russia The Swing of Things

Let’s say you’re the mayor of the most important city in your country, and you believe golf is a vital economic-development tool. So you ask the city’s corporate elites to build some golf courses, but they can’t do it because their businesses have been ravaged by the recession. Who would you turn to?

If you’re Yuri Luzhkov, you’d turn to your wife.

She is Yelena Baturina, and she’s said to be Russia’s richest woman. As recently as 2008, according to Forbes, she was worth $4.2 billion. The magazine says she’s only worth about a billion today, but jeez, we’re still talking real money.


Baturina plans to spend some of her fortune building a golf course on former farm land in the western suburbs of Moscow. A company she controls owns property near Ulitsa Nizhniye Mnyovniki, and a Russian newspaper says that Jack Nicklaus has been “invited” to build a “world-class” layout on it. Nicklaus hasn’t commented on the reports, but considering the state of the design business these days, it’s hard to imagine him turning down the invitation.

The as-yet-unnamed course won’t be Baturina’s first. She owns Grand Tirolia Golf & Ski Resort in Kitzbuhel, Austria, which features a golf course (Eichenheim Golf Course) designed by Kyle Phillips. The track is said to be among the top golf properties in Austria.

And it may not be her last, either. Another company Baturina controls, Kudla Group, reportedly owns 3,700 acres in Morocco, and it’s got plans to build golf resorts in the towns of Aouchtam and Tetouan. Each of the resorts would have houses, a hotel, a marina, a shopping area, and a nine-hole golf course.

Baturina, the mayor’s second wife, made her money in the construction business. Her firm, Inteco, made out like a bandit when Luzhkov, who was elected in 1992, set out to rebuild Moscow’s aging infrastructure and its decrepit commercial landscape. At one point, Inteco (in Russia, Inteko) was said to be getting 20 percent of the city’s construction projects, a fact so troubling to its competitors that Luzhkov was accused of -– cover your ears, boy and girls -– municipal corruption.

As is so often said, it helps to have friends in high places.

With Inteco’s profits, Baturina amassed substantial land holdings in the Belgorod region of western Russia. She bought hotels in Sochi, the tourist town on the Black Sea that will host the next Winter Olympics. Through Inteco, she began to sponsor golf events, including the Russian Open.

But things haven’t gone well lately for the mayor and his wife. A few months ago, Luzhkov was booted out of office for criticizing the national government. Inteco has reportedly had trouble paying its debts, and last year it couldn’t afford to put its name on the Russian Open, which had to be canceled.

Nevertheless, we’re talking about people who are worth a mint. So, like the gold-plated Russian in the DirecTV commercials, Baturina “jump into it” when she got the opportunity to build a golf course within a short drive of the city. Various reports say she’s purchased 87 acres, but that’s not nearly enough to design an 18-hole course. I suspect that she owns some adjacent property,

In 2006, as you may remember, Luzhkov said he’d open 10 regulation-length golf courses in and around Moscow by 2011 -– sadly, a promise he didn’t keep. Today there are four 18-hole courses in metropolitan Moscow, including one, at Tseleevo Golf & Polo Club, designed by Nicklaus.

The Week That Was, December 26, 2010

anguilla Staubach Makes a Play for Norman's Course

A group led by Roger Staubach, the one-time Dallas Cowboys quarterback, is closing in on the purchase of a troubled, half-built Caribbean resort that features a Greg Norman-designed golf course.

Cypress Equities expects to buy the 280-acre Temenos resort, on Anguilla, and turn over its management to Montage Hotels & Resorts. The resort has been dying a slow death since 2008, when its owners decided to quit throwing money at it.

Temonos' 7,063-yard golf course, the only course on Anguilla, opened in 2007 and was closed for at least part of 2009. It's currently being operated by the nearby Cap Juluca resort.

One of the island's government officials once called Temenos -- it's a Greek word that means sanctuary -- “the most important project Anguilla ever had.” The resort was begun by Robert Sillerman, a billionaire who made most of his money in the radio and television business. He also hit the jackpot when he invested in a blockbuster Broadway show (Mel Brooks' The Producers), and in 2005 he bought the company that produced “American Idol” and “So You Think You Can Dance.” Simon Fuller, the creator of those shows, bought a pricey, as-yet-unbuilt vacation house in Temenos, as did Dan Brown, the author of The Da Vinci Code and other novels.

In late 2009, shortly after Temenos slipped into receivership, Sillerman admitted to the Wall Street Journal that resort development “was not my area of expertise by any stretch of the imagination” and confessed that his development plans “exhibited an element of hubris.”

Cypress Equities has 30 days to seal the deal for Temenos. Sillerman and his partner, Flag Luxury Properties LLC, reportedly invested more than $180 million in the resort, and they believe it'll cost as much as $120 million more to complete it.

Staubach had once planned to build a resort in the Caribbean from scratch -- Royal Island in the Bahamas, which was to feature the world's first Jack Nicklaus Golf Club -- but he's obviously decided it's cheaper to buy one than to build one.

india Goa Goes for Golf

Back in the 1960s, hippies beat a trail to Goa, making it one of India’s favorite vacation spots. Today, nearly 10 percent of the 5 million tourists who visit India each year pass through the state, whose tourism officials believe they could attract more vacationers if they had more golf courses.

As a result, Goa’s government is seeking a private-sector partner to help it build an 18-hole course in Pernem, a town in the northern part of the state, 20 miles north of Panaji. The state's tourism minister told the Economic Times that three groups have expressed an interest in building the course.

Goa is especially hoping to lure golf-crazy Japanese tourists, who can be found in large numbers at the Taj Mahal, the Ajanta Caves, the temples of Varanasi, and some of the other popular tourist attractions in other Indian states.

“We want to get them to Goa, too,” said Goa's tourism minister. “For that, the state needs to put up facilities required for them.”

It should be noted that Goa's government has been down this road before. Years ago, it was foiled in an attempt to build a golf course on a site overlooking Arambol beach and the Arabian Sea. The plan was opposed by a variety of community groups, and it died a quick death.

As a result, Goa currently has just one 18-hole course, a K. D. Bagga-designed layout at the Intercontinental resort in Canacona.

Incidentally, the state’s monsoon season stretches from July through the end of September. Wear your galoshes.

malaysia A 'Mockery' of a Golf Course Is Sold

LAND & General Berhad, a development firm based in Kuala Lumpur, has agreed to buy a golf resort in Seremban, the capital of the Malaysian state of Negeri Sembilan.

Tuanku Jaafar Golf & Country Resort features a 27-hole golf complex that was designed by an Australian, Rodger Davis, and opened in the early 1990s. It spreads over 400 acres and includes about 50 developable residential lots and an industrial site.

Land & General paid just over $8 million for the property, assuming that my currency converted is working properly.

The golf complex has apparently seen better days. An online critic has called it a “mockery of a course” that “you will probably play once and not come back” to. Though it hardly seems to matter, he added that its previous operators provided the “worst ever golf course service in Malaysia.”

Tuanku Jaafar is Land & General's second golf property, as the company co-owns an 18-hole, Craig Perry-designed track at the Hidden Valley golf community in suburban Melbourne, Australia.

scotland At Kingsbarns, It Was a Very Good Year

2010 may have been a downer at most of the world's golf courses, but not at Kingsbarns Golf Links.

The number of rounds played at the Kyle Phillips-designed track in St. Andrews, Scotland surpassed 27,000, an increase of 30 percent over the number played in 2009. There was enough demand to extend the course's season by two weeks.

So much for flat being the new up.

What's more, even better times could be ahead for Kingsbarns. In a press release, the course's general manager reports that bookings for 2011 are running 10 percent ahead of the marks recorded at this time last year.

If you're among those who plan to make a reservation for 2011, a round will cost you $293.

sweden More on the Renovation at Ullna

An American living in Sweden read my recent post on the renovation of Ullna Golf Club (December 8) and provided a few more details on the work.

His name is Gene Oberto, and when he isn't producing articles for Golf Digest or writing books (he's written The Swedish Golf Experience), he hosts a website called Swedish Golf Online. The site writes about Swedish golf in English and was created, Oberto says, because “the golf world knows about Swedish golfers but very little about the golf world they came from.”

