Who are you guys......really???

[JSlonis]

Michael,

After reading your post, I forgot I had actually listed my equipment.  Since I had posted that back in the Spring, I knew most of it was probably no longer in the bag.  It was interesting to see what I had started the year with.  Alas, only the 3 wood has made it through the season unscathed.

[Jay Cox]

Name:  Jay Cox
Age: 24
Reside:  Cambridge, MA
Handicap: 4, but haven't played much recently, so I'm sure I can't play to it anymore.
Life-long publinxer, except for four years as a fringe member of the team at Yale.
Caddied at Nashawtuc (senior tour stop just west of Boston) and briefly at The Country Club.

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

I agree Dave, why is it 3 woods only ever work on the driving range.
I have been trying since the persimmon days to find a good 3 wood..let me rephrase that a good 3 wood for me and my limited talent.

In my attic I have more 3 woods than putters, and I used to be a really lousy putter!!

Jamie, whats in the bag now?

[Scott_Burroughs]

Hcp..+ 2.8

...for me and my limited talent.

Watch out!  Big-time hustler, here!  

Can I have some of your limited talent?

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

Scott,
It's all relative.........

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

Scott,
Alot of hard work and truly not that much talent.

[Mike Benham]

Hcp..+ 2.8

...for me and my limited talent.

Watch out!  Big-time hustler, here!  

Can I have some of your limited talent?

Scott -

Check his occupation ... pediatric Dentist ... every dentist I took my kids to the appointment was between 2 and 5 in the afternoon ... so what do you think he does all morning?

Mike

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

Mike,
I must be in the wrong town.
The parents of my patients make me work a 4 day week 8 to 5...man, I have a hard life!!!!
Work my tail off for 4 days and then have a wife who makes me get out of the house to hit balls.....is this a great country or what!!!

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

Dave, You are the man!!
I understand word for word what you are talking about, I have dabbled in all sorts of options.
The conclusion I have come to, is that I do not hit it far enough to reach many par fives in two anyway, so I am going to add another rescue club instead...the 14* edition..if the people at Taylor Made can ever find me a head that is...ditch my 19* and carry the 4 wedge system.
After all it is the wegdes that make the score anyway.
I have bogeyed more par fives because of my f$&*#@& 3 wood than I care to count!

My wedge game is one of my strong points , so I feel for once I may be making a good decision.

[JSlonis]

My updated "What's in the Bag?"...

As an appreciator of great golf architecture I'm sure I'll get roasted for my technologically enhanced equipment...but...I'm not big on spotting the "field" any strokes that I don't have to.

**Taylor Made R7, Tour issue, 9.5*, Fujikura 660TR, X flex
Sonartec NP-99, 13*, Aldila NV85, X flex
Bridgestone "Tourstage" Z101, 3-PW, Dyn Gold S300
Mizuno Fli-Hi, 18*(2 iron)
Cleveland CG10 Wedges, 52*, 58*
Bobby Grace V-Foil M14K Putter, 49"


**In no way did the creation of this golf bag harm any classic golf courses.

[Brad Tufts]

I once posted on the original thread, but here I go again:

Brad(ford) Tufts

Age:23

Graduated in '03 from Middlebury College in VT -4 yrs on golf team there-won D3 New England Indiv. Title in '02

Home Course: Tedesco CC in Marblehead, MA (S. Wogan/W. Stiles 1903-1936) and Hole #12 by D. J. Ross c. 1912.  We hosted the Massachusetts Open in 2003.  Someday, I will also be a member of the Va-Jo-Wa Golf Club in Island Falls, ME.

Golf Jobs: Various golf retail jobs, and current pro shop employee at Myopia HC

Handicap: 0.2 (Ted. CC Club champ. in '04, hopefully more to come)

Rater for GD since 2002, and member of the Donald Ross Society.

Sticks:  Titleist 983K 8.5 Grafalloy Prolite shaft, Taylor Supersteel 13-degree Tour 3-wood (stock S-90 graph.), Titleist 985F 19-degree (UST proforce FW shaft), soon to be 903H 22-degree (85g Aldila-NV Hybrid shaft), Titleist 762 irons (DG S300), Cleveland 52 gap, Hogan Riviera 56 SW, Scotty Cameron Newport Longneck, ProV1x.

Favorite Courses I 've been to: Newport, Prestwick, Ballybunion, Merion, TOC, Cruden Bay, Dornoch, Winchester, Lehigh, Carne, TCC, Myopia, Co. Sligo, Essex County, and Salem.

I agree that courses are becoming too long today, and something should be done so the classic courses that hosted Opens and Amateurs in years past can test players of today.  Unfortunately, playing in competition as I do, it is tough to translate this thought to one's game when you know your competitors will be launching it by you if you stick with traditional equipment.  I own a set of hickories and a bunch of gutties, and one of these days will test them from the forward tees at tedesco and see how it goes.  Someday, I might be interested in writing for a golf publication, but for now it's only a dream.

