The Pulse, september 28, 2012

Jack Nicklaus hit the campaign trail in Ohio this week, lending his considerable clout to Mitt Romney’s rapidly fading presidential prospects. “We are too late to change recent history,” the Ohio-born golf legend told a group of likely Republican voters, “but we can write a better future for ourselves, for our children and for their

children, beginning by putting Mitt Romney in the White House.” It’s hard to measure the value of such endorsements, but this much is certain: With the election looming ever larger on the horizon, Romney can use all the help he can get. Lee Schmidt has been changing history of late, as he’s completed what a press release calls a “complete course transformation” of Nanlihu International Golf Club on Hainan Island in China. The club’s original layout, soon to be a distant memory, was designed by Wang Zong Qian, a Taiwanese architect. The freshly created 7,000-plus yard track, Schmidt told his press agent, is now “a stern, picturesque test for all to enjoy.” Funny, but those are the words I was going to use to describe this year’s presidential campaign. One of Romney’s most vocal supporters is scaring the bejesus out of some residents of the Bronx. The New York Daily News reports that “high levels of explosive methane gas” are routinely detected in the working-class neighborhoods adjacent to the golf course that Donald Trump is building in Ferry Point Park. The fear, of course, is that someone will light a cigarette and blow up a house. And here’s my favorite part of the story: The state, according to the Daily News, “has decided not to shut down construction but to increase the frequency of monitoring.” Your government at work. Andrew Yau is also campaigning these days, but his prize is the Fota Island golf resort outside Cork, in southern Ireland. Yau may not be a household name in the United States, but he’s a heavyweight in international golf circles, with an investment portfolio nearly as big as Romney’s. Unlike Romney, however, Yau loves golf, and he has a trio of high-profile venues to prove it: Spring City Golf & Lake Resort in Kunming, China, which features courses designed by Nicklaus and Robert Trent Jones, Jr.; Amata Spring Country Club in suburban Bangkok, the home of the Thailand Golf Championship; and Ria Bintan Golf Club, which features one of the top tracks in Indonesia. If Yau can close on the deal for Fota Island -- he’s said to have challengers -- his collection of golf properties would grow to include one that hosted the Irish Open in 2001 and 2002. In what might serve as a preview of a Romney presidency, 17 union workers on the grounds crew at Calabasas Country Club in California have been replaced by non-union employees. “This whole situation is about the quality of the workforce,” the club’s general manager told a local newspaper. The GM also pointed out that the majority of the country club’s members support this change in the course’s history. But that really isn’t a surprise, is it?