The Week That Was, june 10, 2018

     The Italian government is in shambles, and a British newspaper is wondering if it’s time to consider an alternate venue for the next Ryder Cup competition. For now, the competition is scheduled to be held in 2022 at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club, in suburban Rome, but the clock is ticking and the Guardian believes that a “pessimistic view” about Italy’s ability to stage one of golf’s premier events is taking hold among golf insiders. A major worry, according to the newspaper, is the suitability of the Jim Fazio-designed golf course at Marco Simone, which needs an upgrade that’s long been scheduled but still hasn’t begun. The concern about the course is apparently shared by officials with the Ryder Cup, who concede that “the process has taken longer than ourselves, the Italian Golf Federation, and Marco Simone envisaged.” Of course, the Guardian may have an ulterior motive in spreading such doubts, because it seized the opportunity to remind everyone that Adare Manor, the recently refreshed Irish golf resort, is ready, willing, and able to host the Ryder Cup if the plans in Italy fall through.

     Tiger Woods has redeemed himself with a growing number of corporate sponsors, but he’s one of only five professional golfers who made Forbes’ 2018 list of the world’s 100 highest-paid athletes. Woods checks in at #16, with $42 million in endorsement income and $1.3 million in winnings, an amount that’s light years behind the top earner on the list, Floyd Mayweather, who totaled $285 million. Not far behind Woods are Phil Mickelson (#22, with a total of $41.3 million), Jordan Spieth (#23, $41.2 million), and Rory McIlroy (#26, $37.7 million). For what it’s worth, Forbes’ top 100 featured 40 professional basketball players, 18 professional football players, 14 professional baseball players, and nine professional soccer players.

     While they persecute refugees and engage in genocide, government officials in Myanmar also continue to support golf development. These days, they’re looking for a private company willing to oversee the development of New Mandalay Resort City, a mega-community that will take shape on nearly 9,900 acres roughly 40 miles east of Mandalay. The Myanmar Times reports that the city will include houses, hotels, a convention center, retail and commercial areas, and a variety of recreational attractions, including a golf course.

     Pipeline Overflow – Forbes thinks that David McLay Kidd’s recently opened Mammoth Dunes layout at Sand Valley, in central Wisconsin, is “undeniably fun,” “loaded with stunning visuals,” and, perhaps most importantly, “better” than the resort’s Coore & Crenshaw-designed track. . . . Robert Trent Jones, Jr. believes that Termas de Rio Hondo Golf Club, his firm’s “spacious,” just-unveiled course in Argentina, is “a premier venue deserving of a championship-level golf tournament.” A legion of elected officials and other dignitaries at the opening endorsed Jones’ assessment, as they hope the course will attract tourists to Santiago del Estero Province. . . . Also making its debut is Royal Golf Club, a venue in suburban St. Paul, Minnesota that aims to be “a must-play for every local golfing enthusiast.” The 18-hole track, a re-do of the former Tartan Park Golf Course, was designed by not one but two signature architects, with nine holes by Annika Sorenstam (the Queen) and nine by the late Arnold Palmer (the King).

     John and Jim Cook have reportedly accepted “nearly $1 million” for Red Hawk Run Golf Club, a 20-year-old venue in Findlay, Ohio. Red Hawk Run’s new owner is Nick Reinhart, who aims to turn the club’s 18-hole, Arthur Hills-designed layout into “a little more of a destination facility.” “It’s a championship course,” Reinhart told the Courier, “and our goal is to get it to championship course levels.” Reinhart recently sold two Findlay-based companies, Centrex Plastics and Creative Plastic Concepts, but he still reportedly owns Big Jerk, a store that sells jerky.

     Surplus Transactions – Ron Hall, Sr. and Ron Hall, Jr. have found a buyer for Carolina Lakes Golf Club, the centerpiece of a gated community in Sanford, North Carolina. The new ownership group consists of homeowners in the community, who reportedly made the purchase to ensure that the club would continue to operate. The club features a Roger Rulewich-designed courses that opened in 1981. . . . Augustin Isernia has reportedly paid $300,000 for Sacandaga Golf Course, a nine-hole track in Northville, New York that’s been in business since 1898. Isernia, who owns a vacation home along Lake Sacandaga, told a local newspaper that he hopes to make the course “a stimulating environment in the great outdoors.” . . . Fulfilling what he called “a dream,” the long-time general manager and superintendent of Territory Golf Club, in St. Cloud, Minnesota, is now also the property’s owner. Dan Stang paid an undisclosed price for Territory, an 18-hole track that’s operated since 2001.

     Duly Noted – The unfortunate, racially charged incident that occurred in April at Grandview Golf Club has become the subject of an investigation by the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. I’m still waiting for one of golf’s institutional leaders to say publicly that discrimination of any kind, whether intended or not, doesn’t reflect golf’s values. . . . A top Cuban tourism official has declared that his island nation will have 27 golf courses “in the coming years” and become, in the words of a Chinese news agency, “an attractive golfing destination.” That’s all I’ve got to say, because I can’t stop laughing. . . . The editors at Golf Digest have officially run out of ideas. Just weeks after publishing a rundown of the best courses by Coore & Crenshaw, they’ve done the same for Jack Nicklaus.

     To maintain compliance with new European laws regarding data collection, I’ve been asked to provide a statement about my use of the data that’s collected about those of you who read the World Golf Report. So here it is: I don’t collect any data, and I don’t bake any cookies into your computers. All I do is write stories and then post what I write. I don’t know your names or addresses or ages or income levels, and I have no interest in any of that information. That being said, the World Golf Report occupies a slice of cyberspace controlled by Google, one of the world’s foremost data collectors. I can’t say for sure whether Google collects information about those of you who read the blog, or whether it bakes cookies in your computers, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t. Incidentally, I’ve downloaded an official-looking statement that’s supposed to appear at the bottom of this blog, but I can’t figure out how to load it. If any of you can tell me how to, please do.