[Greg Gilson]

Cruden Bay, looking out from the Pro Shop that first time....and then pretty much every second shot from thereon. It was soooo different to even the other links courses I had played until that time.

[Daniel Jones]

The first time I played my home course (Ocala Golf Club) after a 2009 renovation that removed the majority of long grass around greens and replaced it with short turf and run-offs. I had no idea how fun it could be to leave the sand wedge in the bag around the greens...

The walk to #7 tee at Pebble. My caddie says.. "I'm always amazed someone had the vision to put a hole here." The statement snapped me out of my awestruck fog, and I had to agree..

[Pete_Pittock]

May 1975.
After a trip where my dad and I had played Pinehurst 2, Sea Pines, Turnberry and Royal Troon we tacked around Prestwick and the West Links of North Berwick on back to back days with no idea what was in store for us.

What was different.   History. Brilliance of routing. Special holes.

[Gib_Papazian]

I guess the query is to think back to that epochal moment when the personal paradigm not only shifted, but blasted off the planet. After reading and studying a fairly impressive collection of books - having grown up at Olympic and frequently spoiled by Cypress, Spyglass and Pebble Beach - oddly, it was a trip East in 1988 that started the journey down the path of insanity.

We started out with a week at Pinehurst, drinking in every inch of the culture and courses - not to mention the fellowship, booze, broads and chipping contests at the Pinecrest Inn. Michael Jordan and his coterie were staying there too - he was a perfect asshole, but that is a story for another day. We played The Pit every afternoon - I had never been to Lahinch or Prestwick then, but my love for it solidified my offbeat sensibilities.  

The next stop was a quicky to Oakmont, then to Philly, where we played Aronimink & Merion East, followed by a drive to Westchester and all things Winged Foot W&E - along with a couple other gems up there. So far so good - everything was lovely and incredibly impressive, especially since I was not used to the difference between the right and left coast.

Garden City was like discovering that nondescript, conservatively dressed librarian type who turns out to be a nymphomaniac, WTF was that? And it ends on a par-3? Something very odd was going on there - the magnetic fields between my ears were changing and my compass was spinning backwards.

I began to get my bearings a little bit with Shinnecock. Grandiose, expansive, majestic - a bit like a combination of Pebble and Spyglass with the brute force and brawn of Olympic. Maybe there was hope I might be able to arrange this knowledge in some kind of rational order to slow down the blur - and make sense of what I had learned and experienced.

The next day we put on our coats and had lunch at this stately looking clubhouse overlooking Bulls Head Bay and Sebonac Inlet. Before that day, I hated macaroni and cheese; now, it reminds me of the most wondrous journey of my golfing life, in the same way a snifter of tequila smells like the essence of the person who passed over my very first shot with a kiss.

After we finished our round, I told Timmonds - the magical little troll who led us around Macdonald's monolith from the past - that NGLA changed not only how I view the game of golf, but life itself. It was like being hit in the face with the scepter of truth - like Moonwatcher in 2001, being chosen to ingest the first hint of an epiphanous avalanche too large to absorb or comprehend all at once.

Truth is, I never fully recovered an ability to "just play" because it took me so deep, so quickly, the bends would surely kill me if I ever tried to swim to the surface.  

[Sean_A]

I was very conscious of playing a special course as a kid whenever I hit a local muni.  In a word, the greens more or less had no interest compared to my home course.  However, I recall the first zowie moment though was Royal Troon in 1990, quickly followed by TOC and Hoyake. I didn't know what really hit me.  It was my first experience with blind bunkers, gathering bunkers, pot bunkers, firm ground that wasn't simply baked clay (in other words well struck and judged shots could be controlled), greens that played miles slower than they looked, whispy rough that grabbed the shaft and caused hoicks left, no landmarks to help with distance and framing and balls that ran on twice as far as I predicted. I still recall watching a guy hit low running hooks from the rough that went for miles...I definitely wanted some of that.  This was nothing like the soft golf in Michigan.  Plus, the flag poles were a lot shorter so everything looked loads further than yardage suggested.  As very much a visual/feel player, it was very hard adjusting to that and ball run...I went through the back of a lot of greens.  This is also the first time I came across course planners... took a few peaks now and then after being in knee high rough to the rear of the green one time too many  

I guess the real crux of the matter was experiencing non-"target golf" for the first time. Or at least the target had to be figured out...meaning there were at least two targets, where the ball lands and where the final goal is.  I was never faced with the reality of playing away from holes.  I knew there were times I couldn't fly over trouble and hold greens. Learning to accept playing to a fat part of the green was revelation brought on by firm ground.  It was fantastic and frustration rolled into one.

