Highlight of 2013

[Mickey Boland]

First trip to the Masters.  Everything I expected and more. 

[Jim Colton]

This was a memorable day.

[Jason Walker]

Great year for me...

St. Andrews Old Course with my Dad for his 70th and my 40th in early June.

My wife and I flew home while my Mom and Dad stayed an extra week in Scotland.

Surprised my Dad upon his return with tix to Merion on Sunday for Father's Day.

Played some other nice courses too.

[Steve Green]

Year full of fun and fond memories

February trip with the guys to Vegas - Shadow Creek, Cascata and South Shore.
Summer trip to the Walking Golfer Society event at Ballyneal, the place is a blast and the company was top notch.
Fall trip to play in the BMW Cup at Pinehurst.  Great event at a great course.

Back at home rounds at Shoreacres, Skokie, Northshore, and Exmoor further proving the quality of golf in Chicago

and to top it all off...becoming a member of the GCA

[C. Squier]

Having my mom and dad accompany me for my last 18 of my HHH.

[Tim Martin]

Having my mom and dad accompany me for my last 18 of my HHH.

Nice!!!!!!!

[Wayne Freeman]

3 big ones for me........

   1.  Recovering from a tibial stress fracture that had me down for more than 6 months.
   2.  Joining the Olympic Club.. ..  what a thrill
   3.  Playing 16 great courses this past fall in England including all 10 in the Golf Mag World list.

[Ari Techner]

54 holes with my son on his 4th birthday at my favorite golf course anywhere in the world.   The fact that he picked the destination for his birthday makes it even better.   

[Scott Warren]

Did Bunbun make the trip, Ari?!

[Ari Techner]

Of course Bunbun made the trip.   The foursome was my father, my son, myself and Bunbun.   As usual Bunbun carded the lowest score.   

[Tom Birkert]

Due to the birth of my son (which was undoubtedly the highlight of the year) I wasn't able to play as much as I normally would this year.

I was able to get over to the US for a fantastic trip earlier in the year however.

The highlight was probably playing NGLA again, as I had not appreciated enough the first time I played it.

The Creek Club is an exceptional place to play and stay.

Seeing Merion a few weeks before the US Open, when the rough was already impossible!

Shinnecock, which is as pure and fair a test of golf as you can find.

Gulph Mills, a fantastic club with real character.

Pine Valley, which is impossible to top.

[Eric Strulowitz]

The highlight of 2013 for me was the Dixie Cup and meeting some of the great folks here. 

[Jim Sherma]

2013 ended up being a fine year of GCA for me.

Highlights included:

*** A nice selection of Donald Ross courses that really increased my appreciation for his work:

Country Club of York - wonderful classy parkland course that is everything that a great club course should be
Mark Twain - probably the biggest surprise of the year, I expected it to be decent but it was really good
Mid Pines - the course was really good and maybe great - the restoration makes for great visuals
Schuylkill CC - I have played Schuylkill many times over many years and unfortunately the redone 4th and 9th greens really take a lot of the joy out of one of my favorite days out. They just are not in character with what had been there previously or the rest of the course in general (the redone 13th and 16th are not nearly as jarring to me).

Maintenance Comment: I am still not sure how I feel about the playability of the native/sandy areas at Mid Pines and the Dormie Club. Seeing different balls hit into these areas the outcomes saw the ball routinely funneling into eroded rivulets, a fairly common result was nearly or completely unplayable lies - I don't believe that these are playing characteristics that were envisioned - Looking at older photos of Dormie Club it appears that the native areas are maintained and smoothed out. I imagine that the ball will settle more times than not on hard packed sand or up against some vegetation - that was not my experoience at the Dixie Cup this fall.

*** Played two high quality Tillinghast courses:

Philadelphia Cricket Club - liked the course quite a bit and can't wait to see the renovation - adding some visual intimidation and putting some of the bite back into a very nice routing will only make this better - and the restored redan just looks awesome
Baltimore CC - wow!!! wonderful land and the club and course just works so well for me - I've played both Baltusrol course multiple times and rate them very highly, however, I think Baltimore's land is more majestic and makes for a more memorable routing.

Comment that only I probably care about: I hit the in-play buildings on both courses making par on Philly Cricket's #2 and almost saving par on Baltimore's 6th.

