[Tom_Doak]

In another thread, John Kirk notes that for music, most people's tastes tend to revolve around what was popular when they were 13-14 years old:

The Adolescent Peak In “The Songs That Bind” (New York Times, February 10, 2018), Seth Stephens-Davidowitz uses data searches he requested from Spotify to show that one’s lifetime  music tastes tend to peak at 13-14 years old.  There is some modest variance, but it’s a powerful rule of thumb.

This struck me because I think it's the age when many golf course designers really got the bug.  Personally, I started playing when I was ten, and got interested in design almost right away; but when I was 13-14, I played Pebble Beach and Pinehurst #2 for the first time.


I was wondering if this is generally true for people who are just interested in golf course design, and the DG is an excellent test group.  So, for all of you:


At what age did you first play a top-100 level golf course?

[Kyle Harris]

15. Started the game at 13.


Huntingdon Valley.

[Ira Fishman]

Played Yale when I was 18.  Had started playing around 13 years old.  Did not really become interested in golf course architecture though until after I resumed playing when the kids were out of the house and made first trips to Pine Needles/Mid Pines and Ireland.  I was in my mid-50s by then.


Ira

[David Wuthrich]

Age 23


My brother and I were looking at Medical schools for him to attend and we played Pinehurst #2, The Dunes Club in Myrtle Beach and Harbour Town.


He and I have been hooked ever since and it is a great way for us to stay connected.

[Tim Gallant]

16 (I believe) - I played Congressional.


Though I didn't catch the architectural bug until I moved to Scotland when I was 24.

[John Kavanaugh]

The first top 100 course I played was when I joined Victoria National. Age 40, 2000AD.

[Joe Schackman]

I played the front 9 at Plainfield CC at about age 12 but the full 18 around age 14. I knew it was special place because people told me and the holes looked cool and were different but I can't say it was because I understood the architecture.

It wasn't until I went to Bandon at age 25 that things clicked from an architecture perspective.

[Rick Lane]

Lucky that my dad joined Ridgewood in Danbury CT when I was about 5.  Took first golf lessons at 6 or 7 and HATED it....too hard!    But played with my friends there until age 16 or so, clueless about GCA.   Knew the greens were wild and fast, that was about it.   Didn't play golf at all again until after college, when my next door neighbor and I would go to Bethpage Black (because it was famous) and the "new" Lido beach, because it was close.   
At about age 40, when I joined a Tillinghast course (because I had friends there), and met some people who took me to NGLA, the lightbulb went on.   

[Chris Roselle]

Played Aronimink GC in a junior inter-club match when I was 12.

[Steve Kline]

I'm pretty sure it was Pinehurst #2 when I was about 14. I can't recall playing a top 100 before that although I may have. And over the next four years I probably #2 at least 50 times if not 100 times.

[Jake Marvin]

I played Sutton Bay Old for the first and last time when I was 13, caddied at Interlachen at 15.

[Eric Smith]

John Kirk, thank you for that thought. I am forever stuck in the 80s (musically).


As for your question, Tom, my grandpa got me started playing at age 9 when he visited us here in Tennessee. He and my uncle took me to play Pasatiempo when I visited them the following summer. However, my GCA pilot light was lit at Pinehurst a couple years later at age 13 when I went to their summer junior golf school.

[John Kavanaugh]

My second Top 100 was when Gib invited me to play Olympic with Huck and Tommy. Like a candle in the wind.

[Jeff_Mingay]

I was about the same age as Tom Doak, 13- or 14-ish. My Dad took my brother and I to Harbour Town, which elevated my interest in golf architecture initially instigated by playing Donald Ross' Essex, in Windsor, Ontario.

[MClutterbuck]

The Jockey Club (I believe it was a world top 100 at that time) age 15 or so. First golf trip to the US, Doral Blue Monster age 23. But what really hooked me I think was Spyglass Hill, first 5 holes, age 25. I think those 5 holes hit me more than Pebble in the mid 90s.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Age 12, first round of golf at Medinah, courtesy of the neighbors who belonged.  Took home one of the placemats with the 54 hole layout on it as a souvenir.  Told parents that night I was going to be a golf course architect.


TD notes that many got the bug around the same age.  I will say that I knew I was going to be some kind of designer well before that, but when I played golf, it just cemented what I was going to design.  I was always a doodler/drawer.

[Steve Lapper]

10yrs old: Quaker Ridge

[Bruce Wellmon]

Played Harbour Town with my dad in something like the 10th grade. Sure was different from the club at home.

[Scott Sander]

If the question has any room for expansion to "architecurally significant" rather than strictly "Top 100", I'd offer this:

Culver, age 13.  Spent a summer lugging a vinyl bag and my aunt's Patty Bergs around, falling in love with something I could not identify -much less explain- for another 20 years.

Before those rounds, I liked to hit golf balls.
After those rounds, I liked golf.

I thank my stars for the many, many fallow/rustic/neglected years of the Culver course.  It was next-to-free for me back then.  Now, in all its splendor, there's about zero chance it could accidentally nurture an aimless, unconnected young lad into golferhood.

[Bradley Anderson]

At age 22 I took an assistant superintendent position at Sunset Valley, and quickly took an interest in the architecture of all the great courses on the Chicago north shore.


I visited and walked Bob O'Link, Shoreacres, Onwentisa, Exmoor and Skokie.


A year later I moved to the assistant position at Old Elm. There was a loft above the old horse barn, where some of the original push mowers, roller base sprinklers and night watering lanterns had been kept. This was all magical stuff for me at that time.


I began to read anything I could find about golf architecture. `

[Jason Topp]

Around 30.  I found the written material on golf architecture far more interesting than most other material.

[Kalen Braley]

I didn't start playing golf till my early 20s, which for those who've played with me at least offers some understanding why my game sucks.


To answer the question, my mid 30s

[Derek_Duncan]

Have been playing since I was about 12 but not until I was 30 or 31 did I play a top 100-level course.

[Mike Nuzzo]

I was likely around 13 when I first played Bethpage Black with my father and uncles. I was exhausted.[size=78%] [/size]

[Drew Groeger]

I'm an outlier to this discussion, as I didn't play a top 100 or have a deep interest in golf course architecture and design until my 40's. A late bloomer.

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