. . . The Windy City beckons: Tom Doak has been tapped to oversee a complete makeover of the #1 course at Medinah Country Club in suburban Chicago. The 6,713-yard layout was designed by Tom Bendelow and opened in 1925. Subsequent renovations were reportedly overseen by Roger Packard and Roger Rulewich, but a club official admits that “very little work has been done” to the course in recent years. As of mid April, the club and Doak hadn’t officially signed a contract, but Barry Garrett, the club’s general manager, told me that it’s “our wish to do a deal.” The work could begin as early as 2011, though it’s more likely that it'll begin after Medinah's #3, recently overhauled by Rees Jones, course hosts the Ryder Cup in 2012.
. . . Once upon a time, the biggest names in golf design wouldn't be caught dead bidding on a municipal golf project, especially one with a budget ceiling of just $6.6 million, clubhouse and all. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and most every architect in the United States submitted a bid to design the city of Laredo's new course, which is under construction and scheduled to open roughly a year from now. Robert Trent Jones, Jr., he of the prodigious ego and the immortal pedigree, won the competition. At a recent press preview, Jones humbly announced that his 7,297-yard track “is destined to be regarded as one of the best public golf courses in Texas.”
. . . Does anybody out there know when National Golf Day is? Correct answer: April 13. I know because I got a press release telling me that, as part of the fourth annual National Golf Day festivities, members of We Are Golf took to Capitol Hill to “share stories and data that illustrate golf's diverse businesses and employees, the tax revenue it creates, the tourism it spawns, the charity it generates, and the environmental leadership it provides.” In other words, in the grand Washington tradition, they lobbied their elected officials to get their slice of the government pie. Here's Golf Digest's take on the challenge We Are Golf faces in changing hearts and minds, in Congress and in towns and cities from coast to coast:
There’s a lot of talk these days about whether we can raise enough money to promote our game sufficiently in Washington and elsewhere. But golf’s problem isn’t insufficient funds. It’s insufficient fun.
Our game is run by good players . . . and they focus on the sport as competition. (Include Golf Digest here). What do they spend most of their time on? Scores, handicaps, rules, stats. They have created an avid golfer often obsessed with score, frequently intolerant of beginners, and, because they live to break some personal best, study every shot and play as if they have all the time in the world. Our competitions take five and six hours, and we talk until our audiences are nodding off about golf’s sacred integrity. . . .
But the game’s growth, its sense of inclusion, its “We Are Golf” soul, depends upon making way for new players who just want to have fun -- the hitters and gigglers who don’t know Jack Nicklaus from Jack Nicholson, couldn’t identify a square groove if you comped their green fee, and live to hit a drive into the range picker’s cart. Their bible is not Mark Frost’s The Match but Happy Gilmore, if they know that much, and golf may be just an excuse to meet a neighbor, play a few holes, spend time with their spouse, walk for a couple of hours, or drink a Corona.
I sure hope the people behind We Are Golf are successful in getting their points across. Because if they aren't, we'll have to change their name to We Were Golf.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
netherlands Channeling Harry Colt
An 80-year-old golf course designed by Harry S. Colt will serve as the inspiration for a heathland-style layout that’s to be built just east of Eindhoven, in southern Holland.
De Swinkelsche will take shape on 240 acres in Someren. Its developers, Harry and Hendrik Swinkels, hope it reminds people of Eindhovensche Golf Course, a nearby Colt-designed track that opened in 1930 and is, according to Golf Course Architecture, “generally considered the best course of the southern Netherlands.”
The brothers were hoping to break ground on the course in early 2011. It’ll be joined by an aqua range and, eventually, a nine-hole “practice” course.
De Swinkelsche has been designed by Frank Pont, a Den Dolder-based architect whose work emulates that of “classic” designers, particularly Colt and Tom Simpson. Pont may be biased, but he told me via e-mail that De Swinkelsche will be “one of the Netherlands’ best new courses built in the last 30 years.”
Pont, the principal of Infinite Variety Golf Design, earned an MBA at the University of Chicago and, after a stint as an investment banker in England, studied golf design in Edinburgh and did an apprenticeship with David McLay Kidd. His 18-hole course at Turfvaert Golfpark in Breda opened last year, and he’s renovated or is currently renovating nearly two dozen courses designed by Colt, Simpson, Henry Cotton, and Frank Pennink.
Pont is also waiting to begin work on two other projects in the Netherlands. In late 2011 or early 2012, he expects to break ground on a 36-hole complex for the 1,350-acre Landgoed Princepeel estate near Nijmegen, and in 2012 he hopes to start work on an 18-hole course for the Rolduc seminary and conference center in Kerkrade.
De Swinkelsche will take shape on 240 acres in Someren. Its developers, Harry and Hendrik Swinkels, hope it reminds people of Eindhovensche Golf Course, a nearby Colt-designed track that opened in 1930 and is, according to Golf Course Architecture, “generally considered the best course of the southern Netherlands.”
The brothers were hoping to break ground on the course in early 2011. It’ll be joined by an aqua range and, eventually, a nine-hole “practice” course.
De Swinkelsche has been designed by Frank Pont, a Den Dolder-based architect whose work emulates that of “classic” designers, particularly Colt and Tom Simpson. Pont may be biased, but he told me via e-mail that De Swinkelsche will be “one of the Netherlands’ best new courses built in the last 30 years.”
Pont, the principal of Infinite Variety Golf Design, earned an MBA at the University of Chicago and, after a stint as an investment banker in England, studied golf design in Edinburgh and did an apprenticeship with David McLay Kidd. His 18-hole course at Turfvaert Golfpark in Breda opened last year, and he’s renovated or is currently renovating nearly two dozen courses designed by Colt, Simpson, Henry Cotton, and Frank Pennink.
Pont is also waiting to begin work on two other projects in the Netherlands. In late 2011 or early 2012, he expects to break ground on a 36-hole complex for the 1,350-acre Landgoed Princepeel estate near Nijmegen, and in 2012 he hopes to start work on an 18-hole course for the Rolduc seminary and conference center in Kerkrade.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
The Week That Was: April 24, 2011
brazil Olympics Course Finds Its Home
The people in charge of the golf event at the 2016 Olympics haven't yet settled on a course designer, but they've apparently settled on a site.
“A site has been earmarked,” reports Peter Dawson, the president of the International Golf Federation, which is overseeing the search.
The property is in “a tremendous location,” Dawson said in a story reported by SportingLife.com, “very close to the beach and only three or four kilometers from the Olympic village.”
Dawson also told the website that Rio de Janeiro's Olympic organizing committee is currently negotiating to acquire the property. “We hope to have more news on that in the next two or three weeks,” he said.
Next up for the Powers That Be: selecting the course's designer.
According to Dawson, “about 15 companies” have asked to be considered, and the winner will be selected sooner rather than later. The list includes both share-the-limelight teams (Jack Nicklaus and Annika Sorenstam, Greg Norman and Lorena Ochoa) and noteworthy sole practitioners (Arnold Palmer, Gary Player).
“It's a part of the world where the grass grows very quickly,” Dawson says, “but we need to determine the architect and get going on it this year, otherwise it's going to be a rush.”
maldives Troon Rides the Wave
The world's least likely golf venture appears to be picking up steam.
Troon Golf, a blue-ribbon management company, has signed on as a “technical advisor” to the developers who aim to build a “floating” resort near Male, the capital of the Maldives. According to a press release issued by Scottsdale, Arizona-based Troon, the to-be-named resort now has a construction schedule -- the opening date is set for 2015 -- and will include “state-of-the-art golf courses.”