As it happens, Oberto recently filed a report on Ullna's proposed renovation. Here's what he had to say:

It has been almost a year since the rumors began that a planned renovation of Ullna Golf Course in Åkersberga, outside Stockholm, would be done by Jack Nicklaus' design firm, with Jack designing the plan himself. Even on the Nicklaus Design's website, the project still says TBD. But it was only last June 15 that the shareholders of Ullna Golf AB gave the green light to the project.

“We received very strong support from the members (of Ullna Golf) to implement the renovation project starting July 1, 2011,” says Lars H. Hemmingsson, the president of Ullna Golf AB, to the magazine Swedish Golf.

The classic layout, next to the northern shore of Lake Ullna, will keep its current route. Some sight lines will be adjusted, and bunkers will be added, moved, or, in some cases, removed entirely.

The biggest and most important change will consist of rebuilding all fairways and green areas. A new drainage system will be built. The entire course will be covered with a layer of sand about 20 cm thick, to further help and improve drainage. Some fairways will be elevated 50 centimeters higher from today's level.

“Apart from the fact that we have a enjoyable golf course to play, the renovation will improve playing conditions, allowing Ullna to extend its season,” said Sven-Eric Bergman, chairman of the Ullna Golf AB.

The greens and fringe areas will be rebuilt according to USGA standards, and new, more environmentally friendly grass, as yet unspecified, will be utilized. The hope is to create hardier and more easily managed greens than the ones currently.

In addition to the renovation of the 18-hole course, a first-class short-game area will be built where the existing driving range is located, next to the indoor practice hall, Golfpunkten.

“In conjunction with the upgrade, we plan to build one of Scandinavia's best training areas for the short game. Of course, with the same high quality as the golf course,” said Sven-Eric Bergman.

The price tag for the project is reportedly around 50 million krona ($6.5 million). Financing is provided both by equity and loans from the club members, shareholders, and a bank.

For that substantial sum, the club has, however, one of the world's most renowned architects and, without a doubt, greatest players, to sit behind the drawing board.

It was Ullna's original creator, Sven Tumba, who lured in his friend, Jack Nicklaus, three years ago when Nicklaus Design had begun to sketch out how the “new” Ullna should look like.

The rebuilding begins July 1, 2011, and the course will be fully playable for the 2013 golf season.

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.

The Week That Was: December 19, 2010

netherlands Ian Woosnam, Poised for Take-Off

Sometime in the summer of 2012, an Ian Woosnam “signature” golf course is expected to open at the busiest international airport in the Netherlands.

The 18-hole, par-73 course will most likely be called Amsterdam International Golf Club, as it's being built by a group that calls itself Amsterdam International Golf Club. It's taking shape along the northern edge of Schiphol airport, on 190 acres that the group has leased from the airport's real estate arm, Schiphol Real Estate.

“The golf course will be absolutely world class and conform to the highest international standards,” promises Marcel Welling, a director of Amsterdam International Golf Club.

Welling is a board member of the Charleston, South Carolina-based National Golf Course Owners Association and the CEO of Amsterdam-based BurgGolf, which is said to be the largest golf-course operator in the Netherlands. BurgGolf reportedly owns and/or operates 10 golf properties, including courses in the cities of Purmerend, Zoetermeer, Legemeer, Wijchen, and Middelburg.

A press release says that Woosnam's design partner is a company called Mastergolf. I believe the reference is to Mastergolf International, an Antwerp, Belgium-based firm led by Bruno Steensels. Mastergolf International also works with Darren Clarke, Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy, and other European golf pros who desire to do “signature” golf designs.

The developers expect to seed Amsterdam International in the spring of 2011.

canada ClubLink Acquires #41

In a sale that has been rumored for months, ClubLink has acquired Glendale Golf & Country Club in Hamilton, Ontario.

The King City, Ontario-based company, Canada's largest owner and operator of golf properties, paid $3.2 million for Glendale. The club, which was founded in 1919, is among the first private venues to open in the Hamilton area. Besides an 18-hole golf course, it features six sheets of curling ice.

“Glendale has a long and proud history, and we look forward to continuing that reputation,” said ClubLink's president, Rai Sahi. “The Hamilton area is an active and growing golf market, and Glendale will complement the magnificent Heron Point Golf Links, our existing club in the area, very nicely.”

With the acquisition of Glendale, ClubLink owns 23 golf properties in metropolitan Toronto, among them Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, King Valley Golf Club in King City, and RattleSnake Point Golf Club in Milton. Overall, ClubLink's portfolio consists of 41 golf properties in Ontario, Quebec, and Florida.

“The members of Glendale Golf & Country Club are eagerly anticipating the many benefits of being part of ClubLink, particularly the opportunity for reciprocal play at so many other fine courses,” said Glendale's president.

australia A New Wave at Pelican Waters

Early next year, Greg Norman's first “signature” golf course in Queensland goes under the knife, in an effort to make it kinder and gentler.

I'm talking about the 18-hole golf course at Pelican Waters Golf Club, which opened in 2000. One critic has described the 6,954-yard track as “tough, and perhaps at times unforgiving,” and warned golfers who wish to play it from the back tees that “it may well eat your lunch.”

Not surprisingly, such notices have scared off many potential customers, and the club's management is now taking steps to make the course more user-friendly. The club has committed $250,000 to removing nearly two dozen of the course's 90 bunkers.

The work is scheduled to begin in February and is expected to take about three months to complete.

Norman recently approved the changes, saying that they “will make this course a tremendous experience and a challenge for all levels of golfers.”

Pelican Waters is located on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, an hour's drive north of Brisbane.

scotland Donald Trump, Blowin' in the Wind

A simple twist of fate, as Bob Dylan called it, has put Donald Trump in the center of yet another Scottish controversy.

Many times in recent years, as he pressed ahead with plans to build a large-scale resort community on environmentally sensitive sand dunes in Aberdeenshire, Trump was accused of destroying Scotland's natural heritage. Now the tables have turned, and Trump is accusing a proposed wind farm in the North Sea of -- you guessed it -- destroying Scotland's natural heritage.


“These turbines, if ever built, will in one fell swoop destroy Scotland's magnificent natural heritage,” complained Trump, who plans to build close to 1,500 houses, a 450-room hotel, and a pair of 18-hole golf courses on the Menie Estate.

To be sure, Trump is no defender of anyone's natural heritage, except perhaps his own. His real objection to the wind farm, which he calls “noisy and unsightly,” is that it'll ruin the views that he aims to offer prospective home buyers at Trump International Golf Club Scotland.

“Every component of our project is based upon sea views,” he said. “We cannot allow the construction of what is tantamount to 65-story structures off our coastline.”

Not surprisingly, a lot of people in Scotland have taken to calling Trump a hypocrite.

“If Mr Trump is so concerned about the natural beauty of Scotland's coast, he should stop destroying it himself,” argued Martin Ford, the Aberdeenshire councilmember who led the fight against Trump's community. “Unlike his own construction project, the proposed turbines will not harm any designated nature conservation site. They will not 'destroy Scotland's magnificent natural heritage,' though Mr. Trump has done exactly that at Menie.”

Trump has vowed to “vehemently oppose” the development application for the wind farm when it goes before planning officials next year. It'll be interesting to see how much support his campaign gets.

australia Home on the Grange

Greg Norman has been hired to redesign the golf course that launched his professional career and set him on the road to fame and fortune.

It's the East course at Grange Golf Club, where Norman, at the age of 21, won his first professional tournament, way back in 1976. Norman set a course record during the event and became, virtually overnight, a star.

“This course will always be special to me,” the West Palm Beach, Florida-based designer said earlier this year.

Grange’s East course was designed by Vern Morcom, an Australian architect, and opened in 1967. Late last month Norman spelled out his plans for the club's members, and afterwards the club's president said the presentation “went off very, very well, probably even better than we expected.” Norman is said to be confident that his work will “boost the profile of the course.”

The construction is expected to begin in July 2011 and conclude in 2013. The club figures to work on six holes each year.

The club -– it’s located in Grange, a western suburb of Adelaide –- also has a second Morcom-designed 18-hole course.

Shameless Self-Promotion, December 2010

In the just-published issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report, we ask an eternal question of Annika Sorenstam: Does she or doesn't she?

