Hello,
As a new member here, I wanted to introduce myself. I grew up outside Philly and caddied for 10 years at St David's, a Donald Ross course. I was away from the game for ~10 years (coinciding with moving to NYC), but started getting back into the game a couple years ago. Last year I joined Wykagyl in New Rochelle, a nice little course that has had work done over the years by Tillinghast, Ross, and most recently, C&C. Playing and getting to know the course has made me really appreciate how great golf can be with interesting holes, contoured fairways, a natural look, and of course a design and philosophy that promotes walking (the caddie in me considers riding a cart heresy!). I started reading more about golf course architecture, including C&C, Doak and the old masters, and have now recently joined Stonewall in PA as a place to play when visiting my family there. I feel unbelievably lucky to be able to play these two fantastic (if somewhat under-the-radar) courses.
I discovered GCA maybe a month ago, and have been pretty much obsessed by it. It's so amazing to read the first-hand thoughts and opinions of all of you here on all these fine courses around the world, especially right from the mouth of architects and developers like Tom Doak and Ken Bakst. And the course profiles and pictures are absolutely amazing!
I am light years behind most of you in exploring all these great courses - but plan on doing my best to see many more! Also, as a high handicapper (for now - I am working hard at it!) I greatly appreciate how important it seems to be for many of you to think about how it would be for not only good/great players to experience a course, but also those like me that can be, ahem, a bit "challenged" at times
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I am looking forward to continuing to follow (and participate in) future discussions.
I might close with a question: how the hell do people here have the time/money to play all these courses??? It strikes me that the more you have of one, the less of the other!