[Ed_Baker]

The lurking audience of GCA.com may be much greater than we think,and the "diversity" of that group is astounding!Getting them to participate is entirely another matter.

Last night we had a few friends over and my wife called and ordered some pizzas.When the delivery guy showed up,my wife went to pay him and he asked If "THE" ED Baker lived here? My wife said, "I don't know about "THE" Ed Baker,but I am married to Ed Baker. The guy says " Does he write about golf courses on the internet"? With that my wife drags the guy out to the pool area and announces " Oh Sweetheart","The Pizza man wants to talk to you about golf courses!"

My friends went in to hysterics.

The Pizza man(somewhat embarrassed) then comes over to the side of the pool,takes off his hat,shakes my hand,and proceeds to tell me "how much he enjoys reading all the golf course stuff,that you and your friends write about on Golf Club Atlas!"

I politely explain that ANYBODY can post on GCA,and other than Ran and M.W. Burrows I really hadn't met any other of the contributors.

The Pizza man says," Yeah,but you guys really know what you're talking about and you are all educated," and launches in to a "Who's Who" of regular GCA posters,TEPaul,Mike Cirba,Pat Mucci,Tom MacWood,Tommy N.,Dan King,and Ran.

Now I'm getting a little nervous,the guy then pulls out a felt tipped pen and asks me to sign his hat!... My friends again convulse in laughter!

Now I figure one of my friends is pulling a practical joke,so I sign the guys hat,he shakes my hand again and says "wait 'til I show the guys in the tuesday night league this!" Again my friends convulse.Pizza man leaves.

For the next hour, I try and see which one of my friends set this up.Everybody swears they had nothing to do with it,I am now more concerned than amused.Jesus,what if the guy scans my signature or something.

I get dressed and drive down to the Pizza place.I ask to talk to the delivery man,he appears from the back room and says "Hi Mr. Baker,was there a problem with your order?"
I say, no the order was fine, but I was curious which one of my friends "set me up?"
He replies,"What do you mean,set you up?"
I said,"it isn't everyday that somebody comes to my house and asks for my autograph."Pizza man says,I didn't mean to bother you sir,but Mrs. Baker did ask me to come out to meet you."

Now the poor guy is clearly embarrassed,(so am I)and I realize he was sincere.I ask where he plays and he responds with the name of one of the local munis. I ask how he got interested in golf course architecture and he responds " I was a firemen for 35 years and I used to caddy on off days at all the great courses in the area,and got to play a lot of them on Mondays!" After playing them for a number of years I realized that a lot of them were Donald Ross designs and I started reading about him.My grandson got me a computer after my wife died and I spent a lot of time learning how to use it, and I found Golfclubatlas by accident one day looking for something on Donald Ross on the internet."

Much to the chagrin of his boss,we spent the next ten minutes discussing some of the Ross courses he had played,what he liked about them,ect.

I asked why he wanted my autograph?
" So the guys in the league,will believe that I actually met one of the guys that writes on the site."

I said," Why don't you and your friends post something if you are interested in GCA to that degree?"

"We can't write like you guys and we don't know enough.We are all just working guys that like golf and great courses." We all have learned a lot!

I spent the next five minutes trying to persuade this very nice man(whose name I now know and will play golf with next week)that the only "qualifications" needed to participate on here was a love of golf architecture and an opinion.

Are we that intimidating or elitest in our presentations? I'll bet there are a lot more "Pizza Men" out there that share our passion,but are timid to post. Why is That?

[John_Conley]

UNREAL!  Truth is stranger than fiction.  File that in the "I can't make this stuff up" category.

I know a few people that lurk and don't post.  One for professional reasons (he's an architect) and one for personal reasons (he's a former club pro who doesn't want to get into debates with people he doesn't know - understandable as some of us are pretty opinionated!).

I hope the pizza man and his FD brethren start posting when they feel they can add something worthwhile.  Thanks for sharing a great story.

[THuckaby2]

GREAT story!

I must say though that I lurked for a LONG time before I screwed up the courage to post.  It's not that there is elitism here, it's more that one feels one has nothing to add... Only when people started talking about CA public courses and asked for Scotland advice did I chime in - those were things I KNEW about.  

When the threads turn to design theory, I clam up.  I learn a hell of a lot, but what could I possibly add?  I'm sure a lot of people feel the same way.  I know quite a few reader/lurkers...

