In the Field: Elliott Sadler

When you talk about how interesting -- or crazy -- the life of a Nextel Cup driver can be, this is a great week to use as an example.

We rained-out Saturday night at Richmond and raced on Sunday, and then tested at Charlotte on Monday and Tuesday.

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After that I have a few obligations and then it's a few deep breaths before we go to Darlington; then we'll take another quick break to celebrate Mother's Day before we have another two-day test scheduled at Dover.

I'm glad at least three of those four on-track deals are in the Car of Tomorrow, because Josh Browne and my Evernham Motorsports guys are getting better at that each time out.

I'm not looking for sympathy laying out that schedule -- but I mention it because it makes something I did the week before Richmond mean all the more to me.

There were 12 of us, including my dad and my brother Hermie, and we flew over near Bristol, Va., to have a golf outing for a couple days, playing The Olde Farm, which I think is the No. 1 golf course in the United States.

This is something we try to do three or four times a year if we can. That golf course is just a great, hidden secret. It's been rated in the top 10 in the country for the last couple years, and it's just a cool place to play.

So I took my dad and a few of his friends; and a few of my friends and a few of Hermie's friends and right after my birthday we went out there to play golf for two days.

Man, we had a ball. It's such an amazing place and we had a lot of fun being there, just messing with each other. We have a lot of jokes that we carry on the golf course.

And I'll tell you -- just to have a chance to get away for a couple days means a lot, especially when racing's not going as well as you want it to. It isn't like you're completely forgetting about it, but it helps to be able to clear your head.

It's a real good thing just to get away from the fast-paced efforts that NASCAR racing makes you give -- to just get away and settle back down and play some golf and relax with my dad and my brother.

It was a real special trip to me.

We played us a little tournament in the space of two days, actually. We played 36 holes on Tuesday and then went back and played 36 more on Wednesday before we had to head back to Richmond.

We stayed right at the golf course, those guys at The Olde Farm really took care of us well and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Like I said, it's just a fun place to play, and how well I played made it even better.

I played very well; I hit the ball good and putted pretty good. I'm probably playing better this year than I ever have in my whole life and I don't know why, but things seem to be working out.

I know you wouldn't think we'd have much chance for golfing, with the schedule I just described, but I've been playing a lot here, lately. It took me a while to get going, but once I got going I got going pretty good.

But it meant more to me just to be able to take my dad up there and play, because it's a place that he really likes to go to.

It's hard to get that many people off work and able to go at one time, but we worked it out so that 12 of us went. It was a lot of guys I'd grown up with and a lot of guys my dad had grown up with, so it was cool for all of us to go and share that experience.

And how good is this course? I'm not just a Virginia guy talking about a home state place. It's been written about a lot and when it was brand new it was one of the top-10 new courses in America.

It's just so beautiful. The view there is amazing. There are no houses on it and you can see every hole from the other ones. It's out there in the mountains and it's just a very prestigious course to play at.

Really, you have to see it to believe it. The guy did a good job putting the course together. I think he used to be partners in The Virginian, which is another amazing golf course, and he left that and came down the road a few miles and built this one.

It's just amazing what he's done with it.

It's something I plan my trip to Bristol, in August, around for the night race. We always try to play The Olde Farm. I rent a cottage and fly in some buddies from Las Vegas and Dallas who are big golfers.

They all want to come in and play there because it's a great place to play. And to be able to go and play, with all those guys is pretty big because everybody that's heard about it or read about this place knows what kind of golf course it is and the members it has.

It's pretty hard to become a member -- it's almost like Augusta National, where it's pretty tough to do that. I was very fortunate that Dale Jarrett helped me to become a member while we were teammates, so it's a neat deal.

We'll be going back before then but we always try to go up early for the August race at Bristol. We'll bring some sponsors and stuff and play a little bit before the racing starts.

This latest trip, I shot 77-74, which is pretty good there because it's such a hard golf course. I've been playing lights-out here lately, so to go to that place with the greens reading around 14 on the stimp meter, and for us to be able to go up there and be able to do that was pretty cool.

But I've been hitting the ball well. My TaylorMade irons, well, I've been hitting them dead-on. And the funny thing is I talked about going to TaylorMade out in California when we were out to Fontana at the beginning of the year -- but I never did go.

I've got the rac LTs, still. I can't find anything that I can hit better than those, and I've got them dialed-in right now as far as yardage is concerned. And I know how to draw them and cut them so I don't really want to mess with 'em.

I know I was going to go out and get fitted for a new set at TaylorMade, but what we decided on was that what I've already got is pretty good for me, and it works good for my swing.

I know they make some new irons and I know some people are happy with 'em, but I also notice on tour that a lot of the pros are staying with the racs, like I've got -- so there must be something good about 'em.

You know, traveling around the country as we do on the Nextel Cup Series, I've been fortunate to play some prestigious golf courses, like the pros get to play, in a lot of different areas.

Some of them are fun to play, some of them look better on TV than they do in person and some of them look better in person than they do on TV.

Some of them are not what they're cracked up to be, and some of them are much, much more. It's just like any racetrack that you go to.

But I've been very fortunate to play a lot of different golf courses, and still my two favorites are The Olde Farm back home in Abingdon, Va., and Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, that's owned by MGM Mirage.

If I had to rate a top three, those two would come first, and then the third that's probably my favorite is The Lake Course at the Olympic Club in San Francisco -- actually in Daly City.

They're just so beautiful and they've got so much scenery around each of them. And they're all different and unique in their own way, and just a lot of fun to play.

You think a lot about who you've had the opportunity to play with, and who you'd like to play with -- but I wish I was in the foursome with Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan last week in the Pro-Am at the Wachovia.

People ask me all the time, 'What is your dream foursome?' I think Michael and Tiger would definitely be a part of that group.

I would love to play with them because for one, Tiger is just an amazing golfer and I would love to see him in person hit shot for shot. And with me being a Tar Heel fan growing up, I'm definitely a Michael Jordan fan. He loves playing golf so those two would definitely be a part of that dream foursome.

Elliott Sadler, now in his ninth full season in the Cup Series, shares weekly with NASCAR.COM readers life on the road through staff writer Dave Rodman.