Sports Illustrated to profile GolfClubAtlas.com

[Ran Morrissett]

SI has decided to run a profile of this web site in an explosive 50 page article that will forever change how people look at the world.

The legendary Jeff Silverman is the writer and hopefully, he will take pity on our merry group.

This (soon to be) Pulitzer award winning documentary will only run in their Golf Plus edition of the magazine, which is available to their golf subscribers and not on newstands. I don't know know what % of their 20,000,000 weekly readers subcribe to Golf Plus but obviously, the issue will become both scarce and a collector's item, worth $$$.

I have just subscribed in hopes that it will kick in prior to this article being run, which is sometime in late June or thereafter.

Apparently, a number of the swimsuit models are going to  picket outside GolfClubAtlas.com's world headquarters, as they fear this article will replace the swimsuit edition as SI's most popular all-time single selling issue. Time will tell but I am willing to warrant to them that a calendar of the posters here tapping away at their computers will cut into sales of the SI swimsuit calendar by less than 50%.

I trust the harsh glare of fame and publicity won't change this site or any of us, though my wife is wondering why I am typing this post wearing (in addition to clothes) an ascot, sunglasses, slicked back hair and a one of those long cigarette holder things plus cigarette.

Cheers,

[Dan Kelly]

Mr. Morrissett --

Be careful what you say to that magazine guy.

First thing you know, the WHOLE IDEA behind this site will be credited to somebody named Burbeck.  

[John_McMillan]

I hope this does not lead to SI turning to a bikini-clad Tommy Naccarato to replace the striking models on the cover of next year's swimsuit issue.

[Doug Wright]

There goes the neighborhood...

Guess you better add a few more branches to the Treehouse, Ran, to handle the explosive growth that'll follow this article.

Congrats in advance.

All the Best,

[Ed_Baker]

Very cool Mr. Morrisett. Perhaps Mr. Silverman should peruse the archives and read the Elin Nordegren thread and then you could offer the GCA bretherens services for similar profiles of ALL of SI's swimsuit models next year. Of course we would have to PLAY all the venues as we don't critique from photographs. I'm sure "contributions" would increase substantially, hell we might even have to institute an initiation fee for GCA membership.

[Scott_Burroughs]

He's "exposing" us.  Let's get some info on him:



If he trashes us, you Philly boys now know where he lives and what he looks like.  

He used to be a Hollywood guy.  Geoff, Lynn, or Eric know him from the local golf circles a few years back?

[The Committee]

Very interesting. Perhaps the GCAers who become part of Sports Illustrated's valuable content can request that their subscriptions become free?  

[Brad Swanson]

It will be interesting to see how much the traffic increases here after the article hits the newsstands.  Congrats, Ran, for producing such a fine product to garner this recognition.

Brad Swanson

[Dan Kelly]

At the end of a discussion of Frederick Winslow Taylor -- 19th-century "efficiency" expert who claimed that his interest in time-and-motion studies of the workplace would, in the end, redound to the benefit of Labor -- one of my college history professors bent far over his lectern and, in a conspiratorial, just-between-us-girls tone of voice (Truman Capoteesque), said: "My advice to you all is: Never trust a working man who went to school at Exeter!"

I don't know why, exactly, but the thought of a sportswriter who went to Vassar (and "lives with his dear, Abby") reminded me of that.

[Dan Kelly]

Rich --

My column has a department called "Fifteen nanoseconds of fame" -- which I'm guessing is a better description of your SI appearance. Do tell. (And make it have something to do with golf-course architecture!)

I have also have to echo Doug Wright: There goes the neighborhood!

Can you even begin to imagine how many stupid, petty and whiny people who need to get a life and have nothing to say about golf-course architecture (people like me, that is  ) read Sports Illustrated and will be drawn here like ... like ... like bad writers to similes?  

[Scott_Burroughs]

This will be at least the third time GCA will have been mentioned in a magazine.  Links mentioned GCA in the Jan/Feb issue this year (but incorrectly called it the first ever web site dedicated to golf course architecture), and had an entire sidebar on the site in last year's March issue (the Walking issue).

[Ken_Cotner]

Ran,

Pay the picketers whatever they ask to get them to leave...it's not worth the wrath of "The Boss" to have them hanging about!

Of course, I hope I'll get word from my dad in time to make the dash to Southern Pines before they are evicted...

Congrats, chief, it's well-deserved.

KC

[Dan King]

Scott_Burroughs writes:
but incorrectly called it the first ever web site dedicated to golf course architecture

What site dedicated to golf architecture pre-dates GCA?

"In golf, humiliations are the essence of the game."
  --Alistair Cooke

[Scott_Burroughs]

Wasn't traditionalgolf.com one of them?  It's been mentioned here as where a bunch of you knew each other before GCA.com to discuss g.c.a.

