Short Notice, june 15, 2012

Circle the date: On August 3, PBS will air a documentary about golf course architecture that I believe will be called “Golf’s Grand Design.” I can’t tell you much about it, but I read somewhere that it would focus on 14 starchitects -- among them A. W. Tillinghast, Donald Ross, and Pete Dye -- and that some of the filming was done in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and Bandon, Oregon. PBS has made 13 short videos available, but I don’t know if they’ve been lifted from the doc or whether they’re out-takes. I particularly enjoyed the “conversations” with David McLay Kidd and Tom Doak, not to mention the music video about National Golf Links. And yes, there will be a companion book, written in part by Ron Whitten, Bob Cupp, Bill Coore, and Billy Fuller.

Les Furber has transformed a sand-and-gravel pit in northeastern Edmonton into an 18-hole golf course that officially opened today. The Quarry checks in 7,487 yards, and it’ll be joined by an equally long third nine in 2013. Furber, who’s based in Canmore, Alberta, believes some combination of the nines is worthy of hosting one of Canada’s premier professional events, maybe the Canadian Open. “It looks very good to the eye,” he said of the course in an interview with the Edmonton Journal. “That makes it memorable. Respected and recognized. At the end of it all, that’s what you try and accomplish when you have an excellent opportunity like this.”

Donald Trump’s golf course in Scotland debuts on July 10, and the New York-based developer has mailed 250 invitations to play and party. Among the celebrities and star-gazers expected to be on hand, according to the Scotsman, are George O’Grady of the European Tour and Sandy Jones of the British PGA, two of the CEOs who can influence the choice of venues for the Open Championship, and a pair of famous Scottish golfers, Colin Montgomerie and Paul Lawrie. Conspicuous by his absence will be Alex Salmond, the Scottish first minister who greased the wheels for the resort’s development but who’s clashed with Trump since. And it pains me to report that Sean Connery, who’s retired to the Bahamas, sent his regrets.

Speaking of Trump’s new course, the Brit who designed it recently completed improvements to the world-class layouts at Ireland’s legendary Ballybunion Golf Club. Martin Hawtree, whose family has been designing courses for a century, made no major changes, but he tinkered with the tees, greens, and bunkers on both the Old and Cashen courses. “These skillfully executed tweaks make golfers’ journeys all the more memorable,” said a club official in a press release.

Talk about “growing the game”: A school for toddlers in China’s Guangdong Province is opening a golf course for its students. If you twist my arm, I’ll grudgingly admit that it’s just three holes cut into artificial turf. But you and I both know the addictions that programs like this can lead to. A government official told China Daily, fractured syntax and all, “Let the children get in touch with golf is a good trial.”