By David Rogers. BLOWING ROCK, N.C. — For a lot of people, golf is an adventure sport. Played in the great outdoors, traversing over hill and dale with occasional side trips into the woods, sand traps, creeks or lakes, there is a certain masochistic fun in accepting the challenge of striking a tiny, 1.68 inches in diameter orb with a stick, aiming to make it go into a 4.25-inch hole some 400 to 600 yards away.
The folks who are the original orchestrators of this fun? The golf course architect, of which on a global scale there are only about 300 of them.
High Country-based Ron Cutlip is one of the newest members of an exclusive club: the American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA). He was inducted last month at the annual meeting in San Francisco. Tracking Cutlip’s career and his path to ASGCA membership provides interesting insights into the creative professionals who enable these on-course adventures…