The Week That Was: February 13, 2001

portugal Tom Fazio Goes Global

Tom Fazio has agreed to design his first golf course in Europe, a move that may turn out be the first step in a campaign of world domination.

The course will take shape on a huge expanse of waterfront property along Portugal’s Alentejo coast, as part of a massive resort community called Herdade da Comporta. The community's developers and Portuguese golf officials hope that Fazio’s course, Comporta Links, will be the host venue for the 2018 Ryder Cup.

“I genuinely believe we have the opportunity to build something special here,” Fazio said in an interview with Scottish Golf View. “Something that will still be around long after we’ve all gone.”

The commission is a significant departure for Fazio, who's never strayed far from his home in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Over the course of his 40-year career, he's designed close to 200 courses -- including a dozen or so that routinely pop up on world's-best lists -- and unquestionably become one of the most famous golf designers of our time. He might have become the hands-down number one if he'd been willing to hit the road with the zest of Jack Nicklaus.

“I have probably built about 150 courses within two hours of my home,” said Fazio. “There was no need to travel, but now there’s no reason to stay home, which is why I’m here at Comporta and why we’ll probably do other overseas projects in the future.”

For the record, Fazio has designed courses in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Barbados, Puerto Rico, and Panama. They're foreign countries, to be sure, but not quite foreign enough to dish out extreme cases of culture shock.

Now that his children have grown -- one of them is the president of his design firm -- Fazio is apparently ready to spread his wings and start building his “look hard, play easy” courses all over the planet. Word has it that he's talking with developers about projects in Asia and South America.

Herdade da Comporta is being developed by Espirito Santo Group, a conglomerate that controls Portugal’s second-largest bank, Banco Espirito Santo. The company owns several golf courses in suburban Lisbon, including the 36-hole Ribagolfe complex and Quinta do Peru Golf & Country Club. Espirito Santo has also commissioned David McLay Kidd to build a course at Herdade da Comporta.

Curiously, Comporta Links isn't a solo project for Fazio. It's a co-design with Ross McMurray of European Golf Design.

The reason may be that EGD is partly owned by the PGA European Tour, which will select the venue for the 2018 Ryder Cup. Portugal is competing against France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain for the prized event, and it probably figures it never hurts to have an ace up your sleeve.


india Will DLF Build Goa's Golf Course?

India's biggest, most powerful developer is vying for the right to build a golf course in northern Goa.

Tourism officials in the state announced last week that New Delhi-based DLF, Ltd. has submitted a proposal to build a golf course and related “tourist facilities” -- including a hotel, presumably -- on a site in Paliem-Pernem. DLF, which reportedly owns 3,000 acres in suburban New Delhi, is controlled by Kushal Pal Singh, who ranks #74 on Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people. Net worth: $9 billion.

DLF's main competition will be Leading Hotels of the World, which aims to build its golf course in Tiracol-Pernem. New York City-based Leading Hotels has ultra-exclusive lodging in 80 countries, and some of its properties are part of golf resorts, but I can't determine if it owns any golf courses.

Goa's tourism officials say they've also received a third proposal, from an unnamed group, but suggested that it wasn't a serious contender.

DLF is probably best known as the developer of DLF City, the mini-metropolis that helped to make Gurgaon, a southwestern suburb of New Delhi, the industrial and financial center of Haryana. DLF City is home to one of India’s top golf courses, an Arnold Palmer-designed track at DLF Golf & Country Club, and last year DLF hired Gary Player to design the community's second golf course.

Goa's government haven't said when the winner will be selected.

“A committee will go through the details and take it ahead from there,” the state's tourism director told the Times of India.

australia Graham Marsh Does a Site Visit

Last year Graham Marsh agreed to design a golf course for a small resort community on Queensland’s central coast, and last week he got his first look at the site.

The Gladstone Observer reports that Marsh “was impressed with what he saw” and believes his course has “the potential not only to be the best in Central Queensland but also Queensland.”

The 18-hole, championship-length track will be the featured attraction of a community that's being developed by a group of local businessmen operating as the Boyne Tannum Trust. The trust takes its name from the towns of Boyne Island and Tannum Sands, which are located across from each other along the western and eastern shores of the Boyne River. The combined population of the towns, which are roughly 15 miles south of Gladstone, is about 10,000.

Besides Marsh's golf course, the community will include some golf course houses, riverfront townhouses, apartments, and villas for retirees, along with an aquatic center and a shopping area.

Marsh, who’s based in Robina, Queensland, has designed two courses in China, including Suzhou Taihu International Golf Course in Suzhou, and two in the United States, including Sutton Bay Golf Club in Pierre, South Dakota. The trust hopes his course in Boyne Tannum will open in 2014.

dubai The $50 Million Man

It turns out that the amount Tiger Woods supposedly got for designing his golf course in Dubai -- $10 million -- was off by a factor of five.

Last week the Guardian reported that Woods has in fact received more than $50 million for his work on now-suspended golf course.

The paper, citing a report in Arabian Business, says that Woods received more than $26 million in 2006, when he agreed to design the course at Tiger Woods Dubai. At the time, you'll remember, it was widely speculated that Woods was getting $25 million for the job.

In addition, the Guardian says, Woods received another $26 million in the summer of 2008 -- just weeks before the financial world collapsed -- when he renegotiated his contract. As part of the deal, he gave up the lot he was to receive in the community.

According to Arabian Business, Woods would have received even more money if Tiger Woods Dubai had come to life. He was set to get a $14.6 million appearance fee when the community officially opened and almost $29 million for designing a second 18-hole course for Tatweer, the group that was developing the community.

I'm sure that Woods would have liked to design the golf course in the community that was named after him. But that $52 million certainly cushions the blow.