Well, I am back from my epic journey to fill the life bucket list and fill in gaps in my interest in search of golf course architecture and maintenance practices. I have come to admit and realize certain capabilities, skills and education are required, some of which I will never acquire.
I have spent the last 5 weeks traveling in a dual motive of seeking out lifelong desires to experience the "old sod" of Irish and Scottish 'home of golf' venues. And, revisit family relatives at my ancestoral home in Italy.
I fully intended to complete course and photo tours upon return home, as so many of our GCA.com contributors have done over the years as they visit interesting golf courses and do photo and commentary through the holes of their experience. In deed I have done such in the past to a far less degree of quality as some of our GCA.com all star reviewers.
I will in coming weeks make a feeble attempt to offer some photo tours and comments on what I had experienced along my path through Ireland and Scotland. Of course, some of my golf rounds at certain courses have already been reviewed well by knowledgeable and competent golf writers here on GCA.com. I will probably offer cursory personal impressions on those often covered high profile courses. Pretty much everything has been said of places like TOC. I will try to do a decent overview of Leven Links, which now that I've experienced and by comparison to other courses I've played that are GCA.com darlings, does not get enough credit for how enjoyable the layout design of Leven is to fulfill a desire to seek out excellent local golf opportunities.
But the realization does and has occurred to me in the past as I've made these golf odyssey efforts of travel and playing multiple courses..... a photographic memory is required along with some playing talent, neither of which I possess. If it weren't for the multitude of photos/videos I take along the path of the rounds as I proceed, yardage books and Google Earth, I would be lost in space amidst the panoply of golf design features and characteristics, natural and created on multiple courses played on such a trip.
Then, the issue for me becomes overkill of photos. I literally have over 1000 pics taken thoughout the 3 weeks of golf, not to mention the 1000s of non golf, culture and touristic pictures taken along the way.
Combine that with 2 weeks of intense non-golf sojourn in Italia, speaking complex subjects with a 4 year old Italian vocabulary language skill, and well..... my brain is fried!
But in a good way.
My hat is off to those that do have these photographic quality memories to recount a once around examination of a significant golf course to then report and recount the salient features of the GCA encountered. Of course people like Tom Doak, and Ran Morrisett are poster boys for this sort of skill to encounter, absorb and recount the features along with the obvious skill and actual knowledge of the subject at hand.
For my part, I feel I am reasonably well qualified from previous efforts to study GCA from many of the relevant readings of many of the heralded books on the subject, self study and participation in GCSAA seminars and long time hobbiest interest in turf management, self initiated golf course development efforts, and general long time participation in GCA.com. I have had to learn something along the way!
Yet, my personal abilities are just not that good to just begin a thread to recount one course or another among 12.5 played along the way without taking much more time to organize photos and recall thoughts on particular holes. Hell, I can't remember which hole on TOC I saw which things that struck me as something I hadn't realized before, despite all the years of reading. I have to go back and look at pics I took to bring those sort of things to mind on the correct hole and sequence of play. Not to mention I rarely hit the ball where I recognize is the desired play and shot for me. My caddie at TOC really helped me to enjoy the playing attempts and even with some success!
So, to conclude; I ask if others feel they do or do not have the skills, memory, and depth of prior study to actually go on one of these golf odysseys and do justice to recounting the GCA encountered? Which aspect of these personal talents and skills do you feel is most essential to getting and sharing the most of such a trip?
And, do you think too much golf, too many courses in too short of a time can be overdone. What number of courses per week or two week time frame is your number. Or, is it best to stick to two or three and replay them multiple times?
Your thoughts?