Hugo Chavez Sets Sights on Caracas Country Club

A New York Times story, that can be found here, says that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is looking to take over the Caracas Country Club, one of the last bastions of elitist wealth, to create housing for people displaced by recent heavy rains.

"A state newspaper published a study this month saying that if the government expropriated the land of the Caracas Country Club and that of another club in the city, housing for 4,000 poor families could be built on the parcels," reads the Times article.

The course is one of the last designs of Charles Banks. According to George Bahto's biography of Charles Blair Macdonald, The Evangelist of Golf , the layout was constructed from 1928 to 1930. Banks died in 1931.

According to the Times story, the grounds of Caracass CC designed by the Olmsted Brothers, who are best known for creating parks, public and private, as well as college campuses.

The demise of Caracas CC appears inevitable.

"We are waiting,” Manuel Fuentes, 69, the country club’s vice president, said to the Times in the English he learned as a teenager while studying at the New York Military Academy. “It would be a tragedy for the city to lose such an icon, but it’s a scenario we’ve been forced to acknowledge."

Caracas CC hosted the OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup Latin American qualifier in 2009. The Venezuelan team of Jhonattan Vegas and Alfredo Adrian qualified and went on to place 12th out of 28 teams in the World Cup played in China that year.

Donald Ross at Cohasset (Mass.) Golf Club

This past summer, I was retained by Cohasset Golf Club to write a brief history of the golf course for its website, as sort of a way to help members appreciate what they have in their Donald Ross-designed layout, and to educate prospective members about the current course that opened in 1920 and was renovated by Ron Prichard in 2000. In 2009-2010 the club undertook indepth water remediation project with Agri-Scape Golf Course Construction doing the work that affected three holes.

The Donald Ross Society has posted the piece on their website and you can read it here in its entirety.

Cohasset has quite a history, some of which remains to be rediscovered. Considered a summer club for wealthy Bostonians, the first holes were laid out by Willie Campbell in 1898. Four years earlier he had done the same at The Country Club in Brookline.

(A copy of the Cohasset ledger that records the fee paid Campbell is shown here.)

Sometime after that, Donald Ross became associated with Cohasset but the year can not be pinned down. Ross emigrated to the United States and Oakley Country Club in 1899. Oakley, located in Watertown, Mass., is about 25 miles from Cohasset.

In 1920, Cohasset was expanding from nine to 18 holes and a letter to the members informing them of the project, reminded them that Ross, who was overseeing the expansion, had a long association with the club.

The letter reads, in part, that Cohasset, “has engaged the services of Donald Ross, golf architect, who laid out the original course of the Club and who has been consulted on all improvements which we have made. Mr. Ross has gone over the ground several times very carefully, and has considered a golf course from the point of view of 18 holes.”

The letter never mentions what year Ross first was hired to route the "original course," nor do any of the other remaining documents that have been preserved. A number were destroyed in a clubhouse fire.

The layout is very much the same as Ross left except for a few changes including the relocation of the first tee (for unknown reasons), the rebuilding of the 12th green by Al Zikorus, ostensibly to soften the severe back-t0-front tilt, and the relocation of the 17th green by a long-ago green chairman supposedly to thwart a rival from driving the putting surface.

(Ledger item copyright Cohasset Golf Club.)

Blind Shots are Archaic, My Calendar Says So

This item was passed onto me by my good friend Brett.

It's the page for Dec. 21 of his daily golf calendar and depicts the 8th hole at the European Club, which is designed by Patty Ruddy, and owned by him and his family.

It's a nice picture, and all, but the caption is really worth reading. As Brett points out, it start off pretty well, "Then there's the last sentence... ."

I'm wondering who wrote this and what Ruddy would have to say about it? A description of the course on the club website makes no mention of what the calendar writer considers an attribute of this particular links.

Update on The Machrie: Links to Remain Open Through the Winter

I spoke with Greg Muir, Assistant Manger for KPMG, about the situation surrounding the Machrie Hotel and Golf Links going into administration. KPMG has been retained to manage the property and find a buyer. ( A worldwide company, KPMG is "a leading provider of professional services including audit, tax and advisory," according to their website. Phil Mickelson is endorsed by KPMG.)

Muir, who works out of the Glasgow office, said the golf course will remain open throughout the winter while the hotel will be closed. He said two KPMG representatives, Blair Carnegie Nimmo and Gerard Anthony Friar, were appointed joint administrators.

According to Muir, there have already been inquiries from prospective buyers and because of the uniqueness of the the site, he expects there to be more. Muir said hopes for a sale before the 2011 season gets underway.

KPMG has retained three Machrie employees, including head greenkeeper Simon Freeman.

"We will certainly keep him on until it is sold and we hope that he will continue on after that with the new owners," Muir said of Freeman. "He's an asset."

(Photo Anthony Pioppi, copyright 2009)

Legendary Turf Figure Gordon Witteveen Dies at the Age of 76

Here's the obituary on TurfNet.com for superintendent and author, Gordon Witteveen who passed away Dec. 16 of leukemia.

Witteveen, who was born in the Netherlands and emigrated to Canada 20 year later, was a founding member of the Canadian Golf Superintendents Association. He also started the organization's publication, The Greenmaster magazine, which he was editor for five years.

Witteveen coauthored a number of books including, with Bob Labbance, "Keepers of the Green: A History of Golf Course Management

The Machrie in Serious Financial Trouble

The Machrie Hotel and Golf Links has gone into administration it was announced to members of the Islay Golf Club last week. What that means, for my non-UK friends, according to the website, thisismoney.co.uk, is "When a company is in financial difficulty, it can be put into 'administration' which means control is passed over to a separate company – the administrators. They will assess whether the financial problems are serious, if they can help the firm get back on its feet, or they can decide to sell off the business (in whole or in parts) for assets, or completely close it down (this is called liquidation)."

For years, the Willie Campbell layout has been struggling for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that other than flying to Islay, which is off the Southwest coast of Scotland, the only way to get there is by a three-hour ferry ride. The golf course has always been in wonderful condition, the restaurant is fine, but the hotel is not up to a level that it needs to be to entice golfers. Since there are no other courses on Islay, it took dedicated players to make the trip, most of who combined it with an excursion to the Kintyre Peninsula to tee it up at Machrihanish Golf Club and, more recently, Machrihanish Dunes.

I played the Machrie last year with Machrihanish Dunes head greenkeeper Keith Martin and his first assistant Kevin, that's him hacking out of the rough. It is a remarkable true links layout that dates back to 1891 and one of my favorite courses in the world. Simon Freeman is the head greenkeeper there and he maintains some of the finest turf on which I have played, all without the aid of an irrigation system. Not a single head can be found on the 18 holes.

