jeffwarne,
There are hundreds or thousands of kids that would give anything for a free ride to college via the Evans program. Why? Because they want to study business, medicine, law, etc. and they wouldn't be able to afford to do so at the same level of university without the Scholarship. The job opportunities that Jordan has been offered are because he is going to have a business degree paid for by the WGA. Throwing that aside for a few years while heading to Costa Rica to pick up rocks for $9/hour is something he doesn't need a business degree for, heck, I'm not sure he even needs a GED. If Jordan was serious about getting into architecture, he should of studied landscape architecture, turf, etc. You guys may think that he can always fall back on his degree but if there is anything more useless than an undergraduate business degree its a undergraduate business degree that's three years old with no work experience behind it.
And Gil Hanse is a terrible comparison. Gil went to Cornell and received a scholarship to study golf course architecture in the UK and interned at an architecture firm. Sure he had an offer to work for a congressman, but he already had deep roots in the golf architecture world. He had a choice but it was a certainly less risky one that Jordan has.
Of course the majority of the posters here are going to tell him "go for it" "reach for your dreams" blah blah blah...this is a golf course architecture forum with a bunch of GCA nerds posting. He's preaching to the choir. I may come off as a jerk in these posts, but this is just my advice.
PCraig,
i don't think your posts make you look like a jerk.
You're giving him sound advice.
Perhaps he should've studied landscape architecture, but that lack of decision is in the past.
Who knew what they wanted to do at 18?
I'd bet Jordan knew then what he wanted to do, but bowed to pressure to get a business degree.
My guess is that business degree will serve him well, no matter what he does, even if "picking up rocks" doesn't lead to something directly in that specific field.
I'd like to think Jordan (and others ) learn a bit more at college than just skills in a narrow field, and despite the fact he's picking up rocks he will be able to network amongst people in the industry (and other industries) he might never meet in an entry level business degree job.
I graduated with a degree in accounting (which I chose as a degree because I had absolutely NO idea what I wanted to do besides play golf but wanted a fallback) The fly in the ointment was that I had NO shot at playing for a living as I was a horrific ballstriker, despite being able to compete at a reasonably high level.
I worked my tail off 2 years as a barback at night at the cheesiest 80's disco on earth (there were a few perks
) so I could play, practice, and travel to see great teachers-with the only goal being to improve my own game (I worked in the bar 7 days on-7 off- 12 hour shifts from 5 pm to 5 am)
I can't tell you how many smart people told me I was wasting my life, my talents, and my degree-and those were the ones with courage to say it to my face.
But then a PING salesman (Georgia guys probably knew him) spotted me working my tail off in that cheesy bar and remarked he'd never seen anyone work so hard in his life-we struck up a short conversation (I was too busy to talk more than a few seconds so I called him the next day) and the next thing you know I was waiting tables at The Cloister and taking lessons from Jimmy Hodges and Davis Love II.
That said, even at 26 and married, I was still slinging bags at Long Cove for $6 an hour-so I'd say Jordan's got time
.
Along the way a lot of very good things happened and I got a lot of great help from a lot of good people-but I worked my tail off, all the while educating myself in the golf business both by design and by accident.
But I never ONCE regretted getting that accounting degree, and it has helped me immeasureably throughout my career, as well in personal financial decisions.
and more than a few of those naysayers have managed to find a way to enjoy visiting me in Hilton Head, Miami, Westchester, Aiken, and The Hamptons
I know Golf course architecture is a narrow, currently shrinking field.
Golf pro jobs sucked pretty darn badly in the early-mid 80's as well.
Who knows what direction any part of any industry will take.
and by the way, if you haven't noticed...
Jordan IS a GCA nerd