Why We Do This?

[Polslad]

As they often do, the discussion and posts in a different thread (Diary of a Golf Hole) have started to fracture away from the original subject matter and are starting to go down completely different topics. I admit, it was me who started it, pondering my thoughts about this community and game and course usage.
One of the comments though, got me thinking, “Why do we do this?”
Here’s my story:
My real name is David; I will be 52 years old this summer. I have been married to the wonderful Pauline for what will be 33 years, again, this summer. I have 5 grown children, and the two greatest grandchildren in the world, aged 4 and 1.
I live in a small town called Widnes, which is very close to Liverpool, in the North West of England.
I currently work in the Quality Management side of a large Rotor Gravure printing factory, again in Liverpool.
I caught the golfing disease in the 1980’s after changing jobs, and like every other new recruit, became a bit obsessed with the game and played anytime I could. I got to the level of breaking 80 on 3 occasions, but my best achievement would be a run of six consecutive pars at the end of one morning round, then followed it with 3 pars from the first 4 holes of the afternoon round, 1 over for 10 holes, never been close since. Still play occasionally, but to the level that makes me want to quit.
Along with playing, I got interested in the history of the game; I love to read about the likes of Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen and my personal favourite, Ben Hogan.
With the UK being geographically small, and me living in the middle of it, it’s not too difficult to travel around and attend our Open Championship. I have been lucky enough to attend Opens at Muirfield, Birkdale, Lytham St Annes and Hoylake. I have also visited St Andrews on many occasions and walked the course on a Sunday when it is closed for play, and have also been to tournaments at Carnoustie, Wentworth and Kingsbarns. You can’t believe these places until you see them; TV really does flatten the elevations.
I picked this game up with one of my early PC purchases, never really got into it, tried a few early downloads (Augusta, as did everyone, did think it was worth the 3 to 4 hour download time, and drifted away to the Links game for a few years, because they had St Andrews.
Got re-acquainted when the Titanium edition came out, and never looked back since.
I play almost every day, trying to compete in off line seasons, and am often blown away by the work of some of the ‘designers’ who have built courses for this game.
Took years to ‘learn’ the architect, and have released a few layouts over the last 10 years or so, mostly re-creations of Open Championship courses that were unavailable, oh yeah, I had a bash at Augusta National as well.
I would not class myself as a ‘designer’, what I do mostly is try to use the architect to recreate other peoples designs, which is different from pure designing.
And here is where I guess we arrive at the opening question “Why do we do this?”
For me, I enjoy letting a project take shape in my mind, I enjoy the thought process of thinking the best way to approach the project. I particularly enjoy the research side, as stated earlier; I do enjoy immersing myself in the game’s history. I enjoy the challenge of using the architect’s tools to try to recreate so very familiar course and to get them to look something like the real thing.
Course building is a mixture of 3D landscaping and art. It’s like painting, but in a wholly different medium to paint and canvass. We get to enter and walk (virtual) around what we create. Blending textures and objects in the same way artists blend paint and colours.
Reading back that last paragraph, I noticed I used the word enjoy a lot, so I guess there’s my answer.
I enjoy it. For a few hours here and there I can forget real life and immerse myself in this world.
If the results of my efforts give others pleasure, great. If others review or praise my efforts, even better still.
I know we are a small community now, but I don’t try to think there’s no point in building this because no-one will see it, I guess I would still do it for all of the above reasons, as a hobby and relaxation for myself.
Oh yeah, where else could you also subscribe to the frustration that this architect program constantly throws at you too! I hate it, but I love it too!

My names Dave and I’m an addict. Hello Dave.

[BrianZ111]

Hi Dave, my name is Brian and I am probably more addicted then you. Playing golf has been my passion most of my life. My Dad is into golf and that is how I got into it. I remember the first time he took me golfing was at the age of 9 but even before that I anticipated playing. I collected golf stuff, golf video games, played mini-golf, nerf golf, etc. We still both play today but my passion for it has surpassed his.

I guess the design stuff all started for me when I was about 11. We had gotten a computer and it came with JNSE. This was in late 1995. I could really only play golf when my Dad would take me back then. This was a problem because I wanted to play all the time! So I think my primary motivation to work with the JNSE designer was that I felt if I could recreate the courses I played on, it would be a substitute for when I couldn't play. So from the beginning I was trying to recreate the local courses that I played on in central Wisconsin. I also drew some of my own designs and created them in the game during this time. More on this later.

I think the motivation for doing it started shifting when I started playing games online and started having the means to play real golf more myself. It went from getting to play the courses myself at times I couldn't, to getting to play and share the courses with people from around the world. This transition I guess started from about 2000 to 2004.

There's one other overriding motivation for me here. As much fun as golf is to play, at the end of a round all you have is a scorecard. (I'm a stats freak so I still even try to get the most out of that ) But there's something more satisfying about a job well done on something myself and others can keep enjoying playing over and over long term.

