Philadelphia GCA Outing-September 28 & 29FINAL PLANS

[Joe Bausch]

I'll see everyone tomorrow!  The weather forecast does look okay.  Some rain tonight but it is to end in the early morning, with sunny skies from 9 AM on according to Accuweather.

[Joe Bausch]

Thanks to all that made it to McCall today.  I think all agreed that this is a real neat little course with a tremendous set of par 3's.  Since I've documented the course fairly well with over 100+ photos from an earlier post, I thought I would have some fun today and put the camera in panorama mode while on the edge of the 12th green to give the viewer a neat view of holes #12-#15.  You need QuickTime on your computer to view this:

http://darwin.chem.villanova.edu/~bausch/images/McCall/mccall_pana_QT_VR.mov

To the left up the hill is the par 4 13th.   The green nearest the viewer is for the par 4 12th, which comes down the hill and has a creek and pond in front of it.  Behind the #12 green you can see the green for the short par 3 #15, and behind it the flag for the par 4 #14.  It is amazing how well the land is utilized at McCall!  Off in the right corner is the tee for #16.

[Powell Arms]

Thanks to all that made it to McCall today.  I think all agreed that this is a real neat little course with a tremendous set of par 3's.  Since I've documented the course fairly well with over 100+ photos from an earlier post, I thought I would have some fun today and put the camera in panorama mode while on the edge of the 12th green to give the viewer a neat view of holes #12-#15.  You need QuickTime on your computer to view this:

http://darwin.chem.villanova.edu/~bausch/images/McCall/mccall_pana_QT_VR.mov

To the left up the hill is the par 4 13th.   The green nearest the viewer is for the par 4 12th, which comes down the hill and has a creek and pond in front of it.  Behind the #12 green you can see the green for the short par 3 #15, and behind it the flag for the par 4 #14.  It is amazing how well the land is utilized at McCall!  Off in the right corner is the tee for #16.

Gents, great day at McCall.  Joe and Steve, thanks to you both for taking the initaitive and organizing the day.  

Joe, I did detect about 2 acres on the front 9 at McCall that weren't used for active recreation.  

[Dan Herrmann]

Joe,
That is a wonderful pan application!  Nicely done!

[Mike_Cirba]

Powell,

It's a shame that Wayne Morrison was unable to attend as we could have grilled him personally regarding Flynn's seeming inability to maximize the property as you noted.  

Why, for him to not recognize the potential of creating a "rail-line" par five for the 7th, followed by a downhill par three for the 8th (avoiding the blind tee shot), as well as neglecting to add a waterfall behind the 8th green, not to mention those two very prominent, completely unused acres that you mentioned is very much proof to me that Flynn basically "mailed it in", probably figuring the poor working stiffs of the Philadelphia Electric Company wouldn't be any wiser that they were getting his "C-grade" architecture, and that his time was better spent with the Rockefellers, Meisners, Vanderbilts, and such.  

Thanks to Steve for organizing what was a wonderful day, and thanks to Powell for such a special, unexpected afternoon treat.  

Too bad William Flynn didn't cooperate fully, the bast*rd.      

[Steve_ Shaffer]

A good time was had by all. McCall must be the only club with its own baseball field. Whenever someone mentions a really good short course, McCall will be at the top of my list. Our member host pointed out that a prominent local golfer, well known at Huntingdon Valley and Pine Valley, toured MCall in 82, 16 over par, and said, "What just happened?" I can understand his pain.

Thanks again to Joe for arranging access.

Although we missed Tony Luke's, D'Allessandro's was a worthy substitute.

Thanks again to Powell for the special afternoon 9 holes.

[Joe Bausch]

A big thank you should also go to fellow GCAer Mark Susko, GM at Cobb's Creek, for setting up a round for Steve and me on Saturday, the day after the McCall festivities.  He hooked us up to be the first group off following an outing and we pretty much had the back nine to ourselves.  Before the round we talked about all sorts of things (the most interesting, IMO, being what is happening to #3 green; I'll leave any further commentary on that for Mark to make).  He also invited us back out in the early spring and he'll give a personal tour of the layout and show us where original tees used to be, etc.