When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Peter Stone with the story of Perry Somers, acclaimed Australian hickory golfer, who wanted to use his decrepit old sticks in the Australian PGA this year, but was told they were non-conforming.
Phillip Heads of Australia's Daily Telegraph remembers sportswriter Tom Ramsey.
"A stubborn northern Irishman, he covered 141 majors in his 40 years as a golf writer," said Hartigan. "He was afraid of no one and regularly dished it out to the likes of Greg Norman, despite his iconic standing in this country."
At TV Week, Ramsey lived something of Hollywood life as he helped develop the Logies into the pre-eminent entertainment awards.
For five years, he had a permanent room in Melbourne's then hotel-to-the-stars, the Southern Cross. As a golf writer, that trend continued as he followed the careers of Bruce Devlin, David Graham and later his great sparring partner Greg Norman.
"I don't really think the newspapers knew how much I was spending. Because I was allowed to make my own bookings and I always turned left when I walked up the aeroplane. Never right," Ramsey told the November 2010 issue of Australian Golf Digest.
Thanks to reader Dan for Selma Milovanovic's story on the lawsuit entangling two courses that most of us thought were part of one facility: Barnbougle Dunes by Tom Doak and Mike Clayton, and Lost Farm, the new Bill Coore course in Tasmania where Mike Keiser is an investor.
Richard Sattler, the owner of land on which both courses stand, is defending allegations he built the upmarket Lost Farm to compete with Barnbougle Dunes using expertise he gained while involved with the Dunes.
In 2001, farmer and hotel chain owner Sattler knew next to nothing about golf when 23-year-old entrepreneur and golf enthusiast Greg Ramsay persuaded him that his windswept coastal property near Bridport, north-east Tasmania, would be perfect for a links golf course.
And...
Joseph Santamaria, QC, for Links Golf Tasmania, said Mr Sattler owed the company fiduciary obligations as a director for seven years to 2009. Despite this, he said, Mr Sattler set up a competitive business at Lost Farm, relying on the information, contacts and intellectual property he gained as a fiduciary of Links Golf Tasmania.
Mr Santamaria said independent investors in Barnbougle Dunes had said Mr Sattler encouraged them to believe they ''would be involved in the second stage'', meaning the Lost Farm development.
But Mr Santamaria told Justice Christopher Jessup he would not be able to show ''a document where in writing Mr Sattler commits himself to equity partners or Links Golf Tasmania having rights with respect to the second course''.
He said Mr Sattler's point of view was ''he had no obligation whatsoever''. ''It [Links Golf Tasmania] took money from investors not on the basis that he [Mr Sattler] would compete, rather on the basis that it could participate,'' he said.
Australian Golf Digest's Rohan Clarke interviews Mike Clayton and they post a preview online. A couple of highlights:
People make the mistake of thinking golf on the PGA Tour is what American golf is. America is full of incredible golf courses but it's a huge mistake to think tour golf is what American golf is. Tour golf is entertainment golf, that's not American golf. Those courses don't rate in terms of the great American golf courses.
And this on Royal Melbourne:
The middle of the fairway was never the best place to play to the hole from. You always had to go to the edges to get to the best line because the greens were hard and it was windy. I guess you just grow up thinking that's what all golf is like. You watch golf now and it's just hit the fairway, hit it between the lines. Kick field goals between the posts. So my philosophy is shaped initially by Royal Melbourne, which was the best example of what golf was about in Melbourne. I played St Andrews in 1984 and you get totally confused by that place. You see there's no rough, really. Figure it out for yourself where to play. So my philosophy is don't tell anyone where to go. Don't dictate to the player anything. Just give them space and let them figure it out for themselves where best to play it. So if they're strong at one part of the game, they can use that strength somewhere.
Another before-after comparison of the transformation at Australian Open host The Lakes.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
