*A spring Sunday morning walk through Diablo Hills, minus tee markers, flagsticks, and the usual hoard of avid golfers*

This may come as no surprise, but I debated if I should even put together one of these this year. I don’t need to explain the main reasons why; everyone knows 2020 was a pretty miserable experience laden with loss while pushing our collective mental stresses to the very edge. With Hochstein Design, there really isn’t that much to share either as far as completed work goes. The big shaping project we had committed to got put on long term hold, other potential shaping opportunities with new design teams were kept closed to their existing crews, travel restrictions made other jobs too complicated, and one of my small solo projects ended up getting pushed back indefinitely.

That said, it wasn’t an entirely lost year. The onset of the pandemic brought about opportunities to focus on some writing, both on this site and with others like The Fried Egg, McKellar, and Golf Course Architecture. There were a couple of podcasts that were fun to be a part of, and there was some solo design work on small projects here in Northern California, one of which actually got completed in the field. It was a time to continue developing a voice as well as my own understanding of golf architecture and the business of golf architecture. It was also a time to get our personal lives set up for the future, moving to a new home with a separate office space that I can stay busy in while also being just footsteps from the family.

While this was a most testing, trying year, we are almost through it. With the foundation laid to move forward and more calls for work coming in, I am ready to dig in and focus on what is next. Bring on 2021.

The Work

As noted, this is incredibly light this year. We only had two projects actually happen out in the field—a small stint of shaping for Todd Eckenrode at La Cumbre and a tee renovation project that we led at Sierra View CC. That makes for easily the least amount of time spent on a machine since I first went to China 8 years ago. While it was good to focus on some other areas both within Hochstein Design and at home, let’s hope that doesn’t ever happen again. Besides the need for income and new experiences, losing that time to be outside and be creative was very tough. It certainly increased my appreciation for what we get to do for a living.

Favorite Features of the Field

1. Fairway Bunkers, La Cumbre

2. Hole 10 and 11 tee renovations, Sierra View

Above: images of work at La Cumbre and Sierra View

**Favorite Features off the Field**

1. A multi-part ode to a week at Askernish that ended up being much, much longer and more in depth than expected

2. Finally hitting “publish” on a Pebble Beach restoration piece I had sitting in the drafts section for a couple of years.

3. Proposing a practice area plan for Wente but not getting to put it into the ground…yet.

*Proposed new chipping and bunker practice green at Wente Vineyards*

4. Writing the design feature piece for the 4th issue of McKellar.

5. Putting my Askernish thoughts into a more concise form for Golf Course Architecture

6. Getting a little bit involved with The Fried Egg. Hopefully there is more time in 2021 to contribute further, as I still have plenty of ideas to expound upon

7. Submitting an entry to—and then being asked to be a judge for—the Perry Maxwell Design Competition

hochstein-design-best-of-2020-maxwell-design-comp

8. Chatting it up with my pal Kyle Surlow on the Golf Guide Podcast. We naturally went over time again, so he had to split it up into different parts.

9. A long awaited debut on Ru MacDonald’s Scottish Golf Podcast. This was one of the first golf podcasts out there, and I recall listening to many episodes while working in the rain in Holland 6 years ago.

10. A big increase in calls and emails from courses looking to make improvements. Here’s to hoping some of them hit!

Best Work Experiences

*Almost felt like an athlete working under the lights*

1. Late afternoons digging bunkers at La Cumbre

2. Finishing the tee project at Sierra View while furiously raking under the lights of the nearby tennis courts

3. Hitting the road in August for the first time in months to look at a potential job on a private residence

The Golf

Best New-to-me Golf Courses Seen in 2020

Not surprisingly and fitting a theme you will sense throughout this post, this list is light this year, despite a renewed self-focus on picking up a club in the final quarter of the year. I resisted air travel and hotels for a long while, and by the time I got a little more comfortable with that, I was too busy working on house-related items to make a separate golf-only excursion. So, there were no major study tours, and without any projects in new regions, there wasn’t much to seek out while on the job. I still got to a few good places though that I had longed to see, including Streamsong Black and Clear Creek, and they did not disappoint. There were also the little places like the Lake Chabot Par 3 and Foothill that, while not the most architecturally engaging, prove that golf in a simple and scaled down form can be just as enjoyable.

Hole 17 at Streamsong Black in the golden hour light. Use the huge kicker slope left to approach the green, and be sure to check out the big gators lingering in the pond down below the back of the green.

