Matt, my friend, you know what----I now have a new-found appreciation for how you apparently tend to pick up quickly on the fundamental essence of things on your course and architecture analyzing visits.
I say that because a couple of times you mentioned to Lester the importance of drainage issues fixes on those courses, most particularly the Maurice McCarthy West course (apparently done in the late 1920s).
No shit Matt, and really good pick up on your part. I had no idea how endemic and really prevasive the topographical problems really are that cause real drainage issues on that course (West) and even some of the other course.
So what does that translate into when one looks at the down-time? They told me something like 30-40 days a year in down time. That translates into a lot of potential revenue that Hershey can pretty much bank on losing each and every year I'm sure, unless and until some cosmic event creates some kind of Sahara Desert Effect out of at least central Pennsylvania.
This is going to be big project on two courses and an expensive one too. It has to be if you look at what needs to be done to protect some of those holes and avoid that kind of water problem down time.
Some other time I'll get into why in the hell Maurice MacCarthy routed some holes and fairways where he did but the fact is some of them on the West are essentially at or near the way under-functioning egress point of water that comes right into that spot from what amounts to scores of square miles around that place.
Again, Milton Hershey probably just made Maurice MacCarthy put those drainage problem holes where he did because apparently Milton Hershey, unquestionably the biggest Chocolate Honcho the world has ever seen (there is no question at all that God put Milton Hershey on this earth to perfect chocolate that could be affordable for all) wanted to have golf holes surrounding his mansion. Milton Hershey was a macro thinker and I think he would be as proud as a ten ton chocolate Hershey Kiss that Lester is on the job to finally fix his courses.
Now, if Milton Hershey actually did not force Maurice MacCarthy to put some of those holes and fairways around Milton's mansion in what could only be described as some elongated natural bathtubs that take on way more water than their drains can handle, then I'm afraid I will have to label old Maurice as an Architect----Maurice "Bathtub" MacCarthy.
Again, this over-all two course project is going to be expensive to fix this endemic water problem for staters but there is an alternative. And that is Lester and his two guys, Glenn and Nate are some kind of macro-thinkers and macro problem-solvers and that did not escape me when I went out to meet them there a couple of weeks ago. I felt because they are such macro thinkers and problem solvers that there may actually be a way that Lester could figure out to sort of cut the annual rainfall out there down by about 75% and then Maurice MacCarthy's course would not get so water-logged so often and the club wouldn't lose so much annual revenue on down-time.
So, I ran that alternative by Lester when out there. He said, "Sure, I think I could do that if you gave me a really good topo-contour map of the North American continent." He said in less than a week he could come up with a viable plan to cut rainfall down out there by about 75% but unfortunately it would probably take something north of $117 billion to do but it certainly could be done. While thinking about this Lester actually remarked the fix might even make central Pennsylvania look like a really good redan from space and that might be cool too.
But then Lester, being the macro thinker he is, said: "But if I did that then the grass wouldn't grow out here as it does and therefore the special cows out here wouldn't be able to produce the special milk which is the key to the increased shelf-life of Hershey chocolates that is the key to their affordability; and then the entire world would be deprived of Hershey Chocolate."
Can you believe how cool it is to be a macro thinker who thinks like that? All I could say is: "Good point Lester; incredibly big, huge, Uber point, but a good point nonetheless.
Lester was for years in the military and he's a Whizzzz with topos and solving macro problems with them; the bigger and better they are the more he can solve. On my way home I got to thinking that if Obama made Lester the temporary Secretary of Defense and gave him a really good topo countour map of Afganistan and Pakistan there is little question that inside a month and a half Lester will be able to bag Osama bin Laden and all his Al Queda fellow-travelors hiding in caves all over those countries and then the world would be a better place!