No, we aren't wondering if she dyes her blonde, Swedish hair. We're wondering about her golf project in China.

Sorenstam, the retired golf star, recently let it slip that she has a design project in China. She even said where it was. But now she's zipped her lips, and her associates and handlers at IMG aren't talking either.

Still, we believe we've found it. And frankly, if we had a commission from the same client, we wouldn't be talking either.

Speaking of IMG, in December's World Edition we also profile a course that Paul Casey, another one of the firm's clients, is designing in China. It's on Hainan Island, and it's Casey's first "signature" layout.

We also give the low-down on new courses designed by Nick Faldo, Kyle Phillips, Graham Cooke, Ian Woosnam, Paul Thomas, Graham Marsh, Phil Ryan, and Jeremy Pern. They're in Cambodia, South Africa, Croatia, St. Kitts, Brazil, Australia, China, and Morocco.

There's more, too: New projects in Jamaica, Cuba, and Morocco, plus renovations in Thailand, Venezuela, England, and Australia.

If you'd like to see this month's World Edition, give me a call at 301/680-9460 or send an e-mail to me at WorldEdition@aol.com.

france Von Hagge's French Kiss

Golf World says Les Bordes International Golf Club is the home of Europe’s number-one golf course, the late Robert Von Hagge’s “piece de resistance.” So will the club’s second course improve on the original or pale in comparison?

We won’t know for sure until 2013, when the new course is expected to open. Until then, we’ll have to take our cues from Tony Jimenez, the chairman of Les Bordes Holdings, who says the forthcoming track, co-designed by Von Hagge and Rick Baril, will be “on a par with all the quality and competitiveness the existing Les Bordes course has to offer.” He believes it’ll eventually be recognized as “one of the great courses of the world.”

No pressure, though.

Les Bordes is located in Saint-Laurent-Nouan, a town about 20 miles southwest of Orleans, in the Loire Valley of central France. The club’s first course was built by Baron Marcel Bich, whose goal was to create “the Augusta National of Europe.” The 7,062-yard, target-style track is without question a bear, difficult even for touring pros. For a decade after it opened, in 1986, the course record (held by Jean Van de Velde) was a one-under 71.

The new course will be more forgiving than the existing layout, with wider fairways and less treacherous bunkers. Baril is overseeing the construction, which is scheduled to begin next year.

Bich, as you may know, was the founder of Societe Bic, the company that makes Bic pens. When he died, in 1994, Les Bordes turned over to one of his business partners, Yoshiaki Sakurai. Jimenez, a former vice president of player development for Newcastle United, the British soccer club, formed an investment group that bought the club in 2008. Mark Vickery is the group’s managing director.

In addition to the new course, Les Bordes Holdings plans to build some houses and a five-star hotel. The group had once planned to build a third course as well, but they’ve iced that idea, at least for now.

The Week That Was: December 12, 2010

south africa Is All Publicity Good Publicity?

An official groundbreaking is a publicity event, not a construction event, and as such shouldn't be taken very seriously. Still, the groundbreaking recently held to promote the forthcoming Gary Player “signature” golf course at Zimbali Lakes Resort can tell you a lot about what really matters in golf course development these days.

Did you know, for example, that Player's firm, which has designed more than 300 golf courses on five continents, is primarily motivated “by our proven ability to add substantial value to real estate and resort properties”?

Those are words that Player apparently uttered during his “keynote address” at the groundbreaking. It says so in the press release that promoted the event.

You'd think that a guy who's devoted his entire life to golf, a guy who's become a veritable golf icon, would have higher aspirations. Instead, Player is telling us that his main goal has always been to sell real estate.

Whoop dee doo.


Note to Gary Player: Hire new publicity people. The people you're paying now are selling you short.

This time out, Player is selling real estate for a community in KwaZulu-Natal province, in South Africa. The course he's designed will measure 6,880 yards from the championship tees, be “user-friendly,” and feature those “panoramic views” that so effectively jack up the prices of lots. According to the press release, the course will put “an emphasis on shot values and course management,” whatever that means, and, most importantly, “intrigue the imagination while offering a fun and enjoyable golf experience.”

At build-out, Zimbali Lakes will consist of roughly 1,000 housing units, a hotel, office space, some retail and commercial components, and a bunch of other “aspirational” amenities. Its developers have a motto: “Living in harmony with nature.” Zimbali Lakes apparently exemplifies it.

The developers are IFA Hotels & Resorts and Tongaat Hulett Developments, both of whom understand what amenities like “branded” golf courses can bring to a marketing campaign. At the groundbreaking, one of IFA's division presidents said the course would “enhance the intrinsic value and natural beauty of the KwaZulu-Natal north coast” and introduce “a new era for exceptional investment opportunities.”

The press release fails to mention that IFA and Tongaat Hulett have already built one golf course on their property in the province, a Tom Weiskopf-designed golf course at Zimbali Coastal Resort. It also overlooks the fact that the construction of Player's course was supposed to have begun in 2009.

canada Mike Keiser's Search for Perfection

This week a Golf Digest blog checked in with an update on the construction of Mike Keiser's new golf course in Inverness, Nova Scotia.

The first nine holes of Cabot Links, Matt Ginella reports, is scheduled to open in July 2011, with the full 18 expected to get a soft opening three or four months later. The 6,942-yard track has been designed by Rod Whitman, a Canadian.

Like all of Keiser's golf properties -- notably the Bandon Dunes resort complex in Oregon and Barnbougle Dunes in Tasmania -- Cabot Links is taking shape on sandy, coastal property that it takes a real effort to get to. (Calculate how long it'll take you to fly into Halifax, then add two and a half hours of drive time to Inverness.)

Of course, serious golfers will make the effort, in the same way that true gastronomes will move heaven and earth to get a table at a five-star restaurant.

To be sure, Keiser knows his menu isn't for everybody. Nonetheless, he has a purist's vision of what golf ought to be -- he believes that a golf course should have a soul -- and he won't compromise on his principles. People say he's stubborn, and he's probably difficult to work with. But that's part of the reason why his new course in Bandon, the Old MacDonald track, has been named best course of the year by magazines as diverse as Golf and Men's Journal.

When the pack was chasing Open venues, charging big green fees, and selling real estate, Ginella writes, Keiser was spending 15 years slowly piecing together Bandon Dunes for the avid golfer, offering no carts, no houses, and affordable package deals in the off-season. Now, when courses are closing all across the country, Keiser opens up Old Macdonald in Oregon and is forging ahead with a new course in Nova Scotia.

And despite the recession, Keiser is already thinking about Cabot Links' second 18. It'll be designed by Bill Coore, who has a course in planning at Bandon Dunes and a recently opened course at Barnbougle Dunes.

zambia Mark Wiltshire, Zambia's Open Doctor

Beginning next month, Mark Wiltshire will oversee a renovation of the course that'll host the Zambia Golf Open in October 2011.

It's Nchanga Golf Club, which was once (in 1979) considered by Golf Digest to be the 14th-best golf course outside the United States. The course hasn't made anyone's best-of list for at least two decades.

Wiltshire, a golf consultant based in George, South Africa, expects to spend about six months on the renovation. The track's tees will be enlarged and regrassed, its bunkers will be rebuilt, and a new irrigation system will be installed.

“Our aim is to build user friendly golf courses, enjoyable for all, and at the same time create a balance in design with tee and bunker placements to ensure a stern championship layout,” Wiltshire wrote in a comment posted at Golf Course Architecture.

The club is in Chingola, in the heart of Zambia's copper country, and its owner, Konkola Copper Mines, has budgeted $2.5 million for the makeover.

Wiltshire, a former touring pro, manages the David McLay Kidd-designed golf course on the island of Laucala in the South Pacific as well as a few courses in South Africa, notably Gardener Ross Golf & Country Estate in Gauteng and Irene Golf Club in Pretoria.

brazil The Shark Continues to Prowl

During a press conference before the Shark Shootout, Greg Norman offered some thoughts about the 2016 Olympics and the process of selecting a designer for the golf venue that will be built somewhere in metropolitan Rio de Janeiro.

As you've no doubt heard, Norman and Lorena Ochoa have formed a design partnership and are among the groups vying to design the golf course. The course needs to be open by 2015 at the latest, because the International Olympic Committee wants it to host some tune-up tournaments well before the Olympic games begin.