Those motivations all still hold true today but now I have an additional motivation. After I graduated college and got a job “real life” started getting in the way. It doesn't get any easier either. I am 30 and single. I want to get serious about dating and someday have kids. Meanwhile I'm not getting any younger, so I have to act now. First I should say I got into the CPG beta early, back in 2005, looking for something as good as PGA with 3D graphics (TW never did it for me). It wasn't good enough back then but it developed into WGC today which I play a lot now. The same software is also used by golf simulator companies and either through them or individual golf courses, paid work is starting to become available. I wouldn't care about the money if not for the simple fact that I want the time to do this again and need to make a career out of it to make that happen. Call it selling out if you want but it's the only way I can continue. So I am now in the process of moving golf course recreation and design from hobby to career. That is where I am at today, working to make that happen.

Through the years I tried to innovate what could be done with the PGA 2000 architect, mostly to improve the realism of courses. New ways to trace holes, topographic maps, getting the TW elevation data tool to work in PGA, visually create seamless blends, water blends and a process to make tree objects from photos. First for my own courses, and then providing tutorials in the hope that it would help others.

I've mostly recreated real courses but I always had an interest creating my own designs too. When DanO started the hole by hole design contests in 2004 (has it really been 10 years?) that got me excited. I loved the immediate feedback of doing a single hole and then getting all kinds of response to what people think about it. Especially with the vast amount of knowledge about golf architecture we had there, learning from people like DanO, R.S. Barker, LinksLegend, Stefan Højgaard, etc. The downside of the contest was that I did enough holes to have a few complete courses but because they are all on different plots there's nothing to release.

I want to do my own designs again someday. It's like a scientific experiment in golf. You get to see how different people approach playing a hole vs. how you play a hole and see who is better. As the course designer, you get to control the experiment. And thinking about it in reverse, you get to see what golf holes bring out the best in various players. The long term future for me? Maybe a real golf course architect someday. I also love to play in tournaments and the dream of playing golf for a living is out there too, even though I'd have a long way to go to get there!

That's my story, I hope more people will share there's.

[bryce]

Hello Dave. Hi Brian. My real name is Doron (pronounced der-own), and I am also an addict. I am 37 years old and have lived in North Carolina in the United States all of my life. I'm divorced, with no children but have a steady girlfriend of about 3 years now. I became addicted to all sports around the age of 9, mostly because of my grandfathers. I got into all sports that were televised pretty much all at once to see which ones interested me. The first golf tournament I remember watching was the 1986 Masters.....need I say more? This was also during the Nintendo era, so I immediately became addicted to sports video games. NES Golf, Pebble Beach Golf, and Fighting Golf (<--Brian and I had a discussion about that game a few years back). My mother bought me some old clubs at a yard sale when I was about 12. The only clubs were a 3 iron, 7 iron and PW. I chipped around and played in the yard with the plastic practice balls and learned how to hit the ball up in the air. We were poor growing up, so I never played on a real course until I was 19. All of the years of chipping in the yard gave me a great short game for a newcomer. I played on a 9 hole course for the first 6 months I played. Once I stepped onto a full length 18 hole course, I never shot higher than 98. Over the years, I have brought my handicap down under 4 several times. I have broken par about 10-12 times, mostly at my home course of Granada Farms. Hopefully one day I will finish it on this game for all to play.

I went to college for electrical engineering, and once I got my first new computer, I decided I needed a golf game to go with it. I narrowed it down to 2 games: Links and PGA 2000 Titanium Edition. The pictures on the back of the box with the architect sold me. I've always considered myself creative, and even as a kid with no architect to make a course, I would draw holes on paper and pretend I was playing them in the yard. I first fell in love with the architect and not the game. Once I found out how much I liked the game and how bad I was at first with the architect, I just sat back and played. I am still addicted to video games, especially PGA 2000 and the entire Grand Theft Auto series

My mother has been diagnosed with Aphasia and is starting to develop Dementia. I took a few months away from the forums, the architect, and the Xbox to stay with her at times when my step father was at work, and to take her to her appointments. I pretty much only had my phone to use, but I still played a round or two here and there when I had a little time.

That's my story, who is next?

[ADC]

Guess it's my turn. Hi, all, I'm Alex, and I'm a golf addict. Both virtually, and in "real" life.

I guess, for me, golf begins and ends with my family. My grandfather started in way back in the '40's. He was good enough to not only compete in the city adult men's championship at the age of 14, but he beat them, all.

Grandpa taught us that golf was like life. It's hard, but good, and completely unlike anything else in the world. Totally worth doing. He golfed every summer from the time he was a boy to the summer he died, 2003.

My Uncle Jim was a caddie on the Tour in the 70's and 80's. He bagged for a guy named Tom Jenkins mostly. They won the tournament in Philadelphia in 1975. Uncle Jim did get to play a round at Cypress Point once, as a warm up, back when it was part of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. I think he was playing to a 2 or so back then. (Ps, I called him to get my facts right. I guess he bagged for Mr. Palmer one day. He must have been desperate one day.)

I grew up in all this, and was unfortunately, not as good as Grandpa, Uncle Jim, and most of my cousins. But I loved it so much. And I guess I still do. I have gotten better. In the past two years, I've bounced between 10 and a 8, though in college, I was as low as a 2, for about a month, lol.

I love this game. I love the people I've gotten to meet, and the stories I've gotten to here. I also have ADHD, so my thoughts can come out quite jumbled. I apologize for any confusion, and usually, just letting me know will let get things straightened out.