Golf Magazine Innovator Awards 2007
2 of 12
The Curator
RAN MORRISSETT, 44
Keeping course-design debate alive (and lively) in cyberspace
GolfClubAtlas.com
"I think of GolfClubAtlas.com as a museum. Architecture is
an art, and a course is like a 200-acre canvas. My Web site gives
like-minded people a place to discuss and debate these
works, to keep the discussion happening. People on the site
are regular guys who want to protect great courses and
preserve classic architecture. The dialogue can get pretty
intense. Things got personal a few years back when Tom
Fazio redid the bunkers at Merion. A lot of name-calling. Some
thought that changing the bunkers was akin to drawing
glasses on the Mona Lisa. It's funny — the nicest, kindest
gentleman can become a pit bull online! But that's part of the
passion. It's my passion, too. This is a nonprofit site. Since I
started it in 1999, I've gotten a lot of offers to sell, but I never
will. It's like those commercials. Annual cost of running a web
site: a few thousand dollars. Helping to keep architecture
debate alive: priceless."
