Go ahead - Tell us how you were enlightened!

[Jerry Kluger]

I must confess that when I began following Golf Club Atlas I really knew little about golf course architecture.  To me, the perfect golf course was lush and green with eye candy galore.  I had played Pine Valley but I failed to fully understand its greatness. It was around 7 or 8 years ago that I had learned that Ran was going to be at Kiawah when I would be there with my family so I contacted him through a PM and he suggested that we tour the Ocean Course together as it was closed for renovations.  We met at the Ocean Course and along with Ran's father we went around the course with the greens superintendent and a supervisor from Pete Dye's organization.  What an eye opener, although I should admit that there was a great deal discussed that I did not understand.  When we reached the 14th hole I learned the beauty of simplicity, strategy and angles.  I was hooked.

What about you - how you were enlightened?

[Jay Flemma]

Interviews with Brian Silva and Mike Strantz.

[Ronald Montesano]

GCA, the Walter J. Travis society, reviewing books from Sleeping Bear Press during its heyday, Scott Witter and the building of Arrowhead in Akron, NY, and coaching on great old courses from Colt/Allison, Travis and Ross.

[jonathan_becker]

When I went back to visit my old home course of Canton Brookside and saw the restoration by Silva.  It's awesome when you see a course playing under it's original intent.

[Carl Johnson]

Pretty simple.  When I joined Carolina Golf Club in Charlotte about 15 years ago it was touted as "a Donald Ross course."  I believe I'd heard of Ross, but knew nothing more.  Members would point out various "Donald Ross characteristics" (some of which turned out not to be).  After several years I decided it would be interesting to learn about Donald Ross, since he'd designed my course, and try to find out what he was all about.  I read all that I could find about Ross, and even visited to Tufts Archives at at the library in Pinehurst to see what else I could find out about Ross.  Of course, that put me "in touch" with golf course architecture generally, and I've evolved over time from there.  No lightbulb.  It's just a hobby, being interested in gca, nothing more.

[Mike Cirba]

Lo, I am still seeking enlightenment and if I find it, I'll let everyone know.    

[Adam Clayman]

The front left bunker on the Par 3 16h at Spanish Bay, use to be much more natural looking. One day I noticed how well it fit into the  dune, with tall sea grasses jutting off the top edge. It struck me as being peaceful and serene.



Not much time had elapsed after that observation, when I first read the opening words, "If you enjoy golf in a natural setting, we think you will enjoy this site", the first time I visited this web site. My mind went immediately to that bunker at Spanish Bay, and then my mind was flooded with recollections of other surreal spots I had golfed and how those spots made me feel.

Before reading those words, written by Ran (I assume) I had never given the subject of GCA one single thought, beyond learning the name of who designed the courses I was playing. Pete Dye's interviewer's question piqued my interest, as Pete's answers made me laugh.

In those early days, the commentary was less polished, more straightforward and certainly much less politically correct. There was an underlying tone of greater sophistication, mostly perpetuated by Tom Paul's 5000 word average post size.    Gib Papazian's eloquence and Tommy's unbridled passion.

It wasn't so much enlightenment as it was  a course of study, complete with daily lab sessions , living on the Monterey peninsula.

[Anthony Gray]

  The work of the ODG's is what I have been enlightened with the most. And how well traveled golfers can be so ungentlemanly at times. Always thought the well traveled golfers shared a "secret fraternity" thing.


    Anthony

[Brad Tufts]

Playing Junior interclubs at Salem CC, Essex, Myopia, and Ipswich for the modern angle, then four spring breaks in Pinehurst.

Also, growing up at a course attributed to two Ross disciples helped.

Then I bought all the books and read all about GCA, then joined the site.

[Jeff Martz]

When I went to the Pinehurst Junior Golf Advantage School in the early '80's, joining GCA and deciding to submit an entry in the GolfWorld/Alister MacKenzie Society Lido competition.

