Architect Ed Seay dies at 69
Ed Seay passed away last week at the age of 69 after a long battle with cancer. The golf course architect was probably best known for his collaborations with Arnold Palmer after the two began working together in 1972. A modest fellow, Seay worked on many projects with his partner Palmer, who received the lion's share of credit. Seay's body of work includes a number of well known layouts in the southeastern U.S., including Sawgrass Country Club in Ponte Vedra, FL (just down the street from Pete Dye's Stadium Course); Old Tabby Links, Spring Island, SC; and, given Seay's passing, the aptly named Adios Club in Coconut Creek, FL. He also designed Kapalua Village on the island of Maui (a nice course but overwhelmed in reputation and drama by the adjacent and breathtaking Kapalua Plantation course).
Seay was one of the earliest U.S. designers to work overseas, and his international credits include the K Club and the famed Tralee in Ireland; the Four Seasons Resort course in Costa Rica; and a course in Communist China that he designed in 1981...
A naif's (my) view of the free market
It has been interesting over the last few weeks to listen to the pundits on radio and television opine about what to do with the credit markets. One of my favorites, Larry Kudlow, who hosts a one-hour show on the CNBC financial news television network, always starts his show with a line that goes something like, "Free market capitalism is the best way to prosperity." He is a rabid proponent of letting the economic and equity markets run without the interference of government. But in the last few weeks, he's been calling for the Federal Reserve to intervene by lowering rates, and applauding the initial interventions that pumped "liquidity" into the market. He defends his hypocrisy by calling the Fed something less than a government agency, as if manipulating the markets by, say, international financier George Soros would be any less of an artificial intrusion.
Smart guys like Kudlow love the bull when it isn't bucking. But they are at something of a loss when "Goldilocks'" porridge (not too hot, not too cold) begins to freeze up. Daniel Mitchell of the Cato Institute showed a deeper faith in the free market when he argued the other day for non-interference in the mortgage markets. He said simply that "Capitalism without losses would be like religion without hell." Good one.