Happy wishes and thoughts to the following:
1. To the 224 new participants that became apart of the 1,500 member Discussion Group – welcome on board. That’s far more than I intended to add but many of you made great contributions. One of the best was Pat Ruddy charging in with his first post entitled ‘Ruddy Strikes Back’, an instant all time classic. Another who made a splash with his first post was Green Keeper Peter Wendt – the dialogue that followed is what makes GCA.com unique. As a guess, nearly two of every ten new posters was from outside the United States, the highest such percentage that we’ve seen in several years.
2. To Mike Miller and Josh Smith – hopefully, this web site helps you sell 20 plus original works this year as it did in 2006. Promoting great art in the form of design, writing and painting is what this site aspires to do.
3. To Yeamans Hall and all the family and friends of Dr. Henry Terrie – congrats for presenting a near ideal golf course. I saw/played Yeamans Hall last week and its revised course profile is now posted. Though Dr. Terrie passed away several months ago, he would be so very proud of the on-going work accomplished here since he fell ill. He touched many people in many ways – the numerous emails I’ve received proving that point are staggering. As a show of his modesty, he refused to ever let me mention his name in the course profile – so I’m doing it here. I wonder if Tom Doak has ever built a better set of TD original greens than the superb TD interpretations of Seth Raynor greens at Yeamans. At Yeamans, as the golfer goes from one green to the next, he can’t fail but be impressed by the variety (almost at the Pine Valley
level) and there is no sense of one green trying to outdo or compete with the others as seen on so many modern courses. I hope the people associated with Old Macdonald spend time at Yeamans Hall before making any decisions – Yeaman’s low country setting is not as flamboyant as some of Raynor’s other sites but the design is near his very best.
4. To Tom Doak - for being critical of me for not being critical. I pledge to spend more time in 2007 in the DG being critical than doing course profiles (though I am desperate to update several course profiles, especially Friar’s Head, Eastward Ho!, CC of Charleston, French Lick, Pine Needles, Plainfield, High Pointe, Beverly, Saint Louis CC, Wolf Run, Broadmoor, Heathlands, and St. George’s in Toronto).
5. To architects around the world who take their time to get the design/construction right, a growing number of us appreciate your hard work. Fewer and fewer folks seem to confuse quantity for the best of the best. Coore & Crenshaw have designed 16 courses, seven of which are ranked in GolfWeek’s Modern Top 100 (i.e. 43.75%). Another design firm which I respect quite a bit has done 300 courses but only 8 of those are ranked in the Top 100 (i.e. less than one percent). In addition, C&C have four in top 20 compared to one from this other group. The world needs top tier architects that remain true to doing a few select projects per year. Can you imagine an architect arguing that doesn’t yield the best result? “You see, Mr. Client, the design will be better if I’m not here…….”
6. To Rod Whitman – here’s hoping that Cabot Links becomes your PacDunes breakthrough design. Bill Coore states that Rod is as talented as any architect out there – and, Rod, Cabot will be a fine time for you to prove Bill right. You have the advantages of wind and as much sand as you can ever want. Even for those not interested in the X’s and O’s of architecture, the views of the ocean from every hole work in your favor as well. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you enjoy the HUGE advantage of low humidity. With weather more akin to the United Kingdom, we are in the fortunate position to present UK playing conditions. Rod Whitman’s design, Erik Mac Pherson’s playing conditions and the kindness of the people in Inverness will bring golfers back for years to come (as will the single malt distillery!). Hopefully, the fame won’t go to Rod’s head. We’ll know it has when he comes out with his own clothing line, etc.
Rod in the dirt – it’s not a fashion contest.
7. To Ken Nice and crew at Bandon Trails – I understand that one can’t tell were fairways end and greens begin. This is the highest compliment I heard all year for the art of green keeping, and it came from a former green keeper who also happened to design the course. Yes, I know this creates headaches for the card and pencil set who want to know if they can lift and clean their ball but for the rest of us, I can’t imagine more fun/ideal playing conditions. I hope to see it for myself in February but it sure sounds like you are maximizing the design attributes of the golf course and what more can any Green Keeper possibly do??
8. To those that have expressed interest in The Carthage Club – in a few years, I will get serious about seeing such a course come to fruition here in the sand hills of North Carolina, bringing back the English model of an affordable private club (with public access) to the United States. This is the exact model that the U.S. has gotten so wretchedly wrong. Golf in England remains a simple affair and we need desperately to return to those (inexpensive) roots. We as a group can - and indeed should - make The Carthage Club happen, complete with trollies, dogs, and changing shoes in the small, unpaved parking lot (i.e. think Brancaster).
9. To my CRUSHEE victims in 2006, I won’t go into any lengthy details of either the beatings or the floggings. In some ways, 2006 was a transition year. After having finally lost in 2005 in a taut match (to Brad Faxon playing with his steels while I was - appropriately –
forced to play with hickories) I essentially took 2006 off to re-tool my swing, and make it even more pressure proof. Jim Hardy’s one plane swing method is not something one should unleash on an unsuspecting world without warning. Common courtesy dictates as much. However, the swing coaches and lab technicians here at GolfClubAtlas.com’s world test headquarters say I’m ready, so consider this your fair warning (some sort of a blanket warning should also apply to those on an adjacent fairway
).
10. Finally and obviously, thanks to you that spend time here. Also, to Tommy and Ben for your behind the scenes work that helps make GCA.com a place busy people voluntarily spend time. 2006 may have been our best year to date. Fueled by great discussions, great Feature Interviews, and some less than bad course profiles (though Abraham Lincoln might say that never have so many words been compressed into such small ideas), GCA.com’s page views doubled from calendar 2005 to calendar 2006. Also, more people gave from their wallet than ever before, a sure sign that people continue to see value in supporting this endeavor and that we are not growing stale. Everyone should take a look at the Contribution section and thank those people for the absence of pop-ups and other commercial intrusions (which I liken to cart paths
) that mare the enjoyment of 99% of other web sites. In a few days, we’ll be starting over, this time with PayPal (the reason that we have never had PayPal is because I am technologically inept but mercifully, Ben isn’t). We have already received ~25 donations for 2007 and I’ll post them this weekend. The first calendar quarter of expenses are likely provided for and GCA.com will continue to run commercial free. Being financially independent allows us to do whatever we want, including ruffling feathers. This is a great luxury that magazines don’t enjoy and we need to take advantage of it.
Up next on Monday: Tony Pioppi’s Feature Interview on nine hole courses – why so many people insist on showing how bad
they are over eighteen holes rather than just nine holes is beyond me.
As one person recently said, GolfClubAtlas.com is more popular around the world than Tiger Woods. When I asked him to explain, he responded that GolfClubAtlas.com gets more monthly page views than Tigerwoods.com. Thus, with delusions of adequacy
GolfClubAtlas.com charges into 2007……
Cheers,