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Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +1/-1
Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« on: March 08, 2023, 11:32:00 AM »
I am home today fighting off the jet lag and received a call from Bill Coore, who has been on site looking at a property where we might both do courses.  I'm scheduled to go back in a month.


It was a nice conversation and when we were finished, he kindly reminded me, "Don't forget to bring light colored pants, so you can see where all the ticks are."

Ira Fishman

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #1 on: March 08, 2023, 11:52:46 AM »
Peter Bowman sounds as if he would gladly join you on the tick trip.

John Kavanaugh

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #2 on: March 08, 2023, 12:00:00 PM »
Ticks is code for blood sucking groupies.

Ben Sims

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Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #3 on: March 08, 2023, 01:36:22 PM »
Sounds charming. Hopefully the site is more fun than checking yourself for critters.


I always think about the scene from Catch Me If You Can where Leo is arm-in-arm with young lovelies as he strides to his Pan-Am Clipper when I’m shoving leftover hummus down my gullet at 0100 in Sacramento or Tampa. Glamorous alright.


JohnVDB

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Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #4 on: March 08, 2023, 02:34:01 PM »
I am home today fighting off the jet lag and received a call from Bill Coore, who has been on site looking at a property where we might both do courses.  I'm scheduled to go back in a month.


It was a nice conversation and when we were finished, he kindly reminded me, "Don't forget to bring light colored pants, so you can see where all the ticks are."


A lot like being the official who has to paint the lines and pound the stakes in all the places where you’d never think a golf ball could end up but you want to be prepared.

Thomas Dai

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #5 on: March 08, 2023, 02:43:00 PM »
Care needed. Lyme disease, which is spread by ticks, is bad news.
Atb

John Blain

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #6 on: March 08, 2023, 02:55:51 PM »
I am home today fighting off the jet lag and received a call from Bill Coore, who has been on site looking at a property where we might both do courses.  I'm scheduled to go back in a month.


It was a nice conversation and when we were finished, he kindly reminded me, "Don't forget to bring light colored pants, so you can see where all the ticks are."
Tom-
Probably a crazy question but when you are walking a potential site or actually in the construction phase are poisonous snakes much of an issue?  I bet those guys who built TPC Sawgrass could tell some stories!

Mark Smolens

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #7 on: March 08, 2023, 03:53:21 PM »
I am home today fighting off the jet lag and received a call from Bill Coore, who has been on site looking at a property where we might both do courses.  I'm scheduled to go back in a month.


It was a nice conversation and when we were finished, he kindly reminded me, "Don't forget to bring light colored pants, so you can see where all the ticks are."
I think our Mr. Doak must be very attractive to ticks. I recall sitting at a table in our cabin the night of the Mashie at Lost Dunes listening to his stories about various subjects, including the hazards of his occupation vis a vis ticks, when I spotted a tick crawling across the sleeve of his polo...

Jeff_Brauer

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Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #8 on: March 08, 2023, 04:16:00 PM »
I am home today fighting off the jet lag and received a call from Bill Coore, who has been on site looking at a property where we might both do courses.  I'm scheduled to go back in a month.


It was a nice conversation and when we were finished, he kindly reminded me, "Don't forget to bring light colored pants, so you can see where all the ticks are."
Tom-
Probably a crazy question but when you are walking a potential site or actually in the construction phase are poisonous snakes much of an issue?  I bet those guys who built TPC Sawgrass could tell some stories!


I only saw a few dozen in 45 years, even stepping on two water mocs who were still sort of snoozing from their winter hibernation.  We always kept a pair of snake guards in the closet for use when walking sites.


In Indonesia, I wore sunglasses for both obvious reasons plus after one of those spitting Cobras stuck up many yards in front of me and I wasn't sure of their spitting range.


When Lyme disease was a big thing, they recommended putting your pants over your socks when walking the sites, which I did.  Many times going to lunch or dinner I forgot they were that way and got some funny looks in restaurants or convenience stores when I walked in.


As far as I know, Frank Duane was the only architect to be paralyzed from a 1965 insect bite in the field that caused Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a debilitating disease that soon confined him to a wheelchair.   Duane worked extensively with both Robert Trent Jones and Arnold Palmer.  Somehow, despite traveling alone, he still made the long, arduous trip from New York in 1973-74 to the Big Sky project in Montana, with a difficult transfer from Minneapolis, but later was confined to local projects near where he lived.
Jeff Brauer, ASGCA Director of Outreach

Randy Thompson

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #9 on: March 08, 2023, 06:20:28 PM »
In brazil, even worst CRABS!

archie_struthers

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #10 on: March 08, 2023, 08:02:13 PM »
 8)


Can only imagine how crazy this could get !  When building Twisted Dune I was riding by the site of the 11th green when  I saw one of the guys running and screaming 😱 like he saw a ghost . Drove over to his machine and saw the skull and skeleton of a horse 🐎 that he had just dug up . Not exactly Indiana Jones stuff but my espanol didn’t pick up all the words he was screaming as he ran by


Turned out to be the remains of the previous owners beloved Dixie , and the hole was then forever “Dixie’s Dell”



mike_beene

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #11 on: March 08, 2023, 08:26:55 PM »
Jeff:
The Cowboys site must have been crawling with snakes. Of the probably 10 snake encounters of my life, 5 were on that (very excellent) course. Attending the rattlesnake roundup in Sweetwater as a 5 year old left an impression: I dislike snakes greatly.

