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.