In My (Someone Else's) Opinion pieces~Promote one that you feel should be read

[Ronald Montesano]

I'd been exchanging PMs for a few days with Bill McBride, when we got on the topic of his home course. He suggested I take a look at the In My Opinion piece he'd written a decade ago, on Pensacola country club. Contributions to this area of the site explore the timbre range from humble musing to scholarly study.


Notice has been given on this discussion board that the DB itself accounts for the great majority of hits/visits to the site. To a degree, that's a shame, as the work of many participant writers gets stored away like the ark in Indiana Jones, albeit on a dusty digital shelf, and not in a labyrinth of identical crates. These scribbles are accessible, so here's my way of reminding others of their existence and worth.


Pick an IMO piece that you have enjoyed, and wish to share with others. Give a brief summary of why, and offer the link for easy access. Here goes!

Bill's piece is more humble musing than scholarly investigation. It's not inundated with photographs, but has enough to offer a visual to support the worded description. When a fellow is involved in a renovation project and gains the trust of the crew that carries out the work, this insider's perspective gains stock for me. Anecdotal surprise for an architect who stumbles onto a member who understands gca, yet is not overbearing in his/her demand that some element be effected, is golden.

Bill defines the course's timeline with existing problem, hypothesis for correction, planned resolution and subsquent result, in a comprehensible manner. I don't suspect that any reader will not comprehend perfectly at first blush what Bill has to say, so the need to revisit his IMO piece again and again won't be necessary (as is needed with other, more dense and elongated contributions.) I hope that Bill has the time and inclination to add an update herein, musing a bit on the intervening ten years between 2006 and today.



http://golfclubatlas.com/in-my-opinion/pensacola-country-club/

[Tom_Doak]

Ronald:


Maybe your title should be "In Someone Else's Opinion".


And that's probably why those essays don't get more traction ... because they are static, and don't invite us to post OUR OWN opinions on the topic.  After all, we are an opinionated bunch!

[Ronald Montesano]

I've taken that suggestion and slightly adjusted my stance thread title. I don't mind that the pieces lack a discussion feature; hopefully this thread will encourage some/at least one other participant to feature an inspiring IMO piece.

[Joe Sponcia]

Ronald,


My favorite essay was and still is 1) Gib Carpenters, A Cry for the Golf Course.  The aerials should jar anyone who loves the game and should be required reading for all clubs, in particular Green Committee's.  Calling his club, "Fat Elvis", in one paragraph, along with the appropriate picture took guts.  He was dead on.  Seeing the club finally go through one of the best restorations I can remember (well chronicled thankfully on our very own site) must have been sweet satisfaction for Gib.


2) For me at least would be Dunlop White's exceptional, Below the Trees piece.  This is text-book education (and shaming) for those that can't see the fairways for the trees.  I think this was the first essay I ever read on the site and one I've probably forwarded more times than any. 


3) Under 'best of golf', but in the same vain as an In my opinion essay is the newly released Ian Andrews piece on bunkering.  Not a single word was wasted in what is one of the easiest to comprehend reads last year.     

[Jay Mickle]

Ronald,
As you point out the DB is the heart of GCA but it lives because of those who love the game enough to take the time to put forth insightful commentary and research in the other topics that head the webpage. The other day after playing Pinehurst #3 which had some outstanding holes, I wanted to know which holes were taken over by #5 and why #3 didn't have the stature of #2. Lo and behold Chris Buie had done a first rate job in providing great background on the evolution of #3 in his In My Opinion piece.
I surely have not read them all but look forward to exploring others favorites.

 

[Ronald Montesano]

For those with little time on their hands, here are links:




Carpenter: http://golfclubatlas.com/in-my-opinion/a-cry-for-the-golf-course-by-gib-carpenter/


White: http://golfclubatlas.com/in-my-opinion/below-the-trees-by-dunlop-white-iii/


Andrew: http://golfclubatlas.com/best-of-golf/on-bunkers-by-ian-andrew/


Buie: http://golfclubatlas.com/in-my-opinion/buie-chris-the-original-pinehurst-no-3/

[Philip Hensley]

Ronald,
As you point out the DB is the heart of GCA but it lives because of those who love the game enough to take the time to put forth insightful commentary and research in the other topics that head the webpage. The other day after playing Pinehurst #3 which had some outstanding holes, I wanted to know which holes were taken over by #5 and why #3 didn't have the stature of #2. Lo and behold Chris Buie had done a first rate job in providing great background on the evolution of #3 in his In My Opinion piece.
I surely have not read them all but look forward to exploring others favorites.

Great call Jay, that is a great piece. I read it a couple weeks ago.

I've spent a bit of time in the IMO section recently and was going to start a similar thread. I'll post here instead.

1) history of #3 from Buie

2) history of the Royal & Ancient Southern Pines Golf Club, also by Buie

3) homogenizing the game, by joe sponcia

[Rich Goodale]

Jeremy Glenn's "The Reverse Old Course," which is one of the most elegant, creative and informed discussions of golf course architecture on this site.

