GCA.com's current home page pic showing Olympic: what's the message?

[Mark Bourgeois]

Okay, I'll bite:

1) What message is conveyed by posting this picture, rather than something more recent, on the home page?



2) What do you think of this look? To me it evokes a Hollywood backlot set for a Johnny Weismuller movie. Wild, but curiously in a groomed way. Maybe it's just the cinematography (so to speak). I keep staring into the photo's background expecting one of the Marx Bros to jump out any second. Hypnotic, isn't it?

3) Is this a classic example of "texture"? Yes, three years on and I'm still trying to work out what this means. (http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,38008.0.html)

[Peter Pallotta]

Or Harry Cohn, lying by the swimming pool as he yells at an ivy league screenwriter: "Wallace Beery! Wrestling picture! What do you need, a roadmap?! What the hell did they teach you at Haaarrvvard, how to find your dick!?"

The message? "Weren't things better back when only the rich played the game?"

[Mark Bourgeois]

Okay, if this is how this thread's going to be, let's do this thing.

1) "Don't improve it into a flop!" -- Samuel Goldwyn

2) "Too much of a good thing is wonderful." -- Mae West

3) "Lighting is vital. Without that they've got nothing. And, of course, color and texture. When they showed me a little piece of Finding Nemo, I said this has got to be the biggest hit." -- somebody named Joe Grant

[Joel_Stewart]

IMHO that finger bunker is one of the great bunkers in the US. 

I asked the consulting architect and superintendent to rebuild it when the 8th was being rebuilt about 6 years ago.  This is what they came up with.



After spending about $300,000 they didn't like the finished product and bulldozed it and built the current 8th hole.

Mark:  Do you prefer the modern version or classic version?

[Joel_Stewart]

Here is photo of the new hole.  This is a brand new bunker that was shaped by Bill Love that is in the back right of the green.

With my experience with Bill Love, this is about as out of the box that he gets.  I'm not sure it really fits on a 1927 golf course.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Joel, many thanks -- I can work with this. Gimme a little time and I'll drop these into the Wayback Machine.

[Matt MacIver]

Wow that's crazy if that's the same hole! 

I love the look in the first picture, but think I'd rather miss the green by a wider margin and end up in the bunker rather than the scraggy rough.  No scraggy rough at all in the current version. 

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Well no it is not the same hole but the same field goal is good bunker would be cool.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Here's a quick and dirty attempt at a comparo:
http://golfcoursehistories.com/Olympic8.html

[Joel_Stewart]

Well no it is not the same hole but the same field goal is good bunker would be cool.

The problem is you just can't do one bunker although it works at Augusta with the 10th hole bunker.

The bunkers have gone down hill at Olympic since the 1950's and finally have ended up in round ovals and circles.  Add in a few with tongues and that's what you have.   If you look at the photos in the locker room, you'll see most holes had a sexy type Merion style bunker shape. 

The rebuild of a few years ago basically built the worn out bunkers into new worn out bunkers.  We brought in Jeff Bradley about 7 years ago to interview to rebuild the bunkers.  Naturally the superintendent had an an idea which he wasn't sharing with the green committee so he spent about an hour with Bradley and then blew him off.  Enter Bill Love and his unique style of oval and circles and that's what you have.

As I have said before, not one bunker was restored in the recent remodel.  It's such a shame as you can still see the mounds on most, especially #4,  #9, #10 and #14. 

[Tom MacWood]

Okay, I'll bite:

1) What message is conveyed by posting this picture, rather than something more recent, on the home page?



2) What do you think of this look? To me it evokes a Hollywood backlot set for a Johnny Weismuller movie. Wild, but curiously in a groomed way. Maybe it's just the cinematography (so to speak). I keep staring into the photo's background expecting one of the Marx Bros to jump out any second. Hypnotic, isn't it?

3) Is this a classic example of "texture"? Yes, three years on and I'm still trying to work out what this means. (http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,38008.0.html)

Olympic is in San Francisco, not Hollywood or LA...polar opposites.

[DMoriarty]

Mark,

I am not sure what message Ran was trying to convey, but I read a degree of irony into the caption "Best of luck to the Olympic Club in hosting its fifth U.S. Open."  We all wish the Olympic Club the best and I am sure it will be compelling viewing, but while it may be the Club's fifth US Open, I wonder about whether it is the same course.  If there is a paradox in returning to these old great clubs and celebrating their great histories it is that sometimes the very things which helped make them great are being destroyed in order to keep the venue "relevant" for today's game. 

