Thomas More, the 16th-century English humanist, called a truly new idea “one of the rarest things known to man.”
As another example that the Renaissance thinker’s insight remains timely, Florida officials are enduring a wave of criticism from an idea that is nothing new.
The proposal was met with a hurricane-like bipartisan blowback from residents who felt blind-sided by an initiative with no public input.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection announced its “Great Outdoors Initiative” last week in a bid to boost amenities at state parks. Among the ideas: build golf courses, notably 45 holes at Jonathan Dickinson State Park near Jupiter in Martin County. The proposal was met with a hurricane-like bipartisan blowback from residents who felt blind-sided by an initiative with no public input.
“I’m not sure who is feeling a desperate lack of golf courses in southeast Florida, but what I can tell you is we are feeling a desperate lack of native scrub habitat,” Julie Brashears Wraithmell, the executive director of Audubon Florida, told The Palm Beach Post. “Putting in a golf course on top of habitat is not what state parks are meant to be.”
If you’re thinking that this idea sounds familiar, you’re right. In 2011, a similar pitch was made by Jack Nicklaus, the legendary champion and course architect, to Rick Scott, then Florida’s governor and now a U.S. senator. Bills were introduced in the Legislature for a no-bid contract that would have created the Jack Nicklaus Golf Trail. Once the late Arnold Palmer panned the idea publicly, the parks and their habitat were spared.
Over the past weekend, opponents mobilized via social media against the new pitch to put pickleball courts, hotels and golf courses on the unspoiled public lands. A series of public hearings scheduled for Tuesday were postponed indefinitely despite “overwhelming interest.” Leaders of Florida’s congressional delegation, including Scott, joined other elected officials in writing a letter calling for public comment.
It's not as if there aren’t already plenty of places to play golf in the Sunshine State. Florida leads the nation with 1,262 golf courses, according to the National Golf Foundation. READ MORE
Legalized sports betting has been around for only a few years in most states in America, but the long-term negative effects of wagering already are being felt across society, particularly on “vulnerable households,” according to a new study.
An increase in sports gambling coincides with a decrease in long-term financial planning, according to researchers at Brigham Young, Kansas and Northwestern universities who used credit and debit card data to track spending habits. For every dollar spent on wagering, net investments drop by more than $2, they found.
“People are basically taking away money from long-term investments, and they’re spending it more in the present,” Scott Baker, a co-author of the study and a finance professor at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, told Front Office Sports.
Golf wagering was not cited in the study, but the PGA Tour has done an about-face regarding gambling and has heavily promoted its partnerships for live, in-play betting in the past two years. The tour also has published a guide to responsible gaming. READ MORE
China’s Wenyi Ding, who followed a breakout freshman season at Arizona State by winning the Southern Amateur this summer, will not play college golf but remain an amateur in an apparent move to secure a DP World Tour card, Golfweek’s Cameron Jourdan reported.
Ding, who is No. 4 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, leads the DP World Tour’s Global Amateur Pathway ranking, which rewards the top non-collegiate amateur with an exemption for the next year on the European tour.
Arizona State nonetheless is projected to field one of the nation’s top teams as the Sun Devils will be led by José Luis Ballester, the recent U.S. Amateur champion, and Preston Summerhays, who tops the PGA Tour University preseason ranking. READ MORE
Luke Clanton is expected to be in Florida State’s lineup when the Seminoles open the fall season in two weeks at the Folds of Honor Collegiate and will carry yet another honor from a spectacular summer. Clanton won the McCormack Medal as the No. 1 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. The award comes with 2025 exemptions into the U.S. Open at Oakmont and the Open Championship at Royal Portrush. Clanton, 20, of Hialeah, Florida, has surged to No. 139 in the Official World Golf Ranking after posting three top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour, including a co-runner-up at the John Deere Classic. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon