One of the Middle East’s premier golf destinations is scheduled to get a makeover.
Next summer, Thomson Perrett & Lobb will oversee a renovation of the Majlis track at Emirates Golf Club, the first grass golf course in the Middle East and one of the highest-rated courses on the planet. The course, which hosts the Dubai Desert Classic and the Dubai Ladies Masters, is, according to Golf World, one of the world's top 100 courses.
The 7,301-yard layout was designed by Karl Litten and opened in 1988. TPL’s renovation will address the track's bunkers, which will be rebuilt and relocated to provide viable hazards for touring professionals.
“Our bunkers are out of date and, due to modern equipment, out of play,” said Rod Bogg of Dubai Golf, the government-owned group that manages the course.
The course will also get a new irrigation system.
Emirates Golf Club is also home to another highly rated 18-hole course, a track known as the Wadi when it opened in 1996, as well as a nine-hole, par-3 track and a golf academy. The Wadi course was redesigned by Nick Faldo in 2005 and is now called the Faldo. Sometime in the future, the club plans to add a practice center at the Faldo course.
Emirates Golf Club had planned to renovate the Majlis course in the summer of this year. Chris May, the club's general manager, blamed the delay on uncertainty over the delivery of the irrigation system.
"It was a straightforward decision based on the simple fact that the additional power required for the new pump station, necessary for the new irrigation system, could not be guaranteed within the time frame," May said in a press release.
TPL, which is based in Ripley, England, is led by Peter Thomson, a five-time winner of the British Open. This year the firm is overseeing the construction of the Oasis course at Dubai Golf City.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
The Week That Was: September 20, 2010
canada Mike Keiser's Next Must-Play Course
Canadian golf writers have recently been taking good, long looks at Cabot Links, the Scottish-style course taking shape along the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Nova Scotia, and they like what they see.
“The Rod Whitman design is going to be brilliant,” wrote Scoregolf's managing editor in his blog.
“I’d say it is going to be exceptional,” said a writer from CanadianGolfer. “Top 10 in Canada? That’s a possibility.”
Cabot Links is expected to open its first nine holes next summer, its second nine in the summer of 2012. It's being developed by Ben Cowan-Dewar, who owns a golf travel company, and Mike Keiser, the visionary who proved -- with Bandon Dunes in Oregon and Barnbougle Dunes in Tasmania, Australia -- that golfers are willing to travel to the world's most remote places to play impeccable, walkable golf courses.
Cowan-Dewar, one of the creators of GolfClubAtlas.com, told the Cape Breton Post that Cabot Links “really does sort of mimic the great links courses in the British Isles. I think that’s really what the excitement’s been about.”
scotland Hazelhead's Re-Do: Back on Tap
The on-again, off-again plan to overhaul the municipally-owned Hazlehead golf complex, particularly its Alister MacKenzie-designed golf course, appears to be on again.
The Aberdeen Evening Press says that Sport Aberdeen, the group that now oversees the 45-hole complex, plans to renew discussions with the prospective development group next month. The group, known as the MacKenzie Club, had previously offered to invest more than $30 million into the facility, but its negotiations with the city of Aberdeen fell apart last year.
The centerpiece of the redevelopment plan will be a restoration of Hazlehead's premier course, which opened in 1927. MacKenzie, one of the most respected architects in the history of golf (not to mention an expert in camouflage), designed some of the world's great courses, including the West course at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in suburban Melbourne, Australia; the Portland Course at the Royal Troon Golf Club in Troon, Scotland; and Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.
MacKenzie Club is led by Brian Hendry, who owns some property in Augusta, Georgia. He recently offered to renovate and manage the city's money-losing golf course.
england A New Course in Cambridgeshire
A development group led by Michael Taylor of City & County wants to build an 18-hole, championship-length golf course in Great Paxton, a village roughly 15 miles west of Cambridge, England.
Pending approvals by local officials, Cambridgeshire Golf Club & Academy will be built on property known as Low Farm, reports the Cambridge News. To prepare the site, Taylor's group plans to dump 120,000 tons of fill on the property.
The approvals appear to be forthcoming, although the village's council clearly has some reservations about the project's economic viability. “There are already more than 30 golf courses in this area,” the council said in a press statement, “all experiencing membership difficulties in the present economic climate.”
united states Before the Bankruptcy, Welcome Rewards
Even though it was bleeding money and tottering on the verge of bankruptcy, Sea Island Company still managed to pay more than $500,000 in bonuses to its top decision-makers this year.
According to the Associated Press, Sea Island's Chapter 11 filings indicate that David Bansmer, the company's president, received $222,000 in bonuses in addition to his $450,000 salary. Also receiving bonuses were a group of vice presidents, namely Ron Roberts ($88,000), Henry Cate ($75,000), Richard Shelnut ($75,000), and Eric Schneider ($50,000).
The tony resort in Georgia, in the United States, filed for bankruptcy protection last month and is scheduled to be sold at auction next month. Its owners reportedly owe more than $600 million to various lenders, and over the past two years they were forced to lay off hundreds of employees, probably 500 or more.
canada For 2011, Two New Courses in Central Alberta
A pair of player-friendly 18-hole courses are expected to open in the Edmonton area next year, both of them designed by Sid Puddicombe's design firm. Each of the courses -- Coal Creek Golf Course in Tofield and Whitetail Crossing Golf Club in Mundare -- are located within a short drive of Beaverhill Lake, about 40 miles east of the city.
Coal Creek, which is taking shape atop property that's been used as a coal mine since 1918, will open in two phases, in June and, fingers crossed, sometime later in the fall. Puddicombe's Edmonton-based firm had to reshape the site with more than 1.5 million cubic yards of fill.
"The golf course will be of a very high standard and will be of sufficient quality to handle any professional tournament, although the prime target will be for area residents," Grant Puddicombe, one of Sid's sons, told the Edmonton Journal.
The Puddicombes and Laurent LeBlanc, an Edmonton-based businessman, are developing Whitetail Crossing, which will anchor a golf community with 600 houses. Puddicombe says the 7,100-yard track "has a rural feel to it and is not overly demanding."
united states High Carolina, Under Construction Again
The 'dozers are moaning and groaning again in Swannanoa, North Carolina, as work has resumed on the Tiger Woods-designed golf course at the Cliffs at High Carolina.
The course, part of a 3,000-acre resort community that's had trouble selling its pricey lots, is scheduled to open in the fall of 2012. It'll almost certainly be Woods' first completed course, as the tracks he's designed in Dubai and Mexico are still stuck in financial mud.
Woods' design team has rerouted the original layout to lessen its impact on the property's trout streams. As a result, Woods says, the course will be a little shorter than expected.
"I'm looking forward to getting back there to check on construction," he told the Associated Press.
Canadian golf writers have recently been taking good, long looks at Cabot Links, the Scottish-style course taking shape along the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Nova Scotia, and they like what they see.
“The Rod Whitman design is going to be brilliant,” wrote Scoregolf's managing editor in his blog.
“I’d say it is going to be exceptional,” said a writer from CanadianGolfer. “Top 10 in Canada? That’s a possibility.”
Cabot Links is expected to open its first nine holes next summer, its second nine in the summer of 2012. It's being developed by Ben Cowan-Dewar, who owns a golf travel company, and Mike Keiser, the visionary who proved -- with Bandon Dunes in Oregon and Barnbougle Dunes in Tasmania, Australia -- that golfers are willing to travel to the world's most remote places to play impeccable, walkable golf courses.