To make those dates, things need to start moving. By next summer, Norman said, he expects the field of potential architects -- there are said to be seven or eight serious contenders -- to be whittled to three. He believes the winner could be selected soon thereafter.

“They’ve got to make a decision here no later than August of next year, I would think,” he said.

Of course, before they can select a designer, the powers that be have to select a site. At one time it was said that an existing course could be used, but that idea no longer appears to be likely.

sweden Nicklaus' Swedish Massage

Eager to revive its fading reputation, Ullna Golf Club has hired Nicklaus Design to overhaul its Sven Tumba-designed golf course.

The course, which opened in 1981, has hosted events on the PGA European Tour, but today it’s too short to challenge big hitters and is no longer considered the top course in metropolitan Stockholm. Worse, the layout -– it’s located along Lake Ullna and is said to have “water, water everywhere” –- gets too wet to stay open consistently for the club’s nearly 600 members.

Nicklaus plans to give the layout some pizzazz, as Tumba is better known in Sweden as a hockey player (he played in four Winter Olympics) than a golf architect. The firm will rebuild the layout’s greens to USGA standards, regrass its tees and fairways (some of the latter will be elevated), rebuild and relocate its bunkers, and add a short-game practice area.

The club has budgeted $6.5 million for the work, which is set to begin next summer. If all goes well, the course will reopen in 2013.

worth reading A Clash of Club Cultures

Golf Club Atlas recently posted an interview with Ian Dalzell, the general manager of Hidden Creek Golf Club in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey. Dalzell grew up in Northern Ireland and cut his golf teeth at Royal Portrush Golf Club in County Antrim.

Here's Dalzell's answer to the question, "How is the golf service business different in the United States than Northern Ireland?"

There is no doubt about it, the golf business in the U.S. is a service business, whereas in Northern Ireland and other parts of Britain it is all about the business of golf.

The best way to describe it is to give an example of the average day of a golfer in each country, and I hope you will understand my tongue is firmly in my cheek as I try to enhance this example to get my point across.

The Ireland golfer arrives at the club, parks his own car, goes to the locker room and gets his own bag out of the locker, puts on his shoes that maybe haven’t seen polish for a while (no locker room attendants in Ireland), slings his bag on his shoulder, pops his head in the shop to say hello to the pro and let him know he is going out to play, and off he goes. When he finishes his round, he cleans his own clubs and shoes, puts them back in the locker, and heads upstairs for a cold pint with his foursome.

All in all, he only came into contact with the golf pro and a bartender. Seems pretty simple, really.

American golfer, once successfully navigating his way through the gate with guard house, pulls up at the bag drop, where he is greeted by an outside services associate with an earpiece who has already been informed of his arrival by the guardhouse employee. He steps out of his car, which is then promptly parked by the outside services associate, and his clubs are placed on a cart, which may or may not have his name on it. He heads to the locker room, where the attendant greets him and tends to his needs for the day.

From there, the American golfer heads to the grille to get a cold Gatorade and maybe half a sandwich from the waitress. Next up is the range, where balls have been set up for his convenience, and after a 30-minute warm-up he heads to the tee with his trusted caddie. After four holes, a beverage carts appears to quench the thirst of the golfer, greeted and tended to by the beverage cart attendant. She will visit on up to four occasions during the round, so a cold drink is never too far away.

After the round, the American golfer has his clubs cleaned by the caddie and placed in the car by the bag-drop staff. He heads to the locker room, where he meets the afternoon shift locker room attendant, who promptly cleans off his shoes and invites him to take a hot shower or steam. After that, the visit to the grille for a cold drink is a must, and as he leaves the staff will bring his car to the front door and wave him off.

All in all, the American golfer may have come into contact with service personnel at least 12 times during his day, which is why service is what drives American golf. In Europe, the focus is squarely on the golf. A huge difference in cultures.

The Week That Was: December 5, 2010

australia Norman's Latest Conquest

Planning officials in New South Wales have blessed a plan to build a resort community near Sydney that will feature a Greg Norman-designed golf course.

The to-be-named, 1,150-acre community will be take shape on a former coal mine, the Huntley Colliery, in Dapto, 45 miles south of Sydney. At build-out, it's expected to consist of several hundred houses (some for the general market, some for retirees), a few dozen “stay-and-play” golf cottages, a 100-room hotel with meeting space, a village center, and a small private hospital.

The developers, a group called HTT Huntley Heritage, have been trying to get the property rezoned and the project approved since 2007, if not before. They expected regional planners to approve the project in October, but the planners held off due to concerns about several issues, including what the Illawarra Mercury describes as “the impact of the proposed in-ground irrigation system at the northern end of the course on Aboriginal heritage.” The developers defused the planners' worries by agreeing to install an above-ground “traveling irrigator” instead of an in-ground system.

Norman will design a championship-length course for the community, along with a golf training center.

dubai . . . And Into Dust Thou Shalt Return

If you've been wondering about what's happened to Tiger Woods Dubai and the first golf course to be designed by one of the greatest players ever to swing a club, well, here's the grim news: the Middle East's slice of desert paradise has been all but abandoned, and it's about to become the next victim of the global economic crash.


Just two years ago, Tiger Woods Dubai was an oil sheik's ultimate golf dream, a fantasy community so exclusive that only billionaires could afford to live there. It was to have just 200 houses: $11 million villas, $15 million mansions, and what the salespeople called “"palaces,” with no prices listed. If you had to ask, they weren't for you.

None of them have been built, of course.

On the first anniversary of the car crash that led to the unraveling of a brilliant career, the Guardian paid a visit to the veritable ghost town that once held such promise. The newspaper found nothing more substantial than dust: a fake Arabian palace, an empty sales office, disconnected telephones.

Six holes of the golf course have been completed and the remaining holes have been roughed out, but what would have been Al Ruwaya Golf Club is now fenced off and hidden from public view. Something like 3,000 trees were planted along the fairways, but 8,000 trees are still waiting to be planted. They're being stored under wraps, and, according to the Guardian, they drink up a million gallons of water every month.

That's a lot of water for an operating golf course and an obscene amount for one that hasn't rung up a single greens fee.

And that's why, within just a few weeks, the people behind Tiger Woods Dubai will almost certainly give up the dream. The Guardian says they'll make their final decision before February, when Woods arrives to play in the Dubai Desert Classic.

“They better make a decision soon, because we are struggling to keep the desert at bay,” an employee on the property told the newspaper.

What was once a desert will be a desert again. From dust to dust.

“The smart money around town is on the return to nature,” the story says. “After all, what use is a billionaires playground when there are no billionaires?”


scotland A Bridge Over Troubled Golfers

Some Scottish golfers are seething about a proposal to build a foot bridge on one of the oldest, most historic golf courses in the United Kingdom.

“What they are proposing is a great tragedy,” the secretary of the Royal Perth Golfing Society told the Scotsman. “We have no objection in principle to a bridge across the river. Our objection is simply to the bridge at this location.”

The location is North Inch Golf Course, a 5,442-yard track that welcomed its first golfers (with a six-hole layout) in 1803. The course's final six holes were designed by Old Tom Morris in the early 1890s.

The proposed 656-foot bridge would cross the River Tay, connecting the villages of Perth and Scone. Its construction would require the green on the course's 15th hole -- the course's signature hole and one often cited as being among the top 100 holes in Great Britian -- to be relocated. It would also require the relocation of the course's 17th tee, reducing the par-4 hole into a par-3 hole.

And, perhaps worst of all, the construction would require the course to close at least some of its holes for about a year.

The chairman of a golf group based at North Inch said the bridge will “ruin” the course. Nonetheless, local officials are expected to approve its construction.
A local councilmember believes it'll be an “iconic” addition to the local landscape.

asia The Next Wave

Before the Australian Open, Greg Norman fielded questions from reporters gathered at a press conference. His answers to several questions have been posted at the website of Great White Shark Enterprises.

Here's a little of what Norman had to say about golf in Asia.

I am a strong believer that the East will take over the West in 20 years -- maybe a generation from now, which is about 20 years. The development of the game in places like Vietnam and China, Cambodia, Korea, Laos, Indonesia, [and] Malaysia is just incredible. . . . The development of the game there is going to be higher than anywhere else.

