Jim Finegan 2006 Flynn Invitational Video

[wsmorrison]

Thanks to Eric Franzen and the Swedish Golf Association for hosting this video of Jim Finegan speaking at the 2006 Flynn Invitational at Philadelphia Country Club.  Eric and I met through this website and he was kind enough to offer to host the video.  It is a long one at 36 minutes and approximately 550mb.  It was too big to store in one file at YouTube, so here it is courtesy of Eric and his association.  Another example of the global community of Golf Club Atlas.com.  What a world.

mms://qstream-31.qbrick.com/00372/jf/jfmod.wmv

I understand some people are having problems.  I can see the entire video but my modem freezes and I have to unplug.  Please try this link, I hope it works.

http://media.golf.se/jf.asx

This last link did not work with my software.  I will contact Eric and see if he can fix things.  Is anybody having difficulty viewing the file?

[Don Dinkmeyer]

Just waaay cool and much appreciated. I like how his talk ends with the handshake toward the front of the screen.

That's what golf is about, imho...

[wsmorrison]

I am glad you were able to view the video, Don.  My buddy in Locust Valley is having some problems.  User error?  Could be  

[James Bennett]

Wayne

no problems viewing it here in Adelaide.

thanks

James B

[Eric Franzen]

In case people can't view the stream (Windows Media Player 10 is required) that is linked by Wayne above, I've encoded a compressed version that is uploaded to a Swedish Youtube clone.
The resolution ain't great but at least you will be able to experience  Finegan's entire talk.

http://bubblare.se/jim_finegan_flynn_invitational_2006/

Cheers,

Eric

Edit: The domain above just went down after this was posted. Hopefully the service will be up again a.s.a.p.

[wsmorrison]

James,

Glad you enjoyed the talk--he's the greatest.  

Eric,

Thank you so much for all your efforts to make this speech available.  I hope everyone on the site gets to sample Jim's speech and manner of speaking.  He is just as much a treasure to Philadelphia golf as is Merion, Pine Valley, and all our great courses.

[TEPaul]

There's sort of old fashioned elegance about the way Jim both speaks and writes, don't you think Wayne?

Speaking of old fashioned, I wish I could've heard Max Behr speak, even though it may've been a head-scratcher.

Jim's short bit about Shinnecock's aura and the room he and his wife stayed in is the essence of his unique observational talent. It makes you feel like you're there yourself which I guess is what good speaking and good writing is all about.

[wsmorrison]

Old fashioned elegance is a good way of putting it, Tom.  There isn't as much of a response to the video as I was expecting.  Maybe there are too many football games on or maybe the group isn't so interested in this sort of thing.  I hope a majority of folks do watch the video.  After hearing Jim speak that sort of becomes the internal voice you get when reading his books and that's a very good thing.  He writes like he speaks and that is a bit of his genius.

[Andy Scanlon]

Was able to watch the video with no problems.  Many thanks to Wayne and Eric for providing access to Mr. Finegan's wonderful speech.  Sorry I missed this year's Flynn Invitational, would have loved to have been in the audience for that!

[TEPaul]

Wayne:

As far as fewer watching Jim on your thread than you'd like to see, it's not surprising. GOLFCLUBATLAS.com seems to be wandering all over the place these days. Maybe it's broadening its base, as it were. Perhaps that's as it should be. I don't think I look at 3/4 of the threads any more.

[JMorgan]

Thanks for posting the video, Wayne.  

[wsmorrison]

I agree with you, Tom.  While I have received some emails lauding the video it remains disappointing that so little attention is seemingly paid to Jim's talk.

[JMorgan]

Wayne, Tom, was Monroe originally designed as a nine-hole with one set of tees?  When were the extra tees added?

[wsmorrison]

James,

Flynn's Monroe CC (Orange County, NY) was designed as a 9-hole course in November 1922 on a very tight tract of land.  There were single tees on holes 1,4,6 and 8 with two tees on the remaining holes.  As tight as the property is, Flynn designed elasticity in holes 8, and to a lesser degree 5.

[Bill Gayne]

I was able to get the video to work. When the sound came on the kids gave me a funny look because it disrupted the Harry Potter movie on HBO. Maybe later.

[Sean Remington (SBR)]

Wayne,

Very enjoyable. Thank you for taking the time to post it for our viewing.

