The Carthage Club, as described in the Courses by Country section, is my ideal of a course/club. I wrote the profile in 2001 but not much has happened since to make it into a reality with the exception that I did move from Australia to the Sand Hills of North Carolina where I always figured The Carthage Club would be formed.

The more I am away from Australia, and the less I have been to England, the more The Carthage Club grows in appeal. By that, I mean The Carthage Club is back to a bare-knuckles kind of golf, much simpler in form than all the clutter/expense that is choking the game today. Perhaps picture The Carthage Club as a cross between Wild Horse and Royal Worlington & Newmarket (neither of which –tragically   - I’ve seen!).

Total land/construction/clubhouse cost will be  ~ $6,000,000 , supporting an initiation fee of $20,000 for the 250 members plus a round table group of 10 club founders.

Anyway, with plenty of non-golf distractions including adding another baby to the Morrissett household, the only time I ever really talk about The Carthage Club has been with golf architect Mike Nuzzo at each of the last three annual GolfClubAtlas.com gatherings. As we scripted out the questions for his Feature Interview at Casa de Campo in March this year, Mike asked if The Carthage Club was still a hope of mine. I said yes, absolutely, and he then asked for the general area where I had taken the pics in the course profile.

I provided that (about three miles further south of The Legacy Golf Club) and you should see what Mike came back with in this month’s Feature Interview!

Cheers,  

How many guys can we get to commit to the ~$20,000 initiation fee?  

c'mon Huckaby, I have seen your travel schedule.  I would give yourself  more credit than that.  

If guys from this site aren't interested in joining, where would the members come from?

Having met Mike in Banff last summer and getting to know him better in Casa, I have to say that he is a world-class guy.

It is great to see the Carthage Club resurface again, and Mike's layout is certainly inspired.

Put it in CA and I'm there.

NC?  Unfortunately that's a no way.  I can see selling my wife on a cool club and hocking enough to get $20K to make it happen HERE.  Across the country?  She'd castrate me first.

 

Huck,

You're married, right?  So what difference is castration going to make?  

Ken

I just recently read that they discovered a food that reduces a woman's sex drive by 90%:











Wedding Cake.

Oops!  Congratulations on the interview Mike.  You know you're going to make it in the architectural world when you are granted an interview and endorsement by Ran.  best of luck, see you Monday.

Mr. Nuzzo -

What did you make of Mr. Morrissett's insistence on a certain and quite specific array of hole lengths?

Thank you Ran, I feel very fortunate to have played with you in a few different countries.

Tom - unfortunately the land for Huckaby Hills might be a tad more than $6MM - otherwise I'm game.

Hamilton - I'll commit.

Ben and Jeff - you helped put a good image back on Canada, ever since my dealings with Spar Aerospace (leading Canadian aerospace company) [Just kidding - they were a treat also]

Lou - oops.... I'll see you soon.  I did have good intentions - but the trips wound up last minute usually - waiting for good weather and the contractor.  Sorry.  
Yesterday after I came in from planing some herbs, Isabelle, 3,  said my hands were disgusting - go wash them.

M. Moore - I think he meant them with a grain of salt, but I try to be accomodating when it will still work.  It would probably help to visit the site..

As for the all the ball jokes.... it is a good thing I didn't use this image in the interview:



The converted Russian ICBM that launched that satellite might have elicited a few more phallic jokes.  

Cheers

Mike (and Ran)
Very cool. How difficult was it to lay out the Carthage golf course...did the site's natural features (or lack of features) dictate what you did? I love the logo...did you come up with that as well?

Tom IV --

I do believe you've missed my "point"!  

Dan Kelly

Mike asked if The Carthage Club was still a hope of mine. I said yes, absolutely, and he then asked for the general area where I had taken the pics in the course profile. I provided that (about three miles further south of The Legacy Golf Club) and you should see what Mike came back with in this month’s Feature Interview!

Yes indeed we did see it.  That Mike is a resourceful guy.  His concept drawings from the aerial may just be the rocket science comparative, he shuns.

I certainly look back at the couple of times I have had the pleasure to accompany the Nuzz (nootz) around a few courses at KP gatherings in CA, and really could observe that he has a quietly intelligent personality, who appears to have his analytical wheels turning throughout the golf rounds and discussions.  As the rest of us are blathering away, he often sits there with his devilishly wry Sicilian grin, then the sottovoce comment that gets right to the heart of a matter.

Here is a typical Nootz scene.  While Stettner squeels like a school girl at the exciting round at Rustic Canyon we had played, and Benham listens on attentively; Nootz finally gets up to ask Huckaby if we are keeping him awake with all the technical GCA commentary.

I too have had the pleasure of hanging with the Nootz.     He and I will be forever linked with one of my greatest golf trips ever!

Great guy, I'm expecting big things from him.  Excellent interview.

Hey that reminds me....

Mike, I've always thought that if I were in your previous line of work... or if I were a brain surgeon... I would spend all day telling my colleagues:

"what do you expect?  This IS[/b] rocket science (brain surgery)!!!"

Please tell me you said that, at least once.