Bob:
I did not know that about MPCC and what Morse recommended. I really don't know that much about the evolution out there--just what I've gotten from GeoffShac and his book.
I did hear something very interesting yesterday on the telecast from Venturi though at the end of the tournament. That was that there were lots planned along the water on what is now #6, 7, 8,9,10 and Morse bought back all those lots and moved them to the inland side of the course. His thought was the course would be so much better if houses did not obstruct the view and play of the course along the water.
I would say that might be THE all time dogged bullet!!
I love these little intersting historical vignettes and will repeat a most interesting personal one if you were not around when I posted it quite a long time ago about the Monterrey Peninula.
My old Dad played in a good number of US Amateurs and his goal was always to make the quarters so he could get into the Masters.
He hated talking about golf and so I never knew much about his career or experiences. He had a very dry sense of humor though and once he told me he thought he was going to make it at Pebble one time but the guy who was in the room next to him would fight with his wife all night every night and he just got tired out from lack of sleep having to listen to them.
A couple of years ago somebody on GCA posted a topic called "What's not to love about golf" and I told that to my mother who's now 86. She said; "Ah, yes, the game was so good to your father" and she proceeded to tell me about sitting around the fire one chilly evening at the lodge with my Dad beside the fire after he'd just lost in the US Amateur. And she said; "Funny it was just me, your Dad and Bob Jones!"
Well I couldn't believe it, never heard that before and I posted it on here. You can imagine the reaction and I told her about it a few days later! 86 year olds have to search their memories sometime and she sat there quietly for a time and said this: "Actually, there were four of us, your Dad, me, Bob Jones who such a nice man and told Dad that it was just a game and there's always next year but there was another nice man call Sam Moore or something!"
I said, you don't mean Samuel Morse do you? And she said; "Yes, that's the one, he owned Pebble Beach!" It is just amazing to me to think about that now; my mother knew nothing about golf and couldn't have cared less. To her it was a nice place, nice fire, nice drinks and a couple of guys who just happened to be nice men! Jeezus!
And what my father did tell me about that time was only the guy and his wife that kept him up every night--he told me it was Skee Riegal, a guy from Philadelphia and he won the Amateur. My mother and father were from New York and it wasn't for another 25 years until I met Skee Riegal and this whole thing fell into place! The year, which I actually had to look up, was 1947!
I saw Skee in the supermarket last year and I didn't mention to him about my Dad and all the late night arguing but I did ask him about that Amateur and Jones and he said he played a practice round with Jones out there then and he thinks it may have been one of the last or maybe the last times Jones ever played golf. Someboby on here put Jones's last round a bit later though.
But it was very interesting stuff--and to them it all seemed so normal! Wow!