Also, a thanks to the Red Sox for fulfilling all of our dreams, and no matter what you Yankee people have to say, 2004 was our year, and our team made it happen.

This is a great site, and meeting some of you folks in Philly was great as well, and I encourge those who have not partaken to attend one of these get togethers!

[Craig_Rokke]

I was basically away from the site for  a while so I'll do a quick re-intro

Craig Rokke
Age: 41
Reside: West Chester, PA
Work:Own an equipment rental business, Malvern,PA
Thankful for understanding wife + 2 boys & a girl, all 4 and under.
Closing in on 200 courses played

Haven't played much golf in the last year or so, but hope that
2005' will be different.

[Jeff Goldman]

It looks like we have a few new posters in the last couple months, so I thought I would bring this back up.  At some point we may have to add a 4th thread (I think there are 2 other older threads like this one).

We have been putting in name, age, handicap, occupation, where you play, favorite courses, etc.

[Kyle Harris]

Kyle Harris
Warminster, PA

Age: 21, 22 in April

Play professionally but probably around a 2 handicap

Golf Professional, want to get into Golf Architecture
Employed at Talamore at Oak Terrace in Spring House, PA

Play: Five Ponds GC, Makefield Highlands GC, Island Green CC, Jeffersonville GC, Huntingdon Valley CC when I can

Favorite Courses:
Mountain Valley Golf Club (Mahanoy City, PA)
Huntingdon Valley Country Club
Bethpage Black
Architects Golf Club (Phillipsburg, NJ)
Whitemarsh Valley Country Club
Both Penn State Golf Courses (Blue & White)

Favorite Architects:
AW Tillinghast
William Flynn
Jim Blaukavitch
Gil Hanse
Donald Ross

Want to Play:
Bethpage Red & Green
Oakmont
NGLA
Merion
PVGC
Pebble Beach
CPC
Riviera
TOC, Lahinch, Sunningdale, et al.

[Brian_Sleeman]

Brian Sleeman
Marquette, MI

Age: 26

I'm working through the PGA apprentice program at present, not playing as much as in years past, but my handicap is hanging in there at +1.1.  My bag has taken a turn toward more and more Titleist equipment, including the 983 K driver, 690 CB irons, and 52/56/60 Vokey wedges.

After quitting baseball for golf in my early teens, I became immediately fascinated with golf course architecture, which several of my middle and high school teachers can attest to considering the amount of old tests of mine they have with the back pages covered by drawings of favorite holes and imaginary layouts I did myself.  My only architectural text of the time was Pete Dye's "Bury Me In a Pot Bunker."

I'm currently the assistant professional at Marquette Golf Club, where we recently added the DeVries-designed Greywalls course to bring our facility to 36 holes.  My home courses would be our two (the original 18 featuring 9 from Langford and Moreau), as I have very little time to play many others.  

I have been fortunate to make a few great golf trips in the last year, however.  My favorites would have to be:

Milwaukee CC
Tobacco Road
Mid-Pines
Pine Needles
Mid-South
Landmark at Oak Quarry (Riverside, CA)

I've played a few other big-named places in CA, but wasn't as impressed as I thought I'd be.  Those included Pelican Hill's South Course, the Dye-designed Ocean Trails (currently undergoing a facelift as Trump National) in Rancho Palos Verdes, and Black Gold in Yorba Linda.  They were all good in their own ways but after playing the aforementioned courses in the Pinehurst area, I began to gain more of a hands-on appreciation for the nuances of architecture, particularly the differences between pure aesthetics and traditionalist strategy (not really a nuance at all).

In 2005 I plan to play Greywalls as much as possible, hit the Kingsley Club and Crystal Downs on a weekend, make a few return visits to Milwaukee, and in early 2006 head out on my first trip to the Monterey Peninsula with my wife on our golfing honeymoon.

Looking forward.

[Jason Topp]

Jason Topp
Eden Prairie, MN
Father of a 9 year old son and 7 year old daughter
Telecommunications regulatory lawyer

Index 7.1  

Play public courses around the Twin Cities, primarily Bunker Hills (site of Senior tour event until about 5 years ago); Chaska Town Course (Arthur Hills course which will be the second course used in the 2006 US Amateur) and Stoneridge (Bobby Weed Course I love but is a long way from my house)

Favorite ten courses I have played:

Pasatiempo
Classic at Maddens
Rochester CC (Minnesota - Tillinghast)
Wakonda (Langford)
Ballybunion
The Old Course
North Berwick
Lahinch
Hazeltine
Oak Ridge

Fond golf course memories

Waveland, Des Moines Iowa- a threadbare muni over 100 years old with 9 terrific holes and about 5 bad ones.  