*** The Dixie Cup (Great event with a wonderful set of guys!):

Tobacco Road and Dormie Club were awesome courses to play. TR was in my opinion a great golf course that really offered a ton of interest. I am admittedly biased to TR based on my one playing as I had a wonderful ball striking day and really was able to interact with the architecture in doing so. TR is a brutal course if one is not executing well.

Dormie Club was my first Coore and Crenshaw and is a course that I could play every day with ease. The use of the broad slopes was as good as I expected as was the fun use of the ground game. I am very glad that we got to play it back to back days as a lot of the interest does not blatantly smack you in the face and having a second chance to execute some of the shots under pressure is always nice. I still am not sure what is the best choice on how to approach #17.

As part of my Dixie Cup adventure I also played at Mid Pines on Thursday and Ballyhack on the ride down (thank you Wade!). I mentioned Mid Pines above and it was one of my favorite courses of the year, beautifully restrained while I had the feeling that I could spend round after round figuring out how best to get it around. Ballyhack is a visually stunning course with some very memorable shots but I have to say that it just didn't do it for me on some levels. I know that many people on GCA love the course and it definitely has enough happening that it is without a doubt worth making the effort to play it yourself.

*** Other comments:

A nice little upside to the end of the year was getting back up to Country Club of Harrisburg last week. It's an early Flynn course (admittedly quite altered although the routing is unchanged from at least the 1930's) that sits on a bluff over the Susquehanna River north of the City. There are numerous fully or partially blind shots and flat lies are very rare. I had not played it in four or five years and my opinion had been weighed down by the fact that many local players don't think that highly of the course. Upon returning I found it much more fun and interesting than I had remembered it. Blind shots and uneven lies are just as valid a defense as anything else and I look forward to playing it more often moving forward.

The main downside for me was the closing of Hershey Links (formerly Wren Dale). While it was not my personal favorite of the Hershey courses it was still a very nice example of modern architecture (2000 Hurdzan and Fry) and made for a nice component of my usual rotation of rounds played.  

May 2014 be at least as interesting and informative!

[Matthew Petersen]

First trip to the Masters.  Everything I expected and more. 

Mine as well.

The entire trip was a treat.

[jeffwarne]

54 holes with my son on his 4th birthday at my favorite golf course anywhere in the world.   The fact that he picked the destination for his birthday makes it even better.   

Am I reading this right?
a four year old played 54 holes? in a foursome?

[John Kavanaugh]

My friend Randy Stoll just sent me an email and asked me to post this.  "Meeting all your great friends at Dismal and winning the 5th Major with you as my partner was my personal highlight of 2013."  Thanks Randy.

[Alex Miller]

A year I won't be able to replicate for some time:


A 48 hour cross-country trip to play NGLA, Sebonack, and St. George's. NGLA is unfathomably good and no picture does justice to those greens, and the company was pretty good too!

4 days of backstops and bombed tee shots in Holyoke Colorado. Ballyneal = FUN! (Awesome hosts and attendees that weekend)

A week in Scotland that included TOC on my birthday, Muirfield, and North Berwick. And my favorite day of golf included none of those but rather a mad dash to squeeze in 36 at Crail (Balcomie) and Elie in <7hrs including lunch and the drive between courses. Not to mention golfing with 2 other GCA'ers on this trip who make their residence in Fife.

Also very worthy of mention: Exmoor and The Valley Club, a near Albatross, 3 sub-70 rounds in the company of GCA-ers (my only ones of the year!), and a very fun King's Putter.

[Josh Tarble]

Man, looking back, 2013 was a good year...I hope 2014 is just as good for everyone!

Highlights for me:  
Streamsong (twice) - once with some old friends and once with a new GCA friend

36 at Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run River with a great GCA crew

Tied for 3rd at Club Stroke Play event and won my first round match in the club championship

My 2nd Midwest Mashie - this one will be hard to beat.  Kingsley was amazing, Arcadia was great fun.

THE highlight of 2013 was Crystal Downs and dropping one in for eagle on #1  

[Dan Boerger]

Looking back, plenty to choose from:

Trip to Scotland -- and thanks to David Tepper's help and hospitality, playing Royal Dornoch, Golspie, Brora and Nairn. Golspie perhaps the most underrated course I've played. A tremendous variety of holes. Glad to hear it's all on the mend.

