A New Year, A New Member

[Benjamin Litman]

For my inaugural Golf Club Atlas post, I figured I'd introduce myself and include several of my favorite golf-course pictures from my trips to date. I will post more individualized comments and photo tours (i.e., regarding specific courses) in the future, including my thoughts on and pictures of Streamsong, which I had the pleasure of playing over the course of the last week (two rounds on Red, three rounds on Blue).

But let me start by thanking Ran, whose course reviews and other writings I have admired for years, for registering me. I also have to thank my good friend David Normoyle, whom many of you know, for putting me in touch with Ran in the first place.

I am an attorney in New York City, where I also grew up. Following nearly seven years at a private law firm, I recently transitioned to the public-interest world and now practice appellate criminal-defense law. So, yes, I write a lot and often and have a penchant for proper language usage. I picked up golf relatively late, when I was a senior at Yale; with organized team sports behind me, I needed an outlet to maintain my competitive edge, and the allure of nature sold me. My best friend handed me down his old set of clubs and took me out to The Course at Yale. I'm not sure there is a better place to learn the game or the architecture that animates it. That collection of 18 holes remains not only my favorite golf course, but one of my favorite places in the world. I have since played many, many rounds and taken multiple golf trips (to Wales and England in 2009, to Scotland in 2012, and to California, Australia, and Streamsong (i.e., not-Florida Florida) in 2014). Along the way, I have read and relied heavily on the course reviews and discussion-board comments here on Golf Club Atlas, so I am excited to join you today. 

One final note: I have a passion not only for golf and golf-course architecture, but also for photography (I create a calendar and an individualized photo book for each friend on my golf trips), so many of my posts will likely feature my pictures. Again, I am including here just a sampling of my favorites through the years.

Happy 2015 to all of you, and thank you for having me onboard.

I very much look forward to many engaging discussions both this year and beyond.

Benjamin

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Royal Porthcawl


Royal Cinque Ports


Castle Stuart


Barnbougle Lost Farm


Kingston Heath


Streamsong (Red)

[Donnie Beck]

Welcome Benjamin!

[PCCraig]

Welcome, Benjamin!!

[John Kavanaugh]

Love the calendar idea. You've got to come to the 5th Major!!!

[Paul Gray]

Big welcome, Benjamin.

[Peter Pallotta]

Welcome, Ben. 'The architecture that animates the game' is a wonderful phrase, and an insightful way to view what golf design ideally does in relationship to the goals/structure of the game.
Peter

[Bill_McBride]

Welcome Ben.  Where's the Porthcawl photo taken, headed from tee to fairway on 12 or 17?

[Daniel Jones]

From one newb to another, welcome Benjamin!

[JMEvensky]

Welcome Ben. Nice photos--you're the early favorite for the Aidan Bradley Award.

[Benjamin Litman]

Many thanks to all for the warm welcome.

A few follow-up comments:

John, now you need to tell me what the "5th Major" is (I assume you don't mean The Players ).

Peter, thanks for the kind words. When thinking about golf-course architecture, I think often about regular architecture, which I also love. Both serve similar roles, albeit in different contexts. I need to dig up the textbook we used in my "Philosophy of Architecture" class in college and see what I can find in there that might be applicable to golf.

Bill, that's from the tee to the fairway on 12, although I admit I had to look back at the timestamps from my Porthcawl pictures, which I took in 2009. As your question implies, both 12 and 17 are blind, uphill par 5s, but the timestamp on the picture was a few minutes after the timestamp on my picture of the gorgeous par-3 11th, so there you have it.

JM, thanks for the kind words, although I'm still working on figuring out how to post the larger, higher-resolution version of my pictures. I just did some research on Aidan and...let's just say I'm flattered by the comparison.

Thanks again, all.

[Bill_McBride]

Thanks, love Royal Porthcawl.   Also, great photo at Deal from the pillbox on 16.   Last time there my foursomes partner apparently thought that was the line off the tee!   We found the ball after a search of 4:55 and eventually made a par.   

[Mark Chaplin]

Bill that's the German line 

[Ben Jarvis]

Benjamin, welcome and happy New Year to you and Elizabeth!

[Dan Kelly]

Welcome, counselor. It's always a good thing to add one more "member" with a penchant for "proper language usage."

