“Liberty is not a lady that’s just going to say, ‘Just take me when you want.' You’ve got to work for it.”

Bloomberg's Mason Levinson profiles Paul Fireman, founder of the $250 million Liberty National where they are pining to return to the PGA Tour's Barclay Classic rota. To get the event back, they've made changes to the dreaded links.

Input from the golfers that week played a small role in motivating Fireman to revamp the course, he said. While working with the PGA Tour, they realized that they needed to improve how the course allowed spectators to move around, how much gallery space there was and the difficulty of the greens.

“If you did before and after photos you probably couldn’t see any difference,” Cupp said. “This is about quality golf shots, including putts, and gallery space. Those are the two challenges that we had.”

I'm not sure that's what the players want to hear. And such a deal!

The initiation fee, originally a $500,000 bond, has been lowered to a $250,000 non-refundable payment that can be made over a couple of years, Fireman said in an interview, pointing out a difficult economy that many have adjusted to.

“People who can afford Liberty are less affected now,” he said. “They’ve reassessed their lives. They know they want to move on, so they’re able to join. They’re a little more cautious, they don’t want to look precocious to their friends, but I think that’s over.”

Yes, those days of pretending not to be sitting on a pile of cash are over thankfully! For some people.

And what a lovely sexist analogy this is.

As for the test they’ll face when they walk onto the course, it will still be stiff, even after the renovations.

“Liberty is not a lady that’s just going to say, ‘Just take me when you want,’” Fireman said. “You’ve got to work for it.”

There is a also a video interview from Bloomberg TV where Fireman notes that "all courses get redesigned" and that "Augusta's been modified 8 times." So Liberty has a long way to go