O/T-- Apology from Sam Kestin

[Sam Kestin]

Folks,

I’ve gotten a number of messages regarding the promotion of my website on GCA, and I want to take a minute to apologize to everyone for inadvertently stepping over the line. It was the last thing I had ever intended to do when I started posting on GCA.

This all started with the course guide I wrote about RCC…which I only tried to pass along to GCAers because I had seen how much you enjoyed the guide/photos of the Kingsley Club in Michigan (as well as all the other great profiles you’ve got up there). I thought, during the week of the Northern Trust, you all might enjoy a similar tour around Riviera.

Still, I was always uncomfortable with the idea of coming off at all like I was trying to direct traffic to my site. That was why I sent Mr. Morrissett an email asking if he wanted to host the guide in the “In My Opinion” or “Courses By Country” sections at GCA before I put word about the guide on the discussion board. I was hoping he would want to publish it—or at least know by my offering to have it displayed on GCA that I wasn’t posting about it for the purposes of driving my web traffic.

When I checked back to see what people thought about it, I was touched by some of the kind reactions I got. I’m not an accomplished writer by any stretch, so anytime anyone likes anything I write down it kinda moves me a little bit. It was important to me to answer the questions some people had about it, and one of the questions was about my site. As I’ve tried to do with any question anyone asks me on GCA (see the links below to my answers to questions about #8, talking about Griffith Park), I tried to answer his thoughtfully and thoroughly. Still, I hope you all can see my discomfort in talking too much about it--at the end, I apologize for “the shameless plug of AzaleaGolf.Com.”

What seems to be the thing that crossed the line was the contest I ran on Sunday about the final round of the Northern Trust…which I feel bad about because I stayed up literally all night on Saturday (part of a weekend in which I slept 2 of 72 hrs) coming up with it thinking two things at the time- 1) you guys would have fun with it and 2) giving away a box of personalized golf balls was a fun way to say “thanks for the encouragement.”

I thought the tournament would be a Phil blowout, so the thing was designed to keep the last few holes of the telecast interesting for everyone in case the drama at the event wasn’t all that it ended up being. Every question in the contest was about Riviera’s design/architecture or predicting what would happen later that afternoon…it wasn’t like “send us your email address and we’ll do a random drawing for who wins these golf balls.”   

I didn’t even think anyone would do it really since there was only a few hour window between the time I finished writing it and the time entries would have to close…so I thought I’d probably end up giving away the free golf balls to one of like the five or ten GCAers that did think it was interesting.

It wasn’t like this was supposed to be a good PR/marketing move by any stretch (spending $75 to elicit what I thought was ten entries…turned out to be five) --giving away a box of personalized golf balls to someone through a contest designed to keep the events at interesting just in case Phil threw up another 63 just seemed like a nice way to give a little something back to the people who had been so generous and nice with their time in reading the RCC guide and giving me their input about it. John Vander Borght ended up winning…only because Phil hit three-wood on 18.

Had I titled the topic a little differently, maybe it wouldn’t have come off quite so much like I was trying to run an infomercial for my site on GCA.

Anyway, I’m really sorry…I hope you all see that the commercialization/promotion aspect was completely inadvertent and certainly not at the heart of what I was doing at GCA this weekend.

That having been said, I’ll swear on my life that you won’t see the word AzaleaGolf on GCA again, as it’s important to me that everyone know that my only motivation for participating is to try and contribute whatever I can to GCA and not to try and capitalize off of it.

Sam


http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,38694.0.html

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,38691.0.html

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,38292.0.html

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,38702.0.html

[Sean_A]

Sam

Don't beat yourself up too much.  The important thing is that you contributed a significant resource on a great course for all to enjoy.  We are all big boys and can easily filter out the aspects that may be construed as self promotion.  I for one hope we get to see another Insider's Guide.

Ciao 

[Joe Hancock]

Sam,

I'm sorry if I haven't followed all of your posts, but I'm guessing this was a first time "offense". If so, I would take it that someone IM'd you as a courtesy to inform you of website policy. I hope they were polite and helpful about it.

If the messages were anything stronger than that, they were just being a self-appointed webcop. I assure you most of us had no reaction of "self promotion" after reading your post.

No worries, and thanks for posting this clarification.

Joe

[Rich Goodale]

What Joe said, and, BTW.....

....this thread made me look at your other threads.  Brilliant marketing ploy!  I'm calling it The Mea Culpa Conjecture in my next book....

[Bill_McBride]

What Joe said, and, BTW.....

....this thread made me look at your other threads.  Brilliant marketing ploy!  I'm calling it The Mea Culpa Conjecture in my next book....

Funny, Rich, I already thought that's what all your remarks concerning "The XXX Experience" were about!     It certainly hasn't taken away from the "experience" of learning more about those courses.

Sam, I for one have appreciated your thoughts about Riviera, a course I didn't know enough about and really enjoyed seeing for the first time last week.  I hope you will ask Ran to let you post your Riviera guide as either an "In My Opinion" or "My Home Course" piece.  Thanks.

[Lou_Duran]

Rich Goodale,

Hardly a novel approach, though I am sure it was not Mr. Kestin's intent.  Hollywood types, even a few politicians, have been known to sin, act contrite, and reap hughe media rewards.

To all,

As one of "THE USUAL SUSPECTS", it seems that we have an abundance of well-intended participants who seem to have keen sensitivities to a variety of supposed improprieties and a peculiarly convenient definition of O/T.  Until Ran and Ben deputizes some or all of us, might we just let things be?  Personally, I don't like the foul language that appears here occasionally, but I am not compelled to expose the malcreants for their poor manners.  More content is good.  So is discretion.  Both should be encouraged.  Come to think of it, I would make an excellent ombudsman for the site should Ran wish to give me the keys to the access control matrix.

[JohnV]

I won!  That's two weeks in a row.  I picked Dustin Johnson in the season long PGA Tour pool I'm in.  I think it is time to buy a lottery ticket.

[Sam Kestin]

Mr. Moran-

Well done, sir...should have said you won't see it posted by me!

On an unrelated, but probably more GCA-germane note (from the grave)...

I played your layout at the Club @ Morgan Hill on my drive cross country from NYC to LA this past summer...and I've maybe never been more disappointed in a round of golf in my whole life.........because it seemed like every shot I loved in the air turned out to be god-awful! I don't think I picked the right club once all day! The elevation changes just beat me like a rented mule from start to finish. I thought I might have double-eagled the first to the front-right pin, but watched in horror as the ball landed about 8 inches on the green and bounced over into the hazard...five shots later, I thought "maybe middle of the green woulda been a good idea."

Irrespective of how I performed out there, it was a fantastic track, a beautiful place and you really did a great job with it. When you say on your website that yours is a "land-based" approach, you surely aren't blowing smoke. The place is routed across the property beautifully. I can't wait to get a second crack at it. In the meantime, you can count on me going out of my way on any future drives cross-country to check out the couple of public layouts you've got spread across the USA.

Sam