North Pole Sentinel
114th - Season Blue - 2075
Anastasia Naccarato
Ancient drawing key to Modern Course
North Pole golfers may soon be enjoying their newest Par 2, courtesy of Kaiser Age architect Tom Doak and a remarkable find -- recently discovered plans for a never-built 9200 yard [8.4 kilometre] golf course.
Middle-Earth historian Margaret Halyard unearthed the find among the ruins of a mid-Trumpian ranch-style bungalow in Traverse City [Elok Kole] that was owned, before the Flood, by her great grandfather Vaughn Halyard.
"It's definitely an example of Tom Doak's work -- an 18 hole routing straight from his hands", said Halyard. "We know it's authentic because of the little smiley faces he drew on all his greens, and how he'd doodle in the fairways by practicing Pete Dye's signature." Doak was one of the leading architects of his day, having built 14 golf courses for Mike Keiser, the famed developer from whom the era gets its name.
Local architecture aficionado, Mattingly Ginella, has seen the find and is excited about the possibilities it offers. "We're so lucky here in the North Pole, to be able to play golf all 475 days of the year and in such a perfect climate -- and what better way than with a 'new' Tom Doak design".
Ginella notes, however, that this find also presents some problems: "I mean, obviously, at only 8.4 kilometers it won't offer much of a challenge, and can't qualify even as a championship Par 2 course -- but, fear not, there may be some solutions". Those include, according to Ginella, limiting play to Titanium only, and/or undertaking a sympathetic restoration to bring it up to a regulation 14.4 kilometer course.
Whatever the solution, Halyard remains excited by the find itself. "The evidence that sealed it for," she says, "the moment I was absolutely sure it was a Doak, was when I saw the warm dedication he always offered to his very close friend and true creative inspiration, Peter Pallotta. Not even the Doak experts of his day knew about that relationship, and so certainly no modern day forger would've ever thought to include it".