Journeyman Pro Now The New Face Of Old-School Design 

Monday night, as he settled in for dinner at the Ohoopee Match Club in middle-of-nowhere Cobbtown, Ga., Atlanta native Bill Bergin looked around the room and realized that he sits on a unique perch in his profession.

There was Gil Hanse, who designed Ohoopee, making light conversation. And over there was Bill Coore, a modern-day titan in their field. Other well-known professionals, men and women whose names had become single-name brands, mingled and talked, sharing a laugh at stories old and new from the road. The occasion was a meeting of architects, a casual outing that included golf and dinner at one of the South's most exclusive new clubs, in the hopes that some of the elder statesmen of the course-design industry could convince future architectural stars to join the American Society of Golf Course Architects. Bergin, who sits on the ASGCA's membership committee, made a great case for the youngsters to join, not just in what he said, but in the example he has set in his career. Not only did he learn the craft of course design f...