The course is somewhat changed from the original layout. In 1979, the farmer who leased the property on which a portion of the golf course sat – an arrangement dating back to its inception – decided he wanted the land to once again become the domain of bovine and ovine. With that pronouncement, five of the original holes were lost, including Mount Zion, a dastardly creation that ended at a green site possessing many qualities but forgiveness was not among them.

Architect Donald Steel routed current holes 10 through 14 to replace the lost five.

The ocean can be seen from nearly every hole. Looking away from the sea, golfers can gaze upon the hills of Islay. As would be expected, the wind is relentless for the entire round

Rediscovering Tekoa Country Club's Original 9th Green

Wednesday, I took an hour drive north from Middletown up to Westfield, Mass. for some golf course archeology at Tekoa Country Club.

Sean Donnelly, an assistant superintendent at Clinton (Conn.) Country Club, joined me for the excursion along with E.J Altobello, who has the duel role of head golf professional and superintendent at Tekoa. E.J. Altobello has done some superb work uncovering the history of the golf course that dates back to the late 1890s on a different site from it's current location.

A nine-hole Donald Ross design was opened in 1923 and five of the original holes, 4-8, still exist on the current 18-hole layout. (The Ross plans are on the right.) Holes 1-3 and 9 on the original course were lost when the State of Massachusetts took the land for the creation of Westfield State College.

E.J. determined that holes 1 and 2 were eradicated during the construction of a school building. He did locate the third, a 140-yard drop-shot par-3, that is entirely intact, but covered in about 50 years of overgrowth and trees.

He had also found what appears to be the ninth tee but had yet to find the 9th green before we arrived, which was at the end of a 310-yard hole, some 25 feet about the fairway, according to the Ross plan.

The lost holes were located on the west side of Rt. 20. After the state took the land for the college, it purchased acreage on the east side of Route 20, that bordered holes 4-8 of the Ross course, to create the existing layout.

The new course is essentially a Geoffrey Cornish design but according to Cornish, he was never paid for his work even though the original owners built the course very much to his specifications. The new holes do not match the Ross work.

Using the Ross map, we were able to track down the ninth green, but only because it is winter and leaves are off the trees and vines. The area is all but impassible at any other time of the year.

The first photo, above, is taken from on the ridge to the right front of the green and shows what would have been the putting surface. The second photo is taken from below the front of the green near the stream, which is not as well-defined as on the drawing. Sean is standing on the front edge of the green and you can see the severity of the slope. It would have been one tough final approach shot.

According to E.J., one of his members was employed by the Tekoa in the late 1950s when it was a still a Ross course. As a teenager, his job was to sit in a station wagon on the road above the ninth green. When a group finished, they loaded their clubs into the car and he drove approximately 75 yards up the steep hill, dropping them off near the clubhouse where he received nickle tips. When the bags were unloaded, he backed down the hill and waited for the next group.

During our search for the green, and after its discovery, we came across a number of drain pipes running down the steep hill, including this strange combination pictured here with E.J. removing debris. Located halfway between the tee and green of the third hole, we found a pipe, probably six inches in diameter, that ran into a much larger pipe, perhaps two feet in length, that was set perpendicular into the ground. At the bottom of the large section, is another six-inch pipe that moved the water down the hill into the stream. Our best guest is that the large pipe -- coincidentally, made by the Ross company of Ulrichsville, Ohio -- may have held water for drinking.

After our discoveries, we took a tour of Tekoa. It is very obvious that the best holes are Ross creations, now holes 2-4, 14-15. They are very much the way they appear on the drawing, except for a ridiculous amount of trees -- mostly white pine -- that were planted over the years. E.J. has been doing a great job removing them and his work on the 14th will restore the original intent of the 331-yard hole that ends with a delightful three-level putting surface, which is guarded by bunkers to the left and drainage gully in front.

Most of the remaining original greens have wonderful contouring, except for what is now the second hole, originally the fourth. The Ross plans show two ridges running parallel to the line of play but they are not there now and appear to have been removed on the advice of famed architect A.W. Tillinghast, who visited the course in 1936 while in his role as a traveling consultant for the PGA of America.

Well beyond the prime of his career when he worked for the PGA, Tillinghast advised nearly every club to fill in bunkers and remove bold green features that he thought only made the game too difficult for the high handicap players. As a result of his recommendation, literally thousands of bunkers were removed and strategy lost on hundreds of course. His advice to Tekoa, as reported in his letter to the PGA, reads: "My principal recommendation was for the blending of of nearly all the greens, which they anticipated rearranging." There was no explanation as to what blending meant. He went on to say he advised, "the raising of the left-rear and recontouring of the Fourth Green (now the second) ... the entire remaking of the Seventh Green (moving it to a new site on the left) and the remaking of the Eighth Green (existing 15th), removing objectionable undulations."

E.J. is unsure if the recontouring of the fourth and relocating of the seventh took place but it appears very likely that the club did smooth out the existing second green. It is the most placid of the remaining Ross work. Fortunately, the club appeared to have ignored Tillinghast's other suggestions.

Update 12-12: Here is a current Google Earth view of the site. The building at left is where the first and second holes would have been. The first hole went from below the building, slightly doglegging right to near the start of the driveway. The second dog-legged left beyond the parking lot. The third tee was behind the that area with the green near the road next to the existing course.

The existing hole running parallel to the road is the current second and the original fourth. Next to that tee is the green for the original eighth hole, now the 15th. The par-3, at the bottom of the screen, running parallel to the road, is the original fifth.

A Walk on the Proposed Quinnetucket Site, Another Dumping Ground

Because of the vast amount of dense underbrush along the parcel of land that would be holes 4-6 of my Quinnetucket Golf Course project, walking there in the summer months is all but a ridiculous endeavor. In the cold early days of December, traipsing through that area is a struggle, even with a machete and some aggravation that I needed to work out.

Sunday (Dec. 5), I located a fence line that I first discovered over a year ago, and decided to follow it. My guess, is that this fence was part of the old chicken farm that was run by Connecticut Valley Hospital to aid in feeding workers and patients.

It was while inching my way that I came across an old dumping ground that consisted mostly of, what appears to be, cans (photo 1). There were also broken small milk bottles, pieces of wood, a metal cable, a clay pipe, a metal vent tube, wood, old fenceing and one large glass bottle with a rusted cap still in place and clear liquid inside.

At no point, did I find any labels to indicate what the cans held or what might be swishing around inside the large bottle.

