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Jay Flemma

Any personal rememberances of Mike Strantz?
« on: February 10, 2006, 12:16:45 PM »
Anyone have some humorous or interesting anecdotes about Mike?  I'm finishing a long piece on he and his courses and wanted to add some persdonal stories by peers or fans.

Any particular "moments of clarity" great stories of how you felt the first time you sawe one of his courses?

I'll have some of it up on my website after lunch, including Mike's involvement with the "hinkle tree" in 1979's US Open (my favorite story)
« Last Edit: February 10, 2006, 12:17:12 PM by Jay Flemma »
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Sean Leary

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Re:Any personal rememberances of Mike Strantz?
« Reply #1 on: February 10, 2006, 04:03:53 PM »
bump. Didn't want to see this one go to page 2 so quick..

RIP Mr. Strantz..
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Steve_Lemmon

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Re:Any personal rememberances of Mike Strantz?
« Reply #2 on: February 10, 2006, 04:10:11 PM »
I find it remarkable that they could move so much dirt to build a very, very large hill at Bull's Bay that would host the 9th, 15th? and 18th greens, and a clubhouse with a view of the ocean, on a formerly flat site, and that it would look so natural and not at all "tricked-up."  The 9th in particular looks like an Irish links course hole. That shows talent and vision on a grand scale.  
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ed_getka

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Re:Any personal rememberances of Mike Strantz?
« Reply #3 on: February 10, 2006, 04:45:31 PM »
I never had the opportunity to meet Mike, but Bob Huntley must have some stories to share, if you haven't already asked him.
  The membership put up a nice plaque in memory of Mike near the 15th green.
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"Perimeter-weighted fairways", The best euphemism for containment mounding I've ever heard.

cary lichtenstein

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Re:Any personal rememberances of Mike Strantz?
« Reply #4 on: February 10, 2006, 05:07:50 PM »
I was playing at Wade Hampton last summer with a member, and came to a hole on the back 9, I don't remember thehole, but I said to the member "wow, great hole...but you know, this doesn't look like Fazio's work", and he said "it's not, Mike Strantz did this hole and a few others.
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Live Jupiter, Fl, was  4 handicap, played top 100 US, top 75 World. Great memories, no longer play, 4 back surgeries. I don't miss a lot of things about golf, life is simpler with out it. I miss my 60 degree wedge shots, don't miss nasty weather, icing, back spasms. Last course I played was Augusta

George Pazin

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Re:Any personal rememberances of Mike Strantz?
« Reply #5 on: February 10, 2006, 05:55:36 PM »
Jay, since you're relatively new to the site, I'd recommend reading Mike Strantz's interview, if you haven't already. You might also want to peruse the archives.
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Big drivers and hot balls are the product of golf course design that rewards the hit one far then hit one high strategy.  Shinny showed everyone how to take care of this whole technology dilemma. - Pat Brockwell, 6/24/04

Tony_Chapman

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Re:Any personal rememberances of Mike Strantz?
« Reply #6 on: February 10, 2006, 05:59:42 PM »
Jay - I never met Mike Strantz. But, he changed the way I looked at golf courses on December 31, 1998 when I played Tobacco Road with my dad and brother. What a fun day we had just going, 'Wow' what a fun hole that was.

That's what Mike did to golf course architecture. He had a passion for and loved the game and loved classic design, but he had a flair for the dramatic that was unlike any other. The world of golf will miss him dramatically.

My favorite memories of playing two of his courses were the 13 I made on the 13th at TR and had a ball doing so after seeing my ball getting lodged in the bunker front and right of the green. I then made a 2 on 14. What a game.

The work he did at Caledonia in Myrtle Beach was truly wonderful. What a canvas he laid out for that 18th hole and what a fun golf course to play.

You may IM Bob Huntley who met him while Mike was doing work at MPCC.
« Last Edit: February 10, 2006, 06:01:41 PM by Tony_Chapman »
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A.G._Crockett

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Re:Any personal rememberances of Mike Strantz?
« Reply #7 on: February 10, 2006, 06:33:49 PM »
My experience at Tobacco Road was exactly like Tony Chapman's; I just smiled my way around the course, and have on each subsequent trip as well.  I had never seen anything like it, and it really spurred my interest in GCA.

I also consider the combination of True Blue and Caledonia to be a tribute to the man's genius.  For two courses so completely different from one another, yet both very highly regarded nationally to be quite literally across the street could only be accomplished by a visionary and an artist.
« Last Edit: February 10, 2006, 07:31:35 PM by A.G._Crockett »
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"Golf...is usually played with the outward appearance of great dignity.  It is, nevertheless, a game of considerable passion, either of the explosive type, or that which burns inwardly and sears the soul."      Bobby Jones

Jay Flemma

Re:Any personal rememberances of Mike Strantz?
« Reply #8 on: February 10, 2006, 09:45:03 PM »
Hey George:

The first thing I did when I prepared to do my first interview with Mike was read the excellent GCA interview.  I tried to use that as a jumping off point for my questions.  Interestingly, MIke kept hammering home points he made so well in the interview.

I was really green back then (2003) and tried to get him to elaborate on lots of answers and go deeper into the concepts there, but I also didnt want to tire him out. Even though he was in remission then, I wanted to be low impact.  We still covered lots of stuff I never knew about and got into some interesting areas.

My favorite is the Hinkle Tree.  I read about the Hinkle tree back in 80 as a kid and the story fascinated me.  I knew before the interview he worked at Inverness for the Open, but had no idea how close he was to ground zero for that story.  Hearing him retell a fun piece of golf lore and getting those nuggets before he passed away was a real treasure.
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