And you thought I was nuts when I blogged about the project last September. Heck, pictures of the concept are now available!
The Maldives is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, roughly 600 miles off the southern coast of India. It's the lowest country on the planet -– the vast majority of it is only about three feet above sea level -– and, if the tides of global climate change continue on their current path, it’s in danger of being flooded into extinction.
Last year, the Maldives' government hired Dutch Docklands to explore the idea of building a resort on man-made islands that would both attract tourists and draw attention to its predicament. I'll confess that I never really believed the resort would get off the drawing board. Now I'm not so sure.
Besides its “world-class golf facility,” the resort will include houses and a hotel. Troon's press release says that it'll take shape on a “picturesque site” (in the world of press releases, there's really no other kind) just a short drive from the island's airport.
china The Price of Privilege
Does golf cost too much on Hainan Island in China?
China Radio International, a state-owned media company, reports that the number of golf-obsessed travelers visiting Hainan Island from Japan and Korea is declining, in part because rounds of golf have become too expensive. With fewer deep-pocketed vacationers to fill time sheets, says CRI, “calls for more affordable golf or making golf a mass sport have grown loud.”
Affordable golf in China, one of the most expensive golf markets on earth? A mass sport in a nation that habitually divides itself into haves and have-nots?
Not anytime soon, I don't think. A nation doesn't begin to deliver “affordable golf” -- that is, golf priced to suit its people and the amount of money in their wallets -- until it develops its own unique, up-from-the-masses golf culture. In China, a johnny-come-lately to golf, the process will likely take decades, no matter how much money the government decides to throw at it.
Through its short history, China's golf business has mostly followed the money, tailoring its products for upwardly mobile families who long to live in houses overlooking golf courses and on free-spending travelers eager to fill hotels, restaurants, and spas in places like Hainan Island. CRI says as much when it notes that golf in the People's Republic “is considered an exclusive pastime for the rich and privileged.”
Such a culture doesn't change overnight. It needs to evolve.
Still, it seems that at least one of Hainan Island's resorts might be willing to down-scale its operations.
“Making golf available and more affordable to the public,” said a top official of Yalong Bay Golf Club in Sanya, “may mean a reduction of our overall revenue, but it will bring us more profit because we are no longer targeting high-end customers, [which] means we may simplify luxury services, thus reducing costs.”
I'm thinking that Yalong Bay might want to run that idea past its accountants before acting on it.
The people in charge of the golf event at the 2016 Olympics haven't yet settled on a course designer, but they've apparently settled on a site.
“A site has been earmarked,” reports Peter Dawson, the president of the International Golf Federation, which is overseeing the search.
The property is in “a tremendous location,” Dawson said in a story reported by SportingLife.com, “very close to the beach and only three or four kilometers from the Olympic village.”
Dawson also told the website that Rio de Janeiro's Olympic organizing committee is currently negotiating to acquire the property. “We hope to have more news on that in the next two or three weeks,” he said.
Next up for the Powers That Be: selecting the course's designer.
According to Dawson, “about 15 companies” have asked to be considered, and the winner will be selected sooner rather than later. The list includes both share-the-limelight teams (Jack Nicklaus and Annika Sorenstam, Greg Norman and Lorena Ochoa) and noteworthy sole practitioners (Arnold Palmer, Gary Player).
“It's a part of the world where the grass grows very quickly,” Dawson says, “but we need to determine the architect and get going on it this year, otherwise it's going to be a rush.”
maldives Troon Rides the Wave
The world's least likely golf venture appears to be picking up steam.
Troon Golf, a blue-ribbon management company, has signed on as a “technical advisor” to the developers who aim to build a “floating” resort near Male, the capital of the Maldives. According to a press release issued by Scottsdale, Arizona-based Troon, the to-be-named resort now has a construction schedule -- the opening date is set for 2015 -- and will include “state-of-the-art golf courses.”
And you thought I was nuts when I blogged about the project last September. Heck, pictures of the concept are now available!
The Maldives is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, roughly 600 miles off the southern coast of India. It's the lowest country on the planet -– the vast majority of it is only about three feet above sea level -– and, if the tides of global climate change continue on their current path, it’s in danger of being flooded into extinction.
Last year, the Maldives' government hired Dutch Docklands to explore the idea of building a resort on man-made islands that would both attract tourists and draw attention to its predicament. I'll confess that I never really believed the resort would get off the drawing board. Now I'm not so sure.
Besides its “world-class golf facility,” the resort will include houses and a hotel. Troon's press release says that it'll take shape on a “picturesque site” (in the world of press releases, there's really no other kind) just a short drive from the island's airport.
china The Price of Privilege
Does golf cost too much on Hainan Island in China?
China Radio International, a state-owned media company, reports that the number of golf-obsessed travelers visiting Hainan Island from Japan and Korea is declining, in part because rounds of golf have become too expensive. With fewer deep-pocketed vacationers to fill time sheets, says CRI, “calls for more affordable golf or making golf a mass sport have grown loud.”
Affordable golf in China, one of the most expensive golf markets on earth? A mass sport in a nation that habitually divides itself into haves and have-nots?
Not anytime soon, I don't think. A nation doesn't begin to deliver “affordable golf” -- that is, golf priced to suit its people and the amount of money in their wallets -- until it develops its own unique, up-from-the-masses golf culture. In China, a johnny-come-lately to golf, the process will likely take decades, no matter how much money the government decides to throw at it.
Through its short history, China's golf business has mostly followed the money, tailoring its products for upwardly mobile families who long to live in houses overlooking golf courses and on free-spending travelers eager to fill hotels, restaurants, and spas in places like Hainan Island. CRI says as much when it notes that golf in the People's Republic “is considered an exclusive pastime for the rich and privileged.”
Such a culture doesn't change overnight. It needs to evolve.
Still, it seems that at least one of Hainan Island's resorts might be willing to down-scale its operations.
“Making golf available and more affordable to the public,” said a top official of Yalong Bay Golf Club in Sanya, “may mean a reduction of our overall revenue, but it will bring us more profit because we are no longer targeting high-end customers, [which] means we may simplify luxury services, thus reducing costs.”
I'm thinking that Yalong Bay might want to run that idea past its accountants before acting on it.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Shameless Self-Promotion, april 2011
Will golfers in the Land O'Lakes region of southern Ontario soon be singing “Hooray for Hollywood”? Can a golf community and a former munitions depot in northern England co-exist peacefully? And what do India's largest convention center and a company in North Carolina have in common?
Those are among the questions we answer in this month's World Edition of the Golf Course Report, still the first and only publication dedicated exclusively to reporting on golf development and construction all over the planet.
April's issue is really jam-packed with stories. We report on the upcoming relocation of Horton Park Golf Club in Queensland, Australia, the remaking of Schloss Moyland Golf Resort in Germany, and the Spanish developer that aims to build a pair of golf communities in Andalusia. We unveil new courses in Holland, in suburban Vancouver, in Sri Lanka, and in suburban Manila, and we've got the scoop on Rees Jones' second golf project in China.
Speaking of China, we've also got an update on Tom Doak's twin projects on Hainan Island, along with news of a 36-hole complex recently announced by China Golf Group.
And we profile two new golf courses in Romania: one that will be part of a four-season resort community planned to grow around a historic castle, the other being developed by the owner of the nation's largest chain of do-it-yourself stores.
There's more, but I'm sure you get the idea: We cover it all.
