[Slag_Bandoon]

  Rich, Is that last (multi)post intended to metaphorically draw the picture of this 18th tee you're forever waggling on?  

 (Ever see Barton Fink?)  Flaming hallways!!!

[ForkaB]

Slag

I wish I were so clever.  No, just a serendipitous typo that activated the "send" button only god or Bill Gates (are they two separate people?) knows how......

Rich

[Slag_Bandoon]

RJ Daley Lama,  You know you'll be at the head of the table. No literary mouse are ye.  I'm a lucky man to never be the 'perp' in one of your police reports or I'd still be in jail for that Bazooka bubble gum I stole when I was five.  

P.S. Somebody switch Rich's coffee to decaf.

[Gib_Papazian]

In reading back on this, it strikes me as strange that somehow I omitted mention of John Berhardt and Todd Hagen. Maybe part of it is that John and I have played enough golf and become such good friends that his presence somehow didn’t strike me as unique.

I wonder if perhaps I see more of him than the Nor Cal gang - and he lives in Louisiana. Todd is a much longer story, and one that began in 1971 at Billy Casper’s San Diego Golf Camp. I’m glad he was there - we have been best friends for so long that I can barely remember a time when we walked life’s fairway in different twosomes.  Plus, he has exquisite taste in vino and comes to every occasion armed to the teeth with the finest grape.

As for Stettner, he will have to stay next time for the entire event. Anyone who loves golf enough to wander America alone for six months - sleeping in the back of a pickup truck - deserves to have the torch passed his way. I don’t know that I would have had the courage to set out alone at age 23.  

When I hit the button to post this thread, I was immediately convinced it would sink like a stone.

The fact it is still alive amazes me. GCA is incredibly elastic for a forum supposedly devoted to one narrow aspect of golf.  

     

[George Pazin]

Gib -

After eading your last sentence, I'm struck by the thought that, though everyone says you can't be all things to all people, this site comes damn close!

Where else can you:

- meet thoughtful people with similar obsessions?

- post a question about almost any course & receive a response from someone who's played it(even if it's often just Mike Cirba!)?

- get voluminous information from course designers, builders, supers & developers?

- find people moved to passion over bunkers?

- eavesdrop on a debate over the design credit for Pine Valley?

- lurk or participate in debates over ball limits/Casey Martin trials/environmental concerns/the latest major/the "Tiger Slam"?

...I could go on for quite a while, but I'll end it by saying, where else could a person go from picking up a copy of The Captain on a whim to having dinner with Gil Hanse after walking his latest course in just over a year?

This site rules! Thanks Ran & John & the many participants.

[Paul_Daley]

Rich:

95% - you've almost got it licked!

One focussed week without "sneaking" into the computer room for multiple posts, and you would have the job cleaned up. I don't underestimate the enormity of this task.

Go for it!

I'll have my Visa number ready to email.

[Steve Pozaric]

I ask myself that question as I read post after post talking about the "golden age" courses that folks around here talk about that I have not seen.  

I have been lucky enough to play a C.B. Mac course here in St. Louis, and was extremely excited prior to playing it due to the things I read about his other courses in this forum.  

I was not disappointed because this place has helped me, when evaluating a course, to look beyond the cost, good greens and the like and to think about the course design and not just my game (and with the current shape of my game, that is a good thing).

It also gets me away from the equipment fanatics on Golf Equipment Aficionados on Delphi.  

Steve Pozaric

[THuckaby2]

To me, this site is just so damn fun... I learn a lot, I spout a lot, I argue and laugh and furrow my brow... all regarding a topic that makes my wife just roll her eyes.  I'm sure many of you know the feeling.

Thanks again, Ran and John.

And Gib has it right - nights like that recent evening in the tap room... rounds like that day at PG Muni... my metaphysical, surreal experience at Cypress which still gives me goose bumbs...

This is what it's all about, for me.  My wife told me awhile ago NOT to make any more "golf friends", that I was getting overbooked as it was.

Well, too bad.  Even she had to admit after a brief conversation with the silver-tongued Armenian that I am a lucky guy, and one CAN'T have too many friends.

I guess that's what I "use" this site for.  All of the above.

TH

[Mike_Cirba]

"- post a question about almost any course & receive a response from someone who's played it(even if it's often just Mike Cirba!)?" - George Pazin

George,

Thanks for the chuckle.  It was great meeting you the other day!  

Hopefully, sometime in the next year I can add a bunch of Pittsburgh-area courses to that seriously-deranged obsession I have.  If GCA'ers can benefit from my version of OCD, then who am I to withhold it from them?  

[BarnyF]

I don't use this site...it uses me. It drains me of my time, ambition and imagination.  No longer do I relax with the sweet ramblings of our great balladiers but I twitch with the antifazitic teachings of golf course facists.  I sleep at night with my laptop hung above my bed, phone line inserted in my vein...all in an attempt to rehydrate my mind.  Do I owe Rand and John thanks for creating this purgatory which floats somewhere between heaven and hell..Do I owe the makers of cheese thanks for creating a device to clog my veins...I think not.  I pray for the day I can rid myself of this wicked addiction...A day that true, blue spectacle, miracle does comes true...And, baby, there'll be dancing in the streets.  

