Off the Wires

Here and there, this and that ...

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• The Alabama state pension fund hit on a winning concept years ago when it hired Robert Trent Jones Sr. to design a series of golf courses and launched the first "golf trail" concept, the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. Many states have tried to copy the idea, some with more success than others. In Tennessee, the state's "Bear Trace" features courses designed by Jack Nicklaus. But the state is losing money on three of the five, and one of the courses is on the auction block.
• Ernie Els' career is increasingly looking like Greg Norman's, argues a column on a South African news site.
• Former President George H.W. Bush is the recipient of the USGA's highest honor, the Bob Jones Award. Bush's grandfather, George Herbert Walker, was a USGA president and the namesake of the Walker Cup; and his father, Prescott Bush, was also a USGA president and helped establish the USGA Museum and Archives.
• SportsTicker reports on the return of Jose Maria Olazabal, who's been out of action since August with various aches and ailments.
• About.com runs down the credentials of the "Big Break: Kaanapali" cast members.
• Justin Rose tells Reuters that he expects a great Ryder Cup in 2008, because Captains Faldo and Azinger have a good relationship, and because the Americans will be "hungry." (Let's hope there's a good buffet.)
• The New Zealand Open, a top men's tournament in the Australasia region, might soon be joined by a New Zealand Women's Open. Perhaps in time to be played in 2009.
• The Scotsman reports that Donald Trump plans to visit next month the Northern Ireland
  location that is his fall-back site should his mega-resort planned for the Aberdeenshire coast of Scotland finally and definitively fall through. And Scottish business leaders don't like it. They want The Donald in Scotland.
• The final men's World Golf Rankings of the year were released last week, locking in a lot of players for Masters appearances in 2008.