If Only I Had Known...

[Rich Thomas]

Is there a course that you have played or had the chance to play that at the time, you did not know the significance of it?


For me, it was back in 2004. I was a senior playing for my college golf team and we won our conference tournament earning a spot in one of the 3 NCAA Regional Tournaments. Back then, I was just more focused on playing than anything else to even realize the significance of the courses. Our team got assigned to play at the Purdue regional site on the Kampen Course by Pete Dye. The other options we could have had were Yale and Bandon Dunes. If only I knew then what I know now about the architecture and history, I would have much rather played either of those two courses.

[Kevin_Reilly]

The home course for my high school golf team was SFGC (for a few fortunate years).   To me, then, it was a nice improvement over the courses used by the other Catholic SF high schools (Lincoln and Sharp Park), and on par with other courses in our league (Peninsula CC for Serra HS, Sharon Heights for St Francis HS, La Rinconada and Los Altos CC for Bellarmine). 


I didn't appreciate SF Club as much as I should have.


But even then, I knew that Tularcitos (now called Summitpointe, I think) in Milpitas, the home course of Archbishop Mitty HS, was terrible.

[Tommy Williamsen]

Some thirty years ago I was playing in the Chicago area and the pro at one of the clubs asked if we were playing Shoreacres. The answer was, “No.” I really didn’t know much about it. It took only a few holes before I knew it was something special.

[Ira Fishman]

Perhaps the opposite reality: I played probably a hundred rounds at Bryn Mawr outside Chicago. I had no idea that it is a Langford/Moreau. After learning it, I still think it is nothing special. The Chicagoans here have informed me that the restoration makes all of the difference, but I am skeptical.

[Pat Burke]

As much as I loved golf course design as a kid, drawing courses, imagining how I’d change holes, etc.


Growing up in NJ as a kid, I loved the new courses I experienced but did not understand that places like Hollywood, Essex County, Forsgate, Montclair, whippoorwill etc
Were important parts of golf history


I loved them but was too young to fully grasp how lucky I was!

[Matthew Rose]

I lived in Wisconsin for nearly 20 years and never played Lawsonia.

[Tim Leahy]

The home course for my high school golf team was SFGC (for a few fortunate years).   To me, then, it was a nice improvement over the courses used by the other Catholic SF high schools (Lincoln and Sharp Park), and on par with other courses in our league (Peninsula CC for Serra HS, Sharon Heights for St Francis HS, La Rinconada and Los Altos CC for Bellarmine).

I didn't appreciate SF Club as much as I should have.
But even then, I knew that Tularcitos (now called Summitpointe, I think) in Milpitas, the home course of Archbishop Mitty HS, was terrible.

My junior year at Pepperdine I was first alternate for the league tournament at SFCC scheduled a month after our last trimester ended. I went home to Sacramento disappointed I didn't make the tournament team. One of our top 6 got sick at the last minute. This was pre-cellphone and the coach didn't have my home phone so he took the guy behind me.
I still have never played SFCC or any other Tilly course.

[Jeff Schley]

One of my cousins at our annual family reunion hosted the event up in Highland Park, north of Chicago. We just knew them as the rich cousins really. I remember that I was a kid maybe 10 years old and only hit the ball around on the driving range a few times previously, when I wandered into their garage and found his golf clubs. He had a huge towel on his bag that said, I thought, Green Acres; where I thought wow the TV show. I was with another cousin and we started swinging them in the garage as there was one car in and one out. My other cousin hit the concrete floor with his driver and it snapped the shaft. Aside from crapping my pants, we both looked at each other and our first instinct?  Run of course.
When this cousin passed away, my dad said he was a good golfer and I remembered this golf incident in his garage. I was living away from the US and couldn't make it back for services so I called his wife, and told her the story with a laugh. It was on that call I learned he was a member at both Shoreacres (not Green Acres) and Oakmont as he was in the steel business. 

[JohnVDB]

But even then, I knew that Tularcitos (now called Summitpointe, I think) in Milpitas, the home course of Archbishop Mitty HS, was terrible.

My parents were members there in its first incarnation when it was called something like Mission Hills back in the 60s. Fortunately they moved to San Jose Country Club later.

[Peter Sayegh]

Anderson Country Club. Played it maybe forty times and always loved it.
Through GCA, found out Bendelow may be significant.

[Mark Mammel]

I grew up in Hutchinson, Kansas playing at Prairie Dunes. As far as I knew, that was what golf courses were like. When my family moved away when I was 12, I found out I was wrong! Mostly, I was happy that other courses didn't have gunch. As time went on, I realized they also didn't have Maxwell greens.

[Rich Thomas]

The home course for my high school golf team was SFGC (for a few fortunate years).   To me, then, it was a nice improvement over the courses used by the other Catholic SF high schools (Lincoln and Sharp Park), and on par with other courses in our league (Peninsula CC for Serra HS, Sharon Heights for St Francis HS, La Rinconada and Los Altos CC for Bellarmine).

I didn't appreciate SF Club as much as I should have.
But even then, I knew that Tularcitos (now called Summitpointe, I think) in Milpitas, the home course of Archbishop Mitty HS, was terrible.

My junior year at Pepperdine I was first alternate for the league tournament at SFCC scheduled a month after our last trimester ended. I went home to Sacramento disappointed I didn't make the tournament team. One of our top 6 got sick at the last minute. This was pre-cellphone and the coach didn't have my home phone so he took the guy behind me.
I still have never played SFCC or any other Tilly course.

That's rough...

[Rich Thomas]

As much as I loved golf course design as a kid, drawing courses, imagining how I’d change holes, etc.