When China gets into gear -- there is still a moratorium on golf course construction in China -- but when they figure out a way to get to the 30 million golfers in China that the government anticipates, you know what is going to happen. They are going to develop and generate some phenomenal players, male and female.

The West is lagging now. The game is slow in the United States. It is not developing the way it did in the 1980s and 90s. . . .

Corporations are going to Asia now because they are sick of getting zero percent interest, zero percent return on their money. They are investing in the Third World countries where they are getting good returns on their money, and the growth and development are showing it. . . .

worth reading The Downturn Down Under

Over the past decade, golf construction in Australia, like golf construction in the United States, has been driven by residential real estate.

But today the development model isn't working as well as it used to. The houses envisioned to be built around golf courses aren't selling, and developers are beginning to wonder if golf is the sales generator it's long been cracked up to be. They're asking themselves if other forms of open space -- lakes, trails, parks -- can move their inventory as well as, or better than, golf courses can.

“Golf is used as an amenity to improve the real-estate proposition,” Jeff Blunden says in the September issue of Australian Golf Digest. “But if the real estate proposition doesn’t even work, then golf’s not going to get a look in. And there’s plenty of evidence out there of golf developments that haven’t met original expectations.”

Blunden, who's described by the magazine as “a golf industry analyst,” has reportedly reviewed the financial statements of nearly half of the new courses built in Australia over the past decade, and he says that some of them are suffering significant losses -- losses of $500,000 or more annually.

Based on his analysis, Blunden has some advice for prospective Australian golf developers. In order to be profitable, he contends, new courses can never be completely private. The day they open their doors, he asserts, they need to have 600 members, a number that must quickly grow to 1,000. They need all those members because they have to generate at least 40,000 rounds a year, at a price of $70 or more per round.

And one other thing: the restaurant in the clubhouse can't sustain itself on golfers alone.

Now you know why golf is such a tricky business.

italy Palmerston's Italian Job

Fresh off the opening of its new resort in Cyprus, one of the golf world’s best-known management companies now aims to build a similar resort in Italy.

Palmerston Hotels & Resorts plans to build Santa Teresa Golf Resort & Spa on a 550-acre parcel near the northern coast of Sardinia, the second-largest island in the Mediterranean. The resort will feature 150 villas, a 147-room hotel, a pair of restaurants, meeting space, a wellness spa, a private helipad, and an 18-hole golf course.

The project’s first phase -– consisting of some villas, the hotel, and the golf course –- is scheduled to break ground in late 2010.

Palmerston is led by Dieter Klostermann, the chairman of CCA International, Ltd. The company owns Palmerston Golf Resort in Woodham Village, England, which features an 18-hole golf course designed by James Hamilton Stutt, and just weeks ago it opened Elea Golf & Spa Resort near Paphos in Cyprus. Elea features a golf course designed by Nick Faldo as well as 200 villas, a resort village, a boutique hotel, and a spa.

These days, the company has one other golf project in the works in Italy, a sports-oriented resort near Florence. Castello di Sammezzano, as it’s known, will also have apartments, a boutique hotel, and a spa.

Hong Kong-based Palmerston also hopes to develop a resort on one of the islands in the Jardines del Rey chain of Cuba. Cayo Coco will have two 18-hole “championship” courses, one of them by Faldo.

The Week That Was: November 28, 2010

india Nicklaus Has Grand Designs for India

Jack Nicklaus has designed one golf course in India and is working on two others, but those are apparently just the tip of the iceberg. Within the next three or four years, the company expects to put its name on as many as 10 golf courses in the world's second most-populous nation.

And Nicklaus’ mission in India doesn’t begin and end with course design. His company hopes to capitalize on a variety of development and marketing opportunities, notably in equipment and apparel sales, wine distribution, and real estate development.


To monitor all those activities, Nicklaus Design has opened its first office in India, in Mumbai. The office will be managed by Nicklaus’ Indian partner, Shivas Nath of Evolution Golf. Nath will coordinate what’s been described as a grass-roots effort to establish and grow the Nicklaus brand, with the first step in the process being the creation of a chain of golf academies that will provide a foundation for everything that follows.

Paul Stringer, Nicklaus’ executive vice president, discussed the India strategy in a lengthy press release. Some of his statements read like poor translations of what might have been original Indian material (perhaps material penned by Nath), but I think you’ll get the gist. I’ve also taken the liberty of tightening some loose syntax.

Here’s a little of what Stringer had to say:

Our strategy to grow the brand in India will be the bottom-up approach. We believe in initiating grass-root programs that will help create a permanent brand name in the country. . . .

We are looked at as the leaders in golf course design globally. People in India are brand-conscious, and they want the best brands. . . . We know we won’t get 100 percent of the market share, but we do intend to have a strong presence in India. We have been leaders in the countries in which we have set a market. Hence, we are sure we would get more business opportunities in India than our competitors. . . .

We see a huge growth and awareness for the sport in the next five to 10 years in countries like Russia, China, and India, which are under-developed golf markets. We see potential development of training centers, academies, [and] smaller golf courses in places where land is a constraint as well as . . . in some of the reserved markets in India, for example Goa and such others. . . .

In the next three to four years, you would see 10 more golf courses by Nicklaus Design. . . . At present, we are looking at developing golf courses in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, and Goa.

egypt A New Course for a Red Sea Resort

The first nine holes of the Tim Lobb-designed golf course at El Ein El Sukhna Beach Resort are scheduled to open in the spring of 2011.

Lobb, a principal of Thomson Perrett & Lobb, said in a press release that the resort-style track would be "a golfer's golf course" that provides "a challenge for all levels of player without being too daunting."

The second nine and a practice center are expected to open in 2012.

When completed, the 6,671-yard course will spread over 237 acres at El Ein El Sukhna, which is taking shape on a 400-acre parcel along the Red Sea, roughly 80 miles southeast of Cairo. The rest of the resort will include 600 housing units, a 120-room hotel, a tennis academy, and other attractions.

El Ein El Sukhna is being developed by Galalah, an affiliate of the company that's developing the 1,500-acre New Giza community in suburban Cairo. New Giza, which is expected to open in 2013, will consist of 2,500 houses, three hotels (one of them an MGM Grand), a shopping mall, and another 18-hole course designed by Thomson Perrett & Lobb.

The golf course at El Ein El Sukhna doesn't aim to do anything more than it needs to do: offer a pleasurable round to an urban duffer on a weekend holiday. Lobb, who operates out of TPL's office in suburban London, England, said his goal was "to design a course that allowed visitors and residents a friendly environment in which to play golf, with an emphasis on delivering a memorable, positive experience that will encourage them to return."

Easy peasy.

california What Brown Can Do for You

In recent years, as the price of water has increased, many golf course superintendents have been wondering exactly how green their fairways need to be. This week, the Desert Sun checks in with a report on water-reduction efforts currently taking place at a popular resort in California, and how local golfers are taking to the changes.

Over the past two years, the 18-hole Dunes and Mountain courses at La Quinta Resort, just a short drive from Palm Springs, have reduced their water usage by 25 percent. The result: Firmer, faster, drier layouts that appear to be playing every bit as well as they did when they were lush and green.

“We have gotten to a point where I think we have gotten lazy as an industry,” said Mike Kelly, the resort’s director of golf. “I have to be careful how I say this. We don't need as much water as we are putting out on these golf courses.”

At La Quinta’s Dunes and Mountain tracks, more efficient sprinkler heads have been installed, 40 acres of turf have been replaced with less-thirsty native vegetation, and fewer acres are being over-seeded. None of this is new or unique, of course, but it’s nice to see the resort’s efforts featured in the mainstream press.

La Quinta feared that its customers and the resort’s home owners wouldn’t accept a browner course, but so far that doesn’t seem to be a significant problem.

“It didn't seem brown to me,” said a golfer. “I noticed the longer grass and even had to hit out of it twice. But the course looked fine.”

As a result of comments like that, the resort is sticking with the program. Its owners will probably begin a similar program at PGA West, probably the premier golf resort in the desert.