The dump pile was at the top of a ridge so I decided to explore below and found more items (photos 2 and 3), including broken ceramic dishes, a light bulb, shards of what looked to be window glass and a piece that appears to have come from an electric motor. There was also a section of a large corrugated metal pipe.

I did find one small bottle intact and will try to get it dated to get a rough estimate on how long the trash has been there.

For me, this is just more proof that the land went virtually unused for decades and while it appears that it would have been a great hiking spot, few took advantage of the site.

I'm wonder if the trash also indicates that the state and/or CVH did not make sure the site was cleaned up after the farm was closed, or if the land was a haven for illegal dumping once it was no longer used to raise chickens.

Masters Tournament Ticket Raffle Continues

Just received word from Bob Spencer at the Middlesex YMCA that there are a few tickets remaining for the Masters Tournament raffle.

Five hundred chances at $100 each are being sold with the winner getting four tickets to the 2011 Masters Thursday-Sunday, five days, four nights of accommodations at a private home adjacent to Augusta National, a round of golf for four at an area course and a $5,000 American Express gift card that can be used for airfare.

The Middlesex YMCA, located in Middletown, Conn., is a wonderful organization that serves many communities in Middlesex County. The money from the raffle will be used to send underprivileged children to summer camp that the YMCA runs in nearby Portland, Conn.

For more information, or to purchase tickets, contact Bob at bspencer@midymca.org.

Thailand Part 3: the Spirit House

The Thai are very religious people and Buddhism is practiced by nearly 95 percent of the population. The sect of Buddhism that is most common is Theravada, the oldest surviving Buddhist school in the world with its roots in India.

In Thailand, however, Buddhism is also mixed with folk beliefs, as well as aspects of Hinduism that made its way to Thailand from what is now Cambodia.

Buddhist temples are everywhere as are the monks clad in their burnt orange garments. Each morning, the monks walk out into their community with a large wooden bowl looking for food donations from nearby residents. All the food the monks eat comes via this ritual.

Also, as part of Thai Buddhism, on nearly every piece of property, from shopping malls to banks to golf courses, are found what are known as, "spirit houses," or, san phra phum in Thai. I took a photo of the one pictured here at Chiang Mai Highlands Golf and Spa Resort.

I asked Santi Chudintra, Director - The Americas Market Division for the Tourism Authority of Thailand, who accompanied us for much of the trip, to tell me about the significance of the spirit house.

"Most Thai people believe that when a Thai family builds a new house, there is always the possibility that it has disturbed the spirits who live on the property. In order to protect their new home from retaliatory harm or mischief, some Thai families put up a little model house on a pole for the spirits to live in . Offerings of incense, fruit, flowers, and rice will be placed here, because the spirits must be kept happy at all costs. Inside the San Phra Phum, you will normally notice an image of Phra Chai Mongkol, an angel figurine, often gilded, and holding a sword in one hand, a money bag in the other hand. Phra Chai Mongkol’s origin lies in Hinduism. Suffice it to say, she is there to protect the land and its inhabitants.

"In addition, some spirit houses on the road were built to pacify the tormented spirits of people who have died violent deaths in crashes at that site."

A more in depth explanation of spirit houses can be found here and here.

My Latest Visit to the Proposed Quinnetucket Site

Over the summer month I rarely visited the site for my proposed Quinnetucket Golf Course. It's not that I didn't want to be there, but once the leaves are on the trees, bushes and vines, walking is very difficult and hot, even with my trustee machete.

Now that the cooler weather is here and the majority of leaves are on the ground, I headed back out to the site. Not much has changed, including the fact that people continue to use the site as a dumping ground. I found this recent deposit near what would be the approach the the seventh green.

The project continues to progress, albeit at a slower pace than I would like, but it is moving forward.

Thailand Part 2: Suwan Golf and Country Club

Once our group of approximately 25 tour operators and golf writers had finished playing the eight golf courses that GolfAsian arranged for us to sample throughout Thailand, we invariably came up with a best-of list and in nearly everyone's top 3, was Suwan Golf and Country Club. What's most surprising about that fact is that green fees at the outstanding facility were $25, American, easily the least expensive course where we teed it up. As with all golf courses in Thailand, we had access to the locker room, showers and restaurant, just as if we were members. The caddies were fantastic.

The attributes we found so appealing about the layout was the fact the golf course had strategy on nearly every hole. This isn't a course where merely hitting it down the middle on the tee shot is always the correct way to play. There are doglegs that tempt golfers to cut the corners and for those who do there are big rewards but severe penalties for the failed attempt. The bunkering was more than just of the penal variety. At times, like many of the streams or ponds found on the course, the sand punishes the overzealous player, at other times, is serves to deceive the golfer.

As an example, this is a photo of the par-3 sixth hole. The front bunker is some 20 yards short of the green but from the tee looks as if it is flush again the putting surface and.

The greens were interesting and challenging without being overdone. There's plenty of movement requiring more than just a cursory read of the line to be successful at putting.

Suwan also has the most interesting design history of the layouts we played. The architect is Major General Weerayudth Phetbuasak, still active in the Thai army and director of the Weeyos Design Group. He also laid out Sir James Country Club, Narai Hill Golf Resort, and Bangkok Golf Club as well as Phokeethra Golf Club in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

I took a good look on the web for information on Major General Phetbuasak and all I could find was that he is a member of the International Golf and Life Foundation Council of Experts.

Making the round at Suwan even better was the fact I went out in a fivesome that included (left to right) Paul Guarino, an American via the Dominican Republic, me, Chayuda (Toom) Singhsuwan, Mikael Jensen from Denmark and Canadian Sandy Bain.

Toom, 20, is a newly minted professional golfer who counts Golfasian as one of her sponsors along with Chang beer. It was a delight to watch her navigate her way around the course, playing bold when she could and cautious when she had to. Toom's short game is fantastic, she has a putting stroke that I would sell my soul for and her play with the long irons-hybrids game is astonishing. One of her birdies came after she knocked a 3-wood to 12 feet.

After shooting even par on the front side with us from the men's tees, Toom came home in four over for the last nine but after carrying our team for so long, it was no wonder her game floundered. I'm just hoping we didn't do any permanent damage to her golf game or her psyche. Toom plays on various tours throughout Asia and already has wracked up a victory. Keep an eye on her.

My Seth Raynor Piece in Golf Course Architecture magazine

Golf Course Architecture magazine has put a link to the Seth Raynor story I wrote for the latest issue. You can find it here. I also profiled The Prairie Club in Nebraska in this issue.