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.
Those are among the questions we answer in this month's World Edition of the Golf Course Report, still the first and only publication dedicated exclusively to reporting on golf development and construction all over the planet.
April's issue is really jam-packed with stories. We report on the upcoming relocation of Horton Park Golf Club in Queensland, Australia, the remaking of Schloss Moyland Golf Resort in Germany, and the Spanish developer that aims to build a pair of golf communities in Andalusia. We unveil new courses in Holland, in suburban Vancouver, in Sri Lanka, and in suburban Manila, and we've got the scoop on Rees Jones' second golf project in China.
Speaking of China, we've also got an update on Tom Doak's twin projects on Hainan Island, along with news of a 36-hole complex recently announced by China Golf Group.
And we profile two new golf courses in Romania: one that will be part of a four-season resort community planned to grow around a historic castle, the other being developed by the owner of the nation's largest chain of do-it-yourself stores.
There's more, but I'm sure you get the idea: We cover it all.
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.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
russia Forrest Service
Earlier this year Steve Forrest was in Morocco, checking on the progress of the 18-hole golf course he’s designed for the Chrifia resort community in Marrakesh. He's also planning a trip to Russia, as he has an 18-hole course in St. Petersburg that could break ground this spring.
Forrest isn't willing to discuss new the course, but he did mention that this summer he expects to resume construction on Forest Hills Golf & Country Club in suburban Moscow. Work on the club’s 7,300-yard course began several years ago (12 holes were completed) but was suspended when its developer, Oleg Kustikov of Protcion Company, got into a financial pinch.
Forrest, a principal of Toledo, Ohio-based Arthur Hills & Associates, reports that “a new investor with money” has given the project life. We don’t know exactly what the new investor has in mind, but Kustikov, who owned 550 acres, had planned to build vacation houses and a five-star hotel adjacent to the course.
Forrest hopes to open his 7,000-yard course at Chrifia in the spring of 2012, but he doesn’t foresee picking up any additional business in Morocco anytime soon.
“We’re putting our eggs in China and Russia,” he says.
Forrest isn't willing to discuss new the course, but he did mention that this summer he expects to resume construction on Forest Hills Golf & Country Club in suburban Moscow. Work on the club’s 7,300-yard course began several years ago (12 holes were completed) but was suspended when its developer, Oleg Kustikov of Protcion Company, got into a financial pinch.
Forrest, a principal of Toledo, Ohio-based Arthur Hills & Associates, reports that “a new investor with money” has given the project life. We don’t know exactly what the new investor has in mind, but Kustikov, who owned 550 acres, had planned to build vacation houses and a five-star hotel adjacent to the course.
Forrest hopes to open his 7,000-yard course at Chrifia in the spring of 2012, but he doesn’t foresee picking up any additional business in Morocco anytime soon.
“We’re putting our eggs in China and Russia,” he says.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
The Week That Was: April 17, 2011
ireland The Luck of the Irish
When he isn't trying to expose Barack Obama as a fraud, Donald Trump continues to search the planet for undervalued golf properties. And he may have found one he likes on the eastern coast of Ireland, about a 40-minute drive south of Dublin.
The speculation is that Trump has his eye on the European Club, one of the premier golf properties in the U.K. According to a report in the Irish Examiner, Trump's son, Donnie, recently met with representatives of a government-created group that aims to dump distressed assets for the nation's banks. The newspaper suggests that the parties discussed the European Club.
If that's true, Trump has a good eye. The European Club is owned by Pat Ruddy, a golf writer and editor who, in the early 1990s, put his money where his mouth is and designed what is, by all accounts, a true world-class, 7,323-yard layout. (The track actually has 20 holes available for play, 10 out and 10 in.) Darius Oliver of Planet Golf calls the course “one of the best modern links anywhere in Europe,” and another critic says it “feels like it has been there forever.” Executive Golf says the course record, a 67, was set by Tiger Woods in 2002.
Then again, maybe all this talk about a potential sale of Ruddy's club is much ado about nothing. Another Irish paper, the Journal, points out that the European Club isn't in financial trouble and hasn't been listed for sale, at least not officially.
It's also important to note that while Trump the Younger has reportedly visited the European Club, he's also sized up several other potential acquisition targets in Ireland.
puerto rico Not Your Father's Golf Course
A tired old relic of the 1960s is getting a make-over, and I'm not talking about Grace Slick.
I'm talking about the East course at Puerto Rico's Dorado Beach Club & Resort. The Robert Trent Jones-designed track opened in 1958 and, by the height of the Age of Aquarius, helped turn Dorado Beach into a bona fide celebrity hang-out. During those aromatic, smoke-filled days, the East course hosted its share of professional tournaments -- including the Senior PGA Tour Championship multiple times -- but it hasn't landed an event worth writing home about since the turn of the century.
Alas, the Beautiful People have found new vacation destinations, and they've taken their golf clubs with them. So, to prevent the resort from completely fading from memory, its owners have hired Robert Trent Jones, Jr. to revitalize his father's course. The goal is to once again attract those coveted world-class tournaments, not to mention some new tourist business.
The renovation began last fall. According to a press release that announced the project, Junior plans to recapture “the original design philosophy while uncovering a more flexible and fun course for all players.”
Translated, that means the track is being lengthened, via the addition and/or relocation of rear tees. It also means its greens are being restored to their original sizes and shapes, its bunkers are being rebuilt and relocated, its fairways are being widened, and drainage issues are being addressed.
“It's a treat for me at this point in my career to have the opportunity to refresh some of my father's most notable work,” Jones said in a prepared statement.
talking points Hope for No-Name Architects
It's tough for young and undiscovered architects to make a name for themselves, particularly in international golf circles. So if you're an architect who's flying under the radar, take some advice from Jason Straka: Book a flight to Russia.
When you get into Russia, they're just starting their golf culture, so they don't know the big [designer] names, says Straka, an associate in Hurdzan Fry Environmental Golf Design. They don't know a [Mike] Hurdzan from a [Pete] Dye from a [Jack] Nicklaus. You could be the worst designer in the world, and they wouldn't know any better.
When he isn't trying to expose Barack Obama as a fraud, Donald Trump continues to search the planet for undervalued golf properties. And he may have found one he likes on the eastern coast of Ireland, about a 40-minute drive south of Dublin.
The speculation is that Trump has his eye on the European Club, one of the premier golf properties in the U.K. According to a report in the Irish Examiner, Trump's son, Donnie, recently met with representatives of a government-created group that aims to dump distressed assets for the nation's banks. The newspaper suggests that the parties discussed the European Club.
If that's true, Trump has a good eye. The European Club is owned by Pat Ruddy, a golf writer and editor who, in the early 1990s, put his money where his mouth is and designed what is, by all accounts, a true world-class, 7,323-yard layout. (The track actually has 20 holes available for play, 10 out and 10 in.) Darius Oliver of Planet Golf calls the course “one of the best modern links anywhere in Europe,” and another critic says it “feels like it has been there forever.” Executive Golf says the course record, a 67, was set by Tiger Woods in 2002.
Then again, maybe all this talk about a potential sale of Ruddy's club is much ado about nothing. Another Irish paper, the Journal, points out that the European Club isn't in financial trouble and hasn't been listed for sale, at least not officially.
It's also important to note that while Trump the Younger has reportedly visited the European Club, he's also sized up several other potential acquisition targets in Ireland.
puerto rico Not Your Father's Golf Course
A tired old relic of the 1960s is getting a make-over, and I'm not talking about Grace Slick.
