The Donald Woos Golf Scribes With Hair, Gardening Talk
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But boy is he eager to not use that TPC Blue Monster name that is part of the course's current contract with the PGA Tour!
Trump is likely to change the name of the Doral course but won't decide until the project is finished.
"When we have spent the money, and when it's at the highest level of luxury and highest level of golf ... then we are going to make the decision," he said. "But it will be in some form `Doral.'"
Trump already has Trump International in West Palm Beach, which once hosted the LPGA Tour Championship. He also has courses in New York, Washington, along the coast in California. This is what happens when a developer has a passion for golf.
"I have friends that are very successful people and they love to garden," he said. "And I like to garden, too, I guess, in a much bigger way."
I'm sorry, is this a quote from Being There? What does this have to do with the price of comb-over cuts in Miami Beach?
Now Gil Hanse didn't draw an island green on the 15th last I looked at his plan, but...maybe The Donald is going to get his way after all...
Still, he said that would not match what Hanse has in store for the Blue Monster.
Among the ideas is to turn the par-3 15th into an island green, and clear out the left side of the 16th fairway to make it a par 4 that can be reached off the tee, with water down the left side.
As for the reviews, Steve Elling called The Donald "a consummate showman" and that "he certainly knows how to feed the media beast."
Gene Wojciechowski took The Donald less seriously. Sort of.
Only The Donald can tell a room jammed full of reporters and TV cameras -- as well as a stenographer who typed every word -- "off the record, even though we are on live television," his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., was rumored to be in line for a U.S. Women's Open.
And only The Donald can backslap himself silly to the point at which I thought he might require medical attention.
"My golf courses all do very well," he said. "They are all winners. They are all top of the line."
You can't make this stuff up because you can't make Trump up. He's as subtle as that magnificent comb-over of his, which, by the way, deserves to be studied by hair stylists and structural engineers worldwide.
Rex Hoggard tried to avoid the subject of The Donald, and stuck to the design process of Gil Hanse.
Among the highlights of Hanse’s proposed redesign is additional length across the 7,334-yard layout and the creation of a peninsula green at the par-4 16th hole.
“What we thought to do was to stretch it to its maximum distance, which would be about 7,600 yards,” Hanse said. “We’ve talked to Tour officials who have talked to Tiger (Woods) and Geoff (Ogilvy). We’ll try to talk to Phil (Mickelson) today to get an idea what they feel is appropriate.”