Yearly Disclaimer: Note that this list is just a casual indicator of how good I feel a course is. It is a combination of how I think it holds up for a range of players as well as how much I personally like it.

The brackets [ ] indicate a "Doak Scale" rating. It should be understood that I didn't spend the same amount of time on every place and that they were all first time visits. These rankings and ratings are somewhat arbitrary and based on what I saw, understood, and felt about each course. I also get admittedly swayed by firm conditions and links golf in particular; a true links course generally gets boosted by 1 or even 2 "Doak points" whenever I rate it.

Really, this should just be fun and give a general idea of what I like in a golf course.

1. Streamsong (Black) - Streamsong, FL; Gil Hanse [8] The large and somewhat wild greens at the Black were made even wilder just off the surface, with the kinds of rumply contours that could be found around the Old Course. Originally, these areas were to be mowed a bit longer despite using a similar grass type. Eventually, everything just ended up being mowed at green height, and I don’t see too much fault in that, especially given the region and agronomy. Playing ground shots through and off these slopes is a blast. Add that in to a course loaded with width, options, and variety in the long game, and it makes for a very fun round.

2. Clear Creek Tahoe - Carson City, NV; Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw [8] Good golf design is about making the most of a given site. I haven’t been to too many Tahoe area golf courses, but what I have seen in pictures and in driving by, most of these courses don’t play off the terrain and integrate with the beautiful natural texture the way that they should. Clear Creek does, though. The routing traverses through the rugged ground in a way that never feels burdensome to walk. The front nine makes a big dip down on the 3rd hole with its long shot into the green that begs to be bounced in from the left. It then works its way gently back up, snaking through valleys and tackling ridges, with views of the gray mountainsides just to the north reappearing at different times. The back nine begins with a flatter respite around a peaceful pond at the 11th and 12th holes before reaching the crescendo of the round at the end of the long 13th hole, with its views well out across the Carson Valley below. A series of fun shorter holes ensues before a strong finish at the 18th, complete with some peeks at those same long distance views found on 13. And none of this talks about the fun, undulating greens or the way the course blends perfectly with the native rock, sandy soil, and vegetation, which is some of the best I’ve ever experienced in golf. The variety of colors and textures among the sagebrush and needle grasses is just fantastic, and balls can quite often be found and played in it. The walking trails through these areas are perfectly done and maintained. Anyone who opts for a cart at Clear Creek is seriously missing out on a beautiful alpine hike that is rare to golf.

3. Brambles (rough shaped in the dirt) - Middletown, CA; Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw with James Duncan [inc.; in construction] This is definitely the most exciting project in Northern California in a long time, the length of which Josh Smith and I couldn’t quite figure out but think it probably goes back to some time during the Golden Age. The site, which is a broad valley that was part of an ancient lake bed, is unlike any other in California, which tends to provide only big hilly land or dead flat parcels. Most holes play in the meat of that valley, but a few wander up into the oak-laden hillside, and a few more start or finish there. In a stylistic bit of fresh air, some of the features and holes are appropriately bold against the simpler landscape, and the 9th, which looks like nothing from the tee, is going to be one of the best holes in the state when it opens. I can’t wait to see and play this course when it opens.

4. Diablo CC - Diablo, CA; Jack Neville, with additions and alterations by William Watson; renovated by Todd Eckenrode in 2019 [6] I’m putting this here because after the renovations, the course is very much new. The routing did not change, but corridors were widened, greens were reshaped and redesigned to varying degrees, natural creek ways and native areas were restored, and bunkers were shifted around to a more strategic arrangement. The result, in combination with a new grassing scheme that is both more sustainable and encouraging of play along the ground, is a course that is more fun, more strategically varied, more beautiful, and more classic looking—appropriate of such an historic site.

5. LLanerch - Havertown, PA; Alex Findlay, with modifications currently being made by Brian Schneider [inc.; only first 9 holes of renovation completed] One of the coolest renovation projects in recent years, I was both very excited and creatively envious of the funky bunkers and landforms that Brian Schneider and Blake Conant were laying down at this old Philly club. With snake-y berms, deep walled pits for bunkers, and a long earthen wall that conjures thoughts of old Civil War military fortifications, they have added a pre-Golden Age punch to this course that will make it stand apart from comparable clubs in the Northeast.

