GolfGetaways” podcast, photographer Christian Hafer (@hafe_life on Instagram, ) joins hosts Mitch Laurance and Darin Bunch for a wide-ranging Emergency 9 golf-travel quiz in Episode 123, presented by 2UNDR apparel (use promo code GNN20 to save 20% on your order).
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Christian begins by explaining why The Old Course and Cypress Point are his top his list of Favorite Courses (and you’ll find out why his daughter carries the middle name of legendary Marion Hollins) and why Iceland is a destination he’s working toward visiting, with hopes of playing golf all night someday soon.
Hafer’s Bucket List dreams include experiencing the course architecture C.B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor at such historic clubs as National Golf Links and Chicago Golf Club, as well as traveling to Australia and New Zealand. Christian also explains why his Favorite Place to Stay is pretty much anywhere in the mountains of Colorado, and gives us an idea of the passion he feels for fish-n-chips “as big as my torso” at The Ship Inn in Elie, Scotland, which tops his list as the Best Thing He’s Eaten on a Golf Trip.
You’ll find out why “the chemistry of the group you’d play with in an eight-some” brings a new dimension to why he loves the game, plus Christian offers a great tip for inclement weather: Carry a “dry bag” to keep the rain off your gear, which is especially crucial for golfers like himself who lug cameras along when teeing it up.
Hafer’s choice of Most Interesting Person with whom he’s golfed sheds light on exactly the kind of person Christian is — he tells us about a St. Andrews member named Ron, a passionate enough player to get into a Twitter war with Golf Channel personality and architect Geoff Shackelford. But, of course, friends such as social-media golf personality Erik Anders Lang and Seamus Golf’s Akbar Chisti also get props in the “interesting and fun to play with” department. And then Christian shares why he believes the nine-hole Conocodell Golf Club in Fayetteville, Pa., is the One Course He Wishes Everyone Knew About — and why he connects so deeply to other short-course tracks such as the Winter Park in Florida and the Schoolhouse Nine in Virginia.
And this Emergency 9 episode closes with Christian’s Best Golf Story — and it’s one that is extra close to his heart, a fantastic retelling of how he proposed to now-wife Lindsay on the 18th green at Cabot Links on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, racing the sunset to create the perfect moment (and then realizing he was doing so in front of cheering patrons at the greenside Panorama restaurant).