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Howard Riefs

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"The Promised Land"
« on: May 07, 2012, 04:08:47 PM »
In celebration of Dan Jenkins' induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame today, Golf Digest posted gallery of letters written to the late Herbert Warren Wind.  The letters are written by a variety of established names: many of them golfers (Hogan, Sarazen, Jones, Watson, Nicklaus) and others fellow writers (Plimpton, Updike).  (As an aside, as wonderful as the letters are, they're a reminder that handwritten letters are a rarity today.)  

The letter perhaps of most interest to this group is the one written by Ben Crenshaw about Sand Hills. You can sense that he “can barely contain his enthusiasm,” as Golf Digest suggests. The letter doesn’t include the year; perhaps 1992.

http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-tours-news/2012-05/photos-wind-letters#slide=11

A few select quotes of note:  

“You can imagine my excitement at seeing this land for the first time!”

“This project is, to my mind, a lifetime opportunity to do something on the lines of 'The Old Country,' and more importantly to do something for golf’s sake.”  

“No real estate at all, just a golf club and a place to stay.”

“...One can see the Sand Hills in the distance, and “The Promised Land” starts.  It’s all you can do to keep your eyes on the road, I can assure you.”


« Last Edit: May 07, 2012, 04:10:19 PM by Howard Riefs »
"Golf combines two favorite American pastimes: Taking long walks and hitting things with a stick."  ~P.J. O'Rourke

TEPaul

Re: "The Promised Land"
« Reply #1 on: May 07, 2012, 05:05:30 PM »
Howard:

Wonderful thread; I hope it gets a lot of play and if it doesn't I'm gonna get disappointed in Golfclubatlas.com's DG.

I got to know Jenkins last year at the Open in the Media Center. He sure is a trip. Both of us are that rare and dying breed of smokers so we would meet out behind the Media Center. The first time he pulled out one of those thin little female cigarettes and I said: "For Chrissakes Jenkins if you're gonna smoke, smoke a man's cigarette, not one of those thin little hooker cigarettes. He said: "Come on kid, stop giving me the guff" and we were fast friends after that.

We were there to parcel out info to the reporters but considering some of the questions we got last year at Congressional it was actually Dan I'd usually go ask for answers to some of the questions we got.

He's a classic and he sure knows his stuff.

Mac Plumart

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Re: "The Promised Land"
« Reply #2 on: May 07, 2012, 05:37:20 PM »
I agree with The Promsied Land and Mullen.  And I am with him, keeping your eyes on the road while surrounded by great golf holes and maginficent bunkers just sitting there waiting to be played for the majority of the drive is almost too much to ask of a fervent golfer. 
Sportsman/Adventure loving golfer.

JC Urbina

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Re: "The Promised Land"
« Reply #3 on: May 07, 2012, 05:40:10 PM »
Howard,

Thanks for the info.  I really enjoyed reading the letters they posted especially Ben's.

Over the last few years I have had a chance to be around more golf writers and I am always amazed the way they tell the story, it is such a wonderful gift. I never had a chance to meet Mr Jenkins in person but saw him from afar.

Good writers seem to tell a story in very few sentences and I find the best choose their words ever so carefully. I have really enjoyed reading golf course architecture books and often wonder who did all the writing for people like C.B Macdonald, Alister Mackenzie, Robert Hunter and others.


Adam Clayman

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Re: "The Promised Land"
« Reply #4 on: May 07, 2012, 05:43:50 PM »
What's interesting about the Crenshaw quote was that it took them a re-visit to find the good stuff. But once they did, the trip was on them. (Since they had to come out twice.)
"It's unbelievable how much you don't know about the game you've been playing your whole life." - Mickey Mantle

David Cronheim

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Re: "The Promised Land"
« Reply #5 on: May 07, 2012, 05:50:13 PM »
Gene Sarazen's letter is particularly heartfelt. You can feel the heaviness of his heart in those words - tremendously sad. It is incredibly ironic that, as a culture, we have never committed more thoughts to writing, yet placed less value on each of those words. A handwritten note means more than it ever has.
Check out my golf law blog - Tee, Esq.

PThomas

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Re: "The Promised Land"
« Reply #6 on: May 07, 2012, 06:05:06 PM »
classic!

The golf essay for the most part has sadly gone away after HWW...
199 played, only Augusta National left to play!

TEPaul

Re: "The Promised Land"
« Reply #7 on: May 07, 2012, 06:34:02 PM »
"I have really enjoyed reading golf course architecture books and often wonder who did all the writing for people like C.B Macdonald, Alister Mackenzie, Robert Hunter and others."

Jim:

I would put an awful lot down that Macdonald, Mackenzie and Hunter, lock, stock and barrel did their own writing, books and otherwise. Max Behr certainly did his own writing too. Unfortunately, Max's writing style was so Edwardian and peculiar he needed a translator to make him understandable to his readers back then. His readers back then didn't get a decent translator but thankfully it turned out to be better late than never as his translator came along eighty years after the fact in our own Bob Crosby from Atlanta Georgia; a man who is in a number of intersting veins or arteries a reincarnation of Atlanta's Bob Jones.

