Wayne Morrison's Rolling Green GC is posted...

[jdcoleman71]

  I know the Chairman.  He's very limited; can't write; and has trouble expressing himself.  It's quite sad.
    Let me translate for him.  Merion is over-rated.  Cut the rough down to normal difficulty (say 2-3 inches), keep the greens at around 10 or so, pretend there's no history,  and from the member's tees the course rating drops to 70, the slope to 128.  From the tips, maybe 71.5 and 133.
    If the course isn't all that difficult, does that mean it's not that great.  Probably so.  It can be good; but not great.  If course conditions are the same, is Merion better than Rolling Green?  Huntington Valley? Philly Country? Aronomink (which is often unfairly critisized as being long but boring).  The Chairman would say no.  I, of course, express no opinion.  The poor boy needs help with a lower case h, not a capital H (if you know what I mean).

[TEPaul]

Poor assumptions leading to a poor conclusion, to my way of thinkng!

To answer your last overall question, my opinion would be yes!

[TEPaul]

Also, if I haven't mentioned it yet, judging from the title of this thread, I'm delighted to know that Rolling Green is Wayne Morrison's! He's quite a humble man apparently because he never mentioned to me that he owns the club!

[Mike_Cirba]

Sheesh...you Philly guys and toughness!  

Why don't we just rank the courses in the area by the difficulty of their course rating to determine greatness?  Why don't we just build a self-circulating moat around every green to futher the goal of challenging "target golf" and increased difficulty (not to mention the constant water supply)?  Why don't we tighten all the fairways down to 10 yards wide, and move each tee back 50 yards where possible?

How about planting trees on each hole to provide narrow, restricting, limiting corridors of play, and let the wilds around the trees just go natural and native, so that there will be more lost balls and stroke and distance penalties?

Only the best possible shots will go unpunished and we'll just be chock-full of "great" courses, don't you think?  

How about we take a trip "down the shore" to Stone Harbour and get some possible ideas there, or up to the Concord Monster in NY to check out golf at 7,800 yards?  

Yo...are you guys just bustin' balls?  :-/

[mike_malone]

TEPaul
  While i love playing at Rolling Green,i have found that we have several members that would be institutionized ,if that were still done.
 Another one has arrived on GCA.
  

[wsmorrison]

Tom, I knew Ran was powerful, but I had no idea he could confer upon me title to Rolling Green.  Since I now own a golf course I am changing the name to Morrison National (my friend Donald Trump suggested the name) and am charging $300,000 to join and $2000 a month in dues. We don't care who you are or where you came from as long as you make your payments on time.  

Craig Disher, we will be putting in a pool, tennis courts, paddle tennis, bowling, and of course squash each with its own 200 foot waterfall.  

As for Mayday Malone, we will insist each new member play a round of golf with him and listen to the merits of William Flynn.  After which he will be given his very own chainsaw to remove an offending tree of Mayday's selection.  

I am sure that one of Tom Paul's ancestors at one time owned the land the golf course sits on and probably the entire county, so there is free membership as long as he makes sure the superintendent understands the concept of maintenence meld and the proper application of it at Rolling Green, er Morrison National.

Now, I am sorry but the Chairman must step down from his post until Mayday says that he has truly been deprogrammed and fully understands Flynn's design philosophy.  Of course his position will be kept available until such time as he has seen the light (it will come from the right side of number 7 where the evergreens were removed).

Now, I need to trade in my wife for the trophy wife I deserve.  Does anyone have Heidi Klume's phone number?

[TEPaul]

MikeC;

The simple answer to your questions on toughness and greatness on some of these old Philly courses is they don't have to do those things!

Mayday:

Seeing as you're a peaceful Quaker and I'm more of a belligerent, and you seem to think it's a good idea to institutionalize those that need it and I don't care about that why don't you and I just swap memberships?

You take Gulph Mills and I'll take Rolling Green. It seems to me it's much easier to get into a fist fight at Rolling Green than at Gulph Mills and there are far more people at GMGC who would need to be institutionalized if that were still done!

[chairman]

dear tom
thank you for your kind words about certain rolling green members.  you are right.  the new participant is jim coleman.  actually, he is already institutionalized.  i am waiting for a bed.  coleman is permitted out to play rolling green.  ironically, coleman and i, and two other rg members used to play big matches at the concord and stone harbor.  our winter venue is teeth of the dog at casa de campo where coleman has a house.  if you ever saw coleman play golf, you would realize how crazy he is.  he makes mayday look normal.    
the chairman

[Mike_Cirba]

Speaking of Quakers and institutionalism (is THAT a word? ), I recently toured the Eastern State Penitentiary here in Philadelphia, which housed such famous criminals as Al Capone and Willie Sutton.  

It seems the Quakers came up with the term "penitentiary" from "repent", and began the prison with what was at the time a revolutionary idea in penal design - that is, every prisoner was kept in "solitary" confinement, supposedly to think long and hard about their past sins and then, repent.