[JC Jones]

Perhaps we should go with the most olausible first before we move on to the conspiracy theory.

Ran likes the picture more than his other pictures of Olympic?

[Mark Bourgeois]

Perhaps we should go with the most plausible first before we move on to the conspiracy theory.

Ran likes the picture more than his other pictures of Olympic?

How about:

Ran couldn't find a recent picture?

EDIT: Brian, thanks for playing. What's "texture" mean?

[DMoriarty]

Conspiracy theory?   I thought i was clear that I didn't know what, if any, meaning Ran was trying to convey, but that I read it with a sense of irony.   I feel the same way when I look at old photos of Merion or Riviera or other old courses. 

What is the conspiracy? 

[Eric Smith]

Brian, thanks for playing. What's "texture" mean?

Think of the coconut in Girl Scouts Samoas. Maybe a bit of flavour too (as Brian would spell it).

[Mark Bourgeois]

Sure you don't mean umami? I threw "Eric Smith" into an anagram machine and it spit out "Les Miles."

[Eric Smith]

Sure you don't mean umami? I threw "Eric Smith" into an anagram machine and it spit out "Les Miles."

[Mark Bourgeois]

Mark,

I haven't read that thread but my idea of texture is, in the context of photos - different colours that "set off" a photo besides really bland light green for fairway, darker green for rough and a whitish beige for sand. That includes stuff in the foreground to give a better sense of perspective, be it centreline bunkers, ravines, ditches etc - An example would be gorse, heather, nice shrubbery and just lots of different shades to make a scene seem natural. Maybe some burned out ground set off against darker, greener shades etc.


How did I do?

Cheers,
B.

Beats the heck out of me; go ask Tom Doak.

Can you have too much texture? What would that mean? How close is the Olympic pic to that line and what would push it over?

Eric, I hope...you can explain texture better than Samoas...Morgan Freeman...Seminoles...Jack Nicklaus...his son--shall I go on? Anyway, the bus: I thought you were walking. Or hiking.

[Sean_Tully]

Mark

I too was reminded of some kind of movie connection maybe Goldfingers summer hideout. Has the look of a villains hideout for some reason.

In a 1927 photo one can make out the early planting that would eventualy grow up to what we see in the photo. Sometime before the 1955 USOpen they had it removed as it is packed with spectators in 1955.

Having just driven through the Golden Gate Park yesterday their was a similarity to the photo and the look of the GGP.
Pretty simple reason, John McLaren.
McLaren well known as the Superintendnet at GGB also drew up planting plans for the Olympic Club. I know of two such plans that helped to define the OClub as a tree lined course we are familiar with today. Seems quite possible then that he would have also drawn up plans for the clubhouse area.

No idea why this photo was chosen and the first time that I have seen it.

Tully

[Will Lozier]

Well no it is not the same hole but the same field goal is good bunker would be cool.

The problem is you just can't do one bunker although it works at Augusta with the 10th hole bunker.

The bunkers have gone down hill at Olympic since the 1950's and finally have ended up in round ovals and circles.  Add in a few with tongues and that's what you have.   If you look at the photos in the locker room, you'll see most holes had a sexy type Merion style bunker shape. 

The rebuild of a few years ago basically built the worn out bunkers into new worn out bunkers.  We brought in Jeff Bradley about 7 years ago to interview to rebuild the bunkers.  Naturally the superintendent had an an idea which he wasn't sharing with the green committee so he spent about an hour with Bradley and then blew him off.  Enter Bill Love and his unique style of oval and circles and that's what you have.

As I have said before, not one bunker was restored in the recent remodel.  It's such a shame as you can still see the mounds on most, especially #4,  #9, #10 and #14. 

Joel,

Are said photos available for viewing elsewhere?  Would love to see more pics of the much more interesting, more natural-looking Olympic.

Cheers

[Joel_Stewart]

The club has a fantastic collection of photos.  They really should do what SFGC is doing a build a history room which would be open to the public.  They do have such room at Lakeside but it's kept under lock and key.

The  SF Chronicle has quite a few photos as well.  The SF library not so much.

I have a few others, I'll try and dig them up.  Sean Tully has a great collection and I think we may see some of his insights here over the next week.