The Week That Was, february 3, 2013

     Mum’s the word: Donald Trump plans to name course #2 at his golf resort in Aberdeenshire after his late mother, Mary Anne MacLeod. “She was a proud Scot,” Trump said in a telephone interview with Scottish reporters. Trump intends to submit his development plans to local officials “within the next few weeks,” according to the Scotsman. Like the first course at Trump International Golf Links Scotland, the MacLeod track will be designed by Martin Hawtree, the third-generation British architect who’s currently overseeing design changes at the Old Course at St. Andrews. The Scotsman says that Trump aims to make his new course “as good as the championship course,” although he concedes that it’s going to be “very, very hard to compete with what we did.”

     Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have already sketched out a routing for the golf course they were recently hired to design atop a landfill in Dallas, Texas. “It isn’t the most dramatic site in the golfing world,” Coore conceded to the Dallas Morning News. “But I was surprised, quite frankly, at the natural rolling terrain. We believe the site could have an extremely good golf course, one that looks very interesting and one that we felt very excited about.” The final product, the newspaper says, “will have a links feel,” like Coore & Crenshaw’s work in coastal Oregon and the Sand Hills of Nebraska, with “wispy native grasses and scraggly bunkers.” And here’s a surprise: According to the News, Coore “likes the natural contours [of the landfill] so much that if remediation changes the structure, he will revert to the original form.” For my money, Coore is taking the naturalist aesthetic to an entirely new level.

     Here’s a scary thought: A pair of neurologists believe there may be a link between living in a golf community and Parkinson’s disease. A story in the Huffington Post suggests that pesticides, weed killers, and other toxic substances used to keep courses looking their emerald best also destroy neurons in our brains that enable us to communicate. The story concedes that the science on this subject isn’t strong, but it may very well lead some people to think twice before they move into a house along a fairway. “If you are thinking of retiring near the links,” the story advises, “you might want to pick a plot upwind.”

     How clueless are professional golfers? Less than two weeks after three of them -- Thomas Bjorn, Henrik Stenson, and Richard Green -- insisted that there was no illegal doping in their sport, Vijay Singh confessed to using a banned substance. Singh told Sports Illustrated that he uses Deer Antler Spray “every couple of hours, every day.” It’s the same stuff that Mark Calcavecchia lent his name to several years ago. Bob Charles, a former British Open champion, said last week that he’s been using a similar product for 20 years. This is vindication for Gary Player, who took some heat when he claimed that illegalities were taking place on the professional tours. The question now is, What is the sport going to do about it?

     As part of a grow-the-game initiative, a golf practice center in West Lancashire, England hopes to build an 18-hole golf course. The 5,700-yard, easy-to-play track will take shape on property adjacent to the Southport Golf Academy, according to the Ormskirk Advertiser. “We play an important role in developing young players,” the academy’s director told the newspaper, “but after a while they are keen to play on a full-size course.” If the proposal is approved, construction could begin later this year.

     In a recent post, I noted that budget-cutters in West Yorkshire, England were hoping to close the golf courses owned by the city of Leeds. Last week, the Middleton Park and Gotts Park courses got a temporary reprieve. The local numbers-crunchers still believe that the courses are “unsustainable,” but they’ve agreed to give them another year to get their financial houses in order. “We are in no doubt that we have a tough year ahead to try and keep our course open,” an official at Middleton Park told the Yorkshire Evening Post, “and we look forward to working in partnership with the city council to look at new ways of working that hopefully will secure the future of our golf course.”

     Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Florida likes to brag about the number of PGA pros -- Tiger Woods and Rickie Fowler among them -- it counts among its members. The Palm Beach Post reports that the club waives its $50,000 initiation fee for those pros, presumably to buff its image and maintain its waiting list. I suppose that such accommodations are part of the reason why so many pros have relocated to Florida in recent years. Membership does indeed have its privileges. I wonder if Medalist also waived Michael Jordan’s initiation fee.

     Late last year, I reported that Yule Golf Course in Alexandria, Indiana had been sold at auction and that its new owner, a farmer, planned to plant crops on it. Last week, however, the Anderson Herald Bulletin revealed that the new owner, Dale Rinker, hasn’t secured permission to farm the 158-acre property and that time has run out for him to do so. As a result, the newspaper says, the future of the former golf course is “murky.” Nobody has suggested that the course may reopen, but residents of the adjoining community sure hope it does. “It’s an ongoing saga,” says the city’s mayor.

     Before too long, Barnbougle Dunes may not exclusively be a golf destination. Richard Sattler, a farmer who’s learned to love golf, wants to add a world-class public polo field to his seaside property in Bridport, Tasmania. “We think it goes hand-in-glove with what already exists at Barnbougle,” Sattler’s partner, a competitive polo player, told the Launceston Examiner. If the partners stick to their construction schedule, the first matches will be played this fall, right about the time when the golf season kicks off Down Under.

     A writer for Golf Digest is trying to encourage President Obama to play more golf. “As a lover of the game,” Jamie Diaz explains, “the big reason I would like to see the president play more is not because of what it can do for him but what it can do for golf. A president who avidly plays is validation for the game as a worthwhile pastime.” I couldn’t agree more. Play on, Mr. President, and in front of as many cameras as you can find.