I'm talking about the East course at Puerto Rico's Dorado Beach Club & Resort. The Robert Trent Jones-designed track opened in 1958 and, by the height of the Age of Aquarius, helped turn Dorado Beach into a bona fide celebrity hang-out. During those aromatic, smoke-filled days, the East course hosted its share of professional tournaments -- including the Senior PGA Tour Championship multiple times -- but it hasn't landed an event worth writing home about since the turn of the century.
Alas, the Beautiful People have found new vacation destinations, and they've taken their golf clubs with them. So, to prevent the resort from completely fading from memory, its owners have hired Robert Trent Jones, Jr. to revitalize his father's course. The goal is to once again attract those coveted world-class tournaments, not to mention some new tourist business.
The renovation began last fall. According to a press release that announced the project, Junior plans to recapture “the original design philosophy while uncovering a more flexible and fun course for all players.”
Translated, that means the track is being lengthened, via the addition and/or relocation of rear tees. It also means its greens are being restored to their original sizes and shapes, its bunkers are being rebuilt and relocated, its fairways are being widened, and drainage issues are being addressed.
“It's a treat for me at this point in my career to have the opportunity to refresh some of my father's most notable work,” Jones said in a prepared statement.
talking points Hope for No-Name Architects
It's tough for young and undiscovered architects to make a name for themselves, particularly in international golf circles. So if you're an architect who's flying under the radar, take some advice from Jason Straka: Book a flight to Russia.
When you get into Russia, they're just starting their golf culture, so they don't know the big [designer] names, says Straka, an associate in Hurdzan Fry Environmental Golf Design. They don't know a [Mike] Hurdzan from a [Pete] Dye from a [Jack] Nicklaus. You could be the worst designer in the world, and they wouldn't know any better.
Friday, April 15, 2011
zambia TPL, On the Hunt
To service its growing portfolio in Africa -– two golf courses in Egypt and another in Zambia –- Thomson Perrett & Lobb has opened a design office in Cape Town, South Africa.
The office will be manned by Andrew Goosen, a native South African who’s worked with Tim Lobb in the firm’s U.K. office for the past four years.
Goosen’s first order of business will be to oversee the construction of the Egyptian courses, El Ein El Sukhna Beach Resort and New Giza Golf Club. The former is expected to open in 2012, the latter in 2013.
Also on his plate is a just-commissioned course in Zambia that will serve as a drawing card for a 125,000-acre hunting lodge.
“There has been noticeable growth and significant investment in the golf and tourism industry in Africa,” Goosen said in a press statement, “and the prospects for the sport are very strong."
TPL is headquartered in in Melbourne, Australia and also has an office in Beijing, China.
The office will be manned by Andrew Goosen, a native South African who’s worked with Tim Lobb in the firm’s U.K. office for the past four years.
Goosen’s first order of business will be to oversee the construction of the Egyptian courses, El Ein El Sukhna Beach Resort and New Giza Golf Club. The former is expected to open in 2012, the latter in 2013.
Also on his plate is a just-commissioned course in Zambia that will serve as a drawing card for a 125,000-acre hunting lodge.
“There has been noticeable growth and significant investment in the golf and tourism industry in Africa,” Goosen said in a press statement, “and the prospects for the sport are very strong."
TPL is headquartered in in Melbourne, Australia and also has an office in Beijing, China.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
News & Notes from the USA #3
. . . Reynolds Plantation has as nice a collection of golf courses as you'll find anywhere, and now we're learning what they're truly worth: $43.1 million or less, depending on how the final price is calculated. Later this month, the 3,500 property owners at Reynolds Plantation will likely agree to buy the community's six golf courses -- including tracks designed by Tom Fazio, Jack Nicklaus, and Rees Jones -- thereby bailing out their financially troubled developer, an entity controlled by Mercer Reynolds. Unfortunately, the courses aren't worth the price listed on the offer sheet. They were built as loss leaders, and they remain so to this day. As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution so delicately notes, they “are not run to turn a profit but to sell lots and lifestyle in the community.” For that reason, Reynolds has agreed to provide the property owners with some financial relief, in the form of $21.5 million that will be paid in installments through 2017 to cover the courses' losses. In other words, the sales price is a little bit of a mirage, like so much else at the tony resort community on Georgia's Lake Oconee.
. . . Golf development may still be down and out, but it appears that things are looking up for golf's “big-box” retailers. The South Florida Business Journal reports that the Golfsmith chain has posted its best sales quarter in five years, thanks in part to pent-up demand. “Golfers are starting to spend money again,” said Golfsmith's marketing director. Edwin Watts didn't share any sales figures, but it opened 21 stores in 2010 and plans to open four more this month. “The strength of our business tells me we are climbing out of this recession,” said the company's CEO. Of course, the Big Boys are building their market share by squeezing the nation's mom-and-pop stores out of existence, but that didn't stop the Business Journal from declaring that the golf industry “is getting back on course.”
. . . Update from the Mecca of Minimalism: The 12-hole, par-3 track coming out of the sand at the Bandon Dunes resort in Oregon has grown a bit. “We've found a 13th hole,” Ben Crenshaw said in a story issued by Cybergolf. The odd number doesn't phase Mike Keiser, the resort's developer, who's defied convention numerous times in the past and will most certainly continue to do so. The course, likely to be called Bandon Preserve, is scheduled to open in the summer of 2012. Bill Coore, Crenshaw's design partner, calls it “real golf on a smaller scale.”
. . . When did golf, a game originally played along the ground, evolve into a game played mostly in the air? And can military metaphors help explain the evolution? Just ask Robert
Trent Jones, Jr., who was inspired to draw this comparison during a conversation with a reporter from the Buffalo News: The ground game was the original game. I like to say it's the difference between World War I and World War II. World War I was in the trenches and on the ground. World War II was the Luftwaffe and the American and British air forces bombing. The aerial game is post-World War II. That was kind of what my father popularized.
. . . Golf development may still be down and out, but it appears that things are looking up for golf's “big-box” retailers. The South Florida Business Journal reports that the Golfsmith chain has posted its best sales quarter in five years, thanks in part to pent-up demand. “Golfers are starting to spend money again,” said Golfsmith's marketing director. Edwin Watts didn't share any sales figures, but it opened 21 stores in 2010 and plans to open four more this month. “The strength of our business tells me we are climbing out of this recession,” said the company's CEO. Of course, the Big Boys are building their market share by squeezing the nation's mom-and-pop stores out of existence, but that didn't stop the Business Journal from declaring that the golf industry “is getting back on course.”
. . . Update from the Mecca of Minimalism: The 12-hole, par-3 track coming out of the sand at the Bandon Dunes resort in Oregon has grown a bit. “We've found a 13th hole,” Ben Crenshaw said in a story issued by Cybergolf. The odd number doesn't phase Mike Keiser, the resort's developer, who's defied convention numerous times in the past and will most certainly continue to do so. The course, likely to be called Bandon Preserve, is scheduled to open in the summer of 2012. Bill Coore, Crenshaw's design partner, calls it “real golf on a smaller scale.”
. . . When did golf, a game originally played along the ground, evolve into a game played mostly in the air? And can military metaphors help explain the evolution? Just ask Robert
Trent Jones, Jr., who was inspired to draw this comparison during a conversation with a reporter from the Buffalo News: The ground game was the original game. I like to say it's the difference between World War I and World War II. World War I was in the trenches and on the ground. World War II was the Luftwaffe and the American and British air forces bombing. The aerial game is post-World War II. That was kind of what my father popularized.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
The Week That Was: April 10, 2011
russia What's Under the Table?
