At the recent Golf Business Forum, KPMG's Andrea Sartori invited visitors to look at the website www.golfbenchmark.com for information on the firm's golf benchmarking survey.

Golf in Scandinavia is on the up.

Set on a hillside a few miles inland of the Home of Golf, the Duke's Course has, since its opening a decade ago, been something of an outlier in St Andrews' golfing circles.

Turf manufacturer Ransomes Jacobsen has signed a three-year agreement to become the official supplier of turf maintenance equipment and vehicles to Golf Environment Europe.

Site clearance has started at Cabot Links on the Canadian island of Cape Breton (see GCA issue 3), the proposed course at Inverness, which stands to be one of the most important developments in the history of Canadian golf.

The first conference of the recently established European Golf Course Owners Association (EGCOA) will take place in Amsterdam from November 23-25.

Faldo Design is starting work on a new course at Ponta do Pargo on the north western tip of the Portuguese island of Madeira.

The Golf Consultants Association says that it expects the 2006 Business of Golf conference, being held at Celtic Manor in Wales from 29-31 October, to be its biggest event yet.

UK Architect Simon Gidman has recently completed a project to rebuild all 18 greens at Northenden GC in Manchester.

Italian magazine Il Mondo del Golf has voted Le Madonie in Sicily the best new course in Italy.