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The Loop

Missing links: The face of golf's sustainability push and a British Open at Royal Portrush?

April 26, 2014

Stories of interest you might have missed ...

Bill Coore, golf course architecture partner of Ben Crenshaw, "is one of the faces of golf's sustainability push," Steven Schramm writes in the Fayetteville Observer, and it has begun with the renovation of Pinehurst's No. 2 course, site of the U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Open in June.

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(Getty Images photo)

Is it coming or not? There is ample interest in bringing the British Open to Northern Ireland's Royal Portrush, 16th on Golf Digest's ranking of the World's 100 Greatest Golf Courses, but there is an "information vacuum," Brian Keogh writes in the Irish Golf Desk.

Patrick Reed, a Baton Rouge native, returned to Louisiana, where his meteoric rise — three victories in a seven-month stretch — followed a not atypical route for a rookie, with "all-nighter drives, the all-nighter flights, trying to play courses blind and if you make it through, having to figure out the entire golf course in 18 (practice) holes on Tuesday," he said. Times-Picayune writer Trey Iles has the story.

A year ago, Tianlang Guan, a Chinese 14-year-old, made the cut at the Masters. Guan, now 15, re-surfaced this week in the Volvo China Open, where he missed the cut. Guan is still an amateur and has no plans yet on when he might turn professional. Agence France-Presse has the story.

What's in a name? Ron Kroichick of the San Francisco Chronicle has the story behind the oddly named Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic that is being played at Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City, outside San Francisco. It has nothing to do with women in skirts playing golf, either.