Trump and women!

Reading through some articles recently (new and old) I stumbled upon a few headlines which got to me a bit. 

Trump is building the best golf course in the world in Scotland and Pete Dye is building his first design in Europe for over 20 years - in Israel.

Good on him if Trump can manage to build the best golf course in the world, but like so many others I also jumped when he first announced he was going to build the best golf course in the world and that in Scotland.

Had Trump finally lost the plot ;-) or was he simply so golf ignorant that he just did no know what he was saying. Of course not, he's smart, properly a genius too. Don’t let the bad haircut and off-putting "in your face" approach fool you. Talking about publicity, a better stunt could not have been pulled – money and lots of attention (of any kind) were the only 2 factors that would ever bring this project to life and allow for a course to be built on this site.

And so, construction has started - it is said that over £40 million has been invested in the project so far. Well, since Trump is involved I guess there is still a financial gain expected if not it is one hell of an expensive ego-trip.

My colleagues at Hawtree’s are lucky to have landed the job designing the golf bits but the PRESSURE of it – a client who expects “WORLD DOMINATION”.

”People will travel from around the world to play the course and experience its beauty,” Trump has said. Only time will tell if they will – they might, but more importantly only time will tell if they will find the course to be the best in the world.

I don’t think anyone (but Trump) believes he can create the best golf course in the world. Good, yes, world-class perhaps (the site is super) but the world's best, unlikely. I am, though, perfectly happy for him to prove me and everyone else wrong. The interesting thing is though that it is somewhat irrelevant whether or not this golf course becomes the best in the world - “beauty will always be in eye of the beholder” so Trump will in fact soon own the “best golf course in the world” and so far he has done fantastically well marketing it.

So Pete Dye has done his first design in Europe for over 20 years, fine – but in Israel - give me a break. This came from an interview done in January 2008 but the Israel/Europe connection was not all that puzzled me.

Both Alice and Pete were quoted, and to the question of, “How would you like your contribution to golf course architecture to be recalled?" Alice replied, “I have worked hard on making forward tees shorter and more manageable for women. They used to be really, really long and then courses started watering fairways! So courses became unmanageable for women. So I think I’ve gone down in history as someone who has championed making courses more manageable and fun for women."

Fine if Alice wants this to be her legacy but as one of the very few female golf course architects on this planet, I really had hoped for more. 

I get this forward-tee-question a lot from people who want to know what the difference is between a male a female GCA – but surely the ability to place forward tees well has to do with the attention to the job and not the sex of the GCA. But yes, I do think I am good at placing forward tees - I pay attention, but more importantly, placing forward tees well is not what I wish to be defined by as a GCA.

Surely it is refreshing to have females in the industry and as countless research shows women are (physical strength aside) all in all the superior sex!

I will not hold this against my male colleagues though, that would be sexist! Neither would I wish to be remembered as the woman who put the male dominated world of GCA straight :-) No, personally, I would be very happy to be remembered as a GCA who did the job of a GCA more than well - with passion, style, vision and integrity. At least this is how I try to do my job every day.