Cowan-Dewar, one of the creators of GolfClubAtlas.com, told the Cape Breton Post that Cabot Links “really does sort of mimic the great links courses in the British Isles. I think that’s really what the excitement’s been about.”
scotland Hazelhead's Re-Do: Back on Tap
The on-again, off-again plan to overhaul the municipally-owned Hazlehead golf complex, particularly its Alister MacKenzie-designed golf course, appears to be on again.
The Aberdeen Evening Press says that Sport Aberdeen, the group that now oversees the 45-hole complex, plans to renew discussions with the prospective development group next month. The group, known as the MacKenzie Club, had previously offered to invest more than $30 million into the facility, but its negotiations with the city of Aberdeen fell apart last year.
The centerpiece of the redevelopment plan will be a restoration of Hazlehead's premier course, which opened in 1927. MacKenzie, one of the most respected architects in the history of golf (not to mention an expert in camouflage), designed some of the world's great courses, including the West course at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in suburban Melbourne, Australia; the Portland Course at the Royal Troon Golf Club in Troon, Scotland; and Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.
MacKenzie Club is led by Brian Hendry, who owns some property in Augusta, Georgia. He recently offered to renovate and manage the city's money-losing golf course.
england A New Course in Cambridgeshire
A development group led by Michael Taylor of City & County wants to build an 18-hole, championship-length golf course in Great Paxton, a village roughly 15 miles west of Cambridge, England.
Pending approvals by local officials, Cambridgeshire Golf Club & Academy will be built on property known as Low Farm, reports the Cambridge News. To prepare the site, Taylor's group plans to dump 120,000 tons of fill on the property.
The approvals appear to be forthcoming, although the village's council clearly has some reservations about the project's economic viability. “There are already more than 30 golf courses in this area,” the council said in a press statement, “all experiencing membership difficulties in the present economic climate.”
united states Before the Bankruptcy, Welcome Rewards
Even though it was bleeding money and tottering on the verge of bankruptcy, Sea Island Company still managed to pay more than $500,000 in bonuses to its top decision-makers this year.
According to the Associated Press, Sea Island's Chapter 11 filings indicate that David Bansmer, the company's president, received $222,000 in bonuses in addition to his $450,000 salary. Also receiving bonuses were a group of vice presidents, namely Ron Roberts ($88,000), Henry Cate ($75,000), Richard Shelnut ($75,000), and Eric Schneider ($50,000).
The tony resort in Georgia, in the United States, filed for bankruptcy protection last month and is scheduled to be sold at auction next month. Its owners reportedly owe more than $600 million to various lenders, and over the past two years they were forced to lay off hundreds of employees, probably 500 or more.
canada For 2011, Two New Courses in Central Alberta
A pair of player-friendly 18-hole courses are expected to open in the Edmonton area next year, both of them designed by Sid Puddicombe's design firm. Each of the courses -- Coal Creek Golf Course in Tofield and Whitetail Crossing Golf Club in Mundare -- are located within a short drive of Beaverhill Lake, about 40 miles east of the city.
Coal Creek, which is taking shape atop property that's been used as a coal mine since 1918, will open in two phases, in June and, fingers crossed, sometime later in the fall. Puddicombe's Edmonton-based firm had to reshape the site with more than 1.5 million cubic yards of fill.
"The golf course will be of a very high standard and will be of sufficient quality to handle any professional tournament, although the prime target will be for area residents," Grant Puddicombe, one of Sid's sons, told the Edmonton Journal.
The Puddicombes and Laurent LeBlanc, an Edmonton-based businessman, are developing Whitetail Crossing, which will anchor a golf community with 600 houses. Puddicombe says the 7,100-yard track "has a rural feel to it and is not overly demanding."
united states High Carolina, Under Construction Again
The 'dozers are moaning and groaning again in Swannanoa, North Carolina, as work has resumed on the Tiger Woods-designed golf course at the Cliffs at High Carolina.
The course, part of a 3,000-acre resort community that's had trouble selling its pricey lots, is scheduled to open in the fall of 2012. It'll almost certainly be Woods' first completed course, as the tracks he's designed in Dubai and Mexico are still stuck in financial mud.
Woods' design team has rerouted the original layout to lessen its impact on the property's trout streams. As a result, Woods says, the course will be a little shorter than expected.
"I'm looking forward to getting back there to check on construction," he told the Associated Press.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
worth reading The Hole Story
It may be impossible to break the spell of the 18-hole golf course, but Edwin Roald is doing his best to do so.
Roald, a course designer based in Reykjavik, Iceland, is telling anyone who'll listen that shorter courses -- ideally, 12- to 15-hole tracks -- would be good for golf. Shorter courses would be cheaper to build and maintain, he notes, and they could be played in about three hours, at lower greens fees.
We simply need to abandon the principle that a full round of golf consists of 18 holes, Roald contends, and get used to the thought that a golf course may have just any random number of holes that suits its particular environment.
Is Roald making a legitimate challenge to conventional wisdom or simply tilting at windmills? Decide for yourself at Why18Holes.com.
Roald, a course designer based in Reykjavik, Iceland, is telling anyone who'll listen that shorter courses -- ideally, 12- to 15-hole tracks -- would be good for golf. Shorter courses would be cheaper to build and maintain, he notes, and they could be played in about three hours, at lower greens fees.
We simply need to abandon the principle that a full round of golf consists of 18 holes, Roald contends, and get used to the thought that a golf course may have just any random number of holes that suits its particular environment.
Is Roald making a legitimate challenge to conventional wisdom or simply tilting at windmills? Decide for yourself at Why18Holes.com.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
nigeria Ron Garl Has His Ojo Working
Later this year, the number-one Toyota dealer in Nigeria expects to open an 18-hole golf course and a practice center in Ilara-Mokin, in the state of Ondo.
His name is Michael Ade Ojo, and he’s the chairman of a Lagos-based conglomerate called Elizade Group of Companies. (Elizade is a word he created by combining parts of his wife’s name, Elizabeth, and his own, Ade.)
Ojo was born in Ilara-Mokin, and in recent years he’s built a school and opened a bank in his home town, which is 70 miles northwest of Lagos. He hired Ron Garl, a Lakeland, Florida-based architect, to design the to-be-named, championship-length course that will serve as the community’s centerpiece.
Ojo also plans to build a 200-room hotel, a water park, and, eventually, some condos.
Garl says, “He’s not doing it necessarily to make money. He’s doing it because he loves golf.”
Garl has one other golf course under construction in Nigeria, at Lekki Beach Golf Resort just outside Lagos. Membership in the Lekki Beach club, which could open in 2011, is reported to be $250,000.
Elizade.net
His name is Michael Ade Ojo, and he’s the chairman of a Lagos-based conglomerate called Elizade Group of Companies. (Elizade is a word he created by combining parts of his wife’s name, Elizabeth, and his own, Ade.)
Ojo was born in Ilara-Mokin, and in recent years he’s built a school and opened a bank in his home town, which is 70 miles northwest of Lagos. He hired Ron Garl, a Lakeland, Florida-based architect, to design the to-be-named, championship-length course that will serve as the community’s centerpiece.
Ojo also plans to build a 200-room hotel, a water park, and, eventually, some condos.
Garl says, “He’s not doing it necessarily to make money. He’s doing it because he loves golf.”
Garl has one other golf course under construction in Nigeria, at Lekki Beach Golf Resort just outside Lagos. Membership in the Lekki Beach club, which could open in 2011, is reported to be $250,000.
