[Joe Bausch]

We always have the picture of the year thread.  And this year there are some real beauties.

But I've rarely seen a post of the year thread.

Recently a thread called "Best Caddy Story" was revived from years ago.  And my friend Archie Struthers made a contribution that simply made me laugh for hours. Here is what he wrote:

I'm about 13 and sitting In the caddy yard, which was attached to the clubhouse but was more akin to a cattle pen, with an eight foot stockade fence all around. It was early Saturday (about 7am) and we had a decent group of guys sitting around reading the newspapers, playing cards and waiting to go out.  The caddymaster Ken had just stuck his nose in to see how many troops were available.  He was happy to have a full regiment ready to go on this nice summer morning.

Just then one of the older loopers said they had just spied Manny S. and Sid R. heading for the 1st tee.  Oh my, Manny and Sid, two high handicappers with big Burton bags and a well deserved reputation as the most penurious members at Woodcrest.  When Kenny walked back in    to choose a victim he found just one lone guy and tumbleweeds, lol!  He didn't recognize the guy but Manny and Sid didn't tip him either, so off they went with the mystery looper.

I had followed all the others climbing out of the pen to make sure we missed Manny and Sid.  It was amazing the dexterity some of the older caddies showed clambering over the fence, or under it.  Quite remarkable the evacuation was, silent and immediate.

We all watched from various vantage points as Ken sent the lone looper to the tee with Manny and Sid.  He then returned to the now full yard and asked a couple of the veterans if they knew the guy he had just sent out. All demurred.  No doubt the two didn't tip Kenny too well either, so he wasn't too concerned at the time.

About a half hour goes by and all of a sudden in come Manny and Sid, huffing and puffing and screaming to high heaven, all they had was their putters.  It seems the looper went out to forecaddie on number two, didn't leave drivers and just disappeared.  Legend has it he had an accomplice or a car parked out on the street near the second and just took the bags, clubs and whatever else he could and never was seen again.

When Ken stopped yelling at all us for hiding he started laughing so hard he cried, as did all the rest of us!

What post do you nominate?

[Powell Arms]

Joe, I think all of the subsequent nominations are just for second place!

[Alex Cameron]

I also grew up caddying at Woodcrest CC. The caddy shack was a mix of kids from the posh suburb of Cherry Hill and older men who would carpool in from Camden, the caddymaster a parrothead (and a great guy), and the shack itself was the cart barn after the carts had been moved out. I remember very well my first loop at Woodcrest, as a guest in his 70s lost control of his cart and I had to bail off a bridge into the water.

[Joe Bausch]

I also grew up caddying at Woodcrest CC. The caddy shack was a mix of kids from the posh suburb of Cherry Hill and older men who would carpool in from Camden, the caddymaster a parrothead (and a great guy), and the shack itself was the cart barn after the carts had been moved out. I remember very well my first loop at Woodcrest, as a guest in his 70s lost control of his cart and I had to bail off a bridge into the water.

Goodness gracious.

We need to band together to do whatever is possible to bring back the private Woodcrest!  The stories alone makes me wonder how in the world this place ran into financial troubles.


 

[Pete_Pittock]

the last paragraph by Bill Schulz about Cruden Bay may be an honorable mention

Bill Schulz
I'm a llama!
Re: The Quest Completed-World Top 100

« Reply #100 on: August 14, 2013, 11:15:28 AM »
Reply with quoteQuote  

Machrie-Why can't I fully comprehend our rescue dogs (Happy and Misty Mae) and cats (Trouble and Minko Stinko) when they communicate with me?  Is it because I lack an imagination?  I certainly can hear the magical splendor of the most blind course in the world, the Machrie, which speaks directly to my heart.  An amazing collection of shots played over poles with backboards, sideboards & trapdoors with a tight walkable routing.  The par 4 17th with a blind 2 shot played over a striped pole to a timeless green complex with bumps and hollows is one of the best par 4s on planet earth, shades of the epic 17th at Prestwick.  The rough has wisely been cut down by the new owners to ensure that wayward shots are playable.  I stayed at the cozy Glenmachrie House and is the custom on the Isle of Islay hitchhiked to and from the course each day.  The Machrie is a 9 on the Doak scale for its breaktaking imagination and fun factor.

Silloth on Solway-Staying at the Golf House and walking a few blocks thru the charming downtown one arrives at the 1st tee which starts arguably the best 4 hole begining stretch in the UK.  The 1st with a blind punchbowl green, the 2nd a facile looking yet potentially fatal par 4 that dares you to cut the corner, the 3rd a rugged downhill dogleg left par 4 with an elevated green and the 4th with its dramatic drop off on both sides of the green are a spectacular opening stretch.  I love courses that connect you with their community and the green of the par 5 17th hole is almost on someone's porch.  Silloth on Solway is much more interesting than half of the Open venues.

Cruden Bay-One of my favorite courses in the world.  Frank Pont's new par 3 "bonus" hole played towards the rocks in the background is both fitting and epic.  I wish all of the garbagetime Golf Digest raters who think obscene cartball utter wastes of time such as the Alotian, Black Rock, Canyata, Rich Harvest Links and Mountaintop would play Cruden Bay once in their lives and then write a one page summary comparing CD to those false American bastardizations of the game.  It would be entertaining reading as they basically compare the writings of Ernest Hemingway to Penthouse letters to the editor.  The mist in your eyes as you walk to the 10th tee at Cruden Bay may be the Scottish weather but it also might be something else...

 

 
« Last Edit: August 15, 2013, 06:38:27 AM by Bill Schulz »  
 

[ward peyronnin]

Pete
Next year when I finally get to spend a week at me beloved CB I intend to laminate that quote and create a bag tag with it

Thanks and Happy NY

[Mark Bourgeois]

My submission comes from (most of) two paragraphs excerpted below from a longer post:

"... I agree with you that rankings have corrupted the whole process of talking about golf course architecture.  There are so many damned rankings and it is all anyone talks about when one comes out; and GOLFWEEK invents another one every other week.  They drive the business; and nowadays I'm on the receiving end of that.  Where we don't agree, is that the only way to get past that fact is to deconstruct the rankings somehow and pick through what really makes them tick until we expose them for what they are.

"The only reason I brought Sand Hills into the discussion is because pretty much everyone [including me] agrees that it is the most exceptional course built in the modern era, and yet, due to the nature of rankings, it cannot get past 7th or 8th in any of the rankings except when you discount all the older courses.  Why is that?  No editor is holding it back; no definition of a great course is holding it back.  The panelists are holding it back, though their own weird behavior patterns that have everything to do with how these lists turn out. ..."

[Ronald Montesano]

We have wonderful writers on this site, yet it is refreshing when a post from one of those not considered a representative of the elite produces pause, then reflection, then mirth, followed by body shakes and finally, muscle-tearing cachinnation.

I don't have any examples, as I'm a lazy researcher.

[Garland Bayley]

I will be eating at HOG HEAVEN  for sure now...

Make sure to try their vegetarian stir fry. It's gluten and fat free and not to be missed. Pair it with their own blend of organic chicory and fennel tea, and finish with a desert of dry roasted almonds for a meal you won't soon forget.

Peter

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