In a touching remembrance, ASGCA Past President Jeff Brauer wrote about his memories of Jay Morrish, ASGCA, who died in March. Brauer, a regular contributor to “Golf Course Industry” magazine, wrote about “one great man.”
The column reads, in part:
“(Morrish’s) course list is phenomenal, and his accomplishments in the field of golf course architecture are well documented. As a fellow architect, I can tell you there are artistic architects, there are technical architects, there are construction-oriented architects and there are design-oriented architects. Most favor one or the other, but Jay had more ability in all four areas than any architect around.
“My personal remembrances of Jay date to my first month in Dallas back in 1984. I was an unknown practitioner, in business a month. I certainly wanted to meet Jay, and was introduced during the Byron Nelson tournament on the course he had designed. I doubted he knew me, but he said he had been looking forward to meeting me, which stunned me, and made me feel great. He and Louise invited me up to the hotel room they had above the 18th green, certainly making me feel more a part of the DFW golf scene.
“I continued to have lunch and dinner with Jay after he retired, usually at ‘Uncle Bucks,’ a restaurant contained within a local hunting store, which I am sure he browsed for an hour before and after I left. And at every ASGCA meeting, I listened to Jay whenever I could, and always instructed new members to do the same to learn about the “old days” of the architecture profession. Hearing a Jay Morrish story the fifth time was more entertaining that hearing most other stories the first time.
The complete column can be found here.