Ciao

[Jay Mickle]

I had played Mid Pines probably 200+ times, the first time with hickories was truly eye opening.  My interest in golf course architecture was peaked. I saw the importance of angles, movement around the green, etc and the geinous of Donald Ross was revealed. I had played brain dead golf for over 40 years. This Spring I will play my hickories on my 2 week Ireland pilgramage.

[Matt Glore]

My hook was driving into Dunes Club on the unmarked entry and seeing the caddie waiting for me in the pouring rain.  The course was like nothing I'd experienced before, so confined but so enjoyable. 

[Pete Blaisdell]

   No doubt it was The Country Club when my Dad took me to the National Open in 1963. Was there for Friday and Saturday and it was my first bigtime event. I started playing when I was 6 and I played Sullivan (NH) Golf Course , a nine holer designed by a farmer that no longer exista . Would play Hooper Golf Club in Walpole , another 9 holer , so the trip to the Open was a real eye opener for me. The spectators would frame the holes so it was the first time that I thought about strategy and how to play a hole instead of just trying to hit every shot hard off the tee and only caring about distance , I do remember the fourth hole (short 4 par ) and watching players hit irons off the tee. That was when I realized that driver was not your best friend at times.

[cary lichtenstein]

I was about 13 years old when my dad joined Tam O Shanter in Niles, Illinois, up to then, since the age of 7, we had been playing public mini tracks.

The 2nd hole was a reachable par 5 with water in front and right, and a road behind. The 3rd was an island green and the tee on the 4th hole had a periscope to see over the creek and elevated fairway.

The 6th and 7th were 90 degree doglegs, and i used to cut the dog legs (OB) with no fear.

8-15 were boring, but 16-18 were wonderful, so I guess this was the first time I found golf  architecture thrilling.

[Ryan Bass]

15 years old.  Oakland Hills CC.  I grew up playing on generic cheap "beginner" courses and had literally played NOTHING between those three courses and OHCC.  You can imagine my shock and awe when my dad and I turned in the place to see a guard house, were ushered into the locker room and so on.  When I walked up to that first tee of the South Course - WHOA!  That's a moment I'll never forget.  Now that I've made something of myself and played a lot of great (comparable) courses, I'd love to go back to replay and relive that memory.  That was a special day.

[JC Urbina]

Back in the 80's when I made my first trip to the National  Golf Links of America. I saw photos in a golf book and said to myself I have to see this place.   I was working for the Dye Family at that time, I ventured out to the east end of Long Island.  Karl Olson the superintendent gave me a tour. 

I was so overwhelmed by the scale of the features, the size of the greens the number of bunkers and this Bell mounted on a tower that you would ring when you left the green.  I thought how unorthodox.

 When I went back to tell a bunch of the design guys what I had just seen, describing how you hit across  roads with cars crossing at different intervals and that you had a green with a horse shoe shape in the middle and a green that had three distinct levels  they thought I had gone off the deep end.

These were all conventional Dye designers and couldn't grasp what I was trying to describe.

[Frank M]

I'm Canadian and started golfing with a friend and his dad when I was 8. We used to play a little par-3 course called Unionville. From 8 to 11 I had never played a "real" golf course and got my father to let me caddy in the summers. The place I caddied at is called Beacon Hall, which is a Bob Cupp/Tom McBroom design with two very different nines (front parkland/back links) and each nine caught my interest for very different reasons.

[Emile Bonfiglio]

Seeing the enormous US flagpole near the first tee of Old MacDonald set the tone and then reaching the top of the hill of #3 near the tree..... I felt like a conqestador laying my eyes upon a new land unlike any I had seen before. I thought to myself "so this is where heaven has been hiding!"

[Sam Krume]

As many on here have said, grew up playing on local parkland muni's but on a family holiday to Cornwall some 20 odd years ago, we had a round at Royal North Devon. The most wonderful experience ever. Hitting to the first and wondering why the green was roped off and then on number 2 realising why, we came across the sheep and horses on this most wonderful of courses. Standing on the the 4th tee and being faced with the Cape bunker, the largest bunker I had ever seen...I could go on but this course truly awoke my fascination with design and architecture and for that I am forever in its gratitude and I try and return as often as I can.

[Greg Taylor]

As many on here have said, grew up playing on local parkland muni's but on a family holiday to Cornwall some 20 odd years ago, we had a round at Royal North Devon. The most wonderful experience ever. Hitting to the first and wondering why the green was roped off and then on number 2 realising why, we came across the sheep and horses on this most wonderful of courses. Standing on the the 4th tee and being faced with the Cape bunker, the largest bunker I had ever seen...I could go on but this course truly awoke my fascination with design and architecture and for that I am forever in its gratitude and I try and return as often as I can.

