A Tip of the Hat to Pat Mucci...

[Patrick_Mucci]

Paul,

My question to you (or anyone who has had similar experiences) and any apologies for sounding trite, but can you get a sense of this diminished skill and the resulting new perspective on architecture to a certain degree from "imposing" limitations on yourself?

I don't think so because that would be an inherent conflict.

I always tried to score the best I could.

Intentionally imposing limits on yourself undermines or thwarts that effort.

The limitations have to be external, beyond your control.

Because I lost my equilibrium along with my strength, I had no weight shift and couldn't get long and medium irons airborne, as they were intended, thus every feature took on magnified proportions.

I had to avoid bunkers and other defensive features at all costs.

Thus, I navigated around the golf course, with an emphasis on the need to avoid trouble. 

I also learned to swing within myself since any extra effort resulted in a fluffed shot.  Hitting 2-irons, 4-irons and 6-irons from 160, 140 and 120 yards was a neat challenge, and, in most cases, I never had to worry about going over a green.

However, the game and challenge never ceased being fun.
In fact, it was more fun because I had to avoid more features and be more creative.  AND, the joy I experienced when I parred or birdied a hole was euphoric, especially if I beat my opponent on the hole.

In June of 2004, weighing 70 pounds less than my normal weight, not being able to drive it 180 and having great difficulty getting my irons airborne I shot one of the great rounds of my life in a medal play qualifying round in a tournament at NGLA.

It remains one of the most satisfying rounds of my life.

While I had scored better at NGLA, including sub-par and sub 70 rounds, shooting a few strokes over par that day was such a triumph for me.

I had been invited out of kindness, by my hosts and the club.
I accepted the invitation, thanked them for their kind gesture and told them that despite my condition, I would be competitive.

I was a little irritated when it was suggested that I enter the Senior Division and play from tees forward of the championship tees.
At age 62 I had never played in the Senior Division, choosing to deny my advanced age by always competing in the regular division, which I went back to the next year.

For whatever the reason, I felt no pressure during the entire round until I stepped onto the 18th tee, realizing that I had a rather good round going, especially in view of the conditions.  At that point I was a little afraid that the round might get away from me.  I so wanted to break 80 and didn't want to take a huge number that might ruin that for me.  Fortunately I parred the hole and was surprised at the other scores when all the rounds were posted.  Mine was the second lowest in the division and about 8th lowest overall, allthough I played from shorter tees.

While I believe my course management skills were honed to a higher degree due to my condition, I think the joy of just being able to play NGLA, coupled with my desire to compete and my will to overcome (read stubborness), along with being amongst my many friends and acquaintances gave me an inner satisfaction to the degree that I just enjoyed the day, the course, the round and my playing partner.

The above factors in conjunction with my intense desire to be competive along with my recognition of every architectural pitfall is what produced my round of the ages.

At the players dinner that night, the M.C. made a special toast to me, my competitive spirit and my round.

It remains one of my most special, if not the most special round of my life.

I couldn't duplicate that round if I tried.
You just can't impose the same limitations that poor health/conditions do.

It was a round of my mind, heart and soul.

My body just prevented me from shooting under par. 

[JESII]

Pat,

You're a good man, Happy Holidays to you and your family.

Jim

[TEPaul]

Guys:

As you can see from his post that round Patrick talks about in Reply #26 was pretty special for him but it was also very special for a wonderful club, the tournament committee who conducted the club's premier annual tournament and for that tournament's field. I didn't see him play that round but I know how special it was because I was there that time.

As we all know a lot of us generally get into saying "my round should've been better if this or if that" after our  rounds, particularly stroke play qualifying, and most all of us are generally playing on all 8 cylinders when we play those kinds of tournaments.

Patrick was probably firing on about 3 or 8 cylinders and he pulled out a round like that one. That course is also set up a lot harder for a tournament like that as Pine Valley is in the Crump or Seminole is in the Coleman, so his round is additionally remarkable, in my opinion. That round had to be one of the finest applications of sophisticated strategizing one's way around a great course with great architecture set up tough I've ever heard of.

[Patrick_Mucci]

TEPaul,

I had forgotten about the difficult tournament set-up.

Normally, I'm a little apprehensive about the set-up because it's so easy to hit good shots with disastrous results.

But, on that day, I was just happy to be there.

I was in the end phase of my post operative chemo-therapy, getting more toxic every day, and had temporarily disconnected the tubes from the port in my chest while I was at NGLA.

I was so glad just to be at NGLA, competing in the tournament amongst many old friends and acquaintances.
Fellows like yourself, Chipoat and even the irrascible Terry Cassidy.
The nervousness felt, leading up to teeing off, was absent, probably because my expectations were different, even though I told the McBrides that I'd be competitive.

While I couldn't walk 50 feet without getting exhausted, I could still swing a golf club and drive a cart.

That round so exhilarated me that I went over to Westhampton and played another 18 holes with Terry McBride, John McClure and Terry Cassidy.

At the dinner that night, when I thanked NGLA and the M.C. for his kind words, I told the fellows attending the players dinner that after watching Terry Cassidy play golf for 18 holes that I was convinced that he needed full dose chemo-therapy a lot more than I did.

Only one dinner attendee didn't laugh at that remark.

That round and the round one year later at Sand Hills with you, Ran, Tom, Bob, George and the others was very special for me.

