The Donald Honored, Not Thrilled With Ranking Debut

He also tells Josh Sens that Pine Hill is better than Pine Valley and that he settled on architect Martin Hawtree because R&A Chief Inspector Peter Dawson ranked him first, second and third when recommending architects.

Hawtree, you may recall, carries out Dawson's Open venue "Treatments" to mask regulatory abstinence.

DT: I got Dr. Martin Hawtree to design it. I went to Peter Dawson of the R&A and I asked him who his top architect choices were. He said his first was Martin Hawtree, and that after that he’d go with Martin Hawtree, and Martin Hawtree. He’s just been incredible. When you see the work he did there, you can’t believe it. It’s set in these giant dunes, but the course is very easy to walk, which is difficult to do in land like this. There are beautiful footpaths that wind through the dunes and they’re surrounded by these incredible high grasses, but you don’t have to go up and down a lot of hills. The purpose of the dunes is to protect you from the weather, so when you’re playing the course, it can feel still even though there are 50 mph winds swirling just above you.

The Donald Touting His "Greatest course ever built"

If the Tweet from Donald Trump on his lukewarmly received Trump International doesn't make you laugh, then the Twitter responses will.

The people of Scotland love the golf course I have built-it is now considered perhaps the greatest ever built! Thank you also to Robb Report

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 26, 2013

Notably Absent From The Latest Trump Announcement...

...is mention of a golf course architect for his newly announced project in Dubai.

Of course, what took so long to get The Donald to the Middle East is the only true mystery in this.

The Trump Blue Monster Renovation Plan Revealed...**

Torleif Sorenson posts Gil Hanse and Donald Trump's vision for the TPC Blue Monster at Trump Doral, though I'm hard pressed to see many major changes other than the par-3 15th which has lots of water around it.

The Donald told the media Tuesday that it's going to be an island green.

But Bradley Klein explains that's been a source of disagreement between the design partners.

But when it came to a proposed island green, Hanse balked. When Trump urged extension of a pond to encircle the otherwise placid, landlocked green on the par-3 15th, Hanse resisted, explaining that it would be out of character with Wilson’s emphasis on diagonal lines of play. So the plan now is to project the relocated green out into a corner of the expanded pond and form a sharp diagonal, with the putting surface flanked by water front left and deep to the rear.

Update on 2013-03-06 16:18 by Geoff

**Here is an updated plan. You can tell because the logos are getting tackier by the plan.

At least the one above will provide a point of comparison. The 15th is still not an island green. Thankfully.

As a bonus, a close up of the 15th and 16th holes.

Esquire: "Why do we hate Donald Trump so much?"

What better way to kick off WGC week at Trump Doral than with some thoughts on All Star Celebrity Apprentice host and golf development icon Donald Trump.

Stephen Marche of Esquire.com explains why we as a culture so love hate the man.

Really, it all comes down to his hair. The hair asks the fundamental question of the man: Who does he think he's fooling? He can't possibly think he's getting away with this, can he?

And here I think is the true source of why Donald is so intensely hateable, why he is the only person on Twitter everyone is allowed to swear at. It's not the narcissism, the shallowness, the stupidity, or the obliviousness. It's that he's getting away with it, that his style works. All the intelligence and humor of Spy magazine couldn't budge him, and if Spy couldn't, who can? He is proof of the fact that the world, as it is currently constructed, is a wonderful place for obliviously shallow narcissists. Donald didn't make that world. He just inhabits it. But he is its perfect icon, and that is definitely a good enough reason for hate.

Update on 2013-03-05 19:58 by Geoff

**Speaking of The Donald's hair, looks like someone has been to the salon for a coloring, and his name is not Ernie Els.

Trump posted this today on his Facebook page.

WGC Cadillac At Trump Doral Through 2023

The standout component to this press release--besides committing to The Donald and Doral for ten years--is in the branding department.

No mention of the TPC Blue Monster at Doral or TPC at Trump Monster or whatever they call the course that is, technically, a TPC managed property.

