Glenn Moore
How One Thing Led to Another – The Condensed Version
There I was, minding my own business and tending to my job, when out of the blue, two fellows with whom I worked in the Fire Prevention Bureau stopped at my desk and said "We're going golfing Saturday, want to go with us"? Well guess who got instantly hooked that fine Saturday in Maryland?
I then borrowed a set of clubs from a fellow firefighter who had given up the game and began to play every chance I got. A couple of cousins-in-law would take me each weekend to any nearby available course. Observing all of this, my wife Alice and the wives of the cousins-in-law began taking lessons - unbeknownst to us guys. Within a year all six of us were playing regularly.
Then I got the desire to have a graphite shafted driver. Realizing that the cost was prohibitive for a ready-made driver, I sent away for a components catalog and got the parts needed to reshaft my own driver.
It wasn't too much later that I first heard about the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando. I had gotten into shafting and repairing clubs for golfing friends and decided to go to the show to see what components I could find. Somehow Alice and I got passes to the show where we met a woman who opened up the world of golf collecting to us. She said I just had to join the Professional Golf Club Repairman’s Association and the Golf Collectors Society. Her name was Donna Hamilton. She is known nowadays as Donna Brown. The year was 1980.
Upon retiring from the fire service about six months later, I joined the PGCRA and not long after, the GCS. While attending a PGCRA club making school in Dunedin, Florida in April of 1982, I decided to collect something that wouldn't take up much space and never require dusting or polishing. That something is golf courses. Not acquisition of same but simply to play as many courses as possible and keep a binder listing them alphabetically.
I first attended a GCS Annual Meeting and Trade Show in Myrtle Beach in 1984. I played with hickories for the first time ever and I was hooked on the GCS.
In 1985, another significant event occurred. A group of UK golfers came to the Washington, DC area looking for matches. The local GCS group lined up courses and the battle was on between the collectors and the Searchers Golf Society. As it turned out, the “searching” that the Searchers do is to find more golf courses to play. One of these "Brits" turned out to be Johnny Henry of Ennis, Texas.
The Searchers founder, Peter Bown, invited me to the UK to play some golf. I had recently read Henderson and Stirk's book about the history of golf, so within a year Alice and I were off on a pilgrimage to the UK. After six trips, all but one by ocean liner, I count 142 GB&I courses in my collection, most of which are seaside links courses. Included are all of the Open Championship courses except Royal Troon (they wouldn't let Alice play).
Another stroke of good fortune occurred in 1993 when I applied for and was accepted as a Golf Digest Course Ranking Panelist. Using a list generated by the Golf Digest staff, panelists go all over the United States, Canada and many overseas countries completing evaluations for the periodic BEST lists as published by Golf Digest. Tough work but someone (800 + panelists) has to do it.
The search is on-going but as of December 31, 2005 my "collected" courses number 898. In addition to courses, I collect books about golf course architecture and books, tapes, etc. about golf fitness (in hopes of delaying the inevitable loss of strength and flexibility that come with aging). Within the past year I added golf themed flasks and watches to my list of "wants".
Two things about my collection are worthy of mention. The first being that Alice has played nearly every course I have while "collecting". I know of several male "course collectors" who have numbers in the thousands. But I've never seen any stories about another woman having played so many as Alice's 800+. Secondly, this oddball "golf course collection" has probably cost us at least a quarter of a million dollars, but is monetarily absolutely worthless. However, we do have lots of fond memories and look forward to many more. Maybe we can play your course someday soon.
Glenn Moore