Growing up in NJ as a kid, I loved the new courses I experienced but did not understand that places like Hollywood, Essex County, Forsgate, Montclair, whippoorwill etc
Were important parts of golf history


I loved them but was too young to fully grasp how lucky I was!

Unfortunately, I haven't lived out east and had the opportunity to experience any of that old golf history. Ya'll out east are lucky with that aspect if you have the connections to get on those places.

[Mark Kiely]

The home course for my high school golf team was SFGC (for a few fortunate years).   To me, then, it was a nice improvement over the courses used by the other Catholic SF high schools (Lincoln and Sharp Park), and on par with other courses in our league (Peninsula CC for Serra HS, Sharon Heights for St Francis HS, La Rinconada and Los Altos CC for Bellarmine). 


I didn't appreciate SF Club as much as I should have.

Isn't this sort of the ideal that gets alluded to in other threads complaining about the impact of rankings and influencers? To be able to play a course with no sense of its history, exclusivity, and elevated expectations sounds like the purest way to gauge how much you really enjoy it.

[James Brown]

My father continually reminds me that when I was 14 (and didn’t play golf yet) that on a family trip to California we drove the 17 mile drive and stopped at Pebble and that I had zero interest in walking out to look at the 18th green.  Always regretted that.

[Thomas Dai]

Cruden Bay. When I initially pitched-up and enjoyed a long stretch of years there, a time that now seems like a zillion years ago, I didn’t appreciate its pedigree and place in history. Mind other than Tom D and a few others not many non-Doric accents had been heard in the area and publicity, especially of the social media variety, was decades way. “Fit like?”!
Atb

[Peter Sayegh]

Isn't this sort of the ideal that gets alluded to in other threads complaining about the impact of rankings and influencers? To be able to play a course with no sense of its history, exclusivity, and elevated expectations sounds like the purest way to gauge how much you really enjoy it.

I agree Mark.

If only had I known the courses that I played and enjoyed would become NLE/renovations, I'm sure I woulda visited them more often.

[John Blain]

Is there a course that you have played or had the chance to play that at the time, you did not know the significance of it?


For me, it was back in 2004. I was a senior playing for my college golf team and we won our conference tournament earning a spot in one of the 3 NCAA Regional Tournaments. Back then, I was just more focused on playing than anything else to even realize the significance of the courses. Our team got assigned to play at the Purdue regional site on the Kampen Course by Pete Dye. The other options we could have had were Yale and Bandon Dunes. If only I knew then what I know now about the architecture and history, I would have much rather played either of those two courses.

The 2004 NCAA West Regional was not at Bandon Dunes it was at Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, Oregon.

[John Blain]

The home course for my high school golf team was SFGC (for a few fortunate years).   To me, then, it was a nice improvement over the courses used by the other Catholic SF high schools (Lincoln and Sharp Park), and on par with other courses in our league (Peninsula CC for Serra HS, Sharon Heights for St Francis HS, La Rinconada and Los Altos CC for Bellarmine).

I didn't appreciate SF Club as much as I should have.
But even then, I knew that Tularcitos (now called Summitpointe, I think) in Milpitas, the home course of Archbishop Mitty HS, was terrible.

My junior year at Pepperdine I was first alternate for the league tournament at SFCC scheduled a month after our last trimester ended. I went home to Sacramento disappointed I didn't make the tournament team. One of our top 6 got sick at the last minute. This was pre-cellphone and the coach didn't have my home phone so he took the guy behind me.
I still have never played SFCC or any other Tilly course.

SFCC?  Never heard of it.  San Francisco Golf Club.

[Dave Doxey]

I first played at age 5, tagging along in the evenings with my father at a 9 hole course in Mechanicville, NY.  I played there until age 15.   We then moved to Rye NY and joined the Rye golf course, where I played until age 22.  I got lessons there from Craig Shankland, who later was recognized as a top instructor by golf magazines.  I never realized until I started reading GolfClubAtlas that I’d learned the game and spent my first 17 years of golf at courses designed by Devereux Emmet. With those courses and a top instructor, I had a great start to the game.  Too bad I didn't make much out of it.

[cary lichtenstein]

I played a course in Florida called Mission Inn and fell in love with it as I played it, I had no advance knowledge how good this course was,

[Rich Thomas]

Is there a course that you have played or had the chance to play that at the time, you did not know the significance of it?


For me, it was back in 2004. I was a senior playing for my college golf team and we won our conference tournament earning a spot in one of the 3 NCAA Regional Tournaments. Back then, I was just more focused on playing than anything else to even realize the significance of the courses. Our team got assigned to play at the Purdue regional site on the Kampen Course by Pete Dye. The other options we could have had were Yale and Bandon Dunes. If only I knew then what I know now about the architecture and history, I would have much rather played either of those two courses.

The 2004 NCAA West Regional was not at Bandon Dunes it was at Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, Oregon.

You are right...I just looked it up. I swore it was at Bandon. I guess that is the result of turning 40. Don't remember things like I used to.

[Pete_Pittock]

Hands down it was North Berwick (West) in 1975. Coming in it was just a filler on a tour itinerary. Immediately mid-blowing, which for me isn't too hard.

[Richard DeMenna]

For me it was The Maidstone back at the same time when I played at NGLA in the early eighties. That would have been a nice daily double! I guess I was barely smart enough to accept the NGLA invitation. The notoriety of The Maidstone, like NGLA, was certainly familiar to me at the time. Regrettably I did not pursue the invite.   It was not a once in a lifetime opportunity either. One of my coworkers at the time husband was on the grounds crew!

[Tim Martin]

I remember playing Piping Rock in the early to mid 1980’s and had no idea of the significance of the course, designer or area despite growing up across the sound in Connecticut.