Rock Creek Cattle Company profile posted

[Brent Hutto]

My wife mentored a doctoral student many years ago who moved her family from Wyoming to Charlottesville, VA in order to attend graduate school. After a year she quit and they moved back because their home out in rural Greene County, VA made them feel too claustrophobic.

After half a lifetime in what Moriarty terms "Big Everything Country", not being able to see to the horizon in every direction, every day apparently made the hills of Virginia feel to those folks approximately like living in Manhattan would feel like to me.

I've been as far out West as Denver and Tucson and I've got to say if the part of the world where RCCC is located is any more empty and expansive I might get a bit wigged out myself at some point.

[Brad Tufts]

This is far from the first time this has been written, but I think we are speaking about what makes our country great.

I love the dichotomy between areas where each square foot of space (and sometimes air space about the physical space) is haggled over and bought and sold, and the great expanses of the Western US, where land can be unincorporated, enjoyed by all, maybe even forgotten.

When I first started traveling out West for business (I live near Boston), I initially found all the open space discomforting...like an "other" feeling you might find visiting a foreign country.  Now I love the "adventurous" nature of seeing the wide open spaces...even if its just visually from my rental car...and I count myself lucky to live somewhere where I don't even need to leave the country to experience great diversity of landscape.

I thought RCCC fit its environment very well, with yardage meaning very little on a few holes.

[Tim_Weiman]

Tim:

That is an odd story, but did you ever think maybe that had more to do with yourself than with the golf course?

Tom,
 
Yes, I did. But, the only reason I shared it was because as you know better than anyone, appreciating golf architecture requires travel. Lots of it.

And, each place has its own journey. Rock Creek for me wasn't like running up I 95 from Pelham to Mamaroneck to see Winged Foot. Nor was it like jumping on a plane in London and flying to Cork to see Old Head for the first time.

It was an experience unlike any I ever had. The journey truly did make my brain turn off when it came to golf architecture.

A bit strange, hell yes!

[DMoriarty]

When I first left Montana for the east coast I felt slightly claustrophobic for a long time.   I remember really enjoying driving over bridges and overpasses because it was about the only place one could see over the immediate surroundings.  I am still convinced that part of the draw of the ocean is that for many it is the only place one can see into emptiness, except for looking straight up.  

I don't think of the landscape around Rock Creek as empty, but it is expansive. You not only see mountains, you can see past mountains. The scale is very different than in the locations most people are used to.  If one built a golf course to match the scale, then the holes would be a quarter mile wide and miles long.  But golf doesn't work that way. (Give the manufacturers a few years and it might.)  Considering the limitations of golf, I was (and am) very impressed how well the course fits into the expansive landscape.

[Tim_Weiman]

When I first left Montana for the east coast I felt slightly claustrophobic for a long time.   I remember really enjoying driving over bridges and overpasses because it was about the only place one could see over the immediate surroundings.  I am still convinced that part of the draw of the ocean is that for many it is the only place one can see into emptiness, except for looking straight up.  

I don't think of the landscape around Rock Creek as empty, but it is expansive. You not only see mountains, you can see past mountains. The scale is very different than in the locations most people are used to.  If one built a golf course to match the scale, then the holes would be a quarter mile wide and miles long.  But golf doesn't work that way. (Give the manufacturers a few years and it might.)  Considering the limitations of golf, I was (and am) very impressed how well the course fits into the expansive landscape.

David,

Leaving my crazy train snake and prison gallows story aside, I do think Rock Creek  is very different than locations most people are used to. In my case, I grew up in Westchester County, NY where golf courses are pretty intimate - the exact opposite of the vast expense of Rock Creek.

[George Freeman]

Tim:

That is an odd story, but did you ever think maybe that had more to do with yourself than with the golf course?

Or with the drugs?

[Tim_Weiman]

Tim:

That is an odd story, but did you ever think maybe that had more to do with yourself than with the golf course?

Or with the drugs?

George,

Sorry. I grew up in a medical family, including a Mom who ran a methadone clinic for a couple years. My high school class of 104 students took a poll spring of our senior year and 92 out of 104 said they smoked marijuana regularly. I was one of the few who never touched the stuff or any other drug.

So, my mental state before stepping on Rock Creek was purely natural. Weird, perhaps. But, not something influenced by drugs or alcohol!