Some fun statistics about golf in Russia, courtesy of the BBC: Of the nation's more than 141 million people, only about 3,000 are “registered” golfers. Only 17,000 Russians have played golf even once. And the nation has just seven golf courses, says the British news service, most of them “private, elite places designed by the world's leading golf course architects.”
So why hasn't golf development gained any traction in Russia, a big, wealthy nation with Western pretensions? Why is there what the BBC calls “an almost complete lack of golf culture” in Russia?
The problem, at least in part, is the extremely high cost of golf construction. In Russia, according to the BBC's sources, it costs as much as $36 million to build an 18-hole golf course -- $2 million per hole. By contrast, the BBC points out, a fellow in Finland can build a golf course for a measly $100,000 per hole.
Why the huge disparity?
Igor Malyshkov, the president of Moscow City Golf Club, blames the high prices in Russia on “the complexity of the irrigation system,” the “quality of grass,” and unspecified “design demands.”
Are you laughing as hard as I am?
C'mon, Igor, cut the comedy. How gullible do you think we are?
Golf construction in Russia is ridiculously expensive because most everyone who wears a tie to work in your country is looking for a little extra money on the side. In Russia's venal, corrupt economy, virtually everyone lines his or her pockets with payola, most especially the petty bureaucrats who sign their names on construction permits. Bribery is a time-honored tradition in Russia, and Western companies who operate there budget for it, as a cost of doing business.
No need to tip-toe around the subject, folks. The problem can't be fixed until it's addressed.
europe When Does the Gloom Lift?
Now that signs of golf's recovery are beginning to make a welcome appearance in the United States, the BBC has apparently discovered that the European golf industry “suffered during the recent economic downturn, and many challenges remain.”
In a nutshell, here are the major challenges that the BBC believes must be addressed by Europe's golf industry: the construction boom has ended, affordable financing has evaporated, participation levels have fallen, skyrocketing oil prices have increased maintenance costs, and a crazy number of distressed properties have put the squeeze on market values.
To be sure, these are daunting challenges. But they've been around for more than two years. The U.S. golf industry has already addressed them. Hasn't the European golf industry done likewise?
Maybe not. An official at KPMG's Golf Advisory Practice in Budapest, Hungary characterizes the “overall” state of golf in the Old World today as “quite gloomy.”
“There will have to be a lot of changes made,” Marnix Von Bartheld told the British news service. “Golf piggy-backed for a decade on a growing economy and now needs to restructure.”
Not to put too fine a point on it, but didn't most every industry on earth piggy-back on the flush, pre-crash economy? The good times rolled, and everyone with an attractive product or service rolled with them.
But the rising tide that floated our boats receded long ago. Haven't most of the golf companies in Europe already restructured their operations so they can compete in a leaner, post-crash world? If not, why not?
Golf in the United States bottomed out last year. In 2011, the industry will begin its comeback. It won't be dramatic or anything to brag about, and many golf-related businesses will continue to face hard times. But golf on this side of the Atlantic has finally regained its pulse. If you look hard enough, you'll see the evidence.
Is a recovery in Europe still years away?
scotland The Gushing Continues
When he isn't running a fraudulent campaign for president, starring in a hokey television show, and spewing hot “birther” air on Fox News, the increasingly irrelevant Donald Trump continues to build “the world's greatest golf course” on a sandy, coastal expanse he calls “the Great Dunes of Scotland.”
And much to Trump's delight, people won't stop slobbering all over it.
Esie O'Mahony, the construction manager for SOL Golf Course Construction, the course's builder, told the Scotsman that the course is indeed destined to become “legendary.” He proclaimed that Martin Hawtree, the course's designer, is “a genius.” He said that building the 7,400-yard track has been “the highlight of my career.”
“It is only going to go downhill from here,” O'Mahony concluded. “You are never going to get a site like this or a client like this again. It is going to be hard to motivate yourself to go to work once we are finished here.”
Such talk must be music to Trump's ears. With every sentence, another tee time is reserved.
More importantly, the Scotsman reports that the construction of Trump International Golf Club Scotland is progressing full bore. All 18 of the course's holes have been shaped, and the dunes they sit upon have been stabilized. The track's tees are in place and will be sodded later this month. Its greens are being sculpted, its irrigation system is set to begin operating next month, and its fairways will be seeded later this summer.
Bury all doubts: The course is on pace to open in the summer of 2012, as Trump has promised.
talking points Gary Player Rants and Raves
During a Q&A at the Masters, Gary Player yet again scolded golf's Powers That Be on the subject that most perturbs him: The “live ball” era, and its effect on golf design. Here are the highlights of his complaint, as edited and punctuated by me:
You cannot put the tees in the streets, gentlemen and ladies. They have got to their limit. So the next thing is, you have to slow the ball down. Because golf courses are going to be completely outdated, which is happening now. . . .
From Timbuktu to Tokyo to China to here, everyone is lengthening golf courses. The members hate it. Fees are going up [because] oil is getting more expensive and we are running out of water. . . . People are saying, “Let me out of here” -- they can’t afford it -- instead of staying where we were and just [slowing] the ball down. . . .
This is going to happen, I can promise you. It is going to happen in time, because hundreds of millions of dollars are going wasted on unnecessary programs.
Some fun statistics about golf in Russia, courtesy of the BBC: Of the nation's more than 141 million people, only about 3,000 are “registered” golfers. Only 17,000 Russians have played golf even once. And the nation has just seven golf courses, says the British news service, most of them “private, elite places designed by the world's leading golf course architects.”
So why hasn't golf development gained any traction in Russia, a big, wealthy nation with Western pretensions? Why is there what the BBC calls “an almost complete lack of golf culture” in Russia?
The problem, at least in part, is the extremely high cost of golf construction. In Russia, according to the BBC's sources, it costs as much as $36 million to build an 18-hole golf course -- $2 million per hole. By contrast, the BBC points out, a fellow in Finland can build a golf course for a measly $100,000 per hole.
Why the huge disparity?
Igor Malyshkov, the president of Moscow City Golf Club, blames the high prices in Russia on “the complexity of the irrigation system,” the “quality of grass,” and unspecified “design demands.”
Are you laughing as hard as I am?
C'mon, Igor, cut the comedy. How gullible do you think we are?
Golf construction in Russia is ridiculously expensive because most everyone who wears a tie to work in your country is looking for a little extra money on the side. In Russia's venal, corrupt economy, virtually everyone lines his or her pockets with payola, most especially the petty bureaucrats who sign their names on construction permits. Bribery is a time-honored tradition in Russia, and Western companies who operate there budget for it, as a cost of doing business.
No need to tip-toe around the subject, folks. The problem can't be fixed until it's addressed.
europe When Does the Gloom Lift?
Now that signs of golf's recovery are beginning to make a welcome appearance in the United States, the BBC has apparently discovered that the European golf industry “suffered during the recent economic downturn, and many challenges remain.”
In a nutshell, here are the major challenges that the BBC believes must be addressed by Europe's golf industry: the construction boom has ended, affordable financing has evaporated, participation levels have fallen, skyrocketing oil prices have increased maintenance costs, and a crazy number of distressed properties have put the squeeze on market values.
To be sure, these are daunting challenges. But they've been around for more than two years. The U.S. golf industry has already addressed them. Hasn't the European golf industry done likewise?