“We have to go in this direction, because it is the right thing to do,” Kelly told the newspaper. “It's the right thing to do for this brand, the right thing to do for the industry, and the right thing to do for the environment.”

By 2020, all of California’s golf courses must cut their water usage by 20 percent.

australia Tiger Trap

Over the years, Tiger Woods has muttered many things during tournament play that can't be printed in a family-friendly blog. But did you hear what he said at the recent Australian Masters?

While strolling to the seventh tee during the opening round of the event, played at Victoria Golf Club, Woods asked, “Why can’t we build golf courses like this in America?”

And then, for emphasis: “This is cool. This is so cool.”


So what is this “so cool” golf course?

By today's standards, and especially by today's professional tournament standards, it's a short track, just 6,886 yards. It's also old, as it opened just after the turn of the century -- the 20th century. And it hasn't been “modernized,” unless you consider Alister MacKenzie to be a “modern” architect.

Tiger Woods isn't the first golfer to wish contemporary architects would design shorter golf courses with classic character. But he very well may be the first golfer-turned-architect to say so publicly.

Maybe someone should remind Woods that he's designed a course that's currently being built in suburban Asheville, North Carolina. When completed, it's supposed to stretch to a nearly inhuman 7,500 yards.

If Woods really believes shorter courses are cooler, why doesn't he design them?

worth reading The Only Architect You'll Ever Need

Attention, golf developers in the United States and around the world: If you need a celebrity architect to design your next golf course, think outside the box that's filled with names like Faldo, Montgomerie, Langer, and Sorenstam.

Instead, I urge you to consider Darius Oliver.

I know you've probably never heard of him. That's because his firm, Darius Oliver Golf Course Design, is new, small, and, well, Australian. And because it's never actually designed a single golf course.

But none of those things really matter, do they? Everyone has to start somewhere. Once upon a time, Paul Casey, Thomas Bjorn, Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke, Ian Woosnam, Paul Lawrie, and K. J. Choi hadn't yet designed a golf course. That didn't stop them from entering the design business.

And, thank goodness, it's not going to stop Darius Oliver.

Besides, as much as any golf pro turned golf designer, Oliver knows exactly what qualities developers are looking for in an architect.

“Like Alister MacKenzie at Augusta National,” he writes in the press release announcing his company's creation, “Darius Oliver Golf Course Design works with the earth to harness the spirit of Old Tom Morris and the Old Course at St. Andrews to create timeless, sustainable golf masterpieces.”

Enticing, isn't it? Such noble ideals!

But don't pull out your checkbook just yet. You're being taken for a ride.

Darius Oliver is the architecture editor of Australian Golf Digest and a blogger at Planet Golf. His phony press release aims to spoof the self-aggrandizing announcements that golf pros make when they decide they need to leave a legacy. It's directed, he writes, “at golf clubs and developers who wish to build courses without genuine golf architects.”

Is that you, Bubba?

“With a recent spate of B-, C-, and even D-grade golf celebrities now offering so-called ‘design services,’ I figured it was time for me to also get in on the act and try to exploit my limited media profile for additional coin,” Oliver confesses.

Such refreshing honesty!

The way Oliver sees it, the places where golf is just now establishing a presence are especially fertile territories for celebrity designers. That's why, he says, he aims to secure commissions wherever “a disconnect exists between client ambition and architect ability.”

The good news for fledgling course “designers” like me is that in developing regions it apparently doesn’t matter if you can’t route a course, build a hole, float a green, or solve drainage problems. You don’t even need to understand the principles of true strategic design. If you have won important championships or (hopefully) written well-received golf articles, then you are more than qualified to advise and design.

So don't hesitate! Get in on the ground floor! Hire Darius Oliver today!

canada Saline Solution

The Rotary Club of Fort McMurray hopes to break ground on an 18-hole, Les Furber-designed golf course next year, in the hope of opening it in 2012.

The championship-length track, which could someday be joined by another nine, will take shape on part of a municipally owned 500-acre parcel near the airport in Fort McMurray, in northeastern Alberta.

The course is being built in conjunction with a large community called Saline Creek, in the southern part of the city. Saline Creek will have 6,800 houses, a village center, four schools, and other attractions.

Furber, who apprenticed with Robert Trent Jones, is based in Canmore, Alberta. He’s designed several courses in Canada, including the first course at the Predator Ridge resort in Kelowna, along with Varadero Golf Course in Varadero, Cuba, two courses in the Czech Republic, and another in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

The Week That Was: November 21, 2010

cyprus Another Golf Course for Parched Cyprus

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.”

talking points Is Another Lousy Year on the Horizon?

The attendees at last spring's KPMG-sponsored Golf Business Forum were conspicuously glum about golf's economic prospects.

According to an electronic poll taken during the event, 40 percent of the attendees said a turnaround wouldn't begin until 2011, but a whopping 44 percent said they don’t expect the hard times to end until 2012 or -– gulp -– later.

Their gloomy outlook has been echoed by Wally Uihlein, the CEO of Acushnet Company, the maker of Titleist and Footjoy products. In the current issue of South Central Golf Magazine, Uihlein says that the U.S. golf business has fallen to just 75 percent of what it was in 2007 and -- gulp again -- isn't likely to start growing again anytime soon.

"It's a game of limited opportunity here," Uihlein told the magazine. "The first thing we have to do is hold on to the golfers we have. If you can do that, then you have a chance to grow."

Of course, these days golf's true growth markets are on the other side of the oceans, particularly, Uihlein says, in the nations along the Pacific Rim. He singles out China as an especially ripe opportunity, as long as -- and here the magazine paraphrases -- "the middle class continues to grow and courses are built for others besides visiting businessmen."

Shameless Self-Promotion, November 2010

One of the biggest developers in South America has hired Arnold Palmer's company to design golf courses in Uruguay and Brazil, and a massive resort featuring golf courses by Tom Fazio and David McLay Kidd is about to take shape on the Alentejo coast of Portugal.

Those are among the stories that appear in November's World Edition of the Golf Course Report, the publication that serves as the source for much of the material in this blog.

November's World Edition also reports on a Chinese company's attempt to create "the first, the best, and the largest golf chain in China," a community outside Kuala Lumpur that will feature golf courses by Padraig Harrington and K. J. Choi, and a brownfield in Poland that's being transformed into a golf oasis.

This month's issue also has articles about one of the first golf communities in Kenya, Sergio Garcia's first solo "signature" course (it's in China), and an unusual joint development venture that Kelly Blake Moran is doing with a golf entrepreneur in India.

There's a lot more, of course, including other new golf projects in Russia, Croatia, Switzerland, Montenegro, and Namibia, along with renovations by Rees Jones in Japan and Greg Norman in Australia.

If your business depends on timely, detailed news about international golf development and construction, you really should be reading the World Edition. There's literally no other publication like it.

If you'd like to see this month's World Edition, give me a call at 301/680-9460 or send me an e-mail at WorldEdition@aol.com.

australia Geelong's Course Will Shrink

One of Australia’s best-known golf developers aims to downsize the oldest golf course in Victoria.

I'm talking about Geelong Golf Club, which is in the town of Geelong, about 40 miles southwest of Melbourne. The club was founded in 1892, fell on financial hard times just after the turn of the 21st century, and went out of business in 2004. Its 18-hole course will be reduced to nine holes, along with a golf academy that’s to be created by the PGA of Australia.

Links Group has owned the 115-acre club since 2003. The company’s redevelopment plan calls for 191 single-family houses and 120 housing units for seniors, along with a “big box” store.

Geelong will be Links Group’s third golf community in greater Melbourne. The company owns Sandhurst Club, which features a 36-hole complex designed by Peter Thomson and Ross Perrett, and Sanctuary Lakes, which has an 18-hole, Greg Norman-designed course. Both clubs anchor large communities (1,850 houses at Sandhurst, 2,500 at Sanctuary Lakes) that haven’t yet sold out.

Two other Links Group communities have been in the works for several years, delayed by a sluggish housing market and difficulties in securing approvals.

The company owns 700 acres in Airlie Beach, Queensland, where it plans to build a community called Whitsunday Springs. The community, which was approved in 2006 (Links Group had planned to break ground on it in 2009), will have up to 2,200 residences, a 200-room hotel, and an 18-hole golf course.