World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship to be staged at Trump Doral through 2023
Coming improvements to resort and course to ensure world-class event continues for the next decade

DORAL, Fla. – The PGA TOUR, on behalf of the International Federation of PGA Tours, today confirmed that the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship has agreed to an extension with Trump Doral as the event’s host resort and course through 2023. The Cadillac Championship, which is the second in a series of four World Golf Championships, has been played at Trump Doral since 2007. The 2013 event will again feature the best players from around the world on March 6-10, with Justin Rose attempting to defend his title against the likes of Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, Phil Mickelson, Luke Donald, Adam Scott, Bubba Watson and many more of the game’s best.

The PGA TOUR has hosted events at Doral since 1962 when Billy Casper took down a field that included Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Sam Snead and Ben Hogan. More than 50 years later, the best in the world are still coming to take on the Blue Monster at the Cadillac Championship as the tournament traditionally hosts one of the top fields in golf combining players from the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking, the FedExCup, the Race to Dubai and other Tour’s Order of Merit standings.

Meanwhile Paradise Afshar reports that The Donald is getting along well Doral's neighbors.

Neighbors Rejoice Over Minor Damage To Trump Scotland

Simon Murphy reports on the damaged to the burn on the fourth hole, which overflowed during last month's storms.

Last night, Suzanne Kelly, a local resident who discovered the damage, said it was ‘beautifully ironic’.

She added: ‘The amount I know about golf would fit into a teaspoon. However, I do know when I’m walking on a pathway and come to a big chasm, that’s not the best.

‘I’m just glad the light hadn’t gone by the time I got to that point on the course otherwise I’d be talking from a hospital bed with a broken leg.

‘There’s no fence, no sign, no warning you’re about to fall into a hole, just a few traffic cones.’

Will The Donald's Golf Course Influence The Scotland Independence Referendum?

It's been fascinating to follow the political saga that is Donald Trump's fight against the proposed wind farm off the Aberdeen coast which could taint the views from Trump International Scotland (I happen to agree with The Donald that they will, if you are playing the back tees where the views are spectacular...and so are the force carries).

This has led to his row with former bud First Minister Alex Salmond, and now there is the fallout from the BBC's airing of You've Been Trumped, where local police actually come off as poorly as some of The Donald's workers who pettily cut water supplies to residents and engaged in other unnecessary acts of boorish behavior, all documented in this shocking scene captured by filmmaker Anthony Baxter.

Interestingly, the post-You've Been Trumped ramifications have transitioned from a mere spat between filmmaker and developer (passport application bounty offerer that he is), to appropriate questions about the role of police arresting the filmmaker for seemingly no good reason. 

First Minister Salmond, the independence movement's biggest backer, has now asked for an inquiry into the episode, captured and included in the film, after previously ignoring the known incident for nearly two years, reports Neil Drysdale:

Mr Salmond wrote in a letter to his constituents: "The film raises issues which have caused concern to a number of my constituents, specifically the strong suggestion that Grampian Police acted in a partial and unacceptable manner, for example the arrest of filmmakers which took place in 2010.

“With that in mind, I have written to the chief constable of Grampian Police, Colin McKerracher, to allow the police the opportunity to explain their actions and what steps have been taken in response to previous complaints.”

The "breach of peace" arrest came after the filmmaker made a visit to Trump's greenkeeper and interviewed him at the golf course construction offices.

Is it possible that The Donald's project could inadvertently influence the Scottish independence referendum?

Anthony Baxter, the filmmaker who was arrested, writing in The Guardian on Salmond's sudden interest:

Why has it taken more than two years to do so? The only logical answer is that Salmond and his government have been hoping that, in their silence, the truth would not be revealed. To the residents who have had to deal with the Bond villain Trump and his cronies, Salmond's response – or the lack of one – is deeply insulting and they are right to call it a cover-up.

And to the many people who have been shocked, dazed and saddened by what they have witnessed on the small screen this week, the implications for Scottish independence could never have been more pressing.

Throw in Salmond's recently revealed request of The Donald and, well, it does seem possible that the whole indepedence thing could be undermined by the building of Trump International links.