[Slag_Bandoon]

 BarnyF,  Please, have mercy, no more Barry Manilow.    

[Ed_Baker]

Enlightenment,entertainment,mental stimulation,comraderie= ENJOYMENT.

Where else can an individual find Adolph Loos,Donald Ross,Hitler,Satan,and vandalism mentioned in the same DG?

Where else can ANYBODY ask a question about virtually any subject on golf and get an informed answer and in many cases by a professional in the field?

The cummulative knowledge of all things golf on this site is astounding,but the eloquent presentation of the information and points of view are really what make this site unique.

This site may be the greatest grille room of them all!

I was very disappointed that I didn't win 300 million in power ball. I had it all planned,GCA.com golf courses all over the world. The hell with the TPC's,a shitload of Pac Dunes,Myopias,NGLA's and everyone that was on the GCA e-mail roster would be charter members(RAN will love this one)FOR FREE!

You guys think Crump had great advice and collaborators? Can you imagine what this group could build? Geezus,we would have to build 20 courses just to get through the first round of ideas! We could even produce and use our own tournament ball and we could have a strickly "gowf" course with no clubhouse and no scorecards,and ALL of them would be fast and firm and we could have,redan,biarritz and...... What do you mean I didn't win? There is no money?

One of the mechanics quit? Can't get parts for the BMW?

Sorry guys,I gotta go back to work.

[aclayman]

Obviously after the assualt on humanity, an overwhelming majority use this site for way more than golf architecture.

I'd like to think that the humanistic qualities attainable by some in golf, get exchanged through this venue and then perhaps spread to all.

[Gib_Papazian]

In truth, I had long forgotten about this thread until it magically reappeared.

So, although this is not intended to initiate some self-focused (as in "all of us as an entity) back patting, let me pose the following queries:

#1. Who are we really? Are we an erudite group of gifted thinkers who prefer to direct our thoughts to golf architecture? Or fanatics, every bit as whacked out - on a different level obviously - on golf course design as some of the world's fringe lunatics?

#2. Maybe this is not a question as much as a statement that may (or may not) elicit comment: "Given a year or two of orientation, how would the Treehouse fare running the nation?"

React for me, but try not to rip my face off for posing the question.  

[Gib_Papazian]

And that includes our many non-American participants. Maybe you especially.

[Russell]

As an increasingly infrequent lurker it's nice to see a topic that gets the juices flowing again. I found this site after doing a search on Sandbelt Courses. For the next 4 months I couldn't spend more than 3 hours apart from it.

This site inspires, motivates, provokes, laments and yearns all through the same thread. I will never get a chance to play, much less see many of the treasures you all wax so eloquently about, however through your insights, visions and reflections I stand side by side with Donald Ross, George Thomas, Doc MacKenzie and a host of others as they survey a blank slate ready to create a masterpiece.

I thank you all for you wonderful input, for without such insights I would never be able to tell the difference between a redan and a false front.

Aloha from Hawaii
Rusell

[Lou_Duran]

Ditto what Ed Baker, Russel and many others posted.  I sympathize with Mr. F and his addiction as I too find myself lurking about, and at times posting much too verbously (is that a word?) while neglecting more immediate endeavors.  As a MacKenzieac
who likes to walk and play the ball down on  firm and fast surfaces, I have few kindred spirits in this area (D/FW) of cart golf polo and wall-to-wall irrigation.  Some day I hope to attend a GCA.com outing and meet some of the folks who appreciate golf in a similar manner.

[Bill Brightly]

Still appropriate after  5 years. Worth a bump. no?

[Mark_Fine]

Bill,
I sometimes cringe to think what I wrote six years ago   but in this case (maybe one of few) it still makes some sense  

[Kyle Harris]

My line has always been along the lines of Gib's thinking, with a bit of personal ambition thrown in. A few years back Adam Foster Collins (hope he's still lurking, he's missed) wrote that I was young, hopefully and bright, but unsure as to whether or not what I had to say had meaning and that I was hear to find out.

In reflection, that sounds about right.

[Mark Smolens]

Great fun, and an extraordinary way to spend time in the office on a Sunday afternoon.

A few weeks ago there was a thread largely critical of Mr. Murphy and his Shivas Irons community.  While he may be a tad over the top (full disclosure, I love the book and am a charter member of the Society), Murphy's love for the game comes out not only in his writings, but if you get a chance to meet the man as well.  He would have fit right in with the group at the Tap Room -- an event which brought to mind (for me anyway) the dinner scene at the McPherson's.

Thanks again Ran for inviting me on board (and the check is in the mail!).

[Mark_Fine]

It is fun to look back at some of these old threads.  I found one back in 2003 where I was trying to talk this guy in Phoenix (who I met on this website) into writing a book with me.  He was probably thinking - Yea right, fat chance of that happening    

[Joe Hancock]

Some are helpers, filling in posts with real world experience. Many others try to insightfully post historical information.

Many are the reasons.

[Kyle Harris]

Joe,

How bold

[Tommy Williamsen]

One of the ways I use this site is to copy the URL and e-mail certain threads to some golf buddies who would never wade through them all.  Not too long ago someone posted pictures of Royal St George.  I had played tr with one of my best friends.  I e-mailed him the address and spent time remembering our day there.

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