And, as it’s doing at Geelong, Links Group plans to downsize the 18-hole golf course at Illawarra Golf Club in Madden Plains, New South Wales. The course will be shrunk to nine holes and become the centerpiece of Illawarra Ridge, a community with houses, a hotel, and a recreation center.

The golf courses at Whitsunday Springs and Illawarra Ridge will be designed by Graham Papworth, an architect based in Hastings Point, New South Wales.

The new nine at Geelong Golf Club will be tailored to beginners. Links Group hasn’t yet identified the designer, but last summer it told the Age, an Australian newspaper, that it’ll be “a professional golf architect” who’s been “endorsed” by the PGA of Australia.

The Week That Was: November 14, 2010

china 'Otherworldly' Golf Complex Opens Near Kunming

An unnamed Chinese development group has opened a trio of 18-hole golf courses in the magical Stone Forest of southwestern China.

The golf courses have been designed by Brian Curley of Scottsdale, Arizona-based Schmidt Curley Golf Design and are the featured attractions of the appropriately named Stoneforest International Country Club.

“This is one of the most unique sites ever made available for golf,” Curley said in a press release.

That's an understatement.

Stone Forest's breathtaking, haunting terrain spreads over a 135-square-mile area about 60 miles from Kunming, in Yunnan


Province, and has long been a favorite destination for people who love rocks. Curley describes the craggy landscape “otherworldly,” and it truly is hard to believe. The rocks appear to have grown out of the ground like trees, creating the illusion of a forest made of, well, stone. Some people consider the place to be one of the true wonders of the world.

Curley says his golf courses “promise to soon be regarded among the world's best,” but they'll never match the drama of their setting. For the record, the Leaders Peak track is the longest (7,565 yards), the Yufeng Ridge track has the best views, and the Masters, the club's tournament track, is the toughest.

Curley says the site is “so astonishing that we did not want to distract from the surroundings with bunkering or any other architectural elements that said look at me. We kept all three courses very natural to fit the site. There are subtle differences in each, but nothing that jumps out. We wanted the stone to be the show.”

canada Another Course for ClubLink

ClubLink's shopping spree continues.

The King City, Ontario-based company, the largest owner/operator of golf properties in Canada, has agreed to acquire Glendale Golf & Country Club in Hamilton. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the month, according to the Hamilton Spectator.

Glendale, which features an 18-hole golf course and six sheets of curling ice, opened in 1919. Score Golf says the course “will calm the nerves and quiet the passions of the most casual of golfers” but will also “challenge the most avid golfer.”

Be still, my fluttering heart!

Already this year, ClubLink has purchased seven golf courses in Florida: six at the Sun City Center retirement community in suburban Tampa and Heron Bay Golf Club in Coral Springs.

The company's portfolio also includes roughly 30 golf properties in Canada, most of them in metropolitan Toronto.

england Cornwall Course Has New Owner

A Canadian-born entrepreneur has purchased Roserrow Golf & Country Club for an undisclosed amount.

Randy Sohnchen, the purchaser, told BBC News that the sale “will secure current employment in the area and provide additional jobs in the future.”

The 18-hole, 6,507-yard golf course is part of a 405-acre resort community in Wadebridge, North Cornwall. The course, which opened in 1997, must be fairly nondescript, because I can't find any reviews of it anywhere. A golf directory boldly reports that it's “been designed to appeal to golfers of all abilities.”

The community is located about a mile from Polzeath Beach. It has a variety of housing types, a spa, an airstrip, and other attractions. Some sources say that the golf club also has a nine-hole practice course.

oregon Golf Is Worth Billions

The golf business was worth $2.5 billion to the state of Oregon in 2008.

That's the conclusion of an economic-impact study funded by the Golf Alliance of Oregon, a group of the state's major trade and consumer golf associations. The study says that golf generated direct revenues of $1.2 billion and supported more than 27,000 jobs.

“The sheer size of the game of golf makes it a major industry in its own right and a significant contributor to Oregon's economy,” said Peter Ryan, who conducted the study.

Sales of golf equipment and supplies, led by Beaverton-based Nike Golf, amounted to roughly $465 million. Golf courses and other golf facilities generated about $362 million, while golf-related hospitality and tourism companies generated $222 million.

“In order to get the attention of decision-makers, it is important that we be able to quantify the contributions of our industry to those that may be affected,” said Barb Trammell, the CEO of the Oregon Golf Association, in a press release reprinted by Club & Resort Business. “The continued health and growth of the golf industry has a direct bearing on future jobs, commerce, economic development, and tax revenues for a large number of Oregon's communities and industries.”

finland Tim Nugent, Designing & Building

A few weeks ago, after nearly 10 years of planning and preparation, ground was finally broken on Tim Nugent’s golf course in suburban Helsinki, Finland.

Tapiola Golf Club is taking shape on a 135-acre, city-owned landfill in Espoo, and it’s expected to open in the summer of 2012. Nugent, who’s based in Vernon Hills, Illinois, not only designed the 6,660-yard course but, according to a report in Golf Course Architecture, is personally shaping it.

“I hope Tapiola will be a good example of the direction new courses should be headed -– fun and playable for everyone, but with just enough to keep good golfers interested,” Nugent told the magazine.

The site has been leased (for 40 years) by a group called Tapiola Golf, Ltd., which is funding the construction via the sale of stock.

Nugent, the son of golf architect Dick Nugent, has designed several courses in the United States -– among them Prairie Green Golf Course in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and White Deer Run Golf Course in Vernon Hills -– but this is his first overseas project.

japan The Shape of Things To Come?

The popularity of golf in Japan, the world’s second-largest golf market (after the United States), reached its peak in the late 1980s and early 1990s but has been going downhill steadily ever since. The nation currently has 2,450 golf courses and 10 million golfers, but Jeff Hays, a writer based in Japan, says the number of golfers will fall to 6.7 million by 2015, as older golfers die or give up the game.

Last summer, Hays’ prediction was echoed by Leo Lewis, a business correspondent in Asia for the Times of London.

“The Japanese are losing interest in golf much faster than investors are losing interest in stocks,” Lewis wrote in a story published by the Ottawa Citizen. “Companies no longer see the point in paying membership fees for their executives, and individuals no longer need to play as part of some corporate ritual. The average green fees across Japan remain more than $200 per round, which is driving away many of even those with a genuine passion for the game.”

The Week That Was: November 7, 2010

nicaragua A Green Light for Kidd's Course

Pellas Development Group has started selling houses at its “eco-luxe” resort community in southwestern Nicaragua, and it says that it plans to break ground on the property's golf course next year.

The resort is called Guacalito de la Isla, and it's taking shape on 1,670 acres outside Rivas, a city of 28,000 located between the Pacific Ocean and Lake Nicaragua. Rivas is part of a 30-mile stretch of coastline that’s mostly known for its surfing but is primed for development. Nicaragua's real estate interests have taken to calling it “the Emerald Coast.”

At build-out, according to a press release gratefully reprinted by the Victoria Times Colonist, Guacalito de la Isla will consist of houses (52 lots and 32 villas are currently for sale), a boutique hotel, a marina, a beach club, an equestrian center, a “world-class” spa (jeez, is there any other kind?), and other attractions.

The community's 18-hole course has been designed by David McLay Kidd, the “purist” architect whose best-known layouts include the first course at the Bandon Dunes resort in Bandon, Oregon and two highly regarded tracks in Scotland, the Castle Course at St. Andrews in St. Andrews and Machrihanish Dunes in Machrihanish.

Pellas Development is controlled by Don Carlos Pellas, Nicaragua's richest and most powerful individual. His Grupo Pellas includes about 50 companies, including Nicaragua Sugar Estates, Ltd., the nation’s leading sugar producer, and BAC International Bank, which operates in every Central American nation as well as in Coral Gables, Florida. Grupo Pellas also owns a Toyota dealership, the company that makes Flor de Cana rum, and firms that produce electricity and ethanol.

Pellas says that Guacalito de la Isla is merely the first of several “socially and environmentally sustainable communities” that it plans to build in Central America.

“This new generation of green destinations will be in some of the world’s most unspoiled locations,” Pellas says in the press release. “Each will cater to homeowners and guests who wish to make a difference in their families, their communities and their environment.”