6. The Club at Ruby Hill - Pleasanton, CA; Nicklaus Design [5] A housing development private club designed in the 90s by Nicklaus’s group didn’t exactly get me excited before playing, but I found the golf and experience to be a pleasant surprise. The playing corridors were pretty wide and houses not overly imposing on the experience. Tee shots often had strategy and more difficult lines to take on that would be rewarded if found. The greens had a lot of short grass surrounds that kept approach shots and recovery shots interesting. And there were lots of good distant views of the Livermore Valley as well as a few holes that wound closely through oak-dotted creeks, including the 13th, which seems to be a mirrored version of the 8th at LACC North.

7. Presidio Golf Course - San Francisco, CA; Herbert Fowler [4] Can’t believe I had never played this course, but I finally did at the GCSANC/USGA meeting, which happened just before the pandemic shut everything down. The setting among the hills and cypresses of the historic Presidio is very special, especially as you get peeking views of the dense San Francisco urban fabric surrounding the park. The golf, while not bad, could also be a bit more architecturally interesting. It tends to be a bit of a repetitive test of execution with narrow corridors and greens often fronted by bunkering on both sides. Still, it is a wonderful spot for city golfers to escape, and I love the walking paths for hikers integrating through the course as well as the halfway house that also serves those same hikers.

*The Presidio is a stunning setting to have a game. Sutro Tower looms here on the par 3 15th, one of the more interesting green complexes on the course.*

8. Aviara - Carlsbad, CA; Arnold Palmer Design [4] I was slated to work here with APDC’s Brandon Johnson this spring/summer, but the project was lost for now due to the pandemic. The course weaves its way through canyons and hills as well as starting and finishing along an estuary not far from the main waters of the Pacific. A bevy of heavy landscaping work accompanies the course, which I don’t typically advocate for, but it kind of works here for the most part and adds something to the experience. Hopefully we get to work on the course and improve upon what is already a pleasant round of golf.

9. Greenhorn Creek - Angels Camp, CA; Robert Trent Jones II [4] I only played 9 here, so my rating is somewhat incomplete. Similar to the Ruby Hill experience, I came away enjoying this housing development course more than expected. The first couple of holes have some cool greens mixing sharp falloffs at the sides and one with a back section that falls away within a saddle. The “signature” 4th hole also has some cool elements, including an old kiln and stone wall from the Gold Rush days as well as a big downhill reveal at the dogleg with a nearby mountain as the backdrop. This hole (and others on the course) probably could have been better though without the restrictions of the adjacent housing, but that’s how that often goes.

10. Lake Chabot Par 3 - Oakland, CA; Jack Fleming [3] My new favorite (only?) secret golf spot in the Bay Area, a 45-60 minute stroll through the woods of the Oakland hills high above the Bay is a great way to mentally reset, hearing and smelling the sounds and scents of nature with the occasional view across the water and Lake Chabot itself. For some reason, nobody seems to play this course, which is A-OK with me as long as it stays open. With a little tree management though to open views and some money spent to enlarge and reshape the greens into something more fun and interesting, this could be one of the best par 3 courses in America.

*Lake Chabot’s Par 3 course is a wonderful golfing respite*

H.M. Foothill Golf Course - Citrus Heights, CA; Paul Ottaviano, Sr. (?) [3] I had been intrigued with this little par 3 course since first seeing it along the freeway on my initial visit to Sierra View a couple years ago. On a small rolling property dotted with native oaks, there are a number of small greens just sitting flush upon the natural land, some of which looked to tilt or fall away from the line of play. It looked like fun to play, especially in the dried out September conditions while working on the tee project at Sierra View. I went over one evening after work, and I decided that the most fun thing to do would be to take advantage of the firm dormant ground and force myself to have to bounce it onto every green. With the natural tilts to the land mentioned before, this was a great decision and made for one of the most fun rounds I had all year. This was Cam Champ’s home course growing up (ironically, given his abilities with the driver) and is run by his family. His foundation plans to put some money into it to enhance youth golf and teaching, which could be great, but I hope in that process they don’t also lose sight of the type of golfing spirit I was able to experience that night.

Best Playing/Walking Experiences

*Inspecting the work at Brambles with Bill Coore*

1. Walking around Brambles with the man himself—Bill Coore. This was the first, long-awaited meeting with Mr. Coore and an experience greatly enjoyed that I won’t soon forget.