Maybe not. An official at KPMG's Golf Advisory Practice in Budapest, Hungary characterizes the “overall” state of golf in the Old World today as “quite gloomy.”
“There will have to be a lot of changes made,” Marnix Von Bartheld told the British news service. “Golf piggy-backed for a decade on a growing economy and now needs to restructure.”
Not to put too fine a point on it, but didn't most every industry on earth piggy-back on the flush, pre-crash economy? The good times rolled, and everyone with an attractive product or service rolled with them.
But the rising tide that floated our boats receded long ago. Haven't most of the golf companies in Europe already restructured their operations so they can compete in a leaner, post-crash world? If not, why not?
Golf in the United States bottomed out last year. In 2011, the industry will begin its comeback. It won't be dramatic or anything to brag about, and many golf-related businesses will continue to face hard times. But golf on this side of the Atlantic has finally regained its pulse. If you look hard enough, you'll see the evidence.
Is a recovery in Europe still years away?
scotland The Gushing Continues
When he isn't running a fraudulent campaign for president, starring in a hokey television show, and spewing hot “birther” air on Fox News, the increasingly irrelevant Donald Trump continues to build “the world's greatest golf course” on a sandy, coastal expanse he calls “the Great Dunes of Scotland.”
And much to Trump's delight, people won't stop slobbering all over it.
Esie O'Mahony, the construction manager for SOL Golf Course Construction, the course's builder, told the Scotsman that the course is indeed destined to become “legendary.” He proclaimed that Martin Hawtree, the course's designer, is “a genius.” He said that building the 7,400-yard track has been “the highlight of my career.”
“It is only going to go downhill from here,” O'Mahony concluded. “You are never going to get a site like this or a client like this again. It is going to be hard to motivate yourself to go to work once we are finished here.”
Such talk must be music to Trump's ears. With every sentence, another tee time is reserved.
More importantly, the Scotsman reports that the construction of Trump International Golf Club Scotland is progressing full bore. All 18 of the course's holes have been shaped, and the dunes they sit upon have been stabilized. The track's tees are in place and will be sodded later this month. Its greens are being sculpted, its irrigation system is set to begin operating next month, and its fairways will be seeded later this summer.
Bury all doubts: The course is on pace to open in the summer of 2012, as Trump has promised.
talking points Gary Player Rants and Raves
During a Q&A at the Masters, Gary Player yet again scolded golf's Powers That Be on the subject that most perturbs him: The “live ball” era, and its effect on golf design. Here are the highlights of his complaint, as edited and punctuated by me:
You cannot put the tees in the streets, gentlemen and ladies. They have got to their limit. So the next thing is, you have to slow the ball down. Because golf courses are going to be completely outdated, which is happening now. . . .
From Timbuktu to Tokyo to China to here, everyone is lengthening golf courses. The members hate it. Fees are going up [because] oil is getting more expensive and we are running out of water. . . . People are saying, “Let me out of here” -- they can’t afford it -- instead of staying where we were and just [slowing] the ball down. . . .
This is going to happen, I can promise you. It is going to happen in time, because hundreds of millions of dollars are going wasted on unnecessary programs.
Friday, April 8, 2011
talking points The Public Domain
Can you build a reputation off a golf course that's practically invisible?
That's the question I asked a couple of weeks ago, in a post about Mike Nuzzo, the architect who designed Wolf Point Club in Texas. Wolf Point is said to be a very good golf course, but it was built for the personal use of a wealthy Texan and, as a result, hardly anyone has played it.
Wolf Point is not a career builder. It may very well deserve glowing reviews, state rankings, maybe even national rankings. But it won't ever get them. For all practical purposes, it doesn't exist.
Similarly, exactly how visible are the golf courses at private clubs? How much easier is it to build a reputation off courses that are only marginally more accessible than Wolf Point?
Tom Doak addressed this issue during a recent interview with Darius Oliver of Planet Golf. Oliver asked about the value of designing golf courses that are open to the public. Here's part of Doak's answer:
When I was a younger architect, I thought doing private clubs had more prestige. Out of the first 10 golf courses I built, eight of them were public golf courses, mostly modest public courses.
But then I built a course in Philadelphia called Stonewall. It was my first private club. I thought it was really good, [but] it got no recognition at all. I thought it was going to be the course that boosted my career up, but once it didn’t get voted best new golf course of the year, no one paid attention anymore, because it was private and people couldn’t play it.
The magazines write about courses that are publicly accessible, that readers can go and play. . . . Pacific Dunes, Cape Kidnappers, Barnbougle -- they’re all beautiful places, they’re all by the ocean, they’re all publicly accessible. Golf Digest, Golf magazine -- every magazine writes something about Bandon Dunes every year.
It’s like being the guy that built Pebble Beach, Jack Neville. [He] really only did one golf course. If he were still alive, he’d still be getting a ton of work without even trying, because everyone would want to hire the guy who did Pebble Beach. But the reason Pebble Beach is as famous as it is is because it’s a resort golf course and people can go there.
It's a great fortune for me to have [my best] courses all be public.
I love Sand Hills, but Sand Hills is not only a private club but a private club with a short season and a small membership. They play maybe 8,000 rounds of golf a year there. The year after Pacific Dunes opened, they played 40,000 rounds of golf on it. They’d already played more golf on it, and more people had seen it, than had seen Sand Hills in the seven years it had been open.
That’s important.
That's the question I asked a couple of weeks ago, in a post about Mike Nuzzo, the architect who designed Wolf Point Club in Texas. Wolf Point is said to be a very good golf course, but it was built for the personal use of a wealthy Texan and, as a result, hardly anyone has played it.
Wolf Point is not a career builder. It may very well deserve glowing reviews, state rankings, maybe even national rankings. But it won't ever get them. For all practical purposes, it doesn't exist.
Similarly, exactly how visible are the golf courses at private clubs? How much easier is it to build a reputation off courses that are only marginally more accessible than Wolf Point?
Tom Doak addressed this issue during a recent interview with Darius Oliver of Planet Golf. Oliver asked about the value of designing golf courses that are open to the public. Here's part of Doak's answer:
When I was a younger architect, I thought doing private clubs had more prestige. Out of the first 10 golf courses I built, eight of them were public golf courses, mostly modest public courses.
But then I built a course in Philadelphia called Stonewall. It was my first private club. I thought it was really good, [but] it got no recognition at all. I thought it was going to be the course that boosted my career up, but once it didn’t get voted best new golf course of the year, no one paid attention anymore, because it was private and people couldn’t play it.
The magazines write about courses that are publicly accessible, that readers can go and play. . . . Pacific Dunes, Cape Kidnappers, Barnbougle -- they’re all beautiful places, they’re all by the ocean, they’re all publicly accessible. Golf Digest, Golf magazine -- every magazine writes something about Bandon Dunes every year.
It’s like being the guy that built Pebble Beach, Jack Neville. [He] really only did one golf course. If he were still alive, he’d still be getting a ton of work without even trying, because everyone would want to hire the guy who did Pebble Beach. But the reason Pebble Beach is as famous as it is is because it’s a resort golf course and people can go there.
It's a great fortune for me to have [my best] courses all be public.
I love Sand Hills, but Sand Hills is not only a private club but a private club with a short season and a small membership. They play maybe 8,000 rounds of golf a year there. The year after Pacific Dunes opened, they played 40,000 rounds of golf on it. They’d already played more golf on it, and more people had seen it, than had seen Sand Hills in the seven years it had been open.
