Time to Par-Tee!
In the interest of full disclosure, I don’t really like to watch golf, nor do I play golf. The few times I’ve swung a golf club, I was pretty subpar (did I just make a golf pun?!). But I love a good theme so while golf is not a sport I love, it is a theme I’ll embrace.
Inspired by Darcy Miller’s Celebrate Everything and her golf party, I’ve lined the top of my dresser (I live in a studio apartment and have to improvise with surfaces for parties!) with astroturf, reminiscent of a golf course and used this as a buffet table to allow my guests to graze at their leisure.
Pimento cheese sandwiches, sausage biscuits, deviled eggs and crudite with an herb dip offer a range of options for guests to snack on throughout the day and a big batch cocktail is an easy way to tend the drink needs of your guests.
The show-stopper of this setup is clearly the golf cake. In celebration of my grandfather’s 65th birthday (an avid golfer), my mom made a golf cake, complete with a brown sugar sand trap. I actually wasn’t born yet but the legend of this cake was told throughout my life. The cake flavor is Hummingbird, a personal favorite of mine. Made with pineapple, banana, pecans and cinnamon, this recipe was shared by Jamaica Tourist Board (or Air Jamaica, depending on the source) in the 1960s in a press release to attract tourists to the island.
On a serious note, I would be remiss to share a golf-themed party close to the start of the Masters and ignore the issues that exist regarding this tournament. It was only in 1990 that Augusta National, the host of the tournament, admitted its first Black man and in 2012, admitted its first female members. My intention of this post is not to condone the actions of Augusta National or celebrate this tournament specifically. In traditional etiquette, serious topics like this are often avoided in social situations but we cannot abide by those traditions when it comes to discussion of race and inequality. I hope, if you choose to watch the Masters tournament, you will take a moment to think and discuss the problems that exist both within the tournament and within the sport itself.