[Jordan Wall]

Was it caddying as a kid?
Perhaps playing a great course?

What was the determining factor in getting you interested in GCA?

[Scott Witter]

Jordon:

I think it was always there hidden deep, but waiting for the right moment...but it truly hit me when I was about 20 years old after 5 years of working on a grounds crew.  I can't tell you how many times I got in trouble for sitting on a machine or on the ground as I watched golfers try to work their way around the course always wondering, "now how do they do that and why did they do this"  Later after finishing my 4th year in college as an LA I knew where I would end up.  

[David Stamm]

Reading Geoff Shackelford's books and finally inquiring why I kept seeing this William Bell name on scorecards where I was playing. (Sr. or Jr.)

[Tommy Williamsen]

Jordan, I am just a golf nut who loves golf courses.  When I read the quality of the posts, I had to get on board.  I have learned so much on this site that I am even more boring to my friends than ever before.  

[Ash Towe]

Jordan,
For me it was reading the World Atlas of Golf.  I decided to visit some of these courses and see what made them better from the ones I already played.  From that my interest snowballed.

[Larry_Rodgers]

Tommy N was the one who hooked me. His expressions through the keyboard were great and I can now call him a friend.

[Yancey_Beamer]

I started with the World Atlas of Golf.
This is the usual beginning for the golfers I know.

[Dan Boerger]

Although I played a bit of golf as a kid growing up in Utica, NY, I played more baseball and basketball at the time. In the late 80's/early 90's, I used to live in Ardmore, PA. I was a competitive cyclist back then, and used to ride past Merion all the time. It piqued my interest, since I started to play some more golf for business. A good friend, who shared an office near mine (one of those Bob Newhart set ups) was qualifying for the PA Mid-Am at Merion and asked if I wanted to walk along. He played well, but I was really intrigued by this long hitting guy from Western PA. I think the round started at 11, but this guy went 7 on 16, 7 on 17 (two balls really pushed right) 7 on 18 and 7 on #1. He was a nice guy (paticularly considering the circumstances!) and turned to me and said "I honestly don't think I've has four 7s since I was 12 years old!" (he ended up with an 89.) I was really amazed at how penal the course was for someone who was frankly trying to overpower it. I wanted to learn more about Merion so I then got a hold of the World Atlas of Golf book. I've been hooked since.

[TEPaul]

The thing that got me interested in GCA was a conversation I had on the patio of Manufacturers G.C. after a tournament somewhere around the mid-1990s with the former superintendent of Manufacturers. For some reason he told me there was a whole truckload of old course aerials down in a museum in Wilmington De.

I went down there for a look-see and that got me interested in GCA.

It probably ruined my life too. If I'd never had that conversation on the patio after that tournament with the former super at Manufacturers about those old aerials I never would've had to deal with Ivory Tower dreamers from Ohio like MacWood and irrationally argumentative West Coast troglodytes like Moriarty.

[Eric Franzen]

Playing golf in Scotland for the first time got me curious.
Wanted a deeper explanation to why some courses seems to be more fun than other.
 

[Jeff Doerr]

Jordan,

I followed my dad around playing various course in the Central Valley of CA. His work had a golf club that would play a tourney about every other weekend. We played most public access courses around. I remember noticing that a number said designed by Bob Baldock. Even in middle school I remember thinking that these "Baldock" courses are prettty boring.

The William P. Bell course I played and the Willie Watson course I got to play sometimes were much better!

Ever since then I've payed attention.

[AndrewB]

Trying to understand why I thought the 16th at Royal Dornoch was a great hole when everyone else claimed it was the worst on the course.

Arguing with others about whether the proposed changes at my home course (at the time) were sensible or ruining a classic.  Years later only some of those changes have been carried out and I'm still trying to decide what I think of them.

[Tom Huckaby]

I'm not sure I'm all that interested even now.  

And Andrew, #16 IS the worst hole on Royal Dornoch.  It IS also a great golf hole.  It's rather a testament to the overall greatness of the course.

TH

[AndrewB]

And Andrew, #16 IS the worst hole on Royal Dornoch.  It IS also a great golf hole.  It's rather a testament to the overall greatness of the course.

