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.