Westwood, Newton Iowa - small town course that welcomed me to the game, charged $40 a year for juniors and was always swarming with kids

Pasatiempo - I went there because it was cheaper than the Monterrey courses and found I liked it as much if not better.  I'll never forget hitting a running shot onto the second green in the summer.

Scotland - playing a seven round "world series" of matches against my father and having it come down to the seventh match at the Old Course.

[James Bennett]

Hi all

Name - James Bennett, I'm 45 years old.  I live in Adelaide (wet mild winters, warm to hot dry summers, slightly warmer/dryer than Melbourne).  I play at Blackwood GC (realistically, a Doak 3).  The course is 45 years old, with some great indigenous vegetation, but also a lot of introduced pines, cypresses and very tall native gums.  Players have walked single file down a number of our fairways for years!

I was Club Captain in the early 90's.  I returned to the Committee and have been Course Chairman for 2 and a half years.  We are currently in the midst of a Course Master Plan (with Mike Clayton).  Our member's information night is imminent, just before Easter.  We are a hills course, built on heavy clay.  Fairways are santa anna couch, Greens are 60% bent (1019/1020/L93) and 40% poa.  We manage a bent/poa mix.  membership is a bit over 1300, with annual subs about $1100.  About 7 on the course staff.

Whilst I'm quite fit (these days), I had a pacemaker fitted in November.  Went to Sydney to the Australian Open to do some volunteer work, plus visit New South Wales GC (La Perouse) and Royal Sydney.  Ended up in Hospital, had the pacemaker fitted and flew home.  Saw some golf on TV and nothing else (my wife got her 2 dozenCrispy Creme's from Sydeny airport, that was it for the Golf Visit! ).

I play off 7, using Pings these days - never thought I would but I do.  My best golf was 20 to 30 years ago (Toney Penna persimmon woods, Ram tour grind chrome irons), playing under 21 representative golf for my State.  Highlights were 1978 winning the National U21 teams title, including beating (a young) Frank Nobilo.  Also, in 1980 at NSW GC losing (comprehensively) to a very young steve Elkington.  He probably weighed 135 pounds then.  Still got my old putters from then (1950's wooden putter by East Bros called 'Old faithful', T-Line IV blade putter, Ping PAL and Anser 2, all still used).  A good short game offset a poor long game (not overly long).  Never any good at carrying the ball, always played along the ground, scrambling.

Best courses played include Royal Adelaide, Kooyonga, the melbourne sand-belt (love Woodlands), NSW and Stockton at Newcastle.  Visited Monterey three times, but have never played in the US.  Too tight to spend half a years subscription on one game of golf.  I loved visiting the area and walking the courses though (a view over the fence of Cypress Point was all I saw there ).  The last visit in 2002 was priamrily to go to the USA National Bearded Collie Dog Show, held in Monterey (yes, we have a Beardie, or Scottish sheep dog called Shadow.  I can see our next one being called mackenzie ).

Love MacKenzie, looking forward to seeing Raynor, Ross, MacDonald, Colt, Crenshaw etc etc.  Also looking forward to some Doak/Clayton  about 10 hours away by car (St Andrews beach, Barnbougle).

Sorry if this rambled a bit, probably indicative of me.

[Scott Coan]

I never introduced myself properly so I'll give it a crack...

Scott Coan age 41 married with 3 kids under the age of 6.  Not nearly as good as I was in my 20's bit can still barely play to a 4.  In a major slump at the moment however.

My home club is currently Paraparaumu Beach in New Zealand, where I sit on the Men's committee.  We are struggling to return these wonderful Russell links back to their glory.  We are blessed with one of the best tracks anywhere in the world, not so blessed in other areas that will hopefully be changing soon.

If there is any young super out there that would like to come to NZ and work at returning this world top 100 course back to glory please contact me!

I grew up in SE Massachusetts played formative golf at Hatherly CC in Scituate.  Played all around Boston area for 20+ years.  Favorite course in Boston area would be Winchester.

Moved to San Diego in mid 80's and played Torrey quite often, although my favorite out there was a place called Singing Hills in El Cajon.

Lived in Bermuda for a year and could not get enough of Mid Ocean, although played Port Royal nearly every weekend cuz that's all I could afford!

Best round of golf I've ever had was a 77 from the tips at Kiawah Island Ocean course in a 50pmh gale with a double bogey, bogey finish.

Favorite in NZ is Kidnappers, which I can't get enough of.  Kauri Cliffs is awesome as well, it's just in the middle of nowhere.

Even though I've been playing golf since the age of 5 I've only recently become interested in GCA.  Now I can't get enough and many thanks to this site.  

[Mark_Guiniven]

Scott, welcome. I met with Ron Conner at Parapram while you were at Cape Kidnappers. Good things are happening.

I didn't realise the Superintendent's position was becoming available though. Is that what you meant?

