FRESH ROW IN COURSE CREDIT
MUSIC MAN’S PERFECT TUNE UP
BY JIM BLACK A ROW has broken out on the eve of the Ryder Cup over who deserves the praise for designing Le Golf National.
The late Robert von Hagge, who passed away eight years ago, was initially credited with doing virtually all the original design work, only to have his name more or less airbrushed from the list of credits.
Instead the French Golf Federation’s Hubert Chesneau, involved on the construction side, is claiming the credit as the “architect” of the track outside Paris.
Meanwhile, American von Hagge – the Marlboro Man in TV commercials – only gets an occasional mention as a consultant.
The much-acclaimed course architect was contracted to work with the far less experienced Chesneau in 1987 and his partners at the Texasbased business which still bears his name insist he has been wronged.
Rick Baril claims to have been present at a meeting where the then president of the French Federation, Claude Roger Cartier, explained to von Hagge his company’s expertise had been sought to guarantee the success of the project.
Another of von Hagge’s business partners, Michael Smelek, said: “When the arrangement started we agreed to discount our fee.
“That was in exchange for the publicity that would go with being associated with a course that was used for the French Open for the first time in 1991.
“What we didn’t know then was that it would become a Ryder Cup venue, and that makes it still more important to us that the facts should be made known and we get our share of the credit.
“Chesneau has pretty much promoted himself as the designer all along. We had endless discussions about it in the early days but stopped long ago.”
Initially, both men were named by the French Federation but through time von Hagge has been afforded fewer mentions.
In a history of Le Golf National, written by Chesneau, he introduced himself as the architect and only briefly mentions von Hagge.
It claims the two exchanged sketches when von Hagge pointed out Chesneau’s routing of the course was unsuitable.
Smelek said: “If you look at the other courses von Hagge designed you can see Le Golf National has his stamp all over it.
“It’s highly unlikely that Chesneau could have come up with that on his own.”