1. John Kavanaugh - By far and away our funniest and most poetic contributor. Dives deeper into the human side of golf than anyone. I don't expect 1500 strangers to let it all hang out regarding alcohol, sex, marriage and religion, but John does it with a sledgehammer in one hand and a razor in the other. Truly profound, except when drunk, trying too hard, or posting from a mobile device.
2. Tom Paul - Some with thousands of posts use this board to chat with their pals or to repeat the same things over and over again. This is not the case with Tom. Nobody has more stories, and nobody has more that are good, that shed light on society and manners through the prism of golf. Most importantly, Tom rarely tells stories in which he is the protagonist, and this humility lends a tremendous scope and authority to his narrative. Our keenest observer, by a wide margin.
3. Ran Morrissett - Describes a course better than anyone. Manages to cram the yardage, strategies, aesthetics, routing context, and construction history of a hole into one elegant paragraph. Through his liberal use of flowery prose, paved the way for pretentious imitators such as myself.
4.David Schmidt - I greatly enjoy his breakdowns as he is the fairest and most thorough of the debate addicts. Always eager to get to the bottom of something. He also marries this lawyerism very nicely with a robust portfolio of "there I was" regular-guy golf stories. Sometimes too chatty and faux-stubborn. Probably the GCAer I would most like to go out drinkin' with.