[Adam Clayman]

Checkout Geoff's site tonight.

[Mike Benham]

Ironic that the quote at the top of Geoff's blog is a quote from Mackenzie about the building of Sharp Park that sits today in a state of disrepair, underfunded by the City and County of San Francisco. 

Meanwhile, Harding Park, just up Hwy 1 from Sharp Park benefited from talents of Mr. Tatum and was renovated a few years back.  There is much debate that the cost to rebuild Harding Park was excessive and that the failure to reach projected revenue goals (and other economic issues in the City) have taken its toll on other Park and Rec department projects (Sharp Park).

[Jason Topp]

Congrats on the interview.  I look forward to part two.

[TX Golf]

Great interview.... when is Part 2 expected?

[Scott_Burroughs]

That is one great read (and it's only part 1).  What a life he's led!  Would make for a great movie, if only they could make it right, since most golf movies (or with it peripherally) have something lacking.  Something along the line of Warren Beatty's 'Reds'.  And get someone with a real golf swing.

[Rich Goodale]

That is one great read (and it's only part 1).  What a life he's led!  Would make for a great movie, if only they could make it right, since most golf movies (or with it peripherally) have something lacking.  Something along the line of Warren Beatty's 'Reds'.  And get someone with a real golf swing.

Scott

I presume you have never seen Sandy Tatum swing a golf club.

Rich

[Rich Goodale]

Oh yeah--GREAT interview!

[Mark Bourgeois]

Yes great interview, nearly as good as Pete Dye's!

[Adam Clayman]

The Masters ball comment was supremely satisfying because the idea originated during a discussion in this forum in 1999.

[Tom Huckaby]

You're talking about the interview with Tatum, right?

Why send us to Geoff's site to get something we could get by clicking over on the left here?

In any case, great interview for sure...

TH

[Adam Clayman]

Well Tom, I did that because Geoff deserves the hits since he announced the piece.
 There could be several reasons why the administrators did not announce the interview in the typical manner.
 One being the piece may not have been completely edited. Such as the one comment on Geoff's site about the dates Mr. Tatum was USGA prez.

I'll share my exposure to the man. Maybe others will follow?

It was at The Stocker Cup, either the first or second year at The Preserve.(prob 1st) I'm remembering it as a practice round because they were playing different tees. I was on someone else's bag and while they were teeing off the back tees on #17 Mr. Tatum and I were waiting off to the side well away from the back. I made a comment to him how the trees guided the golfer throughout the round similar to the way Mackenzie used the ground at CPC to do the same. He had a beaming smile as he looked out onto the hole. He stepped up and put his arm around my shoulder and told me the story about how he had a hand in the routing. My comment was genuine and was merely meant to illicit some architectural discussion since I was in my educational infancy. I believe the year was 2000 and the clubhouse was not yet built.

 

[Tom Huckaby]

OK Adam - all that is beyond me - I'm just a reader.  If it somehow helps Geoff to benefit from Ran's work, and all are happy about that, than who am I to wonder why?     I just thought it was weird to start here, go to Geoff's site, come back here.

Tatum story for me:  SFGC (might have been the time with you Adam - I don't recall for sure) - our foursome steps aside to let a twosome play through - watching them behind us on the previous hole, I noticed a very distinct pause at the top of the swing... Keeping my ignorant impatient thoughts to myself as we waited for this old man with the weird swing to get the hell out of our way, I turned away.. and then back and noticed him hit the hell out of the ball!  Only then did I realize who it was - Sandy Tatum.  Only time I ever "met" the great man.  He hit the ball fantastically well... and was very very gracious as he moved through.  I felt like an inner idiot.

TH

[Adam Clayman]

Tom, I wish it had been with me, but alas, you have me confused with some other. I've only played SF once on Caddy day with DK. I sure wish I had been allowed indoors after hearing/reading your accounts.

[Tom Huckaby]

Tom, I wish it had been with me, but alas, you have me confused with some other. I've only played SF once on Caddy day with DK. I sure wish I had been allowed indoors after hearing/reading your accounts.

That's right, I never played it with you - my bad.  We just talked about it so much it all melded together in my head!

The locker room is pretty neat for sure, as is the bar.

