After the PGA I posted about seeing Tiger live. Last Friday we had a consulting architect out to our course.We are located about 15 minutes from Merion.
As we stood in the left rough of our #5 hole discussing widening the fairway here comes Wayne Morrison with Mark Rowlinson in one "buggy" and Mr. Tom Paul in another.
One of of our four or five members present said "This is a problem!" I said "It could be fun."
It took Tom about 35 seconds to ask his first question. It went something like this ."What are the strategic benefits to moving the fairway left?" He then engaged the architect and all comers in a lively exchange.
As we moved to the #7 hole, I approached him and said "Speak when you are spoken to." I knew that was impossible for him but I just wanted to set him off a little.
As we moved to the landing area of the hole the "widening" of the left fairway discussion continued along with the question of evergreen removal on the right. The phrase "ideal maintenance meld" had its first utterance.
We did not discus the MorrPaul bunker as a group.
On to #8 tee and Tom is now "warmed up". We discussed the view from the proposed new tee, widening the fairway to the right, the "beautiful diagonal" of the creek,etc.
I ,for one, was having a blast. I'm not too sure how some of our members felt about this interloper. At the end ,the architect, Tom, me, and one of the members had lunch. This member is willing to hear input from anywhere if it can help our course. He certainly seemed to appreciate Tom.
Maybe someday Tom Paul will drop into your club and lend his advice--whether you want it or not