I know I'm biased, but Golf Course Architecture is a wonderful publication that talks with architects and profiles golf courses the world over, not just in the UK and the U.S. If nothing else, a regular visit to the website is a must. You really should purchase the magazine and can get yourself a subscription by following this link.

The photo is of the ninth at Fishers Island Club taken from the left rough. It is one of my favorite, if not the favorite, Double Plateau greens Raynor ever created. I snapped this pic while caddying this summer.

Greg Norman Design, Two Investors Conned in Scotland

A 79-year-old veteran conman was sentenced to four years in prison after convincing two businessmen to invest $640,000 in a bogus golf course development project in Fife, Scotland. The story can be found here on the Golf Course Architecture magazine website.

According to the Daily Express story, John Cameron, "claimed to be an ex-military man and took to wearing tweeds and driving a Daimler to further convince his victims in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

He even drove to the property in Fife with one of the businessmen and his son, along with Australian golfer Greg Norman’s course planner."

According to a person familiar with the area, if nothing else Cameron had a great eye. The land would make a wonderful site for a golf course. It is located not far from a castle where the Toro company put up many of its guests during the recent Open Championship at the Old Course.

Golf Punk Finally Succumbs

After years of financial difficulties including going into a form of reorganization, Golf Punk magazine is no longer as confirmed in this story on the Sport Journalists Association website.

I was interviewed by Golf Punk in 2005 while a volunteer greenkeeper at the Old Course for the 2005 Open Championship. Later, I wrote a few pieces for them and there was talk of me becoming a permanent American voice, but then financial troubles set in and the plan never materialized.

JF Media, which owns Golf Punk, was in Company Voluntary Arrangements – known in short as a CVA. For me that means money owed will probably never arrive.

I was a little disturbed to read this in the story about their business practices:

"In its brief history, the company is believed to have built up a collection of County Court Judgments, brought by disgruntled and unpaid contributors, as well as an Advertising Standard Authority ruling in 2009 from customers angry that they never received the free gifts offered when they paid their £35 for a year’s subscription."

I wish editor Shaun McGuckian the best of luck. He always treated me fairly.

Back from 11 Days of Golf in Wonderful Thailand

I have just returned from 11 days golfing in Thailand as part of a tour put on by GolfAsian for a bevy of tour travel operators and two golf writers. It was quite a whirlwind trip encompassing 8 courses and 8 hotels in 11 days plus an elephant park, Buddhist temples and the nightlife of Hua Hin, Bangkok, Pattaya and Chiang Mai.

The Thai are golf crazy. Unlike other countries, there the average person tees it up, not just the wealthy and golf tourists. There are 700,00 Thais that golf plus 200,000 more golfers that are foreigners living in the country. Golf courses number 260 while there are 1,000 driving ranges.

There's a lot to write about golf in Thailand, but I'm going to start with the caddies.

Every golf course has caddies, which are mandatory, and all caddies are women. Most Thais try to avoid the sun so caddies wear long sleeves, long pants hats and, in many cases, gloves, all in the distinctive colors of their course.

Many caddies play, as well, but most do not. What is remarkable is that adeptness at which they ply their craft. Of the 8 caddies I had, I would rate perhaps 3 of them A+, 4 A and 1 a B+ plus. My fellow travelers said they had much the same experience as me. In a couple of instances, I had caddies who were pulling my clubs 4 holes into the round. All of them were excellent at reading putts.

To make communication with them easier, the caddies often shorten their names. Here is my caddie Bai, also known as "James Bond" for her uniform number "007." The caddies, like the cast majority of the Thai people, have a wonderful sense of humor. Bai and her fellow caddies laughed at the nickname my group -- Julien, Mikael, Oliver and I -- gave her. About three holes into the round, she said to me. "You good golfer. Play bad golf. I kill you. I James Bond."

I'm not sure I'd ever been threatened with death by a caddie up until that time.

All caddies have shortened their names or use nicknames that are sewn onto their uniforms to make communication easier. Many use words that obviously have no direct correlation to their real names. One caddie was called "Poa," much to the delight of those who know about golf course agronomy. Another went by the name, "Norm." Maybe she was a fan of the television show, Cheers?

Here, though, hands down, is our favorite nickname. No one, to my knowledge, ever asked her how she came up with this moniker. (Thanks to Mikael Jensen of Krone Golf Tours for the photos)

My New Favorite Head Cover Courtesy of Machrihanish Dunes

Since it's opening in 2009, Machrihanish Dunes Golf Club on the Kintyre Peninsula of Scotland, has used a black sheep as is logo. Now, they have come up with a black sheep driver head cover. One of the cute and/or demonic looking examples showed up in my mail this morning. I'm wondering what the reaction will be from my future fellow playing partners the first time they get a look at this?

Looking up "Scotland" and "black sheep" on line, I came across this bit of humor.

An engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician were riding in a train in Scotland, when out the window they saw a black sheep.

Said the engineer, "The sheep in Scotland are black."

Said the physicist, "Some of the sheep in Scotland are black."

Said the mathematician, "At least one sheep in Scotland is black on at least one side."

Yikes.

According to Wikipedia, black sheep are associated with the Roman underworld god Dis Pater.

"Dis Pater, or Dispater (cf. Skt. Dyaus Pitar), was a Roman god of the underworld, later subsumed by Pluto or Hades. Originally a chthonic god of riches, fertile agricultural land, and underground mineral wealth, he was later commonly equated with the Roman deities Pluto and Orcus, becoming an underworld deity.

"Dis Pater was commonly shortened to simply Dis (much like how Dyaus Pitar was also simply called Dyaus). This name has since become an alternate name for the underworld or a part of the underworld, such as the Dis of The Divine Comedy.

"When Dis Pater was in the underworld, only oaths and curses could reach him, and people invoked him by striking the earth with their hands. Black sheep were sacrificed to him, and those who performed the sacrifice averted their faces. Dis Pater, like his Greek equivalent, Hades, had little or no real cult following, and so there are few statues of him."

Scottish Open Looks to Leave Loch Lomond for the Links

According to widespread reports in the U.K. press, Barclays, the sponsor of the Scottish Open, has requested the tournament be moved from Loch Lomond Golf Club to a true links golf course. No word right now on what that venue might be.

European PGA Tour Director Keith Waters told BBC Scotland: "Loch Lomond has been an excellent venue, but times change. Barclays would like us to play the event on a links course in the hope of attracting all the world's top players."

Loch Lomond is a highly-regarded Tom Weiskopf-Jay Morrish design located 20 miles northwest of Glasgow.

In the Scottish newspaper, "Evening Times," EPGA player Alistair Forsyth wondered if the move would, in fact, bring in more American players.

