malaysia IMG's First-Time Designers

Padraig Harrington and K. J. Choi, whose careers are managed by IMG, have been tapped to design 18-hole “signature” golf courses for a resort community in Malaysia.

So far, not much is known about the community, except that it’ll include houses and a hotel and take shape on a former palm oil plantation near Kuala Lumpur.

I got wind of the project last fall, when Harrington told the Irish Independent, “It has not been officially announced, nor does the course I’m designing have a name, but it’s just outside KL.”

I've since learned that the courses are expected to be championship-caliber tracks that will stretch to 7,000 yards or more. The community’s unnamed developers could break ground on them this year, but it hasn’t yet been determined whether the courses will be built at once or one at a time.

Neither golfer has yet designed a golf course, although they each designed a hole for Legend Golf & Safari Resort in Limpopo Province, South Africa. They'll receive design assistance from Brit Stenson, the head architect in IMG’s office in Cleveland, Ohio.