contents
may/june 2008
up front
l6 CIGAR HIGHLIGHTS
21 EDITORS’ NOTE
letters 25 out of the humidor
the best 33 the good life guide
34 ELECTRONICS Meridian F80: big sound in a small box.
37 WH EELS Jaguar XF lives up to the cliches.
40 PLACES A mirage in Los Cabos, Mexico.
42 S PO RT The ball that makes baseball our pastime.
44 G O U R M ET Start your cookout with the best tools.
48 Tl M E Chopard races in with the Mille Miglia watch.
51 TOOLS The BeerTender supports the mini-keg revolution.
53 STYLE Silk handkerchiefs tie it together this season.
57 DRINK Here’s your Mint Julep, Colonel.
58 FUN Pinball wizardry invades your rec room.
features
cover
62
golf
82
gambling
90
TIGER BURNING BRIGHT
Arguably the best golfer in history, Tiger Woods conquered die game
with mind control and physical brilliance. His single-minded determi-
nation to win captures the envy of other top golfers. We examine the
man and how he measures up in the pantheon of immortals.
MORE CONFESSIONS OF A WEEKEND GOLFER
Cigar Aficionado editor and publisher Marvin “The Shotmaker”
Shanken brings fortune to his partner Ernie Els at the Honda Classic
Pro-Am, who went on to win his first PGA Tour victory in four years.
THE MAN BEHIND THE VENETIAN
Sheldon Adelson, the founder of the Las Vegas Venetian Resort Hotel
Casino, has just opened the Palazzo there as well as a Venetian in
Macau, his first—but not his last—foray into the Far East. By 2010, he
plans to open 13 other gambling and hotel venues in the city.
gambling 104 WELCOME TO COMP LAND As the perks that casinos use to entice high rollers spi- ral to ever-dizzying heights of luxury—private clubs at which they serve sumptuous meals with end-of-the- world wines—so does the buy-in price to be consid- ered a whale. Sorry, five grand doesn’t cut it anymore.
cars 116 DRIVING ON THE EDGE In an auto market of cookie-cutter sameness, some cars stand out as extreme machines. We take a look at the hottest, the fastest, the most luxe, the biggest, die smallest and die ones that will just suck the air out of your neighbor when he sees you in them.
technology 126 VIDEO ON THE RUN What’s flying the friendly skies and making the morn- ing commute these days? Handheld video. It’s not quite Dick Tracy’s wrist television, but portable video is for real, with plenty of high-quality players and lots of alluring content.
sport 136 THE BIG BRAWL Ultimate Fighting Championship combines elements of boxing, wrestling, kickboxing and the Eastern mar- tial arts to pit modern gladiators against each other in a spectacle that captures the public imagination. Some may call it “human cockfighting,” but this modern-day version of king-of-the-hill seems to appeal to a very basic instinct.
watches 150 THE FUTURE OF TIME Innovative watchmakers are tapping space-age tech- nologies and combining them with Old World craftsmanship to create new movements that address the biggest problems of mechanical time- keeping, particularly the development of an escape- ment that needs no lubrication.
cigars
tasting 162 We rate 75 cigars in six sizes: Churchills (162), coro- na gordas (165), double coronas (168), figurados (170), petit coronas (172) and robustos (174). Plus, our vintage cigar tasting (178).
cigarmaker 180 THE RISE OF CUSANO Michael Chiusano was a numbers cruncher with no background in cigar making nor Cuban ancestry when he joined the industry. Now, a decade and a half later he runs one of its hottest brands.
profile 184 klein’s quest Tom Klein, of Rodney Strong Vineyards, is a Stanford MBA who went went on a mission to create perfection in a wine glass.
industry 193 WORDS TO ROLL BY One of die great traditions of Cuban cigars is the lec- tor, a reader of news and novels who entertains factory rollers as they work.
cigar diary 196 TRAVELING WITH JAMES SUCKLING Our man in Havana runs into trouble at the border as he returns from a Havana cigar festival that was one of his favorites to date, with the chance to smoke many outstanding limited-edition cigars.
198 MOMENTS TO REMEMBER Photos from our readers enjoying themselves and their cigars.
204 MADE FOR YOU Items from around the world that become personal to the user: disposable phone numbers, custom billiard cues, auto perfection reborn, your life in a book, the ultimate Scotland excursion and a titanium bracelet that promotes balance and harmony.
If you ask Ernie Els, Jim Furyk or David Toms, all top players on
the PGA Tour, what the deadliest weapon is in the arsenal of
Tiger Woods, they won’t say his driver or his wedge or even his
magical putter. To a man, they will say it is “his mind.”
For all his physical brilliance, from his nuclear strength to his del-
icate touch, it’s the Mind of the Tiger that has propelled him to the
summit of the golf universe and put him within striking distance of
Jack Nicklaus’s record 18 major championships.
There is no arguing that Tiger Woods is the greatest physical tal-
ent to ever play the game. But there are plenty of players with superb
physical ability. What separates Woods from his colleagues is his
mind-over-no-matter-what mentality. His absolute determination to win
and his absolute determination to get better have no parallel in the game.
Toms, the 2001 PGA champion, has seen the effect of Woods’s
mind close up. “Even when he is not playing his best, Tiger can beat
you with his mind,” says Toms. “He figures out a way to get the most
out of whatever he has on a given day. He never, ever gives up. I think
the single most difficult thing for most players is to keep a positive
attitude when things are going wrong. It’s not like you just quit or any'
thing, but your focus can be off. You can be thinking about the last bad
shot you hit instead of the next shot you have to hit. Tiger is always
thinking ahead, always focused on what he has to do next.”
Even Els, who at the start of the new millennium was Woods’s
most consistent adversary, acknowledges that Woods can make you do
things you don’t want to. Els had a chance to win the Dubai Classic
this year, being tied with Woods until they played the 18th hole, a par