Early next year, MedGolf Group is expected to finally break ground on a long-awaited resort community outside Larnaca in Cyprus.
Seven years in the making, Larnaca Golf Resort & Country Club will occupy 370 acres in the village of Tersefanou. Its 6,157-yard golf course has been designed by Stanford Eby of European Golf Design, a British firm that's co-owned by the PGA European Tour. Accompanying the course will be a PGA-branded golf academy, the first of its kind on the island, that will include some practice holes.
Demes Karapatakis, the chairman of DJK Corporation and one of MedGolf's principals, told Cyprus Property News, “The aim is to put Cyprus on the golden map of the professional golfers.”
If anyone out there knows where “the golden map” is, will you please let me know?
Besides the golf course, Larnaca will include 250 villas, 150 apartments, a village center with stores and restaurants, a spa, meeting space, and a recreation center.
It’ll also have a desalination plant, to provide water for the resort. Such plants are common in Europe, particularly in and around Greece. The area is known for its droughts, and in recent years the major reservoirs in Cyprus have essentially dried up.
“I would like to see Cyprus as a golf destination,” Karapatakis added. “I’d be happy to see more golf clubs coming up.”
Despite the water shortage, other development groups are doing their best to make Karapatakis' wish come true. Just weeks ago, Palmerston Hotels & Resorts opened the island's fourth 18-hole golf course, a Nick Faldo-designed track at Elea Golf Club in Paphos.
scotland A Likely Approval for Darren Clarke
Next week, Scottish officials are expected to approve a golf community outside Dundee that will include a Darren Clarke “signature” golf course.
The Irish pro's course will be the centerpiece of the Angus, a resort community that's set to be built on 315 acres of farmland in Wellbank. In addition to the golf course, the Angus will feature 160 houses, 18 “holiday lodges,” a hotel, a spa, and a golf academy for kids.
The golf course will be “ghost-designed” by Graeme Webster of Niblick Golf Design in Moss, Norway. The academy will be managed by Rudy Duran, a Californian who, many years ago, served as one of Tiger Woods’ teachers.
The Angus is being built by Mike Forbes, a former farmer and fly-fishing champion who owns the Forbes of Kingennie country resort in Dundee. Forbes is familiar with Webster’s work, as Webster designed the nine-hole track at Forbes of Kingennie.
Nick Hunter, the chairman of Golf Tourism Scotland, believes the Angus will nicely complement the area's existing courses -- Wellbank is just a few miles west of Carnoustie -- as well as planned Scottish golf courses such as Donald Trump's 36-hole complex at the Menie Estate in Aberdeen, an hour's drive north.
“The Scottish golf tourism market has not really moved since 2009,” Hunter told the Aberdeen Press & Journal, “but as we start to pull ourselves out of the recession, we’re starting to see some big developments being put in motion which could attract golfers from further afield.”
Two-thirds of the comments that local officials have received about the Angus have been favorable. The project has been recommended for approval.
australia A Minimalist Course in Wilton
Unique and minimalist are two of the words that Graham Marsh recently used to describe the golf course he's designed for the Bingara Gorge community in New South Wales.
“Its style is unique,” Marsh told the Camden Advertiser. “It will be a minimalistic course, meaning we disturb the least amount of land rather than make it look like a resort-style course.”
Bingara Gorge is taking shape in Wilton, a town that's roughly 60 miles southwest of Sydney. At build-out, the 1,125-acre community will include 1,165 houses, an elementary school, and other community amenities.
Delfin, one of Australia's biggest home builders, expects to open the first nine holes of Marsh's course in the spring of 2012. The company had originally tapped Ernie Els to design the track.
Marsh has designed the recently opened Kalgoorlie-Boulder Golf Club in Kalgoorlie, his home town, and at least 20 other courses in Australia. He's also designed courses in China, Japan, Germany, South Korea, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, the United States, and other nations.
“Sometimes the courses with the smaller budgets create the most interest,” Marsh said of the course at Bingara Gorge, “and it's pleasing to build a course crafted out of nothing, because you have got nothing to work with.”
scotland A Ryder Cup for Trump?
When Sandy Jones talks, people listen. And last week Jones said some absolutely wonderful things about the golf course that Donald Trump is building in Aberdeen.
Jones, the CEO of the British PGA and a senior member of its Ryder Cup board, believes the course will host a major international tournament within a decade of its expected opening in 2012.
“When this course is complete,” he told the Aberdeen Press & Journal, “there is no doubt in my mind . . . that it will be one of the great golf courses in the world.”
As most everyone knows, Trump International Golf Club Scotland will eventually consist of two 18-hole golf courses, 500 single-family houses, 950 "holiday" houses, and a posh hotel.
Jones gushed about the club's setting, calling the property “a fantastic site” that will be “a great venue” for golf. He also noted that Trump is plenty capable of delivering the key ingredient that a big-time tournament needs: corporate money.
His conclusion: “I'll be amazed if there is not a really major world event here within a decade.”
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