Over time, this "confining" idea didn't seem to work very well, as most of the prisoners went stark, raving mad.

Of course, most restrictive and option-eliminating ideas only burden and ultimately extinguish the human spirit and imagination over time....sort of like planting pine trees on the right of #7.      

[TEPaul]

Wayne:

I've got more than just Heidi's phone number but what're we going to do about her apparent ongoing infatuation with Ran Morrissett?

She's German, you see, and pretty danged stubborn and she means to find out what this "Most Beloved figure in golf" is all about!

He's refused to say except for some weak story about being incorrectly introduced that way at some speaking engagement once in Australia.

Heidi's English ain't all that good and although I've tried to tell her there's a big difference between the words "Beloved" and "Loved" she doesn't seem to have figured that out yet.

I guess she just wants to check out the goods on this "Most "Loved" figure in golf".

But hang in there--your time will come!

[wsmorrison]

Tom,
I am moving on no time to waste, the demands of running Morrison National are too great.  Heidi will find me in the arms of Elle McPherson, we'll see if she can seduce me away from that 6 foot beauty from Down Under.  I like an Aussie accent better than German anyway.

[mike_malone]

Mike C
  You are a master of "convergence".How you are able not only to compare the penitentary with #7 at RG but also to produce a picture is  amazing.
 Weren't you the one who started the "battlefield"thread?
   I must say i am on record as saying Merion is overvalued as well,but i think when i say it that there must be something wrong with me.

[TEPaul]

MikeC:

You've got it wrong pal! Quakers don't repent! Not like others do anyway! Didn't you know their God is within them? That's why they don't need any of those proselytizing, pontificating, molesting clergy people that most of the competiton has!

That's why, although I'm not a practicing Quaker, I am a natural born one! Repenting to myself has always been a snap!

[Chris_Clouser]

Wayne,

Keep Elle.  If for no other reason than the better golf courses when you go see the Trophy In-laws.

 

Chris

[Scott_Burroughs]

Wayne,

Elle is self-described as being 5' 12".  

[TEPaul]

It's pretty damn difficult to decide between Heidi and Elle, that's for sure. That would be one of the most mindbendingly confusing eeeny meeeny, miiiiny mo situations any man could go through---but anyway.

I'll tell you something about Heidi, though, Wayne. The girl has an absolute world class sense of humor!

And that's no kidding--that's the absolute truth!

[wsmorrison]

Tom,
Anyone else and I would certainly question how they would know she has a world class sense of humor.  But with you, I gotta believe!  Tell me the story on our way down to DC on Saturday.

Chris, you're absolutely right, the golf is much better in the sand belt but the beers are better in Germany, I'll take the golf cause the red wine is much better in Australia.

Scott, 5'12" would fit me just right!

Regards,
Wayne

[Mike_Cirba]

mayday;

Speaking of convergence, yes, I was the one who introduced the battlefield thread.

I was hoping to find a pic of some of the beautifully geometric, man-made features at Valley Forge that are closely akin to the features on some of the first courses in this country and thought I found one...

Except, someone planted a damn row of trees in the way...look closely, they're in there somewhere..

[TEPaul]

Wayne:

No story to tell! Like anyone else I've seen Heidi on the tube a bunch of times. A couple of those times she had the people wherever she was and at my house too just cracking up! There're all kinds of types of humor and Heidi's is the completely spontaneous type!

In one of those times they were doing a film of the world's top fashion models all doing a show together and they were filming the dressingroom with all these girls in various stages of dress and undress and here's Heidi marching around by herself with hardly any clothes on except this enormous red headdress that made her look like a flamingo, doing her best to sound like an out of control flamingo. You could see all the other girls just laughing their asses off!

[Mike_Cirba]

mayday;

See?...all of this stuff really does converge quite nicely..

Even in the revolutionary war days there were tree planters who didn't think the battle was challenging enough.  As you can see by clicking on the link, they often planted trees right in the way of cannon firing routes, limiting options and forcing those shots to be "deadly accurate".  

http://community9.webshots.com/photo/38757460/38758643UBCHZF

This thinking continues today, as you are aware.  I understand that some have talked about toughening the course through additional planting, such as this proposed tee shot, which can be seen at the link provided.

http://community9.webshots.com/photo/38757460/38761212AuNmlr

[mike_malone]

Mike C
   Since i am still a Quaker,i never learned to fade or draw a cannon shot.

[TEPaul]

Mayday:

You see what a sheltered life you've lived being a Quaker and a pacifist?

A war mongering sort like me knows how to put a draw or a fade on my firepower.

It's called "elevation and windage"--just a little click here and a little click there. With my M-1 at Parris Island I could put a high draw on my bullet and hit the bullseye on the target of the guy about ten down from me on the firing range no problem!

Cannons can't be much different than a rifle--sort of like a 7 iron compared to a driver!