2nd Annual Midwest Mashie @ Lawsonia - The Wrap Up

[Mark Smolens]

There's a group of eight (9?) of us playing at Spring Valley at 2, then coming up. . .

Is there a place we should be meeting that's within walking distance of the Green Lake Inn for a cold one?

[PCCraig]

There's a group of eight (9?) of us playing at Spring Valley at 2, then coming up. . .

Is there a place we should be meeting that's within walking distance of the Green Lake Inn for a cold one?

Mark:

So assuming a two hour drive from Spring Valley, that should get you up to Green Lake around 8-8:30? I'm leaving Minneapolis after work, and should be getting into town around 9-9:30. If that's not too late I could be up for a beer at Norton's which is about a half a mile from the Green Lake Inn.

[Dan Kelly]

Thanks George,

Let me know if anyone bails

Brian

If the forecast is right, we might all be bailing ... water. Damn.

[Bill Seitz]

There's a group of eight (9?) of us playing at Spring Valley at 2, then coming up. . .

Is there a place we should be meeting that's within walking distance of the Green Lake Inn for a cold one?

Mark:

So assuming a two hour drive from Spring Valley, that should get you up to Green Lake around 8-8:30? I'm leaving Minneapolis after work, and should be getting into town around 9-9:30. If that's not too late I could be up for a beer at Norton's which is about a half a mile from the Green Lake Inn.

I may be bringing a growler or two of something that Half Acre is releasing at noon today as well, in case we want to stick around the Inn.

[PCCraig]

There's a group of eight (9?) of us playing at Spring Valley at 2, then coming up. . .

Is there a place we should be meeting that's within walking distance of the Green Lake Inn for a cold one?

Mark:

So assuming a two hour drive from Spring Valley, that should get you up to Green Lake around 8-8:30? I'm leaving Minneapolis after work, and should be getting into town around 9-9:30. If that's not too late I could be up for a beer at Norton's which is about a half a mile from the Green Lake Inn.

I may be bringing a growler or two of something that Half Acre is releasing at noon today as well, in case we want to stick around the Inn.

Is that Meat Wave??

[Jud_T]

weather simply separates the men from the boys.

[Bill Seitz]

There's a group of eight (9?) of us playing at Spring Valley at 2, then coming up. . .

Is there a place we should be meeting that's within walking distance of the Green Lake Inn for a cold one?

Mark:

So assuming a two hour drive from Spring Valley, that should get you up to Green Lake around 8-8:30? I'm leaving Minneapolis after work, and should be getting into town around 9-9:30. If that's not too late I could be up for a beer at Norton's which is about a half a mile from the Green Lake Inn.

I may be bringing a growler or two of something that Half Acre is releasing at noon today as well, in case we want to stick around the Inn.

Is that Meat Wave??

Yeah, I'm going to hit the brewery on my way out of town.

[Dan Kelly]

weather simply separates the men from the boys.

Exactly what I'm afraid of!

[Andrew Lewis]

I should arrive in Green Lake around 8/830pm, along with the others who are playing Spring Valley this afternoon.

I assume we all will be interested in dinner and drinks, and Norton's sounds promising.

[Brian Joines]

We had been tentatively planning on stopping by Gooseblind for some dinner and drinks but are happy to meet wherever. Norton's does look very close to the Green Lake Inn and being only a short walk away is always nice.

[PCCraig]

We had been tentatively planning on stopping by Gooseblind for some dinner and drinks but are happy to meet wherever. Norton's does look very close to the Green Lake Inn and being only a short walk away is always nice.

For those of you that have never been to Green Lake before, The Goose Blind and Norton's are pretty much your best options for dinner in town. The Goose Blind is a "downtown" bar with burgers, fried walleye, beer, etc... while Norton's is closer to the traditional Wisconsin "supper club" where it's a more formal version of The Goose Blind really with steaks, fried walleye, beer, etc... and is located on Green Lake.

[Eric Smith]

We had been tentatively planning on stopping by Gooseblind for some dinner and drinks but are happy to meet wherever. Norton's does look very close to the Green Lake Inn and being only a short walk away is always nice.

