Where are they now? We miss them

[James Bennett]

Seeing the note from Ted Sturges and that his 'return' to GCA was so appreciated by some of the heavyweights, I thought about a couple of guys that I really enjoyed reading that have not posted/no longer post.  I would welcome any future post from them.

The first is Dan King.  I was fortunate enough to meet Dan in April and he was everything and more that I could expect.  Hopefully I see his comments and his attached quotes again one day.

The other is Kelly Blake Moran.  I got to see a few holes of his at Morgan Hill (what a challenging site ) and I hope when I return to see some of his other work.  I always found his posts made you think about your position on a topic.  

I understand guys can lose interest seeing issues rehashed, or get frustrated with some of the (often petty) arguments.  But, I do miss them.  In a related vein, I appreciate the return of some who posted infrequently for a while (Geoff Childs comes to mind).

Any other nominations?  Please try to limit yourself to no more than two.

James B

[TEPaul]

"Any other nominations?  Please try to limit yourself to no more than two."

Sure, and I will limit it to two;

John and even Ran Morrissett.

[TEPaul]

Look, people do get busy and all that but if one wants to have a frank and real discussion of why some of the best contributors who were on this website aren't now one needs to look at the example of Ran Morrissett.

Is he busy with other things? Probalby is. Is that why he almost never joins in on this discussion group section of his website? I doubt that.

The obvious answer must be that for some reasons this discussion group has turned into something he didn't exactly foersee and maybe didn't want.

Chime in here, Ran, and prove me wrong.  

Why did John Morrissett leave this website?

Do I really have to ask?

[Wayne_Kozun]

The first is Dan King.  I was fortunate enough to meet Dan in April and he was everything and more that I could expect.  Hopefully I see his comments and his attached quotes again one day.

My first exposure to Golf Architecture on the web was on the old Golfweb site and Dan was one of the leaders of that site.  He posted an article on a trip to Scotland that had a major influence on the courses that I chose to play when I traveled to Scotland.

I got to meet Dan, and some of the others here, when I went to Monterey as I joined them in a game at Pacific Grove.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

James,
There ara a lot of good guys. Just recently Bill Ryewiski has made his presence after a great many years. Bill's was originally from Mike Golden's Traditional golf site.

Ward Peyronnin is another. Where the Hell are you Ward?

We sure could use a BDAW session or two from Del Ratcliff, whose probably flying his plane as we speak. Another great guy was Court.

Here's a name for some of you from the REALLY old days: Blue Streak.

If I remember right, Blue Streak was a building architect, who loved golf course architecture.

[RJ_Daley]

I have full confidence that Dan King and our other soul buddy, Slag Bandoon, have not faded away.  They are just free spirits that roam around, sometimes in the physical world, and sometimes in their inner worlds.  But, they always come back from time to time and drop some little pearls of commentary and observations for us to ponder.

[RJ_Daley]

Yeah Tommy, good recalls.  I just mentioned Del in the post on playing courses before they opened, as we took a preview of Tobacco Rd with Ken Cotner, way back in the 90s!  

Del flies a plane?  I'm not surprised.  He was running a daily fee course in Charlotte when I last visited him.  He had taught himself to operate a dozer and had been doing something like "operator jam sessions" or guest shaping for Mike Strantz as I recall.  He also had recently completed overseeing construction of an event hall for his course to boost the profit center possibilities.  Now that I think back to Del, I really have to say that Big Jim Thompson is a very similar sort of fellow, and there is was right infront of me when I was recently up to see Jim at Angels Crossing, but didn't put that similarity together until you jogged my mind.

Speaking of that Carolina contingent, Court Graham was always very insightful and then just faded away.  Was he an old soldier, like MacArthur?

Bruce Goughner from Atlanta had a dream to own a course someday, bought a golf retail shop for a while, then must have gotten too busy.  But, he attended the first event down at Tobbaco Rd and Pine Needles.  

Not to forget John McMillian who always gave us the benefit of seeing issues from a highly educated economist's persepective.

Now we aren't forgetting Jim Reilly either, who Russell Talley still hears from, from his undisclosed location...

Oh Patsy Johnson, we miss her.  For you youngsters... she was a lady who played plenty of course most of us only dream of, as a competitive amatuer, and aced #17 Pinehurst #2, I think in a USGA Women's Am.  She knew em all, Wright, Rawls, the pioneers...

Was it Blue Streak (I don't remember that specific moniker) that was the building archie brother of another golf course archie (possibly Brian Silva?)

Who the hell was BY anyway?  

What about that old rocker that used to pull his beat up jallopy into NGLA parking lot, if I recall, and knew just about everything there was to know about the Ramones and such?

It is scary how I can't retain names anymore...

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