This was done by Joel Zuckerman for the Carolina Morning News in 2001. A friend just passed it along to me. Was it posted here before? A lot of interesting PV stuff. Does he violate the 14 club rule?
Steve
Ernest Ransome has made impact on the game he loves
SPRING ISLAND: New Jersey native was club president at 'the world's finest golf course.'
From Tee to Green
By Joel Zuckerman
His name might be unfamiliar to most casual golfers, but Ernest Ransome III is a man well known and much respected in certain circles. The Spring Island resident has devoted much of his adult life to the betterment of the game.
The golfing cognoscenti recognize his many contributions and the lasting impact of his legacy at Pine Valley, the world's finest golf course.
I spent time with Mr. Ransome at the understated Chechessee Creek Club on Callawassie Island recently. We toured the brand new Ben Crenshaw-Bill Coore design in mediocre fashion, but couldn't blame the weather. Blue skies and warming temperatures supplanted what seemed like a two-month span of harsh conditions.
The golf display was unremarkable, but stories of Ransome's 50 years at Pine Valley were anything but.
"When I joined Pine Valley in 1951 there was no initiation fee, and my dues were $50 a year," he said. "Later on it doubled though, and I was paying $100."
So begins Ransome, who eventually served as club president from 1977 until 1988, and will step down as chairman of the board later this spring.
Ransome succeeded the legendary John Arthur Brown as president, the autocrat who ruled the club for half a century. Brown ran Pine Valley in much the same fashion Clifford Roberts ran Augusta National; as a committee of one.
Members were fearful of running afoul of men like Roberts and Brown. When Ransome, at the time a young executive in his family's construction equipment business, was called to a meeting with Brown after several minor transgressions, he feared the worst.
"In those days you could send a foursome of guests to the golf course unaccompanied by a member," recalls the New Jersey native. "I had arranged for some friends to play, and they played too slowly and held up the golf course somewhat, including Mr. Brown himself.
"There was a similar incident sometime later as well, and when I was called to meet Mr. Brown my assumption was I had run out of chances, and would be asked to leave the club."
Little did he realize that he was being asked to join the board of directors, apparently to bring in some young blood and fresh perspectives for Brown and his associates, who were about 40 years his senior.
Mr. Ransome was an accomplished athlete in his youth, and played both varsity football and lacrosse at Princeton. His natural ability was evident on the golf course as well. In his prime his handicap was normally between two and five, he won the Pine Valley club championship at age 54, and once shot 68 on the course generally regarded as one of the toughest and most psychologically intimidating in the world.
Perhaps his most lasting legacy is the Pine Valley Short Course, which he designed with noted architect and fellow club member Tom Fazio. This 10-hole gauntlet is no toothless pitch and putt, and some argue it's even more intimidating than the original 18.
The Short Course replicates some of the approach shots that are seen on the big course, and it was Ransome's idea to devise a way that members could practice the shots they needed in a challenging and competitive manner.
Built quickly, efficiently and well within budget, the Short Course has proved to be extremely popular with members and their guests since it was introduced in 1992.
Although he'll always be most closely associated with Pine Valley, Ransome has left his mark throughout golf. He was a 1995 recipient of the USGA's Ike Grainger Award, in recognition of his more than 25 years of service to the USGA.
Even more impressively, a group of friends conceived the Ernest L. Ransome III Scholarship Trust at St. Andrews University in Scotland in 1994, to honor his many contributions to the game. The scholarship's mission is to provide an important educational opportunity for gifted students in the birthplace of golf, and the endowment has since grown to about $2 million.
Ransome and his wife Myradean have been coming to the Lowcountry for 15 years, and bought their home in Spring Island about five years ago. He's been affiliated with many of the area's finest courses during that time, including Long Cove, Belfair, Colleton River, Secession and Chechessee Creek Club.
Although he never liked the idea of owning two homes, his unique status at Pine Valley precipitated the purchase of his Lowcountry home. The Ransomes live in one of the few homes that are actually built within the club grounds at Pine Valley.
"I had a health scare four years ago, and realized I wasn't immortal," explains Ransome with a laugh. "Our New Jersey home is rather isolated, and we decided we should look for another home together, and not leave things to the end. We love it here on Spring Island, my wife especially. It seems we come here earlier and leave later every year. I practically have to drag Myradean back to Pine Valley."
Much as he's grown to love the laid-back life in coastal Carolina, Ransome looks forward every spring to returning to his home overlooking Pine Valley's seventh hole, and its infamous bunker known as Hell's Half-Acre.
"I don't believe in ranking golf courses," he concludes, belying his former status as a Golf Digest course rater. "Pine Valley has been ranked No. 1 since 1985, but it's more than just the course. It's a combination of the ambience, the people, the caddies, the help and the dining room that make it such a special experience.
"If I knew I was going to die tomorrow, though, I'd choose to play my last round at Cypress Point. It's not the greatest golf course in the world, but it's a wonderful place to sit out on the patio after the round, have a drink and listen to the seals honking in the Pacific."
For the good of the game and those who love it, let's hope Ernie Ransome isn't sitting on the Cypress Point patio anytime soon.