Ron Whitten, Senior Editor, Architecture, at “Golf Digest” has written on the passing of ASGCA Past President Jay Morrish. A past ASGCA Donald Ross Award recipient, Whitten recalled an early meeting with Morrish and the 30+-year friendship that followed.
Whitten writes: “I started writing about golf architecture for magazines in 1983, the same year Morrish left Jack Nicklaus’s three-man design firm and headed out on his own. He was living in Tulsa at the time, and he took me around Tulsa Country Club, which he would soon remodel, and Tom Fazio’s brand new Golf Club of Oklahoma, which Jay assessed with remarkable insight, pointing out structural challenges and solutions, potential maintenance issues and novel design features. I foolishly thought every architect was going to be as generous with his time.