“There are upsides and downsides and I’m sure a few players from across the pond would turn up rather than stay at home," he said. "But I remember when the Scottish Open was held at Carnoustie and the weather was horrendous. Nick Price said his swing and timing had been blown to bits, ruining his Open chances. To be honest, I don’t know how you could attract a better field. It is one of the best tournaments on the calendar.”

Since the Scottish Open is played the week before the Open Championship, the event would have to be held at a site that is not part of the Open rota, meaning the Old Course, Carnoustie, Muirfield and Turnberry can't be contenders. Kingsbarnes Golf Links is part of the three-course venue of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship but would seem to be an ideal venue.

Robert Von Hagge Dies

Architect Robert Von Hagge passed away Sunday, Oct. 16., according to a release sent out by his design firm partners Rick Baril and Mike Smelek. Von Hagge, the release said, died peacefully as the result of complications from a head injury with his wife Greta by his side.

Born Robert Bernhardt Hagge, he spent time on the PGA Tour before becoming a club pro. He then traveled to Hollywood to dabble in acting, during which time he was married in succession to golfing sisters Alice and Marlene Bauer.

In 1957, he joined the golf architecture firm of Dick Wilson. He established his own firm in 1963 and became known as a showman, at which time he changed his surname to von Hagge, making site visits while wearing a gold cape.

Von Hagge journeyed to Australia in the mid 1960s to work on The Lakes Golf Course, thanks to a recommendation of professional golfer Bruce Devlin. They soon formed a design partnership that lasted 20 years. It was based in the United States.

In 1987, Devlin left the firm to join the Senior PGA Tour and and von Hagge formed his own design firm with associates including Kelly Blake Moran, Baril and Smelek.

Von Hagge, either with Wilson, Devlin or his own firm, has hundreds of courses across the U.S. and the world including such locations as the Bahamas, France, Japan, Spain, Mexico and Tahiti.

More information on his career can be found here.

"Cigar Guy" Identified!

The photo of Tiger Woods shanking a pitch shot into the camera of The Mail on Sunday photographer Mark Pain during the Ryder Cup has fast become one of the greatest golf photographs of all time, in part, because of the comical Groucho Marx-looking man to Woods's left. The Daily Mail has tracked down the guy and reveals his identity in this story, and he's not a publicity hound, just an enthusiastic golf fan. Also included in the piece is a number of famous images doctored so that Cigar Guy appears in them. Funny stuff.

Thanks to my friend Nancy Powers for the tip on this one.

Pete and P.B. Dye's New Course in Curacao

In the middle of September, I journeyed to Curacao for a four-day trip to the Santa Barbara Plantation and the Old Quarry Golf Course designed by the father-and-son duo of Pete and P.B. Dye.

Check out what I wrote for the website of Golf Course Architecture magazine.

Curacao is part of the Netherlands Antilles and is located about 30 miles to the east of Aruba and 30 miles north of the coast of Venezuela. It has been described as a less touristy version of Aruba, a place I've never been, but Curacao does not have the hustle and bustle of major tourist destination. The Hyatt Hotel that is the anchor of Santa Barbara, is a low-key affair with three restaurants, three pools, a wonderful little beach, snorkeling, diving, hiking and biking trails.

It's worth a visit.

Boston Globe Story on Furyk's Used Putter That Won Him $11.35 Million

Turns out the putter Jim Furyk used to win the Tour Championship, and ultimately the Fed Ex Cup, at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta this past Sunday, was discovered by Furyk in a used club bin at a store in South Easton, Mass. as detailed in this Boston Globe story. Furyk picked up the putter while playing in the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston in Norton a few weeks back.

The original owner of the putter was Paul Szep who twice won the Pulitzer Prize as editorial cartoonist for the Globe and still contributes to Golf Digest.

“I can’t believe it. It’s quite amusing,’’ said Szep, who watched the final holes on Sunday at a friend’s house in Siesta Key. “I said, ‘Hey, you’ve got to come see this. There’s my putter right there.

(Photo: Kevin C. Cox/ Getty Images)

Happy National Punctuation Day

In honor of National Punctuation Day, here's a quote on the importance of commas, periods, semicolons, etc., from Ernest Hemingway that incorporates golf.

"My attitude toward punctuation is that it ought to be as conventional as possible. The game of golf would lose a good deal if croquet mallets and billiard cues were allowed on the putting green. You ought to be able to show that you can do it a good deal better than anyone else with the regular tools before you have a license to bring in your own improvements."

The left photo is of Hemingway, who I do not believe was a golfer, shaking the hand of Fidel Castro. The right picture is of the Cuban leader golfing. Unfortunately, Castro banned golf in Cuba and all the courses there have been destroyed or gone fallow, including two Donald Ross designs, the Havana Biltmore (1927) and Havana Country Club (1911).

Masters Tickets Raffle

The YMCA here in Middletown, Conn. is hosting a Masters Raffle. There are 500 tickets being sold at $100 a piece. Winner receives four tickets for the Thursday through Sunday rounds, a four-bedroom house for four nights and five days, a round of golf for four at a local club and $5,000 to help cover expenses and airfare. Anyone interested in participating, contact Frank Sumpter of the Middlesex YMCA: Fsumpter@MidYMCA.org.

Ghost Hunters Features Otesaga Hotel in Wednesday's Show

Ghost Hunters, which appears on the Syfy Channel, is kicking off the season Wednesday (8/25) at 9 p.m. Eastern time with an episode on the Otesaga Resort Hotel, which is also a chapter in my book, "Haunted Golf." Rachel Donnelly, my friend who first told me about the Otesaga after having worked there and is quoted in "Haunted Golf," was extensively interviewed by Ghost Hunters but we'll have to wait and see if she made the cut. One person who is in the book but refused to talk with Ghost Hunters is Bill June. Bill shies away from publicity, for the most part, but was kind enough to sit down with me for close to an hour when I visited the Otesaga and relate some of the encounters he's had while working at the hotel. His stories really make the chapter.

I doubt that it will make even the briefest appearance, but the Leatherstocking Golf Course that is connected to the hotel is a wonderful design. Devereux Emmet is the architect of the original 9 and was involved with expanding the course to 18. A magazine piece Emmet wrote about the addition tantalizes readers with the intimation that other architects were on site advising him, but Emmet never lists names. With his connection to C.B. Macdonald, it may have been him and/or Seth Raynor. For now, it's a mystery.