Elizade.net
Sunday, September 19, 2010
The Week That Was: September 13, 2010
scotland Loch Lomond, Out of the Bog
The rumored buyers from the Middle East never put any real money on the table and the hotel operators from DeVere couldn't close a $55 million deal, so it appears that Sean Connery, Prince Andrew, and the other members of Loch Lomond are going to buy their club themselves.
The sale of the tony club in suburban Glasgow, developed by Scottsdale, Arizona-based Lyle Anderson and lost to foreclosure, is expected to close within a month. The Sunday Herald reports that each of the club's 850 members -- a group that's said to include Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, and former auto racer Jackie Stewart -- will contribute something to the purchase, with a few members expected to kick in more than $300,000.
The club is the home of the Scottish Open. Its golf course, co-designed by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish and opened in 1993, has long ranked among the world's best. Ernie Els has called it "probably the best course in Europe," and Tom Lehman once said, "It's more fun to play than Augusta, and I rank it up there behind Pebble Beach in terms of beauty."
It's said that Weiskopf nearly died while building the course. According to the story, he was walking through an area near holes #13 and #14 when he began to sink into a bog. He clung to the limb of a nearby tree for several hours before he was rescued.
The club is said to have members from 30 countries. Its initiation fee is reported to be about $86,000.
france Can Lightning Strike Twice?
Robert Von Hagge has returned to the scene of his greatest triumph, to design a second golf course.
Von Hagge's first course at Les Bordes Golf Club is generally regarded as the best course in France, and last year Golf World named it the top course in all of Europe. The 7,062-yard track is extremely tough, even on touring pros. It's hard to believe, but numerous reports say the course record (held by Jean Van de Velde) is a one under par 71.
Von Hagge promises that the new course at Les Bordes will be more forgiving. He expects to break ground on it next year, with an opening scheduled for 2013.
Tony Jimenez, the chairman of the group that owns Les Bordes, said in a press release, "I am confident the new course at Les Bordes will be also recognized as one of the great courses of the world."
canada A Piece of the Rocks Is Approved
It’s taken several years, but Frank Racioppo is getting closer to winning approval to transform a mined-out quarry into southern Ontario’s next golf resort.
Niagara-on-the-Lake's planning advisory committee has approved an amendment that will allow the community at Queenston Quarry to move forward. If the town's council adopts the committee's recommendation, the amendment will go to higher authorities for final approval.
The 248-acre quarry is along the QEW, just a short drive from the U.S. border. Since 2007, Racioppo has been trying to convert it into a resort community featuring townhouses and condos, an inn, a spa, a winery, an equestrian center, and an 18-hole, 7,200-yard golf course designed by Boris Danoff.
Danoff, a partner in the Queenston Quarry project, has designed at least five golf courses in Ontario, including Royal Ontario Golf Club in Milton and Royal Niagara Golf Club in Niagara Falls. He and Racioppo co-developed Thundering Waters Golf Club in Niagara Falls, which bears the “signature” of John Daly.
mexico Grupo Mall Booted from Campeche Playa
Don't look for the Jack Nicklaus “signature” golf course at Campeche Playa Golf, Marina & Spa Resort to be built anytime soon.
A big Mexican construction company, Empresas ICA, has assumed control of the struggling resort community on the western coast of the Yucatan peninsula. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Empresas ICA took the action in response to “continual failures” -- presumably continual financial failures -- on the part of the community's Spanish developer, an affiliate of Grupo Mall.
Campeche Playa is supposed to be “the first ecological golf course in Latin America.” In addition to the golf course, the 761-acre spread in Champoton has been master-planned to include 3,045 housing units, a 246-room Westin hotel, a boutique hotel, a town center, a marina with berths for 150 boats, a yacht club, an underwater archaeology museum, a medical center, and a heliport.
The golf course was supposed to have opened in 2008.
The Journal says that Empresas ICA aims to complete the first phase of the community “as soon as possible.”
florida Greg Norman, Bargain Hunter
You think you've got money troubles? Greg Norman has started warehouse clubbing.
According to a "spywitness" for the Palm Beach Post, the Shark was spotted in a check-out line at a Costco near his home on Jupiter Island, Florida. "He had a T-shirt on that had that shark logo," the source said, "but no one talked to him."
Norman, as most everyone knows, is a winemaker, so it's worth noting that among the items in his cart were six bottles of Far Niente chardonnay, from Napa Valley, California. A strong endorsement, no?
The rumored buyers from the Middle East never put any real money on the table and the hotel operators from DeVere couldn't close a $55 million deal, so it appears that Sean Connery, Prince Andrew, and the other members of Loch Lomond are going to buy their club themselves.
The sale of the tony club in suburban Glasgow, developed by Scottsdale, Arizona-based Lyle Anderson and lost to foreclosure, is expected to close within a month. The Sunday Herald reports that each of the club's 850 members -- a group that's said to include Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, and former auto racer Jackie Stewart -- will contribute something to the purchase, with a few members expected to kick in more than $300,000.
The club is the home of the Scottish Open. Its golf course, co-designed by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish and opened in 1993, has long ranked among the world's best. Ernie Els has called it "probably the best course in Europe," and Tom Lehman once said, "It's more fun to play than Augusta, and I rank it up there behind Pebble Beach in terms of beauty."
It's said that Weiskopf nearly died while building the course. According to the story, he was walking through an area near holes #13 and #14 when he began to sink into a bog. He clung to the limb of a nearby tree for several hours before he was rescued.
The club is said to have members from 30 countries. Its initiation fee is reported to be about $86,000.
france Can Lightning Strike Twice?
Robert Von Hagge has returned to the scene of his greatest triumph, to design a second golf course.
Von Hagge's first course at Les Bordes Golf Club is generally regarded as the best course in France, and last year Golf World named it the top course in all of Europe. The 7,062-yard track is extremely tough, even on touring pros. It's hard to believe, but numerous reports say the course record (held by Jean Van de Velde) is a one under par 71.
Von Hagge promises that the new course at Les Bordes will be more forgiving. He expects to break ground on it next year, with an opening scheduled for 2013.
Tony Jimenez, the chairman of the group that owns Les Bordes, said in a press release, "I am confident the new course at Les Bordes will be also recognized as one of the great courses of the world."
canada A Piece of the Rocks Is Approved
It’s taken several years, but Frank Racioppo is getting closer to winning approval to transform a mined-out quarry into southern Ontario’s next golf resort.
Niagara-on-the-Lake's planning advisory committee has approved an amendment that will allow the community at Queenston Quarry to move forward. If the town's council adopts the committee's recommendation, the amendment will go to higher authorities for final approval.
The 248-acre quarry is along the QEW, just a short drive from the U.S. border. Since 2007, Racioppo has been trying to convert it into a resort community featuring townhouses and condos, an inn, a spa, a winery, an equestrian center, and an 18-hole, 7,200-yard golf course designed by Boris Danoff.
Danoff, a partner in the Queenston Quarry project, has designed at least five golf courses in Ontario, including Royal Ontario Golf Club in Milton and Royal Niagara Golf Club in Niagara Falls. He and Racioppo co-developed Thundering Waters Golf Club in Niagara Falls, which bears the “signature” of John Daly.
mexico Grupo Mall Booted from Campeche Playa
Don't look for the Jack Nicklaus “signature” golf course at Campeche Playa Golf, Marina & Spa Resort to be built anytime soon.
A big Mexican construction company, Empresas ICA, has assumed control of the struggling resort community on the western coast of the Yucatan peninsula. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Empresas ICA took the action in response to “continual failures” -- presumably continual financial failures -- on the part of the community's Spanish developer, an affiliate of Grupo Mall.