2. A solo round at Clear Creek after months of being cooped up at home

3. The 36 hole Streamsong Special (Blue at daybreak, Black after lunch) with Kyle Harris

4. Evening loop around Foothill Golf Course with a personal rule of having to land the ball short of every green and skip it on

Above: dry turf and gentle slopes just begging for ground game shots at Foothill

5. Walking around Diablo to see all of our work from last year come to life

6. Meadow Club the day after club championship with Sean Tully and Kevin Hauschel. Course was slick and setup tough—a fun challenge on a great course

7. GCSANC outing at Ruby Hill

8. Bonus holes after work on a quiet Monday evening at Sierra View, complete with the eeriness of the smokey sky and red setting sun

9. Quick tour seeing all of our bunker work grown in at Saticoy with Tim Paulson.

10. Calming solo round up on Lake Chabot Par 3 Course, my new favorite quick golf getaway spot

H.M. Round at Cal Club with a new friend from SoCal; Walking with Zane Ellis around Orinda; an evening match with Kyle Harris at Winter Park and the course otherwise empty

The Everything Else

Favorite Cities

1. Santa Barbara, CA Roman Mars on 99% Invisible once said that Santa Barbara is “stupid beautiful,” and that is correct. Between the blue Pacific with the nearby Channel Islands, the massive mountain range right at its back, the perfect weather, and the historic Spanish revival architecture, the place is quite amazing. Add to that a vibrant downtown loaded with very good and diverse restaurants, all serving outside on a closed-to-traffic main street in one of the few positive side effects from COVID-19. Santa Barbara is undoubtedly one of the best spots I’ve gotten to spend some time for work.

2. Roseville, CA Roseville is an old railroad town just northeast of Sacramento. It has some historic character in its downtown area, and you can tell that there is some movement to better showcase and capitalize upon that. It will be interesting to see that play out in coming years.

Favorite food by Place

Santa Barbara - Where to begin? There is so much good stuff in Santa Barbara. Every morning superintendent Wayne Mills would ask where I went the previous night, as it was usually somewhere new. I joked with him that in order for me to get to every place I wanted to try out, we needed to do a full renovation of the golf course! Between the Thai food, dumpling houses, creative new Mexican restaurants, and Himalayan places, there was something new and exciting to try each night. The sushi places might be the best though, and what is best at those places is the local delicacy—sea urchin (uni) fresh from the waters just off the coast.

Roseville - Tacos from Morenita Market. I’d go to this place for lunch pretty much every day

MUSIC

Those who actually read this yearly have probably sensed an overall downward trend in my enthusiasm for new music, largely due to overall trends in new music. This is the most “down” year yet, but the correlation is much more to do with a lack of work, travel, and general enthusiasm. I’ve always liked to have new music accompany me on a new adventure or creative endeavor, but with little of that this year, there was also little discovery of new music. With a lot of time to reflect though and some major life events, there was a lot of revisitation of stuff from the past. Because of the dearth of new music and the importance of that old music in those situations, some of those songs made the list this year. All albums are new to me, though.

Best Albums

1. Canyon Candy - Javelin

2. Law and Order - Lindsey Buckingham

3. Women in Music - HAIM

4. Rust Never Sleeps - Neil Young and Crazy Horse

5(t). Just Lookin for a Hit - Dwight Yoakam

5(t). Juillet - En Attendant Ana

H.M. Superunknown - Soundgarden; The Layla Sessions - Derek and the Dominoes; Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - The Flaming Lips; Space Cadet (EP) - Beabadoobee

Best Songs

1. "Layla" - Derek and the Dominoes* - My mom’s favorite song. Not a new one to me, but it automatically slots in at number 1 this year.

2. "Long December" - Counting Crows*

3. “Los Angeles” - HAIM

4. "December" - Collective Soul*

5. "Pocahontas" - Neil Young and Crazy Horse

6. “The Day I Tried to Live” - Soundgarden*

7. “Estevez” - Javelin

8. “Ordinary World” - Duran Duran*

9. “I’ve Been Wrong Before” - Generationals

10(t). “In/Out” - En Attendant Ana

10(t). “Long White Cadillac” - Dwight Yoakam

H.M. “The Steps” - HAIM; “Cowpoke” - Estevez; “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show” - Neil Diamond; “It Was I” - Lindsey Buckingham; “I Wish I Was Stephen Malkmus” - Beabadoobee

*Song not new to me, but it meant a lot to the fabric of this year in revisiting it.

