A brief thanks to Mr. Anonymous

[Peter Pallotta]

I'm not sure we've done this in a while - a thank you to the unknown and lesser known designers who've laid out courses that provide pleasure and challenge and a pleasant environment at a modest cost.

I'm halfway through a move with my family from my home town (city) to a much smaller town, and I played my first round of the year at the 90 year old, 9 hole local course. (It's always been 9 holes; it used to be private, now public).  I couldn't find the name of the designer anywhere, but I think it might've been the head pro and a commitee way back in 1912. The course was a pleasure to play, and a lovely place to be. A very rolling site, clay-based but with excellent drainage, maybe 6100 yards (if you played it twice, from different tees), it was all downhill and uphill and sidehill lies, with small greens and simple bunkering, with back to back Par 5s (one long, the next short) followed by back to back Par 3s (one short, the next long), and a patio with plastic chairs and tables nestled snugly between the putting green and the first tee.

An enjoyable round, an easy walk even with all the hills, unassuming but very 'golfy' golf -- in short, I was grateful to find it, and to find it about 10 minutes from my home. I can imagine the thousands of people (tens of thousands) who have enjoyed themselves and the course over the decades. Thanks to Mr. Anonymous; you did real good.

Peter
   

[Mike_Young]

Mr anonymous is the key to getting golf back to where it belongs....

[Peter Pallotta]

Mike - yes, when I finished playing and was driving home, I thought pretty much exactly that. I had such a nice time that I was probably a little sentimental, but I felt kind of foolish for focusing so much on "the best of the best" on this site when in reality most of the golf played -- and most of what I'll ever play -- is on courses like this one. I played with a couple in their fifties; ahead of us, in carts, was a foursome of older gentlemen, and on the tee when I finished was a 15 year old and maybe his 12 year old brother. It was very nice. Ironically, I think my time on golf club atlas has helped me appreciate this type of course more, not less. My eyes are a little more open, and I notice interesting and quality design features, even if they're there 'by accident' (eg technology has made a Par 4 into an interesting "short par 4").

Anyway, you've mentioned these type of courses often as the ones where golf is being played and which deserve more respect, and so your post didn't surprise me. Unfortunately, these are the very courses that seem to struggle most when times get tough (but hopefully this one has another 90 years to go).   

Peter

[Mike_Young]

Peter,
I am not so sure they struggle the most in hard times.  As an architect I am grateful for the notoriety and increase in fees that the signatures have created.....BUt in so doing they created monsters that were fueled by Real Estate and not golf course business models that operated on golf revenues. 
I see plenty of such courses as you mention that do well but no one will ever know it...why?  Why would the owner want them too.....plus...their business is mainly local and they have no reason to promote themselves to others outside that area.....so others will think they are struggling.
An operator once told me that a sure sign a course was in trouble was when you saw then start advertising in the golf publications for the area.  The ones you never heard of were doing fine.....
Mike

[Ron Farris]

Mr. Anonymous is the key to getting golf back to where it belongs....


I have had the pleasure of being a Mr. Anonymous and I am in discussion to do another Mr. Anonymous project in flyover country.



It is interesting that people who are members of a Mr. Anonymous golf courses often refuse to pay $300 or more for an annual fee.  However, they are often the first people to run off to Bandon, Pebble, and other high-end places and drop twice that for 1 round of golf.  The great thing about Mr. Anonymous is that it was often a group of volunteers who came together on work nights to build such courses.  Anonymous courses were the foundation of my golf game and the heart of my passion for the game.

I also applaud Mr. Anonymous!

[Tony_Chapman]

Amen, all. Peter thanks for this topic. Growing up in Central Nebraska, every course in our fine state (up until Mr. Youngscap) was done by a Mr. Anonymous (except maybe a few I could count on one hand). But, it taught us the game, taught us respect, let us have fun with our dads while the sun went down on the horizon on a summer night.

I've done a MHC on my home course in Nebraska. It is much like this. A 6,000 yard, par-70 that won't ever win an award. Yet, in our annual amateur we have every year you couldn't find anyone in the championship flight that wouldn't take 140 and watch.

I'm currently researching our course in depth to try to give them a club history. In one hour at the library, I found four articles on the "newly formed" country club from 1919. Awesome stuff!!

[Peter Pallotta]

Mike,  thanks, that makes sense and I hope it's true.

Ron - yes, like the old song says, "don't it alway seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone, they paved paradise, put up a parking lot".

Tony - I'm happy for you. I've played this course once and I already want to make it my (first) 'home club'.  It just feels like the kind of place that should be a home club.

Peter

[Mike_Young]

Another interesting development with many of these anonymous courses is the trend of trying to find where one of the famous ODG's was there for a day so that it can be promoted as such and next thing you know.....well you can imagine...

[Tony_Chapman]

Another interesting development with many of these anonymous courses is the trend of trying to find where one of the famous ODG's was there for a day so that it can be promoted as such and next thing you know.....well you can imagine...

Hilarious! Our course was done as follows: Mr. Anonymous (1919 -- 9 holes), the superintendent (3 holes -- 1987) and Jim Engh (6 holes -- 1988).

[Adam Clayman]

Tony, I seem to recall Jim mentioning the 3 holes were built by guys from LU.
Having played today Mr. Youngscap's Lincoln course, I wondered how much influence that course had in inspiring the project in Mullen. The site has so much site specific natural beauty, it easy to see how it led to a desire for more.

[RJ_Daley]

In my part of the country, we have a Mr Anonymous and his name is Art Johnson.  He did about >30 courses you never heard of, but are enjoyed by the locals.  I think most every region of the country does have a regional archie that quietly goes about planting seeds like Johnny Appleseed. 

I got a great couple stories about old Art, who is far more crumugeonly and irrascible than Mucci and Paul put together, but I can't tell them on internet.  He did first turn me on to going to the GCSAA convention and joining and taking their continuing ed courses.  All the while we were in Vegas at the convention, Art was miserable.  He damn near puked when Wynn and Faz gave their dog and pony presentation along with Wadsworth, on the Shadow Creek project.  It was so funny because he really just wanted to see the new pipe and turf management gizmos on the convention floor, but was miserable sitting through the archie presentations, including one by Perry Dye and Alice.  He thinks all of them are a bunch of prima donnas.  I never saw a man more miserable sitting through the lectures, not even a sinner during a boring sermon in church on a hot and humid Sunday morn. 

I took Art to Ceaser's nice Italian restaurant as a thank you for getting me into the arena or world of GCSAA and his walking several properties with me giving me ideas and what was possible to do.  What he did at dinner is too funny and the part I can't tell... 

[Jim Thompson]

Another interesting development with many of these anonymous courses is the trend of trying to find where one of the famous ODG's was there for a day so that it can be promoted as such and next thing you know.....well you can imagine...

Mike,

I promise to throw your name in the hat every time an unassigned course comes up.  For years my answer has been the famous Bernard J. Foonam.  A fellow of infinite angles created by a fellow Walter Mitty type (think retired educator now bartender who loves to pull the legs of the worlds most gullible).  We even made up a full line of tales about BJ Foonman at the first course I worked at and named the employee tournament after him.  A classic he is, you'll fit right in!

JT