Campeche Playa is supposed to be “the first ecological golf course in Latin America.” In addition to the golf course, the 761-acre spread in Champoton has been master-planned to include 3,045 housing units, a 246-room Westin hotel, a boutique hotel, a town center, a marina with berths for 150 boats, a yacht club, an underwater archaeology museum, a medical center, and a heliport.
The golf course was supposed to have opened in 2008.
The Journal says that Empresas ICA aims to complete the first phase of the community “as soon as possible.”
florida Greg Norman, Bargain Hunter
You think you've got money troubles? Greg Norman has started warehouse clubbing.
According to a "spywitness" for the Palm Beach Post, the Shark was spotted in a check-out line at a Costco near his home on Jupiter Island, Florida. "He had a T-shirt on that had that shark logo," the source said, "but no one talked to him."
Norman, as most everyone knows, is a winemaker, so it's worth noting that among the items in his cart were six bottles of Far Niente chardonnay, from Napa Valley, California. A strong endorsement, no?
Friday, September 17, 2010
worth reading Chu on This
Here's the prevailing sentiment in golf these days, courtesy of instruction guru Hank Haney: Everyone in the golf world knows that China is the place to be. Golf is growing and growing here, and there is no reason to think it will stop.
Last week, Forbes published a profile of the fellow who touched off China's golf boom: David Chu, the developer of the Mission Hills golf resort in Shenzhen, the world's largest golf club, and Mission Hills Haikou, the fast-growing golf resort on Hainan Island.
Ron Gluckman, Forbes' reporter, says Chu "may be the unlikeliest driving force that a sport has ever seen." Here are a few things you probably didn't know about him:
Chu made his money in the paper business. (His company was the now-defunct Shun Feng Corrugated Carton Factory, which Forbes says was once the largest paper-and-packaging business in Hong Kong and China.) Today Chu owns a pair of Asian companies involved in construction and real estate management as well as four hotels (a Marriott and three Hiltons) in suburban Atlanta, Georgia.
Despite owning at least 15 golf courses, Chu doesn't play much golf. (Growing up, tennis and badminton were his games.) He got involved in golf development because he felt China's growing army of business go-getters would enjoy rubbing shoulders on the links.
"I saw that golf was played all over the world but not yet in China," Chu told Forbes. "I knew it was good for networking."
Mission Hills has been touched by scandal. In 2002, Gluckman reports, one of Chu's investor-partners, Harry Lam Hon-lit, was shot through the head as he was eating breakfast in a teahouse in Hong Kong. Harry Lam had earlier filed suit against Chu's company, in a dispute over the value of his holdings. He was killed just before the case was scheduled to go to court.
Mission Hills Shenzhen was built on a garbage dump, and Mission Hills Haikou is taking shape atop a lava field -- nearly solid rock.
Ken Chu, David's son, told Forbes, "It's like the center of the earth, a 10,000-year-old lava bed. There's no soil, hardly any vegetation. It's much worse than jungle, because you can carve a course from jungle. In Hainan, we blasted into rock to put in soil for the vegetation."
Incidentally, Forbes says that the resort on Hainan island will have 10 courses within five years and could wind up with 20.
Last week, Forbes published a profile of the fellow who touched off China's golf boom: David Chu, the developer of the Mission Hills golf resort in Shenzhen, the world's largest golf club, and Mission Hills Haikou, the fast-growing golf resort on Hainan Island.
Ron Gluckman, Forbes' reporter, says Chu "may be the unlikeliest driving force that a sport has ever seen." Here are a few things you probably didn't know about him:
Chu made his money in the paper business. (His company was the now-defunct Shun Feng Corrugated Carton Factory, which Forbes says was once the largest paper-and-packaging business in Hong Kong and China.) Today Chu owns a pair of Asian companies involved in construction and real estate management as well as four hotels (a Marriott and three Hiltons) in suburban Atlanta, Georgia.
Despite owning at least 15 golf courses, Chu doesn't play much golf. (Growing up, tennis and badminton were his games.) He got involved in golf development because he felt China's growing army of business go-getters would enjoy rubbing shoulders on the links.
"I saw that golf was played all over the world but not yet in China," Chu told Forbes. "I knew it was good for networking."
Mission Hills has been touched by scandal. In 2002, Gluckman reports, one of Chu's investor-partners, Harry Lam Hon-lit, was shot through the head as he was eating breakfast in a teahouse in Hong Kong. Harry Lam had earlier filed suit against Chu's company, in a dispute over the value of his holdings. He was killed just before the case was scheduled to go to court.
Mission Hills Shenzhen was built on a garbage dump, and Mission Hills Haikou is taking shape atop a lava field -- nearly solid rock.
Ken Chu, David's son, told Forbes, "It's like the center of the earth, a 10,000-year-old lava bed. There's no soil, hardly any vegetation. It's much worse than jungle, because you can carve a course from jungle. In Hainan, we blasted into rock to put in soil for the vegetation."
Incidentally, Forbes says that the resort on Hainan island will have 10 courses within five years and could wind up with 20.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
maldives Before the Flood
Will the Maldives still exist a hundred years from now?
It’s an often-asked question in the Maldives, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, roughly 600 miles off the southern coast of India. The Maldives is the lowest country on the planet -– the vast majority of it is only about three feet above sea level -– and, if the tides of global climate change continue on their current path, it’s in danger of being flooded into extinction.
The Maldives got a preview of its possible future in 2004, when the tsunami that battered Asia put about 40 percent of its 1,192 islands under water. The nation’s government began to think seriously about buying property in other countries -– Sri Lanka, India, Australia -– so its nearly 400,000 citizens would have a place to live if the oceans continue to rise.
Earlier this year, the government took another step to ensure its future. It hired a Dutch firm, Dutch Docklands, to determine if it could build a “floating” resort -– including some houses, a hotel, meeting space, and a golf course of some kind –- near Male, the nation’s capital and largest city.
We’re betting that the answer is yes. Dutch Docklands specializes in making big things float, using what it calls “intellectual property” that it’s developed through years of experience “in the battle against water” in the Netherlands. The company has built artificial islands in Dubai and floating apartment complexes, restaurants, and beaches elsewhere.
The question, of course, is whether Dutch Docklands could build a floating resort without breaking the proverbial bank. Could the resort attract enough vacationers to justify the expense? And even if it could, would the construction be worth the effort?
Maybe it would if your primary intent is simply to raise awareness about the potential impact of global climate change, which may be the ultimate point of this exercise. The Maldives’ president, Mohamed Nasheed, suggested as much at last year’s United Nations conference on climate change in Copenhagen. “We’re trying to send our message,” Nasheed said, to “let the world know what is happening and what will happen to the Maldives if climate change is not checked.”
The U.N. predicts that the world’s oceans will rise by up to 23 inches by the end of the 21st century. If that’s true, it’s clearly sink or swim time for the Maldives.
DutchDocklands.com
It’s an often-asked question in the Maldives, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, roughly 600 miles off the southern coast of India. The Maldives is the lowest country on the planet -– the vast majority of it is only about three feet above sea level -– and, if the tides of global climate change continue on their current path, it’s in danger of being flooded into extinction.
The Maldives got a preview of its possible future in 2004, when the tsunami that battered Asia put about 40 percent of its 1,192 islands under water. The nation’s government began to think seriously about buying property in other countries -– Sri Lanka, India, Australia -– so its nearly 400,000 citizens would have a place to live if the oceans continue to rise.