Non-Golf Experiences of the Year

*An exploratory drive around Flint and the deep recesses of my memory*

1. My mom’s funeral It seems strange to put this at the top, but as hard and painful as it was, my feelings of love and appreciation for her were also so strong in that moment. On top of that, the support and love felt from all those around her that day (and beyond) was an incredible thing that I won’t ever forget.

*Michigan winter lake scene. Luckily made it there before the covid struck*

2. My daughter getting to meet my mom (and everyone else on a grand Midwest/Northeast tour) It was only for about 45 minutes, and it wasn't an obvious decision to even let it happen, since the baby was only 3 months old and my mom was in the hospital yet again. But wow am I glad we did, because that would be the only time they’d ever be together in person. They’d share plenty of great moments together on FaceTime though, my mom seemingly the only person my daughter would tolerate through that medium, and you can tell that they still have a special bond to this day, even after her passing.

3. Moving into our new house A positive transition point after a long year.

4. Going on an adventurous drive with my dad to most of the bowling centers of Flint, both past and present (Warning: I go on about this topic much longer here than I expected)

While back to work on projects this summer, I spent my evenings between dinner and bed going down various rabbit holes exploring a big part of my childhood—bowling around Flint, MI. There are probably a few reasons for this—my generally nostalgic personality, finally having a kid of my own, and the growing fascination with a life that is increasingly in the rearview mirror (I’ve now lived in CA for 10 years). Our family bowling business is on the south end of the area in adjacent Grand Blanc (home of the defunct Buick Open—RIP), but every year my brother and I would also bowl in the city tournaments, of which there were 3 different formats—singles, team, and mixed doubles. This afforded lots of opportunity to bowl at the different centers around Flint. We had bowled at almost all of them at some point, nearly 20 in total, and visited the others at different times for different reasons. I always liked how each one had its own bit of character and feel. The building architecture, like most bowling centers, was often utilitarian and occasionally a jumbled mess if additions had been made over time. There would always seem to be some sort of small detail—either kitschy or cool (or both)—that set them apart though, and the jumbled mess of add-ons would always tell a story of the building’s evolution.

Flint, as many people know, has been a city in decay for a long time. This was already in process when I was a kid, but in the time since then that decay has gone to levels that reach beyond sadness and into the realm of fascination. How could we as a society allow a once-thriving community to fall apart so badly? I have some theories for that, but this is about bowling centers, many of which have also fallen victim to the dying city around them. Almost all these closed businesses and past places of recreation and escape from the factories still stand though, either repurposed or left to rot, no one wanting to put up the measly bit of money it would take to knock them down. As I searched for photos of these places in their past and present form, I also used google’s street view option to see what they looked like today. This, suffice to say, was a trip. Many of the places, once I found them (closed businesses don’t usually have google tags), blew my mind both because of seeing them for the first time in 20+ years but also by how funky some of them are. There was Colonial Lanes, which looks from the outside like either a funeral parlor or the kind of strip mall you go to buy blinds at. Town and Country added a big diamond pattern paint job to its long, 56 lane facade. Rollaway looks like a dentist’s office in the middle of a neighborhood, minus the old western themed type-face on its brown wood siding. And weirdest and wildest of all, Landmark (the old Nightingale Lanes) looks like an old elegant hotel from the 1920s with a mishmash of architectural add-ons going into the 70s—a frankenstein of a building with parts spanning some 60 years.

So, when my dad asked me to go up to work with him at the bowling lanes the Monday after a sad and lethargic weekend following the funeral, it seemed like a good idea to do so and get some fresh air while revisiting a place dear to my past. We got to talking along the way, and we came up with the idea to go take a drive around Flint and check some of these places out. This did not disappoint. As the sun started to peek through the clouds at the end of what had been a steel-gray day, we made our way north on Dort Highway with no real plan. It really is amazing how quickly the urban landscape changes heading into the city, and it is also amazing just how much more sparse and run-down everything had become in the past two decades, starting with the NLE Southmoor Golf Course and then our first two stops, the old Dort Bowl and the abandoned Eastown (AKA “Easytown” for its forgiving lane conditions). There is a particular picture on the internet of the inside of Eastown that is rather haunting, almost moreso to me that I distinctly remember the black-bordered white ceiling tile backdrop that hung above the end of the lanes and is still somehow there among the ruins today.