[Joe Bausch]

Curiously enough Jerry it happened at the Tom Paul Barn Fest Part II earlier this winter.  Mayday had my ear with his usual architectural musings and tidbits and I was, typically, not able to follow him at all.  Then your son began to snore upstairs, sort of like Curly used to in the Stooges, and I could only pick up maybe every other word from Mayday.  THEN he started to make sense.

 

[Jerry Kluger]

Joe - Priceless

I really do think that most of us, when we really think about it, can point to a time when we really began to understand what really good architecture looks like.  The year after my tour of the OC with Ran I was offered a trip to play NGLA, Shinnecock and Maidstone as an unaccompanied guest - let me tell you, that's a whole bunch of money. But I felt it was worth it and I did it so I could learn more by seeing great architecture and yes, it was worth it.  Although I will make another confession: I really don't get Maidstone - yes there are some really incredible holes but the rest I still don't understand. 

[Mac Plumart]

For me, I don’t think it was a moment.  I think it has (and continues to be) a process.  I know I’ve shared parts of this with you, so bear with me if you’ve heard some of this before. 

The third time I ever played golf I played East Lake right after the Tour Championship.  I knew it was a Top 100 course and highly regarded, but I just didn’t get why it was so respected after I played it.  It had no water falls, no beautiful flower beds, nothing like that at all.  Literally, it was like playing golf in a big park.  But curiously enough, I like it for some reason.

So I began researching golf courses and I started with the Top 100 lists.  I started with Golf Digest.  And then I noticed that the Top 100 from Golf Digest was different from Golf Magazine which were different from Golfweek.  This confused me. 

So then I began researching the processes each magazine went about to rate each course and how they then ranked them.  Interestingly enough each used different criteria.  So I studied the criteria and tried to understand why the magazines used these specific sets of data and I tried to figure out who was right.

Along the way, I played golf at Cuscowilla.  Again, like East Lake it wasn’t overly “pretty” and didn’t have waterfalls, crazy flowerbeds, or anything like that.  But again I really enjoyed the course and felt wonderful simply being on the course (just like East Lake made me feel).

It was around this time, that I began to take note of who the designers of these courses were and I noticed that the original designer of East Lake was Donald Ross and Coore & Crenshaw did Cuscowilla.  So, I began reading about the designers themselves and books they wrote.  This is when I discovered the basic principles of quality golf course architecture.

This is about the time I stumbled upon GCA.com.  I actually emailed Tom Paul (as his email address is attached to the bottom of all of his posts) to ask him a question about turf grass.  He told me to call him, which I did and he tried to help me out as best he could.  Frankly, this impressed me.  Here I was a total stranger calling him up to talk and he takes my call and is very kind and pleasant and helpful.  I don’t think most people would offer this kind of help so readily.  Anyway, a few weeks later I became a member of the site and have been pestering the crap out of people with random questions and comments ever since.

But one of the things that I have learned is that there is no cut and dried answer when it comes to golf course architecture.  It really comes down to how a course makes you feel.  That is why Golf Digest has Augusta National #1 and Pine Valley is rated #1 by others.  That is why Kingsley is a Top 100 course according to Golfweek but not by Golf Digest or Golf Magazine.  And why Canyata is ranked Top 100 by Golf Digest but yet they don’t rank Ballyneal Top 100.

I suppose realizing that golf course architecture isn’t like mathematics (with its cut and dried answers) was a key moment in my enlightenment.

[RSLivingston_III]

I think I am mostly in the 'its an ongoing process' camp. But, my first trips to Scotland was the eye opener and was huge in pushing me to start learning more.

[Michael Huber]

The first time I actually spent the money on a yardage book, I studied one hole in particular and said, ok I'll try and hit it on the right side of the fairway.  The right side had the best angle to the green.  Oddly enough, I actually did hit it to the right side of the fairway.  Unfortunately, i did not calculate that there was a great big mound that I would not be to see over.  As a result, the shot was blind.  It wasn't blind from the left side, but the angle was much tough.

And thats was a lesson learned. 

