Slightly OT--Original Posters

[Ira Fishman]

In reading the warm and personal messages about Rich Goodale, it struck me how many people have been on Gca.com from virtually (no pun intended) the beginning and how those original posters are the core of this community.  I found the site a few years ago when looking for information before a trip to Pine Needles and discovered Courses by Country.  By then, the site had a lot of content across all of its categories so it was natural it popped up even though Ran clearly never thought much about SEO.  But Gca.com could not have had much content at the beginning which was not far from the beginning of the World Wide Web itself when the Web was hardly the go-to place for information.


So for you longtime posters, how did you locate gca.com back in the day?


Thanks.


Ira


PS If there is a thread that covers this topic, my apologies--I could not find it.

[Sean_A]

Ira

I found GCA.com by complete accident in November 2004. I was looking for information on Painswick after playing it a few times. I think folks on the site had just held an event at Painswick so it was getting internet action. When Ran discovered I was a member of Pennard he asked me to join the site later in the month.

Ciao

[jeffwarne]

I found GCA.com in 2002 in response to a query from my owner about the vitriolic thread about The Bridge.
Lurked for awhile.

Joined in 2004-played in 2004 Dixie Cup with my old friend Shooter who still lurks I believe


had the honer of joining Rich Goodale for a round at Panmure several years ago
RIP

[A.G._Crockett]

I joined in 2002 after reading an article about the site somewhere or other; my memory is that it was in Sports Illustrated, of all places, but I'm just not sure now.
Those were great days, with some brilliant, passionate, and knowledgeable people who are long gone now from the site for a variety of reasons.  I learned more faster than I ever imagined possible.

[Tommy Williamsen]

I was making a trip to England in 2002 and googled courses in Devon and Cornwall and up popped GCA. I couldn't believe that there was a website that discussed golf architecture. In Feb 2003 I asked to join and Ran included me on the on the membership list.

[Evan Fleisher]

Was with this group from virtually the beginning...1997 / 1998?  Was taking my first (and to date only) trip to Scotland and stumbled upon the group at Golf Online's "Grillroom".  From there, a rouge group broke-off and through a few website iterations finally become GCA.


Have always enjoyed this place and all the people met over those 20+ years!

[John Kavanaugh]

Brad Klein asked me to proof read an article he was writing for Golfweek. While fact checking I found Ran's write up on Victoria National.


Or maybe not. One of the above is true.


Finally met Brad at the GCSAA convention in Orlando Close to 20 years ago. Met The Friedegg at PD just last month. While the golf world and how it is reported has gone through many changes in the years we have been on GCA one thing will never change. Ran is the only golf influencer with a genuine affection for the opinions of idiots like me.

[Eric Smith]

Ran is the only golf influencer with a genuine affection for the opinions of idiots like me.

John,


Sew a Burning Cart on your MacKenzie bag and on your death bed you will receive total consciousness. #woke

[Kalen Braley]

I found it in 2006 when doing an internet search on golf course architecture.  Given the lack of anything else at the time, this site was a revelation.  To this day I greatly appreciate both being a member and how much I've been able to learn about gca and related topics.

[Jason Topp]

Like many others, I found the site researching a trip - Lahinch - 2004. 


I did not discover the discussion group until well after that point and joined in December of that year. 

[Brad Tufts]

The Course Profiles first attracted me when I was in college...this was fall/winter 2001-2002.

[Tim_Weiman]

Tommy Naccarato encouraged me to move from Traditionalgolf.com, circa 1997 if I remember correctly.


Looking back I would have to credit Ran for making GCA the excellent site that it is.

[John Kavanaugh]

Tim,


Did Tommy know that you were a member of a Fazio or did that come post 97? There was a time when you and me were brothers from another bunker.

[Pete_Pittock]

knew John vander Borght via doing golf rules, he listened to my travel stories and suggested Traditionalgolf, which morphed into gca.com. Late nineties. Then Tommy came up to Oregon on vacation. Met Tim and about 8 others at a Traverse City, MI  get-together with High Pointe, Crystal Downs, Arcadia Bluffs and a Kingsley Club grow in tour on the menu. I guess that was the precursor to the Dixie Cup, King's Putter, Buda and Mashie. About the time Golfweek had started its climb.

[Terry Lavin]

I joined in 2002 after hosting Ran, Mike Keiser and others at Olympia Fields

[Tim_Weiman]

Tim,


Did Tommy know that you were a member of a Fazio or did that come post 97? There was a time when you and me were brothers from another bunker.

John,


I joined Sand Ridge before the course opened. So, yes, Tommy knew.


But, we did talk more about time spent at the Ralph Miller Library in Industry, CA. Industry Hills golf course was an oil industry hang out, so I was there quite a few times (1989 - 1995). Wish I had met Tommy then.