Mark,

[David Sneddon]

David Sneddon
Age: 56

Own a synthetic turf installation business, primarily installing residential putting greens.

Current Index is 3.6, but probably playing closer to a 6.
Born and raised in Dunfermline, Scotland and was member of Canmore GC,  from age 9 until 22.  Resident in Canada for the past 35 years.

Favourite Courses:
Royal Dornoch - best links course in the world
TOC - because it is TOC
Jubillee - just so much fun to play
Roseland GC - 'home' course - Donald Ross
Essex G&CC - a beautiful Donald Ross that makes you think

Upcoming courses this year:
Inverness
Firestone
Bandon Dunes
Pacific Dunes
Bandon Trails

Lurked on GCA for several months before joining this spring.  Learning a lot, and hope to learn more.  Hope to meet more GCA members in the upcoming years.

[Tim Bert]

Updated for 2010

Tim Bert
Age: 36
Occupation: Actuary (and golf daydreamer)

When I first posted here 5 years ago my index was 14.8.  A couple years later it had made its way down to 8.9.  As the travel golf has increased, the regular local golf has dwindled and I now find my self back at a 13 index (and trending the wrong direction).  I am notorious for ruining great stretches of par and bogey golf with my weak mental game.  My caddie at Bandon Dunes resort told me at the end of the trip "You could really play some great golf if you didn't have so many things going on in your head."  This was not long after I posted a 91 at Pacific Dunes by shooting +16 on 4 holes and +4 on the remaining 14 holes.  On a previous trip to the same resort, I posted a routine 54-39.  The count is now up to 12 rounds at Pacific Dunes without breaking 90.  Any sports psychologists in the house?  

Favorite One-time play:
Cypress Point

The "big 4" where I have enjoyed more than one round to become a little more familiar with the course (no particular order):
Pacific Dunes
Sand Hills
Ballyneal
Kingsley

From 2005:
"I never picked up a club until I was almost 20, but I caught the bug quickly after that first round.  For the past 4 years, I've been setting aside time each year to take a golf-only trip with a good friend from work.  Those trips have produced some of my fondest golf memories, and they've been some of the best trips I've ever taken of any type.

I've been hanging out at this site since finding the useful course review that Ran posted on Pacific Dunes when I was scouting that trip in 2003.  I spent countless hours on the courses by country site before discovering this discussion forum.  I've only been posting for a month and I haven't posted that much, but I've spent some long evenings reading all of the threads here.

I'm currently in the Hartford area, and potentially relocating to the Nashville area in the near future."

Updated for 2010:
OK, the occasional trips mentioned above certainly got out of hand.  I've been fortunate enough to go on a a few golfing trips each of the past several years.  My experiences in the past 5 years have surpassed all expectations.  I've met some really wonderful people on this site and I've been very lucky to have teed it up with good people at some special places.

I did in fact re-locate to the Nashville area very soon after my post here in 2005.  I've come to accept and appreciate the "architectural wasteland" that Bogey references in his post below mine and look forward to playing golf elsewhere any time I have the opportunity.   

Unchanged from 2005:
I would love the opportunity to meet and play a round of golf with any of the fellow golf fanatics on this site.

[Mike Hendren]

Tim,

While Nashville was recently referred to as an "architectural wasteland" on this site, I assure you it is one of the great places in the country to live.   Call me at 615-661-5790 if you're headed this way.

Mike
American By Birth
Southern By The Grace Of God

[RE Blanks]

32
Athens GA
Seconday Marketing Manager

Originally from Chattanooga TN
Athens Country Club (Ross 1926)
5.6 Index

Father of two 3 and 1

Favorite Courses played:
Huntingdon Valley
Palmetto
Holston Hills
Pine Valley
Somerset Hills
Philly CC
Falsterbo

Like to Play:
NGLA
Olympic
Camargo
Myopia

Looking forward to playing palying the UK

Medium to short player that likes fast fairways

[George Pazin]

'Been waaaaaay too long since anyone pulled this up for the newer posters.

Plus share with us.

 

[Jordan Wall]

Alright then

16 in April
Seattle, WA
High School Golf Captain

Course I play most is Nile G&CC
4.3 index

Favorite Courses Played (though not much compared to some...) and no order

Kapalua Plantation
Kapalua Bay
Salishan
Sandpines (maybe I liked it but was way too harsh...)

Courses I would like to play (no order)

CPC (but with my dad)
NGLA
TOC
Cape Kidnappers

Never played until I was fourteen.  Now I play every day.  I am going to be caddying this summer at Seattle Golf Club, and I look forward to that.  I am excited about learning more and more about golf architecture and my dream is to someday be on the PGA and also design golf courses (somewhat like Nicklaus, but not in the style of courses).  y favorite place to play is in Oregon on the mighty ocean dunes and I will definitely head up to Bandon!!

Thanks for bringing this back George!!