[Brian Laurent]

While in high school, we had an assignment to shadow someone in a field in which we had interest.  I knew nothing about golf course architecture but knew that I loved golf, I loved seeing good golf courses and loved drawing golf holes instead of listening in my algebra class.  Fortunately, at that time, my father was working with Forse design on a renovation project on Saucon Valley's Grace Course.  I was able to spend a day walking the course with my dad (who was the super) and Ron Forse, which to this day is one of the best experiences I have ever had on a golf course.

[TEPaul]

Joe Bausch:

#10 really is priceless, but with things that are priceless there is obviously a great deal of truth in them which gets us right back to what you were saying about understanding what Mayday Malone is ever talking about.

The longer I'm on this website the more I realize the "Big World" theory really is what this stuff is all about in the final analysis.

[TEPaul]

Jerry:

In my career of having a burning interest in golf archtiecture there have been three notable instances of massive enlightenment and they are all just so very different and even separated in time. I tend to call each of the three or so "Blue Thunder" moments! One of them happened as I was going by Exit 7A on the New Jersey Turnpike on my way from Southampton home to Philadelphia and it was so damned powerful I actually had to pull off the highway!  

PS:
The other thing I find so interesting about my career in golf and golf architecture is that I played about 15-17 years of good tournament golf on some of the best golf courses in America if not the world and the subject or interest in golf course architecture basically just never even occured to me. With all the people I was involved with in those 15-17 years including my father and all his wonderful golf friends like Tommy Armour, Betty Jamieson, Glenna Vare, or even Pete and Alice Dye and all the people I played with and against the subject was almost always GOLF and not GOLF COURSE ARCHITECTURE!

[Jud_T]

4 instances come to mind:

1.  Pac Dunes- cleaned up on the betting by figuring out early on out of 4 rounds there that I should be chipping with a rescue club and using the ground game.

2.  Bandon Trails-same trip- was having the best round of my life until I came to #14 and walked off with a snowman...changed my whole world view (and ran up the bar tab!)...

3.  The Old Course-a revelation unto itself, particularly the second time around

4.  First trip to Kingsley-came to #9 1 down and like an idiot savant hit it right at the flag stiff, while my partner, a much better player, took a 13!

[Jim_Kennedy]

Playing Hotchkiss in 1980, Yale in 1985, reading (many times) The Golf Courses by Cornish & Whitten, meeting and talking a bit with Peter Oosterhuis when he came and had a look around our course, and saving the best for last, meeting George Bahto and getting him involved up here.
There were other courses/books during this time frame, but that's the basics.

[Tom MacWood]

Tony Pioppi introduced me to Bob Labbance, and I thought I had been generous with my research, but Bob impressed upon me that I should and needed to take it to a new level.

[TEPaul]

Tom MacWood:

What was it that Bob Labbance impressed upon you; the fact that you should take your research to a new level or the fact that you should take your generosity with your research to a new level?

[Jerry Kluger]

TEP: I your outer body experience at Exit 7A was at night and there were no trucks who passed by you.  It does seem that often in life we fail to see the wisdom of others until it is too late.

[TEPaul]

Look, Jerry, I grew up and learned to drive at about seven years old in Daytona Beach, Florida, the Stock Car capital of the world and definitely a city of hot rods, speed and so forth and throughout my life no matter where I'm going or how far I'm going I try to see to it that no one passes me, trucks, Ferraris, whatever. To me a large slice of life is basically one big Radar Detector.

I don't understand your second sentence. Was your son in the room snoring when you wrote it?  

I'd forgotten about that until Joe Bausch mentioned it tonight. Honestly that was a classic. It made my night.

By the way, the "Blue Thunder" moment or out-of-body experience I had as I was passing Exit 7A on the New Jersey Turnpike was when the "Maintenance Meld" first compeletly fell into place, occured to me and hit me upside the head like a great big ultra dry and firm piece of sod that was the color of what I call that "light green sheen"!

[Kalen Braley]

For me it was playing some neat holes at Delta View in Pittsburg, CA.

When i played the original 9 holes, I thought man this is really cool stuff and I found out later than Dr. MacK is attributed to having designed them, (even though its not been confirmed).

Not a long course, but some interesting countouring, wicked greens and an awesome use of the terrain.