[Ted Sturges]

So...this goes back to the beginning of my friendship with Ran.  I was living in Evansville, IN at the time (this is before email was invented...early 90's).  I'm friends at that time with Tom Egan, may he rest in peace.  Tom and Ran used to work at the USGA together and Tom says, "I have a friend named Ran Morrissett, and you and he have a lot in common...you need to know each other."  So Tom gives me Ran's snail mail address (in Australia).  I write him and introduce myself and we basically become "pen pals".  Ran had compiled a world top 100 list at that point in time (I have a copy of this list, and I'm sworn to never publish it to protect the innocent...let's just say Ran's tastes have improved since then).  Ran had begun writing up course reviews on paper with the help of his brother John. He had started sharing them with friends, including me.  They were very good and then he met someone who got him thinking about making a website to push out this sort of content.  This was in the very early days of the web.  A few months after that he calls me and tells me to go to the newly created website.  I was among the first 5 or 6 people on the site.  Bruce Hepner referred to that early group as the "GCA ratpack".  As I recall it was Tommy Nacarrato, TPaul, Ran, John Morrissett, Tom MacWood, myself and a handful of others.  Obviously the site grew and grew.  Ran was featured in Sports Illustrated at one point, and he definitely got a bump from that.  In a circle of life thing, I end up getting Tom Egan involved in the site, and back in the day you could register under an anonymous name (there were lots of them...Ran ended up putting a stop to that).  So...Tom Egan became the famous (infamous) Dr. Katz.  Brings back some really fun memories.


Ran didn't have the content back then that he has today.  The main draw was the discussion group.  It was my first experience of people saying something in a web-based chat room that they would never have the audacity to say to someone's face.  It was fun, but it was brutal at times.  I don't post as much as I used to...more of a lurker these days.  But this site has taken me to some interesting places and helped me make friends I would have never made.  I'll never forget meeting Tommy Nacarrato for the first time (at the Renaissance Cup at Apache Stronghold) or being paired with Tom MacWood (he of the logo-less golf shirt) at a gathering at Lost Dunes. 


Thanks Ran for all of it.


TS

[Ken Fry]

In 1999 I watched a course construction crew member frantically type a viscous response to something someone posted on some discussion board while the architect bemusedly watched on.

Thanks to them I've been, for the most part, quietly here ever since.

Ken

[Tim Gavrich]

I came to GCA by way of a NLE equipment forum called bombsquadgolf.com. Geoffrey Childs had posted a link to the writeup of Yale. I clicked on it read through it and probably spent 4 hours reading the other profiles and looking at the photos and some of the discussions. I emailed Ran and he let me join. I just checked and I joined on Sept. 11, 2005, about a month before my 16th birthday. Very grateful for this place.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

I ventured onto GCA around 2005 while surfing the net looking for golf clubs to buy online. I was amazed to find this review of Walnut Lane GC , a muni in Philadelphia, that was my home course in law school.
https://golfclubatlas.com/courses-by-country/usa/walnut-lane/


I made a comment that NLE about this ragged muni being surrounded by much more famous and highly rated courses. I joined and enjoyed many meetings with other members, on and off the golf course,including the Cobbs Creek project,  and participated in the infamous North Shore discussion, eventually winding up being quoted in the Wall Street Journal.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704207504575129910042526320


Of course, I learned a lot about golf course architecture and followed the new course construction era until the " Great Recession" and the current renovation/restoration craze. Now, I'm also interested in business side of golf.

[mike_malone]

 I believe it was 2004 when a friend emailed me a post about Rolling Green on the site . I joined to rebut Tom Paul calling us a member course.

[John Kavanaugh]

I came to GCA by way of a NLE equipment forum called bombsquadgolf.com. Geoffrey Childs had posted a link to the writeup of Yale. I clicked on it read through it and probably spent 4 hours reading the other profiles and looking at the photos and some of the discussions. I emailed Ran and he let me join. I just checked and I joined on Sept. 11, 2005, about a month before my 16th birthday. Very grateful for this place.

CG7. He was a real sweetheart on BSQD.

[SL_Solow]

My home course was struck by a microburst in the spring of 2000.  At the time I was the greens chair and became club President that fall so I was involved in the reconstruction/revision.  Mark Mungeam recognized my interest in architecture and recommended that I check out the site.  Ran was kind enough to let me join in 2001 and I have enjoyed discussing the topic ever since.

[James Bennett]

I joined formally in January 2005.
At the time, I was Course Chair at my previous club, and we had decided on Mike Clayton and team to do a Master Plan for our course (it was a good Plan, but the Club's association with Clayton finished with a change of President and my unplanned escape from the commitment often involved in being a Course Chair).
As per Mike's typical education element, he provided links to good internet sites and books.I bought Doak's 'Anatomy of a Golf Course (what a book that is!).I visited GCA.com as a lurker, and was taken by the course reviews and the articles.I had little interest in the Discussion Group initially, but that changed when I formally joined GCA.Lots of discussions on turf, irrigation, trees and minimalism/value for money.
I was blessed with contact from other Australians interested in GCA which continues today, including meeting one of my best friends (Terry).I was lucky via some American friends to have a dream trip in 2006, and see the variety of golf course and golf club styles from low cost public to high-end member courses.In 2007, I enjoyed the Reverse Old Course event with other American friends, and the preceding East Lothian games with some British friends (thank you Tony M).
GCA.com was a key changes in the direction of my golf life.
I look forward to seeing my old acquaintances again one day, either here in OZ, or there on the other side of the Oceans.I am thankful for having met some of our now-departed legends.
James B

[David_Elvins]

There was a Pac Dunes article in 2001 that referenced Golfclubatlas that led me here.  I think a few others as well.


Life changing.