There are certain courses that make no sense on paper or even when you're standing on the first tee but feel just right when you're actually playing in them. Lodi Golf Club, though colloquially we've taken to calling it Lodi National, is exactly that kind of place. It's a nine-hole cut into a driftless hillside that asks little but gives plenty. From the tips it is a par 35 at 3,048 yards. No, it is not the kind of place a glossy brochure brags about, but the kind that matters. Where small wins last longer than your perfect drive that rolled down the slope again, and a $20 bill and a bit of time somehow deliver more than money ever should.

Warnimont Golf Course in Milwaukee is an 18-hole par-3 along Lake Michigan built on a former Army missile base. It winds through woods and wildflowers, and you'll often have doves perched on the edges of the greens, cooing for you to sink that very miss-able putt after your tee shot sat ten feet from the pin. Meanwhile, a shirtless man with a gold Rolex and a bag light with just a 4-hybrid, wedge, and blade putter, looking like Pat Simmons if he'd chosen to haunt muni fairways, gives you a squint. He doesn't need to speak; the glance alone makes you question why you ever called ahead for a tee time at a place where nobody does, while also letting you know you've stumbled into somewhere loose, free, and wonderful.

Golf is about precision, discipline, focus. And yeah, it is. But the part that sticks with you long after the round is human. It's in laughter after a terrible swing. The quiet wins no one records on a phone or scorecard. The rituals that shape who we are long before we ever step onto a course.

Gigi,

I've picked up my share of Titleist Pro V1s and Srixon Z-STARs. Balls lost and found like trophies from roughs and water hazards. I keep a handful in my bag, pulling them out when I'm convinced my slice has checked out for good. Call it superstition, but those balls start feeling like more than just urethane. But now, I have a new favorite: Champ. Or Champy, as Marie and I call him, the mascot of The Dow Championship.