That’s important.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
china The Healing Game
Perhaps as soon as this year, a coal mine in one of China’s most polluted cities could begin to find new life as a golf community.
The to-be-named enclave is to take shape on 1,500 acres in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province, and will eventually include houses, a hotel, a retail/commercial area, and a pair of 18-hole courses.
Joe Jemsek, a Chicago, Illinois-based architect, has been hired to design the first course, part of which will consist of mountain-style holes that will be routed through hills on the property. (No, the track won’t be walkable.)
“I like the concept of taking a site that’s unsuitable for much of anything and healing the mountain with new, environmentally friendly development,” Jemsek says.
Jemsek is working with a Chinese firm, Royal Golf, on the project.
The developers, a group led by a Taiwan-based Chinese investor, are currently trying to secure a lease on the property. If they can wrap up the negotiations quickly, they could start remediating the site this year.
With luck, Jemsek’s course could open in 2014.
The to-be-named enclave is to take shape on 1,500 acres in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province, and will eventually include houses, a hotel, a retail/commercial area, and a pair of 18-hole courses.
Joe Jemsek, a Chicago, Illinois-based architect, has been hired to design the first course, part of which will consist of mountain-style holes that will be routed through hills on the property. (No, the track won’t be walkable.)
“I like the concept of taking a site that’s unsuitable for much of anything and healing the mountain with new, environmentally friendly development,” Jemsek says.
Jemsek is working with a Chinese firm, Royal Golf, on the project.
The developers, a group led by a Taiwan-based Chinese investor, are currently trying to secure a lease on the property. If they can wrap up the negotiations quickly, they could start remediating the site this year.
With luck, Jemsek’s course could open in 2014.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
The Week That Was: April 3, 2011
cambodia A Huge Resort in Koh Kong Province
A Chinese development firm aims to build a massive vacation destination in Koh Kong Province, in southwestern Cambodia.
The to-be-named mega-resort will spread over some 90,000 acres in the province's Botum Sakor and Kiri Sakor districts. At build-out, it's expected to include houses, hotels, an airport, a marina, a shopping area, and at least one golf course.
“This is a major tourism development in Asia,” the province's deputy governor told the Phnom Penh Post. “It will be the second largest attraction for tourists to Cambodia, after the Angkor Wat temples.”
The resort is being developed by Union Development Group, which has already built a port to facilitate the delivery of construction materials to the site. UDG has begun to work on the resort's infrastructure, and it expects the construction to take 25 years.
design Tiger Blood
People are quick to make jokes about the whiffs that Tiger Woods has made in the design business: Three projects, three strike-outs. Ha ha ha.
Me, I'm not laughing. As far as I'm concerned, the entire golf industry would be better off if each of Woods' commissions -- the desert course in Dubai, the coastal course along the Baja Peninsula in Mexico, and the mountain course in North Carolina -- were open and thriving. After a while, gallows humor stops being funny.
This morning, on the eve of the Masters, Paul Sullivan of the New York Times addressed a question that many have previously asked: “Can Tiger Woods Design re-emerge as a viable enterprise?”
In Sullivan's view, the answer to the question goes like this: It seems likely that Mr. Woods will get the opportunity to build other courses in the future. At some point, his personal scandal will have faded, the real estate market may pick up, and he could even start winning golf tournaments again.
Not very enthusiastic, is he?
Sullivan's story breaks no new ground, but it does add to the knowledge about Woods' trinity of bogged-down projects. To wit:
Dubai. You can stick a fork in it. An official with a group that promotes golf in the Middle East tells Sullivan that Woods' course is “as good as dead and buried.”
“Basically, it was an exorbitant project,” said the unnamed official, who also provided a nice detail about the whereabouts of the development group: the CEO “had left” and his right-hand-man is “back in Canada.”
Mexico. Two and a half years after Punta Brava was announced, Sullivan reports, “no dirt has been moved” and Woods “has not visited in some time.” Nonetheless, the developers continue to insist that the “groundbreaking is set for later this year.”
If and when it's built, Punta Brava is likely to be a downscale shadow of its former self. Brian Tucker, one of the developers, says that prices of residential properties in the community, once expected to range from $3 million to $12 million, will now go for $800,000 to $3.9 million.
North Carolina. Cliffs Communities continues to work on its seventh course, a Gary Player-designed track in South Carolina, but Woods' course outside Asheville remains stuck in development limbo. “Woods’s course can’t be completed until more homes are sold,” Sullivan writes, “but buyers won’t commit until the course is finished.” As a result, “construction has halted until at least this summer.”
“We make no bones about it,” says a Cliffs insider. “Cash flow is still tough.”
Cash flow is also tough at Tiger Woods Design. Since accepting the assignment at Punta Brava, Woods hasn't been offered a contract he's been willing to sign.
“We are evaluating opportunities from all over the world,” the president of Tiger Woods Design told Sullivan. “We’re staying focused on our original mission of finding great sites, great partners, and creating spectacular designs. I’m very confident about our future.”
If that doesn't sound like boilerplate, I don't know what does.
talking points Swimming with the Shark
In a recent sit-down with the Golf Channel, Greg Norman identified some of the places where he believes golf development has a big upside. Here's a little of what he had to say:
The central government and head of tourism [in China] would like to see the game explode [to] where they have more golfers playing than in the United States in the next 20 years. Will they get there? Who knows.
Everyone's talking about how there are 3 million golfers in China, but only 380,000 play golf 10 or more times a year. Only 50 courses in China are under construction right now, which is not a lot, to say the least. If they meet the growth they want -- 25 million golfers -- they have to build 3,000 to 5,000 golf courses. . . .
There is a boom in South Korea because of Y. E. Yang and all the girls [on the LPGA tours]. A lot of Chinese money is in Vietnam, and it's a great destination. . . .
[The 2016 Olympics are] a big catalyst to stimulating the game of golf. We're seeing it from Brazil, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Columbia. Everywhere you look, people want to build golf courses.
A Chinese development firm aims to build a massive vacation destination in Koh Kong Province, in southwestern Cambodia.
The to-be-named mega-resort will spread over some 90,000 acres in the province's Botum Sakor and Kiri Sakor districts. At build-out, it's expected to include houses, hotels, an airport, a marina, a shopping area, and at least one golf course.
“This is a major tourism development in Asia,” the province's deputy governor told the Phnom Penh Post. “It will be the second largest attraction for tourists to Cambodia, after the Angkor Wat temples.”
The resort is being developed by Union Development Group, which has already built a port to facilitate the delivery of construction materials to the site. UDG has begun to work on the resort's infrastructure, and it expects the construction to take 25 years.
design Tiger Blood
People are quick to make jokes about the whiffs that Tiger Woods has made in the design business: Three projects, three strike-outs. Ha ha ha.
Me, I'm not laughing. As far as I'm concerned, the entire golf industry would be better off if each of Woods' commissions -- the desert course in Dubai, the coastal course along the Baja Peninsula in Mexico, and the mountain course in North Carolina -- were open and thriving. After a while, gallows humor stops being funny.
This morning, on the eve of the Masters, Paul Sullivan of the New York Times addressed a question that many have previously asked: “Can Tiger Woods Design re-emerge as a viable enterprise?”
In Sullivan's view, the answer to the question goes like this: It seems likely that Mr. Woods will get the opportunity to build other courses in the future. At some point, his personal scandal will have faded, the real estate market may pick up, and he could even start winning golf tournaments again.
Not very enthusiastic, is he?