I have more courage now and I likely post way more than I should.  But I absolutely understand the pizza man's take.

If I ever meet Tom Paul damn right I'm gonna want an autograph.  The same goes for a LOT of regulars here!

TH

[Patrick_Mucci]

Tom Huckaby,

Be very careful on what you ask for,
Tom Paul's autograph has been known to contain 547 words.  

[Mike_Cirba]

Ed;

Pizza man..Schmeeza Man...

Call me when the GCA groupies show up!  

[THuckaby2]

Pat, that was CLASSIC!  I am rolling...

You are another whose autograph I'd want - you know that, don't you?

TH

[Gene Greco]

GREAT STORY, ED!. I state this despite the fact you called me a piece of three day old haggis!

[Doug Wright]

Posting on this site CAN be a bit daunting for the uninitiated or the casual reader. Witness the poor fellow who (I think) innocently asked how to get on Merion the other day only to be met with harsh rebukes that this is not a site to book tee times/sponge off members etc.* That type of response, while perhaps appropriate, can make a novitiate hesitate to post again. Also the heavy GCA horsepower displayed hereon can be intimidating. I've had my share of harsh responses. For me it's part of the fun; it may not be so for others. A kinder, gentler GCA? I'm not sure it's necessary--there are many, many more abusive sites on the Web. I say, all you lurkers, come on down!

Doug

* Re the Merion thing, I, for one, have seen many instances on this site where folks have been very inviting to others to join them for a game in their locales.  

[ForkaB]

This is a great story--in fact so great that I am not completely pissed that I was not metnioned in the pantheon of posters mentioned by Pizza Guy, even though Ed Baker is apparently stealing my "three day old piece of stinking haggis" and using it indiscriminately and shamelessly with solid citizens like Gene.

Mike C--there are a lot of GCA Groupies out there, but, unfortunately they all suffer from an extreme excess of testosterone.....

So, Pizza Guy.......

If you have someone in your establishment that looks like Julia Roberts (of "Mystic Pizza" fame) and she knows the difference between a "false front" and a "boob job" I'll have a large Italian sausage and mushroom delivered to my house in San Jose at any time when my wife is not present.  Airfare included.  Tip opitonal.

All the best

Rich

[Ed_Baker]

Rich,
I believe I gave you full literary credit when I used your phrase.

If "Pizza Man" produces Julia Roberts or a close facsimile,it is I sir, that will be "pissed"... unless you send a DVD and save me a piece of italian sausage and mushroom.(You may also wear tape over your eyes if you wish!)

Gene,

As you are obviously a gentlemen,with substantial GCA allies,I withdraw my previous obstensibly plagerized slur,written in a jealous pique! I now am only eternally envious!

[George Pazin]

Rich -

I was a little offended, too, but then I noticed that you, Gib, Tom H & countless others were left off, so I realized I was still in good company. :-)

Guess we'll just have to start upping the number of posts.

[Craig_Rokke]

Ed-
Did you at least get some free breadsticks,
or maybe a small pie out of the encounter?
That was an entertaining story.

[Wayne_Tucker]

Hey Ed, that was a great story, thanks for sharing that with us.

Your post about pizza made me hungry though !!  

Good thing it wasn't a Chinese food delivery guy though, because then I would be hungry now and then hungry again an hour later.

[John_Sheehan]

Ed-
Great story!  I am still laughing. I know what Tom H. means - I stood on the sidelines for a long time before I joined in. There are many people here who know far more than I do, and who have much more experience playing the great courses.  I chime in when I can.  

Actually, when I finally did write, Mike Cirba wrote a nice note telling me how much he liked my "inaugural" post. I am still thankful for that; and it encouraged me to keep contributing.

Now, where ARE those groupies........?

[Steve Wilson]

John Sheehan

Re: the groupies.

If you remember the coverage from the US Open coverage, they are in Lytham-St. Anne's staring at Sergio Garcia's butt.

[T_MacWood]

Are sure it wasn't BY moonlighting?

[George Pazin]

And Tom grabs the early lead for funniest post of the year...

[Tommy_Naccarato]

I'm laughing my pathertic ass off right now!!!!!!! Great post Tom!

PIZZAMAN!

You are now my very last hero!

Come join the fun!

[TEPaul]

This could be one of the best I've seen in my years on here!! I don't know, though, you sure you're not conning us Old Ed?