Our drive continued northward after jogging over to Center Road, past the abandoned Walli’s Restaurant and B’s Bowl, which is still open but couldn’t be doing too well. This road used to seem like one of the more vibrant ones in the 90s, but it isn’t so much these days. From there it was a right down Davison Road to see Landmark/Nightingale in all its abandoned, eclectic glory. Current price tag to buy the building and property: 99K. We continued up to Richfield Road (though not past Richfield Bowl, which used to be unique for its inexplicable western themed painting along the lanes, featuring the Road Runner from Looney Toons) to cross town to the northwest corridor home to the former Northwest Lanes and West Lanes. Along the way we drove past the infamous Flint Water Plant, which still has some very beautiful old brick architecture, and the unbelievably massive empty lot that used to house one of GM’s auto plants, the vacant footprint of which spans almost 2 miles long. Once done with Northwest and where our best guess at the location of West was, we said “hey let’s just go all the way out to Colonial now” in nearby Flushing, which is still doing well (and still kind of looks like a funeral parlor (but a nice one!)). We had never been all the way to downtown Flushing, which was home to a little (and little-known) center named Jack’s Place, so we continued onward. The charming and thriving old business district of Flushing felt like a world away from the city we were just in 10 minutes prior, as did the farmland south of town as we started loosely making our way back toward home. We needed to double back to I-75, so why not also stop by Town & Country Lanes over on Miller Road along the way? It turns out Town & Country had just been closed and sold in the last year or so, but as this was a busy part of town that was still busy today, it is getting redeveloped into something else. The south wall happened to be exposed as we pulled up, and that allowed for an opportunity to walk up and view the stripped down version of the interior, which is a strange sight if you can remember what was once there. Thinking we were done and headed home, my dad asked if we should head down Van Slyke and see the old Trevarrow Bowl, which was a surprise ending to me as I thought the building had been long demolished, but it turns out it is still used as some sort of card-playing hall. The big thing I had forgotten about it is that it is right across the street from the remaining GM plant, and because of that my dad says the parking lot for the bowling lanes would always be full at shift end—not with bowlers but with factory workers who just wanted to drink budweisers outside of their cars. Satisfied with a full circle of the town and almost 2 hours meandering, it was time to go home and grill up some venison steaks. After some of the toughest days of my life, this was perhaps one of the best and a memory I won’t soon forget.

5. San Diego road trip with the family Back in the pre-COVID times, a family road trip to a work conference was something you could do without worry, or at least the only worries were stopping to make sure the baby got fed every couple of hours. Heading down for my wife’s annual work get-together, we made the most of the trip, stopping at Firestone Walker Brewery for lunch, staying overnight in Ventura on the way there and checking in on Saticoy, staying alone up on a mountain ranch on the way back, and just hanging out in San Diego during free time. I even took the baby to a few brewery tasting rooms and taco restaurants in SD, which I’m sure she enjoyed as much as I did :)

H.M. The drive from Clear Creek down the Carson Valley and up and over Ebbetts Pass after an incredibly satisfying round; Driving back up to Sierra View during the NorCal dark orange smoke event

A final note, and a look forward to 2021...

It was a quiet year externally but a busy one internally. That still requires a lot of support from those around me. I am incredibly thankful for my wife, who goes well out of her way to support us and make this family work, and her parents who have done incredible work both supporting me and taking care of the baby while both of us were busy. It wouldn’t work without them. And I wouldn’t be here in the first place if it were for the support and belief from my parents.

Thank you also to the many of you who reached out to me during the hardest period of my life with my mother’s recent passing. I can’t believe the words of support and direct messages I got as well as who they were from. It’s a special little community of golf architecture and turf grass nerds that we have, and I am very thankful for that.

On one of the few positive sides from 2020, I got to spend much more time with my daughter than I otherwise would have. My bond with that crazy little girl is now much stronger than I ever could have imagined, and leaving now for future work reasons is going to be that much harder.

This year had been looking like it would be my most successful one yet in a number of different ways, but alas it was not to be. It still feels like progress was made though, and 2021 and the years beyond may indeed hold some very exciting new opportunities for building fun golf. I can’t wait to keep moving forward and see what those are.

Thanks for reading, best wishes to all of you, and—more than we’ve ever meant it—Happy New Year

This post, and really everything I do, is dedicated to my mom, Loretta Jean (McCray) Hochstein.

Your creative sense and Scottish ancestry lives on within me and inspires me. Rest in peace