He was 13 years older than I was, and he knew it all. But I learned a lot from him pretty quickly. And I think he'd like Champions right now. It doesn't exist so that a developer can build expensive homes around it. It doesn't survive because it hosts fancy, formal parties or offers tennis tournaments and spa treatments for its members.
Champions is about golf, and making the golf experience as perfect and pure as it can be.
Its members are nearly as fanatical about their passion for the game as Burke, with an amazing 275 of the 800 total playing to single-digit handicaps. The highlight of the year at Champions is the annual Rhubarb, a fierce competition played between Christmas and New Year's that pits the north half of the locker-room against the south. Burke captains one side, PGA Tour pro and Champions member Elkington usually heads up the other side. The losers buy dinner and swallow their pride for a year. Burke wouldn't trade it for any amount of prize money.