Hi Everyone,
Thanks for all the compliments, I really put a lot of time into that piece so I'm glad it seems to have hit a chord.
As for a few of the questions I've been asked,
-Comparisons with American courses aren't so easy. I've never seen a course in America that, on the whole, reminded me of a sandbelt course. Prairie Dunes is an interesting comparison. The greens themselves would be at home on the Sandbelt, but then they're surrounded by 3-inch rough. I've tried to imagine Prairie Dunes with the grass shaved for 20 yards around each green...whoa! Then you get back to the tees at PD and there aren't any options at all, because it's so narrow.
I really haven't seen courses in America comparable in terms of strategy, or the overall feel...there just aren't courses here, that I've seen, that share the same general characteristics. Not that I've seen them all! But I can't say to anyone, "You know, golf in the sandbelt is a lot like the front nine at so-and-so golf club." There just isn't anything I've seen here like that.
-As far as college, I'm on the golf team at OU and I will graduate in May. I have no idea what happens then...I'm looking at graduate schools (most likely in sport psychology), and jobs, and I'm considering almost every English-speaking country in the world - I seem to have the travel bug at the moment!
Things are so up-in-the-air for me, and to be honest it's a bit scary - but exciting, too. By the way, if anybody has a job available for either the summer or more long term, I think there's a good chance I will work for a year before I start anything else, and I don't have anything lined up yet.
-Before I came, I had heard of NSW, RM, KH, YY, Metro, Commonwealth because of you guys, Victoria sort of...I had maybe heard a few other names. I knew of the 6 or 7 sandbelt courses and not much else.
-Commonwealth was the biggest surprise both ways Chris, although I certainly got to know it better than the others. At first, I was surprised at some of the things that didn't quite fit...then by December, I was surprised at just how good of a course was "in there somewhere".
I'm happy to answer any more questions! One more comment I should add is that our Aussie GCA'ers have a really great understanding of their courses and their history, which is always good to see.