Sorry for the delay but I wanted to give my response careful consideration.
When we took this live, Tom and I thought that someone would come forward and sight it as a work of fiction. People weren't ranking golf courses against the backdrop of WWII and the Duke of Windsor wasn't hunched over a sheet of paper assigning grades.
That didn't happen but nonetheless, at the end of the week we published it, we should have come clean and Tom and I deeply regret that we didn't. I should have put up the Editor's Note that very Friday. That's the primary story line but there are many others. I'll mention two.
First, every single page of GolfClubAtlas.com is copyrighted. If any writer had ever contacted me re: the MacWood piece, I would have told them it was fiction.Yet, no one did. They just copied/borrowed from it and sometimes worse, they pretended that they had found it. However, I am so naive/wrong/out of touch in thinking that people should as a course of good practice seek permission before they use material from this site? Maybe I am and feel bad if that is the case.
Unfortunately, people 'lift' things from this site on a regular basis. Here is another example:
http://www.seaviewapartment.co.uk/royalcountydown2.htmMy entire Royal County Down and photos were used without my knowledge or permission. I fight people/publications/web sites who lift photos from this site all the time. There is even a fake Facebook GolfClubAtlas.com page where they sell real estate.
Yuk. Nonetheless, things clearly ran amuck in this one instance.
I am very sorry for that, in part because another story line is this: Tom deserves credit for an outstanding piece of writing, one of the most entertaining and thoughtfully researched ones that I have read. His piece is unlikely to ever be viewed in the manner it deserved. He and I have vigorously debated that list for years and his rational/thought process never fails to impress me. His follow-up article on it will be posted next month and you'll see what I mean at that time (for those that elect to read it).
GolfClubAtlas.com was a very different vehicle in 2003 than it is today but I made a mistake then and undoubtedly, I will make others in the future. I can only try and make things better as we move ahead and any reference to this piece is being deleted throughout the rest of the web site, save for The Discussion Group. However, I can assure you that this type error in judgment will never happen again as without integrity, there is no reason for GolfClubAtlas.com to exist.
Cheers,
One of Golf's Formerly Most Beloved Figures