Coming out of the closet...

[Gary_Smith]

I like Hootie Johnson.

I love the Masters Toonamint and ANGC.

I like those who play the game the right way, which means walking.

I like hitting the long irons.

I like a blade putter.

I like wood woods.

I like the pros who take their cap off when they shake hands after the round.

I like Carnoustie and Pinehurst #2.

I liked Hogan and like Player and Norman.

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

I like trees on golf courses
I think Crump wanted isolation
I dont think Colt got screwed in the deal
I prefer Western Gailes to TOC
I to like Jose Mourinho..I hope Abromovhic goes bust, and Jose  heads north, he is too smart for the cockney scum
I like blind shots anywhere
I like rough and lots of it
I think poor shots should be punished
I hate large man made lakes
I do not like TPC Sawgrass or much of Pete Dye's work
I have liked the odd Fazio course or two
I dont drink but I will go along with my manu buddy on the budweiser deal/thingie..Ialso used to buy only Sharp electronics
I like lob wedges,utility clubs..but still want lots of rough
Merion is just wonderful
Pine Valley should be number one until proven otherwise...which is not going to happen
Tom Doak is Mackenzie, reincarnated..the latest Dalai lama of golf course architecture
Pacific Dunes should be in the British isles it is that good
I like Spyglass more than pastatiempo
I prefer dark haired women
I do not like large breasts...especially not on male golfers
I think Mickelson and Player are both fakes
Palmer is the King
Hogan is the best ball striker of all time
Hogan was better than Woods/Jones and Nicklaus

[Kyle Harris]

MWP,

About time somebody said they didn't like Player... I've been feeling lonely.

[Jeff Fortson]

I think pros that take carts in tournaments (like some mini-tours) are pussies, unless we're talking Phoenix in the summer.  I played in 3 tournaments last week with fields of approximately 25 players each and I was the only person that walked.

I like Encanto Golf Course in Phoenix, alot.

I like Barbara Boxer, too.

I hate GPS systems on golf carts.

Atlantic Country Club is not a good design, in fact it is horrid.

I've played only one course that has been "Rees-tored" and liked..... Bethpage (Black).

Fazio is both overated and underated, IMHO.  He's streaky.  Some really good, some really bad.  

I actually like one Ted Robinson course.

I like Pajaro as much as Spyglass.

Cruden Bay is in my personal Top 5.

I like Faldo as an announcer.  I also like Johnny Miller.

I love the Ryder Cup and I root for my fellow Americans no matter how much money they have or how spoiled they are.  They are still my countrymen.

We should not be in Iraq.


Jeff F.

[TEPaul]

PeteB:

Here's my contribution to your initial post. Here's the course that's been more completely and universally panned on this board than any other----Desmond Muirhead's Stone Harbor.

I think that course should actually be RESTORED to it's original infamous glory! It was a terrible mistake to ever attempt to make that golf course and it's radical architecture "normal". I mean how often do you get to attempt a difficult sand shot out of a beautiful mermaid's cleavage? And how often do you get to lace a tee shot to a green directly between the open jaws of an enormous great white shark?

Every art form needs its Edsels and that magnificant Edsel of a golf course, Stone Harbor, should be restored back to  exactly the way it was when it first rolled off the line!

[Kyle Harris]

Tom Paul,

Did you putt the ball through the clown's nose on 19 to get a free round?

Heh, no, I actually agree with you... Having played Stone Harbor twice I would love to see what it was.

How often do you have to carry water from a greenside bunker?

[jeffwarne]

Like Tom Huckaby,I just like golf and can go either way on many of these issues(meaning I share most of the popular opinions on this site)-but in keeping with the theme of posting unpopular GCA opinions here goes-full monty,one article of clothing at a time before the grand finally

I like trees on golf courses
I like beer cart girls
I like Budweiser
I like to gamble on the golf course
I like carts occasionally(mixed with above-well maybe not the trees)
I like Myrtle Beach(which kind've goes with #1-#5)

I like The Bridge
I like Rees Jones(personal friend,member,and student of mine)

[Kelly Blake Moran]

My most closeted thoughts:

1. Not enough is done to build and manage pushup greens on new courses;

2. Garden City Golf Club is overrated;

3. Despite my upbringing, the period of time attributed to the Golden Age of Golf Course Architecture was the best and we have yet to get close to it;

4. Most modern architects are more interested in fees and recognition than producing great work;

5.  Black people are more interesting, more artistic, and more athletic than white people.  The sooner they get plugged into the mainstream golf market the better.

