The Discussion Group reminds me in some ways of professional golf. We all start off level. No one has a head start and no one gives you anything because you are a ‘name.’ Each post is like a shot with the object being to build from one good one to the next. When you go astray -on tangents (sometimes it is hard not to) your work suffers. Hopefully, over the course of time you will compile scores of posts that make you proud.
Sean Arble has done that about as well as anybody since this Discussion Group began in 1999. I say that based not only my own observations but by the large number of people who ask me, ala Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, ‘Who is that guy?’
After recently watching him storm around Reddish Vale in a tidy fashion, I asked him to do a Feature Interview for the site. He initially said ‘No, everyone knows me pretty well and I doubt that I have much new to offer.’ I persevered and happily won out. Frequently, it seems that the modest people have the most to say. The more they see, the more they realize how much there is to learn. That’s the impression that you are left with after reading Sean’s interview: he is like a gigantic sponge, absorbing knowledge as he golfs across GB&I. Who else is going to talk about Cleeve Cloud, Edgbaston, Minchinhampton Old Course, Hockley, and Church Stretton?! In addition, Sean is very much into the game’s history and the names Molly Gourlay, 1886’s Champion Golfer of the Year David Brown and Sir Harry Mallaby-Deeley are sprinkled throughout this Feature Interview. You can almost imagine the gears turning in his head as he “connects the dots” as to how golf course architecture evolved in GB&I. As an added bonus, Sean happens to be great at both playing and taking photos at the same time as witnessed by the thirteen high quality photos of his found throughout the Feature Interview.
Happily, there is good news for us all: Sean has started his own travel business, Classic British Golf Tours. We all head to the UK and naturally play the famous Open courses and other heralded landmarks. That’s logical, but then what? Where to play next? Just one read through this month’s Feature Interview provides the easy answer! Feel free to email Sean directly at sean@classicbritishgolftours.com or visit his web site
www.classicbritishgolftours.com.
I am certainly biased toward Sean and his writings/observations and I hope that we have an opportunity to write some course profiles together. He shares the same values that I do: natural golf in authentic settings and observing how man capitalized (or not) on those opportunities. Additionally, he is tight with a £, which has the added benefit of sending him (and in turn us through his writings) to bouncy-bounce golf courses that aren’t overly manicured.
Hope you learn as much from this month’s Feature Interview as I did.
Best,