tanzania The Army Retreats

Howard Swan aims to transform TPDF Lugalo Golf Club into Tanzania’s first “international-standard” golf course.

Lugalo started out with a nine-hole track, and some club members designed a new nine that opened last year. We suspect that the new holes aren’t quite up to snuff, because the club’s owner, the Tanzanian Peoples’ Defence Force -– the national army -– has asked Swan to redesign and thoroughly overhaul the track.

Swan, who’s based in Essex, England, says his goal is “to create a place where beginners can come and learn the game, but also where the public and pros can play at the highest level.”

The work is scheduled to begin in early 2011. The club also plans to build a practice center, and in the future it hopes to enlarge its clubhouse and add some overnight accommodations.

Lugalo is in Dar es Salaam, which has just one other 18-hole course, at Gymkhana Golf Club. There are nine other courses in Tanzania, all of them nine-hole tracks.