Tommy and I are close to the same age (53 and 49 years old respectively). Though growing up on opposite coasts, three things hold true for both of us. First, The World Atlas of Golf played a huge role in hooking us on the subject of golf course architecture (that includes both the text AND the illustrations as Tommy points out). Second, there was next to no discussion of golf course architecture for our generation from 1976 (when the WAOG was published) to 1998. And third, the internet changed all that.
In the Emperor Tommy Naccarato, you have the single person who has most used technology to develop and foster the discussion of golf course architecture. How architecture now gets viewed and debated has forever changed. And for nearly fifteen years, Tommy has been at the core from which so much healthy debate has ensued.
Yes, an amazing accomplishment but that can overshadow his underlying passion for golf and his mind for architecture. Also, in the various roles and administrative duties that he has undertaken since 1998 first with the advent of Traditional Golf, the fact can easily get lost that he has evolved into quite the writer. To wit, here are some well worded snippets found in his expansive Feature Interview:
In regards to The Old Course,
“One needs to develop a relationship with the course, whether its love or hate, and then watch it completely take all rules and throw them out the window. The golf course is spontaneous in its charms and you can’t possibly ever stop learning from it.”In regards to Max Behr,
“I think he was somewhat more of a tyrant on golf, and I suspect that more than a few knew that he was more of a Hun when it came to principles. He was a Golfing Extremist, and that’s probably why I am so fascinated by him, ha!”In regards to Rustic Canyon and Friar’s Head,
“I think it’s important for all of us, if we are true golfers, to have a relationship with a course that brings us to an emotional center….where each hole challenges us….where we look forward to each shot time and time again….and where we feel at home, as I do at both Rustic and Friar’s Head. For me, these are the places where my problems seem to just fade away and I am most at peace.”In addition, where else can you possibly learn in one sitting about Desmond’s Quail Ranch, Woodland Hills, and The Norconian? Tommy possesses such a vast wealth of information at his finger tips and we are privileged that he is sharing some with us here.
Purposefully, Tommy uses this Feature Interview as a Call to Arms, first for getting used clubs to Brazil in anticipation of the Olympic Course being turned over to the citizens once the games conclude and later for a sympathetic restoration of Lakeside. As ever, passion oozes forth with each word from Tommy when he is excited on a subject like Behr’s Lakeside:
“Another course worthy of a sympathetic restoration is Lakeside, but unfortunately that won’t happen. Here we are talking about some of the most brilliant architecture on the planet. The land movement that Maxie created there would make a Fazio blush! We aren’t talking minimalism in any sense, but he did what he needed to do to make it interesting in a way that’s natural looking for the site that was once a Apricot nursery on the side of a river and a lake. You cut down those inane pine trees and open up the very nature of the course, making it less isolated and more open….increase the green sizes back to their original dimensions….get the architectural intent back into the holes; eliminate bunkers….and suddenly, Lakeside would not only be a very fun course to play, but a must see place in the World of Golf!”Speaking of Behr, Tommy sets the record straight with what has become the most misused term in architecture in recent years, namely the line of charm:
The Line of Instinct is the line between you and the golf hole that is broken up by natural lines of hazards, hills, bunkers, creek beds, folds in the land, etc. It’s where the natural and picturesque art of a golf hole lies and to challenge it is risky. The Line of Charm is the safe route to the hole, which takes you away from the natural hazards and leaves breathing room, albeit with a more stringent task of getting on to the green and into the hole.Anyone who sets up a forum called Max’s Lounge clearly is a Behr disciple. Though Behr’s courses have been horribly trampled, his words remain which provide clear insight into his design beliefs. Tommy provides a neat, distilled version of this ethos when he writes:
Another Behr tenant is Width, that a golf course should have the least amount of boundaries and out of bounds as possible. He characterized golf as a “sport,” while calling baseball, football, tennis, etc., “games,” simply because of the fixed lines and boundaries of the latter. He believed in the Sportsman aspect of golf, no different than hunting, fishing, etc. He was willing to go to the death mat to prove his point, and did so often with more scathing indictments of the rank and file. And he despised the use (or overuse) of sand as a hazard in unnatural places where exposed sand couldn’t naturally occur.When Tommy was helping with GolfClubAtlas.com, he and I disagreed on
only one thing: How to handle malcontents in the Discussion Group. In general, I was mostly of the opinion that the one strike rule applied and that the Discussion Group was always just one or two topics away from quickly snapping back on track. My frustration was that Tommy was as capable of starting a magnificent thread as anyone. Instead though, too often I thought that he tried to guide people’s behavior which is harder than herding cats. For instance, look at how he dissects some of his favorite hazards and holes in questions 13 and 14. That melding of research and observation is found in very few people. I sincerely hope that Tommy doesn’t spend too much time in managing Max’s Lounge as that is time not spent being one of the best voices in the study of golf course architecture. (Tangentially, surely it is a given that Tommy has the 1) best/most warm laugh and 2) the most appropriate moniker in the history of golf course architecture, yes?!)
Though each of the fourteen years that I have known Tommy have been great, I must say how pleasing it is to sense through his Feature Interview how he has evolved. His tribute to Tom MacWood is heartfelt and a wiser and kinder Tommy emerges from the one that I first shook hands with in L.A. in the winter of 1999. Read this paragraph at the end of the Feature Interview and see if you concur:
You see, when I was participating on this and all of the other websites, I had been very caustic at times. I look back at some of my old posts and ask myself how on earth I could have said some of the things I said. I’m not a mean person at all; I’m just driven to see architecture succeed on the grandest of levels and hopefully make some life-long friends while doing it. But it’s easy to understand the dissension, because the internet is strange like that. We talk by writing, but we can’t hear the intonation in each other’s voices and see through each other’s eyes what we might actually be thinking or where it’s coming from. There are many big name and very successful architects, club committeemen, employees of the governing body and even the director of the ASGCA that have taken me to task for this passion and rightfully so. What I think they really don’t understand is that it’s not just my passion for the subject, but my passion for Golf that’s inside of me, and, I think its inside of all of us. Our love and passion for Golf brings us so many things, and hopefully one day most, the understanding and patience with others, thus bringing us to the ultimate goal: life with no out of bounds.Like the rest of the Feature Interview, that is beautifully expressed by my very good friend. Can we live up to such ideals as expressed by the modern technology pioneer of golf course architecture debate? Hopefully, as who would want to disappoint the Emperor for fear of him saying “Off with your head?!
Cheers,