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +1/-1
Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #12 on: March 08, 2023, 10:05:54 PM »
I think our Mr. Doak must be very attractive to ticks. I recall sitting at a table in our cabin the night of the Mashie at Lost Dunes listening to his stories about various subjects, including the hazards of his occupation vis a vis ticks, when I spotted a tick crawling across the sleeve of his polo...


Yes, I am a regular tick magnet!


When we were flagging clearing lines on the 16th hole at Sebonack, I hugged a tree with hundreds of ticks.  I had to take off my pants and shake them all off.  Both of my witnesses participate on this site occasionally.


I have been fortunate not to come across too many snakes in the course of my duties - I’ve actually seen just as many playing golf - but Bill Coore and I both only realized after the fact what a miracle it was that we survived doing our routings at Barnbougle.

Adam Lawrence

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #13 on: March 09, 2023, 03:30:42 AM »
I was thinking about Barnbougle. When I was there (2009) my playing partner hit his tee shot on the fifteenth into the bush, went in after it and had a close encounter with a king snake. The thing you have to realise about Australia is that virtually everything you meet there wants to kill you, and the Australians themselves are about the least dangerous creatures you will encounter. Unless you go into the wrong pub on the wrong evening!
Adam Lawrence

Editor, Golf Course Architecture
www.golfcoursearchitecture.net

Principal, Oxford Golf Consulting
www.oxfordgolfconsulting.com

Author, 'More Enduring Than Brass: a biography of Harry Colt' (forthcoming).

Short words are best, and the old words, when short, are the best of all.

Jeff_Mingay

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #14 on: March 09, 2023, 08:09:54 AM »
While we were building the first course at Cabot, I went to Saskatchewan to check out a prospective site (that never materialized). Anyway, I had a tick latch onto my left leg just below my buttock; didn't know it until I realized it rode/flew with me all the way back to Nova Scotia!


My leg was pretty nicely bruised, but thankfully that was it.
jeffmingay.com

Marty Bonnar

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #15 on: March 09, 2023, 08:44:58 AM »
Working in the outdoors comes with a very individual set of potential risks. I've personally been:
Verbally abused by the locals.
Barked at by numerous dogs.
Chased by cattle.
Chased by birds.
Chased by weapon-wielding youths.
Bitten by insects.
Stung by insects.
Attacked by trees.
Attacked by shrubs.
But, best of all, befriended by the town drunk!
Happy days. Missing it all in retirement.
F.
The White River runs dark through the heart of the Town,
Washed the people coal-black from the hole in the ground.

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +1/-1
Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #16 on: March 09, 2023, 08:56:56 AM »

Chased by weapon-wielding youths.



Do tell !

Tim Martin

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #17 on: March 09, 2023, 09:01:56 AM »
Working in the outdoors comes with a very individual set of potential risks. I've personally been:
Verbally abused by the locals.
Barked at by numerous dogs.
Chased by cattle.
Chased by birds.
Chased by weapon-wielding youths.
Bitten by insects.
Stung by insects.
Attacked by trees.
Attacked by shrubs.
But, best of all, befriended by the town drunk!
Happy days. Missing it all in retirement.
F.


Marty-A list fraught with danger no doubt but I would be more impressed with bitten by numerous dogs than merely barked at.

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +1/-1
Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #18 on: March 09, 2023, 09:07:45 AM »
I would be more impressed with bitten by numerous dogs than merely barked at.


I would think the over/under on getting bitten by snakes or dogs and staying in the business would be about two.

Bret Lawrence

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #19 on: March 09, 2023, 09:26:30 AM »
I recently came across this article from 1920.  Tillinghast describes some of the encounters he had in Texas.

John Kavanaugh

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #20 on: March 09, 2023, 09:41:59 AM »
I would be more impressed with bitten by numerous dogs than merely barked at.


I would think the over/under on getting bitten by snakes or dogs and staying in the business would be about two.


The odds of not getting paid are worse.

Marty Bonnar

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #21 on: March 09, 2023, 10:10:38 AM »
I would be more impressed with bitten by numerous dogs than merely barked at.


I would think the over/under on getting bitten by snakes or dogs and staying in the business would be about two.


The odds of not getting paid are worse.


I’ve had that a couple of times too!
The White River runs dark through the heart of the Town,
Washed the people coal-black from the hole in the ground.

Marty Bonnar

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #22 on: March 09, 2023, 10:17:35 AM »

Chased by weapon-wielding youths.



Do tell !


We were refurbing an old playground near a particularly ‘rough’ neighbourhood, when a small group of the local gang noticed us and decided they weren’t very happy with our presence. A couple of thrown rocks later along with some threatening language and stick-rattling, we decided a hasty retreat was the best defence!
Funny to think only a few years earlier they would have been our target audience for the play facility!
F.
The White River runs dark through the heart of the Town,
Washed the people coal-black from the hole in the ground.

Marty Bonnar

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #23 on: March 09, 2023, 10:23:10 AM »
Repairing the results of vandalism was probably one of the most regular part of my job/s. Very sad.
F.
The White River runs dark through the heart of the Town,
Washed the people coal-black from the hole in the ground.

John Kavanaugh

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Glamourous Life of a Golf Course Architect
« Reply #24 on: March 09, 2023, 10:25:58 AM »
You can’t chase a dream without getting bit. Ain’t no snakes in cubicles.

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