Now wait just a second Mike, when one of you boys routs a cart path too far from a green and I'm able to recognize the problem and fix it, I want credit...

Now wait just a second Mike, when one of you boys routs a cart path too far from a green and I'm able to recognize the problem and fix it, I want credit...

Jim,
If you do that to 5 courses then we maybe.....but just 1....I don't know.
Mike

I wonder how all those listed on the ASGCA website make a living.
Mike, maybe you could share accounts of this Elvis sighting BS, without naming names of course, and we could all be more enlightened.

Unfortunately, in an industry such as golf architecture, where anyone can call themselves anything they want (and let the buyers beware), the continuum of talent is going to be much wider than other endeavors requiring baseline standards for certification.  I'm not saying there should be a formal structuring, I just marvel at what liberties some people take with definitions.

Paul,

If you're a nobody, what does that make golf historians?  We're the nobody's piss boys when it comes to helping with restorations

Congrats Mike...you have created the shortest thread in the history

Nah.....it's already 7 worthwhile replies past any of my attempted threads....

Joe

MY....damn, I don't mind being a damn yankee ....just not a dumb one ...who be da author?

Mike,

Toro says they send out over 400 catalogues to gca types.  OF course, they don't want to offend anyone, so they may be liberal. I am with you - there just can't be as many active gca's as that.

On the other hand, I presume from your post that you are as amazed as I at how many courses are being designed by a "who's he?"  Seems like the top ten gca's or some newbie working out of his basement get all the jobs sometimes.

For that matter, I am also amazed at the credibility that posters here seem to have acquired, so that at least they get some gigs as consultants.  Regular architects like you and me seemingly know absolutely nothing, despite having truly designed over a 100 courses between us, no?  

I thought it was bad when going to clubs and having 200 members tell me I was full of it.....now I have 1500 posters worldwide doing so!

If there is any consolation, I think its worse for golf contractors.  When we put jobs we get out to bid, I always get a few phone calls saying he "built" RTJ's or some such courses.  With a little investigation, it turns out they were hired as a day laborer and made it just about that one day.

Between renovations/remodels and new construction, how many projects are there today vs say five years ago?  Has the total amount of work reduced the number of practicing GCA's?

Did 9/11 have as big an effect on golf course construction as it had on the hospitality and similar industries?

I'm sure I could look all this up but there have to be some lazy guys in that village!  

Based on your last posting, Jeff, I'd say your drunk.

I am just going to assume that your posting is suppose to be taken "tongue in check."

Jeff,
You did not misstate my position.  You actually stated it well.  I was actually going to post to defend the insinuation that you were drunk when you posted but then after further thought I assumed none of us would post on here if sober.

Jeff,

I get ya.  But you can't fault a guy in this day and age from trumping up the resume to get a gig.  If you ain't cheatin' you ain't tryin', the saying goes.

Don't fake the resume.
Just join a dead architect group and run around pointing out old, long lost  bunkers which where they dynamited tree stumps and you can be an expert over nite.....of course you will need to have actually spoken to the dead guy thru a medium or something but many have done that.....

Michael,

did you mean "You ain't trying if you ain't cheating?

Now, what have YOU been drinking?

BTW, there is a long history of trumping up a resume, which in this day and age, I guess only Dye and Jim Fazio can do, and with a capital T.  I think JN had a 40 course list in Golf Magazine in 1980 before he had built a dozen with his own firm, crediting some designs as "under contract" which they undoubtedly were.  Traditionally however, most gca's waited until a course was open to claim it.  There have been a few that never made it to opening day, and that would be an interesting decision.  Would Norman take credit for those that were remodeled by Faz before opening, for instance.  Would I take credit for a course that was grassed, but never opened?

Sorry for topic drift, but I agree with Mike. While some get away with fudging credentials, its a small biz and most get hurt more by it than not.  I remember one of my first contacts always rented Lincolns to drive up to. I always wondered if the client would wonder why he showed up later in a Honda.  

I figure if someone likes you they will hire you.  If someone thinks you are a liar, they don't tend to like you.  I mean whaddya think this is, romance or somethin?