Not to thread hijack, but this is the response I always get when this comes up.  16 is the one hole out there where I am still trying to find the "correct" way to play the hole (for me).  The tee shot makes me think and doubt myself more than any other shot out there.  To me, those facts alone mean it can't be the worst hole on the course.

[Tom Huckaby]

This thread can withstand a jacking.  

So if 16 isn't the worst hole on the course, what is?

Again keeping in mind that I do think it's a great golf hole, and that I too never did figure out a good way to play it nor have ever felt comfortable on that tee shot.

TH

[Kalen Braley]

For me as a golf nut, I found that while I liked to play golf , I loved to look at the holes as they unfolded and really started to wonder about the subilties of each hole.  My best moments on the course are not when I make that birdie putt, but when I'm waiting on a tee box or in the fairway and studying a hole.

I get more enjoyment out of walking a great course than playing an average one.  Of course I get the most enjoyment out of playing a great one!!

[Dan Kelly]

Playing Sand Hills. September 1996.

Of course, I was "interested" in GCA before that -- or I wouldn't have driven 10 (?) hours to get there.

But Sand Hills kicked it up a notch (or several), as Emeril says.

[George Pazin]

Reading Geoff Shackelford's books...

Pretty much the same for me. I'm a readaholic, and I had read most of the history-type golf books I found compelling, then decided on kind of a whim to read The Captain. Then The Golden Age.... Found the topic interesting, and everything kind of cascaded from there.

[Ted Kramer]

#11 at Lido.
A drive closer to the bunkers on the right offers a better appoach to the green angled from front right to back left and guarded by a big deep bunker along the left side.

It is a very simple strategic design/element, but it is the first one that I ever noticed. Once I started to "understand" the hole a little, I started to look at things a bit differently.

-Ted

[Voytek Wilczak]

Not knowing why certain courses leave me in awe and some leave me cold.

After a year on GCA.com I am none the wiser....

[tlavin]

I got interested in the subject mainly out of my curiosity with the history of one of the clubs that I'm a member at.  I started poking around in the archives and wound up getting fairly interested in it.  Then I made the mistake of serving on the board during a U.S. Open and got further interested in it.  Finally, I was bitten by the bug when I hosted Ran Morrisset and Rick Holland at Olympia some years back.  As an amateur with limited golfing ability, I find that having an interest in golf course architecture adds immensely to interest in every single round that I play.  Truthfully, it makes me wonder what the hell I was thinking all of those years that I just played the course without thinking my way around it like I try to do now.

[Steve Pozaric]

When I started playing golf during law school, I found the golfweb discussion boards.  While I was mostly on the equipment side, I visited their "grillroom" site and the part that related to architecture.  That started my interest, which ultimately led here, a bunch of books and friends who shake their heads when I talk about the relative design merits of different holes.

[Tim Bert]

For me it was a three step process.  Each of the three steps can be linked to one of the 1500 participants here:

1. Meeting a buddy that liked to travel and play golf - thanks Alan!  (Having a wife that is supportive of trips with golf buddies doesn't hurt)

2. Searching the web site for pictures of Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes, stumbling across this site, and reading Ran's thoughts on those courses (and then reading another and another and another...) - thanks Ran!

3. Playing Pacific Dunes and starting to understand the possibilities - thanks Tom!

I knew I was a junkie once I started using too much of my spare time reading every single thread here (well, ok, not the arts & crafts)

[Jordan Wall]

For me, personally, caddying helped me a lot in really getting how GCA works, and sparking my interest in GCA.

Its intruiging watching how a scratch player will play a hole compared to an 18 hcp., and what advantages the better player will try and gain.
Caddying has also helped in introducing many courses I would not otherwise see or play.
It just makes me want to see what else is out there so much more!

[Robert_Ball]

A series of events contributed to my GCA interest

- The 1985 Golf Digest top 100
- During college, while working maintenance at a muni outside L.A. I took part in the rebuilding of 2 greens and their surrounds.  The shaping process interested me insofar as it was done in such a contrived manner that the new greens stuck out like sore thumbs.  Everyone thought they looked great.  I knew they didn't fit and I began researching GCA just to verbalize my opinions
- First visits to Pasatiempo, Chicago Golf & Bandon Dunes
- Reading The Architects of Golf
- Several hours in the old Ralph Miller Golf Library

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