America’s Favorite Cowboys
With no apologies to a certain football team from Dallas, America has a new team of cowboys that it adores—the ones from the hit Paramount show “Yellowstone,” which has become one of the country’s most popular programs. We love it too, and can’t wait for its return to television on November 10. We’re especially happy to have the actor who plays one of our favorite characters on our cover.
You might not know the name Cole Ha, but you know his “Yellowstone” character Rip. He’s the right-hand man to ranch owner John Dutton (played by Kevin Costner). He’s the tough guy on the show who beats the living daylights out of anyone threatening the Montana ranch or his family. Rip is the kind of guy you want on your side: He’s loyal as can be, he works hard and he gets things done. You don’t want to cross him (as many people have found out). In our busy world of endless email, ringing cellphones and life in the city, there’s an appeal to the way Rip lives his life, riding horses, spending most of his time outside and dealing with problems with punches rather than paper.
We caught up with Ha and spoke to him about the enduring appeal of his character and the show itself. There’s a lot to like about the actor and far more to his story than you would expect. You can read all about his interesting life beginning on page 42.
The story on Ha is but one part of this issue. With summer coming to an end, we turned to our longtime NFL betting expert Danny Sheridan to have him analyze the 32 teams in pro football and pick who will win each division—as well as which two will duke it out in Super Bowl LIX. See how he expects every division to play out, starting on page 60. We also take you on a tour of several intriguing golf courses, unusual tracks that are all shorter than the traditional 18 holes. These aren’t the boring par-3s you may have played on a family trip, but stunning courses in their own right designed by such storied names as Tiger Woods, Gil Hanse and even Alister MacKenzie. That piece starts on page 52.
There’s much more in this issue, including our trademark cigar reviews. Our team of cigar-puffing editors have been busy test smoking for you, and as always we do it blind, meaning when we smoke and rate a cigar the bands have been removed and replaced with generic codes. When we’re rating cigars we rate them without knowing the brand name, country of origin, the price, the back story—nothing except what we can see and taste. That’s the way we’ve done it since our very first issue, in Autumn 1992, and that’s the way we’ll always do it. Blind tasting is the only objective way to assess a product like a cigar. Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong, plain and simple.
As this issue hits your mailbox, the seasons will be changing. Where we live, that means cooler nights and, before too long, the green leaves in the trees taking on the bright colors of the fall. That’s the kind of evening where we love to grab a good smoke, find a comfortable chair outside and reflect on the day. We hope you do the same.