6.  I have tremendous respect for two GCA whipping boys: Pat Mucci and Matt Ward!  Both of whom happen to be black but went through the Michael Jackson bleaching process, and with great success I might add.

[Bob_Huntley]

I to like Jose Mourinho..I hope Abromovhic goes bust, and Jose  heads north, he is too smart for the cockney scum

Michael,

Cockney scum? You are damning Londoners and lauding the Midlands and the North. Good God man, you are doing this on the anniversary of the Heysel Stadium Tragedy. Bad choice of words.

From a true blue.

[THuckaby2]

Ok, I have been challenged.  

I don't like stereotyping people or generalizing about them based on race, but I do it too often myself, and I'd prefer that to overabundance of political correctness.

I don't like it when this site is down for hours at an end.

I don't like dogma.

I don't like contrarianism, but I do like on a personal level those few here who wear that label (earned or not).

I don't like typos.

I don't like waiting on every shot.

I don't like NOT being able to play when a round is available.

I don't like absurd greenspeeds such that the ball won't stay by the hole due to gravity alone.

I don't like discussing politics and this thread is the most I ever have in my 10,000+ post history.

I don't like saying no to people when yes would please them more.

I don't like weekend rates.

I don't like mandatory carts.

I don't like collecting money from people.

I don't like playing an individual match if a partners' one could be done.

I don't like assumptions of collegiality before such are earned.

I don't like bad things to happen to good people.

I don't like good things to happen to bad people.

I don't like caring so much about a golf shot that I get sincerely angered if it doesn't go my way.

I don't like NOT caring about a golf shot so much that I play completely apathetically.

That's enough....

TH

[Kyle Harris]

Oh yeah Tom?

Well, I do like contrarians, so there!

 

(Gettin' out of GCA withdrawal... I actually got work done this afternoon!)

[THuckaby2]

It was a productive morning, wasn't it?

 

[Dale_McCallon]

I like cart girls (may make me an old dirty man, but what the heck)

I like resort golf--come on guys its vacation have some fun

Augusta gets better every year

I like getting in the car solo and looking for a hidden gem

I like smoking an occasional cig on the course

I love having a wife who goes to the spa/beach while I play all  want

[George Pazin]

I don't like dogma.

Have you seen it, or are you just going by the reviews? It's hilarious!

 

[THuckaby2]

George:

Agreed.  But that would have required a capital "D", with the word in quotation marks.  Remember what I said about typos?

 

[Mike Hendren]

Update:

I like The Big Break.

I do not understand a single post on the "Computer Frustration" thread.

Me and Roberto - two stupids.

Mike

[Pete Stankevich]

Never in a million years would I buy cheese whiz, a jar of pimentos, white bread, and make a sandwich.
But put me in the bleachers behind the range at Augusta or on a hole on the course with a pimento cheese sandwich in my hand, and I'm in heaven.

[PThomas]

Jack's the greatest of all time, with Bobby a VERY close second

paying for sports stadiums with tax dollars is asinine

trees on a course are okay, but I prefer links, probably cause I grew up on parkland courses

Bandon Dunes is my favorite golf destination -- so far

I feel sorry for those who can't eat Chicago pizza on a  regular basis, and the best hot dogs ever come from a little trailer on Western Ave called Fat Johnnies...I usually go with 2 double chili cheese dogs with musturd, onions, pickles, tomatoes and hot peppers

I think totally green courses that overwater are unattractive and bad for the environment

I usually use a pull cart-- but i just bought my first carry bag

I REALLY HATE when they make you take a cart AND make you keep it on the path

I like Johnny Miller

I am not the biggest Pres. Bush fan

Babe Ruth should have been ESPN's #1 athelete, not Michael Jordan

Christy Canyon was hot..I wonder if she still is...

If I could change one thing, I would rid the world of all violence

I'm a dog guy

my irons are more than a decade old and I don't know if knew ones will really help me that much more and I'm confused by all the diferent models out there

The Ocean course is the hardest I've ever played; Troon is the biggest ripoff I've had in golf

my greenside sand play needs HELP

playing a new good/great course for the first time is so cool to me

I'm so glad to be a part of GCA!

[mark chalfant]

I much prefer CC of Troy over the CC at Brookline

The architecture at Brookside (Ross) and NCR inspires me more than Pebble Beach

I like Wakonda and Firethorn much better than Inverness
because the latter is sorely lacking in memorable one shotters and three shotters

[Gib_Papazian]

I am a cat guy.

