I spoke with head pro Andy Bemis who said that the new super at Royal New Kent is doing a terrific job with the course conditioning. Last summer they had some problems with the greens and he was concerned, but the new super has gotten everything ship shape.
Has anyone been out there recently?
I also heard that while they reclaimed alot of the fairways at Stonehouse that they had trouble with, there are still some issues in rough areas, but its better than the terrible problems of last year. Anybody seen anything?
Last, we all should be excited that the Dixie Cup will be at three of Mike's courses - Cali, TB and Bulls Bay. But I have a thought - Mike had many friends from Royal County Down and he said he built RCD to be a bit of a tribute to RCD and some other courses from across the pond and he and his crew and his friends form RCD would play cup style matches in a 2-1/2, 2-1/2, 2-1/2 format. Two and a half hours to play 18, two and a half hours eating and drinking, then 2-1/2 more hours to play 18. It should be more broad than just GCA, but it would be nice to resurrect that at RNK and maybe even Stonehouse in hnor of Mike.
Mike only gave us 8 solo efforts and one more reno at SCV (I count the redesign at MPCC as his since it looks nothing like what was there before. Mike's legacy to the game is enormous, but also very fragile. If we lose but a single course of his, it will be a great loss. We should do everything we can to help out any of his courses however we can - play them, promote them, help keep them preserved for their immense historical value.