"The Drive To Succeed" April 18, 2025

[boharr]

I clearly under-thought this one and went with “double par”, which sadly happens with some frequency when I play golf.

Double par is a double bogey. Trust me I know.

[Hidden in 3D]

I arrived ON THE SHORE early this morning and couldn't wait to tell Mr. Hidden about this meta since he is an avid golfer. I was prepared for his usual eye-rolling as I showed him the metanism, but instead he was quite interested and said something I'd never heard come from his lips since I started trying to solve the WSJ Crossword Contests back in 2019: "That's a good one!" And he actually said it several times with real (not feigned) enthusiasm!

Now, he’s hooked. Are you going to cooperate or compete?

I wish I could believe that he is hooked. No way, I know him too well. But, if indeed he were to become interested in crossword puzzles and solving metas, we would definitely cooperate. He is already my go-to source for athletes' names when I can't figure them out from the crossing answers.

[Bob cruise director]

Well, I did wonder if RARE BIRD ENCOUNTERS was far enough, but I assumed if it didn't go far enough that "rare bird encounters" might have a specific meaning in golf talk I had never heard of. Googling I figured it didn't. Vague references back to EAGLES (which was key in doing the meta in the first place) or to non-specific birds EAGLE, ALBATROSS, or CONDOR would not be valid and I never considered them.

In golf, an albatross, also known as a double eagle, is a score of three under par on a single hole. This is typically achieved by completing a par-5 hole in two strokes or holing out a par-4 in one. It is considered a rare and impressive feat.

Since 1983 on the PGA tour there have only been 139 albatrosses. The last one was in March 2024.

[boharr]

Well, I did wonder if RARE BIRD ENCOUNTERS was far enough, but I assumed if it didn't go far enough that "rare bird encounters" might have a specific meaning in golf talk I had never heard of. Googling I figured it didn't. Vague references back to EAGLES (which was key in doing the meta in the first place) or to non-specific birds EAGLE, ALBATROSS, or CONDOR would not be valid and I never considered them.

In golf, an albatross, also known as a double eagle, is a score of three under par on a single hole. This is typically achieved by completing a par-5 hole in two strokes or holing out a par-4 in one. It is considered a rare and impressive feat.

Since 1983 on the PGA tour there have only been 139 albatrosses. The last one was in March 2024.

By Robby Shelton. I can see this coming up in a clue soon. LOL

[mheberlingx100]

I answered Rare Bird Encounters, but wondered if I hadn't gone far enough. I pondered Eagles (usually a no-no as it was in the grid, but that taboo has been broken recently) and Albatross (certainly rare bird and rare golfing event) but I couldn't find anything else to lead me to that.

[OGuyDave]

Done and done, one of the fastest ever.

TFTXWD

And by done, I mean done sailing to a beach that was far beyond the horizon of the intended one. Geesh!

TFTXWD nonetheless

[Andrew Bradburn]

My last round of golf was in 1994, in Melbourne, Australia. The course was swarming with beautiful rosellas, a bird I had never seen before, and which was quite distracting to my game. So not rare to the location, but a quite a rare bird encounter for me.

[Yoda66]

In golf, an albatross, also known as a double eagle, is a score of three under par on a single hole. This is typically achieved by completing a par-5 hole in two strokes or holing out a par-4 in one. It is considered a rare and impressive feat.

Since 1983 on the PGA tour there have only been 139 albatrosses. The last one was in March 2024.

By Robby Shelton. I can see this coming up in a clue soon. LOL

Well considering the mug odds someone will score an albatross. Poetic justice would rule the day if it ends up being @LadyBird

[HunterX]

Technically, my mom had at least 6 or 7 eagles, which I only know since those particular ones were also holes in one. (Dad said she had 7. But mom claimed one of them didn't count.) Dad only (yes, only) had two, though he had a better handicap than mom. As a kid, they'd wake me up at the crack of dawn on weekends to drive the cart or, eventually, caddie for them.