Earlier this year, the government took another step to ensure its future. It hired a Dutch firm, Dutch Docklands, to determine if it could build a “floating” resort -– including some houses, a hotel, meeting space, and a golf course of some kind –- near Male, the nation’s capital and largest city.
We’re betting that the answer is yes. Dutch Docklands specializes in making big things float, using what it calls “intellectual property” that it’s developed through years of experience “in the battle against water” in the Netherlands. The company has built artificial islands in Dubai and floating apartment complexes, restaurants, and beaches elsewhere.
The question, of course, is whether Dutch Docklands could build a floating resort without breaking the proverbial bank. Could the resort attract enough vacationers to justify the expense? And even if it could, would the construction be worth the effort?
Maybe it would if your primary intent is simply to raise awareness about the potential impact of global climate change, which may be the ultimate point of this exercise. The Maldives’ president, Mohamed Nasheed, suggested as much at last year’s United Nations conference on climate change in Copenhagen. “We’re trying to send our message,” Nasheed said, to “let the world know what is happening and what will happen to the Maldives if climate change is not checked.”
The U.N. predicts that the world’s oceans will rise by up to 23 inches by the end of the 21st century. If that’s true, it’s clearly sink or swim time for the Maldives.
DutchDocklands.com
Monday, September 13, 2010
worth reading Hitting the Skids
Beware the golf designer with a newspaper column and a bone to pick.
I refer to Richard Mandell, who writes for the Washington Times. This week, the Pinehurst, North Carolina-based designer goes on a rant about an increasingly familiar topic: 20 years' worth of "wasteful spending" on golf courses with "ridiculously high green fees" that don't make for a sustainable golf industry.
Not surprisingly, Mandell's major gripe involves the spate of celebrity-designed golf courses that have captured so much attention in recent years. An "over-abundance of over-priced golf courses," he calls them, most of them built to sell houses for "cookie-cutter homesteads." These courses, he argues, look good on magazine covers but are mostly forgettable and, due to their length and difficulty, hardly playable.
For years as a golf course architect, I have seen oodles and oodles of cash go into construction of a golf course for the sole purpose of selling real estate, Mandell writes. No one ever heeded the warnings that we as an industry were spending way too much to build golf courses that few people would find enjoyment in.
Mandell's column is called "The Subprime Mortgage Crisis and Subpar Future of Golf."
I refer to Richard Mandell, who writes for the Washington Times. This week, the Pinehurst, North Carolina-based designer goes on a rant about an increasingly familiar topic: 20 years' worth of "wasteful spending" on golf courses with "ridiculously high green fees" that don't make for a sustainable golf industry.
Not surprisingly, Mandell's major gripe involves the spate of celebrity-designed golf courses that have captured so much attention in recent years. An "over-abundance of over-priced golf courses," he calls them, most of them built to sell houses for "cookie-cutter homesteads." These courses, he argues, look good on magazine covers but are mostly forgettable and, due to their length and difficulty, hardly playable.
For years as a golf course architect, I have seen oodles and oodles of cash go into construction of a golf course for the sole purpose of selling real estate, Mandell writes. No one ever heeded the warnings that we as an industry were spending way too much to build golf courses that few people would find enjoyment in.
Mandell's column is called "The Subprime Mortgage Crisis and Subpar Future of Golf."
Sunday, September 12, 2010
The Week That Was: September 5, 2010
canada No Golf at Revelstoke?
The planned golf course at Revelstoke Mountain Resort is dead in the water, at least for the time being.
Northland Properties, the owner of the emerging ski resort in British Columbia, didn't meet a June 2010 deadline for the $7.7 million purchase of the golf course site, and the Revelstoke Times Review reports that the purchase agreement has been terminated.
The course at Revelstoke was to have been co-designed by Nick Faldo and architects from Scottsdale, Arizona-based Schmidt Curley Design. Last summer, however, Faldo sued the owners of Revelstoke over an alleged breach of contract.
Northland hasn't completely ruled out building the golf course, but don't expect the ground-breaking to take place anytime soon.
“I think at the end of the day the golf course is still part of the master plan, an important piece of our master plan, and the economy and the success of the resort will tell us when it’s time to move us forward,” said Revelstoke's chief operating officer.
canada Grande Prairie: Where's the Money?
With just weeks to go before reaches its self-imposed fund-raising deadline, Grande Prairie Golf & Country Club is nowhere close to collecting the $4 million it needs to renovate its 1960s-era golf course.
Since June, when the fund-raising campaign began, Grande Prairie has banked just $750,000. It hopes to secure promises for at least $2.5 million by the end of the month.
"We're into the crunch time for the Funding Initiative Plan," a co-chairman of the fund-raising committee told the Grande Prairie Daily Herald-Tribune. "We knew that most of the money was going to come in September, and that's certainly the way that's heading."
The club’s membership has fallen to half of what it was just six years ago, and the difference in revenues isn’t being covered with daily-fee play. According to a story published by the Herald-Tribune earlier this year, the club has lost more than $300,000 in each of the past three years and has debts of more than $1.2 million.
To help attract new members and more rounds, the club plans to completely overhaul its 6,952-yard golf course. The track would close for the 2012 season, and all of its features -– tees, greens, bunkers -– would be rebuilt, a new irrigation system would be installed, and the entire layout would be regrassed. The result, the club believes, would be “the best track in northern Alberta.”
The overhaul will cost $4 million, according to an estimate provided by Puddicombe Golf, a design firm founded by Sid Puddicombe and based in Edmonton.
Even if the fund-raising campaign fails, Grand Prairie intends to open as usual in 2011.
"This golf course will open in the spring, just as it has always opened," said the fund-raising co-chairman. "It just means that our executive has to come up with [another] plan. At some point down the road, no matter what happens, this golf course has to be refurbished."
new zealand And the Winner Is ...
According to group of nearly three dozen golf pros, architects, and tour organizers -- admittedly a small sample -- Wairakei International Golf Course is the best golf course in New Zealand.
The Wairakei course, which sprawls over 450 acres in Taupo, was co-designed by a Brit (Commander John Harris) and a pair of Australians, Michael Wolveridge and Peter Thomson. It was built by the nation's Tourist Hotel Corporation in 1970, to draw international travelers to New Zealand.
The next three courses on the list were designed by U.S. architects and are also of recent vintage. Kauri Cliffs Golf Club in Matauri Bay was designed by David Harman (it's also owned by an American, Julian Robertson), Kinloch Golf Club in Taupo features the only Jack Nicklaus "signature" course in New Zealand, and Cape Kidnappers Golf Course in Hawke's Bay has a Tom Doak-designed track.
The fifth course, Paraparaumu Beach Golf Club in Paraparauma Beach, has an Alex Russell-designed course (he's Australian) that the club says is "one of the greatest links courses in the Southern Hemisphere."
The first home-grown architect on the list is John Darby, who designed the sixth and seventh courses on the list: Jacks Point Golf Course in Queenstown and the Hills in Arrowtown.
The list was compiled by Andrew Whiley, a Dunedin-based PGA pro who's played 19 of its top 25 courses.
If you'd like an alternative viewpoint, Golf Digest says Cape Kidnappers is New Zealand's top course, followed by Kauri Cliffs, Paraparaumu, Titirangi Golf Club in Auckland (it features the nation's only Alister Mackenzie-designed course), and Wairakei.
scotland So Much for Tradition
Officials at Royal Troon Golf Club, a place that seems to embody all those dusty Scottish golf traditions, recently turned away a U.S. golfer because he was wearing a kilt. They told him to put on trousers like everybody else.