My round at Sand Hills against Ran is one that I'll remember for the rest of my life, including that pebble that deflected his ball, traveling close to light speed, on the 17th green, into the back of the cup, up into the air and down into the hole.  That was one of the most annoying and depressing shots I'd ever witnessed.  But, as you can tell, I've almost forgotten it by now.

[TEPaul]

"At the dinner that night, when I thanked NGLA and the M.C. for his kind words, I told the fellows attending the players dinner that after watching Terry Cassidy play golf for 18 holes that I was convinced that he needed full dose chemo-therapy a lot more than I did.
Only one dinner attendee didn't laugh at that remark."


Patrick:

Is that what you said?

You see I was sitting in the other room during dinner and we could hear the MC but we couldn't really hear what you said following him. I always wondered what exactly you said because what we heard in the other room was a really big groan from those assembled followed (after a fairly scary pause) by laughter.

You got some big balls, amigo, saying stuff like that at that dinner. I've heard you and your old buddies like Cassidy and McBride et al carry on with one another down there in the lockerroom but I never thought you guys carried that kind of juking and josting and jibbying upstairs and into the company of the rest of us ultra refined gentlemen. 

The first time I heard you and your friends carrying on in the lockerroom like that I thought something terrible was going on and that there was about to be some massive fight about to break out before I actually asked someone about it and they assured me that's the way you and your buddies are all the time!   

[TEPaul]

"My round at Sand Hills against Ran is one that I'll remember for the rest of my life, including that pebble that deflected his ball, traveling close to light speed, on the 17th green, into the back of the cup, up into the air and down into the hole.  That was one of the most annoying and depressing shots I'd ever witnessed.  But, as you can tell, I've almost forgotten it by now."


Glad to hear that because I was standing right there and there wasn't any pebble on that green. Morrissett just hit a very good and aggressive putt and it darted into the cup like a red-assed rabbit darts into his hole when a bunch of Irish whippets (the Irish version of our greyhounds) are chasing him and nipping at his red-ass.

The so-called pebble on the 17th green of Sand Hills is a figment, or even a fig or dried date of your constant jabbering, juking, jibbing and josting North Jersey imagination----NOTHING more! 

Even if there had been a pebble on that green (which there wasn't) Morrissett would've taken it into consideration and played it in a strategic display worthy of one of the best sunk "stymie avoiding" putts of all time.

Morrissett is a traditionalist and purist with golf and architecture!!

Or is he??

I did not appreciate at all that instance during that round of yours with him at Sand Hills where with one of those odd hickory clubs of his he arguably foozled his drive on the 14th hole into the right rough and then began to harrangue me and all in earshot that the fairway on #14 right and #15 right coming back the other way should've been melded into a connected fairway.

And it got even worse when, and with a straight face, he asked me about a year later if he should include this question into his interview with Bill Coore:

"Bill, do you realize if you had only melded together the fairways on the right side on #14 and #15 at Sand Hills you could've had a chance at greatness in golf course architecture?"

[jkinney]

Pat, your description of the medal qualifier at the NGLA Singles is so much like Bobby Jones' description to Pres. Eisenhower of Jones' self described greatest round, which took place at NGLA. We've all read the story from The Atlanta Constitution framed in a plaque hanging on the north wall of the bar. Jones was fighting the elements; you were manuvering around diminished physical capabilities.

Reading your story was as satisfying to me as reading Jones' tale to Ike. Pure joy. Thanks.

[Paul Stephenson]

Thank you for that reply Pat.

Paul

[Anthony_Nysse]

opps..wrong topic...

[Patrick_Mucci]

TEPaul,

I think one of the joys of the tournament at NGLA is the combination of comraderie and competition.

The golfers enjoy socializing with one another, including the jousting.
They enjoy the golf course and the golf during the medal and match play portions of the event.
And while the competition is keen, after the round, everyone goes back to being friends, enjoying each other and the hospitality offered by NGLA.

However, the course set-up can be intimidating and daunting, especially when those greens are fast and firm and the wind is up.

The event represents one of the great combinations of golf course, golfers, golf and host.

Jkinney,

There's something incredibly special about NGLA, golf at NGLA and tournament golf at NGLA.

I'm hoping that the telecast of the 2013 Walker Cup will be one of the greatest architectural revelations ever seen on TV.

I just hope it will be televised in HD - Blue Ray and that the elevation changes and green contours will be clearly discernable.

[Mike Sweeney]

Way back when, I ran a charity golf tournament for my son's old school. Long before we did the outing at The Creek, my first year on the committee, we were at a Geoffrey Cornish course on Long Island. Needless to say, it was not a course that registered with GCA.com faithful. That is okay, because it did not register with me either.

Now maybe I had met Patrick briefly at one of the GCA meetings but we had never played together or spent any real time together. Yet The Mucci Companies ended up being a sponsor of the outing that year. I never asked, Pat simply offered because he saw a good cause and chose to help out. Either the nuns did a number on him and filled him with Catholic guilt, or he is a good guy. Either way, I appreciate my time and rounds spent with Patrick.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Mike,

I was happy to contribute to a worthy cause, especially one that touched one of us.

I'm concerned that the current and deteriorating financial climate will have a serious negative impact on many charitable organizations, organizations that rely on donor contributions to fund their operations.

Men stand much taller when they stoop to help those less fortunate than themselves.