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John Kavanaugh

What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« on: January 04, 2008, 08:55:01 AM »
Please do not name the course.

At first I thought I would come up blank but will admit that I did learn that you can put a bunker in the middle of a green without it being stupid.  If I didn't know better I would have thought the only way it worked was through devine intervention.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2008, 08:57:11 AM by John Kavanaugh »
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Joe Hancock

  • Total Karma: 6
Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2008, 09:00:07 AM »
John,

I saw some features this Fall and I believe it will embolden me to build deeper, smaller bunkers.....when I have permission, of course.

Joe
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" What the hell is the point of architecture and excellence in design if a "clever" set up trumps it all?" Peter Pallotta, June 21, 2016

"People aren't picking a side of the fairway off a tee because of a randomly internally contoured green ."  jeffwarne, February 24, 2017

Steve Lang

  • Total Karma: 0
Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2008, 09:14:31 AM »
 8)  Focus focus focus... otherwise, why have you spent time on gca.com?
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Inverness (Toledo, OH) cathedral clock inscription: "God measures men by what they are. Not what they in wealth possess.  That vibrant message chimes afar.
The voice of Inverness"

John Kavanaugh

Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2008, 09:17:42 AM »
Quote from: Steve Lang on January 04, 2008, 09:14:31 AM
8)  Focus focus focus... otherwise, why have you spent time on gca.com?

Let's not lose the fun through learning. I don't thing I have ever learned anything about golf course architecture that wasn't quite by accident. btw..I met my host through GCA.com
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Mike_Cirba

Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2008, 09:20:39 AM »
John,

Good topic!

I learned that on a good piece of property, you really need very little else to be done except a good routing, location of good natural, at grade greensites, and little in the way of artificial hazards like bunkers, which I am now starting to believe, somewhat like Sean Arble, are widely overused.
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Jeff_Brauer

  • Total Karma: 4
Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #5 on: January 04, 2008, 09:29:56 AM »
John,

Good thing you aren't naming the course.......

I learned quite a few thing on my famous course visits this year, particularly on a trip made through a northern state bordered by lakes......

Specifically, I learned just how small a depressed area on a green can be to create an interesting shot, providing there is a way to keep the putt on the green.......
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Jeff Brauer, ASGCA Director of Outreach

Phil McDade

  • Total Karma: 0
Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #6 on: January 04, 2008, 09:30:38 AM »
I learned that on a hard-running links course, a 150-yard shot into a green doesn't require a 7-iron. I used an 8, punched it through the wind, watched the shot hit 20 feet in front of the green and roll 25 feet past the pin. My first thought was: This is different.
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Michael Blake

  • Total Karma: 0
Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #7 on: January 04, 2008, 09:31:31 AM »
A 6000+ yd course can be EXTREMELY challenging.
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Mike_Cirba

Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #8 on: January 04, 2008, 09:34:23 AM »
Quote from: Michael Blake on January 04, 2008, 09:31:31 AM
A 6000+ yd course can be EXTREMELY challenging.

Michael,

That's a great one, as well.
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John Kavanaugh

Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #9 on: January 04, 2008, 09:37:39 AM »
Quote from: Michael Blake on January 04, 2008, 09:31:31 AM
A 6000+ yd course can be EXTREMELY challenging.

Did it really take a famous course for you to learn this?
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John Foley

  • Total Karma: 1
Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #10 on: January 04, 2008, 09:47:57 AM »
All World - Top 50 courses on a spectacluar property still struggle w/ maintenace budget issues.
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Integrity in the moment of choice

AndrewB

  • Total Karma: 0
Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #11 on: January 04, 2008, 09:53:03 AM »
That there are many different ways in which a course can be great, that each person will prefer some of those ways much more than others, so that one man's great course is another man's good course.
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"I think I have landed on something pretty fine."

John Mayhugh

  • Total Karma: -6
Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #12 on: January 04, 2008, 10:14:17 AM »
I learned that a course can be very difficult and penal but still fun to play.  
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Peter Nomm

Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #13 on: January 04, 2008, 10:14:24 AM »
Not necessarily the last thing I learned, but I love the fact that great courses do not require "maintained perfection" on every square inch of the property.  In fact, many depend on the "nativeness" as part of the overall design.

Getting this through to the members at my club still remains one of my #1 goals.
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JSlonis

  • Total Karma: 0
Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #14 on: January 04, 2008, 10:22:58 AM »
I learned that playing a course with overly narrowed fairways surrounded by deep rough can lead to a pretty boring round.
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Michael Blake

  • Total Karma: 0
Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #15 on: January 04, 2008, 10:26:22 AM »
Quote from: John Kavanaugh on January 04, 2008, 09:37:39 AM
Quote from: Michael Blake on January 04, 2008, 09:31:31 AM
A 6000+ yd course can be EXTREMELY challenging.

Did it really take a famous course for you to learn this?

 

Yes John.

It took a famous course for me to learn that a 'shorter' course can be completely challenging at so many different levels.  

I've never experienced that before at courses I've played at similar yardages.  

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Brent Hutto

Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #16 on: January 04, 2008, 10:31:07 AM »
I finally learned why fairway bunkers matter. I had played courses where people enthused about the fairway bunkering but for my short- and (relative to some people) straight-hitting game off the tee it is usually a nonfactor. Now I know that truly great bunkering along with firm ground and a breeze can create a whole new level of interest and fun.
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Tom Huckaby

Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #17 on: January 04, 2008, 10:41:45 AM »
Nothing, other than that they are typically famous for good reason.

BTW you really have us scratching our heads re the one you named, John.  I just can't place it.   ;)
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John Kavanaugh

Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #18 on: January 04, 2008, 10:44:55 AM »
Quote from: Tom Huckaby on January 04, 2008, 10:41:45 AM
Nothing, other than that they are typically famous for good reason.

BTW you really have us scratching our heads re the one you named, John.  I just can't place it.   ;)

Huck,

If courses were famous for their architecture we would know every course that people were talking about.
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Kirk Gill

  • Total Karma: 0
Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #19 on: January 04, 2008, 10:44:57 AM »
I learned just how significant the difference can be between seeing pictures of a course and actually playing it.
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"After all, we're not communists."
                             -Don Barzini

Mike Hendren

  • Total Karma: -1
Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #20 on: January 04, 2008, 10:47:43 AM »
Consistent replication of style is not necessarily a good thing.  The rare boldly manufactured hole on a minimalist course or vice versa is a nice change of pace.

Mike
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Two Corinthians walk into a bar ....

Tom Huckaby

Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #21 on: January 04, 2008, 10:48:23 AM »
JK:

Who ever said courses were famous for their architecture?  I sure as hell never have.

TH
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Rick Shefchik

  • Total Karma: 0
Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #22 on: January 04, 2008, 10:50:53 AM »
I learned that Stupid Trees can be found anywhere, but the better the course, the easier they are to justify.
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"Golf is 20 percent mechanics and technique. The other 80 percent is philosophy, humor, tragedy, romance, melodrama, companionship, camaraderie, cussedness and conversation." - Grantland Rice

John Kavanaugh

Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #23 on: January 04, 2008, 10:52:36 AM »
I will allow guesses on which courses people are talking about starting at Noon Eastern.  I already have a few good ideas.
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mike_malone

  • Total Karma: -2
Re:What is the last thing you learned while playing a famous course. No names!!
« Reply #24 on: January 04, 2008, 10:54:36 AM »
 That the greens and their surrounds separate the boys from the men in people's eyes.
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AKA Mayday
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