Sullivan's story breaks no new ground, but it does add to the knowledge about Woods' trinity of bogged-down projects. To wit:
Dubai. You can stick a fork in it. An official with a group that promotes golf in the Middle East tells Sullivan that Woods' course is “as good as dead and buried.”
“Basically, it was an exorbitant project,” said the unnamed official, who also provided a nice detail about the whereabouts of the development group: the CEO “had left” and his right-hand-man is “back in Canada.”
Mexico. Two and a half years after Punta Brava was announced, Sullivan reports, “no dirt has been moved” and Woods “has not visited in some time.” Nonetheless, the developers continue to insist that the “groundbreaking is set for later this year.”
If and when it's built, Punta Brava is likely to be a downscale shadow of its former self. Brian Tucker, one of the developers, says that prices of residential properties in the community, once expected to range from $3 million to $12 million, will now go for $800,000 to $3.9 million.
North Carolina. Cliffs Communities continues to work on its seventh course, a Gary Player-designed track in South Carolina, but Woods' course outside Asheville remains stuck in development limbo. “Woods’s course can’t be completed until more homes are sold,” Sullivan writes, “but buyers won’t commit until the course is finished.” As a result, “construction has halted until at least this summer.”
“We make no bones about it,” says a Cliffs insider. “Cash flow is still tough.”
Cash flow is also tough at Tiger Woods Design. Since accepting the assignment at Punta Brava, Woods hasn't been offered a contract he's been willing to sign.
“We are evaluating opportunities from all over the world,” the president of Tiger Woods Design told Sullivan. “We’re staying focused on our original mission of finding great sites, great partners, and creating spectacular designs. I’m very confident about our future.”
If that doesn't sound like boilerplate, I don't know what does.
talking points Swimming with the Shark
In a recent sit-down with the Golf Channel, Greg Norman identified some of the places where he believes golf development has a big upside. Here's a little of what he had to say:
The central government and head of tourism [in China] would like to see the game explode [to] where they have more golfers playing than in the United States in the next 20 years. Will they get there? Who knows.
Everyone's talking about how there are 3 million golfers in China, but only 380,000 play golf 10 or more times a year. Only 50 courses in China are under construction right now, which is not a lot, to say the least. If they meet the growth they want -- 25 million golfers -- they have to build 3,000 to 5,000 golf courses. . . .
There is a boom in South Korea because of Y. E. Yang and all the girls [on the LPGA tours]. A lot of Chinese money is in Vietnam, and it's a great destination. . . .
[The 2016 Olympics are] a big catalyst to stimulating the game of golf. We're seeing it from Brazil, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Columbia. Everywhere you look, people want to build golf courses.
Friday, April 1, 2011
News & Notes from the USA #2
. . . Is Billy Casper Golf embarrassed to admit that it manages municipal courses? Last week the company inked a contract to take over three golf properties owned by Prince William County, Virginia. An account of the transaction noted that Casper now has more than 125 courses in its portfolio, 70 of them municipal tracks. Among the latter are golf properties owned by the Chicago Park District, the Cook County (Illinois) Forest Preserve District, and the cities of Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Knoxville, and Tulsa. But Casper doesn't call them “municipal” courses. In fact, I can't find even a single use of the word municipal on the company's website. Instead, Casper lumps its municipal holdings into a group named “multi-course golf portfolios” and indirectly refers to them as “affordable, daily-fee courses.” What gives? In recent years, no golf course operator has been more adept at winning municipal contracts. Why isn't Casper proud to say so?
. . . Los Angeles County is the latest U.S. municipality to raise its golf fees. Since the beginning of the year, dozens of towns and cities from coast to coast have added a dollar or two to their greens fees -- a clear indication that the price of a round of golf has bottomed out and the era of cut-rate pricing is about to end. In L. A. County, the new rates take effect this month.
. . . Sometimes it seems that the only golf courses being built in America today are so-called minimalist courses. The next one set to make an appearance, probably on Memorial Day, is Awarii Dunes, a Jim Engh-desigened track in Kearney, Nebraska. A local newspaper has described it as “Engh’s vision of Irish golf.” The course's owner, Kent Freudenberg, whispered sweet nothings into a reporter's ear -- he said that Engh “found a golf course instead of building it” -- but he correctly noted that “a lot of people are excited about this style of golf.” As for Engh, well, the opening of Awarii Dunes officially closes the book on his current slate of U.S. commissions. He's said to have other courses in the works in China, Mexico, and the Canary Islands.
. . . Speaking of minimalist golf, Jim Urbina -- fresh off his contributions to Bandon Dunes' acclaimed Old Macdonald course -- has hung out his own shingle in suburban Denver, Colorado. His first solo commission: he's overseeing a restoration of the A. W. Tillinghast-designed golf course at the former Dellwood Country Club in New City, New York. Urbina, part of the new breed of architects who hand-crafts his work -- he apprenticed with Pete Dye and was graduated by the University of Tom Doak -- says that he intends to “bring back the expanse, the broad views, and beauty” of Tillinghast's course. “When it's done,” he said in a press release, it's “going to open people's eyes.” Dellwood was sold in 2009 and is now called Paramount Country Club, mostly because it was originally built by movie mogul Adolph Zukor, the founder of -- you guessed it -- Paramount Pictures. The makeover begins as soon as weather will allow.
. . . Entertainment Weekly recently asked actor Michael Weatherly what he likes to carry in his back pocket. “A knife wrapped in a comic book,” came the reply. A symbol of our times, or a sign of a pending apocalypse?
. . . Los Angeles County is the latest U.S. municipality to raise its golf fees. Since the beginning of the year, dozens of towns and cities from coast to coast have added a dollar or two to their greens fees -- a clear indication that the price of a round of golf has bottomed out and the era of cut-rate pricing is about to end. In L. A. County, the new rates take effect this month.
. . . Sometimes it seems that the only golf courses being built in America today are so-called minimalist courses. The next one set to make an appearance, probably on Memorial Day, is Awarii Dunes, a Jim Engh-desigened track in Kearney, Nebraska. A local newspaper has described it as “Engh’s vision of Irish golf.” The course's owner, Kent Freudenberg, whispered sweet nothings into a reporter's ear -- he said that Engh “found a golf course instead of building it” -- but he correctly noted that “a lot of people are excited about this style of golf.” As for Engh, well, the opening of Awarii Dunes officially closes the book on his current slate of U.S. commissions. He's said to have other courses in the works in China, Mexico, and the Canary Islands.
. . . Speaking of minimalist golf, Jim Urbina -- fresh off his contributions to Bandon Dunes' acclaimed Old Macdonald course -- has hung out his own shingle in suburban Denver, Colorado. His first solo commission: he's overseeing a restoration of the A. W. Tillinghast-designed golf course at the former Dellwood Country Club in New City, New York. Urbina, part of the new breed of architects who hand-crafts his work -- he apprenticed with Pete Dye and was graduated by the University of Tom Doak -- says that he intends to “bring back the expanse, the broad views, and beauty” of Tillinghast's course. “When it's done,” he said in a press release, it's “going to open people's eyes.” Dellwood was sold in 2009 and is now called Paramount Country Club, mostly because it was originally built by movie mogul Adolph Zukor, the founder of -- you guessed it -- Paramount Pictures. The makeover begins as soon as weather will allow.
. . . Entertainment Weekly recently asked actor Michael Weatherly what he likes to carry in his back pocket. “A knife wrapped in a comic book,” came the reply. A symbol of our times, or a sign of a pending apocalypse?