Uhh… Pros trading their names for cash isn’t a secret
CNN apparently thinks it’s got a scoop from Jack Nicklaus - there are golf professionals out there selling out their name providing design services without ever setting foot on a site.
It is more the general trend of tour players assuming the role of designers with which Nicklaus is so uncomfortable. “There’s a lot of fellas out here who know how to play the game, but they don’t really understand a golf course,” he says. “If they want to learn the business, they’ve got to pay their dues and go and work under some other people. That way, they’ll not only be able to use their name to produce a facility, but they’ll produce a facility they’re proud of.
“What you don’t want,” he continues, “is to have people saying, ‘This is a Joe Jones’ course’ when Joe Jones was probably never there.”
As if by some pure stroke of luck, USA Today has an incredibly lengthy piece on the very subject of professionals staying at a Holiday Inn and becoming golf course architects. Really, though, the entire story is in the headline - Golf stars cash in by designing courses. They only forgot one thing - the quotes around “designing”.