Jeffrey Foster, a radiologist from Louisville, Kentucky, was allowed to play in a kilt at seven other Scottish courses -- including tracks at St. Andrews, Carnoustie, Muirfield, Turnberry, and Kingsbarns -- during an eight-day golf vacation.
"They thought it more than appropriate, seeing as Scotland is the birthplace of the game of golf and the home of its original set of rules governing play," he told Scotland on Sunday.
But not Royal Troon, which was founded in 1878 and hosted its first British Open in 1923. It's one of the 30-odd golf clubs in Great Britain that are allowed to carry the treasured "royal" designation.
"Royal Troon has been stuffy back to the days when Colin Montgomerie's father was secretary," the editor of Scottish Golf View told the paper.
For future reference, the folks at Royal Troon welcome kilts in their clubhouse.
The planned golf course at Revelstoke Mountain Resort is dead in the water, at least for the time being.
Northland Properties, the owner of the emerging ski resort in British Columbia, didn't meet a June 2010 deadline for the $7.7 million purchase of the golf course site, and the Revelstoke Times Review reports that the purchase agreement has been terminated.
The course at Revelstoke was to have been co-designed by Nick Faldo and architects from Scottsdale, Arizona-based Schmidt Curley Design. Last summer, however, Faldo sued the owners of Revelstoke over an alleged breach of contract.
Northland hasn't completely ruled out building the golf course, but don't expect the ground-breaking to take place anytime soon.
“I think at the end of the day the golf course is still part of the master plan, an important piece of our master plan, and the economy and the success of the resort will tell us when it’s time to move us forward,” said Revelstoke's chief operating officer.
canada Grande Prairie: Where's the Money?
With just weeks to go before reaches its self-imposed fund-raising deadline, Grande Prairie Golf & Country Club is nowhere close to collecting the $4 million it needs to renovate its 1960s-era golf course.
Since June, when the fund-raising campaign began, Grande Prairie has banked just $750,000. It hopes to secure promises for at least $2.5 million by the end of the month.
"We're into the crunch time for the Funding Initiative Plan," a co-chairman of the fund-raising committee told the Grande Prairie Daily Herald-Tribune. "We knew that most of the money was going to come in September, and that's certainly the way that's heading."
The club’s membership has fallen to half of what it was just six years ago, and the difference in revenues isn’t being covered with daily-fee play. According to a story published by the Herald-Tribune earlier this year, the club has lost more than $300,000 in each of the past three years and has debts of more than $1.2 million.
To help attract new members and more rounds, the club plans to completely overhaul its 6,952-yard golf course. The track would close for the 2012 season, and all of its features -– tees, greens, bunkers -– would be rebuilt, a new irrigation system would be installed, and the entire layout would be regrassed. The result, the club believes, would be “the best track in northern Alberta.”
The overhaul will cost $4 million, according to an estimate provided by Puddicombe Golf, a design firm founded by Sid Puddicombe and based in Edmonton.
Even if the fund-raising campaign fails, Grand Prairie intends to open as usual in 2011.
"This golf course will open in the spring, just as it has always opened," said the fund-raising co-chairman. "It just means that our executive has to come up with [another] plan. At some point down the road, no matter what happens, this golf course has to be refurbished."
new zealand And the Winner Is ...
According to group of nearly three dozen golf pros, architects, and tour organizers -- admittedly a small sample -- Wairakei International Golf Course is the best golf course in New Zealand.
The Wairakei course, which sprawls over 450 acres in Taupo, was co-designed by a Brit (Commander John Harris) and a pair of Australians, Michael Wolveridge and Peter Thomson. It was built by the nation's Tourist Hotel Corporation in 1970, to draw international travelers to New Zealand.
The next three courses on the list were designed by U.S. architects and are also of recent vintage. Kauri Cliffs Golf Club in Matauri Bay was designed by David Harman (it's also owned by an American, Julian Robertson), Kinloch Golf Club in Taupo features the only Jack Nicklaus "signature" course in New Zealand, and Cape Kidnappers Golf Course in Hawke's Bay has a Tom Doak-designed track.
The fifth course, Paraparaumu Beach Golf Club in Paraparauma Beach, has an Alex Russell-designed course (he's Australian) that the club says is "one of the greatest links courses in the Southern Hemisphere."
The first home-grown architect on the list is John Darby, who designed the sixth and seventh courses on the list: Jacks Point Golf Course in Queenstown and the Hills in Arrowtown.
The list was compiled by Andrew Whiley, a Dunedin-based PGA pro who's played 19 of its top 25 courses.
If you'd like an alternative viewpoint, Golf Digest says Cape Kidnappers is New Zealand's top course, followed by Kauri Cliffs, Paraparaumu, Titirangi Golf Club in Auckland (it features the nation's only Alister Mackenzie-designed course), and Wairakei.
scotland So Much for Tradition
Officials at Royal Troon Golf Club, a place that seems to embody all those dusty Scottish golf traditions, recently turned away a U.S. golfer because he was wearing a kilt. They told him to put on trousers like everybody else.
Jeffrey Foster, a radiologist from Louisville, Kentucky, was allowed to play in a kilt at seven other Scottish courses -- including tracks at St. Andrews, Carnoustie, Muirfield, Turnberry, and Kingsbarns -- during an eight-day golf vacation.
"They thought it more than appropriate, seeing as Scotland is the birthplace of the game of golf and the home of its original set of rules governing play," he told Scotland on Sunday.
But not Royal Troon, which was founded in 1878 and hosted its first British Open in 1923. It's one of the 30-odd golf clubs in Great Britain that are allowed to carry the treasured "royal" designation.
"Royal Troon has been stuffy back to the days when Colin Montgomerie's father was secretary," the editor of Scottish Golf View told the paper.
For future reference, the folks at Royal Troon welcome kilts in their clubhouse.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
scotland Gleneagles: Grin and Bear It
Jack Nicklaus and the Gleneagles resort have kissed and made up.
Gleneagles, you’ll remember, had hired David McLay Kidd -– the son of the resort’s former superintendent, Jimmy Kidd –- to make some changes to its Nicklaus-designed PGA Centenary course. Nicklaus was so ticked off that he threatened to remove his “signature” from the track, effectively disowning it.
But all that is now water under the bridge, as the famed resort in Perthshire has hired Nicklaus to oversee a $3 million “refinement” of the 6,815-yard course before it hosts the Ryder Cup matches in 2014. The work is scheduled to start in late 2010.
The overhaul’s initial focus will be on three holes -– #7, #10, and #18 -– and will attempt, the resort says, to “modernize the holes for today’s game and technology, as well as create some slight aesthetic changes and better flow for spectators.”
No doubt, the resort is also responding to the complaints of PGA pros who’ve griped that a few of the track’s holes are, according to a 2009 story in the Scotsman, “too easy and too dull.” In particular, some pros have criticized hole #7 -– one that Kidd changed significantly -– because it no longer holds their shots.
Also likely to change is the track’s 18th hole, which the Scotsman recently described as “probably” -– that’s the key word -– the “worst closing hole in Ryder Cup history.”
Gleneagles spreads across 850 acres and includes a 232-room hotel, a spa, and two other “championship” golf courses. It’s been the site of numerous high-profile golf events since the 1920s, and in 2005 it hosted the G-8 Summit of world economic leaders.
The property is owned by Diageo PLC, a liquor colossus that owns a parade of brands including Guinness, Smirnoff, Gordon’s, Tanqueray, Captain Morgan, Jose Cuervo, Bailey’s, Harp, Red Stripe, Johnny Walker, and J&B. But neither the spirits nor the resort business is doing well these days, and Diageo has been trying to sell Gleneagles for several years.
