News & Notes from the USA

. . . The Nicklaus empire has launched a slick, glossy promotional vehicle and vanity publication called Nicklaus Premier Clubs. The magazine is mostly packed with fawning profiles of prominent Nicklaus “signature” courses. (In the inaugural issue, you can read about Country Club of the Rockies, Dismal River Golf Club, Shoal Creek Country Club, and Muirfield Village Golf Club.) After perusing volume one, number one, Jack Nicklaus told his publicist, “I look forward to the next edition of Nicklaus Premier Clubs.” . . .

. . . The city of Rockville, Maryland has discovered a doozy of a mistake in a study of its golf course operations. Earlier this year, the National Golf Foundation encouraged the city to outsource the management of RedGate Municipal Golf Course, asserting that the move would net “a positive working capital balance” of $161,257 by 2015. But when the city's auditors crunched the NGF's numbers, they determined that the course would instead tally “an $804,000 deficit in working capital,” even in “a best-case scenario.” Whoops! The NGF blamed the miscalculation on “a flaw in [its] computerized spreadsheet files.” It reportedly charged the city $25,000 for its work. . . .

. . . It appears that Rees Jones may soon break ground on his long-awaited golf course in New Orleans' City Park. Park officials hope that a private-sector group will foot the bill for the tournament-worthy, 7,240-yard track, but they say they'll build it on their own (partly with FEMA money) if a deal can't be struck. The track will reportedly offer “a high-end golf experience” that “will be challenging for every type of golfer” -- or at least those who can afford to play it. The CEO of City Park tells the New Orleans Times-Picayune that he expects to get into the swing of things sometime during the first quarter of 2013. . . .

. . . The legend of Mike Nuzzo continues to grow. In recent years Nuzzo has become golf's most famous unknown architect, a reputation he's established on the strength of a single commission: Wolf Point Golf Club, an 18-hole track located somewhere deep in the heart of Texas. By all accounts, Wolf Point is a terrific golf course. Unfortunately, it's also a personal golf course, one built and maintained for the pleasure of its wealthy owner. Few people have heard of it, let alone played it. Texas Golfer, which profiled “The Curious Case of Mike Nuzzo” in its April issue, asks the question Nuzzo himself has been trying to answer ever since Wolf Point opened: How do you build a following with a property that few golfers are intended to see, let alone play, as your calling card? The answer to that question, it's sad to say, is You don't. Nuzzo will eventually make his mark, but he'll do it by designing a course that people can actually play. It's the currency of our realm. . . .

. . . President Obama has reportedly played 61 rounds of golf since he was elected, which is way too many for his ever-carping political enemies. But at least one Republican VIP -- Dan Quayle, who played second fiddle to George Bush the First -- believes that Obama is perfectly capable of both hitting the links and attending to the nation's problems. “I'm glad he's out playing golf,” the former vice president told the Fox Business Network. “I mean, what do you want him to do, stay in his house and be on the phone with the ambassador to Japan all the time?” . . .