[David Stamm]

Wayne:

  GOLFCLUBATLAS.com seems to be wandering all over the place these days. Maybe it's broadening its base, as it were. Perhaps that's as it should be. I don't think I look at 3/4 of the threads any more.

Tom, you hurt me. I just wish the both of you had appeared w/ the esteemed Mr. Finegan as well.

[TEPaul]

"Tom, you hurt me.  I just wish the both of you had appeared w/ the esteemed Mr. Finegan as well."

David:

Actually I did. In the very end of that video as Jim Finegan is departing the lecturn you will see an arm slap him a few times upside the shoulder and then extend a hand which you can only see his hand/arm shake.

[James Bennett]

Wayne

Jim's speech covered so much and it was all spoken (no 'overheads' to engage the visual as well as aural memory) that it is not easy to pick a matter for further debate.  Espcially for those of us who have seen a little Flynn, but really know very little.

I loved the Shinnecock story, showing how golf and golf facilities have changed.  I didn't know where Jim was going to go with his story about his overnight stay, but found the long story about his need for ice endearing (of course, in the less civilised part of the world like Australia, we have refrigerators in rooms.  Ice and ice-buckets seems such a US quirk to me).

One story I would like some more information on is the Ladies US Open (?1976, or 83, or 86 - I can't recall) at Rolling Green, with the playoff between Joanne Carner (Gunderson) and Sandra Palmer, following 72 holes of golf of about 6 or 8 over par.  Why were the scores so high?  Jim implied the course was set up at about 6000 yards.  Was the blue grass rough set up fairly thick?  Were the fairways narrower than for normal play? (I know they were probably narrower than Flynn's designs, but narrower than normal play?)  Any other comments on the scoring and set-up for that year?  I doubt that green speeds would have been excessive then.

James B

[wsmorrison]

James,

I have some video of the 1976 Women's Open.  The course is very demanding with a lot of uphill approaches.  I think the state of women's golf and their equipment back then was not conducive to that venue.  It was wet so the course played pretty long relative to the 6000 yards.  Joanne Carner was a big hitter in her day yet she had lots of long irons and fairway wood approaches.  The greens are among Flynn's very best and there were way too many evergreens with branches to the very ground.  All in all, narrow, soft and a difficult architectural underpinning made for a tough Open.  Eight over made the  playoff and Carner won with a 76 with Palmer shooting 78.  The year before it was Palmer who bested Carner in the Open at another Flynn course, Atlantic City CC.

[wsmorrison]

Was that your handshake at the end, Tom?  All the participants were thrilled with Jim's speech.  It went over a lot better than ours in the inaugural Flynn Invitational at Glen View Club.  Of course Jim insisted on talking before everyone had a lot of drink in them while we gave our speech after a few to a rather distracted audience.

Coincidently, I understand Ron Prichard gave a nice speech on the very same day of the Flynn Invitational at the Flynn Cup (Philadelphia area Flynn courses) at Philmont CC.  Ironic that the Flynn Cup was held at a non-Flynn golf course  .  

The Flynn Invitational is a national event of members of Flynn clubs that are interested in golf architecture while the Flynn Cup is a regional event of 12 board members and politicos from some of the local Flynn clubs.  

[TEPaul]

James:

The reason is Rolling Green just can be a really tough golf course. In my years playing tournament golf around here there were four courses the tournament players around here considered truly challenging--Pine Valley, Merion East, Rolling Green and HVGC. If even in moderate tournament set-up the LPGA would not do well at Pine Valley, Merion East, HVGC and back then that's the reason they did not do well at Rolling Green.

A couple of years ago a big long-hitting young man from around here by the name of Chris Ault shot a 62 at Rolling Green in the US Amateur qualifying. Still today I'm not sure he completely realizes just how good that round was.

[TEPaul]

"It went over a lot better than ours in the inaugural Flynn Invitational at Glen View Club."

Now just hold on Skebo. I went over just fine at Glenview despite the fact it's not easy sharing the agenda with some midwestern architect and a pissboy.  

[JeffTodd]

Thank you for posting this. I was lucky enough to spend one short day of golf and conversation with Mr. Finegan. Needless to say it is a day I will never forget. A warmer and more welcoming gentleman I have never met, and his enthusiasm for the game is boundless. He is a living treasure.

[Willie_Dow]

Such a great couple of days, Wayne, and we in Philadelphia have you to thank for putting this together.