I'm from New York, you know, and I'm almost as naturally suspicious as Pat. Maybe the Pizzaman is conning all of us. You know what they say on the grift--it's not just pulling the con, it's how long you hold it! Whatayagonnado two weeks from now when you find out your wife staged this? I'm not going to believe any of this until the Pizzaman himself gets on here and says howdy-do!

Pizzaman:

No reason at all to feel intimidated over discussions about golf architecture. It's not rocket science you know?--actually very commonsensical--mundane really! Not much more than trying to figure out a bunch of cool ways to make a golf ball bounce.

But do I have a proposition for you! Make me a large pizza, extra cheese, pepperonni, mushrooms and hot peppers, hop in your car and make your way to New Jersey. When you hit the state line, redline that baby and in about five minutes the NJ State Police will pull you over (they're very efficient and professional). When they arrive at your window and ask for your license and registration at gunpoint, you just tell them you want to be taken immediately to John Ott, Mayor of Pine Valley because you're on an important Golfclubatlas mission!!

There isn't a state cop in NJ that isn't on a first name basis with The Mayor! He was actually telling me that he played a real interesting course a couple of weeks ago hosted by the State Police (as he does every year). I asked him why he doesn't just go to to the National Mayors convention and he said; "Too boring and they really don't much like golf". Guaranteed the Troopers will drop their mirrored sunglasses and escort you directly to Clementon (odds are they're  GCA lurkers too).

I'll meet you there and we can eat some pizza and talk a little architecture--maybe step out in his backyard (the 9th hole) and look around, maybe play a few holes, 9, 18, 36, whatever!

Pat:

Cut it out on the volume of my writing. My fellow golfclubatlasers--an admission--I don't like golf archtitecture at all; frankly, I think it's boring and ridiculous. I've been writing like this on here these last few years to get my typing skills up to a couple hundreds words a minute and also my confidence up so I can go over to this psychiatric website Katz told me about and really churn it out.

[Brian Phillips]

Pizza man,

I hope you do join the site as we need others to argue with TE Paul and Pat Mucci.  We have all tried and failed most of the time, but be careful what you say about Pine Valley or NGLA as they will bite your typing hand off!!

[TEPaul]

Really? Biting typing hands, huh? In that case I'm going on a nice guy campaign for at least a year.

[Mike Vegis @ Kiawah]

I know that there are multitudes of lurking Golf Digest panelists out there.  I've spoken to many who come out here to play our courses.  Those who don't know of the site I enlighten.  But, many are reluctant to post for fear of getting lambasted as one of "those" panelists...  It's not exactly friendly territory for those carrying GD Panelists cards...

[George Pazin]

Mike -

I don't remember seeing any scarlet letters identifying panelists from any ratings groups. The only ones we become aware of are when the poster reveals the info. Moreover, I don't recall anyone attacking any of the panelists just because they were panelists - questioning their views, as well as their panels results, sure, but not just attacking them because they're a rater.

[BarnyF]

Pizzaman,

Please do not let the education of the east coasters intimidate you as everyone knows...Education is the crutch of the unreligious...

I would love to see Ran install a spelling and grammar checker on the reply section of this site to help those of us more intimidated by commas than water hazards.  Why concern ourselves with rules of english that were developed by people that make the USGA look like the WWF. Pity the fool whose wife makes love to his wallet...whose children hug their their trust funds...whose financial success is based on burying their parents...We all know your Tuesday night league emulates the origins of golf at TOC far more than those concerned with the restoration of Yale.  Did the scots drink ale and go home to properly service their wives after a round of Tuesday night golf with their friends or did the play wednesday mornings and talk on their cell phones with their brokers after the round.

We need the opinions of the lovers of the game like yourself much more than we need another regurgitated opinion served up with a dose of ivy.  So please speak the truth in its rawest forms because the future of golf depends on it.

[Mike_Cirba]

BarnyF;

That was classic, if tinged with a little bit of class warfare.  You've permanently changed my socio-economic-political viewpoint.  

Going forward, in a noble attempt to become a "working class hero" (I had simply considered myself only "working class" previously), I will heretofore cease and desist in the use of well-turned phrases and verbose detailing of my thoughts on course architecture.  I will also give up my pompous, pretentious attempts to sound intelligent and informed.

My journalism professor at a sinkhole of an institution in Nowheresville, PA would be gratified to know that his prodigal, underachieving, over-imbibing student has suddenly and mysteriously become gentrified.  

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