Incidentally, Nicklaus once called the site of the PGA Centenary course “the finest parcel of land in the world I have ever been given to work with.”
Gleneagles.com
Gleneagles, you’ll remember, had hired David McLay Kidd -– the son of the resort’s former superintendent, Jimmy Kidd –- to make some changes to its Nicklaus-designed PGA Centenary course. Nicklaus was so ticked off that he threatened to remove his “signature” from the track, effectively disowning it.
But all that is now water under the bridge, as the famed resort in Perthshire has hired Nicklaus to oversee a $3 million “refinement” of the 6,815-yard course before it hosts the Ryder Cup matches in 2014. The work is scheduled to start in late 2010.
The overhaul’s initial focus will be on three holes -– #7, #10, and #18 -– and will attempt, the resort says, to “modernize the holes for today’s game and technology, as well as create some slight aesthetic changes and better flow for spectators.”
No doubt, the resort is also responding to the complaints of PGA pros who’ve griped that a few of the track’s holes are, according to a 2009 story in the Scotsman, “too easy and too dull.” In particular, some pros have criticized hole #7 -– one that Kidd changed significantly -– because it no longer holds their shots.
Also likely to change is the track’s 18th hole, which the Scotsman recently described as “probably” -– that’s the key word -– the “worst closing hole in Ryder Cup history.”
Gleneagles spreads across 850 acres and includes a 232-room hotel, a spa, and two other “championship” golf courses. It’s been the site of numerous high-profile golf events since the 1920s, and in 2005 it hosted the G-8 Summit of world economic leaders.
The property is owned by Diageo PLC, a liquor colossus that owns a parade of brands including Guinness, Smirnoff, Gordon’s, Tanqueray, Captain Morgan, Jose Cuervo, Bailey’s, Harp, Red Stripe, Johnny Walker, and J&B. But neither the spirits nor the resort business is doing well these days, and Diageo has been trying to sell Gleneagles for several years.
Incidentally, Nicklaus once called the site of the PGA Centenary course “the finest parcel of land in the world I have ever been given to work with.”
Gleneagles.com
Sunday, September 5, 2010
The Week That Was: August 29, 2010
florida ClubLink's Southern Comfort
Canada's largest golf operator has purchased seven golf properties at a seniors-only community in Sun City Center, Florida.
Mississauga-based ClubLink Enterprises, a publicly traded firm, coughed up $8.7 million for two 27-hole complexes (including Sandpiper Golf Club), three regulation-length 18-hole courses (including Club Renaissance), and two executive-length 18-hole courses (including Kings Point Executive Golf Course). North Lakes Golf Club, one of the 18-hole tracks in acquired by ClubLink, closed last year.
"This acquisition establishes a firm foothold in Florida for us, and we are actively pursuing other opportunities on both sides of the border," said ClubLink's CEO.
ClubLink owns 33 golf properties in Canada, including Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ontario; Rattlesnake Point Golf Club in Milton, Ontario; and Club de Golf Fontainebleau in Blainville, Quebec.
WCI Communities, the seller, is making its way out of bankruptcy and is trying to shed assets. The golf courses in Sun City Center have been on the block for more than a year. Last summer, WCI tried to sell three of them to the community association.
Sun City Center is located roughly 35 miles south of Tampa and was originally developed by Del Webb Communities. The Financial Post reports that the value of houses in the community has fallen by more than one-third since 2007. According to the Post, an "older" unit in the community currently sells for as little as $50,000.
india Arjun's Army?
Last week, Arjun Atwal became the first Indian to win a title on U.S. PGA Tour, and an Indian news agency is wondering how much sizzle his victory will add to the growth of golf in his homeland.
The director of the Professional Golf Tour of India believes that Atwal's victory, at the Wyndham Championship, "is sure to lift golf's profile further in India. It is already one of the fastest-growing sports in the country."
India, a nation of 1.15 billion people, currently has only about 200 golf courses, but dozens more are in the works. AFP says that golf is "well-suited to modern India, as vast new towns and housing developments spring up to cater for the country's educated and professional middle classes."
One of those vast new towns is DLF City in Gurgaon, one of New Delhi's four satellite cities. The city is home to DLF Golf & Country Club, which features a high-profile, Arnold Palmer-designed golf course that hosted the Johnnie Walker Classic, a European Tour event, in 2008.
DLF's owners recently hired Gary Player to design a second 18-hole track for the club, and AFP reports that other developers are planning to build similar communities "to promote the aspirational lifestyle sought by many Indians."
switzerland Andermatt Advances
Samih Sawiris' new resort in the Swiss Alps is coming along nicely, a report from Bloomberg suggests.
The resort is taking shape in Andermatt, the town where Elvis Presley learned to ski. Today Andermatt has a population of 1,350 -- as Bloomberg notes, it's the prototypical "sleepy Swiss village" -- but by the time Sawiris is done with it, it'll have six high-end hotels, 490 housing units, a shopping area, a sports center, and an 18-hole golf course designed by Kurt Rossknecht, a German architect.
The first houses are expected to come on line in late 2013 or early 2014. If you're interested, the cheapest one will set you back $1 million or more.
Bloomberg calls Sawiris, the principal of Orascom Development Holding AG, "an Egyptian billionaire with a penchant for risk." He's probably best known as the developer of the famed El Gouna golf resort on the Red Sea in Egypt, but he's got other golf properties in his portfolio and he plans to build new courses in Montenegro and Morocco.
hawaii Here Come the Chinese
A Chinese investment group has agreed to buy a golf course on the Big Island of Hawaii.
The group, operating as Hawaiian Golf Properties LLC, is buying Kapolei Golf Course, an 18-hole track in Kapolei. The course, which opened in 1995, saw more than 66,000 rounds last year, and it's said to be on track to post a small increase this year.
The seller is a Japanese company, Kapolei People’s, Inc., led by Nobuo Nakamura.
The sale is expected to close on September 10, according to Pacific Business News.
around the world Clothes Calls
Tiger Woods is in a slump, and his troubles on the PGA Tour are being mirrored in the sales of his clothing line.
Sales of Woods-branded clothing, famously produced by Nike, Inc., are down this year, while -- surprise, surprise! -- sales of golf apparel in general are up. This is a signal, Bloomberg says, that “"consumers are returning to the course, just not to Woods.”
Golf Discount Superstore, an online retailer, tells the news service that it’s seen a “definite decline” for Woods-labeled shirts, pants, and jackets, and Golfsmith says that the line’s volume dropped by 7.5 percent through the first six months of 2010.
“When Tiger’s doing well, people watch and buy his brand,” an official with Interbrand’s global golf practice told Bloomberg. “When he’s not, people decide not to watch and they buy something else.”
Canada's largest golf operator has purchased seven golf properties at a seniors-only community in Sun City Center, Florida.
Mississauga-based ClubLink Enterprises, a publicly traded firm, coughed up $8.7 million for two 27-hole complexes (including Sandpiper Golf Club), three regulation-length 18-hole courses (including Club Renaissance), and two executive-length 18-hole courses (including Kings Point Executive Golf Course). North Lakes Golf Club, one of the 18-hole tracks in acquired by ClubLink, closed last year.
"This acquisition establishes a firm foothold in Florida for us, and we are actively pursuing other opportunities on both sides of the border," said ClubLink's CEO.
ClubLink owns 33 golf properties in Canada, including Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ontario; Rattlesnake Point Golf Club in Milton, Ontario; and Club de Golf Fontainebleau in Blainville, Quebec.