(My photo is of the par-3 12th)

More Plans to Ruin the Seth Raynor 9-Hole Jewel at Hotchkiss

Imagine that from 1924 to 1926 one of the most prominent building architects in the country -- let's say Frank Lloyd Wright -- came to Yale University to create a structure that became the envy of not only every other Ivy League institution, but also of every college and university in the country. During his time at Yale, at the behest of prominent alums, Wright traveled some 60 miles north of New Haven, a trip of over two hours, to one of the most prestigious preparatory schools in the nation to create a half-size version of his work at Yale. While there, he befriended an educator who so fell in love with the world of architecture that he left teaching to join with the architect and later forge his own lauded design career that would include returning to the prep school a few years later to update the building. Now, some 84 years later, this heralded institution has allowed the Frank Lloyd Wright building to fall into serious disrepair. Windows are boarded up, the facade is cracking, stones have loosened, some have even fallen out. In one instance, a portion of the building was removed so that a new building could take up that space. The original structure, once, perhaps, the finest of its kind at any preparatory school in the country, is a shell of its former self. The desecration is continuing. The school has plans for a new building to encroach on the the existing one, rendering another portion of it all but useless and seeming to herald the end of this once lauded structure.

At first glance, this appears to be a far-fetched idea, but in reality that is precisely what is happening, and has been happening for decades, at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Conn. Instead of a building, it is a golf course and instead of Frank Lloyd Wright as designer, it is Seth J. Raynor, one of the preeminent golf architects in the history of the field.

Raynor was, in fact, working on the Yale golf course when he traveled to Lakeville, starting in about 1925, to create the 9-hole layout that includes versions of many of his famous hole styles. There are renditions of Short (first photo), Eden and Alps (second photo). The sixth green is one of the finest Raynor ever produced, a sentiment held by Raynor historian George Bahto. It is a wonderful design augmented by a delightful routing that takes golfers through and along the Hotchkiss campus with views of Wononskopomuc Lake and the surrounding hills.

During construction, Hotchkiss assigned popular teacher Charles Banks to act as a liaison between Raynor and the school. Banks became enamored with the craft to such an extent that he left teaching to join with Raynor and when his mentor died less than two years later, it was Banks that finished over a dozen of Raynor's projects, including Yale and the Fishers Island Club before going onto his own successful career as an architect.

The Hotchkiss course is in an embarrassing state, there is no other way to describe it. The large green pads with the trademark ridges, humps and swales, artfully crafted under Raynor's guidance, are reduced to small ovals as both photographs clearly illustrate. Many bunkers are abandoned or filled in. The condition of the turf is, in places, abysmal. The blame, in this situation, does not fall on the superintendent, because there isn't one. The small grounds crew that takes care of all the grass at Hotchkiss is also in charge of upkeep of the course, a recipe for failure.

Over the years, the architecture has also suffered. The seventh hole was shortened by approximately 40 yards and the original green destroyed to allow for a new driveway. Worse, the shortening of the second hole to make way for a new building was ill conceived and would never had happened if Raynor's work been held in proper regard. The gradual evisceration continues. There are plans for a structure to be built so close to the sixth green that it will impede play, a clear sign that the school will most assuredly one day decide a golf course no longer has a place in the long-term goals of Hotchkiss.

The administration needs to embrace not reject the Raynor-designed golf course and they need not look any further than Yale for reasons in doing so and guidance in how to accomplish the task. There, following years and years of neglect, the school, after repeated shoving from prominent graduates, realized the jewel it had in its midst and is taking virtually every measure it can to renovate and restore the layout to its original glory, much to the delight of numbers of its alumni, not to mention the administration which has seen revenue from green fees skyrocket. No longer merely an afterthought, the Yale golf course is trumpeted by the university. Hotchkiss has in its midst, its own showpiece and recapturing its luster will only add to the prestige of the school. If the administration, though, is unwilling or unable to see the value in the golf course then, following the lead of Yale, prominent alumni need to step forward and educate the educators, before it's too late.

(Photos courtesy of Brett Zimmerman)

WSJ Story on the Awful Summer; Nantz Just Doesn't Get Architecture

John Paul Dupont wrote an informative piece in the Aug. 7 issue of the Wall Street Journal, titled, "The Ugly Summer of 2010" that details the trials and tribulations superintendents are dealing with from the Mid Atlantic states up to New England as a result of the long, hot and humid summer. It's worth the read. He cites major problems at Huntington Valley Country Club, Golf Club at Cuscowilla and Winged Foot Golf Club among others.

Dupont deserves kudos for laying some of the responsibility for dead greens firmly in the golf bag of players.

"Golfers themselves deserve part of the blame for insisting that putting surfaces be mown short and fast even in weather conditions in which such practices are almost certain to ruin them," he wrote.

In an email to me July 20, USGA agronomist Jim Skorulski, who works in the Northeast Region, said the year was becoming one of the worst in 20. With the ongoing high temperatures since then, it surely is the worst. The one question that remains, is how many superintendents will lose their jobs over a set of circumstances that were almost entirely out of their control.

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I happened to catch golf announcer Jim Nantz on New York City radio station WFAN chatting with host Mike Francesa, who knows little or nothing about golf but leads the league in kissing the behind of Nantz every time he appears on the Big Apple's top-rated sports talk show.

The conversation turned to this week's PGA Championship at the Pete Dye-designed Straits Course at the Whitling Straits resort in Sheboygan, Wisc. when Francesa, in a highly unusual moment of clarity, asked Nantz what were the characteristics of the Straits Course. It was a beautiful softball for Nantz giving him the opportunity to knock it out of the park with a concise and informative answer about Dye's style of strategic design that is based on angles and options. Instead, Nantz fouled out to the catcher. His reply: "it looks like the courses in Ireland."

Nantz should probably stick to telling us how every golfer that appears on the screen - and this week Whistling Straits founder Herb Kohler, as well - is a great guy and a wonderful family man.

My prediction is that on a number of occasions during the broadcast of the tournament, Nantz will fawn over the Straits Course telling us how beautiful it is, how it was built on what was formerly flat farmland, the fact there are over 1,000 bunkers but never discuss its strategic qualities.

George's Prediction Comes True; Faxon and Others Love Old White

During my interview with Lester George last week, he predicted a 59 would be shot at the Greenbrier's Old White course during the Greenbrier Classic and he was right. The par-70 C.B. Macdonald-Seth Raynor design was no match for the length of the PGA Tour pros and the soft conditions, even from over 7,000 yards.

Australian Stuart Appleby did it in the final round Sunday on his way to winning by a stroke. He became the fifth player in Tour history to shoot 59.

Brad Faxon emailed me from the tournament.

