[Mac Plumart]

Lots to say here...

Playing golf in the Sand Hills area of Nebraska blew me away.  I played Dismal River first and had that jaw dropping "WOW" factor feeling in regards to the features and landscape there opened my eyes.

The drainage at The National Golf Links of America blew me away.  Played it after it had been raining all night and coming for the red clay land of Georgia, I just knew the course would be muddy, sloppy, and nasty.  Nope!  It was perfect and the water drained right through that soil.  

Playing East Lake the weeks before or after The Tour Championship showed me how you can "trick" up a course and make it impossible to score on.

Rivermont showed me how an owner who "gets it" regarding architecture can make a damn fun course by using the right architect and still make the course affordable.

TPC Sawgrass showed me what I don't like.  Over-priced and over-crowded is not what I am interested in, even if the golf course is pretty sweet.

The Lake Oconee Ritz courses, similar to Sawgrass but without the architectural merit.  Oh yeah, Cuscowilla and Longshadow are right there as well.  

Seminole showed me how difficult and demanding you can make a course by having hard and fast greens and LOTS of bunkers.

Shinnecock showed me how simply great and challenging a course can be without over doing green speeds, bunkers, or rough.

I'll stop now!  

Ugh!!  I can't stop...Crail Balcomie showed me how much fun a course can be and not conform to the hype regarding length and/or standard par.

[Greg Ross]

The Oceanside nine at Jekyll Island, GA. I think it's called Great Dunes now. It was built by Walter Travis in the 20's for the Rockefeller/Carnegie gang. Relatively unkempt, it was meant to be played on the ground due to the ocean breezes. When I first played it in the early 80's, I couldn't figure out why it wasn't green and why my pitching wedge shots blew all over the course. It was truly my first introduction to "links" style play.

Next was North Berwick. Who's idea was it to leave stone walls and what-not throughout the course? And a par-3 with a green sloping away from me? Truly a great experience and an architectural eye-opener.

[Steve Kline]

I played Camargo ne time as a kid and didn't see what the big deal was about. i thought it was just another course in Cincinnati.

Then my parents joined Pinehurst when I was 15. I played #2 almost every day I was there for 5 years or so. I realized it was a special course without really knowing why.

Then I took my first trip to Scotland at age 26. The first course we played was Longnidry. Nothing special about it, but I remember the ball bouncing everywhere and the wind blowing like crazy. I was in love with links gold immediately even though I had no idea how to score on one of those courses.

Thenthe real wake up call came when I got to play Pine Valley. It is how I found GCA. Pi e Valley was just perfect and GCA helped me to understand why.

Then I got to play Camargo a few more times and I began to see why it is so great. Each time I play it I like it more. And now another course in Cincinnati gets the same reaction from me - Hyde Park. A hidden gem of a Ross restoration. Not long but all the golf course that you need with great greens that are being restored to all their glory. Tremendous strategy involved.

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