In fact, I *have* been talking to Mucci, actually three of them - including Matt and Pat's esteemed brother.
The point of starting the thread was not to incite some kind of discursive political argument. Between Cirba, Kennedy, Dan King and the conga-line of argumentative ping pong players, there are already bountiful offerings of half-baked shrieking about those de facto monarchists inside the beltway. That would include me, by the way - except I've got a tick of Barny-itis, especially when it comes to inflicting intentional discomfort on the congenitally dogmatic.
No, I don't actually believe all of my bullshit.
The entire thesis was recognizing that nearly every single successful person - whether you like them or not - is a tapestry of conflicting personality traits, some of which are clearly abnormal psych disorders.
You think Clifford Roberts was a box of chocolates? How about Sainted Bobby Jones? Even taking historical perspective - and the tenor of the times - the engine that drove much of golf's development in America was fueled with horrible, heartless, prejudicial intentions, no? Anybody ever hear of John Shippen and Curtis Bunn? Go read who was leading the charge to bar them from teeing off . . . . .
The Rockefeller family developed Mauna Kea - an astonishing achievement - but you think everything Laurance Rockefeller did was on the level? OMG, half those railroad and lumber barons - who financed the seed money for the top tier clubs - were a bunch of financial sociopaths. The membership at the Links Club were such snobs they let the club die, rather than allow the ill-bred hoi polloi into their enclave.
What do you think happened to anybody who got on the wrong side of C.B., Findlay or Judge O'Brien? All of the guys who spend all day posting anti-this politician or that public figure on Facebook, gleefully tee it up - for instance - at Cypress Point, enjoying their afternoon at a place that would not let them shine shoes in the locker room, let alone join the membership roles. That is still true - dare I say - at clubs like Merion.
I am just wondering - on a personal level, how many in the Treehouse would choose a guy like C.B. Macdonald as a friend - with all of his foibles, prejudices, bombast and foul-tempered proclamations - if he was not the founder and driving force of NGLA? His finger-wagging ostentatiousness reminds me of another golf developer in the modern era. ;-)