Short Notice, july 20, 2012

Here’s further proof of Pete Dye’s profound influence on contemporary course design: Herb Kohler, one of the premier developers in our business, has built nothing but Dye-designed golf courses and plans to continue doing so wherever he next breaks ground. But when Matt Ginella of Golf Digest pressed him to name other architects he’d consider for future projects, Kohler mentioned that he has “a very high regard for Tom Doak” and for “the chap who’s going to design the Brazilian course for the Olympics, Gil Hanse.” Yes, Kohler is aware that both Doak and Hanse began their careers with Dye. Obviously, the apples didn’t fall far from the tree.

For the second time in three years, the money-losing municipal courses on Prince Edward Island are looking for private-sector buyers. The province’s government expects to begin marketing its four courses this weekend, with solicitations that will appear in Canadian newspapers. “There’s probably too many courses on the island right now, but every course in North America seems to be losing money,” a local golfer told CBC News. “It’s just what’s happening with the finances in the world.” If the province can’t find buyers, it’ll likely continue to operate the courses.

The big Baha Mar resort in Nassau has been financed by a Chinese bank, it’s being built by Chinese labor, and it’s apparently going to be filled with Chinese home owners. The South China Morning Post reports that Chinese investors bought $25 million worth of Baha Mar’s property at a recent sales event on Hainan Island, in part because the purchase gives them permanent residency status in the Bahamas. “Residency is important,” explained one of Baha Mar’s salespeople. “It allows buyers to visit without visas, and so the flats can become second homes in case they are needed.”

Before he died, Geoffrey Cornish made his friends and associates promise they wouldn’t hold a funeral for him. So, to honor his memory, they’re doing something better: On
 

August 15, they’ll stage what I hope is the first annual Geoffrey Cornish Invitational Golf Tournament, followed by a celebratory banquet. The event will be held at the first 18-hole track that Cornish designed, the Pines Course at International Golf Club in Bolton, Massachusetts. If you don’t know much about Cornish and the legacy he left to our business, I’m not surprised. As Brian Silva said in an obituary of Cornish that I wrote for Golf, Inc., “He was a person completely devoid of ego in an egocentric profession.” Proceeds from the event will benefit the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at UMass Amherst, where Cornish taught for decades.