There are more than enough GCA'ers to support all three events. In the case of the Mashie, we have more players than we had two years ago and more players from out of town than we had last year. I'm bummed, personally, that I can't play in the George or Dixie Cups this year. And in fact, these events almost always fall within two weeks of each other. Even when they aren't on the same weekend, it's still hard to figure out a way to pull off back-to-back trips in a two week span.
At any rate, it's an abundance of riches that participants on this site enjoy. I suspect if we could teleport the Mashie and George Cup players midway through the two events, we could generate some pretty good discussion comparing the two courses on Sunday afternoon. Wolf Run and Ballyhack share a very similar spirit in many ways. And having taken on the planning of the Midwest Mashie this year, I'm more impressed than ever with the work my friend Mike Whittaker puts into the Dixie Cup annually. He runs a far tighter ship than I do. I've had two too many unplanned overnight stays in Atlanta recently thanks to the fine asshats at Delta, but I'd be glad to join him if I could. Although to be honest, I've had my ass kicked by Pete Pittock on the last weekend of September before, and I don't miss the feeling.
I suspect we all started planning these events back in January, and by the time we worked around aeration schedules, college tournaments, member events, and our own work and life schedules, we ended up on the same dates. As opposed to thinking of it as a mishap, I see it as the accidental establishment of a GCA play weekend commemorating the beginning of the end of the 2016 season, as fall begins its slow but undoubtedly imminent approach. I'll be following the George and Dixie Cuppers on this site and on Twitter (#MidwestMashie), and I hope they have as good a weekend as we're going to have in Indy.
Nobody can play all three events. But if you're not playing one of three, you're really missing out.