Golf course management professionals have long benefited from advances in research supported by funding from the Environmental Institute for Golf, the philanthropic organisation of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA).

Of all the monstrously difficult golf courses to which the US Open pays a regular visit, only one has the reputation of slowing down its greens when America's national championship comes to town.

Pete Dye's Mountain course at La Quinta in California has just been extensively renovated by the resort, with the assistance of the architect and his son Perry.

Golf architect and writer Dr Michael Hurdzan has been selected as the 2007 recipient of the American Society of Golf Course Architects' (ASGCA) highest honour, the Donald Ross Award.

The craze for signature courses is being driven too much by marketing, designer Peter Harradine has claimed.