All politicians are evil. No exceptions.

So is Michael Moore.

The New Course at Grand Cypress is great fun.

If you don't like it, you are an idiot.

I like trees on a golf course - to a point.

A lifetime at Olympic will do that to you.

Links golf with few trees is more fun than parkland courses.

ESPN's sportsman of the century should have been C.B . Macdonald.

I hate *French* anything - except Neal's wonderful wife.

I'm full of contradictions.

The house I'm building is "French ecclectic."

My Ping I2 irons are 23 years old and predate square grooves.

Why anyone who plays a lot of links golf would want square grooves is a mystery.

Autism and divorce keep me awake at night.

I like beautiful middle-aged cart girls.

Especially redheads.

I've no patience with hubris infected young people.

Then again, as I have gotten older, I've less patience period.

Club policy against pull carts is idiotic.

Garden City is not rated high enough.

Fazio is great.

Fazio does not appeal to everyone.

Rees is a mystery because MPCC is terrific.

Atlantic is not.

Nicklaus is a better architect the older he gets.

Or maybe his staff is getting more skilled.

Nothing is better than finding a hidden gem.

Technology in the last 10 years has not helped the average player.

With today's equipment, Snead would have been as long as anybody.

Trying to bring democracy to radical Islam is hopeless.

Truth is more important then political correctness.

Political correctness has replaced critical thinking in America.

Tommy N. has made me proud to be his friend.

So has Patrick and Bernhardt.

I cannot understand why Todd Eckenrode is not famous.

Give Neal about 36 months and he will be. Guarantee.

Sometimes I disagree with Tom Doak.

But I cannot argue with his wonderful courses.

I always carry $2 bills.

Barbara Boxer makes me want to retch.

So does Hillary Clinton.

I like Martha Stewart.

But her stupidity was breathtaking.

I've had the same putter for 34 years.

Sometimes we get into arguments.

But we always make up.

Martha Burke has hurt the cause of women.

I hate being on a diet.

Nothing is more exciting than an Alps Hole.

Prestwick and Lahinch are my two favorite courses across the pond.

NGLA is better than Shinnecock.

The only thing better than Shinnecock is Cypress.

Michael Jackson is guilty.  

[Mike Benham]

I don't like ...

Damn, I think someone broke into Huck's computer ...

[Doug Siebert]

I prefer cats to dogs; dogs are trusting no matter how much they are beaten and cats are suspicious no matter how much they are coddled, and humans continually demonstrate they should not be trusted, thus proving cats are far more intelligent than dogs.

If the Open could be brought back to its purest form, without corporate tents or galleries of tens of thousands, I think contesting it at Prestwick through four days of typical weather would be the most interesting golf tournament any of us have ever witnessed.

Turnberry and Kingsbarns are overrated; Old Head is underrated.  Trying to justify those beliefs is pointless, since there are people reading this who don't even acknowledge TOC's greatness.

Politics today is all about staying "on message" and has nothing whatsoever to do with what an individual politician actually believes in or thinks is right.

I don't like Tiger Woods, because the more he succeeds the more he justifies the overbearing parents who direct their kids into sports from birth hoping to ride their coattails to fame and riches.

Whatever danger the US faces from terrorism was eclipsed on Sept 12th by the danger its citizens face from its government fanning the flames of the fear of terrorism knowing it would be perfect as a convenient excuse for whatever policies suit its own purposes, since the Red Scare no longer scared anyone but Paul Wolfowitz.

I used to think ANGC was what all golf courses should aspire to be, until I went to Scotland saw The Truth.  Now I believe that aspiration causes so much that is wrong with golf today that we might all be better off if ANGC went NLE and eventually became a memory like Lido that not many know about and only about 1500 people ever discuss with any frequency.

There's nothing wrong with trees on golf courses in any number, so long as they don't have any branches below the 10' mark or are at least 60 yards off the centerline.  No single tree should ever be allowed to become vital enough to the strategy of a hole that a "backup tree" is ever considered.

The line item veto, even in the hands of a president that is the antithesis of everything you personally believe in, is the only solution to pork barrel spending....even as only a half solution it is far better than the status quo.

I hate caddies.  Not as individuals, just as an overly expensive underdelivering legacy of golf's past that should be left in a museum along with rut irons and plus fours.