"Course is unreal. Players love it but don't get it either!" he wrote.

Why should they get it? How many of the Tour pros have been exposed to great golf courses or been shown why bunker right, bunker left, in the fairway and bunker left, bunker right on a green that tilts back to front isn't great design?

Here are the others players who shot 59 at a Tour event.

• Al Geiberger: 1977 Memphis Classic (29-30), Colonial Country Club (par 72)

• Chip Beck: 1991 Las Vegas Invitational (30-29), Sunrise Golf Club (par 72)

• David Duval: 1999 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic (31-28), PGA West (Palmer Course) (par 72)

• Paul Goydos: 2010 John Deere Classic (31-28), TPC Deere Run (par 71)

This was the first time it's been done on a par-70 golf course.

"Look, I'll debate it with you. I agree," Appleby said. "I can see both sides of the fence. It is a number. I shot that number. But who says par is supposed to be 72? There's a lot of great courses that aren't 72."

For the big gallery around the 18th green, the par of the golf course did not matter as they exploded into cheers when Appleby's put for birdie dropped.

A Chat With Lester George About the Old White Renovation

When architect Lester George began work at the Old White Course that hosts this week's PGA Tour Greenbrier Classic, virtually everything original designers C. B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor left behind was gone, with the exception of the 8th hole, the Redan. There is much speculation as to when the alterations occurred and it might have happened as far back as the mid 1930s. Nevertheless, it was George's charge to reclaim as much as he could.

The course opened in 1914 and Raynor, with Charles Banks completing the work after Raynor's death, updated the course around 1925-1926.

Using aerial photos of the course taken prior to the modifications, George set about returning Old White to its original design as best be could, including using "Dragon Teeth" bunkering, sharp, cone-shaped mounds, that are clearly visible in the aerials and existed on the Redan.

Since no mounds remained on the fifth hole, (pictured here) named "Mounds," George put Dragons Teeth there as well in the locations they seem to be on the aerial.

He installed approximately 450,000 feet of drainage to help with water problems that, George surmises, date back to the inception of the course. He said it is readily apparent that Raynor created fairway contouring to channel water through the property.

Because of real estate encroachment on part of the course, George was not able to restore all of the holes, such as on nos. 14 and 16. The 14th was a Cape Hole and the 16th Narrows. Raynor moved a tee when he returned in the 1920s, making the 16th more of a Cape Hole. During the restoration, George gave Narrows qualities to the 14th.

He also reworked 17 so that it now has Road Hole feel to it. Surprisingly, Road was not part of the original hole designs at Old White, one of the few Macdonald-Raynor designs without one.

George said the greens and bunkers were all rounded off, when he arrived, and he's tried to reestablish the original sizes and shapes.

George marvels at the some of the movement in the holes.

"The seventh, Plateau, has a washboard fairway," he said. "No. 2 has a hog's back running down the length of the fairway."

Tees were added to holes 2,11,13,15-17 making the par-70 course 7,031 yards from the tips.

According to George, expect the leaders to eviscerate Old White.

"I think we might see someone shoot a 59," he said. "If it gets soft, they're going to go low, low."

The forecast is for thunder showers Thursday, warm and partly cloudy Friday and Saturday, with a chance of rain on Sunday.

With the front side a par-34, a score of 29 is very much a possibility. Both par-5s are on the home nine and are reachable for the longest players.

Even with the added tees, much of the Macdonald-Raynor strategy will be lost to the length of the Tour Pros but they still will have decisions to make on some holes. Flagstick placement will also play a role in defending the course. The par-3 18th at 162 yards, (shown here) with it's Horseshoe feature should be fun to watch come crunch time on Sunday.

No matter what the score, though, it will be a joy to know the work of Macdonald, Raynor and George will be seen on television screens across the country.

(Photos courtesy of Shannon E. Fisher)

PGA Tour Tees It Up At a Macdonald-Raynor Design This Week

This week the PGA Tour is at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulpher Springs, W.V. for the Greenbrier Classis and, frankly, I have mixed emotions.

First of all, I'm ecstatic that the work of Charles Blair Macdonald and Seth Raynor (restored by Lester George reopening 2006) will be getting national recognition but I'm also afraid that golf announcers who know little to nothing of architecture will not only fail to understand the nuisances of the golf course, but also describe what is there inaccurately to viewers at home. I have deep pains in my gut when I imagine Garry McCord or David Feherty waxing poetic on the work of Macdonald and Raynor. Frank Nobilo's head might explode when he realizes many of the holes are not framed by trees. These three think long and straight is a legitimate and favored design strategy.

I'm hoping Peter Oosterhuis is announcing this week. After his days on the PGA and European PGA tours, Oosterhuis was head golf professional at Forsgate Country Club in New Jersey, which has an exceptional Charles Banks as one of its two layouts. He's also a big fan of Yale University golf course.

This could be a great opportunity for those golfers who think penal bunkering in landing zones and in front, behind and on both sides of greens is good design, to see the error in their thinking. Unlike the work of Robert Trent Jones and his hack copycats, Macdonald, Raynor and others produced golfing grounds where thought is required on virtually every shot. The best part about that for golfers is the fact that that school of architecture is, in fact, fun.

The pros who tee it up Thursday through Sunday will overpower the layout, at times, but that shouldn't stop the announcers from illuminating viewers to the architecture that allows the average players, of varying length and skill, to challenge Old White, and others like it, and find delight in doing so.

(Picture of the original 18th green, courtesy Lester George)

My Friend Iain and His Pals Cash In on Oosthuizen's Victory

My pal Iain David Dye, who I met while volunteering at the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland for the 2005 Open, was at the tournament this year, also held at the Old Course, when he had a chance encounter with eventual winner Luis Oosthuizen that turned out to be quite valuable.

Here's Iain recounting of the events. (In the photo taken on the first tee of the Old Course, Ian's the good looking one on the far left.)

"We were standing at the 12th tee of the Old Course on Thursday. Louis and his caddie walked up onto the 12th tee from the 11th Green, Louis looked at his ball and asked his caddie for a new one. The caddie chucked the ball at Tom who is my mate Shaun's son.

"We were all laughing and joking about how much the ball would be worth if he won the Open. We were late back on the Thursday night to my parents' house, and we had been talking all night about how we should put money on Louis as it could have been fate.

"Both myself and Shaun put £20 each on Louis on Friday morning and by 6:30 pm on Sunday we had won £520. If we had put the bet on on the Thursday night we would have won over a £1000."

To convert that into American dollars, for a bet of $30.40, they each took home $790.27!

