Eric - Joe is the only gca-er I've ever played with. We played two rounds together - one at the course he owned (the healthiest turf you ever saw, not surprisingly) and the other at the Mines. Two things that you probably could have guessed: 1) We played our first round just minutes after I'd stepped out of the car after a 4-5 drive. We didn't warm up at all and I was playing even worse than I normally do; now, the thing is, Joe wasn't doing very well either, pretty much racking up one bogey after the other, but somehow I could tell that he was a much better golfer than he was showing. And then around the 14th or 15th hole, it hit me. God bless him, but don't you know that he was purposely trying to play badly, just so that he wouldn't 'show me up'. The funny thing is, since he is so bad at lying, he was equally bad at faking his ineptitude, and so I saw it and called him on it (well, thanked him for it). He looked like a kid who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. 2) At the Mines we both played better, and while he was talking me through the (very good) architecture, he just 'played' (and play is the operative word) the smartest round of golf I'd seen in a long time, always playing the angles and the contours beautifully. (Oh yeah, and also a 230+ yard 3 wood that flew high and straight and landed on the green like a butterfly!). In short, Grandpa Joe can play -- and I can't think of anyone you'd enjoy hosting out there in your spiritual home more than him. (Oh man, now THAT would be something I'd truly love to join you in!)
Peter