[Bill Gayne]

After walking nine holes today:

I love dormant bermuda on a dry winter day

and

the smell of fresh cut grass on the summer afternoon and dew in the morning.

[guesst]

I like cats that live in barns, birds that live in trees (but not the one that keeps messing on my car), and dogs on television.  Animals are great, as long as I don't have to feed, pet, or train them.  

I like trees in parks and in my yard.  I like trees on the fringes.  I like fairways surrounded by trees.  I almost always hate trees in the middle of fairways, except when they make me stare or laugh.  

I like every kind of grass, of every hue, as long as I don't have to mow it.  

I like to land in bunkers.  It is a huge feeling of relief . . . then I can quit worrying about landing in a bunker.  I like it when the pros on TV end up in the bunker.  Especially when they can't get out.  Gives me a sense of superiority, since getting out of bunkers is what I seem to do best.

It makes me crabby to miss out on seeing a course I know I would've enjoyed.  Especially when I'm then relegated to listening to minutia regarding it's fine points extolled for hours over years.  I'd rather see it than imagine it.

I don't know if I like Christy Canyon, having never met her.  I don't like to decide whether or not I "like" someone based upon how they look.  I do, however, like cart girls who have hornitos.  That is my only requirement for liking them, so go figure.  

I like golf carts in the desert.  I don't like to walk when I'm hot.  I like to swim when I'm hot.

I like golf carts when it's cold and raining.  I don't like to walk when I'm wet.  I like to swim when I'm wet.  

I don't like golf carts when the day is glorious and the terrain is manageable.  

I like caddies, as long as they are jr. and sr. high school golfers, trying to make a buck.

I like my beer mixed half and half with Seven Up.  Hot chocolate to coffee.  Sharp to dull.  Red to white.  Long to short.  Open to closed. Fast to slow when it comes to wit and fairways.  Slow to fast when it comes to other things.  Read it as you may.  

I like to play golf barefoot.  I like the feeling of short grass under my toes.  

If the water's not too deep, I like to wade in after balls (which is a good thing, because, as a mermaid in a former life, I usually manage to hit every water feature on a course, whether it's in play or not).  I like to wade to the point where my partners sometimes think I'm putting my ball in the water on purpose.  I like to foster that belief, though it isn't true.  

I don't like blind shots.  Not even when someone else is making them.  

My favorite holes are ALWAYS over a Scary Place where no ball should ever go.  I like to tee it up on the other side.  

I would almost always rather play than watch.  Except when I'd rather watch than play.  

I like clever repartee, especially when I can see those tongues in those cheeks.  I like intelligent discussion on most subjects.  I hate discussing politics.  I believe any person who would WANT to be president, should not be.  And that includes Gib.  

I KNOW Michael Jackson is innocent.  At least until he is proven otherwise.  That's one of the beauties of America.    

[ian]

Modern architects are too worried about what others think about them to do the right thing. They deliver what they are expected to.

Many Modern architects are too confident in their own abilities to realize they have not learned enough to practice their craft properly.

My living comes directly from the follys of modern architecture. As I said to a friend (and fellow restorer) I don't know whether to mad or grateful for their incompetance (I'm mad).


Coore and Crenshaw are on a seperate level from the rest.
....but Doak is closing in

There is still only one great Canadian architect.


Pinehurst and Muirfield are architectural masterpieces that aren't "pretty" enough to get the admiration they deserve

Pebble Beach is overrated, largest collection of average holes on a supposed great layout.

Riviera is one of the best ten courses I have seen and is a nearly perfect (on a crap site too). LA CC is no where in Riviera's league even though it has couple of the best holes I have seen and much better land.

Pine Valley should not be touched

Merion picked the right era to restore to, I will go along with questioning the details, but the date was correct.

Garden City is underrated, but the 12th is rediculous. The pond stays in my book, now that I have seen it.

NLGA is the course I wish I could join the most. Geting old there would be fun, getting old at Shinnecock would be hell. That is one of the reasons NLGA is closer to the perfect course.

Every PGA golf tournyment should have 6" rough, or I will never watch anything but the majors for the 4th consecutive year.

Graham Cooke's name is on Highland Links and all he did was place horrible cart paths in one visit. That pisses me off, because someone like me will have to go in there on day to undo his damage. It would have been nice if his associate actually consulted the old photos to do the bunkering work.

I don't like taking a caddy unless there a kid, and I always double up the caddy fee for a kid.

....and I like golf course rankings...........er, sorry but its true