I get a lot of requests to play at Crystal Downs, or at some of the more exclusive private clubs I have designed, from magazine panelists and golf business people and GCA and now even Instagram. I explain to them that they can only play if I host them personally, and though I will sometimes do that, it's hard to commit to a date months in advance, considering my busy schedule.
At the same time, I will never forget that when I was 19, I was invited to play at Seminole, Merion, Pine Valley, Somerset Hills, LACC, SFGC, and a few others, by the green chairman or president, simply by writing a "cold call" letter and asking if I could come and see the golf course. It was a huge leg up in my career journey to be welcomed at all of those places, so when I get a letter from someone who is perhaps overreaching a little, I am aware that I might once have done that myself.