Forethoughts: Decoding the Good Life

This article appears in the August 2016 issue of Colorado AvidGolfer. Subscribe today!

To paraphrase the beloved beer pitchman known as The Most Interesting Man in the World, I don’t always wear a necktie, but when I do, it’s Donald J. Trump.

More specifically, it’s a Donald J. Trump Signature Collection tie with a handsome gold crest on the back. It’s navy, handmade in China (no comment) of pure silk and, as Mr. Trump himself might say, it makes me look very amazing.

Sarcasm aside, I do like the tie. I also like the fact that I bought it at Ross Dress for Less without looking at the label. Whether I like Donald Trump is, well, immaterial. This column isn’t a political forum.

It is, however, an introduction to our second annual issue celebrating “the Good Life,” a term that defines the type of existence that Trump—as a man and, yes, as a brand—has long promoted. It’s an aspirational lifestyle involving private jets, plush homes and the other trophies and amenities wealth offers. To most people, those items represent the rewards of hard work and success—and this issue aims to bring you a taste of that.

While some of us would like to have Robin Leach narrate our lives in fawning detail, I’ve never had Champagne wishes or caviar dreams. But I still appreciate refinement and quality workmanship, whether it comes in the form of a Bentley, Inada DreamWave Massage Chair or Mackenzie golf bag. I also crave the enrichment that comes with purposeful travel—a trip to Provence for intensive wine education, a visit to Sicily to trace my paternal roots—and the pleasures of collecting anything (art, vintage bourbons, rare satyr statuettes) about which you can develop an expertise.

An expertise in golf is no different. Although it started as recreation for lowly Scottish shepherds, the sport has woven itself inextricably into the fabric of the good life for the better part of two centuries, representing the precious commodities of land, time, money and social standing. Proficiency reflects not only ability but hours of lessons and leisure time spent honing your skill—hours that people without as much disposable time or money don’t have the luxury to do.

The deeper you get into golf, the more you want to travel the world to play it, to collect as many courses as you can. So it’s no accident that Trump Golf has a portfolio of 17 courses across the globe, and that the majority of people around the world identify the game with people of privilege.

But inasmuch as golf represents the good life, it can also bring a good life, as Craig Stadler will attest. Our cover subject, who has played the game since he was a kid, considers himself lucky to have made a “decent living at it,” but as you’ll read, the 1982 Masters champion lives more than decently.

In addition to Champions Tour venues, Stadler and his wife Jan travel the world experiencing life. When they’re not in Napa, Florida, Buenos Aires, Alaska, Zambia, New Zealand or elsewhere, they kick back in their plush mountain home in the shadow of Mount Evans, which reflects Craig’s outsized passions for wine collecting, big-game hunting, exotic handicrafts, philanthropy and, of course, the game that enabled him to live this way.

“I’m the luckiest person in the world,” he says. And, he could add, one of the most interesting.

Craig Stadler not only lives the good life. For him, life is good. That’s not a semantic twist but a decidedly content and optimistic view of the world.

Stay happy, my friends.

More “Forethoughts” from editor Jon Rizzi:

Summer Called, Some Aren’t

Filling the Bucket

Healthy Concerns

Golf Done to a Turn

Colorado AvidGolfer is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it, publishing eight issues annually and proudly delivering daily content via coloradoavidgolfer.com. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.