WCI Communities, the seller, is making its way out of bankruptcy and is trying to shed assets. The golf courses in Sun City Center have been on the block for more than a year. Last summer, WCI tried to sell three of them to the community association.
Sun City Center is located roughly 35 miles south of Tampa and was originally developed by Del Webb Communities. The Financial Post reports that the value of houses in the community has fallen by more than one-third since 2007. According to the Post, an "older" unit in the community currently sells for as little as $50,000.
india Arjun's Army?
Last week, Arjun Atwal became the first Indian to win a title on U.S. PGA Tour, and an Indian news agency is wondering how much sizzle his victory will add to the growth of golf in his homeland.
The director of the Professional Golf Tour of India believes that Atwal's victory, at the Wyndham Championship, "is sure to lift golf's profile further in India. It is already one of the fastest-growing sports in the country."
India, a nation of 1.15 billion people, currently has only about 200 golf courses, but dozens more are in the works. AFP says that golf is "well-suited to modern India, as vast new towns and housing developments spring up to cater for the country's educated and professional middle classes."
One of those vast new towns is DLF City in Gurgaon, one of New Delhi's four satellite cities. The city is home to DLF Golf & Country Club, which features a high-profile, Arnold Palmer-designed golf course that hosted the Johnnie Walker Classic, a European Tour event, in 2008.
DLF's owners recently hired Gary Player to design a second 18-hole track for the club, and AFP reports that other developers are planning to build similar communities "to promote the aspirational lifestyle sought by many Indians."
switzerland Andermatt Advances
Samih Sawiris' new resort in the Swiss Alps is coming along nicely, a report from Bloomberg suggests.
The resort is taking shape in Andermatt, the town where Elvis Presley learned to ski. Today Andermatt has a population of 1,350 -- as Bloomberg notes, it's the prototypical "sleepy Swiss village" -- but by the time Sawiris is done with it, it'll have six high-end hotels, 490 housing units, a shopping area, a sports center, and an 18-hole golf course designed by Kurt Rossknecht, a German architect.
The first houses are expected to come on line in late 2013 or early 2014. If you're interested, the cheapest one will set you back $1 million or more.
Bloomberg calls Sawiris, the principal of Orascom Development Holding AG, "an Egyptian billionaire with a penchant for risk." He's probably best known as the developer of the famed El Gouna golf resort on the Red Sea in Egypt, but he's got other golf properties in his portfolio and he plans to build new courses in Montenegro and Morocco.
hawaii Here Come the Chinese
A Chinese investment group has agreed to buy a golf course on the Big Island of Hawaii.
The group, operating as Hawaiian Golf Properties LLC, is buying Kapolei Golf Course, an 18-hole track in Kapolei. The course, which opened in 1995, saw more than 66,000 rounds last year, and it's said to be on track to post a small increase this year.
The seller is a Japanese company, Kapolei People’s, Inc., led by Nobuo Nakamura.
The sale is expected to close on September 10, according to Pacific Business News.
around the world Clothes Calls
Tiger Woods is in a slump, and his troubles on the PGA Tour are being mirrored in the sales of his clothing line.
Sales of Woods-branded clothing, famously produced by Nike, Inc., are down this year, while -- surprise, surprise! -- sales of golf apparel in general are up. This is a signal, Bloomberg says, that “"consumers are returning to the course, just not to Woods.”
Golf Discount Superstore, an online retailer, tells the news service that it’s seen a “definite decline” for Woods-labeled shirts, pants, and jackets, and Golfsmith says that the line’s volume dropped by 7.5 percent through the first six months of 2010.
“When Tiger’s doing well, people watch and buy his brand,” an official with Interbrand’s global golf practice told Bloomberg. “When he’s not, people decide not to watch and they buy something else.”
Friday, September 3, 2010
worth reading Unraveling the Mysteries of Golf in China
China: Is it golf development's next frontier or just another grand illusion?
Adam Lawrence addresses that question in the July issue of Golf Course Architecture. In "China: Golf's Wild East," he discusses a variety of hot-button issues, including golf's relation to real estate speculation, the potential for golf development on Hainan Island, and the number of golfers who could eventually emerge in the People's Republic. His story is liberally seasoned with comments from architects who've seen, with their own eyes, how things work there.
Here are some points that caught my attention:
-- Developers in China may not be building as many golf courses as their press agents have suggested. According to Richard Mandell, a Pinehurst, North Carolina-based designer with a project in Hunan Province, There are only about 150 active golf course projects under construction. Yet, if you talk to golf architects, everyone has about four or five projects. I am afraid many of those are just simply hanging on a wall, waiting for a market.
-- People have begun to reassess the development possibilities for Hainan Island, where some observers once predicted that as many as 100 golf courses would be built.
You have to worry about Hainan, because there’s so much being built, so much already built, and still so much in planning, says Dana Fry, a Columbus, Ohio-based architect with two courses in the works on the island. Everyone you talk to down there is doing projects that are two, three, four courses each. The real scary thing is the bubble situation with the housing market.
-- Though golf is growing in popularity in China, it'll be a while before anyone describes the Chinese as golf-crazy. Here's Mandell again: I’ve never seen a full house at any course I’ve visited in China. I’ve seen busy driving ranges, but never a full golf course.
-- Finally, Lawrence notes that there's strong development potential in “regional,” cities that aren't nearly as well known as, say, Beijing and Shanghai. He quotes John Strawn, the president of Toledo, Ohio-based Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest & Associates: If you look at Shanxi Province, which is about an hour’s flight south of Beijing, there are cities of about a million people -- very nice, very clean -- and they have no golf at all. These regional cities will each want at least one or two courses.
Here's a link to "China: Golf's Wild East."
Adam Lawrence addresses that question in the July issue of Golf Course Architecture. In "China: Golf's Wild East," he discusses a variety of hot-button issues, including golf's relation to real estate speculation, the potential for golf development on Hainan Island, and the number of golfers who could eventually emerge in the People's Republic. His story is liberally seasoned with comments from architects who've seen, with their own eyes, how things work there.
Here are some points that caught my attention:
-- Developers in China may not be building as many golf courses as their press agents have suggested. According to Richard Mandell, a Pinehurst, North Carolina-based designer with a project in Hunan Province, There are only about 150 active golf course projects under construction. Yet, if you talk to golf architects, everyone has about four or five projects. I am afraid many of those are just simply hanging on a wall, waiting for a market.
-- People have begun to reassess the development possibilities for Hainan Island, where some observers once predicted that as many as 100 golf courses would be built.
You have to worry about Hainan, because there’s so much being built, so much already built, and still so much in planning, says Dana Fry, a Columbus, Ohio-based architect with two courses in the works on the island. Everyone you talk to down there is doing projects that are two, three, four courses each. The real scary thing is the bubble situation with the housing market.
-- Though golf is growing in popularity in China, it'll be a while before anyone describes the Chinese as golf-crazy. Here's Mandell again: I’ve never seen a full house at any course I’ve visited in China. I’ve seen busy driving ranges, but never a full golf course.
-- Finally, Lawrence notes that there's strong development potential in “regional,” cities that aren't nearly as well known as, say, Beijing and Shanghai. He quotes John Strawn, the president of Toledo, Ohio-based Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest & Associates: If you look at Shanxi Province, which is about an hour’s flight south of Beijing, there are cities of about a million people -- very nice, very clean -- and they have no golf at all. These regional cities will each want at least one or two courses.
Here's a link to "China: Golf's Wild East."
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