Missing links: Turnberry to Trump? China to dominate?

By John Strege

Stories of interest you might have missed…

Donald Trump reportedly is about to expand his golf empire by purchasing Turnberry, site of the Duel in the Sun, the battle between Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus in the 1977 British Open. James Corrigan of the Telegraph has the story.

(Getty Images photo)

It has long been assumed that once China becomes fully engaged in golf, it might eventually dominate the game. "They are that good and they're coming," Ian Poulter says in this story in the South China Morning Post. "Their presence and their emergence is very real."

Late in 2005, Peter Dawson, chief executive of the Royal & Ancient, asked the new head greenkeeper at Royal Liverpool what his intention was for the course that would host the British Open in 2006. "I told him I wanted to produce traditional links golf on a brown golf course," Craig Gilholm said in this Scotsman story on Gilholm's thinking then and now, as the Open prepares to return to Royal Liverpool.

The idea of offering golf holes that measure 15 inches in diameter in an attempt to make a difficult game easier and more appealing to a greater number of people has been favorably reviewed in some quarters, but not one occupied by Charles McGrath, a New York Times contributor.

The victory Sunday by 17-year-old Lydia Ko in the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic will be a popular one, Ron Kroichick writes in the San Francisco Chronicle. "That sound in the background is Commissioner Mike Whan cackling in delight. On a tour suddenly bubbling with intriguing story lines, Ko threatens to top them all."

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