The 2023 Annual GCA Festivus Airing of Grievances

[Marty Bonnar]

Happy Festivus, one and all!
It’s that time again for you to express your ONE SINGLE grievance for this past year.


Mine is very simple this time:
I did not play - or even see - one new golf course in 2023.


Not one. Zilch, nowt, nada, nothing, nowhere. To be honest, I barely played much golf this year. I was out of action for about four months with my new hip post-op recovery. Coupled with the Scottish weather being shockingly wet’n’wild for much of the golf season, I’ve not been particularly keen to even get out there.


I need to play much more next year, although I will also be getting a new hip on the other side, so we’ll have to see how that pans out. Anyhey, that’s me for 2023. Have at it!


Love,
F.

[Cory Lewis]

Whenever I post a photo on social media, I always provide the name of the course and yet there's at least 1 person that always has to ask me:


1.Where is this? And


2. Is it public?


Heads up people, you all have Google!!! In the amount of time it takes you to ask me that question, you can google the answer!

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Discussions on the latest (US, UK&I, Europe, Public, etc.) top 100 golf course rankings. Can we ban them pleeeeeaase? 


There is usually no architectural discussion; it's mostly: "I can't believe course X is ranked 9 places higher than course Y". 

[Brian Finn]

GCA littered with off topic posts. Pro golf, rules of golf, equipment, and other posts not even close to architecture related. Please take that discussion to one of the many other golf sites.

[Jim Hoak]

I love this site.  Despite the occasional grade-school dust-ups which are beneath all of us, I love this site.  I feel honored and privileged to be able to voice my golf course architecture opinions and questions on here.  And, generally, have very intelligent people listen and respond in a professional, courteous way.
My only minor issue is to whomever is running the technical part of this site for Ran, Can we please stop being all shown as "Newbies"?  And can we get the Error notice below all posts removed?
Minor complaint, I know, but it's been there for months and is annoying to someone like me who likes things neat and orderly.

[Tommy Williamsen]

I am happy with the site and its content. I don't mind the occasional off-topic discussion. The top 100 discussions show the direction of golfing tastes and how architectural trends have changed.


My complaint is about my orthopedic health. In the last ten years, I have had an ACL repair, Spine surgery, Foot surgery, and hand surgery. Now my hip has many issues and will require surgery, as will my other hand. Every time the dr tells me it is either an overuse issue or arthritis. Every surgery puts me out of action for three to six months.

[Steve Lang]

I love this site.  Despite the occasional grade-school dust-ups which are beneath all of us, I love this site.  I feel honored and privileged to be able to voice my golf course architecture opinions and questions on here.  And, generally, have very intelligent people listen and respond in a professional, courteous way.
My only minor issue is to whomever is running the technical part of this site for Ran, Can we please stop being all shown as "Newbies"?  And can we get the Error notice below all posts removed?
Minor complaint, I know, but it's been there for months and is annoying to someone like me who likes things neat and orderly.

What Jim said, agree.


... and gee I guess I'm lucky (vs Marty) to have at least played 1 new course, Highland Pines, which is an anchor course for the like named master planned community, brought to you by the Tour 18 folks.   HP is the first new course in 10 yrs for the Houston area and is located in Porter, TX, just off 99 The Grand Parkway,  SE of The Woodlands & northwest of Kingwood.  The course is draped over some real topography in the San Jacinto River Basin. Big question is how it will survive hurricane related flood waters, though much of the course is on high ground.  PPPlaying with the intrepid Lou Duran, we found it long, fairly wide open, and with many big/active green complexes nested into the hillside slopes... plenty of variety presented on first play.  So it will get return play..

[Mike Hendren]

Belt notching on this site is an epidemic.  But then again it must be great to be great. I feel for the second hundred.


Also, maximalism masquerading as minimalism.

[Adam_Messix]

Also, maximalism masquerading as minimalism.

+1

[Kalen Braley]

Discussions on the latest (US, UK&I, Europe, Public, etc.) top 100 golf course rankings. Can we ban them pleeeeeaase? 


There is usually no architectural discussion; it's mostly: "I can't believe course X is ranked 9 places higher than course Y". 

I'm with you Donal,

If your favorite course has even made the list, its already #winning! No one cares if its allegedly 5 spots too low. 

P.S.  I'll skip past the Feats of Strength and wish for a Festivus Miracle while I'm here thou, in hopes that The Lurker will return to GCA...and soon.

[Ira Fishman]

This most definitely is a first world problem. We successfully balloted onto TOC after failing in 2019. I did not understand the course--or at least holes 2-6 and 12-16.


I probably will never be fortunate enough to play it again.

[Matt_Cohn]

When an attempted discussion of a particular architectural feature devolves into a long list of holes/courses where that feature is present.


Why yes, there are indeed many holes with a mound in front of the green or a bunker on the right! 

[Ian Andrew]

.

[MLevesque]

Way too many off-topic (OT) threads; let’s keep it on golf course architecture and label those threads properly (sorry that’s two grievances)

[Ken Moum]

Belt notching on this site is an epidemic.  But then again it must be great to be great. I feel for the second hundred.

I could complain about it here, but I spend too damned much time on Twitter (not calling it X, eff-em), which means I have been INUNDATED with people bragging about courses they've played.

[Jonathan Cummings]

Teach Randall to count beyond 147  ;-)

[John Kirk]

Never mind.  My original post was too grouchy.  I'm feeling the Christmas spirit this year, and I don't want anything to interfere with that.

[mike_malone]

Complaining  about a bunker placement because the land feeds the ball there for average golfers. This is particularly true when there is an advantage to taking on the bunker. Worse than that is that all your buddies agree!!!

[Tom_Doak]

I am tired of all the hype surrounding every new course.


I just want to do the work.  I don't want a camera in my face asking about my thoughts on how things are going, when I want to be working on the fourth green. 


They all want me to say their project is the best thing ever, but that's impossible to say [honestly] when you are working on 4-5 projects per year.  I'm not here to channel Tom Fazio and praise my clients' commitment to quality.


I've got some great projects in the works right now, but talk is cheap.  I just want to put my head down and make the most of them.  I might post about something occasionally when I'm genuinely excited about it, and that will probably happen more often the less I'm asked to do so.


And as for all those other new projects out there:  show me, don't tell me.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Thanks for that post, Tom. It means more when it comes from you.

[archie_struthers]

 


Given my age and golf course IQ I'm amazed when someone doesn't see my point of view!




[size=78%]Merry  Christmas all[/size]

[Ben Sims]

I just want people to be more comfortable and secure in *their* decisions as enthusiasts. Stop doing what everyone else is doing. Find your thing and be happy. 

[Pete_Pittock]

If you are replying to a post that has pictures, please delete the superfluous before you hit the enter button.

[Wayne_Kozun]

They all want me to say their project is the best thing ever, but that's impossible to say [honestly] when you are working on 4-5 projects per year.  I'm not here to channel Tom Fazio and praise my clients' commitment to quality.

Doesn't this go back to OTM as he is quote as saying something like "When the good Lord created this site he must have had gowf on his mind".

[Mike Worth]

Why isn’t there a LIKE button for each post