This is our first Feature Interview with someone in the head role of a golf architect society (we interviewed Rick Wolffe as an author). While it won't be our last as we expect to do ones with the Raynor and Travis Societies this year as well, it is fitting that the Donald Ross Society be the first as it is the largest in terms of members and I believe that it must be the oldest as well, being established in the late 1980s.
The concept of a society to educate and help protect a golf architect's work surely makes sense. In this case, a member of a Ross course has an immediate place to turn for information and guidance as to what other Ross clubs have done (both good and bad). In this month's Feature Interview , Walker Taylor, the president of the Donald Ross Society, provides specifics as to how the DRS interacts with individuals/clubs and some of the successful renovations where the DRS has played a helping role.
Though there are a several professional architects that are members of the DRS (including dues paying member Jack Nicklaus), the Society is far and away comprised of people from outside the golf industry. Sometimes the Society butts heads with various professional golf architects over proposed work to Ross courses - but can't that be a healthy situation?
Without doubt, there is a tremendous burden for any such Society to act responsibility or otherwise it is doing a disservice to one and all. Given that, can't such Societies be for the good of the game? Apart from comradery, can't they provide a helpful check and balance against proposed work to classic courses??
What are your thoughts on such societies? What are their responsibilities? What can make one like the DRS as effective as possible?
Cheers,