I need to publicly apologize to Nick.
After years of reading virtually reading every post on GCA.COM, I have not been very active of late for personal reasons. A few weeks ago I randomly logged on and read through five pages of the "Bethpage is not a great course" thread. I instinctively reacted to Nick's personal attacks on Mark and others. I should have recognized a newbie to our website and been more patient. Sadly, my "stand up to the bully" instincts kicked in and I felt compelled to respond in kind, armed with everything that I have learned since I started hanging out on GCA.COM many years ago.
After much reflection, I don't want to fight with Nick anymore. I've raised kids that are almost his age. It was wrong for me to be so harsh. Nick is not the reason that our golf courses have been so screwed up over the past 40 years, the poor guy was a baby when this all started! He did not put The Masters on TV and cause thousands of clubs to plant trees to separate every hole, build Tiger tees where space permitted, and strive for absolutely perfect conditions, costs be damned. I know enough to blame the Pro V1 and the 460cc driver, not some young guy who likes Bethpage because it is hard, even for pro golfers. Nick thinks like I used to think. I used to say stupid stuff like: "Hard is better" and "What does the course measure from the tips," and "Could this track host a PGA tournament," and "The Black is great, it kicked my ass, but I loved it!"
It took me many years to progress to the point where I started to understand what makes for truly great golf course architecture. I spent untold hours reading the Courses by Country section and all of the reviews. I read about 10,000 of Tom Doak's posts, his Anatomy book, and listened to him in person on several occasions. I learned how C & C rocked the world of gca with Sand Hills and made Nicklaus, Fazion, Rees Jones, Greg Norman and others react. I walked three golf courses with George Bahto before he died. I played golf with Ran Morrissett at Bandon and watched him analyze a golf course, pick up his ball when a photograph was more important than finishing a hole... I read just about every post that Pat Mucci, Tom Paul, Wayne Morrison, Gib Papazion and fifty other great posters that I am forgetting in GCA.COM's early days when every course was a fresh new topic.
I really owed Nick the opportunity to progress from his current understanding of what is great. It is unfortunate that he does not like to fly. (I mean this in all sincerity. I have a ridiculous fear of heights; I respect all phobias.) He needs to go to Scotland and Ireland and experience true links golf. He needs to grasp the beauty, pleasure and frustration of being required to land the ball short of a green and hoping you can use the putter on the next shot. He needs to understand what really windy conditions are like, not the 10 mph that we call 25 mph...
I should know that this is a long, slow process for us Americans... I complained liked a spoiled brat the first time I went to Ireland when I was in my twenties. I hated the rock had turf that made my 60 degree wedge a useless instrument. The "fairways" were gross! Ugly, light brown, hard-packed excuses for fairways that would cause my country club members in the US to fire the Superintendent and run an opposition slate in the next Board elections (which has never happened in our history...)
I should have been as patient with Nick as I would have been with my own kids. He doesn't know what he does not know. I truly hope he can overcome his fear of flying. I truly hope he gets the chance to play golf in the UK and Ireland; perhaps Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, like I have. He needs to play TOC and have his caddy say on hole #2 "hit the nine" when "clearly" a 7 iron is the shot... Perhaps he'll hit a perfect 8 like I did and watch his caddy smirk when the ball flies into the swale and stops there. Perhaps he'll do that again later in the round, like I did, and then say to the caddy, "ok I'll hit whatever you tell me and let the ball roll through the swale." I know that would change his perspective on what is truly great about the game we play, as it did mine. Perhaps someday he will come to relish the randomness of a fortunate bounce, as well as the unfortunate bounce, and not complain when his "perfect shot" is not rewarded.
"You are young, that's your fault, there's so much you have to know. I was once like you are now and I know that its not easy..." Cat Stevens.
We should not give up on Nick, we should let his effusive praise of Bethpage go unchallenged, because if he hangs out here long enough and plays enough courses, the light bulb will go off.
"Some day we'll look back on this and it will all seem funny."
Cheers!