Pellas didn't say whether his new communities would have golf courses, but if Nicaragua is going to develop as a golf destination, it needs deep-pocketed people like him to lead the way. Nicaragua currently has just one golf course, a nine-hole, Neal Oldenburg-designed track at Hacienda Iguana Golf & Beach Club in Tola. At least two other courses are reported to be under construction, including a Mike Young-designed course at Montecristo Golf Club in Leon, and Jack Nicklaus has been hired to design a “signature” course at Seaside Mariana in San Rafael del Sur.

argentina Another First for Greg Norman

Last month, a company controlled by one of the richest people in the United States broke ground on Greg Norman's first golf course in South America.

Norman's 18-hole, 7,100-yard course will be the centerpiece of El Desafio, a 2,500-acre resort community that’s emerging in the Andes Mountains just outside San Martin de los Andes, in the Patagonia region of southern Argentina.

"It's going to be a spectacular golf course," Norman said in a press release.

I'm sure that the community's well-heeled residents expect nothing less.

El Desafio is being developed by Hicks Trans American Partners LLC, an entity created by Tom Hicks, the principal of Dallas, Texas-based Hicks Holdings LLC and a long-time member of the Forbes 400. Hicks has his fingers in a lot of investment pies -– satellite television, steel-making, professional sports, real estate development -– but he's probably best known in the United States as the former owner of the Texas Rangers. Hicks is the guy who signed Alex Rodriguez, now of the New York Yankees, to what was at the time (in 2000) the biggest contract in the history of sports (10 years, $252 million).

The press release doesn't say how much Norman is being paid.

"I have designed mountain courses before, but this course will be unique with its dramatic backdrops and rugged beautiful terrain," said Norman. "We spent a lot of time trying to ensure the best routing for this beautiful piece of property. We wanted to use a least-disturbance approach and create great golf at the same time."

Hicks is developing El Desafio with Terra Patagonia, an Argentine developer. At build-out, the community will include houses, a mountain lodge with the obligatory spa, an equestrian center, and a pair of professional polo fields, one of which has already opened for play.

Those Argentines, they have their priorities.

west virginia A Battle at the Greenbrier

When it comes to building and rebuilding golf courses, disputes over construction-related problems are common. These disputes are rarely made public, however, because they're ultimately bad for business. Nobody benefits.

Unfortunately, that fact hasn't stopped some of the golf industry's best-known personalities from airing their dirty laundry in West Virginia newspapers.

The fight involves the historic, world-famous Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, which last year hired Lester George, a Virginia-based golf designer, and Aspen Corporation, a West Virginia-based construction company, to prepare its Old White course to host the inaugural Greenbrier Classic.

This fall, George and Aspen sued the Greenbrier, claiming that they weren't paid for services rendered. George said he was owed nearly $200,000, and Aspen said it was owed $1.275 million. Aspen also put a lien on the Greenbrier's 6,500-acre property.

“All work requested of Aspen by the Greenbrier was completed on time and prior to the Greenbrier Classic,” said Aspen, according to a story in the Charleston Daily Mail. “The Old White Golf Course received rave reviews during and following the Greenbrier Classic.”

When news of the suits was made public, Jim Justice, the Greenbrier's owner, came out with guns blazing. The work done by George and Aspen, he told the Beckley Register-Herald, “was so sub-par, it was off the chart.” He also accused George and Aspen of “extreme over-charging -- ridiculous over-charging.”

Justice, a wealthy landowner who bought the failing Greenbrier last year, also vowed to file a counter-suit against Aspen “in the very near future,” and he noted that the amount would be “for approximately 10 times the amount of their suit.”

As best I can determine, Justice hasn't yet filed his counter-suit. But last week George amended his complaint against the Greenbrier, charging Justice with defamation. George called Justice's comments “malicious, spurious, unfounded, false statements” that were designed to harm his reputation.

Here's some news, guys: Lester George's isn't the only reputation that's being harmed.

venezuela A Message from the President

Once again, Hugo Chavez is saying unkind things about golf.

During a recent edition of his weekly television show (it's called “Alo, Presidente”), Chavez reiterated his belief that Venezuela's golf courses should be expropriated and converted to more socially beneficial uses.


“That’s an injustice, that someone should have the luxury of having I don’t know how many hectares to play golf and drink whiskey and, next door, there’s misery and children dying when there are landslides,” Chavez said.

Chavez was referring to recent landslides caused by heavy rains. The landslides destroyed many houses, killing dozens of people and exacerbating an already acute housing shortage.

His comment was the second time in about a year that Chavez has taken a shot at golf. Last summer, you'll recall, he famously called golf “a bourgeois sport” -- which, honesty compels me to admit, is true -- and asked the timeless question, “Do you mean to tell me this is a people’s sport?”

talking points On Getting Paid in China

These days, most every course designer on the planet wants to work in China. But is a commission in the People's Republic all it's cracked up to be?

Here's what Brian Curley, a principal of Scottsdale, Arizona-based Schmidt-Curley Design, has to say about doing business in China. His comments were originally posted in an interview with Golf Club Atlas.

Asia is different on multiple levels. On one hand, jobs can go fast, although very few ever go as fast as they first promise. As most know, China is in the midst of a moratorium on golf construction, and illegally built courses do get shut down on occasion. So not only are developers taking major risks, but architects need to be aware the job they were promised can vanish in a heartbeat.

Farmland and villager issues are huge and not going away. It is very common to begin construction on a project only to be told that land first planned for development has disappeared and the property line has changed, causing a total change of plans -- and “we need it yesterday.”

Essentially all clients expect and demand a lot of up-front work -- for free -- before they decide who to use. They will use these plans to work competing bids and can make promises that often go unfulfilled.

A number of architects get concerned that their plans will be used with no contract or payment, and they will. We had a client who, despite my radar telling me to stay away when we first negotiated, was cordial for most of the project but later built a second course that we provided plans for yet never were paid. He turned into the guy I first met, and I felt lucky to make it out of his office with a substantially reduced final payment offered on a “take it or leave it” basis.

We found a project selling memberships touting us as the designers although we had nothing to do with the course.

Then, you want to get paid. Sometimes you have to wait a long time, sometimes you may never see a dime. We have been largely very fortunate, as we have many five-star clients. But there can be major hiccups. We are large enough to ride the ups and downs.

In the U.S., you have legal avenues when all these issues arise. But in Asia, are you going to sue? We have decided a few times to take our lumps and move on.

costa rica The Rush Is On

Remember when Rush Limbaugh, during the U.S. health-care debate, threatened to go to Costa Rica for medical treatment? Well, get in line, Rush.

A lot of U.S. citizens routinely head south for medical care -– 25,000 every year, according to the Christian Science Monitor. As a result, what’s known as “medical tourism” has become a thriving industry in Costa Rica.


So it shouldn’t be a surprise to hear that a development group wants to build a “destination” medical center in Liberia, the capital of Guanacaste Province. Sun Ranch, as it’s being called, is to take shape on 2,350 acres conveniently located less than two miles from Daniel Oduber International Airport.

The medical side of the project will include a “world-class” hospital, an assisted-living center, a long-term care facility, a wellness center, and a 200-room “airport/medical” hotel, part of which will be reserved for folks who are recovering from surgery.

Sun Ranch will also have a casino, a spa, restaurants, and a shopping area, not to mention a resort-style hotel, a “branded” luxury hotel, and a convention center.

And for those who’d like to settle down for a while, it’ll have a 500-acre community with single-family houses, townhouses, and condos (tailored mostly to seniors), along with an 18-hole golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr.

Sun Ranch is being developed by Grupo Do It, which consists, at least in part, of Americans who’ve been working in Costa Rica since the late 1980s. Grupo Do It owns what it calls “the largest retail hardware and construction material business” in Costa Rica, and one of its affiliates, the Do It Center Foundation, provides wheelchairs to people who can’t afford them.

The medical facilities at Sun Ranch will be run by Clinica Biblica Hospital, a non-profit that describes itself as “the largest and most prestigious private hospital in Costa Rica.”

Jones, who’s based in Palo Alto, California, says that the site at Sun Ranch has “the potential to produce a world-caliber layout that will attract golfers from around the globe.”