The “Stuck at Home With” series profiles players, caddies and staff in the women’s game who are making the most of an unprecedented break in tour life due to the coronavirus pandemic. New stories will be posted every Tuesday and Thursday.
TPC Beer Run is set to open any day now. That is, if Karen Stupples can tear herself away from her paint projects long enough to finish the last two holes.
The longest hole on the current design is 114 yards. The shortest is 34 yards with a green that’s about the size of a Volkswagen, according to co-owner Jerry Foltz. All five holes wrap around a pond that takes up about an acre of their property.
Stupples and Foltz bought this little slice of heaven, 4 acres in all, on West Lake Toho two and a half years ago in St. Cloud, Florida. They like to watch the bald eagle that takes a breather on the tree next to the house.
“I can’t live far enough out,” said Foltz of country life.
They’ve been road warriors for decades. First as touring pros and now as Golf Channel talent. The coronavirus lockdown has led to an unprecedented amount of time at home for most people, but especially for the likes of Stupples and Foltz, who spend much of the year in airplanes and hotels.
“We are living like normal people in the most abnormal times,” said Foltz.
To the delight of many, the couple has essentially invited us all into their home during this pandemic, documenting Foltz’s newfound love of baking and Stupples’ never-ending to-do list. It’s like an episode of HGTV breaks out every day on their property.
“The feeling of freedom that you have when you’re living out here is fantastic,” said Stupples, chief designer and superintendent at TPC Beer Run.
To cut the greens, Stupples puts the riding mower on its lowest setting and drives in circles. To get a closer cut, she might get out the push mower. Foltz estimates they’re rolling at about a 2 on the Stimp.
The holes are cut to 6 inches, about the size of a large coffee can. They cut down bamboo on the property to use as flagsticks. Foam balls were purchased off Amazon. They’re considering painting faces on all the balls like Wilson in the Tom Hanks film “Cast Away.”
Stupples was so far ahead of the masses on what coronavirus might look like in the U.S. that she had masks and gloves delivered to the house in January. Several weeks before the Players Championship, Foltz went to the grocery store to stock up on supplies, trying not to look like a hoarder before hoarding was a thing.
He picked up several loaves of bread to freeze and then spotted flour in one of the aisles. Even though he didn’t so much as know how to turn on the oven, Foltz decided to put the bread back and stock up on flour and yeast, thinking he could bake his own and save the freezer space.
What started out as a loaf of bread quickly morphed into croissants, Australian meat pies and his first batch of chocolate chip cookies. Stupples raves about his biscuits. He even tried homemade pasta without a pasta maker.
“Now I’m absolutely addicted to it,” he said. “I bake something just about every day now.”
Stupples got in the mix too, baking her first birthday cake for son Logan, who turned 13 in late April. It’s the first time she’s been home in several years to celebrate Logan’s birthday, one of the unexpected joys of this most unusual spring.
On May 17, the couple will be back to work for the charity match at Seminole Golf Club. Foltz will be an on-course reporter for the TaylorMade Driving Relief skins game, which features Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff.
Stupples will be the advance person gathering yardages for the broadcast. (The former Women’s British Open champ is usually in the booth at LPGA events or working as an on-course reporter.)
There won’t be any caddies for the event, Foltz said. Each player will be in his own cart. A clinician is coming by their house to administer a COVID-19 test and they’ve been asked not to leave home after that’s done. They’ll be tested again onside at Seminole.
Neither are too keen on flying anytime soon. They’ve mapped out the rest of the LPGA’s domestic schedule for 2020 and plan to drive everywhere.
“There are going to be a lot of 20- to 25-hour trips,” said Foltz.
Both happen to love a good road trip. Stupples traveled in an RV while competing on the LPGA.
This time they’ll likely pack up Foltz’s four-door pickup, put a Yeti cooler on the back floor board and just go.
But for now, there’s yardwork to be done and folks to respond to on Twitter. Opening up their lives on social media was never about self-promotion. Just a fun distraction that has become part of their quarantine routine.
“We have so much time that we actually respond to almost every comment,” said Foltz. “Seems like we’ve made lifelong friends through the process.”
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