Brilliantly sunny and warm as the autumn weather has been, there are still somber periods when you consider how many fewer rounds of golf will grace your world in coming weeks. Cyclical, for sure, or so you tell yourself to soften the melancholy, but a better antidote is to not think about days without a round of golf; instead, remind yourself how special golf is.
It warms your heart.
What consumes me is this concept about how shareable golf is. We’re not talking the restaurant industry where “shareable plates” or “tapas” remain a cool and popular concept. No way. Rather, golf is more nutritious than food, as it ignites your spirit when you share it with others.
Consider a Wednesday-before-Thanksgiving staple such as gathering for a cold day of golf in honor of a late and great friend, Tommy Riordan. He cherished the game, particularly when Ireland was the stage, and he believed in the game’s soul and how it had an innate ability to unify people.
When we tip a Guinness in his honor, we will be toasting our great fortunes for having known him and having shared a love of golf with him.
Wonderful thing, a golf friendship. The beauty is, they are easily made and seldom need formal introductions. Sometimes it’s as simple as this: You find yourself at a golf course at a particular time and cross paths with another golfer and it makes sense that you join into the same group to keep play moving.
“I’m playing the tips,” said Cam Ackerman. “Me, too,” countered Aaron Belcher and in a most serendipitous way, golf had again triumphed in a masterful manner.
In short time, it was discovered how passionate Cam and Aaron both were about golf, but that wasn’t the only common thread that made their eventual friendship and business partnership possible. Yes, they had settled in Greenville, S.C., but there were strong Midwestern roots – Cam Ackerman from Michigan, Aaron Belcher from Ohio – and so you’ve got a rather impressive set of positives there.
“We all find each other,” they laughed, and if Cam had to describe the joy of growing up in Ohio built upon the pleasure of living in South Carolina it was this: “(In the Midwest) you had backyard porches; now in the South you have front-porch parties. Come, be our family.”
That round of golf two years ago opened doors that perhaps they had not imagined but are a just reward for their love of the game. “That (round) connected us,” said Aaron, who at the time was working on the crew at The Cliffs at Mountain Park GC, when not pursing his career path as a criminal analyst.
“I had followed my college degree (from the University of Akron) to Greenville, and the golf course job was just going to be a bridge job.”
The thing is, he realized his love of data strayed from criminal stuff toward greens in regulation and other golf stats.
And in Cam Ackerman, Aaron Belcher discovered a soulmate, a golfer who saw beyond the birdies and bogeys and didn’t abandon his love of golf with the final putt at the 18th hole. No way. Cam Ackerman embraced so many wonderful layers of golf – distinct architecture, intriguing historical aspects, backdrops to who these designers are – that a business partnership was hatched.
Cam already was owner and filmmaker at Up River Film Co. in Greenville, his work centered around videos that promoted local businesses and the beauty of this quaint and wondrous South Carolina area. But the Up River Golf Co. would have a You Tube Channel (@UpRiverGolfCo) and an Instagram account (uprivergolfco) and delve into storytelling through brilliant videos.
“The eye, the beauty of our videos is 100 percent Cam,” said Belcher, who is COO and storyteller with Up River Golf Co. “His work is really cool; it’s very fluid, very fluent.”
That isn’t hyperbole, because in the last two years, the Up River Golf Co. has produced masterful videos that have gained audiences of both golf purists and those who might never have considered how architecture should be viewed in art form at a multitude of our golf courses.
Their videos enthrall and they entertain. They show courses for their stunning beauty and golf for its uncanny ability to connect people in special ways.
“I think what connected us,” said Cam, “is that we quickly realized we were both architecture fans" and thus they dreamed up a “The Land As It Lies” golf docuseries.
What has unfolded is a credit to their ability to put words and pictures together.
There are a healthy list of strong options that you can digest on their You Tube Channel – from Donald Ross’ incredible Mid-Pines creation that was brought to life by Kyle Franz’ restoration work, to the unheralded story of Chambers Bay through the eyes of Robert Trent Jones II, to a stunningly beautiful look at the late Mike Strantz’ True Blue in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Spend time watching the video about David McLay Kidd’s Gamble Sands or Tom Doaks’ reversible masterpiece called The Loop. It’s time well spent, the beauty flowing wonderfully across your digital screen. Most recently, Aaron Belcher and Cam Ackerman focused on a hickory golf tournament at Mid-Pines in Pinehurst, N.C., and one could argue that the charm and wonder of golf is personified by those who master these wooden clubs.
(You can connect to the hickory You Tube video up above. It's worth your time.)
“My favorite quote (in our story) is the gentleman who told me that a good golf shot (with hickory) shoots up the club, up your arm, and into your heart,” said Cam.
For these Midwesterners, it’s been a glorious two years as their passion for golf has been beyond expectations and the path forward remains bright.
“It’s a great question,” said Aaron, when asked what made he and Ackerman hit it off in that round of golf two years ago. “I guess we share similar traits and love golf for what it is. It is a way of life.
"It’s more therapeutic, a mental get-away, and I think we share that commonality.”
So many of us do, too, which is why the Aaron Belcher and Cam Ackerman story resonates.