For those of you that have never been to Green Lake before, The Goose Blind and Norton's are pretty much your best options for dinner in town. The Goose Blind is a "downtown" bar with burgers, fried walleye, beer, etc... while Norton's is closer to the traditional Wisconsin "supper club" where it's a more formal version of The Goose Blind really with steaks, fried walleye, beer, etc... and is located on Green Lake.

Now that's good eating! Hope you all have a blast this weekend.

[RJ_Daley]

Just a short blurb as I have returned home from the pre-mashie at Spring Valley.  All I can say is I am sorry I didn't get to play Spring Valley before this.  It is a sporty blast!  The quirk that it has no sand bunkers anywhere on the course is more of an unnoticed or not-missed feature.  The way the grass bunkers work with all the typical Langford-MOreau mounds still tests one's wedge game. The pushed up typical L&M greens have plenty of fun contours, and there are a few very demanding long holes with a nice blend of some short breathers.   A-buck-a-hole is a flat out bargain!!!  The moderately hilly route just adds to the fun with speed slots and fun shots. There is a small amount of acceptable blindness.  But I'd have to say that if I lived within a comfortable drive, I would play this course all the time.  Very nice management as well.  Dan Moore has well documented all this before and often.  All I can add is Dan is the man! 

[Brent Carlson]

RJ,

I had the chance to play there once but can't remember.  Did the original design feature sand bunkers?  Like you mentioned, it is a fun track.

Just a short blurb as I have returned home from the pre-mashie at Spring Valley.  All I can say is I am sorry I didn't get to play Spring Valley before this.  It is a sporty blast!  The quirk that it has no sand bunkers anywhere on the course is more of an unnoticed or not-missed feature.  The way the grass bunkers work with all the typical Langford-MOreau mounds still tests one's wedge game. The pushed up typical L&M greens have plenty of fun contours, and there are a few very demanding long holes with a nice blend of some short breathers.   A-buck-a-hole is a flat out bargain!!!  The moderately hilly route just adds to the fun with speed slots and fun shots. There is a small amount of acceptable blindness.  But I'd have to say that if I lived within a comfortable drive, I would play this course all the time.  Very nice management as well.  Dan Moore has well documented all this before and often.  All I can add is Dan is the man! 

[RJ_Daley]

Brent, Dan Moore is really the guy to answer that, but I imagine he is passed out in his cabin by now! 

He has seen or maybe has a photo or copy of L&M's original plans, or an irrigation schematic, and it shows sand in the bunkers.  I don't know if in reality, there was ever sand in them.  If a guy could take a spade and dig a bit, one could probably determine if there is any sand profile under the grass in the bunkers fairly easily. 

As Dan mentioned today, if an outfit like Renaissance or Ron Forse-Jim Nagle could be turned loose there for a restoration-remodel, bringing out mowing lines on green pads, and sparingly placing about 30 bunkers, it could be spectacular!  But the uniqueness is that it is a family operation, and no sand, and current mowing regime keeps the green fee cost $18 up to peak times $24.   

[RJ_Daley]

I thought I'd just post more to add to this thread.  The GCA gathering seemed to be a real success despite some dicey weather.  The weather was not bad enough or last long enough to keep guys off the course.  In fact, I was surprised how good and acceptably not too soft due to rain that the course played.  The greens were pretty firm, actually.  The native roughs were not so lush yet either, due to a select area burn off  last year. 

The actual thrill for me was the commeraderie, and catching up with some old friends I haven't seen in a few years, and meeting some new people whose posts I've read for a couple years now.  Wow, it was well attended by gentlemen coming from far afield like Mark Pearce all the way from England via a certain recent far afield rendezvous in a quaint Monterey Penn community with a certain fellow, and Pat Kiser from West Coast, Ben K from Tampa, the usual Chicago gang, Minnesota contingent, the intrepid hillbilly Mr. Mayhugh  , old pal Bill Steele who I wish I got to spend more time with discussing mutual interests, and of course Dan Moore, the go to guy for all things Langford and Morreau.  Dan's evening presentation on L&M with old photos and great historical detail was first first rate.  I hope Dan might do something like Chirs Clouser's "Midwest Associate" book some day.  George Freeman was a real champ keeping this all organized.  My 12 year record remains in tact in that I have never gone to one of these GCA.com spawned events and been in the least disappointed, and always greatly rewarded with meeting wonderful people who share a mutual recreational and historical golf architecture and subject interest. 