I got to see how much they loved their time together. If one wasn't doing well, the other cheerfully supported them. There was never a time I saw them angry or upset, at their game or each other.

They say you can see a person's true personality on the golf course. Having been a caddie for a summer job one year, as well as playing in outings for work, I can attest to that. I've seen plenty of clubs thrown, and even one plunged half-way up the shaft in the dirt. Those experiences made me even more impressed with my parents.

[LadyBird]

After reading so many comments on the board about returning to the ship, I was rethinking my answer of RARE BIRD ENCOUNTERS. Tried hard to find another step--fortunately the busyness of Easter kept me from zooming in on an another/incorrect answer. Although one rabbit hole increased my useless trivia database--albatrosses and condors and their relation to golf scoring.

The bird I hid this week--the Red-winged Blackbird--is not a rare bird on most golf courses. I put that in there this week in a throwback to my son's one summer of caddying. There was one hole in particular that was quite hazardous as these birds zealously defended their nest sites.

[woozy]

Well, I did wonder if RARE BIRD ENCOUNTERS was far enough, but I assumed if it didn't go far enough that "rare bird encounters" might have a specific meaning in golf talk I had never heard of. Googling I figured it didn't. Vague references back to EAGLES (which was key in doing the meta in the first place) or to non-specific birds EAGLE, ALBATROSS, or CONDOR would not be valid and I never considered them.

In golf, an albatross, also known as a double eagle, is a score of three under par on a single hole. This is typically achieved by completing a par-5 hole in two strokes or holing out a par-4 in one. It is considered a rare and impressive feat.

I know all that. And a Condor is 4 under par which is so rare as to be considered non-existant. But explicitly spelled-out have-to-be-worked for "rare bird encounters" makes a lot more sense then going to something specific back to something non-specific.

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is RARE BIRD ENCOUNTERS. The clue for EAGLES at 4-Across suggests the golf meaning: two under par. The letters PAR appear six times in the grid, and looking two rows under those instances yields pieces that spell the contest answer.

We had a very large turnout this week -- 2,264 entries -- but a lower-than-usual success rate of 59%. A lot of solvers saw all those PARs and then missed the last stroke: PAR 6 (167), DOUBLE PAR (97), EVEN PAR (33), 6 PARS (26). Plus ALBATROSS (15) and 39 votes for EAGLE.

Congrats to this week's winner: Andrew Brasher of Mountain Brook, Ala.!

[BarbaraK]

Hah! “Par 6” was my prediction for the most common wrong submission. I won:)

[The XWord Rabbit]

Your Rabbit never dreamed he would be talking about birds again after last week’s mention of Fabio being hit by a goose on a roller coaster. This time around? Well, sadly, no nominees and no, there’s already been enough talk of albatrosses so don’t expect him to recite anything from “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”

Six PARs in the puzzle … well, seven actually, when you count the entry to 52D. You younger Muggles probably don’t remember Jack Paar, but he made a lasting impression on Your Rabbit. Before Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno and Johnny Carson, Jack Paar was the king of The Tonight Show. On February 11, 1960 he literally walked off his own show for a month after NBC censors edited out the following joke, taped the night before.

“An English lady, while visiting Switzerland, was looking for a room, and she asked the schoolmaster if he could recommend any to her. He took her to see several, and when everything was settled, she returned to her home to make final preparations to move … but she hesitated …

"It suddenly occurred to her that she had not seen a “W.C.” (water closet, a euphemism for toilet) anywhere, so she wrote a note to the schoolmaster, asking him if there was a “W.C.” around. The schoolmaster was a very poor student of English, so he asked the local parish priest if he could help. Together they tried to figure out the meaning of the letters “W.C.” and came to the conclusion the letters stood for “Wayside Chapel” so the schoolmaster then wrote to the English lady the following note:

Dear Madam:
I take great pleasure in informing you that the W.C. is situated nine miles from the house you occupy, in the center of a beautiful grove of pine trees surrounded by lovely grounds. It is capable of holding 229 people and it is open on Sunday and Thursday only. As there are a great number of people and they are expected during the summer months, I would suggest that you come early: although there is plenty of standing room as a rule. You will no doubt be glad to hear that a good number of people bring their lunch and make a day of it; while others who can afford to go by car arrive just in time. I would especially recommend that your ladyship go on Thursday when there is a musical accompaniment. It may interest you to know that my daughter was married in the W.C. and it was there that she met her husband. I can remember the rush there was for seats. There were ten people to a seat ordinarily occupied by one. It was wonderful to see the expression on their faces. The newest attraction is a bell donated by a wealthy resident of the district. It rings every time a person enters. A bazaar is to be held to provide plush seats for all the people, since they feel it is a long-felt need. My wife is rather delicate, so she can’t attend regularly. I shall be delighted to reserve the best seat for you if you wish, where you will be seen by all. For the children, there is a special time and place so that they will not disturb the elders. Hoping to have been of service to you, I remain, sincerely…

Enough, you say? Not quite. Your Rabbit has no intention of leaving without mentioning one of his very favorite CD’s: RARE BIRD ALERT by Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers (forgive him for taking liberties with the puzzle answer). Enjoy this unforgettable animated video of Steve with “Jubilation Day” and see you next week.

[ky-mike]

Hah! “Par 6” was my prediction for the most common wrong submission. I won:)

That was my initial answer until I figured out that I needed the "eagles" clue.

[ky-mike]

I clearly under-thought this one and went with “double par”, which sadly happens with some frequency when I play golf.

Double par is a double bogey. Trust me I know.

Only on a par 2 hole, correct?

[SamKat9]

PAR 6 is a better wrong answer than mine (DOUBLE PAR). I wish I had thought of that one.

Of course, I wish I had thought of the right answer as well

[SometimesStumped]

Yep, nope, we weren’t even close. We didn’t submit an answer. I kept thinking “one par over” or “one over par” (as one of the pars didn’t line up with the others) and tried to make bogey fit. My daughter had “albatross” in mind. @BarbaraK let her know that wasn’t quite right. While it is fun trying to solve these, we are still new and have much to learn!

[hoover]

If an eagle is 2 under par and an albatross is 3 under par, why do we call the albatross "a double eagle" and not "an eagle and a half"?

[HeyMikey]

I found everything, but took RARE BIRD ENCOUNTERS to be directing us to EAGLES, especially since it has already been mentioned, that there is another rare bird in golf. Gaffney has violated his "no red herrings in the puzzle" and "no answers in the title" in recent puzzles, as well as some other misdirections in recent puzzles, so I submitted EAGLES instead.

Prior to Eton Must Change of 1-9-25, I would have stopped and submitted Rare Bird Encounters,too. In that meta, many of us saw the title as the example of the meta-nism: change a phrase into a name by modifying a letter in each word of the phrase. Working the grid, we eventually got SpaceX, which was submitted by many of us and eventually accepted as an acceptable final answer. But the "offiicial" answer was Elon Musk, which one could obtain without working the meta process.

Then we had another Gaffney construction, titled Sail On, O Ship of State!, on 3-6-25. Working the meta process for this puzzle produced the word umiak.. But the "official" answer was Alaska, which also happened to be the prompt in one of the themers. Again, one could obtain Alaska from that particular themer without working through the meta to get umiak. In the Zoom discussion that week I was reminded that "there are no rules!"

I asked myself if The Drive To Succeed was another puzzle where the meta process gives a word or phrase that points to something more explicit in the grid, titile or clues and thus maybe I should submit EAGLES. Is EAGLES a prompt for the process or the final result? In the end, I decided 22a rara avis (rare bird) was the confirmation of Rare Bird Encounters as the final answer. It helped that my Puzzle Buddy was convinced the answer should be Rare Bird Encounters.

Personally, I have seen lots of avian wildlife on the golf course but nothing I would consider rare. I have had the pleasure to "occasionally experience" an eagle during a round. This morning my foursome saw a red-tailed hawk and one one of us scored a birdie so we got a small taste of both worlds!