Dunlop White
thanks for the printing advice. I had found that selecting all of the text from GCA.com and dumping it into Word was spot on. A first-class print-job, for once.
Mike Young
My comments supporting the guidelines are for use as a check-list by someone who is nearly through a Master Plan process. We have undertaken most of the points listed, but I have not previously seen such a list.
As regards to the merits of the Donald Ross Society or otherwise, I have two positions. The first position was expressed by Sgt Schultze in Hogan's Heroes, ie "I know nothing, nu.u.u.thinnkk". The second is best described as 'Switzerland' - I'm not taking part in this discussion!
My reason for commenting favourably on the guidelines has been well put by Tom Paul's comments ie 'the guidelines in many, many ways look almost like a review of the way we went about researching our course's architectural evolution, how we went about hiring an architect and creating a Master Plan and getting into a restoration of our Ross course. In my opinion, no club can do too much research as to how the course once was and how it's changed over time'.
At my club, our Master Plan doesn't profess to be a restoration - it isn't. The course wasn't quite built to plan, the back nine was significantly changed 15 years ago and the parcel of land placed some significant challenges on the original architect (Vern Morcom) 45 years ago. Some of those challenges have been relieved since that time. However, with the help of our current golf course architect (whose selection was part happenstance, part review as per point 3 of the Guidelines), we have undertaken a lot of point 1 (archival/history), some of point 2 (membership support), implemented some of part 4 (long term plan) and part 5 (maintenance) with many actions considered for the next 10 years.
The benefits I have found from the guidelines is it puts together my club's experiences over the last couple of years, identifies some areas we could do more work on (member support) and gives us confidence that we are addressing the width of areas necessary.
One of the great things we have experienced thorugh our Master Plan work (through the encouragement of the golf course architect) is club history. I have been a member of our club for 35 of our 45 years. Recently, I have seen course plans, drawings and photo's that people haven't seen during my membership. It is difficult to get some members to embrace history (they can generally recall how the course is today, and whether it is in better or worse condition than last week, or perhaps 10 years ago). Many have joined in the last 5 years, and cannot be reasonably expected to have the same passion for history, especially if the history is hidden.
Would/should a Committee/Board take advice on their most valued asset from someone they hardly know - I doubt it, but I'm sure some do. As I said, we stumbled across a possible architect through happenstance, but undertook diligent research before engaging him (including reviews of his work for courses with the same original architect).