[Dan King]

traditionalgolf.com was a url pointing to a discussion group on Bravenet.  The actual site was bravenet, used for a variety of different discussion groups.  Some of us got to know each other on rec.sport.golf, some on the architecture discussion group at GolfWeb, some at the Grill room on igolf. But I think this is the first site dedicated completely to golf course architectue is true as far as I know.

My 100th post!  I'm a piker compared to many here, but still a big day in my life. I'm thinking Laphroig should be the drink of choice in celebrating my 100th post on this new format.

"My favourite shots are the practice swing and the conceded putt. The rest can never be mastered."
  --Lord Robertson

[Ben Cowan-Dewar]

Congratulations, though with the added press I may have to go back and modify my earlier posts, er, at least speel cheque them.

[THuckaby2]

Dan - rot-gut tequila will do just fine for #100.  Get to 900 before you get the good stuff.  LOL!

I knew "site dedicated to golf course architecture" was the key phrase there.  Other forums dedicated to discussion of  architecture certainly pre-dated the discussion group of golfclubatlas.  But I'm with you - this does seem to be the first SITE dedicated to such.  You ole literalist you.

As you and I have cautioned many times before, it doesn't take much to ruin discusion groups.  I'm very happy for Ran, but selfishly fearful for the long-term health of this one post-SI exposure.  Here's hoping this turns out to be the one that survives....

TH

[Scott_Burroughs]

Dan,

I got my info mostly from these two excerpts from posts on a thread I started about this year's Jan/Feb issue of Links:

redanman (mocking):

"Golf Architecture lite.  The dumbing down continues. GCA listed as the first website for golf archie junkies"

and response by T. Huckaby:

"As for this being the FIRST architecture web site, I got a chuckle out of that also.  What were we doing all those years before GCA?"


might I conclude what I said based on this?

[Doug Wright]

TH IV/Doyen II,

Fear not! Posting hereon is not for the faint of heart. Many are the times posters (including myself) have been summarily dismissed by the learned policemen of this site. And so it will be for the unwashed masses who descend upon this site following the article.

As they say on The Jim Rome Show, "Have a take, and don't suck."

All The Best,

[THuckaby2]

Scott:  as you might have guessed, I took this FAR less literally than Dan has.  This is indeed the first SITE devoted purely to golf course archicture - at least the first I ever saw.  But DISCUSSION GROUPS devoted to such were around for years before this one.

Web site and discussion group/forum are indeed two different things.  I believe you all knew what rednman and I meant when we posted what you quote... but quite literally, I was wrong.

And DK, wait till the Tiger lovers find this... we've seen it all before... Your point has merit, though.  The "defenses" here are indeed strong.

TH

[TEPaul]

Sports Illustrated to profile Golfclubatlas! Veery Interesting!

How did this come about? I'm sure none of you know. I'm sure Ran doesn't know! Well I know! It was all the work of Heidi Klum! She's been onto Golfclubatlas because she loves golf architecture--and that's a fact, but that's not all.

She became aware of it a few years ago when somebody told her that this Ran Morrissett who ran Golfclubatlas.com, an architectural website, was reputedly "the most beloved man in all of golf!"

Well, golf architecture is obviously not all Heidi is interested in. She's interested in money, she's sort of interested in modeling and swimsuits but she's very interested in all things to do with "love". Heidi is German and her English is more than serviceable but sometimes the little nuances of English/American throw her, like what exactly the word "beloved" really means.

When she heard about this guy who ran Golfclubatlas.com she wanted to know what this "most beloved man in all of golf" was all about. I know because she asked me. In a nutshell she wanted to know because she couldn't figure out if it meant he was the most respected man in all of golf, the best lover in all of golf, or perhaps both!

So I asked Ran what it really meant, and not discreetly either, I asked him right here on the website, thinking Heidi would read it and get her answer.

Not a single word from Ran--not a peep, except for some bizarre story about a person in Australia getting some presentation where Ran was speaking or something messed up and calling him that by mistake. But no one would ever believe a dumb, deflecting story like that, certainly Heidi wouldn't.

So where am I going with this? It was Heidi who got SI and Silverman to do this piece on Golfclubatlas.com and Ran Morrissett. She's gonna flush out the truth on Morrissett yet.

Heidi is SI's primary swimsuit model, one of the top models in the world actually, and she probably recognizes that the SI swimsuit issue has been going on too long and is likely in the beginning of decline and since she loves architecture and loves "love" and has been determined to find out what this "beloved" thing really means she decided to kill a bunch of birds with one stone!

Clever girl that Heidi---gorgeous and funny too. Anyway that's how SI came to want to do a profile on Golfclubatlas (and particulaly this evasive Ran Morrissett).