Interestingly, last week I tweeted that Matt G would be tweeting this week about a rumour he'd heard 6 months ago from a well placed source close to a friend of one of Mr K's potential business partners. The source suggested that, if the Scotland deal fell through, Mr. K would likely focus on a site he'd found on the planet Pluto, adding that "with his level of genius at such an enormously high level, I wouldn't bet against Mr. K making Pluto the leading golf destination in the solar system for retail golfers, certainly within the next decade or so". The source later confirmed that there'd be a lottery system to determine the architect of choice for the Pluto project, with each participating architect having to submit two 18 hole routings beforehand in order to have their names dropped into a hat. Early indications are that, along with the architects who worked on the Bandon and Cabot courses, a leading contender for the opportunity to participate in the lottery is Qu Qu, a young Martian designer whom the source describes as "that small planet's version of Jack Nicklaus, Bill Coore and Tom Simpson, combined", noting that while he can terraform when necessary to create the best 18 holes possible, Qu Qu is much better known (on Mars) as a minimalist, one who sometimes eschews even having any greens on his courses if he can't find natural settings good enough to meet his standards. "Listen: if there is a man alive on planet Earth who can get the very best out of Qu Qu, it is Mr. K. At the very least, he'll make sure there are actually 18 greens on the course, given how well he understands the wants and needs of the retail golfer". Another plus for Qu Qu is that, as this correspondent recently discovered, he speaks perfectly clear English, albeit with a mid-Atlantic accent. Also striking is the fact (well-noted by the ever-brilliant Mr. K, according to the source) that Qu Qu has no associates or crew, at least not living ones as we understand the term; instead, he has created 6 shapely androids called Va Va Vooomm who do all the work, and need neither food nor rest nor any financial renumeration. By one insider's calculations, this would result in slashing about $3 trillion from the otherwise estimated $6 trillion budget for the "Pluto project", and allow green fees to remain affordable, if in the high-price range, for the majority of the target market (especially for those golfers who choose to stay at the ultra-lux and oxygen-rich on-site accomodations.) "It'll be all golf all the time" suggested the insider, "a walking-only pure-golf experience with no bells and whistles other than great golf, good friends, deliciously authentic Tex-Mex and Pan-Asian cuisine, and of course all the special equipment and apparatus necessary to sustain human existence for even a brief millisecond in the harsh Plutonian environment". Asked directly if this planned course was to be only the first of several courses at the Pluto Resort, my source refused to answer or even speculate: "I'll just leave that to Mr. K, if you don't mind. I'm sure he'll let you know all in due time. There is no one better at building Pluto-buzz than Mr K."
Peter