Thanks for all of the compliments and well-wishes.
There have been many very interesting developments along the way since I started that thread almost 11 years ago that Doug Wright referenced, and I'm reminded that there were several situations, some contentious and some cooperative that took place here on GCA among the participants that set this whole thing in motion.
This also may be the first project like this in history where almost everyone involved in moving this forward all met here on the Internet, courtesy of Ran and GolfClubAtlas. Such is the power of the medium if we use it for good, which is a lesson I learned the hard way when we lost some folks here over the years through various means, including death. Words matter.
I remember when a bunch of us from GCA first planned and then got together at Cobb's Creek over the winter of 2007/08 to walk the original routing, and later excitedly we went to a local tavern where we were met by Ron Prichard, who played the role of the wise elder Yoda-type character. Ron knew we were all architectural nerds who seemingly knew everything in our criticisms here on GCA and he said something like, "it's a good thing you guys are doing, but wait until you know-it-alls see how this works in the real world!" I've thought about that a lot over the years, and of course he was and is correct.
I think if I can sum it up at this point, I'm also reminded of the words of one Hugh Wilson, who put together his thoughts a year or two after both courses at Merion were opened, saying something like, "If we had known then how little we actually knew we probably wouldn't have started this whole thing in the first place".
