I recently had the great enlightening pleasure of playing golf, with gentlemen of the highest esteem, at Rustic Canyon, in Moorpark, California.
I could go on about all "The Great Spirit That Lives In All Things" about the place, but the effervescent Tommy Naccarato has already told us, quite rightfully and appreciably, about all its "Golden Child" status.
Upon driving home late in the never-darkness of LA, on those six-laned freeways of So-Cal that seem so audacious until you've seen them packed any other time of day, thinking back on the grand day I'd just had, I spied one of those "Adopt-a-highway" signs and began to laugh at the notion of what was taking place back at Rustic Canyon with the folks that I'd met and played with.
These regulars of the course, proud of it to the core, had deep concerns with the place and how it was changing. Rustic has gone through a devastating fire and then a massive washout from heavy rains over burnt vegetation. To these gents, that just seemed to add to the character of the place. They told stories with wide grins of how they played days after the fire had died out, in a wind storm, that they walked off after 18 holes looking like coal miners. With blackened faces imagined, I could see the kid in them come out. Is that a pursuit of golf? To be a kid again? I sure hope so. And if these guys have anything to do with it, Rustic will remain a playground.
In this year of the U.S. Presidential Campaigns, it's easy to forget that what most effects our world is what happens at the local level, not the detached national level. The old bumper sticker cliche' "THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY" makes a lot of sense and seems to be alive in these blokes.
So, to Andy L., David M, Lynn S. and Tommy N, and to GCA folks all around the world: Jack Marr's love of Carne GL, Adam Clayman at Pinon Hills, Tom Paul's Gulph Mills, Greg Ramsey's promising Barnbougle, Dave Wilber's Ballyneal turf dream; of course, Dick Daley's Wild Horse, and in memoriam to Alfie Ward's Arbory Brae, I salute you* all. And to others not mentioned, you know who you are, because you are here. Keep up the passion.
(* hat in hand with a dram of The Macallan Cask Strength Lava Scotch)