Imagine where Doak would be today if he had built the Red course so early in his career next to Sand Hills. Jack took one for the team.
I can’t really imagine being in a better place than I am, but FYI, I did interview with the original partners to do the first course at Dismal.
I liked those guys, but they had a fellow working for them who was adamant that hiring Jack and doing a road show to sell memberships in the Midwest was their path to success. They offered to sign me up for their second course back then.
So, I pivoted back and told the O’Neal brothers I thought their land was better and I would rather work for them, but they needed to get their project going if they wanted me to not sign up for Dismal.
Ironically Dismal came back to me years later after both projects were under new ownership. So overall I’d say it worked out better than I could have imagined. But it would have been really sweet if either of them had paid me in full.