Don't forget, Shaun still has a golf ball from the 2010 Champion Golfer of the Year.

How to play the Road Hole, Then and Now

During the 150th playing of the Open Championship, Lee Westwood was rightfully lauded for his magnificent play at the 17th hole. During one round, his approach shot landed just short of the Road Hole bunker leaving, what looked to be, an impossible up-and-down. Playing over the hazard onto the narrow green and at the flagstick was too risky. The only sensible alternative seemed to be to pitch away from the hole, leaving a putt of at least 25 feet. Westwood, though, pulled out his putter and ran the ball around the Road Hole bunker and onto the green. Leaving himself a makeable putt for par, which he sank. The scenario is nearly identical to the one that Alister MacKenzie detailed in his book, The Spirit of St. Andrews, published in 1934.

"I remember shortly after the war, watching the contestants in the Open Championship or some other important competition playing the seventeenth at St. Andrews. One of the the competitors had pulled his second shot wide of the the road bunker: I said to a friend who was with me, 'Here comes an American. Watch him pitch over the Road bunker and land in the road beyond.' Instead of doing so, the played at a little hillock, only three feet across, to the right of the road bunker, and his ball curved in a complete semicircle and lay dead at the pin.

"I said to my friend, 'That is the best player I have ever seen. Let's follow him to the clubhouse and find out what his names is.' We did follow him and we found his name was Walter Hagen."

Quinnetucket Golf Course Update

The latest news is that there is no news. I talked with the Mayor's office a few weeks back and the Mayor and the city attorney are going over the lease. The signing could come at any time.

Here's a recent photo of the third green site from the 7th fairway.

Rediscovered Seth Raynor Photos and Bio

I was contacted recently by a member of the the Country Club of Charleston who was looking for photos of Seth Raynor. It turns out that the club has commissioned a portrait of Raynor, the designer of their course, based upon photos that were uncovered at Princeton University where Raynor graduated in 1898, with most likely, a civil engineering degree. Princeton published bios and photos of the members of Raynor's class in conjunction with their 25th reunion in 1923.

In both pictures, Raynor comes across as a serious-minded fellow. One image is from the year he graduated, at the age of 24, and another from 1923 when he was 49, looking old for his age. Less than three years later, some surmise because of his incredibly hectic work schedule, Raynor was dead.

What I find most intriguing about the article--besides the fact Raynor's middle name was Jagger--is that it appears to indicate that Raynor might have traveled overseas to study the great golf courses. Perhaps, though, the sentence was meant to mean that Raynor, as an understudy of Charles Blair Macdonald, used the layouts that C.B. had visited in Great Britain as his guide. If Raynor did journey there, it would be quite a discovery. If not, this small item, nevertheless, gives an interesting glimpse into the life of man of who so little is known other than his work.

Facebook Post of the Week - Turf Related

Northland Country Club Turfgrass Management In you are keeping track: Fungicides applied to the golf course in 2010...ZERO!

A great idea letting golfers, non-golfers and environmentalists just how few chemicals are applied by diligent golf course superintendents.

Yale's Biarritz Green Revisted

For years, it was assumed that the Biarritz green at Yale Golf Course was designed so that the shelf before and after the swale was meant to be green height, making it the only one that Seth Raynor, Charles Blair Macdonald or Charles Banks designed that way. In all the other cases, the green itself is only the shelf after the trough. Most of the Raynor Biarritz greens I've seen could not have the front portion converted to green height, anyway, owing to their steepness and severity. Some courses like Shoreacres and West Hampton have flat approach areas. Along the way, both of those layouts began mowing the front tier as green.

A few years ago, I called into question the assertion that the entire green complex at Yale's ninth had always been intended to be green after uncovering an article about the Seth Raynor layout.

In the Aug. 18, 1925 issue of the Hartford Courant, an in-depth piece on the new Yale Golf Course included a short detailing of nearly every hole. The ninth is described, in part, this way: "The green proper is behind a deep groove in the approach which is of about the same area as the green. The approach is bunkered heavily on the right and left and the fairway is the lake."

Approach and green are not synonymous, meaning only the back tier was meant to be green. Recently, the Yale courses biggest fan, Geoffrey Childs, uncovered this photo that appears to show the front portion of the complex as approach and the back only, as green.

So, now the question becomes: should Yale return it's Biarritz to the way Raynor designed it? I say, yes. Restoring a golf course -- in this case a great one -- as closely as possible to the intent of the original designer should always been at the forefront of any architectural decision.

I think, it will also add fun to the hole. Players whose shots fail to reach the back tier would have the option of chipping, putting or running their golf balls onto the back, where now putting is the only method.

I have been at the Fishers Island Biarrtiz for hundreds of shots, either as a caddy or a player, and watched successful approaches played with putters, sand wedges, 7-irons and hybrids. I've also seen golfers fail using every single one of those clubs. It's great to watch golfers engage their brains on a shot and not just mindlessly go about the task at hand. Converting the Yale Biarrtz will bring back the element of thought to the already-fantastic ninth hole.

Gerry "Bubba" Watson Takes the Travelers in a Playoff

At first glance, the fact that Bubba Watson captured the 59th Travelers Championship appears to be good news for the tournament. Watson, 32, is one of the great underachievers on the PGA Tour having never won an event until Sunday despite his prodigious length and deft touch around the greens. The victory was a hard-fought one and Watson, from Bagdad, Fla., who plays up the down-home Southern hick image for all its worth, endeared himself to more fans when he immediately dissolved into a blubbering mess on the 16th green after defeating Scott Verplank on the second playoff hole with a par. It was there on national television that Watson told the golf world that his father, who taught him the game, is suffering from cancer.

The good feeling around Watson's victory may be short-lived in Connecticut. If Watson goes on to capture only a few more events, or even worse, never again wrack up a title, he will join a dubious list of Hartford winners who faded into obscurity over the last 25 year that include the likes of Brent Geiberger, Olin Browne, Billy Ray Brown, Mac O'Grady and Phil Blackmar.

For the Travelers, big-name players lifting the trophy helps the image of the event and also aids in drawing top players who realize the TPC River Highland course rewards not just length, but the ability to craft shots. When Phil Mickelson won back-to-back titles (2001-2002) it added cache to the event. The heyday of the tournament was in 1992 to 1995 when Lanny Wadkins, Nick Price, David Frost and Greg Norman won in consecutive years.

Now, everyone connected with the Travelers is an unabashed Bubba Watson fan and their hope is that he can follow in at least some of the footsteps of another golfer who won his first PGA Tournament in Connecticut, Arnold Palmer.

(Photo copyright PGA Tour)