TH

[Sean Leary]

I have played SFGC a couple of times, and he played through us on 10. It was shortly after he shot even par out there, as the caddies were buzzing about it.

Great interview. I wonder how hard it is to remember holes that were changed THAT long ago.

[Tom_Doak]

Years ago when I was helping with a video project on the best golf holes in the world, one of the holes chosen was the 7th at SFGC, and I arranged for Mr. Tatum to come out to the club on a Monday and be interviewed and then hit some shots on the hole for the cameras.

After the interview we all went out to the seventh tee and realized we'd need quite a few shots to get balls landing in the places around the green we wanted to demonstrate.  Well, Mr. Tatum only carried four balls in that little bag of his, and the pro shop was closed!  So, he'd hit four shots and then we'd have to wait for somebody to ferry the balls back up to us.

A lot of people would have been pissed off about our wasting their time like that, but Mr. Tatum was most gracious about it, and I enjoyed chatting with him about the course and the hole between takes.  After he'd hit his second batch of balls I told him "I bet I know what you're thinking ... you're used to just hitting one shot onto this green and moving on, but now that you've hit eight shots you're realizing it's harder than you thought."  And he agreed ... most good players are so confident that they forget their misses quickly, but once they have to play a few shots in a row they realize what the true percentages really are.

[Mike Sweeney]

Met him at Bethpage with my son at a book signing during the US Open. He really was genuine in Dylan's interest in golf. It was quiet so we had time to talk.

Second time was a few months later at my only time at SFGC. I was in a towel and bugging him half naked in his locker did not seem right.

Am I the only guy here that really likes Spanish Bay?

[Tom Huckaby]

Am I the only guy here that really likes Spanish Bay?

No, far from it I think.  Count me in... and I think Adam as well....

[JohnV]

Great interview.  I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Tatum, but I hope to do so some day.  He has done some great things for the NCGA's Foundation as well.

Manuel De La Torre is now the head professional at Milwaukee Country Club.

[Joel_Stewart]

Well the cats out of the bag.  I did the interview with Sandy over the last month and it turned into such gabs fests we ended up with enough questions for 2 interviews. The next interview is up to Ran but probably will be posted in the next 2 weeks.

Some of the stuff is discussed in his book which is still on Amazon and is an excellent read.  I guarantee he has at least 1 or 2 stories that will make you laugh.

http://www.amazon.com/Love-Affair-Game-Frank-Tatum/dp/188853110X/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222473203&sr=1-7

I'll discuss more when Ran officially announces the interview and puts in his thoughts.

[Adam Clayman]

Joel, Did Geoff just stumble upon it and posted it prematurely?

[Joel_Stewart]

I told Geoff to take a look since he has an interest in LACC.  Since it was up he mentioned it on his site without knowing Ran had not officially announced it.

Tom and Mike.
Part 2 talks about Spanish Bay, a little about the 7th and 8th at SFGC and his work in architecture.

[Tom Jefferson]

My Sandy Tatum story is the round we played at CPC in 1989, along with Jim Summers, who I was working for at the time, and whom Sandy was collaborating with on some course design work.

I still have the two crisp dollar bills that Sandy handed me that day....I think he gave me 2 a side and proceeded to play poorly, while I played WAY over my head.

Both he and Jim knocked it on #16, while I made a good 4 from the beach in front of the green, standing on a rock to play from an extremely lucky low tide lie.

Afterwords we dried off in front of the fire that Sandy made in the clubhouse fireplace, and looked over and discussed routing plans for a project in the San Juaquin Valley that he and Jim were considering. 

A great memory for me.

Sandy was here at Bandon Dunes in early 2005 to play the new Trails course, for a subsequent article he wrote for Golf Digest.   Same swing, same energized walk, same bright mind.

Tom

[David Stamm]

Enjoyable interview and I look forward to part 2. Tatum has always been someone I've admired.

[Lynn_Shackelford]

David Eger related this to me once on a round he played with Sandy Tatum at SFGC.

Eger said it poured rain the first 6 holes.  The next 6 holes the rain stopped and the wind blew strongly.  The last 6 holes the wind stopped and the fog started to come in thickly.

On the 18th green shaking hands with Eger, Tatum proclaimed, "a quintessential day for golf."

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