I'm amazed how some (sometimes all of us--I point a finger at even myself) on this website will go to great lengths to be less then courteous when posting.
Today, we lost a part of our original foundation. Not that this person had a financial interest in Golf Club Atlas, but he was the one that kept many of us together when we found ourselves without a home back in 1997, early 1998. I'll never forget the phone call.
"We can do this, it's really simple, you've got this site called Bravenet and they offer a free to use discussion group..." Five minutes later I was amazed as he commenced to enter his credit card number and push the enter key on his keyboard to reserve the name,
www.traditionalgolf.com. That friend was Mike Golden.
We were without a home up to that point, at sea without a ship--us golf course architecture enthusiasts. But Mike was different, Mike didn't know about golf architecture all that much and had not a problem admitting it. The one thing he did love Bethpage's Black Course. The conversations of that course took him in and he showed his gratitude by helping us get a home after Golfweb more or less ejected us for greener pastures. The internet was a brave new, but brutal world back then. It seems like it's gotten more brutal. Sometimes just downright ugly.
When Ran started Golf Club Atlas, it made much more sense to get it all going here, bringing our cast of misfits and architecture junkies from one club to the next--otherwise I feel most of us would have lost contact somehow, someway. That didn't happen because of Mike Golden which made it even harder to accept today when he emailed me telling me he deleted his GCA account.
So when simple disagreements that tend to become all-out wars, I tend to think we trip over ourselves. Such is the case of which I speak. I worship both parties involved, but can't partake in the nastiness. However I completely respect the great times you both have shared with me. I feel by not taking a side that both will view me as selling out. It's only golf course architecture but it just makes me want to scream.
That's why I'm selling out.
Since I think the decorum is not so hot and because this reminds me the most of how Golfweb sold us out to CBS Sportsline, I'm posting a listing of some--just some of my favorite products that I suggest you all try or use. They make really great products or provide really great services, although one of them might even be cancer causing, so don't hold me responsible.
Another proves that I give a
crap about what goes on at this website and the others have contributed to me being able to contribute to the content of this website; as well as get me to the places I need to get to that help me further contribute to this website.
Hopefully someone from one of the companies I've listed will appreciate it and send a check of any amount to:
Mr. Ran Morrissett
GolfClubAtlas.com
P.O. Box 2566
Southern Pines, NC 28388
United States of America
Thanks for this commercial interruption, you can now go back to killing one another, both spiritually and intellectually. Your all too smart for me. (or for your own good)