Actually C.B. got into a real brouhaha with some of the guys at The Creek Club in Oct. 1926 and quit the club which was quite strange as he was the president of the holding corporation of the club. The reason he gave was he wasn't going to be around because he was hieing on out to Bermuda to his cottage for an extended period of time to write his book ("Scotland's Gift Golf)*----a book, by the way, some interesting letters from his friends and contemporaries say he'd been threatening to write for some years.

About three months later they made him an honorary member of The Creek Club.


*TommyN:
If C.B. was planning on spending a considerable amount of time in his cottage in Bermuda between 1926 and 1927 to write his book, where do you suppose Mrs Macdonald was at that time? Can you hit the research trail, My Boy, to see if you can figure out if Lady Essendin spent much time in Bermuda in 1926 and 1927?
« Last Edit: May 07, 2012, 08:59:02 PM by TEPaul »

Bill_McBride

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Re: "The Promised Land"
« Reply #8 on: May 07, 2012, 07:15:09 PM »
Bob Crosby, I'll bet you are blushing like crazy after reading the incredible compliment Tom Paul paid you above. 

As usual Tom is unusually perceptive if somewhat verbose. 

TEPaul

Re: "The Promised Land"
« Reply #9 on: May 07, 2012, 09:13:09 PM »
"As usual Tom is unusually perceptive if somewhat verbose."



VERBOSE?

Mr. McBride:

I'm an elderly man who does not live in the world of modern blogs and their incumbent inarticulate unexplanatory sound bites. I believe if one wants to learn they must read and they must read a lot! I am of the opinion that intelligent people should read opinion periodicals of the type of the old English Country Life that had so much to say on a weekly basis that the print (font) was so small even an arrogant aristocrat who thought he had 20/20 vision would have to use a magnifying glass!

Colin Macqueen

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Re: "The Promised Land"
« Reply #10 on: May 07, 2012, 09:47:04 PM »
Howard,

I am a great fan of Herbert Warren Wind.
These letters are just marvellous. Wee, historical gems. The hand-written notes, particularly, I guess by default, make me read the contents with more care and I feel more engaged. Great writers writing to great writers, icons of the game revealing poignant moments and a top-notch architect revelling in child-like enthusiasm. What a picnic!

Thanks very much,

Colin.
"Golf, thou art a gentle sprite, I owe thee much"
The Hielander

Peter Pallotta

Re: "The Promised Land"
« Reply #11 on: May 07, 2012, 09:48:45 PM »
Thanks, Howard.

Mr. Wind must have been one of those rare men who (without even trying) made all those around him better men. You can feel in those letters that the writers were at their most kind and respectful, in deference to Wind's own kind and respectful nature.

Of course, times have changed: can you imagine any star athlete today sending a note to any current writer that begins with the kind of apology that Jack's letter to Herb did?

Peter

Tiger_Bernhardt

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Re: "The Promised Land"
« Reply #12 on: May 07, 2012, 10:15:30 PM »
I too am a fan of HWW. The Ben quotes are right in line with my feelings while at Sand Hills. I felt the ocean was just over the next dune.

Melvyn Morrow

Re: "The Promised Land"
« Reply #13 on: May 07, 2012, 11:42:37 PM »



“The Promised Land, alas no longer fit for purpose”

From the Life & Times of M H Morrow

Tony_Muldoon

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Re: "The Promised Land"
« Reply #14 on: May 08, 2012, 04:42:33 PM »
Thank you Howard,   the internet is at it’s best when it allows us to share things we might only dream of seeing.



Plum
Remsenburg
long island
11960


Anyone know where he played his golf?
Let's make GCA grate again!

Colin Macqueen

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Re: "The Promised Land"
« Reply #15 on: May 08, 2012, 05:23:03 PM »
Tony,

Now that's a good question and here is what I dug up.

"P.G. Wodehouse (Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse) was most famous for his books containing the character “Jeeves.” His most famous golfing title, The Clicking of Cuthbert is a collection of 10 golf stories narrated by The Oldest Member. The title story features the golfing character of Cuthbert Banks playing at the Wood Hills links. Wodehouse’s prose has a well deserved reputation for excellence, especially his wit. Wodehouse was a golfer himself, with a handicap reportedly never below the mid-teens.[ii] He played golf around the world and was a member of The Addington in England, Great Neck on Long Island in New York and Le Touquet in France."

http://valuablebook.wordpress.com/2008/03/17/pg-wodehouse-on-golf/


He made The Addington famous apparently.  I wonder if I love his stories more because I am a golfing tragic or whether his writing is just so good full stop.

Cheers Colin
"Golf, thou art a gentle sprite, I owe thee much"
The Hielander

Tony_Muldoon

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Re: "The Promised Land"
« Reply #16 on: May 08, 2012, 06:13:39 PM »
Thanks Colin but Great Neck seems a long way from Remsenburg?

I knew about the other two.

Reputedly there's a foreword to one of his books to the effect of inviting correspondence to be sent "To P G Wodehouse, The 6th Hole Bunker, The Addington..."
Let's make GCA grate again!

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