{"id":928,"date":"2009-12-24T10:51:27","date_gmt":"2009-12-24T17:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jeffwallach.com\/?p=928"},"modified":"2011-02-27T15:21:03","modified_gmt":"2011-02-27T22:21:03","slug":"men-in-green","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/golf\/personalities\/928\/men-in-green","title":{"rendered":"Men In Green"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story first appeared in Links Magazine in 2002.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a meeting room at the Bandon Dunes Resort on the southern Oregon coast, approximately two dozen men are planning to make you mad– if not today, then soon.\u00a0 Not necessarily on purpose, but it seems inevitable.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re not evil or mean-spirited, these men with names like Jim and Josh and even Robin and Dana.\u00a0 They love their families.\u00a0 They enjoy good beer.\u00a0 Some wear goofy shoes, others are hip and sport shapely goatees.\u00a0 Individually they are funny, sullen, driven, artistic, impatient, dry-humored, argumentative, outspoken, and even cuddly.\u00a0 As a whole they are a bunch of brainiacs.\u00a0 They work hard for little recognition in places like China and New Zealand and North Dakota, in the wind, rain, hail, dust, and heat.<\/p>\n

One of them once lost the only golf ball in the entire country of Latvia.\u00a0 Another spent $3 million constructing a single par three hole in Guam, where storms destroyed several rounds of work and relocated cart paths into the trees (and nearly carried the superintendent out to sea).<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t know these men, but they talk about you all the time– and not always fondly (in a moment of frustration, one of them says that 80 percent of you suck).\u00a0 They can influence your mood and ruin your mojo and chances are you\u2019ll spend some summer days in their company sometime soon without even knowing it.\u00a0 They may consider whether you say \u201cgolf course\u201d or \u201cgoff course\u201d as a fashion statement.<\/p>\n

Surely you\u2019ve guessed that they are young (mostly), as-yet unheralded golf course architects– not the famous one\u2019s whose names you\u2019d know even if you didn\u2019t play golf.\u00a0 These are the supporting casts, the guys who will frustrate you more a year from now, or five years, when the trajectory of their bright stars rise and flash across they sky.\u00a0 The ones who worked (or still work) for other men who get the credit for their efforts because life is not fair.\u00a0 Although those gathered here count several dozen of America\u2019s best-ranked modern courses among their credentials, many labor unnoticed in New England or Canada, or they toil in the strange far corners of the third world, or they only perform renovations.<\/p>\n

They have come together at Bandon Dunes at the bequest of one who might be the most talented little-known course designer in the business: Tom Doak, of Renaissance Golf Design.\u00a0 Doak is an architect\u2019s architect: he believes in classical elements of style, he\u2019s not shy about lambasting bad design work, and he\u2019s written two books on golf architecture that have become cult classics.\u00a0 Doak recently finished Pacific Dunes, the new course that will open at Bandon Dunes in July.\u00a0 In honor of his 40th birthday, and to show off his latest creation, Doak organized this summit, which participants are calling Archipalooza.\u00a0 They have ventured here to talk business and get to know each other.<\/p>\n

If you think that golf course designers sit around discussing bunkers and turf grass, you\u2019re partly right.\u00a0 They also talk about \u201cJack\u201d and \u201cPete\u201d and \u201cBobby,\u201d mostly with respect, but not always nicely.\u00a0 They commiserate over how much they hate trees.<\/p>\n

Over this long weekend they also hold actual meetings, the minutes of which might read something like this:<\/p>\n

Ate breakfast.<\/p>\n

Discussed hot topics:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0 Course rankings: are they a positive thing?<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0 Liability, especially as relates to cart paths.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cFast and firm:\u201d an issue or a style?<\/p>\n

Adjourned for golf.<\/p>\n

Later, they present slide shows and share their opinions and experiences and humorous war stories.\u00a0 Tom Doak recalls how a friend once claimed that he never hit into Doak\u2019s bunkers, so Doak began tucking bunkers closer to his greens.\u00a0 There\u2019s a lesson here: be careful what you tell golf course architects.<\/p>\n

If it weren\u2019t for these men (the only women in sight all weekend are waitresses) every modern track would be designed in the style of Robert Trent Jones.\u00a0 Which is why, when you enjoy golf courses, you should take note of who designed them and remember architects\u2019 names.<\/p>\n

On a certain Sunday when you play well and meet the challenges of a skillfully-crafted layout, you will thank these men.\u00a0 You will admire and respect them.\u00a0 You will curse them.<\/p>\n

They will smile in response, knowing they\u2019ve succeeded at their difficult work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This story first appeared in Links Magazine in 2002. In a meeting room at the Bandon Dunes Resort on the… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1695,3916,4907,5048,5541,7],"tags":[444,494,32,944164,281],"class_list":["post-928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-golf","category-travel-oregon","category-kempersports","category-oregon-golf-assoc","category-alternative-golf-assoc","category-black-butte-ranch","category-personalities","tag-bandon-dunes","tag-tom-doak","tag-golf-course-architecture","tag-golf","tag-architecture"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2282,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions\/2282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}