News & Notes from the USA #4

. . . The Windy City beckons: Tom Doak has been tapped to oversee a complete makeover of the #1 course at Medinah Country Club in suburban Chicago. The 6,713-yard layout was designed by Tom Bendelow and opened in 1925. Subsequent renovations were reportedly overseen by Roger Packard and Roger Rulewich, but a club official admits that “very little work has been done” to the course in recent years. As of mid April, the club and Doak hadn’t officially signed a contract, but Barry Garrett, the club’s general manager, told me that it’s “our wish to do a deal.” The work could begin as early as 2011, though it’s more likely that it'll begin after Medinah's #3, recently overhauled by Rees Jones, course hosts the Ryder Cup in 2012.

. . . Once upon a time, the biggest names in golf design wouldn't be caught dead bidding on a municipal golf project, especially one with a budget ceiling of just $6.6 million, clubhouse and all. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and most every architect in the United States submitted a bid to design the city of Laredo's new course, which is under construction and scheduled to open roughly a year from now. Robert Trent Jones, Jr., he of the prodigious ego and the immortal pedigree, won the competition. At a recent press preview, Jones humbly announced that his 7,297-yard track “is destined to be regarded as one of the best public golf courses in Texas.”

. . . Does anybody out there know when National Golf Day is? Correct answer: April 13. I know because I got a press release telling me that, as part of the fourth annual National Golf Day festivities, members of We Are Golf took to Capitol Hill to “share stories and data that illustrate golf's diverse businesses and employees, the tax revenue it creates, the tourism it spawns, the charity it generates, and the environmental leadership it provides.” In other words, in the grand Washington tradition, they lobbied their elected officials to get their slice of the government pie. Here's Golf Digest's take on the challenge We Are Golf faces in changing hearts and minds, in Congress and in towns and cities from coast to coast:

There’s a lot of talk these days about whether we can raise enough money to promote our game sufficiently in Washington and elsewhere. But golf’s problem isn’t insufficient funds. It’s insufficient fun.

Our game is run by good players . . . and they focus on the sport as competition. (Include Golf Digest here). What do they spend most of their time on? Scores, handicaps, rules, stats. They have created an avid golfer often obsessed with score, frequently intolerant of beginners, and, because they live to break some personal best, study every shot and play as if they have all the time in the world. Our competitions take five and six hours, and we talk until our audiences are nodding off about golf’s sacred integrity. . . .

But the game’s growth, its sense of inclusion, its “We Are Golf” soul, depends upon making way for new players who just want to have fun -- the hitters and gigglers who don’t know Jack Nicklaus from Jack Nicholson, couldn’t identify a square groove if you comped their green fee, and live to hit a drive into the range picker’s cart. Their bible is not Mark Frost’s The Match but Happy Gilmore, if they know that much, and golf may be just an excuse to meet a neighbor, play a few holes, spend time with their spouse, walk for a couple of hours, or drink a Corona.

I sure hope the people behind We Are Golf are successful in getting their points across. Because if they aren't, we'll have to change their name to We Were Golf.