Golf Course Architecture: Issue 57 - July 2019

MA I L BOX Dear Editor I spent last week at Detroit Golf Club for the PGA Tour’s Rocket Mortgage Classic. Detroit is booming… for some. This week, we were fortunate to help share access to the boom. In partnership with the PGA Tour, Detroit Golf Club, The Detroit Housing Commission and non-profit organisation Golf. My Future.My Game (GMFMG), we expanded a number of worlds, including ours. It is no secret that Detroit has a history of virulent, racial, financial and housing segregation and financial strife. Things are on the upswing and there are opportunities if you know where to find them and how to actively participate. We worked with all of the above to document how opportunities can be shared with some star Detroiters. Golf tournaments can play an important role in enhancing the lives of people in the areas surrounding them. The amazing work done at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, which turned a downtrodden housing-project community into a thriving one by virtue of hosting the annual Tour Championship, is the model, but it is by no means the only example. My company, StoryLounge, is pleased to be an advisor to GMFMG. We are documenting GMFMG’s partnership with the Detroit Housing Authority on a project that expands participants’ life perspectives via golf and exposure to professional business experiences. The kids aren’t just learning to play golf, but also how to recognise and participate in opportunities in engineering, architecture, media, event management and sports marketing. And, golf geeks, they even learned about Donald Ross! Detroit is an example of the need to match access with opportunity: it’s hard to go to the party if you don’t know where the party is. The above groups are working to make sure invites get to a wide swathe of invitees. I was enriched and mentored by this top-notch and fun Detroit crew who observed and helped us film while simultaneously sharing their experiences in STEM/Arts and the physics of golf. With a half day of training, my interns also produced some excellent content. Thanks to the PGA Tour and the tournament itself for supporting our documentary with access and resources. And a special thanks to Michael Doniel Jackson for connecting us with his pal Craig Kirby, CEO of Golf.My Future.My Game. Vaughn Halyard Milwaukee, United States We are delighted to receive letters from readers, and the best in each issue will be rewarded with a golf shirt. Send to 6 Friar Lane, Leicester, LE1 5RA, UK, or email us at letters@golfcoursearchitecture.net We were right to say that plenty of people would be able to identify last issue’s Gopher Watch location without clues; the par-three eighth on the Old course at Sunningdale might not be one of the most famous on the course most often named as Britain’s finest inland eighteen (it was a Harry Colt creation, replacing an original Willie Park hole), but it was still pretty conspicuous. Of a fair number of correct answers, Douglas Hodgson of Montreal, Canada, was first out of the hat and wins the much- coveted GCA golf shirt – we hope you enjoy wearing it, Douglas. This time, Sandy is back on the links, his most favoured habitat. A second-tier course perhaps, but a very fine day’s golf for all that, can be had at this venue, which is said to be home to the largest number of R&A members outside St Andrews itself. No more clues; get your entries in, as ever, to gopher@golfcoursearchitecture.net . GOPHER WATCH 11