Unfortunately this 3Pm Sunday hour has some wild weather moving into Green Lake and the Minnesota guys may have a particularly rough ride home, so drive safe.  Others may get out of Dodge just in time...  Safe returns all... thanks for the memories.

[Jud_T]

Thanks again George and Dan,

Great gathering at one of my favorite tracks.  Fun to see the reaction of the Lawsonia first-timers to the links and for the record even Bill "Mr. Automatic inside 10 feet" Steele couldn't pry the cup from the West's hands, where it shall remain till next year's gathering.

[Dan Kelly]

Unfortunately this 3Pm Sunday hour has some wild weather moving into Green Lake and the Minnesota guys may have a particularly rough ride home, so drive safe.  Others may get out of Dodge just in time...  Safe returns all... thanks for the memories.

Safe here, at home. Weather kept shooting right past us this afternoon. Lightning sorta nearby (enough to make this old boy a little nervous), but very little rain.

The forecast was for rain and storms all weekend. We have returned home with red arms, red faces and (for the shorts-wearers) red legs.

There couldn't have been a better surprise -- except one: Lawsonia turned out to be every bit as good as its admirers have told us Lawsonia virgins. Or better. A spectacularly fun golf course -- even more fun, I'm guessing, with repeated plays ... particularly if they ever get around to changing hole locations. (Rolling-eyes emoticon omitted.)

If this course were within a couple of hours of my house, I'd be there constantly.

Thanks to George Freeman, to Dan Moore and to everyone I got the chance to meet and play (sloppily) with. After all this time, this was my first GCA golf gathering. I hope it won't be the last.

Dan

[Bill Seitz]

Thumbs up to mother nature.  We got two rounds in Saturday with some rain, but not too much.  The guys without umbrellas were none the worse for wear.  And this morning was beautiful.  We finished our alternate shot match in about 3 hours, which gave me just enough time to hit the Green Lake Inn for a quick shower, then a three hour drive to my apartment before catching a cab to Midway for my flight to Tampa, where I'm recovering right now.

Highlights of the weekend were all four rounds of golf, including the round at Spring Valley which was a really fun course to play.  Dan Moore's presentation was interesting as always.  A great dinner Friday night, and plenty of camaraderie fueled by some local Chicago beer.  And it was unforgettable seeing Pat Craig walk to the front of the Green Lake Inn after being forced to climb out his back window due to the malfunction of the room's doorknob.  Thank god he was on the first floor.  It's early in the season, and let's just say that the nice woman running the Inn still needs to work out a few of the kinks. 

Met a ton of great guys, and played four really great rounds of golf.  Great to hear that the West hung on to the Mashie for another year.  Can't wait until the third annual.  Thanks to George for organizing.  And as someone who brought a non-GCA friend to the event this year, thanks to everyone for making him feel like part of the group. 

[Ken Fry]

Thanks to George for all the work in making this event happen.  It seemed there were constant changes even through the first round!!

Thanks to Dan Moore for the slide show presentation Saturday evening.

As always, it was great seeing so many familiar faces, meeting familiar names but not faces and catching up with guys as best you can in such a short amount of time.  The entire weekend was fun.  A LOT of fun.  To all the guys I played with: Brian, Norm, Bill, Matt, Dave, Rick, Ben and my partner throughout the weekend Pat Craig, thanks guys.  To a man you were all great to be with.  Pat, some good shots, some bad shots and constant needleing made for a great time.  Well played.

There was no let down following all the hype prior to seeing the Links course. Absolutely wonderful.  Tons of variety.  Spectacular design, hazard construction and green complexes.  I heard constantly throughout the weekend how we could all take a steady diet of Lawsonia.  Like many, I wish the course was a bit closer to home.

Thanks again guys.  Already looking forward to the East Team's rise to the challenge in the 3rd Mashie!!

Ken

[PCCraig]

What a great 2nd Midwest Mashie! It was great catching up this past weekend with many of the Chicago GCA crowd that I had gotten to know over the past few years, as well as meet a lot of people for the first time. Overall, we really lucked out on the weather as we really only got rained on for the first nine holes of the Saturday afternoon round and Sunday morning the weather was just perfect. The golf course was in really good shape considering the time of year and was playing really pretty firm and the greens putting pretty fast.