And as for your photos: John Ford would have loved the picture from Royal Cinque Ports.

Dan

[Peter Pallotta]

Dan - did that picture remind you of "The Searchers"? Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) stands in the shadows, framed by the doorway, and then turns from the home that is, for him, no longer home to walk off into vast, empty plains and endless skies all alone -- condemned to the same fate he'd earlier, and willfully, condemned another to:

[Ethan shoots out the eyes of the dead Comanche warrior]

Reverend Clayton: What good did that do?
Ethan: By what you preach, none. But by what that Comanche believes -- ain't got no eyes, he can't enter the spirit-world. Has to wander forever between the winds. You get it, Reverend.

[Russ Arbuthnot]

Welcome, Ben.

I'm not JK, but here's a link to the invitation to this year's 5th Major: http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,60041.0.html

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

Welcome and lovely pictures.
Have fun here.

[Benjamin Litman]

Ben, so great to hear from you and congratulations again on putting together a very successful Australian Masters (we watched every round with delight). A very happy new year to you as well. Here's a picture for you (the bunker to the right of 1 green at Metropolitan):


Bill, I've always had the best golf-hole memory among my friends, but you've made quite clear that I'm going to encounter some serious competition here on GCA. Very impressive (your memory, not your partner's tee shot).

Dan, thanks for the kind introduction. Do you also enjoy the proper hyphenation of phrasal adjectives?

Russ, thanks for the link to the invitation for the 5th Major. I'm giddy with anticipation already, especially as I've been doing a good deal of sand-hills-related reading over the last few weeks. And thanks again, John, for mentioning the 5th Major in the first place. GCA is even better than I imagined!

Michael, thanks for the kind words. I hope to post more pictures soon.

FWIW, the RCP picture, which seems to be catching the eye of many, was the back of the first golf-course calendar I created.

[Dan Kelly]

Dan - did that picture remind you of "The Searchers"?

Yes, sir! Bingo.

Benjamin -- The compound-adjective hyphen is one of my two favorite and perhaps-used-to-excess punctuation marks; the other is the semicolon (both followed closely by the exclamation point!).

I use all of them liberally (or, perhaps, conservatively).

But I eschew emoticons, and urge you to do likewise. (Emoticon omitted.)

Dan

[Benjamin Litman]

Music to my ears, Dan--all of it.

I've never used an emoticon, but I've spent way too much time instructing those around me, including superiors, on the proper use of the phrasal-adjective hyphen. I am a big fan of Bryan Garner.

Are you a lawyer, too? Or just an English major?

[Terry Lavin]

Welcome, counsel.  You are hereby ordered to employ levity and brevity in all of your posts, whenever possible.

[Dan Kelly]

Are you a lawyer, too? Or just an English major?

Neither.

I come from a long line of lawyers -- and was on track to become one, too, until (1) I decided that Da Law was not for me, and (2) I discovered that I enjoyed journalism enough to pursue it long enough that there was no turning back.

Very bad choice, financially speaking, but it's one thing I wouldn't do over. Money is overrated.

[JMEvensky]

Benjamin -- The compound-adjective hyphen is one of my two favorite and perhaps-used-to-excess punctuation marks; the other is the semicolon (both followed closely by the exclamation point!).

What,no fan of the ellipsis,possibly the most underrated of all punctuation/diacritical marks?

[Peter Pallotta]

Welcome, counsel.  You are hereby ordered to employ levity and brevity in all of your posts, whenever possible.

Best to listen to him, Ben.  If not, he is likely to cut short your closing argument with a sharp and sardonic quip. Of course, like all Judges, when it comes to his own decisions/opinions, he'll force you to wade through 30 pages of the kind of besides-the-point musings and smarter-than-thou ponitifcations that only a junior Clerk currently in his service could possible love. 

(Emoticon ommitted.)

Peter

PS - I've never been to the 5th Major, but I'd suggest -- and I think everyone, including JK himself would agree -- that you take your direction in this regard from the much more loveable and healthy-minded Eric Smith. (Emoticon, reluctantly, ommitted.)

[Chris DeNigris]

Welcome aboard Ben-  Red or Black?

You'll probably get 100 or more glowing endorsements for the 5th M- it's all that and better!