As a fillip, I do not think that it was coincidence that the St. Andrews Links Trust decided a few years after this piece was published and discussed in some detail on this site to set aside some days to play a reverse Old Course very similar to Jeremy's musings.  It is a shame that they seem to have abandoned this experiment in recent years....

Jeremy, we miss you!

[Ian Andrew]

Rich,

I passed that along to Jeremey.

Ian

[Rich Goodale]

Thanks, ian, and I really like your stuff too!

Rich

[Phil McDade]

A few of my favorites:


My first entry isn't in this section at all, but remains one of the most informative pieces on GCA....



-- In my humble opinion, George Bahto's essay on templates, one of the very first interview pieces for this website, should be required reading for anyone on this discussion board who wants to talk about the Macdonald/Raynor/Banks school of templates. It's definitive: http://golfclubatlas.com/feature-interview/george-bahto/


-- Mark Chalfant's piece on architect William Langford is well-researched, and takes us on a journey of this under-appreciated architect, whose work I'm still thankful dots the landscape of my home state of Wisconsin: http://golfclubatlas.com/in-my-opinion/mark-chalfant-the-architecture-of-william-b-langford/


-- All of Chris Clouser's pieces on the work of Perry Maxwell are very good, and I particularly liked his piece on Dornick Hills, which contains the inland hole in the United States I most want to play some day: http://golfclubatlas.com/in-my-opinion/clouser-chris-perry-maxwells-dornick-hills/


-- I particularly enjoyed Kyle Harris' exhaustive look at the Penn State golf courses and their many iterations -- courses I was lucky to call home for a few years: http://golfclubatlas.com/in-my-opinion/penn-state-university-golf/


-- I can't say I've read all of Tom MacWood's articles, but his piece on C.H. Alison's work in Japan certainly has one of the most evocative titles in the section, and it's really well done: http://golfclubatlas.com/in-my-opinion/tom-macwood-gliding-past-fuji-ch-alison-in-japan/


I also enjoy contributors here who take the time to write in-depth about courses they know exceedingly well, and inform us of little-known courses that nonetheless hold special architectural appeal. Three of my favorites:


-- Mike Sweeney (can we set up a kickstarter fund to pay him to get back on the Discussion Board? I'm semi-serious...) on Mountain Lake: http://golfclubatlas.com/in-my-opinion/mike-sweeney-blending-old-and-new-in-renovating-a-classic/


-- Jason Topp on Oak Ridge: http://golfclubatlas.com/in-my-opinion/oak-ridge-country-club/


-- Brad Tufts on Tedesco: http://golfclubatlas.com/in-my-opinion/tedesco/

[BCowan]

 http://golfclubatlas.com/in-my-opinion/clouser-chris-perry-maxwells-dornick-hills/

Chris Clouser's Dornick Hills IMO.  Great stuff

[Sean_A]

For me it is hands down Macwood's Arts & Crafts piece.  Its a fantastic exploration of  theory which is seriously flawed, but not without merit and great interest.


Ciao

[Jason Topp]

I wish I could clean up the typos that developed in mine when the site changed hosts.


For me, Matt Cohn's piece on Australia was another favorite beyond many listed already.  It provided the impetus for me to visit. 


If you want newfound respect for Ran's work, try creating one of these. 

[Ronald Montesano]

And I will add to what Jason wrote above...for the love of man and all that you hold sacred, have a friend like Peter Pallotta, a man or woman, proof-read your work. No matter what you do for a living, no matter how great a communicator you are (FDR and RR aside) you need editorial support.


Months back, a good friend of mine played golf with me on two consecutive days. He was mesmerized by our conversations and wanted to write about them to his industry friends. He is an MD and proud of his knowledge (as all of them are.) He sent me two pages and let me know that he had edited it three times. It had the potential to be quite entertaining, but the disjointed grammar, the run-ons, the faulty punctuation, hampered its attempts to communicate a number of salient points.


Remember that these submissions stand the test of time. You can't hack your way in and edit once published, so place a second set of eyes on your work. You'll learn something along the way.

[Ian Andrew]

MacWood, Thomas – Gliding past Fuji – C.H. Alison in Japan

Wexler, Daniel – The Evolution of Augusta National: What Would The Good Doctor Say?

Clouser, Chris – Series on Maxwell

Buie, Chris – Pinehurst Series

MacWood, Thomas – Arts and Crafts Golf

[Joe Lane]

Hi Ronald,


Just a quick question: seriously, there’s no way to edit after publication? That seems absurd—and easily fixable these days. Or at least, it ought to be. What can be done about it?


Joe

[Ronald Montesano]

Joe, there certainly is a way, but that would require that Ran go back in and do the editing himself. I wrote it the way I did to encourage people to have someone vett/edit your work ahead of time, to avoid those easily-avoidable, "oh sh!t" moments.