After getting in late on Friday night, I joined a group of Chicago GCAers (who I all believe were Lawsonia first-timers) at Norton's for dinner and told them all how even though it gets talked about a lot here on GCA...Lawsonia is still underrated. I can't tell you how fun it was to have Mark Smolens come up to me after his first round Saturday and say "You were right last night, but now I'm pissed" when I asked why Mark replied "because this has been up here all these years and I've never been!" Hopefully many of the first timers will post their thoughts, and maybe photos, of the course sometime over the next couple days here on this thread.

The matches were fun with this year's participants really taking to the Alternate Shot format for Sunday morning. When doing the pairings Saturday night I want to say 6 of the 8 groups played A-shot. My playing partner this year for both matches, Ken F., was a blast to play with (even though he totally ignores all of my reads and advice...rightfully so. ) and playing with the Sander brothers and Ben K. and Rick S. was a healthy dose of fun competition.

The Green Lake Inn was transformed into a GCA compound over the weekend. Hopefully everyone other than Jon Winnick was happy with the general recommendation. It was pretty funny listentin to Bill Seitz laughing through the door as I asked the owner to repeat herself when I thought I heard her tell me to climb out my window when she couldn't open my stuck door   Thankfully I our room was on the 1st floor!

This was my first time driving to Lawsonia from Minneapolis, and while significantly longer than the drive from Chicago...it's not far enough to keep me away for long. Hopefully we'll be able to set up a few mini GCA get togethers up there in the coming years.

Thanks again to George Freeman, who did a great job setting up the event and working with Lawsonia to work out a great deal for the 2nd Midwest Mashie. I'm already looking forward to the 3rd!

[Andrew Lewis]

I'll add my thanks to George for organizing another great event, and to Dan for taking the time to pull together his talk.

I had the pleasure of joining Dan and several others at Spring Valley on the way up to Lawsonia.  Seeing L&M's work on that more modest scale first only enhanced the full-blown Lawsonia experience, with its incredible land and variety of quality holes.

Like others, I'm already looking forward to Mashie #3!

[Rick Shefchik]

There could be no greater testament to the greatness -- nay, the majesty -- of Golf Club Atlas than to point out that the Midwest Mashie went off as advertised, without a hitch, while avoiding two tornadoes and The Rapture.

They got three swings at us; three clean misses.

My deepest thanks to George, my terrific playing companions and everyone I met at Lawsonia. The course was only exceeded by the company.

[Mark Smolens]

Ditto to the thanks being expressed to George for organizing and Dan for educating the infidel at the Mashie. Truly a great weekend for the LM newbies. Spring Valley, at a dollar a hole could be the best bargain in golf. The bones of a truly great golf course exist there.

And as for the Links at Lawsonia, after listening to Pat C. waxing poetic about the course at length Friday night at Norton's, I remained skeptical at best. Until the following morning, however. About eight holes into the round, Steve Salmen remarked that if this course were on Long Island, it would easily be a top ten in the country. A truly wonderful place to play golf. Diversity of shots abound (which is hard to do on a course you're playing the same cups for the 4th time in two days!).

Thanks to all the guys I got a chance to play with in this year's event. Looking forward to whereever George decides to take us next year.

[Dan Kelly]

Guys --

I can't believe none of you has had the cojones to mention the big food fight after Dan Moore's presentation, right there in the dining room at Lawsonia.

I mean, the chanting about the Langford/Moreau greensites -- the Chicagoans yelling "Natural-looking!"; the Twin Citians yelling back "Engineered!"; and poor, winded Pat Craig, fresh from his escape from the Green Lake Inn, running back and forth between the two groups, shouting "Natural-looking!" and "Engineered!" in rapid succession -- was embarrassing enough, but when the bratwurst and Leinie Reds started flying over whether Langford or Moreau was the "true genius" behind the turbo-boost berms ... well, let's just put it this way: I think it's going to be quite some time before Lawsonia lets out any other sixsomes in carts on a Sunday afternoon!

Dan