Closer to home, Pine Valley - which always leaves me with a dropped jaw.

Played a fair amount of vacation golf in the Adirondacks and surrounding area. Wonderful to play 9 holes with my son and daughter at the Sadaquada golf club, Inlet and Thendara.

Also, may have played a record number of rounds at my home course (Aronimink) and REALLY enjoyed the Wednesday night league there.

Surprise of the year? Easy -- just how well Merion played for the US Open. I worked the 1st hole and during the practice rounds was convinced this would be the lowest scoring US in recent history. Boy, was I wrong and did the old lady hold up.

[Howard Riefs]

1.   Joined Kingsley and met a great group of guys.
2.   Bit off more than I could chew in coordinating my first large GCA group outing to Streamsong in March. Deemed a success. Repeat performance scheduled for 2014.

[Ari Techner]

54 holes with my son on his 4th birthday at my favorite golf course anywhere in the world.   The fact that he picked the destination for his birthday makes it even better.   

Am I reading this right?
a four year old played 54 holes? in a foursome?

Yes that is correct.   My son is absolutely obsessed with golf at 4 years old and basically has been since before he turned 1 and first started hitting balls around the house one handed with an old club of mine.   I have a video of him at 10 months hitting a ball one handed with an old hickory of mine off the rug by the front door.   He couldn't quite walk at that point.  He now regularly goes on golf trips with me.  He has played 72 holes with me in a day before.   His game usually consists of hitting a tee shot from the tee I am playing, picking up and dropping next to my drive and either playing in to the hole from there or on longer holes picking up again after shot 2 and dropping near the green.   As he hits it further and further the more he gets to play of the course.   We can get around a course together in less than 3 hours this way.  

His top 5 btw (this list came direct from him and are all courses he has played)

1-  Sand Hills
2-  Prairie Dunes
3-  Franklin Hills
4-  Dismal River Red
5-  Lookout Mtn

[Tom_Doak]

From my forthcoming Christmas letter.  Sorry to spoil the surprise for anyone on our mailing list!

Tom's Ten Favorite Rounds of Golf - 2013

1.  The Old Course, St. Andrews, in July, part of the 100 Hole Hike, with Jim Colton, Josh Evenson, and David Watt
2.  The Course at Yale, in August, with Riley Johns and Colin Sheehan
3.  Pinehurst #2, in November, with Pete Garvey and Brad Klein
4.  Streamsong Red, at the Renaissance Cup in January, with Fred Muller, Noel Freeman, Mike Policano, George Peper and David Fay
5.  Streamsong Blue, in March, alternate shots with Jenny
6.  Dismal River Club (Red), at the Renaissance Cup in September, with Don Mahaffey, Greg Dennis and Alan Tessler
7.  Kington GC, England in October, with Sean Arble
8.  Forest Dunes Invitational in July, with Brandon Theophilus and Doug Crusey
9.  Kawartha GC, Ontario in June, with three local kids
10.  Astoria GC, Oregon in March, with the superintendent and assistant professional

(Note.  I had to go to press before my present trip ... I'm thinking that somewhere among Healesville, Royal Melbourne, Royal Adelaide, Barnbougle Dunes and the seven holes at Tara-Iti, I will find a round or two that deserves to be included with the above.)


Top Ten Discoveries of 2013
(Courses I saw for the first time)

1.  Waverly, OR
2.  Castle Stuart, Scotland
3.  Mid Pines, NC
4.  Stoneham, England
5.  Fraserburgh, Scotland
6.  Kington, England
7.  Lookout Point, Ontario
8.  Delamere Forest, England
9.  Kawartha, Ontario
10.  Mulranny, Ireland

[BHoover]

No big trips in 2013, but my highlights , in no particular order:

(a) Kingsley Club for the Midwest Mashie
(b) Canterbury GC
(c) The Golf Club
(d) Pete Dye GC

[Ruediger Meyer]

Playing the Quartet of New South Wales, Kingston Heath, Barnbougle Dunes and Lost Farm. The four best rounds and my while and well worth not touching a club for months before and after so my back would survive this trip of a lifetime.

[Dave McCollum]

My son inviting to attend the US Open at Merion.  He doesn’t really play.  Very nice Father’s Day present.