Last post for a bit (you're welcome):
Brushes with golfclubatlas greatnessI've been lucky to attend several outings, both official (Inniscrone, NM and Baltusrol) and unofficial (Pete Dye). (Plus, I feel like I attend Buda, Dixie and the Kings Putter in spirit every year.) So I've met quite a few of the posters, especially the big name guys.
My first outing was in '01 at Inniscrone. Now I think by now everyone knows I'm not a very proficient golfer, but I can usually hold my own and not embarrass myself. It sure didn't feel that way that fateful Thursday morning in August, however. I stood on the range, not knowing a soul, hitting my favorite club, my 7 iron, usually good for a nice, relatively straight and long ball flight. Not that morning - I was hitting 60-70 screaming slices that would have made Jim Courier and his inside out forehand proud. As I walked over the meet some people, the first person I met was Ran. He was much younger than I expected (that's usually the first thing I hear from gca'ers when they meet me), and he greeted me warmly and asked if I had found a foursome yet. I said no, and he said with a smile, why don't you play with me and Pat? I responded nervously that I wasn't very good and I didn't really think I belonged in the show pairing.
Ran laughed and I ended up having a fantastic day with Jamie Slonis (sweetest swing I've ever seen in person), Geoff Child and Brad Miller. Jamie carried my 200 lbs to victory, and I performed my customary "win 1 hole" contribution (I think I halved a couple, too).
Tom Paul and Pat Mucci are everything you'd expect, and more. In contrast to his aggressive personality online, Pat is one of the friendliest guys you'd ever want to meet. In fact, Pat and I were having a complete free for all shortly before the Baltusrol winter get together, and several suggested on the thread that there might be fisticuffs when we got together. Instead, Pat greeted me with a huge smile and I gave him a golfclubatlas t shirt as a conciliatory gesture. One thing you have to realize with Pat is that while he is grilling folks with his green questions, he is laughing his butt off and really treats it as friends giving each s@#$ at the 19th hole.
Not too much to say about Tom P other than he's king cool in my book.
I'll share more about others later.