Short Notice, may 25, 2012

John Harbottle, one of the Pacific Northwest’s best-known golf course architects, died yesterday. Details are sketchy, but the Tri-City Herald reports that the Tacoma, Washington-based designer succumbed to a heart attack while in California. Harbottle was 53. His courses, he once said, were “old-fashioned-looking” and had a “links touch.” I’ll have more to say about his life and work in Sunday’s blog.

Now that Bandon Dunes has become one of the world’s premier golf destinations, it seems logical to ask which of its four 18-hole courses gets the most play. The answer: Old Macdonald. “I think that has a lot to do with the fact that Old Mac is fun,” the resort’s owner, Mike Keiser, recently told Golf Digest. “How often is a course designed to be fun? Turns out, that’s a popular concept.” If you’re wondering, the second most-popular course at the resort is Bandon Dunes, followed by Pacific Dunes and Bandon Trails.

This summer, Nicklaus Design will oversee a minor makeover of the Mountain course at the Bear Mountain resort community in Victoria, British Columbia. The work will affect three holes on the nine-year-old track, which was co-designed by Jack and Steve Nicklaus and opened in 2003. Bear Mountain’s owners are undertaking the work to create room for more houses and condos.

Speaking of British Columbia, a 500-foot-long replica of the Great Wall of China, a faux Chinese junk, and a Pagoda-style clubhouse are among the attractions at a new golf course in Langley. Pagoda Ridge Golf Course, which is said to be the town’s first new course “in decades,” is scheduled to open sometime this summer. The Langley Times says that the 7,000-yard track, which has been co-designed by Mike Gregg and Scott Woodland, has been in the making for 22 years.

Bob Cupp has officially taken his one-year turn as the president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects. Cupp, who’s based in Atlanta, Georgia, was elected by his peers at the group’s recent meeting in Chattanooga, Tennessee. His mission, he said in a press statement, is “to bring attention back to the simple pleasures of walking a well-designed golf course” and “to lead more people -- especially families -- to play more golf more often, for the sheer fun of the game.”

A third event on the European Tour has been called off due to financial problems. It’s the Czech Open, which was scheduled to take place in August at Prosper Golf Resort in Celadna. Money issues have also forced the Tour to cancel events in Bahrain and Spain.

Hindu tradition calls for feeding New Delhi’s monkeys twice a week, and as a result the animals have grown wildly in numbers and become a public scourge. The New York Times reports that the monkeys, roaming the city in packs, routinely rob the city’s residents of food and attack those who don’t cooperate. “They were totally silent, very quick, and highly effective,” said the victim of a mugging.