Exactly the same for me except it was Saunton...

My Dad tells me on one tee he teed up and was facing 180 degrees in exactly the opposite direction, only to be corrected at the last moment.

I can remember dunes being as being as me, and also the hot weather and how firm it was.

I also remember my Dad being in a really good mood that day... Prolly his only pass out of the whole holiday... LoL!

[Carson Pilcher]

The Old Course.  Ever since then, I have looked at golf course design differently.  That was 2005.

I did have the privilege to follow Jack Nicklaus while he designed Ruby Hill Golf Club.  It was interesting to hear the thought process and artistic input from original layout to final grow in.  Water runoff, strategy, length, green placement, bunker placement, etc.  That was 1996

Lastly, I will say that it warms my heart to hear The Patch mentioned on this board.  I spent many a day in my youth there.  You could get a Summer youth membership and play as much as you wanted.  I had a cut-down set of Patty Bergs; would throw them over my shoulder and ride my bike over there.  You could spend the whole day there playing golf on found balls and eating chili dogs.

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

Western Gailes as a thirty year old after playing college golf and going through dental school which changed my perspective of what giolf was.
I returned home as a graduation gift and played some links golf.
I had played Gailes before as a teenager before starting to read about architecture and clearl did not appreciate anythingabout links golf.
I fell in love with the courseon the second green and styarted to notice features that had previoulsy gone totally unnoticed to me.
I played a series of courses on that trip, including most of the big names in that area and my golf life was transformed, the interest now an obsession with great courses and what makes them that to me was started.

[J_ Crisham]

Lahinch was my wake up call in 1977- the magnificent dunes and vistas of the sea. So different than the tree lined holes I was used to at Beverly.

[Dave Doxey]

TOC – a long time ago.

I drove into town and after getting lost (pre-GPS) parked my car at the Rusacks Hotel.

I was told that it overlooked TOC, but all I saw was an open park, including a strolling couple with a dog and a baby carriage (buggy?).   It took about a minute for me to realize that this WAS the course!  It didn’t look like any golf course that I’d ever seen.  Playing it the next day I realized that the game could be quite interesting in what had initially appeared to be an open field.

[Thomas Dai]

Took my then 12 yr old son to play Perranporth for his first experience of links golf. He still talks about it to this day and has loved links golf ever since.
atb

[Sam Krume]

Greg,
Love the stretch of golf on that coast. Some memorable days down there. Played Saunton on the day they were shooting the course for Donald Steels book, Classic links of GB & Ireland. It's hard to pick a favourite.

[Robert Kimball]

Sam,

I can't really say it was one course, but it may have been one book, my first golf architecture book, Sports Illustrated's Best 18 Golf Holes in America. Published in 1966. Author was Dan Jenkins. His description of Pine Valley sealed the deal for me wanting to see the world's best golf courses.
[/quote]




Still plenty of copies available . . . I'm a big Jenkins fan, and might pick one up. Thanks for this reminder.

Rob

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

Another one for me was standing on the second tee at Diamante in Cabo and seeing those towering dunes as the backdrop to the green.
It reminded me so much of Cypress Point and how perhaps Cypress looked at its opening.
As the day went on, other holes reached out to me and truly impressed...the par three fifth, par three eleventh, the superb par five 14th and then the stretch from 15-17.
It had been quite along time since so many holes on one course had really caught my attention n that manner.
So I joined on that day, my socialist British upbringing, tight wad attitude and all.
It was at that point , going against all my principles that I knew it was somewhere special.

[Wayne Wiggins, Jr.]

Aronimink GC (Prichard redo).  As a youth I had no interest, let alone understanding, of golf course architecture.  Other than trolling the fairways of AGC with my grandfather and father, I really only played a handful of other courses… and most of them not well.

But when Aronimink was awarded the 1993 PGA Championship, my interest perked up.  Of course I had read and become aware of the great Tom Fazio, who was brought in to make a number of changes in advance of the tournament.  The alterations were widely hailed in forging a “championship course”, and while I don’t recall many specifics, what I do recall was the course being very difficult. 

But, as we all know, AGC had to beg out of hosting the championship, which was a stroke of good fortune for the course.   As well chronicled, Ron Prichard was brought in to restore Aronimink to its Donald Ross roots, with fairways and especially greens mowed back to, or nearer, their original shapes and contours… bunkers were removed and others repositioned back to the original Ross plans… etc.  And, while some things remained, and do to this day (e.g.  the pond fronting the left side of #10 green), it was this reversion from Fazio’s “Championship” style (my term) to the restoration of a Golden Age classic, that opened my eyes to the variations in golf course architecture.

[Dan Kelly]

Sand Hills, 1996.

EVERYTHING.

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