8. 8.2011
tim rosaforte
brazil course talk renews a rivalry
nick faldo’s grand plan—let
major winners from around
the world, male and female,
design the golf course for
the 2016 olympics—was a
lead balloon when it landed
in the back yard of greg
norman’s Jupiter island
compound saturday.
was rekindled. in their playing days faldo made the
most of his matchups with
norman. in business norman trumped faldo. in fact,
faldo told me for an upcoming Golf digest story that
his do-over in life would be
to brand himself earlier the
way norman did.
or 18th holes on cliffs overlooking the atlantic ocean
in rio de Janeiro.
with pascucci hoping for
more championships in the
future.
the presidents cup captain
shot down faldo’s pitch to
peter dawson, president of
the international golf fed-
eration. he called faldo’s
formal proposal, reported
last week in Golf world, a
“logistical nightmare,” and
“too hard to execute.”
faldo wants in on the ac-
tion and said in his letter
to dawson, “egos need to
be checked at the door.”
norman, who already has
a bid in with lorena ochoa,
is being more realistic than
egotistic.
faldo assumes that when
18 major winners get in
the room, the true spirit
of the olympics will shine
through. norman is being
more practical. “a lot of
dynamics come into play,”
the shark said. “for ex-
ample, who’s going to take
the point on environmental
issues?”
“what are we going to
do,” norman asked, “draw
straws to see who designs
the 10th hole?”
imagine if dawson as-
sembled 18 major champi-
onship winners and asked
them to draw straws. imag-
ine Jack nicklaus, both the
greatest golfer and most
successful player-designer
ever, getting the fourth
hole, on the worst part of
the property. that prob-
ably wouldn’t go down well.
especially if arnold palmer
or gary player got the first
that’s leaving out the fact
that the course will be in
south america, a logistical
nightmare itself, and that
the igf is starting from
scratch only five years be-
fore the first shot is struck
in august 2016.
the differing opinions of
hall of famers like faldo
and norman shows how
much is at stake here, and
how much being connected
to that course means to
one’s legacy. if you thought
congress couldn’t agree
on anything, try getting a
group of golf architects to
do the same.
sir nick shot back on twit-
ter, saying, “the game is
bigger than a lot of us—i’m
happy among 18 champs
to draw straws & design
course to outlive us all.”
Just like that, an old rivalry
the counter-argument is
that, as faldo pointed out,
co-designs can work. mike
pascucci brought together
nicklaus and tom doak to
design sebonack on long
island: the result? a u.s.
women’s open course,
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